Tank Journal Archive

[DavidS]

Introduction:
This is my little tank journal. I've kept aquariums for about 20 years now, but my adventures into marine have been more recent. I'd wanted to build a marine tank for a long time, but always knew it would be hard work and costly, so common sense got the better of me - until the morning after the night the before!

Reefing Since: 19/03/2011

System Objectives: Create a nano with as much stuff crammed into it as I can whilst trying to keep everything alive and stable, ideally with an objective of convincing me to sell most of my internal organs to build a decent sized tank

Type of reef: Mixed I guess. Will have in it whatever I wind up putting in it.

Display System:

Initial Fill Date: Tank got wet 19/3/2011

Display Tank Dimensions: 24x14x12 (old and scratched)

Display Lighting: Dual 24" 24w T5s. 10K + actinic

Stand: Custom 4 tank cabinet (think LFS but looks more like furniture)

Hood or Rimless: N/A

Sump Design: N/A

Filtration: Have an empty canister that was running before I knew better. Slowly removed each media out until I'm down to a bit of filter wool, which I'll remove soon as well. Otherwise, 8kg live rock.

Support systems:

NSW or ASW: ASW

Display Water circulation: 1 x 3000l wave maker that's more like 300l. 2 x 200l powerheads

Return Pump: N/A

Skimmer: N/A

Evaporation Top Up: Float valve/relay setup connected to hailea pump sitting in a 20l container.Use RO/DI water.

Other: HOB filter style refugium with with some macro in it. Desklight with power saver globe running on reverse photo period. Had some serious algae issues despite no noticable phosphates.
Water changes are done in a similar fashion to evap top off - have a 20l container in cupboard plumbed in with a pump to get water up into the tank, given that it is a bit high.

Chemical additions:

Calcium Addition: N/A

Alkilinity Addition: N/A

Magnesium Addition: N/A

Prodibiotics Addition: N/A

Coral Food Addition: Seachem vitamin supplement, marine snow.

 

[MTG]

:welcome
Excellent David, cant wait to see some pics.

 

[DavidS]

Apologies - took this with my phone, so the video is crap, and audioswap isn't working properly on Youtube, so theres no nice music.
Anyway - this is my new Blenny being cool poking around his new home.

 

[MTG]

i love blennys, my blenny and flame hawk used to fight over a spot on a coral, they used to push each other out of the spot then one day they gave up and sat on it together.!

planning on stocking it up with coral? do you have any plans?

 

[DavidS]

I want to load it as hard as I can with coral. I guess I'm thinking now that it's going to be something between a breeding and proving ground. I'm open at the moment to trying most types of coral in attempt to see what I can get to grow - ideally so by the time I have a decent size tank, I have a good head start on stock for it.
I spend a fair bit of time trying to watch what's going on, and trying to work out what's happening in the tank so I get the full benefit that the experience offers.

Getting corals is the tricky bit - beyond what I can get sent to me, it's a decent drive to actually get any. Until last Sunday, I had a couple of zoos - one small rock from Matt Richards, and a couple of wild ones that appeared on some live rock, and I had a rather unhealthy candy cane, which I think was unhealthy long before I got it. I now have them plus a hammer, leather, ric (which was a hitchhiker) and a scolly (well I think it's a scolly). All seem to be reasonably happy except for the hammer. The leather had me worried until I worked out that it's just shedding.

In terms of fish, there's also a blue green chromis - which is a little naughty of me given that the tank is a bit small for it. Poor bugger is still better off in my tank than the dirty dishwater I rescued him from.

I would like to get a pair of occies as well - which is probably a little over recommended stocking levels, but upgrading is inevitable. I've come way to far to turn back now :P

Because of the distance issue, I'm sort of lucky in that I don't get to make many impulse purchases - it's almost organic in that things happen slowly with this tank.

Long term I'd like a 4 footer or so, and run it with LED lighting, and a decent sump setup. I'd like to go down the path with it of letting it grow - rather than trying to load every amount of available space with coral then having to frag later. I have some conflicting immediate priorities that I need to attend to before I can take the next step. And when I do, I'm not sure I've quite worked out my best path forward.

 

[MTG]

sounds like a good base to start on. i did a simlar thing. ditched some corals and am getting them to grow in. it allways looks much better when corals are grown from small pieces,

if your in the express post range im sure people could see you some corals, and im rather sure that darren at reefsecrets could also send you orders

its hard to avoid impulse purchases and when i have done it before i have often regreted it latter on!.
mines 3x2x2 and i have sufficient space for what i want and still keeps it on the cheaper side of things.
a 4x2x2 is a nice size to start with,

as for led lighting it depends on what your budget it.

look forward to some more pictures

 

[Donski]

what hob filter are you using for the fuge and did you need to mod it?

 

[DavidS]

what hob filter are you using for the fuge and did you need to mod it?

I actually picked up some really dodgy eBay job that cost about $15. It was a no name brand thing that someone in Adelaide was selling. It came with two filter pads, that were both in plastic cages. I found I could pull them apart, and ultimately managed to make a box out of it with some cable ties to hold the macro.Fits in nearly perfectly. The seller isn't selling it anymore, otherwise I'd give you a link.

As far as mods, other than hacking up the filter cages, none yet. I could do with making a baffle to put on the outlet, but haven't got that far yet.

It's only about a 500l/hr or so unit, but it's quite large for that rating - I have a fair clump of macro in it though. If I do start poking around in there, I do get lots of little bits of it flowing into the tank. Not sure a baffle will stop that, but I could probably find a finer plastic mesh to stop that stuff getting through. It's a bit noisy, and could do with being bigger, but it'll do for now. It is also dialled right back to a slow trickle.

I didn't actually plan on this being a long term investment - the problem with waiting 3 months to start stocking your tank is that by then you can find yourself doing an awful lot of cleaning all the time, even with a clean up crew. My goal was more about shorter term nutrient export until I could get some fish that might help me out.

 

[DavidS]

s
if your in the express post range im sure people could see you some corals, and im rather sure that darren at reefsecrets could also send you orders
as for led lighting it depends on what your budget it.

look forward to some more pictures

I fall into the express post range - I've ordered a couple of things from Matt Richards, all of which have arrived well. I'm probably going to focus on zoos and morphs for a while - just because they're easy to get here, and with their size, I could do with letting them grow.

LED - I was thinking of a 60watt from amdbulbs.com - that should be a bit of overkill for my tank, but I figure it's probably not a bad light to use if my nano turned into a frag tank when I upgrade. I know the jury's out in terms of variety of LEDs used and what not, but I'm not quite so worried at this stage. Cost of those units, with consideration of it not being used long term for a display tank, makes me think it's probably not a bad investment. If I don't like the unit, then it doesn't get used on my next tank. If I do, then maybe I'll buy the bigger units at the time. I know there are better units around, but there is only so much money I can justify spending.

 

[MTG]

do you have a hood over the tank? why not diy it?
itzmatty does have great service tho.
do you have any pictures of the whole setup?

 

[DavidS]

Hood setup is complicated as it's not really a hood. Attached pic is a shot of when I first got the tank into this cabinet (ignore the air lines going into that tank - I needed some urgent water movement until I got a decent sized power head). Behind the facing at the top, there is a door I can lift up for access. It weighs a ton, as it's made out of the same material as the shelving, but it's there. I don't get a lot of clearance between the lid and the tank - though I do have the T5's on it, and they have legs.

I thought about DIY - but I'm concerned about the reliability of me doing it :p My justification for cost is the overall cost long term - getting even a cheap actinic costs me $30, and the last one of those has lost its intensity in a couple of months. A good one will cost me more, and will keep costing. I figure for $200, I can get more light, and not need to worry about tubes. On a larger tank, I suspect DIY could start to get appealing really quickly.

 

[MTG]

you could diy easily over that if you were interested, magics making a big thread on how to do it etc, t5's should be replaced every 6-9 months

 

[DavidS]

I'm open to trying things - especially if the pricing works (especially on things for this nano). The way my first actinic tube is going, it needs replacing monthly. My fault for getting a cheaper tube.

 

[MTG]

try ati blue+ tubes i realy like the colour these put out. or you could also use an ati pure attinic.

 

[DavidS]

Another video.. the blue green chromis that I probably shouldn't have getting upset about Benny the Blenny coming to visit.

 

[MTG]

That chromus looks realy aggressive. does it allways react that way?

 

[DavidS]

No - he's actually pretty peaceful now. He does like to hide in that general area, though he will come out a bit more now. That was the only time I've seen him do that. The blenny had been exploring that area not long before the chromis decided he was moving in, so I think he was just trying to establish some territory.

 

[MTG]

do you have a full shot of the furniture piece?

 

[DavidS]

Excuse the mess in the top right hole....

 

[slin1977]

I have pretty much the same fish selection, I have a chromis, a bi colour blenny ,a coral beauty and a six line wrasse in my two foot tank.