Twins

T

Tinyfish

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I know your question, why. Answer - I need to try something.

I am putting up twin 58g Oceanic drilled tanks in place of my 75g. I have pressure washed the rock and thoroughly rinsed the sand. I have ordered 2 stands in pine.

I can't really do much else until I sell the 75g or until the stands arrive.

I do need to find bulkhead fittings for the drains. I need to clean the 58g glass, it looks like fluorescent marker and then coraline.

Some things I need to figure out:
1) What kind of lighting? I do plan on ordering canopies but I don't know about Metal Halides in that environment.
2) What kind of sump? I am not sure about setting each up on its own or combining them.
3) What kind of return?
 
Good morning i presume you are asking for advice so i will add my dime. The idea with fighting disease is to dilute so yes combind them
1st Aqua medic has a 8 bulb t5 with duel zone and moon LEDs i picked up a 48in from marine depot for around 550$ they are nice 2nd i would plumb to(pvc or thick soft line) 1sump/ref 33gal long from aqueon (petsmart) you can add baffles and its plenty of room it will fit a PM REDline 125skimmer that will do a great job 3rd i would use a mag9.5 for one returned tee split to both 59gal and tie both drains together but in ball valves on returns to control flow and again ball valves on drains to control water drain noise i have a 140gallon hotel tank with same set up it runs like a charm ALL THIS. Is what I would /am doing but to each their own thank -curt- check out my 300 build
 
Thank you for your post.

Since I am still waiting on my stands I decided to work on the placement in my home. I think I want a dedicated area for the tanks. I have an odd floor plan and also want to incorporate a dedicated chair for viewing. I have set up next to my front door with the tanks across a north facing window. About 3 feet from the tanks will be a reclining love seat for viewing the tanks. The back of the love seat will border on what is left of the room which is where I watch TV. Always before I could watch both the TV and the tank. This way it will be more separated.
 
This first picture shows the tanks dedicated area with a double recliner right in front of them. The tanks can be seen from other parts of the room.

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This picture shows the "effect" of tanks side by side. Also note the white haze on the tank on the left. I used a razor blade and nothing touched it.

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I have ordered canopies for them but I hope I don't have to wait 4 weeks.
 
I am going to try using cerium oxide, a glass polishing compound, on the tank with the haze to see if I can get it looking better. Boy, right out of the shoot and already having difficulties.

Someone recommended one of the Eheim pumps for a return. That sounds fine to me. Now I need a powerhead in the tank, any suggestions?

Then of course lighting questions.
 
that size tank if you are going mh i would go 175 watts iwasaki 15k they actually put out more par than most 250 watt bulbs they are knick named par busters
 
Also there are numerous reflectors for MH bulbs. I would need something to fit in the canopies and would diffuse the light over the 36 x 18 patch of water. And I would need a ballast. I know nothing of MH ballasts.

I have no idea about supplementing a 15k bulb.

I had a 14k bulb on my K2 but I did not like that bulb's color as it did almost nothing for the coral growth or color.
 
Tank 2 setup proceeds. I put water in and ran it a week. I then really had to get the fish out of the tanks they were in and so transferred them into Tank 2. I added a bottle of copepods. I hope some survived. The bottle also had some purchased micro-algae which got added also.

Pumps: So Tank 2 is getting an Eheim 1260 return and a Koralia 3 for circulation.
Lighting: 2 Mogul base 175w MH with parabolic reflectors. Bulbs: Iwasaki 15k, Phoenix, or Ushio
Supplemental lighting: Actinics from either T5, VHO, or LED
Sump: A refugium type in a 15g or 20g tank. I guess I will make this one.
Fan: 110v, 110cfm housed in canopy.

Tank 1
The polishing is very difficult. I think it can be done but it is a HUGE effort.

I will say that the tanks look good with the canopies. I put a K2 Viper MH fixture on tank 2 just to get a hint of how it will look. I think it will be great.
 
Tank 2 started running yesterday. I got the Refugium/Sump in the cabinet, plumbed the drain, set up the skimmer and feed pump, put the return line together, and placed the return pump in the sump. I forgot to adjust the skimmer down and had a puddle after a couple of hours.

I drilled the anti-siphon hole too high and had water hitting the back of the canopy door. What a mess. I also had to drill out the air hole for the Durso drain. It seems to be operating smoothly now.

I once again had microbubbles. As I was sitting looking at the Sump which was very nicely lit by the window behind it, I noticed I could actually see the bubbles. It amazed me to see that most if not all were coming from the drain. So I thought I would try the sock again with one twist. I placed an additional filter pad inside the mesh bag and place the drain tube inside the filter pad when mounting on the drain line. That got rid of 90%. I am unsure about what the other stuff is, whether they are bubbles or just stuff in the water.

Now I feel I can move forward on the lights.
 
I changed out the Ushio 10,000k bulb for a Phoenix 14,000k bulb.

I am going to try something different like an overflow box for the skimmer drain to reduce bubbles.

I am not sure if I have my Durso hole the correct size yet. I do see some surging.
 
Picture time:
First shows the haze on Tank 1

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Next shows water in Tank 2

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Next shows all water in Tank2 with MH light

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This shows the electrical mess so far. Notice I got this nifty timer box with two timers and open outlets. I think it will come in handy.

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This shows how nice the tank looks with a canopy

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This shows the rough location of the two tanks and where I am working on Tank 1 to polish it out.

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Showing the 15g sump/refugium I made.

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Showing the drain side of sump where the bubbles are made

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Today I tried out an idea for a rubble tower. Only right now it is a bubble tower. I got two SmartWater bottles, because they look good, and cut the tops off. I then put a bottle under each drain, one for the skimmer, and one for the main drain. The top of the bottle is slightly higher than the surface of the water. I did this in the morning and by night it appears that there are no bubbles. There is stuff flying around but I think that is just junk not yet filtered.

Also I checked my aquascaping against what the speaker said at the summer event. I think my rock work incorporates some aspects of interest: a small cave, a small channel, negative space.

Lights should come soon.
 
I got some T5's in so I put those on Tank 2.

Blue Plus
Actinic
Blue Plus
12,000k

Wow, that really lights up the tank well. Maybe it will get me to finish the Metal Halide retro in the canopy and build the canopy extension. I did put the lights on one of the Intermatic Timers. Those things work great but I about jump out of my skin when the switch clicks because its so loud.

Also I need to find some clean Chaetomorpha here in Richardson.
 
Today I finished the rough canopy extension to raise the height of the metal halide bulbs to at least 9" above the top of the water. Actually for my setup they are about 10 1/2" from the surface of the water. I hope that is still OK.

I centered each bulb left to right in the original canopy with no problem. I didn't know if I was to center front to back if I put 2 VHO bulbs in front for actinic. I set the bulbs back about 2" from the center to make room for the VHO bulbs.

I will mount the VHO bulbs 4" above the water surface. I think that they will be in the bottom of the original canopy.

WOW. I got the lights turned on and really taken aback by how different T5 light and Metal Halide light are to my eyes. I thought 2x 175w was going to be too much, but it looks perfect. To me things look very different under MH, I especially like the ripples in the light.

I thought heat would be an issue but I mounted my 110cfm fan in the middle of the back of the original canopy sucking out the heat and I think it will be OK.

I did get some chaetomorpha at Just for Pets.

And my sump return area is really too small. I am going to have to look into getting the Auto Top Off installed. I never know where to put the container of fresh water.

Thank you to those who have helped.
 
All my ideas to mount the VHO lights have been wrong. I have had to redo and remove the connecting tabs between the extension and the canopy. The 1/4" plywood was too much with the light inside. The light being almost the whole 38 3/4" with the end caps.

Then I repositioned the old tank stops to use for mounting the end caps to. For now I put both lights in the front. Both are Actinic.

After a tremendous struggle, and I perhaps should say fight, I finally got the canopy and extension on the tank. Four more electric cords to do something with. The one for the fan seems almost too short. The ones for the metal halides are very long.

The fan does seem to be doing its job.

I am initially a little disappointed in the VHO color as I think it is being washed out by the metal halides. When I was running the T5 fixture I had 2 Blue Plus bulbs that really produced a lot of color, almost too much. However I am going to put the VHO on another timer and see about running the VHO on its own for at least a few minutes for dusk/dawn.

Although I really should take it down again and actually finish the extension and mount the electrical in boxes I find that I am worn out and need to rest. I need to think of a better way to take that canopy off and put on without so much hassle. Wish me luck.

P.S. My fish look really good, green chromis, firefish, blackcap basslet
 
Well, one thing for sure. The canopy on Tank2 keeps me out of the water for sure.

I really would like to hook up the ATO on Tank2 but am not sure about a water container. What size should it be?

Tank 1 I have tried to polish using the glass polish I purchased. It turns out that the "haze" is not fazed by such a fine grit. So today I went and tried out some polishing compound for metal. This comes in a box of 4 different sticks with different properties. Today I chose the brown or Tripoli stick and a brand new buffing wheel. I am a little happier in that I got some results with this compound. I will still have to go over and over the same spot but at least I can tell I am doing something.
 
I changed out my Actinic VHO bulbs for 454's. I think the color is much better now.

I had a scare on water level in the display being too high. I think it was because I had some algae on the overflow teeth that was restricting the water flow and backed up the water.

I got a fire shrimp. It is a good sized one and mainly stays in the back. I don't know if I am supposed to have pairs of those shrimp or not?

I finally put a temperature gauge on my tank. Get this, it reads 75 degrees in the display. I am surprised its not hotter but the room temp is 72.
 
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