Found my passion in seahorses, but have I lost my mind? My first (public) build. 60g rimless

I'm a natural blue · Oct 5, 2017

Hey there everyone! I have been very busy over the last week so I haven't been able to update the build. I have a lot of pictures to share! My tank is up and running!
It is looking like I will be getting hit by this new storm, Nate that is heading into the gulf. Hopefully though, it won't hit New Orleans too hard. Tomorrow will be a hurricane preparedness day. We are going to stock up on all of our necessities, hunker the yard down, and take the generator out for a ride around the block and make sure it's working properly. I thought we had escaped a hurricane this season. Ugh.....mother nature decided she wasn't done yet.
I also had to postpone my order from Seahorse Source today. I was scheduled for delivery tomorrow morning of two new babies!!!! Dan is the best. He contacted me this morning after watching the forecast to ask if I wanted him to hold my girls until it passes. Of course I said yes, please!

I'm a natural blue · Oct 9, 2017

Hello all! It's been a minute since I've been able to update the build. I was so engrossed in it that I hope I got enough pictures for the evolution! Last update was when I recieved my ATO from the Hubs. A lot has happened since then. The tank is actually up and running! What a process this was. Since the new tank was going in the same place as the old 36g I basically had to do a swap over instead of a traditional "Cycle" of a new aquarium. I have done this twice before and both times it was successful. As it was this time! I had a bit of a stressful moment but I'll get into that later.
The first step in setting up the new tank was taking down the old one and setting up a mini temporary system to sustain all of my livestock during the transition. I bought a 27 gallon rubbernmade tub for about 8 bucks from walmart. It worked out well! For the most part anyway. I had been running an external Cascade 700 canister filter on the 36 for about a month knowing I was going to need it to run the tub. My thought was to build a bacteria colony in the canister that would help reduce the chance of a mini cylce in the tub once everyone was in there. I drained the tank water in increments into the new tub. Once it was deep enough I was able to capture Clyde and Jaws and placed them in the tub. I then filled a small bucket with the tank water. Just enough to rinse off all of the macro and live rock to remove any detritus before placing them into the tub. I put a small powerhead in the tub as well. It had plenty of flow and Clyde seemed to like all of the new hiding places under the macro. He is a very shy seahorse!

My Ruger decided he needed to be in on the action...lol

Here is the temporary set up.....

I added the skimmer also

I hung a bag of carbon off of the skimmer return too.

I'm a natural blue · Oct 9, 2017

Before we brought the tank in though I should mention that I decided to spray paint the back of the glass. I was very leery of doing this because well, its a brand new tank! What if I didn't like it? I found this spray paint at Home Depot and figured if I didn't like it I could remove it!

Let me tell you, I LOVE it! It looks fantastic. In hind sight I wish I had painted the bottom too. The rubber mat that I put under it did not have the effect I was going for. Anyway, I taped the tank and then used cling wrap around the entire tank to avoid over spray. This method worked like a charm.

From the back side the paint does not look even but once it was covered with a few coats you can not see any variations from the front.

I'm a natural blue · Oct 9, 2017

Next step was to get the tank and stand in place and leveled. No small feat mind you. My house has a crazy lean!

Shims. Lots and lots of shims. The tank is perfectly level though!

I'm a natural blue · Oct 9, 2017

NEXT UP......Water test! Fortunately, there were no leaks anywhere in the plumbing. We let it run with plain water for 24 hours.

I'm a natural blue · Oct 9, 2017

In the mean time we set up the chiller on it's own pump. My concern for running a manifold and splitting my retun pump was that the tank would lose flow and the chiller might have too much to operate properly. The VarioS-6 is rated at 1790 gph at top speed and the chiller required a MAX of 240 gph I believe. That would have been a very fine balance to find. I had the Panworld nh-40px return pump that came with the the used set up I bought. It is rated at 480 gph so we hardlined the intake with a ball valve for adjustments and used soft tubing for the output. Once it was all plumbed in we let it run in the system while it was test running. It chilled rather quickly! However, there was an issue. I'll explain this one further on as well.

I'm a natural blue · Oct 9, 2017

24 or so hours later I started mixing my salt. We (I should have stated "we"= the "Hubs and I") felt confidant we were ready to drain and fill with salt water. He is my engineer so to speak. I ask, he builds. He enjoys it and I don't have to manual labor! Win, Win! LOL
After draining the tank and sump I added the saltwater and an adequate amount of Prime as a precaution. Since the plumbing and the chiller retained some tap water I thought it best to play it safe. I ended up mixing about 12 gallons of water from the old sump that I had set aside JIC into the tank as well. The 36g had pretty good water quality so I felt OK doing this. Total water volume ended up (after live rock) at about 65g. That leads us to the tricky part. The live rock and the scape. It was a long day so I saved the aquascape for the next day. In the mean time, I took all the LR that lived in my sump (it too was in a separate container) and added it to the tank to get things going. It was a productive day.

vlangel · Oct 9, 2017

You certainly had a big day. It should get a little easier from here.

I'm a natural blue · Oct 10, 2017

vlangel said:
You certainly had a big day. It should get a little easier from here.

Once I got passed the aquascape things moved much better. I was looking for the pictures I took while doing it and it seems they are MIA! I am so frustrated. I will update more hopefully this afternoon!

I'm a natural blue · Oct 23, 2017

Apparently the pictures of the aquascape are MIA. grr.....Anyway, I knew what I had in mind and in trying to figure out how to stack the rocks so they wouldn't fall I decided to use power tools! I saw this video on YouTube where a guy used acrylic rods cut into pegs to attach the rocks together. Basically, I had to drill holes into the rocks and insert the pegs so they wouldn't fall over. It was a daunting task because of the rock I was using was live. In order to do it I had to drill two pieces at a time and plug them together all the while keeping the rock wet. I used paper towels drapped over the rocks and basted them periodically with SW. An unexpected bonus was once they were together I could pivot the rocks inot different directions. This worked out really well! I highly recommend this method. I didn't glue them either. This way I can unstack them if need be or pivot them for a fresh look. Here is a picture of how it turned out. Sorry for the cloudy water!

I'm a natural blue · Jun 30, 2018

Hello all! It's been a long time coming and I have been a slacker getting this updated. Time really does have a way of escaping us doesn't it?
I had to read back to see what information I had included and what I didn't.
Note: Time frame is late Sept/Oct 2017.
I had told you that I encountered an issue with my temporary set up. Here is what happened. With all the best measures available to me, the holding tank had a mini cycle. Fortunately, it occured the same day I was to put everything into the DT. I delayed an immediate same day transfer to let the new tank settle and to test for a mini cycle. I dosed Prime into the holding tank and then proceeded to transfer. Thankfully the DT was good to go when I discovered the mini cycle happening in the holding tank. I attempted to drip acclimate Clyde and Jaws but they both showed signs of distress so I just skipped it and put them both directly into the DT. Success!

Here is the tank a few days later.

Clyde getting settled in

The other issue I encountered was using the Panworld pump for the chiller. I just didn't have enough space since it is an external pump. I ended up reconfiguring the plumbing and used a perfectly sized submersible pump that comfortably fit into the skimmer/sock section of the sump.

I'm a natural blue · Jun 30, 2018

More info on my set up. I ended up buying a Jebao/Jecod CP-25 gyre style wavemaker. I absolutely love it! Many settings, feed mode (super convenient), and it doesn't seem to heat up the tank too much. I did have to cover the openings to protect from hitching. I used hard, flexible wedding veil fastened with zip ties. They easily slide off for cleaning too! I upgraded the skimmer from the HOB (I had it inside the sump not hanging on the back) to an Aqua Excel EC-20. rated for up to 210 gallons. What I like about this skimmer: runs on a dc pump that is housed within the unit not external to the body. Very easy to dismantle and reassemble for cleaning. You can get to the internal body completely. It runs off a controller which has a feed mode. No more forgetting to turn it back on! And its electronically adjustable as well as manually adjustable. It has a very large skim cup too. What I don't like about it. I just didn't see the same skimming results as my Reef Octopus 110 that I ran in my 90. A few weeks ago I took my 90 down

and I put the Reef Octopus on the seahorse tank. This skimmer is skimming SOOOO much better than the Aqua Excel. However, I am still unfavorable to the fact that it doesn't have the controller for adjusting and feed mode and the pump is external to the body so the foot print is bigger and I concern myself with the possibilty that something may get pulled into the pump and block it up. I'm going to keep it running for now and keep an eye on these factors.
Here is the Aqua Excel

I'm a natural blue · Jun 30, 2018

After the threat of Irma passed I finally got Clyde two new friends! I ordered them from Dan at Seahorse Source. Two female erectus piebalds. Phoebe and Abbie (namesake to the late Abbie Underwood) as she herself chose these two beauties for me prior to her passing.
Meet Phoebe and Abbie from the day they arrived
Phoebe

Abbie

My corral Clyde, Phoebe, and Abbie

I'm a natural blue · Jun 30, 2018

Over the course of the last 10 or so months I have made many adjustments and added corals, rearranged and rearranged again. LOL Overall I am VERY pleased with this tank and all of the equipment I purchased. No major equipment issues, the filtration is excellent and everyone is happy and healthy.
Oh, I forget to state that I bought an AI Prime HD light for the tank. Wow, great light!!!! Very clean looking, and it grows everything well.
Here are some more recent pictures of the tank.

Stand by for video!

I'm a natural blue · Jun 30, 2018

I'm a natural blue · Jun 30, 2018

I'm a natural blue · Jun 30, 2018

Feeding time!

I'm a natural blue · Jun 30, 2018

Here is a really cool video I took of Abbie one day. She was showing off her flashing skills.....

vlangel · Jun 30, 2018

Your tank and your ponies are magnificent. I feel so bad about Abbie Underwood but what a nice way to honor her. She was always so kind to me when I called to order my seahorses.

I'm a natural blue · Jul 1, 2018

vlangel said:
Your tank and your ponies are magnificent. I feel so bad about Abbie Underwood but what a nice way to honor her. She was always so kind to me when I called to order my seahorses.

Thank you Dawn! I'm starting to see gha. ugh. So today MAJOR water change. I also tested and my calc and dkh is too low. I may have to start dosing for the corals. I will test all this week after the water change and determine if it's needed long term.
Yes, quite a loss to our community. She was always sweet to me as well.