Tank Journal Archive

[holla_passer]

INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone, I am from Sydney.
This tank journal is long overdue. The setup has been running for almost two years now, and I have been keeping a journal in another forum. So what i am going to do now is post the stages that this tank has been through, from the very start, through to its current state. So these first few posts will all be in retrospect. I hope you enjoy the ride! Please feel free to comment or criticize whenever you see fit, don't be shy!

In the beginning....

Strike up Date: probably about mid January 2010

Display Tank: Boyu Orca RA-03 approx. 25L (cheap version of the NanoCubes) --> CHANGED to 30cm bevelled edge cube --> CHANGED AGAIN to 35cm cube

Display Lighting: Stock 18W 10000k/actinic power compact --> UPGRADED to 2x24W power compacts (1x 17000K/actinic and 1x 10000K/marine blue) --> UPDRADED to 70W shopfitter metal halide with 20,000K bulb --> UPGRADED to 24 x 3W DIY Bridgelux LEDs

Stand: Study desk --> has been moved to other side of bedroom...sitting on a modular cabinet designed for tank --> Now sitting on IKEA vanity cabinet

Hood: Stock hood --> REMOVED! now hoodless --> now has custom made hood --> now hoodless again with suspended light unit

Sump: Back compartment - 3 chambers.
1st chamber: 75W Jager heater + purigen
2nd chamber: LR rubble and macro algae
3rd chamber: 1200L/h aqua one return pump.
CHANGED to Eheim Liberty HOB filter with macro and carbon

Refugium: Macro algae (caulerpa sp.)

Refugium Lighting: 13W 6400K triphosphor compact fluorescent bulb Changed to DIY LED fixture

System Water: Natural salt water from LFS

Display Water circulation: 900L/hr Hydor Koralia Nano --> UPGRADED to Hydor Koralia Nano 1600L/hr --> UPGRADED to Vortech MP10es

Return Pump: Eheim Liberty 2042 HOB Filter (approx. 700L/hr)

Skimmer: DIY driven by limewood airstone --> NONE

Evaporation Top Up: DIY gravity fed ATO --> UPGRADED to DIY air-driven ATO with float switch

anyway so heres the tank during the cycle:

decided to add some legs to the original hood and light to try and help with keeping temps down. Also added two cpu fans to either side to promote evaporative cooling. original hood has 2 small fans to keep down hood temps..but didn't do much IMO.

more live rock:

after about a 3 week cycle, decided that my lights were crap...and after looking all over the world for a decent lighting unit within my price range for such a small tank, found a 2x24W power compact unit from guppys. also added the two cpu fans from the old hood...cable tied them to the back of the light unit to blow air onto and across the water surface. works a treat!

as you can see, also added some softies to the tank.
you might also notice that the rocky background is no more. its actually still siliconed onto the tank, i just cut a piece of 2mm black plastic and slotted it into the back of the tank in front of the rocky background. i figured the black brings out the colours in the corals and fish alot better. The rocky background was from my shameful freshwater days...

another shot of the tank with new light on my study desk:

Green zoas:

fluffy morph:

purple morphs...with two small xenia colonies growing:

orange/red zoas and orange fungia:

re-aquascaped coz i felt the old scape was too crowded...and a premnas from my four footer.

re-aquascaped again!...i think its much better this time..more open space. used cable ties to secure some bits of live rock together to create a couple of 'shelves':

also added a parazoanthus...have been told they are hard to keep but will try my best!

and just a top down shot of my zoas:

 

[holla_passer]

THE DIY PROTEIN SKIMMER

heres some pics and details of the diy skimmer.

found a couple of these "co2 reaction chambers" lying around in my aquarium scraps box and thought theyd be perfect as the reaction chamber for a skimmer:

the tops and bottoms of these things can be removed (meaning the top part whihc will be siliconed to the collection cup can be removed for cleaning and emptying)...and u can join the bodies to each other, giving me a taller chamber:

also has an inlet on the bottom cover so i could feed my airline through for the limewood airstone:

and heres the collection cup. used an old protein shaker bottle and cut it at about the 300ml mark. found an old piece of piping from an old fountain pump (black piece). used a hole saw (same diameter as black pipe) to cut a hole in the bottom of the protein shaker and also on the top lid of the reaction chamber. shoved the black pipe into the newly cut holes and siliconed it all together to make it watertight and you get this:

placed the cup on to the reaction chamber:

After a few minor modifications to the original design, i finally finished it. its driven by a limewood airstone and an old sera 275L/h air pump i had lying around. its producing heaps of very fine bubbles, though the skimmate is still very light coloured. still needs some tuning i think. the airpump is adjustable and the airline running to the airstone also has a tap so i can control the airflow even more.

heres the microbubbles going up the chamber:

the collection cup:

and the skimmate after first day of running:

not sure how efficient the skimmer is but hopefully its doing something! if anyone has any ideas on how i might be able to improve it please let me know!

THE DIY GRAVITY FED ATO

so firstly...in such a small tank the evaporation was crazy especially during the hotter days when i had the fans blowing across the surface. so, i decided to make a simple gravity fed ATO. its actually very very simple. basically theres one hose coming out from the air-tight bottle and this hose runs to the sump where i want the water level to be at. when the water level falls below the end of this hose, air rushes up the hose and into the bottle, pushing the water from the bottle out. when the water level in the sump reaches high enough to cover the end of the hose, no air can go up the hose and so no water is displaced. hope that doesnt sound too confusing...hopefully the pics can clear it up:

so heres the reservoir that holds the FW (3L bottle):

the hose coming from the reservoir to the sump:

here you can kinda see the end of the hose at the water level (submersed at the moment so no water is being added to the sump):

with this ATO i only need to fill up the bottle about once a week depending on how often i have the fans on.

THE DIY CANOPY

I quickly put together a little canopy to make the whole tank look a bit neater. very simple, made out of radiata pine, given a coat of primer and then a coat of gloss black.

since the light fitting is 350mm and the tank is only 300mm wide, i couldnt completely enclose the light inside the canopy. on the plus side, this allows the canopy to have better ventilation.

the front panel is held on with two magnets so it can easily be popped off for feeding.

so heres what the tank looks like now:

and closer FTS:

BUDGET MOONLIGHTS

my "budget moonlights" arrived in the mail yesterday from ebay, so hooked them up to an old phone charger transformer and we have this:

not bad for about 6 bucks worth!

other progress:

• last coral goby went MIA for a few days...eventually found it in the 1st chamber of the back filter...unfortunately it was dead.
• added a bicolour blenny...great little character, good fun to watch.
• plucked off green bubble algae that had started to spread on the piece of rock with the orange zoos...lucky it was a small piece so took it out of the tank and picked them off with tweezers without bursting them...surprisingly easy.
• actinic tube stopped working last night...so ordered a 50/50 tube to replace it since the tank was a little blue for my liking. currently being lit by just one 50/50 tube.

DIY PHOSPHATE REACTOR + RIMLESS-NISATION

made a start on DIY phosphate reactor...it works but there isnt enough flow going through it so the media doesnt actually move...since im tee-ing it off from the return pump...need to find a stronger pump...but it needs to be small...im using an aquaone 500L pump at the moment...any suggestions for a decent quality pump about 700-800L? needs to be small though...cant be bigger than 90 x 60 mm. will post pics up when finished. Anyway, i remembered i had an aquaone 1200L/hr pump lying around...and it fit! though i had to take off the outer casings from both ends (the darker coloured pieces of plastic on both ends):
https://www.aquariumproductswholesale.com/s...roducts/999.gif

flow is variable, so turned it to about halfway, hooked up the DIY phos reactor...and it works! using phosguard at the moment since i had a fair bit of it lying around...but will replace with rowaphos or phosban once i run out. because of the bigger pump, the flow in the display is a bit more hectic aswell...but xenias and torch seem to be loving it so far.

so on to some dodgy pics...

heres the whole unit in the third chamber of the back filter:

here you can see where the return flow has been tee'd off:

and here is where the water returns back into the sump after going through the phos reactor:

finally, decided to take the rim off the tank...RIMLESS!! took about half an hour to do...used a scalpel and an el-cheapo retractable knife to cut the silicon underneath the rim on the outside...used a scraping blade to cut from the inside and then slowly pulled it off...left everything in the tank so was pretty easy. did it out of boredom more than anything since ive got a canopy on it, you cant even see the rim haha..but maybe one day ill get rid of the canopy.

anyway heres some pics:

you can see the THICK THICK UGLY green hair algae on the substrate...and the strombus who's already giving it a pretty thorough clean.

 

[holla_passer]

YELLOW SPOTTED SCORPIONFISH

added this little guy to my tank...picked him up yesterday...yellowspotted scorpionfish:

and the link to a feeding of the scorpionfish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxEkd-BJ9Jc...e=youtube_gdata

he's about 3-4cm across...very cool looking fish...reef safe...although might attack my peppermint shrimp! lets hope not.
speaking of my peppermint...finally saw a glimpse of him in daylight today..and quickly managed to snap up a blurry pic of him:

and finally, latest FTS (very frustrated with not being able to capture the true colour of the tank on my crappy point and shoot camera...so did some very basic editing to try and get the colour as close as possible to reality):

still cant get the true fluro green of the sinularia and the green fungia up front.

also note how clean the substrate is looking compared to a few posts back...love the strombus! :thumbsup:

anyway thats all for now...will post pics of new light stand once it exists!

DIY HANGING LIGHT STAND

finished my hanging light unit on the weekend...and today relocated the tank to a modular cabinet on the other side of my room...and installed the hanging unit onto cabinet. also cleaned up all the wiring and plugs (still a little clustered...but will work on it more probably tomorow)...

hanging unit was made from a single piece of 12mm plexiglass i had lying around the house for some reason?? lol thought i might aswell put it to some use. basically cut it to shape then heated the area to be bent with a paintstripper/heatgun and slowly bent it...took a while since the acrylic was so thick...anyway heres some pics of the completed unit...dont have any progress pics as i didn't have my camera with me.

new location:

latest FTS (not much change):

power centre:

DIY AIR-DRIVEN ATO

Changed my auto top off today...my float switches arrived in the mail...bought 2 for about $6 delivered from ebay :thumbsup:...so no more gravity fed ATO anymore since i moved the tank there really isnt anywhere i could put the reservoir above the tank. not sure if it works properly yet since im still waiting for the silicon to cure to make sure the bottle is airtight. used the same bottle that i was using for the gravity fed system, just changed the lid since the old one had a hole that was too big for the airline that this system uses.

used a cheap battery powered airpump that i had for emergencies (need to get another one now....for emergencies!)...used about 3 metres of silicon airline...and bought a piece of rigid irrigation riser from bunnings for about 90c...fits perfect with the standard silicon airline.

basically works on the principle that when the float switch falls below the water level, it kick starts the battery airpump, which pumps air into to reservoir, and displaces water from the reservoir, which travels up the rigid tubing, and out of the bottle and into the 3rd filter chamber through airline. quite simple actually. anyway ill stop talking now lol heres some pics.

rigid riser used in irrigation:

with adapter on the end which fits perfectly into standard aquarium silicon airline:

rigid tubing extends down to bottom of reservoir:

float switch with airline that adds water from reservoir (attached to simple DIY bent perspex bracket that hangs onto the tank):

battery powered airpump with float switch spliced in:

what the setup looks like (air pump is inside cabinet):

in other news, got rid of my DIY phosphate reactor since the phosguard really wasnt doing much, and the extra pump inside the filter to run the phos reactor was running very loudly since it was a tight fit and thus vibrations. tank runs much quieter now and less pump = less heat which is always a bonus in such a small tank.

 

[holla_passer]

DIY 70W METAL HALIDE

got my 70W metal halide the other day...just a cheap shopfitters..but it does the job. Currently running a 14,000K bub in it but it looks a little too yellow for my liking...will probably be ordering a 20,000k bulb from AMD soon.

Anyway, put together a quick 'reflector' to house the shopfitter (main purpose was to hide the 'raw' look of the shopfitter more so than for actually reflecting).
With the halide on for a day today...polyp extension on the duncan has been much better, as have the zoas - polyps are opening bigger than under the power compacts, however colours are not as vibrant or fluorescent. hopefully the 20,000k bulb will fix that. My other concern was temperature - today was about 20ish degrees ambient...and tank did not go past 26.5 degrees, fan was not running. Real test will be when summer comes around.

Anyway, onto some quick snaps of the new setup:

the 'reflector' - was made from scrap metal i had lying around...sprayed the outside black...inside was already red...might try and spray it white to maximise light output:

20,000K bulb:

DIY FILTER COVER

just a piece of perspex that i bent into shape to:

• stop fish from jumping into back sections
• stop algae growth in the back sections, and
• hide all the junk in the back (skimmer cup, float switch, wires etc).

its just a piece of clear perspex that i sprayed black, and left a little clear section so i can keep an eye on the skimmer cup. It just basically sits on the tanks edges.

here's some pics:

 

[holla_passer]

THE DOWNFALL...

Tank has been going downhill as of late - sudden drop in pH to about 7.8 - i cant put my finger on what caused this...nothing out of the ordinary was done.

None of the corals have shown any polyp extension for the last 2-3 days - frogspawns have receded alot and look to be on their way out. did a 50% water change on sunday, and again last night (pH managed to creep back up to about 8.2), will just give it some time...see how it goes.

feeling very discouraged at the moment...hope things will turn for the better soon.

duncans:

acans...what acans?

euphyllias:

turbinara??:

helmet fungia:

blastos:

zoas:

Ok so today...some big changes in the nano world....

• 99% water change with NSW
• converted the tank to barebottom!

two of the euphyllias had died...green fungia looks on its way out as well...other corals are showing some slight signs of improvement :crossfingers:

anyway here's a couple of bad pics:

 

[holla_passer]

OPERATION 'STRIP TANK AND REFILL'!

so made some more changes to the tank...corals were showing no significant signs of improvement even when i transferred them to my 3 footer...so i decided to leave them in there...and carry out operation "strip tank and refill"....

• got rid of the skimmer...decided it wasn't very effective and was just taking up valuable space in the rear chambers...might turn the free space into a mini fuge.
• decided the barebottom look was too much work to maintain. added brand new substrate - fine grade aragonite - just a thin layer, no more than about 10mm deep.
• got rid of the aquaone powerhead...forked out the money and got myself a hydor koralia nano - pushes out 900L/h yet is very gentle and nicely dispersed.
• removed all of the liverock (progressively of course) and eventually replaced it with a single piece of base rock from my old 4 foot set up...trying for that minimalist look again...hoping to get a good coverage of corals on the substrate (mostly LPS and zoas) with some possible SPS up on the rock.
• transferred the yellow coral goby to the 3 footer.
• picked up some corals over the past few days...

cataphyllia:

cynarias/scollys:

zoas/palys/fungia/blasto:

Unknown coral (ID??):

koralia nano - highly recommended - was very impressed at how small it actually was...smaller than my aquaone powerhead that i had in there. flow is also very good...turbulent yet gentle

and finally FTS:

 

[holla_passer]

THE DIY METAL HALIDE PENDANT

Finished my light fixture...quite happy with it - its basically a 70W shopfitters halide inside a stainless steel mixing bowl.

Credit must go to Karlo from NR for the idea.

Might work a bit more on the stand for the light - at the moment its just conduit...may change it to some sort of steel pipe or maybe just paint over the super attractive orange.


THE REFUGIUM AND DIY REFUGIUM LIGHT

here are some pics of the new fuge and most importantly, the fuge light:

top down shot:

The case for the fuge light is basically made out of four pieces of scrap acrylic i had lying around, and superglued together. three long pieces for the sides, and a base piece with a hole drilled through for the light fitting. Am currently using a 13W 6400K triphosphour compact fluro bulb and running it 24/7.

The top of the fuge light also has an old CPU fan superglued on to remove any heat produced from the light out of the box (not too sure how much heat would be produced, but can't hurt to add in the fan right?)

i may paint the case black when i have some time - hopefully will prevent light from escaping.

anyway, the light basically sits behind the tank, and i've removed the black vinyl from the back wall of the tank so the light can shine through, into the 2nd filter chamber. I will keep an eye on the macro to see how it goes...hopefully it will thrive and will reduce the algae in the display.

THE DIY SURFACE SKIMMER

Used the good old cassette case method - but i didn't have any cassettes at home so i used the box from my ipod. was a very good fit, and its held in place by the koralia nano magnets!

immediately got rid of surface scum, very effective - probably the easiest and most effective DIY on this tank!

SPS FRAGS

Bought a couple of frags, however they browned out in my tank. When i added them in, i did not have the fuge set up yet, and phosphates were at about 0.25-0.3 (Sh1tty aquasonic test kit). After a couple of days in the tank, the monti frag and the purple acro bleached :(

so now im left with a brown acro which is meant to be green and a brown pocci which is meant to be pink lol...the pocci is showing some decent polyp extension, but nothing from the acro as yet. Hopefully with the installation of the fuge, the phosphates will come down and the frags may colour up :crossfingers:

so anyway here are some pics of the frags when i first added them in:
Purple acro up front and green(??) up back

green polyp encrusting monti

pink(??) pocci

anyway, ive removed the monti and the purple acro. I may try some more SPS again when i really feel confident that the tank is ready - if it ever will be.
Latest tank shot:

 

[holla_passer]

1st BIRTHDAY UPDATE

Hey everyone, been busy in the past month or so with some major room renovations, but that was all completed on the weekend, so it came time to move my tank back into the room. Being the one year anniversary of my setup, i decided to give it a bit of a change:

• Changed the DT to a proper 30cm cube that i used to use for FW - no curved edges, just a pure straight cube tank with bevelled edges. Main reason for the change was to get that bit of extra depth that the old 25L was lacking due to the rear filter chambers. The change was also brought about because i wasn't a fan of the curved glass front of the old tank, the curved edges made it difficult to clean the algae properly.
• Since it is no longer an all-in-one setup anymore, the filtration is now provided by an Eheim Liberty HOB filter with macro and purigen.
• Metal halide ballast has now been changed from magnetic to electronic.
• Redid the hanging kit for the metal halide.
• Made a snail guard for the float switch since it is now in the DT and snails/starfish/hermits may turn it on when they climb onto it.

All other equipment has remained largely unchanged, as has livestock, although am thinking about selling or trading my scolly and cynarias for something a bit smaller since they are getting quite large for the tank. Other changes in the future may include changing the koralia nano for an MP10, but then that would really blow this setup out of the 'uni-budget' range. But for now, the koralia nano seems to be doing quite an efficient job. Ok enough talk for now, on to some pictures!

Painting the back of the tank:

Newly painted back with SSB in:

Redone light hanging system - finally painted over that atrocious orange conduit!:

Latest FTS lights off:

Latest FSS (Full System Shot). You can see the electronic ballast for the MH mounted on the wall next to the tank on the right. It's annoying that the lead from lamp to ballast is limited to one metre length:

THE DIY SNAIL/SLOSH GUARD

Snail/slosh guard for float switch (made using a film canister):

THE HOB FILTER WITH FUGE

Eheim HOB with fuge section:

Latest tank shots lights on:

 

[holla_passer]

SMALLISH UPDATE

So just gave the tank a bit of a aquascape-makeover. Sold off a couple of corals which were getting too big for the tank - the gorgeous scolymia australis, and a very hardy, very pretty green cynaria. Got a couple of other corals to replace them from Full O Fish - bright fluoro green cataphyllia, two-tone hammer coral, and a tiny red scolymia with some specks of green.

Some bad news, one of the clowns decided to go carpet surfing....of course in the middle of the night. Was well and truly dried up by the time i woke up. At the moment, the tank only holds the single clownfish. Will look to find a mate for him, possibly a black/white Darwinian occy. Anyway, enough talking/typing, onto some pics!

New cataphyllia...very hard to capture the true fluorescent colour:

New cat with new hammer, red cynaria and old cat in the background:

New red scolly. Pretty small...about 25mm across!

New two-tone hammer. The tips are a purplish brown..and the stems have a hint of a toxic green.

And just some random shots of the old corals:

View from the right side:

View from the top-left side:

And finally, the latest FTS:

BUDGET MOONLIGHTS - TAKE 2

Blue LED's came arrived in the mail the other day, so i installed them to use as moonlights. Very hard to capture the amazing fluorescence that the corals display when under these moonlights. Will try and get some decent ones sometime soon!

NEW TANK!

Well its been a while since last update...not much has changed except I changed the substrate to live sand given to me from a fellow reefer and also......the tank cracked!!!

The 15 month old nephew was in my room playing with his toys and he decided to throw one of them...you guessed it....at the tank! Luckily it only hit the top lip of the tank and chipped it rather than smash and crack the tank face. But i figured then that it was time to get a new tank to replace it.

So i looked around and decided to get a slightly bigger cube...the stand that i have can only accommodate up to a 35cm x 35cm footprint so i decided a 35cm cube was the way to go. This bumps up my system capacity to 40L now, a significant increase from the previous 25L tank.

Anyway, onto a couple of coral pics and latest FTS (there will be more to come).

Red zoas

Purple tip and pink tip cats

Orange fungia

Scolly

Pink zoas

Green stem pink tip hammer

FTS in new tank

HYDOR KORALIA NANO 1600L/HR

So today, my new koralia 1600 arrived.

Anyway, this little pump is great. Its pretty much the same size as the 900 that i initially had, but with so much more flow, i can aim it straight out from the back wall, and i will get plenty of surface agitation, as well as great flow around the bottom half of the tank. I had considered a Vortech MP10, but for my purposes, and for my budget, the koralia was the better option.

Hydor Koralia Nano 1600:

 

[holla_passer]

THE DIY FLOATING LIGHT CANOPY

Finished my light canopy. Pretty happy with how its turned out. Possibly mounted it a bit too high above the tank, so light intensity in the tank is not as high as what it used to be. But i may consider making a new stand for the tank some time in the future so if i do, it will be higher, and so the water surface will be closer to the halide again. At the moment, the halide is about 25cm from the water surface. Anyway, onto some pics!

Frame:

This 'U' channel is bolted to the wall. The light canopy will hang off this bracket.

This is where the canopy hangs onto the wall channel.

The finished product:

With blue LEDs for moonlight:

And whole system shot:

Please don't be shy, criticism and comments are very welcome!

 

[holla_passer]

Bit of an update...

Okay so been pretty busy lately with starting a new job and what not...but there have been some changes.

• Was getting a pretty severe case of brown algae on the substrate...got myself a strombus and slowly but surely he is working away and cleaning the substrate...you can see how much cleaning he has done when you compare the substrate in the following photos to the substrate in previous posts.
• After about 6 months of deliberation and also hunting, i have finally got myself a rainford's goby...wait...make that a pair of them. I have been looking for a nice one of these gobys since last october, and more importantly, one that would take to prepared foods. the LFS weened them onto prepared foods for me...and offered me a great price for the pair so i grabbed them both. They've been in the tank now since Sunday morning...and have started sifting the sand as well as nipping at the algae/rocks and also nipping at frozen marinara mix. :crossfingers: fingers crossed they stay nice and healthy! They haven't shown any aggression towards each other either, and sleep in two crevices adjacent to each other.
• Also picked up a green coral goby (either Gobiodon histrio or Gobiodon atrangulatus...not too sure). Have always wanted one of these aswell, rarely see them around in the local LFS's. Can't get a decent pic of him though because he keep hiding behind the heater. Hopefully he comes out a bit more like the YCG these days.

Anyway, onto some pics:

The strombus doing what he does best:

A poor pic of the green coral goby (will try to get a better pic soon):

Pic of the rainford's gobies in the bag when they first came home:

More of the rainford's...they're only about 1.5 inches:

And just a pic of the YCG and the clown hanging out in their new home:

That's all for now guys, Thanks for looking!

New DIY Fuge Light...

So i came to the conclusion that the old fuge light that i made was too bulky and on top of that, promoted lots of nuisance algae growth in the filter. So i ordered some LED's off ebay, hooked it up to a transformer, did a bit of quick and easy DIY, and came up with the following. I think it looks much cleaner as well as being more energy efficient.

Old fuge light:

New fuge light:

Thanks for looking!

 

[holla_passer]

MP10ES Installed...

So my vortech mp10es arrived in the mail last week. The mp10 provides plenty of flow...if i turn it up past about 30%, the sand goes everywhere! Currently using short pulse mode on 30%...coral movement is great...although the scolly and fungia are getting a bit of sand on them.

In other news, I lost one of the rainfords. Funnily enough, it wasn't due to starvation as most would expect. Instead, it found its way out onto the bedroom floor, during the middle of the night of course.
The remaining rainford is going great, actively sifting sand and still nipping at frozen marinara mix. It hasn't seem to have gained any weight, but it hasn't deteriorated either.

Finally, I have noticed that one of my cataphyllia corals is starting to detach from its skeleton. It is still expanding and deflating as per usual, but I am quite concerned. If anyone can help or has seen of this before, please let me know if there is anything I can do.

Okay onto some pics now:

There's a vortech somewhere amongst all that bubble wrap:

The remaining rainford:

The strombus getting all up on the rockwork!:

The detaching cataphyllia:

And finally latest tank shot:

Please provide feedback!
Thanks for looking!

 

[holla_passer]

UPDATE...

So for those who have still been following, a few things have changed:

• I lost both the rainford gobies. They both managed to find the carpet. I haven't heard of many reports of these gobies jumping from tanks, but as luck would have it, both of mine jumped. I was quite disappointed at the loss of the fish, they were showing good signs of eating prepared foods, especially the second one.
• Sold some corals, and bought some new ones (pics below)
• Replaced the stand for something a little bigger to hide the ATO reservoir and match the other furniture in the room a bit more (pic below). The cabinet is a vanity cabinet from Ikea, and an Ikea kitchen cabinet door for the top.

Anyway, here's a whole bunch of pics for you to enjoy!

Latest FTS:

Latest system shot with new cabinet:

Shot of tank under moonlights:

Some new acans!

A nice little coral garden piece i picked up for cheap from my LFS. It has some green zoas, a small soft leather, and a 5cm rhodactus:

Thinking of getting a b/w ocellaris to keep this guy company:

And finally got a couple of poor shots of the sneaky green coral goby:

 

[holla_passer]

A Further Update...

Scored myself a couple of new corals from my LFS (nice little almost toxic branching hammer; and a branching heliofungia!)...also got a couple of zoa frags and a red chalice frag from Yuong (buzzboy) - thanks again mate! Oh yeah, I have removed all the sand from the tank and have now got it barebottom. I can finally crank up the MP10 to about 60% and not have a sand storm in the tank! As a result, the flow in the tank is now much, much better. Although, I may consider moving the MP10 to the left hand panel to get some flow into the bottom back right hand corner. Not much more to be said really, I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Two frags of red frilled zoas from buzzboy:

Acans from Reef Secrets, and red chalice (top left) from buzzboy:

Toxic-ish green hammer from LFS:

Branching heliofungia - I suspect they may eventually break off and become individual pieces?

Some other shots:

FTS:

Also picked up a container of Amino Acids. Started dosing today..will see how we go....

Thanks for following guys, and as always, comments/criticism welcome!

 

[holla_passer]

DIY LED UPDATE...

Hi everyone, just a bit of an update:

I purchased this DIY LED kit, and it arrived in just over a week. Service was great, and communication was excellent from Ray.

Anyway work had been ridiculously busy so the build is only half finished as of tonight. All the LEDs have been hooked up to their drivers and dimmers - i got 12xRoyal Blues (452-455nm) and 12xWhite (10000K) so they are on separate circuits.

I will be removing the existing halide lamp from the hanging canopy, and make some modifications to it and place the LED fixture into there. Also on the to do list is to get a project box to house the drivers and dimmer controls - hopefully will get done over the next week or so.

Anyway, onto some pics!

This is the plan for the layout of the LEDs:

Here's what came in the package (Ray threw in a couple of extra LEDs and a spare lens):

The heatsink came as a 400mm X 120mm piece, so I cut it in half and bolted the halves together to give me a 200mm X 240mm piece:

Royal blues attached:

All 24 LEDs attached:

The heatsink plaster that came with the kit. It dried up pretty quick so I had to work quickly. It helped to know exactly where and which direction the LEDs were going to be mounted before I opened up the plaster.

I pre-cut, stripped and tinned the wires while the plaster was drying. Saved a lot of time and made soldering the wires to the LEDs much easier. I also tinned the LED stars.

I put together a simple little "third hand" to help with tinning the wires (basically a bit of bent coathanger and an alligator clip with tape around the teeth so as not to damage the wires):

Royal blues wired up:

All 24 wired up:

60 degree optics:

The power cables that came in the kit were quite flimsy - i found that the copper insides were very thin and frayed - so i replaced them with a couple of leads that I had in the garage.
Original leads:

Replaced with these:

Driver and dimming controller all hooked up:

Completed unit (for now) with makeshift control box to house the drivers and the dimming pots:

And finally the test run - both lights at 100%:

The light is very very bright. I have not had a chance to run it over the tank yet, but I can't wait to see how it will look!

Thanks for following along guys, I will update again once the light has been properly installed...

As always, comments/criticism/questions welcome!

 

[holla_passer]

Anyway, finished my installation today...basically used the same canopy that was holding my 70W halide, made some minor mods and put in the LED.
Here's the pics:

Really can't get a good pic of the true colour of these lights, especially with my crappy point and shoot. I will try with the SLR over the next few days.

Overall, these lights are great...especially for their price. The output is very bright, brighter than my 70W halide...and the dimming ability makes it possible to choose a desired colour temperature. I am very happy with this bit of kit.

Added a bit of plastic over the top of the canopy just to hide the wires and drivers and junk:

Accidently knocked over the rockwork whilst doing some maintenance and so took the opportunity to do a re-scape.
Anyway here are just a few more pics of the livestock under the LEDs...used the DSLR this time. Enjoy!

White LEDs turned right down:

And updated FTS under whites and blues at about 90% which is what I run them at:

OK! So now we're all up to date and so this is how my setup sits now. I hope you've enjoyed the journey, and I will be sure to provide frequent updates as they happen.

 

[holla_passer]

Allways loved this tank mate, it's amazing how much it has changed when you look back at these pictures!!
Thanks for the in-depth pictures of your DIY builds to, ecellent,

Oe question, why the bridgelux LEDs ? Still going for the budgeted approach for this tank, and why did you remove the skimmer? Inefficient?

Thanks Matt, and thanks for recommending this forum to me mate...only just got around to finding some time to post here. The tank has changed HEAPS! i'm very glad i've kept a tank journal so i can go back and see the journey.

To answer your questions, I went for the Bridgelux LEDs because of their price, I still like to keep down costs whenever possible, and wasn't really ready to invest too much money on Cree's. And as for the skimmer, it wasn't as efficient as i had hoped it would be. I figured weekly water changes would compensate for having no skimmer.

 

[MTG]

Well it's come a long way since the start, arnt you glad you didn't give up when you had that crash ? By the way I just read the whole journal again. I have to say I give you credit for attempting the DIY work. 10x neater then I'll ever be!!

 

[holla_passer]

Well it's come a long way since the start, arnt you glad you didn't give up when you had that crash ? By the way I just read the whole journal again. I have to say I give you credit for attempting the DIY work. 10x neater then I'll ever be!!

Yeah i was close to throwing in the towel after the crash...but I knew i would come back to it sooner or later anyway. And thanks for the compliments mate, I enjoy doing the DIYs...keeps me occupied and makes the system much more original.

 

['vspec']

Yeah thats a journey alright. Welcome
Stepped in it a few times along the way i'd say. ;)

Whats your thinking with the bed?