Tank Journal Archive

[holly]

I have had this tank for about 8 years.

I've moved house with it 5 times - not a great way to establish and keep the lovely critters that build up over the years. The first few times I moved I lost a lot of my corals and fish - I've gotten a lot better at it but since I started studying I have not had the cash to replenish the losses. I've changed tanks once, the old one looked like crap but had wider pipes for better tank turnover. I had a UV light filter on at one stage - I'm leaning toward re-attaching it as the tank was fabulous when it was on - now not so much.

I've been a full time uni student for the last 5 years - the amount of effort put into this tank has fluctuated with needs for study and procrastination and money (always a problem). I've currently been on "holidays" for a month and have finally got around to water changes and testing and other maintenance tasks that have been put off for about 5 months (I know, bad.).

The details:

• DT 92cm x 45cm x 45cm, on a DIY pine stand.
• Sump 92cmL x 36cmW x 45cmH
• Collective volume minus sand, rock and coral = @ 250 litres
• The cover in front is a removable frame covered in black out curtain material and material.
• Lighting is a generic 125W LED blue/white thing from the reef shop.
• fine coral sand - light covering in top
• DSB in sump of fine coral sand (about 25cms deep) perhaps overly deep.
• No idea how much live rock, too much.
• Reef octopus skimmer (model 150 I think, was about $350)
• Pond pump return
• Generic in tank duel head pump
• 1 x 150w, 1 x 200w aquaone/jager heaters
• Carbon bag in the sump

The Lifeforms (forgive the common terms, not yet back up to speed on the proper words):
I feed mysis/prawn/bloodworms every other day targeted on the corals, the fish sweep up the left overs, and other days tiny marine pellet food.

• A pair of tomato clowns (girl +boy I'm pretty sure)
• venturi puffer
• one fat abalone
• 2 x Clibanarius taeniatus (hermit crabs)
• Elegance coral (had for about 5 years), covers about 30-35 sq cms
• Green and orange fluro morphs, purple morphs with red dots
• little polyps, white centres and pink 'petals'
• zoo's (green/purple)
• Duncans that are now fragged into 3 pieces
• pink hammerhead x 1
• torch coral x 4-5 various sizes from a pea to golf ball (spawned from a dying coral in April)
• torch on a rock that is banished from mixing with other corals
• white/red candy cane coral (the one that looks like giant lips)
• red/purple lobo
• green and blue acan
• a few others I can't find the names of
• 3 x nassarus snails
• A few gigantic bristle worms and many small ones, lots of little critters that scurry around at night
• spotted hitchhikers - a very tiny brittle starfish,

I recently lost all of my pictures from over the years in an accidental external HDD format. Recovery didn't turn them up so I think they are gone forever. However here are the pictures I have since the last move:

May 2009
You can see the abundance of life that existed on the live rock before the next few house moves destroyed it. The domino in the pic was a trooper but too aggressive so gave him away to the LFS (Seca in oakleigh before it moved/disappeared).

Sept 2012 after the move to my current house

Feb 2013

April 2013 (torch beginning to die on right)

July 2013

The elegance that was more elegant (although smaller) in 2009:

No idea what these are, need to identify (many purchased in the bargain/half dead bin at
mentone aquarium)

Not doing so well after a coral fell on it and the coral in the top right started eating it (moved it once I realised), it started withering back about a week ago :(

'Mr' Abalone:

Puffer-bro:

Full tank shot:

Sump:

Short term goals:

• regular water changes to get my Ca back down
• dose baking soda to bring the Ca down and kH up
• re-scape the tank to improve flow and detritus removal (again)
• care for my sick little coral in the front which had an injury from another coral falling on it with regular feeding.
• find a source of good algae again or buy some live rock to build the sump algae back up
• add some hermit crabs and snails to keep the sand well sifted and clean (er)

Long term future plans and projects:

• Upgrade the lighting - I'm not sold on getting a better LED system, my corals have never looked as good as when they were under crappy T5 blue and whites so may go back to them.
• Add Tunze ozmolator for top ups
• Move to a 4 ft tank that is more square in shape
• Add Tunze wave controller and two controllable pumps for better in tank flow or a wave maker
• DIY rock with fibreglass/acrylic rods and stand to move rocks above sand level for better flow and shape
• Re-do the sump to better function with added MM compartment.
• Fix the durso width - the bastard is stuck and wont unscrew. Will probably just buy a new tank to save the hassle and have it drilled for returns etc.
• phytoplankton - will see if i can maintain it.

 

[chimaera]

:welcome

Wow quite an adventure this tank has had! Starting to take shape again, though I must say I loved the macro filled 2009 version.

 

[holly]

:welcome

Wow quite an adventure this tank has had! Starting to take shape again, though I must say I loved the macro filled 2009 version.

Thanks :) I loved it too. Need to try to give the elegance the space it needs to spread out - it's friggin' huge-balls.

 

[holly]

Parameters as of yesterday 15/7/13:

Calcium: 675 ppm
Kh: 2.7 Meq/L / 7.6 dkh
Phos: .25 (stupid API test kit is difficult to differentiate between 0 and .25. stupid purchase!)
pH: 8.4

Nitrates tested last week were 0

These parameters have been pretty stable over the last week. I had two acan-type corals turn to slime over a couple of weeks and days. I put them under the two T3s in the sump thinking the change in lighting might help (based on advice from Paletta below) Didn't help, seemed to accelerate the process.

 

[Buddy]

That's an awesome elegance! Im sure with a bit of routine maintenance that the tank will be back where you want it :)
The tunze ato was one of the best things that I put on my tank, it saved so much stuffing around!
Ill be following this one.

 

[aussieant32]

ok, a few things jump out at me here.

Calc is way too high, how did it get this high? Assuming you are dosing something? Water changes will lower this as will uptake.

LED's, they are great to have, problem is people buy rubbish ones and label LED's as crap. T5's are much more lenient when buying a cheaper unit, LED's you need to buy the right thing.

You obviously have an understanding of how tanks works so this should be pretty easy to get rectified with you

and of course :welcome

 

[holly]

ok, a few things jump out at me here.

Calc is way too high, how did it get this high? Assuming you are dosing something? Water changes will lower this as will uptake.

LED's, they are great to have, problem is people buy rubbish ones and label LED's as crap. T5's are much more lenient when buying a cheaper unit, LED's you need to buy the right thing.

You obviously have an understanding of how tanks works so this should be pretty easy to get rectified with you

and of course :welcome

Thanks for the advice :) Yes I was dosing with red sea ABC into the water top ups, when I first tested my water a week ago after 5 months (!!) I realised that this ABC mix was not balanced as my calc was way too high and alk too low. I've got some kent kalk powder which I will be using instead once I start dosing again. Planning on doing a 20% water change once a week until things settle back to normal. I've not done a water change in about 5 months also. I'm lucky things are not as stressed as they could be, very lucky.

With you on the LED. The unit cost me $270 at the time which was a huge investment for me. I am not sure what constitutes a quality unit with the 'right' spectrum/colour mix. Not sure what lighting paletta used in his tank but it was probs better than mine. What do you use?

 

[aussieant32]

I use an Illumagic Blaze Advance, they retail for around $1700 from memory. Worth looking at the Illumagic Comboray for this tank, much cheaper and would eaily do the job, plus you can customise the colours to run.

I would not say for sure the ABC was not in balance, calcium basically doesnt go anywhere unless something uses it, it is likely that it was just not being used as much as the other elements.

With the current corals you have and the tank size, I would think that regular water changes would eliminate the need to dose any element, but only regular testing will give you the answer.

 

[holly]

I use an Illumagic Blaze Advance, they retail for around $1700 from memory. Worth looking at the Illumagic Comboray for this tank, much cheaper and would eaily do the job, plus you can customise the colours to run.

I would not say for sure the ABC was not in balance, calcium basically doesnt go anywhere unless something uses it, it is likely that it was just not being used as much as the other elements.

With the current corals you have and the tank size, I would think that regular water changes would eliminate the need to dose any element, but only regular testing will give you the answer.

Wowzers Not that I was ignorant of this being an expensive hobby, but that's my bi-monthly income :P

I'll look into that light. Yes, regular water changes are definitely needed. I'm hoping 20% a week will be enough without causing too much change.

 

[aussieant32]

if you use the same brand of AWS or same source of NSW you should be fine

 

[aussieant32]

also I love you puffer, I have one too, love him

 

[holly]

also I love you puffer, I have one too, love him

Will do, although I'm looking to move towards premixed as it works out a dollar or so cheaper per 20lts.The puffer is very active and entertaining, such personality!

 

[Buddy]

Wowzers Not that I was ignorant of this being an expensive hobby, but that's my bi-monthly income :p

I'll look into that light. Yes, regular water changes are definitely needed. I'm hoping 20% a week will be enough without causing too much change.

Remember the comboray lights are heaps cheaper and are a good option as @aussieant32 said.
Also there are other brands you can look at that will do the job if you are on a tighter budget. Or DIY if you feel up to it, is an excellent option.

 

[aussieant32]

I love how the sleep :P

 

[holly]

Remember the comboray lights are heaps cheaper and are a good option as @aussieant32 said.
Also there are other brands you can look at that will do the job if you are on a tighter budget. Or DIY if you feel up to it, is an excellent option.

Yes I saw those set ups on the site. The DIY route is usually how I go about things with my budget, but this is a huge learning curve. I'm pretty time poor until the end of next year.

Of course I won't get it done with that attitude :rolleyes. Are there any great beginner resources you've come across?

@aussieant32 it freaks me out when I peek in with a flashlight at 1am or so. sleeps like a wizard perched on a rock

 

[aussieant32]

yup, really cool to see. Thought he was dead the first time.

 

[holly]

My coral continues to wither. I'm not sure if it's an infection that is spreading or not. Not sure what to do:

Yesterday morning

Yesterday evening

This afternoon :(

 

[aussieant32]

has your alk/calc/mag changed much?

 

[holly]

I don't test magnesium. My calcium has not changed at all over the last week. Alkalinity has risen from 2.1 (11/7) to 2.7 (15/7). Ph is the same. Phosphate was consistently .25. I placed a phos removal pad thing in yesterday afternoon.

 

[holly]

In good news, the new addition from yesterday is doing better than it was at Mentone aquarium :)