The Phonemonkey Saga: Eclipse 12 Shellie Tank

[Phonemonkey]

Figured I'd keep a journal of my experiences with setting up my first tank, a 12g eclipse shell dweller tank I'm setting up at work. My hope is that some of the lessons learned along the way might be useful or interesting to others, perhaps in particular, to those looking at setting up a first tank as well.

Heres the info on the setup:

Eclipse System 12 Tank
75w Visi-Therm Stealth Heater
Coralife Digital Thermometer
Seachem Ammonia Alert Indicator
Aragonite Sand Substrate

The tank will be stocked a few Lamprologus ocellatus ( to be added hopefully later this week) generously donated by an individual who will un-named here, for the sole reason that I'd rather not doom them to endless requests by others for freebies. Due to the nature of the species, they will be the only fish in the tank.

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10/28/2006
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Setup Day:

Just took the tank into work today and set it up. Had to wait until today as apparently my workplace has an unwritten (and prior to already having bought the tank, unspoken ) rule that we're supposed to limit our tanks to 5g. Not sure how I was supposed to know this, since several managers have 10g tanks, but one such manager advised me to just bring it in on a weekend (when higher ups aren't around) and see what happens... keep your fingers crossed...

Main lesson learned: When using aragonite sand substrate, make sure you have enough time to rinse it completely before adding to your tank (IE: hours and hours and hours and hours...) I unfortunately had to rinse the stuff during breaks at work, resulting in a very cloudy tank when I finally got it all added, despite a fair number of rinses.

I was disappointed to discover that the eclipse filter system is rather loud, despite its claims of "silent performance." The noise seems to be coming from the bio-wheel. My desperate hope is that this will go away once the bio wheel has become soaked and "broken in." If not, it will no doubt become an excuse for my employer to make me take the tank home.

Don't work again until monday afternoon, so we'll see what the reaction is to my tank appearing at my desk when I get in. Unplugged the tank before I left in order to just let the cloudiness settle before I start running the filter again
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11/03/2006
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Disaster.

Fish arrived today. 4 out of 5 DOA. 5th sank to the bottom of the tank, lived for a day, was dead when I got in to work this morning.

[Phonemonkey]

EDIT: Decided to keep the journal as just a single post.

[dolifisis]

This sounds like fun and I can't wait to see pictures as you progress. Check your filter again. When I got the same tank the first time I put it together the wheel kept making a loud clanking noise. It couldn't be normal so I took it right back out and put it back in again. Maybe I pushed closer to one side or another but the noise stopped and it's super quiet now. My pet water fountain makes more noise that my fish tank does .

[Phonemonkey]

Originally Posted by dolifisis

This sounds like fun and I can't wait to see pictures as you progress. Check your filter again. When I got the same tank the first time I put it together the wheel kept making a loud clanking noise. It couldn't be normal so I took it right back out and put it back in again. Maybe I pushed closer to one side or another but the noise stopped and it's super quiet now. My pet water fountain makes more noise that my fish tank does .

Its not at all a clanking noise so much as a loud splashing as the bio-wheel rotates. I'm not sure what the deal is, to be quite honest...

[rba]

My Eclipses all make splashing noises which are worse if the tank isn't full up to the water return. I have countered it by putting a fine pore foam prefilter over the intake (not a bad idea with sand) and by hanging a piece of craft mesh (plastic canvas) which has been mashed and mangled into a curve to diffuse the flow. Mine are silent if they are full, have the prefilter and the return diffuser.

[Phonemonkey]

Originally Posted by rba

My Eclipses all make splashing noises which are worse if the tank isn't full up to the water return. I have countered it by putting a fine pore foam prefilter over the intake (not a bad idea with sand) and by hanging a piece of craft mesh (plastic canvas) which has been mashed and mangled into a curve to diffuse the flow. Mine are silent if they are full, have the prefilter and the return diffuser.

Any particular brand/type of prefilter you'd reccomend?

[rba]

There are commercially available prefilters but I use go the DIY route. Blocks of AquaClear foam if it can be camouflaged at all or black foam if it's going to be visible. There are so many benefits, keeps sand out, catches debris before it gets up to the top media tray, it slows the flow very slightly and of course it adds an additional home for beneficial bacteria.

[Phonemonkey]

Originally Posted by rba

There are commercially available prefilters but I use go the DIY route. Blocks of AquaClear foam if it can be camouflaged at all or black foam if it's going to be visible. There are so many benefits, keeps sand out, catches debris before it gets up to the top media tray, it slows the flow very slightly and of course it adds an additional home for beneficial bacteria.

Yeah I actually bought some small pieces of black foam, wasn't very fine, before I set the tank up. I tried stuffing one in the intake tube, but it slowed the intake down so much that the bio-wheel didn't even rotate...

I should also mention that I shortened the intake tube by about 3 inches before setting the tank up, in order to reduce the chances that it would suck sand up from the bottom. I'm wondering if doing this increased the flow too much, resulting in the loud bio-wheel.

[dolifisis]

Originally Posted by Phonemonkey

I should also mention that I shortened the intake tube by about 3 inches before setting the tank up, in order to reduce the chances that it would suck sand up from the bottom. I'm wondering if doing this increased the flow too much, resulting in the loud bio-wheel.

I don't think that would matter especially since I just noticed today my entire intake tube was disconnected and floating in the tank. It didn't make it sound any different.

[TREASURECHEST]

Can't wait to see pics...