Tank Journal Archive

[bimbo]

Introduction:
I have been keeping fish for as long as I can remember and for a few years kept a few small (2 and 2.5foot) coral tanks. I really enjoyed watching them but things got in the way and they got closed down. For many years I had an empty 5x2x2 tank that followed me around to may houses but as we were renting I didn't really want to set it up and then have to move it etc. So it sat empty in my garage. When we bought our current house I decided that we either have to set it up somewhere or get rid of it. Problem was that there wasn't really anywhere suitable in the house to put it :wall: . Solution - make space :cheers:
System Objectives:
I would like the tank to have real POP and draw you in, makes you look closer and notice all the cool little critters and corals in there.
Have SPS thrive in both colour and growth.
Would also like to reduce ongoing costs through the use of energy efficient equipment.
System Type:
SPS dominant reef with reasonable fish load.
Display System:
Strike up Date:
under construction
Display Tank:
5x2x2 - float glass right hand corner weir
40mm emergency drain and 25mm syphon
Display Lighting:
Reef Breeders Photon48 LED 215W at 100% 115W at 50%
Stand:
In-wall ish enclosed cabinet all DIY
Hood:
Enclosed
Sump:
18inch cube
Refugium:
18 inch cube
Refugium Lighting:
NA - Cryptic
Support systems:
System Water:
NSW - collected Swansea channel
Display Water circulation:
Jebao 2 x WP40 - 40W each
Return Pump:Sump return pump.
Waveline dc-6000 55W
Skimmer:
JNS ConeS CO3
Evaporation Top Up:
Pacific Sun Kore 5th ATO
40Kg base/dead rock
2kg live cured rock
20kg 2mm Coral Sand
10kg 3mm Coral Sand
Chemical Support:
Pacific Sun Kore 5th 5 head doser
Calcium Addition:
Randys Recipe 1
Alkilinity Addition:
Randys Recipe 1
Other Chemical Maintenance:
Current Water Chemistry:
Nitrates: 0
Phosphates: 0.03ppm
Alkalinity: 8.0dkh
Calcium: 420ppm
Salinity / Specific Gravity: 1.025
Magnesuim: 1350

This all started in mid 2011 and the tank has been set up with cichlids since then and am only now changing over to saltwater. Here is a bit of a rundown on the original construction.
I have had this 5x2x2 tank for years but never had the space to put it. Never sold it cause if I did I knew the misses wouldn't ever let me buy another one so it has sat in the garage. I finally came up with an idea she liked and didn't waste any time doing demolitions cause then she couldn't change her mind ;D
The tank was to be set up for a colony of Frontosa and whatever tankmates suit (ie don't nip fins or get eaten). Going to start off with some Syno Petricola, N.Brevis and Julidochromis (or are all those swear words here :thumbsup: )
This is my google sketch of what it should look like. This program is great and is very simple to use (this was my first ever effort) and great to be able to show the wife etc as well as working out measurements etc

This is what I started with. Linen and books where being stored in this cupboard in the lounge room and TV was setup on a unit to the left of the cupboard.

Demo begins

The plasterboard was removed and replaced with villaboard (same stuff used in bathrooms) for some water resistance and to cope with higher humidity. I had also started building the stand for the tank out of 90x45 pine

The stand is mostly done (still needs 2 uprights at the front as well as some diagonals) and I made the shelf above the tank as well as the cupboard to the side which will remain as linen to keep the misses happy

Tank is in place and stand has had the diagonals added

Doors all painted and fixed in place

Made some adjustable piers to go under the house and re enforced the bearers and joists to take any extra load

Then it has looked like this for the past few years

The lighting on the tank is Rapid LED 36w 12 led kit which will be used as a fuge light.

 

[bimbo]

31 July 2014
Order from Guppies turned up today - great fast service as usual :clap:

Return pump - waveline dc6000, 2 x jebaeo wp40's and a twin controller for them, and some acrylic cement to repair my skimmer which got knocked over in a house move 8 years ago and busted the cup off the body :furious:
Plan is to drain the tank this weekend and clean out all the existing rocks and sand then over the next week drill the holes in the base for the weir, get glass cut for the weir and installed. Thinking the weir will be roughly 250mm wide and 150 deep. Planning on 2 x 40mm bulkheads - one reduced down to 25mm and run as full syphon and other as emergency overflow.
Since my weldon turned up today I thought I would fix my skimmer. It is an reef octopus huricane 500 which will be underrated for this sized tank but will get me by short term until I can research into a bigger skimmer.
The broken skimmer - busted off at the neck after a tumble while moving. I may have got a little bit cranky when that happened.

Job done, skimmer could do with a really good clean though - might run some water and vinegar through it on the weekend

Another job ticked off the list
1 August 2014

Few more goodies turned up today.
Reefbreeder Photon48 -incredibly well packaged and super fast postage - ordered on the 27th July and delivered today 1st August :thumbsup:

And my ebay glass holesaw - 50mm to fit 40mm bulkhead. Going to have a crack :nono: at drilling the syphon and emergency drains this weekend.

Also picked up around 40Kg of dead rock - great mix of shapes and sizes so should be able to come up with something good.

So I think I have pretty much everything I need to get started bar a bit of plumbing bits and the glass for the weir - time to get cracking and do some work and stop ordering crap online.

 

[bimbo]

4 August 2014
Managed to get a little done over the weekend. The tank is fully empty -far out some of the rocks that where in there must have been 15-20kg each - was sooooo freaking worried bout dropping one all out without a drama though :thumbsup:
Then Sunday was a eventful day and threw a bit of a spanner on the works :baby:

3rd child and all girls :-x The 2 older ones (2 and 3.5) absolutely love going on trips to the fish shop.
Bonus is I now have a whole week off work to make progress on the tank :cheers:
Tonight I undertook the most nerve racking job of the whole build - drilling the bottom for siphon and emergency drain. All done without a drama. Will order the glass for the weir tomorrow and hopefully get that silicone in by the end of the week.

The bulkheads have to be so far off the back wall because of the timber frame below - I probably could have sourced bulkheads with smaller flanges but I have used the philmac brand ones on all of my tanks and never had one fail or leak so decided to stick with them.
Still trying to finalise my sump/fuge design but thinking something like this - need to get it sorted soon so I can order the glass.

The third 18inch cube that I currently have under the take will go into our laundry and be the QT tank.

 

[bimbo]

9 August 2014
FILL DAY :worship
Still chipping away at it. Got the glass for the weir and sump baffles cut. Weir is installed and then covered in 2 pieces of black acrylic so that it blends in with the painted back and side of the tank. Also started installing in some of the baffles in the sump and fuge. I did run into a problem with my design or more specifically the 40mm bulkheads. Where the bulkheads go there is a baffle/section only 50mm wide but measuring the philmac bulkheads the flange and rubber washer come to about 35-40mm thick so you can't get them in and have anything on the other side to screw the flange onto. So I have ordered some 40mm bulkheads from AOA which are flush on the inside which will give me much more room to move, only catch is that they require a 60mm hole so I have ordered and waiting for a new holesaw as well.
I did manage to make some progress and get some water in the tank. I am using NSW collected using a bilge pump into 2 x 220L open top drums (used to import olives originally). Then from the drums I used an old return pump and a bit of hose to pump straight into the tank.

Then had a go at some aquascaping - I am not really happy with it - I think there needs to me much more difference in height and size of each rock pile. I don't mind the one on the right hand side but the left on needs some work - possibly removing the big piece on top. Any suggestions?

10 August 2014
Quick re-arrange of the rocks - swapped the 2 large flat pieces and rotated the left hand rocks slightly. Looks much better I think, still not perfect but plenty of swim throughs and caves etc. also trying to picture where I can place corals etc . Also put the 2 Jebao mp40's in there running on the twin controller and gee they move some water. I think my fave setting is the one where one mp40 runs at a constant speed and the other pulses. Seems to give good water movement with a bit of a surge/change in direction type flow - you can see the wave along the front of the glass in the full tank shot (can get much bigger but I was worried about water sloshing everywhere. They do hum a bit when running at 3/4 to full speed but it isn't too bad and my misses love the night time function where both pumps switch to the lowest constant flow setting when the lights go off and they are dead silent.
Full tank shot

End on

Got most of the plumbing done, had to rejig a few bits to make it all fit.
Don't you hate it when you do this :wall: Plumbing fail

This is how it should look

 

[bimbo]

14 August 14

I picked up a bag of 2mm coral sand over the weekend as well as a few small pieces of cured live rock from the LFS which is all now in the tank. LFS also threw in a small piece of LR which had a little Xenia on it so I will see how that fairs. I was worried the sand would be too fine but it looks great and with a bit of repositioning of the wp40's it shouldn't blow around too much. I think I will also get a bag of 3 or 5mm coral sand to mix with it just so it doesn't look so uniform. The tank had cleared up heaps this morning and skimmer had been cranking out the wet cloudy skimate so I will try and get a few pics this arvo. Now the hard part of waiting and constant nagging from the kids and wife of 'can we put fish in yet'.

Lights mounted - tank was pretty cloudy as it was just after I had added the sand.

Also have the syphon tuned pretty much perfectly - water level sits about 5mm below the emergency overflow pipe. It is really quite, just a bit of water noise coming from the sump but with the doors on you can barely hear it. I did also double check that the overflow can take all of the flow and it does it with ease all be it sounding like the toilet flushing constantly.
I picked up all the bits I needed from Jaycar to make up a box for my ATC800. Just have to get the lecco to connect it all up form which should happen this weekend.

Really happy with how it is all coming together, tank is really quiet, I think the fans on the LED fixture are probably the loudest thing and I doubt that you will hear them once the doors go back on. I have been ghost feeding the tank to get everything kick started. I haven't actually tested the tank yet, I will pretty much let it run for a few weeks then drag out the test kits and see where it is at. The rocks are starting to turn a nice shade of brown at the moment.
Hopefully my bulkheads turn up from AOA soon so I can get the fuge online.

 

[bimbo]

26 August 2014
Been chipping away at is after work and kids have gone to bed etc. The tank is looking OK but still settling down. Over the last few weeks it has gone a lovely shade of diatom brown then a nice algae green and just starting to get a little fine hair algae on some of the rocks. I took the kids out to Pet Quarters in Rutherford over the weekend and visit Chris who works there - great way to kill a few hours on a rainy day. Picked up a few hermits to add to the clean up crew and they have been busily doing what hermits do.
I have finished the plumbing for now and this is the way I have it set up

40mm emergency drain and 25mm syphon throttled back. ATO tank which holds about 30L is on the far right fed via a tunze osmolator into the return pump section.

This is the centre section that will eventually hold the QT tank once I get an internal skimmer etc. Lower valve is to feed the skimmer and left hand tap is feed to the fuge.
Still need to do a massive tidy up of electrical cords just trying to think of the best way to keep everything up and out of the way yet still accessible.

Most of the return water is going through the fuge. Since I set up the tank I have had quite cloudy water and over the weekend I installed a filter sock to help knock out some of the particulate and seems to be working well. The water flows from the tank into the left had baffle -> fuge area -> right hand baffle (also has skimmer return) -> 40mm bulkhead in the rear glass which is piped into the rear of the return pump tank/section in the first photo. It is all a bit of a plumbing PITA but has to be that way as I don't have access to the ends of the stand to remove a larger sump in one piece where as the 18inch cubes can be removed through the front if need be.
After much reading I am not actually going to run a macro fuge anymore, a lot of the data I have read shows that for the export of nutrients to have any real benefit you need to have a much larger area than what could be accommodated (in the order of 50-80% of tank size are some numbers I have read). The tank is now also most likely going to be SPS dominant and requirement of much lower nutrients is a must so I am going to go with a bio-pellet reactor (JNS Alpha) and the fuge area will become a 'cryptic fuge' ie no lights and encourage the growth of sponges as well as a refuge for a good population of pods and other critters.

Picked up the first fish this week and now have these guys sitting in QT tank and have settled in well.

.
Although not specifically designed for plumbing this tool makes cutting all the PVC pipe an absolute breeze

HAFCO Horizontal bandsaw - wish I bought it sooner.
Also went to the MASS meeting/gathering on the weekend just gone and was great to check out some top notch tanks and put some faces to names. I also came home with a few SPS frags which are going great guns. I tried to take some pics but they are barely identifiable as corals so I will have another go and post some pics up at a later date.

 

[bimbo]

30 August 2014
Getting on top of the water chemistry, phosphates are still high 0.5 and I reckon it is probably coming from the base rock which was soaked prior to use but I didn't acid wash it, also didn't test the water after soaking it for a while - guess I got a bit excited about aquascaping. I will see if that comes down with more water changes.
PH has been stable but low at 7.7-7.8, as has Calc at 420 and still measuring stuff all on the Nitrates - there is a slight tinge of colour but inbetween 0 and 5 - all measure with salifert kits. Alk has been dropped over the week from 7.7 to 7.4 so I decided to mix up some of randys recipe #1. I actually had most of the chemicals on hand from my DIY cichlid mix I was using as well as some damprid in the cupborad. The only one I haven't got is Mag chloride so I will have to order some as well as a Mag test kit. Quick stop to bunnings to grab some containers to mix them up in and I was good to go.

So over the next week I will bump the alk up to 8ish and try and keep it stable there.
Since the addition of the filter sock the tank has cleared up a lot and still collecting a bunch of crud in the sock.

7 September 2014
Few more additions today - kids and wife took me fish/coral shopping for fathers day :-x Picked up 4 Dispar Anthias, few peppermint shrimp and a tri colour acro.
Dispars have settled in and after an hour or so hiding amongst the rock work they are out swimming round and also had a feed :clap:
Took a few crappy phone pics
End on

all 4 dispars out and about - pretty sure there are 2 boys and 2 girls. Will try and pick up another 2-4 girls to add

Will try and get a better photo once I get this guy into position - great fluro green polyps, looks awesome under the moon lights

Nice to finally have some fish swimming round the tank :thumbsup:

Few slightly better pics from the dslr
Snuffy the strombo who has been hoovering the sandbed all day

Dispars came out for a quick feed

Tricolour Acro - tried to get the photo as close to real colour as possible

 

[bimbo]

5 October 2014
Everything has been ticking over nicely and I have just been letting everything settle and stabalise before I get too carried away with adding more fish and corals. I did however receive an order of corals from Oceanarium. Absolutely top notch service, plenty of updates on where my order was at, packed beautifully, top quality corals. I picked up a few Birdsnest, a few pocilloporas, a small hammer and torch. They have all settled in well and there is noticeable growth on the birds nest's
When they first went into the tank.

I then had my first big purchase - Pacific Sun Kore5th doser from Aquabella. I had been tossing up between the pac sun and a 3 head Komaer. I was also in the market for another ato unit to run on my QT tank which is what was swaying me towards the pac sun (as well as some top features like drip dosing, auto water change). The decision was made much easier when AQUABELLA had them on special and IMO a great price.
Once again amazing service from Nick, top price, notifications all along the way to let me know where my order was at - I put the order through the website late Thursday night and it turned up at work on the following Monday.
This makes for a long Monday at work when your new doser is sitting there begging to be played with all day

Everything layed out - most bits and pieces where in their own individual labled bags

mounted into position - it has provisions to screw straight through the unit into a shelf etc above it - nice little touch I thought. It will eventually be mounted in the cupboard next to the tank.

Superman Monti I picked up today

Clowns have settled into the DT well and made their home in a corner of the tank and constantly excavating their pit

Dispars out doing their thing

 

[bimbo]

9 October 2014
Checked parameters again today to see where its at
NO3 - 0pm Red sea
PO4 - 0.03 salifert
Alk - 8.3dkh salifert
Ca - 420 salifert
I still have plenty of green hair algae in the tank but over the past 2 weeks the majority of what is in there has started to look pretty crook loosing its bright green and going pale so hopefully over the next few weeks I will see the end of it

16 October 2014
Few more bits and pieces have turned up. First being a Phos ULR Hanna checker

Was measuring 0.03 with salifert but it is so hard to tell the difference between the colours at the low end. Hanna measured in at 0.05. My Nitrates is still measuring 0 so I dosed some lanth into the skimmer inlet a few days ago, still yet to check phos again to see if it came down.
Next to show up was my new skimmer JNS ConeS CO3

It is much bigger than my RO one currently on the tank. Had to remove a glass baffle out of the sump to fit it which was a PITA but it fits next to the pellet reactor like a glove. Also had to raise the skimmer up about 75mm using some pvc pipe, egg grate and zip ties.

 

[bimbo]

26 October 2014
Not much to update but a few pics of old and new additions. Everything is ticking along fairly well.
Clowns have been getting it on

4 new lori's anthias - amazing colours

Melanurus Wrasse added - loves cruising the big tank chowing down on all my pods and mysis

Newish acro - pice doesn't really show the lumo green tips

New blue acro frag and growth on green stylo

New green/yelow milli - cool little acro crab in this one too

Birdsnest growth shot

End on shot - the little brown/blue stag to the left of the birdsnest is slowly encrusting

FT shot

Also have a beautiful copperband butterfly in QT at the moment who is happily munching away on Mysis and brine shrimp. Starting to come to the front of the tank when it sees me looking for a feed which is good

Cheers
James

 

[daveH]

Brilliant journal . . . brilliant tank ;)

 

[slin1977]

Congratulations on a well planned effort. Keep us up to date with future additions .

 

[Wrangy]

Great journal start mate! :) Your tank is looking really slick and I love those anthias!! I'm looking forward to watching your tank grow and mature :) What other fish are you planning on adding??

 

[bimbo]

Great journal start mate! :) Your tank is looking really slick and I love those anthias!! I'm looking forward to watching your tank grow and mature :) What other fish are you planning on adding??

Thanks, lori's anthias never really 'floated my boat' as all the ones I had seen where more of a pastel pink but Chris cnidaria_chris sent me a message one day telling me to come check these ones that had come into the shop cause he reckoned they where top notch. Needless to say they ended up in my tank that arvo.

As for the rest of the fish I was originally thinking of adding a Kole tang and a yellow tang plus maybe another wrasse or 2 and a blenny. But IMO the kole and yellow is a bit common place (still beautiful fish though) so looking at other options. Thinking of maybe a convict tang and a regal angel but open for sugestions

Cheers
James

 

[Wrangy]

Thanks, lori's anthias never really 'floated my boat' as all the ones I had seen where more of a pastel pink but Chris cnidaria_chris sent me a message one day telling me to come check these ones that had come into the shop cause he reckoned they where top notch. Needless to say they ended up in my tank that arvo.

As for the rest of the fish I was originally thinking of adding a Kole tang and a yellow tang plus maybe another wrasse or 2 and a blenny. But IMO the kole and yellow is a bit common place (still beautiful fish though) so looking at other options. Thinking of maybe a convict tang and a regal angel but open for sugestions

Cheers
James

The lori's are stunners :) Awesome score!

Sounds like a decent fish list, wrasse are always interesting fish to have, I'd love to have a bigger tank to get one! I'd say definitely get an angelfish but I'm a bit bias in that regard lol I have a bellus angelfish and she is an absolutely awesome fish!! Follows me everywhere and the genicanthus sp. are planktivores so they don't eat corals :) I'd have a pair of them if it were my choice lol But you list looks pretty solid though :D

 

[Dynamic]

Looks awesome! Well done man!

Just remember, when making an update from now on to add it as a new entry to your journal. That way your journal does not end up being a single thread :)

Keep up the great work!

 

[bimbo]

Looks awesome! Well done man!

Just remember, when making an update from now on to add it as a new entry to your journal. That way your journal does not end up being a single thread :)

Keep up the great work!

Yeah this was all just a dump from the thread I had over on RTAW

 

[macca_75]

Looking good. I have begun buying the supplements in bulk. I've measured them out into individual zip lock bags and labelled them. Saves so much time not to make a new batch. (don't need to get scales, etc).

You've got a bit of hair algae which is surprising given the readings you've reported. Any thoughts on what's going on there? Everything seems to be going well stock wise though.

Keep up the updates. Looks like a corker of a tank coming together.

 

[bimbo]

No idea what is going on with the GHA, it is slowly receding though as snail numbers increase and I get nutrients lower. I was originally thinking that the salifert kits were not giving me accurate reading but the 0 nitrates was backed up by the redsea kit I now use and the phos was a bit higher with the hanna but still less than 0.1ppm (salifert was somewhere between 0.03 and 0.1ppm). I have been feeding more this week to see if I can generate more nitrates to drop the phos but will see how that goes - also give a squirt of lanth every now and again. I think the phos is also leaching out of the rock as I only rinsed it in ro water before putting it in to the tank rather than soaking or acid rinse.
In the whole scheme of things it is still a very young tank as well which will be a contributing factor too.

 

[babyreefer]

:worship:worship:worship:eek Awesome~~~~~~!!