Tank Journal Archive

Brekel

Member
Jun 8, 2012
273
109
Hobart
Brekel's 5x2x1.5
Introduction:
After having the front glass of my first tank crack and around 200l of salt water spill all over the floorboards (see here) a few months back, I had a decision to make: was this a sign that I should get out of the hobby, or a sign that I should upgrade? After the initial despair faded, I took it as the latter. Lets hope this tank holds, or I will not be popular with my wife...

As much as I would have liked to get a custom built tank, finances are a bit tight and I needed a replacement ASAP, so I had to pickup something currently available within the state.

Reefing Since: May 2012

System Objectives: Bring a bit of the ocean into the home. Have some fun with the kids and learn/teach them some stuff along the way

Type of reef: Mixed reef

Display System:
Initial Fill Date: Temporarily set up and filled 2nd March, to keep things alive and healthy. Had to drain it and move tank out for about a week and run everything in an 80l tub while the floors were sanded and resealed due to waterdamage.
Refilled and set up 26th April, 2013.

Display Tank Dimensions: 5'(L)x2'(H)x1.5'(W)

Display Lighting: Currently running on 3 x 40w flouros in tank hood - will retrofit my LED's soon, and add a few extras.
Stand: "5 Star" cabinet, came with tank. Terrible cabinet really, but got us out of trouble.

Hood or Rimless: Hood, came with tank.

Sump Design: None at the moment. In a few days I'll temporarily install a plastic tub in the cabinet to act as a sump. Then I'm thinking of cutting up the glass from the old tank to buiild a sump to fit. Already used one of the old glass covers to make an internal weir in one corner of the new tank.

Filtration: Live rock and skimmer

Support systems:
NSW or ASW: NSW

Display Water circulation: JVP pump and a Heto powerhead.

Return Pump: Weipro

Skimmer: Aqua One G216 from the old tank. May have to upgrade.

Evaporation Top Up: Manual ATM, will make an auto system once sump finalised.

Chemical additions:
Calcium & Alkalinity Addition: partly limewater, partly CaCl & NaCO3 solutons

Magnesium Addition: None at present.


The next steps are:
  • Modify plumbing and get sump up and running.
  • Fit the LED lighting
  • Put some backing in place to hide cables/plumbing.
Then, I'll recommence working on my controller.
 

Brekel

Member
Jun 8, 2012
273
109
Hobart
Photo of the tank after setup. Needs a bit of tidying up, maybe a bit of adjustment to the aquascape, and I may add in some more rock down the track.

Tank will be filled up a bit more after the plumbing is finalised.

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MTG

Moderator
Jul 10, 2011
10,664
2,149
Gold Coast
nice to see you back ;), i like the scape to, left hand looks a little archy but i think it might look great loaded up with some corals. what do you plan to put in it?
 

Brekel

Member
Jun 8, 2012
273
109
Hobart
Thanks Guys.

No definite plans. Availability of nice corals down here isn't that great - I'll see how things develop as pieces become available and finances allow. I've always liked hammer corals, so I'd like to pick up a couple of different colour ones (your collection is quite inspirational @MTG ).

I've heard leather corals and hammers/other euphyllias aren't always real compatible - what's other people's experiences on this?

After things are running well for a while I'd like to add some sps.

Candycane frag from @MagicJ, last August and yesterday. Been growing a bit lately.

CandyCrab.JPG
Candycane.JPG


GSP (also from @MagicJ), last July and today. Think I need to attach it to a bigger rock now, as it's suddenly growing heaps and spreading over the substrate. Also grew up and over a bit of hard algae that tried to encroach on it's space.
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My Fromia:
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Buddy

Member
Mar 13, 2012
3,142
1,526
hammers touching hammers and frogspawn is usually fine but you do hear of some exceptions. It hasnt been a problem for me. torches cant touch anything including other torches. my leather has been stung by my hammer a few times but its always back to normal in a day or two.
 

Brekel

Member
Jun 8, 2012
273
109
Hobart
Well, that new little blue tang brought in crypto and the yellow tang wasn't coping so well. Set up a hospital tank and I'm going hypo...
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Rob

Member
Apr 26, 2012
743
424
Hi,
Be REAL careful of GSP, its the devil. I got a real small piece which was attached to another coral 18 months ago, looked fabulous soo green and loved it. 18 months later I have had to remove a large (ok nearly 1/2 of my left hand side scape) amount of rock work as it just grows over everything including SPS. w ent crazy on me you could watch it grow :(

Oh BTW looks like you have a great start and will follow your progress.

cheers
 

Brekel

Member
Jun 8, 2012
273
109
Hobart
Quick update.
Hospital tank:
Going well - SG being held steady at 1.0085, fish feeding and generally active, although blue tang being pretty shy.
Never seen Yellow tang and coral beauty being so sociable with each other! Ammonia now staying down, so I've been able to cut the 50% water changes every second day I was doing. No visible cysts on fish for about a week - see how the next few go.

Main tank:
Haven't seen Dyson - our stromb - this active over this long a time period since just after he was purchased approaching a year ago. I guess the reduced feedings means he has to search a bit harder. When the tank was re-set up, the turbos were mainly sticking to the rocks and sand. The last few days they're becoming increasingly active on the glass though.

Very minimal algae growth - dictoya all gone, lobophora hasn't spread at all since I removed a lot when rescaping. One side of Halimeda has brightened up and looks like it's starting to grow again. Only other one is this weird fan shaped algae that came in with my clavularia: had one small bit a week after putting it in, now I have to keep plucking it out from amongst the polyps. And if I put the clavularia next to any other rocks, the algae starts sprouting up out of them too. Hasn't grown as much of late though.

Salinity - 35ppt
PO4 - undecectable, salifert.
NO3 - 2 ppm
Mg - 1350
Alkalinity - 8.5 dKH
Ca - 435.
 

Brekel

Member
Jun 8, 2012
273
109
Hobart
Was lookin at the tank with my eight year old this evening and we found a keyhole limpet spawning. It climbed up a clavularia stalk and let out a little white puff about 30-40 times that we saw.

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Brekel

Member
Jun 8, 2012
273
109
Hobart
Months after it's gone in the tank, the hitchhiker life is looking better than ever. A few things have diminished, but theres always things appearing for the first time, or growing into a more attractive display. Gives me something to look at while the fish are in QT!

The lower slope of this rock has around 8-10 of these fan worms. When the light hits them at the right angle, they have irridescent blue dots. Makes a nice little display.
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The wild xenia colony is doing well - three seperate heads appeared out of the live rock. It hasn't been pulsing since moving to the new tank - maybe it'll start again when the LED's go back in.

The Halimeda is breaking out of it's coraline encrusting that formed while in the temporary tank, and with the alk and calcium levels boosted up and maintained more consistently it's growing again. You can see the purple coraline algae over some of it in the second shot.

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Thanks for looking.
 

Attachments

Brekel

Member
Jun 8, 2012
273
109
Hobart
Thanks @chimaera.

The clavularia isn't doing the best; not sure if the algae growing with it is choking it (it seems to improve when I prune it right back), if it's still settling in after the tank move, or if the flow needs adjusting.
Could also be the critters around it - numerous bristle worms climb out of/up it just before and after lights out, and there's 3 of my large species if vermetid around it that may annoy it (the typical small ones don't seem to cause a problem).
Everything else is doing well though.
 

Brekel

Member
Jun 8, 2012
273
109
Hobart
Temporary (plastic tub) sump is up and running to test overflow. Pulled apart the old tank last night, ready to cut up glass and make a better sump. It wasn't as easy as you'd think: there was a fair bit of bracing around the top of the old tank, some of it with double layer glass, and some of the joints were basically glass to glass with the silicone so thin you couldn't slide a razor blade in between to seperate them. Broke a section off the front glass when the blade got to a tight spot and the pressure cracked it, but the front was broken anyway and I'll still be able to use the larger piece for a baffle or two.

I used a glass cover from the old tank to make an internal overflow in one corner of the new tank before I filled it.
(Excuse the mobile phone shots - didn't pull out the camera tonight)
IMG_20130605_192722.jpg


I'm using a constant siphon type overflow, originally made for the old tank but not put into use. Unfortunately the new tank has a plastic trim around the top that makes it sit about 33mm higher than I originally designed it for. Unlike a plain siphon, with this type the height it sits at alters the flow rate, but I'd done all the friction calculations to allow for a margin of safety. Turns out the calculations were pretty close and the saftey margin enough for the height difference (phew!), so it's operating nicely.

IMG_20130605_192528.jpg


It has two siphons exiting the overflow, but I designed it so one would cope with the flow of a pump I had laying around, the second is for added security. I removed a length of tube and capped one off for all these photos, and as you can see it handled the flow adequately.

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I turned the pump on and off several times, including leaving it off for 24 hours to make sure no air was leaking in, and it restarted every time when it was turned back on.

Now to make the glass sump...
 

lorby

Member
Nov 26, 2012
178
62
Nice work with the plumbing! How noisy is it? Any idea of the flow rate?