125 Gal

I had to clean the sand out of the OM valve again this evening...there must have still been some in the piping after yesterday's cleaning. So, this evening, I put the cap back on with out the drum in, and ran the pump for 10 minutes to flush the lines.

I also changed the drum from version 2 to version 3. Since the tank is a peninsula style, I started with v2 for the longer pulse duration on each leg. What I've found is that the sand is moving all over the place. The v3 drum has half the pulse length with 2x the number of pulses per cycle...let's see how the sand looks in the morning.

Also, the center returns were setup so that the bottom of the strainer is to be 2" off of the glass. They are now both buried about 1/2" now. So, if the sand won't stop moving, these will need to be raised another inch or so.

The skimmer has stopped pulling anything out. During the start up run with ozone, it pulled about 2 cups out after the sand and live rock was added. Both have been shutdown and the plan is to leave it off for the next few weeks and monitor what is going on...it likely will not get run again for the next 3 to 6 months...

Thursday after work we plan to get our first fish.

 

I'm still have trouble with the sand blowing around. You can see in this pic the sand washed back from the end glass:




I'm starting to think that I'm going to have to throttle the discharge of the Dart pump which is running the closed loop...

We added 3 Chromas and 3 damsels this evening. I'm counting on the year old live rock doing it's job and preventing any significant spikes. I'm prepared for water changes, should it become necessary.


Here is a pic of how the tank sits in the room now that it has been lit...

 

...well, I pulled abouth 30#s of sand out of the tank and raised the intakes so that they are 12" above the sand. Cleaned the sand out of the closed loop and turned it back on yesterday. So far, we are looking good.

First NO2 test today is just starting to show...less than .02 ppm. SG is 1.023 and temp is controlling nicely between 73 - 74 degrees.

 

Looking for input on the following schedule...

Using the RKE, the following pump and lighting schedule is currently set up:

At 7 AM the close loop circ starts
At 8 AM the T5 Blue lights (4 tubes) come on
At 8:30 AM the Moon lights go off
At 9 AM the T5 White lights (4 tubes) come on
At 8 PM the T5 Whites go off
At 8:30 PM the moon lights come on
At 9 PM the T5 Blues go off
At 10 PM the close loop circ is turned off.

This provides 13 hours of blue light and 11 hours of white light.

 

This cold wave in Seattle, Wa is a pain in the neck...

Last night the tank temp droped to 69. So, i have added 2 more 150 watt heaters... we'll see how tonight goes.

 

Better put some bigger heaters in there if they can't keep up. I just picked up a 1000w element that is working great. Won Pro-Heat Titanium 1000 watt Element Only: Premium Aquatics

As for lighting I run my Super Actinics 16 hrs a day and my MH's for 7 hrs.

 

I just checked up on the tank and the temp is now holding at 73.5... There is one 300 watt, and 3 - 150 watt heaters running. Right now, the 150's are full on, and temp is controlling on the 300. This evening I'll reset the sequence so that the 300 first on/last off and the 150s are being cycled to maintain temp. Then from the logs, I should know how many it will take to hold temp, it is likely that I'll want 2 500s.

 

The cycle has begun, the algae grows, and still the sands move....










Does not care about the sand...

 

I like this livestock.....

 

"Hank the Tank" We must be running the house a bit cold for him. He pulled the coat down and then crawled inside...the wife's not happy with him for this... He has his own blankets, (notice plural), but chose her coat...