Tank Journal Archive

[GhostRPH]

Hello to all here,
Long time stalker and decided it was time to Sign up & become apart of this great forum.....

First of all I am Ryan, since a young kid I have kept Tropical Fish Tanks & Turtles for years now quite successfully...

At the beginning of this year I decided to tank the plunge into marine tanks, as I had always wanted to set up my very own "slice of reef" This led to the purchase of a AquaMedic Blenny 80L all in one Nano System. Was very happy with the set up and learnt a lot and approximately 8 months later decided to design and build my "Dream Tank" that will be used as a centre piece in the Living Room.

Reefing Since: Jan 2012

System Objectives: To have a healthy tank with lots of movement and that keeps any fish or corals I put in there alive & not break the bank whilst doing so.

Type of reef: Mainly softies and LPS - I dont like the 'coloured sticks' look of SPS much prefer lots of movement (hammers, torches, etc)

Display System:

Initial Fill Date: 7/9/2012

Display Tank Dimensions:
1000 Long
500 Wide
400 Tall
10mm Glass
Euro Braced
Rear Centre 2 hole weir (2x25mm bulkheads)

Display Lighting: MAXSPEC Razor 160w 10 000k LED system

Stand: Timber home built (fitter & machinest by trade so working with wood will be different)

4 Legs 90 x 90 Pine ( 4 by 4 )
Top, Bottom and bracing 90 x 40 Treated Pine ( 2 by 4 )
Stainless 25g Screws and Liquid nails holding this puppy together

Hood: DIY - yet to be designed & built but will feature mesh/screen to prevent carpet surfing

Sump Design: Aquamedic Blenny 80L converted to 3 chamber set up, skimmer/inlet>refuge (marine pure blocks) > return section/heaters/SeaChem Purigen

Filtration:Sump & Two Little Fishies 150 Phosban Reactor - running Seachem Phosguard

Support systems:

NSW or ASW: ASW using Majestic Aquariums Salt

Display Water circulation: 2 x Aquael 2600 Powerheads

Return Pump: Bunnings Warehouse 3000 l/hr pond/fountain pump

Skimmer: Reef Octopus NW 150 800l

Evaporation Top Up: Manual - will look at ATO later on

Chiller: Negative

Heating:2 x Eheim 150W Jager heaters


Chemical additions:

Calcium Addition: Seachem when required

Alkilinity Addition: Ph and Kh Buffer (Majestic Aquariums)

Magnesium Addition: Seachem when required

Coral Food: Red Sea - Reef Energy A & B



So the day arrived that when I stuck my head into Majestic Aquariums where Ben & Luke informed me my tank was in (quicker than expected 12 days from order) so into the boot of the Mighty Mondeo it went for it trip home..

So they Tank came home with me, along with a few choice comments such as "that will look awesome as a SPS tank ;) " and "make sure you take plenty of photos and show us"

Lucky I had built the stand the day before at home....

THIS SUCKED!!!!!!

So I had the Tank & Stand joined together in holy matrimony in the garage, temp location whilst doing renovations/painting inside the house.

I didn't want Gyprock dust and sanding dust getting in the system - will move it inside once all the work is done..
Egg Crate under the ends where the Live rock will sit
Added 15kg of 3-5mm coral sand (10kg new 5kg out of the nano)
Filled her up, mixed salt and buffer to correct amounts
Threw the RAZOR ontop
Chucked in the powerheads
Plumbed it all up, including the 2ft tank as a temp sump

Transferred 7kg Live rock form the Nano & 9kg of Cured Live Rock and added it all
After a few hours transferred all the corals and live stock over into the new tank.

All seemed well, pumps, reactor, powerheads, lights seemed to work and all livestock survived the first day/afternoon.......

Next morning was a different story however... :(
1 tank bred Occy was MIA (presumed Cat sushi) & its mate was in the sump KIA
4 Vanderbuilt Chromis KIA
2 Aussie Chromis KIA
Cleaner Shrimp KIA
1 Starfish (coral beauty decided it was 'breakfast' ) KIA

Causes were, after discussion with LFS and thinking/reading about it a bit more, were -

Fish were lost from stress induced White spot which appeared after being delivered to LFS then a few hours later bought by me, transported home, acclimatised into the nano then moved later on in the afternoon to the big tank...

Cleaner Shrimp was my stuff up, slight spike in Ammonia when cured live rock was put in tank ( i didn't think to remove him - expensive lesson learned)


So the tank currently only houses:-

3 Strombus snails
1 Star Fish
Various crabs/worms/snails (live rock hitch hikers)
1 Coral beauty
1 Lawn Mower Blenny
1 Spikey urchin thingy

All my hammers (various colours/sizes)
1 Yellow tip torch
1 Green tip torch
1 Purple torch
1 rock of pastel rainbow coloured Ric's
9 headed duncan
1 Anemone
2 Goni's ( 1 bright yellow 1 blue)
1 large Elegance coal
1 small (50c sized) Elegance coral - complete with gall crab w/orange legs
3 Fungia's
1 Helio Fungia

Slight algae growth (mostly on the sand bed & glass) but the Strombs & lawnmower have/are munching through it nicely.....
Will be waiting a few weeks and Quarantining any new additions first, lesson learnt...

API test kits points towards the mini cycle has finished, reading the following today:

Ph: 8.0
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0-5.0ppm (coloured almost 0 )
Phoshate: 0-0.25 ppm (again same as above)
Calcium: 480 (red sea kit)
Kh: 8.7dKH (red sea kit)
Magnesium: 1100 (red se kit)
SG: 1.020
Temp: 26.0


So thanks for reading the start, was a bit long winded sorry, more good news to come hopefully!

Comments & constructive criticism appreciated! :cool:

Cheers
Ryan

 

[GhostRPH]

pics will be added to the first post once I pass 10 post count :(

 

[Buddy]

Ah that sucks about your losses. I think its always better to cycle a new tank first, even if you are just moving your rock and stock over. Good luck with the new tank!

 

[GhostRPH]

Yep expensive lesson learned, I thought it would be a-ok moving everything over same day.......


Have since learned that Prevention is better than Cure ;) ie a Quarantine Tank is now in my possession..

 

[GhostRPH]

Lawnmower Blenny (so much personality and goes nuts when it recognises me near the tank :) )

Coral Beauty AKA destroyer of starfishes

Ric's

 

[chimaera]

Tank looks great! Shame about your move experience, but looking all good again now.

 

[GhostRPH]

Each day it looks better an better, the corals seem to love the RAZOR LEDs, much more colours in them and they dont seem to 'shrink' like the used to overnight....

The more I have read i brought the issue on myself in my rush to get the new tank up & running - oh well....
hank you for the positive comments guys!

 

[Priscacara]

I enjoyed reading your intro and seeing the tank build pics, major bummer on the losses though! Love the tank shots and that blenny is great, mine ws 1 of the first fish I bought and does the same as yours when I go near the tank..................................at least someone is always here when i come home and happy to see me :D

 

[GhostRPH]

HHHMMMM well after spending the long weekend in Surfers Paradise and dropping in to meet Darren at Reef Secret And burning a hole in my VISA card a package arrived early wednesday morning from Daz!!!!! :)

Dutifully unpacked and a nice pleasant surprise was a good sized piece of red acan (i think) all coral was first floated in the sump to bring up temps from travelling, then dipped in revive before being placed into the Display Tank...

The 2 Bangaii cardinals (love these guys - why i decided to make the plunge into marine tanks) were slowly acclimatised into my Quarantine tank and settled in nice and dandy....



All was going great guns, bought a Flame Hawk (love the personality of these guys) yesterday (saturday) all three fishies were fine, eating fine looked fine....
Came home from work tonight to find 1 bangaii dead :confused: and the remaining bangaii and flame hawk looking a little worse for wear....
Out came the test kits and MASSIVE AMMONIA spike (how this happens has got me fudged as its bare bottom, no rock just some pvc fittings, heater and HOB filter with filter wool)

So it will be a long night ahead of me, 50% water change has brought Ammonia down from 8.0ppm to 2.5ppm...will give the tank half an hour to settle and stabilise temperature and do another series of 10lt water changes until ammonia no longer reads on the API kit...
Hopefully saving the remaining Bangaii & flame hawk as they have been through so much it would be a massive shame to loose them now..

 

[macca_75]

Hope all goes (went) well but the ammonia but probably a symptom of the dead Bangaii and might not have been the cause.

Out of curiosity whats the volume of the QT tank?

 

[MTG]

love this tank setup. how are you finding the razor on that width of a tank? from having that height it should give you enough spread ?

 

[chimaera]

How about an FTS and FES (full equipment shot showing the light and all)?

 

[GhostRPH]

[Broken External Image]:http://sphotos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/227466_10151188584412356_459056004_n.jpg

3 chamber set up,
enters right hand side, heater and skimmer, flows around the back into 2nd section (fuge - marine pure media, reactor return flows into here) flows over centre baffle into 3rd section (2nd heater and return pump)

 

[GhostRPH]

[Broken External Image]:http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/550941_10151188586097356_1404785174_n.jpg

Under side of 10 000k 160w RAZOR LED...

 

[GhostRPH]

[Broken External Image]:http://sphotos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/578582_10151188588012356_1503103823_n.jpg

Top side of RAZOR

 

[GhostRPH]

Full Shot #1
[Broken External Image]:http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/383498_10151188594647356_1454393501_n.jpg

 

[GhostRPH]

FTS
[Broken External Image]:http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/472255_10151188602177356_1746832977_o.jpg

 

[GhostRPH]

please pardon my dodgy camera phone skills pictures....

 

[chimaera]

Very nice! hadn't realised it was set up in your garage (figured that was a temporary home), but the tank looks great and the RAZOR is sleek above it.

 

[GhostRPH]

The LFS has offered to back trade the RAZOR 160w 10k unit for 2x120w 10k units to give more light spread.......total noob at this but should I do that or just leave it be (thinking of just leave it be)