View Full Version : New Tank
Hi guys,
I've been about this board for a year or so... thought it would be an idea to post some pics an information on my new tank.
Equipment
I now have a 5x2x2, weir 1" below the top of the tank - so max capacity of water in the tank.
4ft sump 3 partitions, 2x1ft and 1x2ft(for the Kent Bio Sediment).
Ocean Runner 3500 return pump.
4 maxijet 1200 for flow on a aqua surge device, on for about 3 mins then off for about 1 min... still playing with the settings.
1 maxijet 900 on continuously.
Fluval 304 with carbon and rowa, this I may remove and put the rowa and carbon in the sump under heavy flow.
Halides are disected the ballast is now remote, using heat resistant cable from Screwfix Direct(large versions of the stm compacts) 250watt 10K bulbs, makes a difference compared to 2 39watt t5's :) got the halides second hand! :)
Sump has 2 4ft marine white tubes... using some second hand starters I got for 5quid each! :D
Tank.
I have 1 bag of playpit sand... half a bag of coarse sand, I feel it gives the tank a more natural look.
The live rock mostly comes from Danny - Watford Aquarium, I think theres about 25/30Kgs of Live Rock and about 20 Kg's of dead live Rock. I've also added about 5Kgs of Live Rock from Reef Encounters, I still need to add some more to aquascape the right hand side of the tank, and to give the tank some more bio diversity, this especially in the sump (so if anyones willing to give me a cup of their sand i'd be more than accomadating ;) )
stock wise - I have a number of acro frags, I havent got a clue as to what they are... just mostly tests to see how the tank would do with them. Thanks to preds and others for those! :) mostly got these at reef encounters.
I did as of yesterday have a loveley colony of H Rigida, I know have about 7 :huh: :wacko:
other corals are
Blue Grogorain.
2 x Purple Grogorians (bought in the heat of the summer - were almost dead - coming back now)
Euphillya - Frogspawn Branching and Hammer branching.
Pearl Bubble
white Bubble (not sure of name)
Clove Polyps - these things go mad.
Favities or favia - not sure
Fish and Inverterbrates
3 purple firefish
2 blue gobies (tiny bout 0.5")
1 blue cheek (seems to be hiding all the time nowadays) dont think he's gonna last :(
1 mandarin
1 regal tang
1 purple tang
1 bristel star
1 cleaner shrimp
1 small maxima clam
saw a small choc chip brittle star in the live rock yday, didnt get a chance to catch a pic!
The sump houses 2 diferent types of Calpeura... not sure of types one is wirey, the other has long thin leaves... seems to grow very very quick.
Lighting is on reverse to the tank, and it does overlap by an hour each side.
I will be adding a calcium reactor shortly, and I do not have any auto top up systems in place as of yet. Thats next, when the credit card stops melting.
Pics:
only 1 halide set up, wating for the blub for the other one! :)
any questions please ask. :)
Ricordia... forgot to add that to the list... :) Sean just for you matey.
will post some more pics as soon as I have the camera working properly.... or more like I learn how to use it correctly. :)
a macro shot, noway up to lisas standards - not bad still as I didnt use a tripod to take it! :)
LLOKS VERY POSITIVE AND SO MUCH ROOM TO WORK WITH
anytips on the blue gorgonian what are there requirments?? n
Hi,
Looks a good start, but how are you adding calcium? do you dose kalk or have a reactor?
cheers ant
no calcium added at the moment, as I dont have a reactor... so I will have to make up some kalk for the top ups... will be adding a reactor shortly as I want to see my corals grow :)
The blue grog really needs good water flow and some type of food (marine snow) or something of the sort! :)
Its looking good fuzed. The gorgonian looks awesome. I am too scared of getting one as I know these species are very hard to keep alive. What have you been feeding the tank since the gorgonian started to recover?
Good to see you getting to work. ;) As already mentioned Blue Gorg is :wub:
Fuzed,
Where did you get the gorgonian ? - they seem to be quite hard to get hold of these days.
James.
hi guys, thanks for the positive responses... the blue grog was from reef encounters... :)
getting there mate... getting the urge to get some acro colonies... hmmmm...
btw when you posting your tank specs ;)
Wheres the mud fuzed?.....
Elliot
sump mate, the kent bio stuff doesnt turn into mud though! :unsure: mixed with coral gravel and stuff... I may get something else to add to it... not sure yet.
Fuzed,
So how thick is your bed... looks like about 1cm to me!!! :)
Thanks
Elliot
(questions based on the fact I have no mud/substrate)!!
Looking really great Fuzed, and (as already stated) the Blue Gorgonian is :wub:
............one thing tho, maybe not best to have those plug bars underwater :lol: :D :lol:
Anna
Anna, thanks and :lol: :lol: Have to move the plug bars... just deciding where I want them :)
Elliot, the substates about 3/4 " in depth... I have made as much room available in the stand so I have about 2" of wood in front of the sump! :)
Fuzed,
I believe ReefEncounters only had four gorg's (excluding the beauty in the show tank). You, me and foxman all bought one each. Just shows the buying power of this board. Who needs a shop :D . Definitely about time we encouraged the lfs to give discount to UR members.
Come on, did somebody here buy the other one.
chris
mate he's had about 10 of them in now he got 1 in to begin with and I took that, then he got 4 massive ones (nave nabbed 1/2 of them) and 2 are in his show tank... and then he got about 5/6 small ones again! :)
I have said that its a good idea to list what we want and we can push the LFS to get what we want in...
so what do we want... lets get a list up somehwere so we can get the lfs to get it in. ;)
2 new additions, can't wait to get home an put them in the tank, ordered via 7000ltr's by mail order... sorry pics taken on my camera phone so their rubbish! :)
and... colour on this pic came out wrong :S should be almost the same as the one above it!!!! A nice purple! :)
Can we see some pics of them in your new tank?
A little update...
I had to leave the country on a family emergency a cpouple of weeks back... an thus had to leave the tank in the hands of the gf... for that time... sadly the cheap timers I was using on the halide broke and decided not to turn off... so it looks as though my lights were on for a good 3/4 odd days.
My blue gorg seems to have lost a hell of alot of its polyps, now not sure if this is due to the lighting problem and a few acro frags have burnt a little.
Otherwise I just had to do a bit of scrubbing to get the green crap off everything.
Fuzed
:unsure: Trust the timers to go wrong when you are away! Sorry to hear that mate. Hopefully thingws will get better soon. I hope that blue gorg pulls through, that thing is beautiful.
things now back to normal, bit the bullet and got a new gorg not as nice as the last but still very nice! :)
Plus bought 3 small acro colonies plus some other corals... and fish...
tank now holds
2 red firefish
3 purple
1 regal tang
1 purple tang
1 yellow tang
1 mandarin
2 sailfin gobies
2 cleaner gobies
1 cleaner shrimp
1 anemone crab
everything seems happy, now am o the look out for some nice live rock... pref stm type - or will bite the bullet an get after christmas from stm.
Will post pics soon.
How is the awesome blue gorg doing? Has it grown much yet?
lost the last one mate... the new one seems to be faring alot better... will keep you updated :)
Must say that I was looking into the tank last night and everywhere I shone the torch I just saw mysid shrimp swimming around, it was like a plague :D... good sign in my opinion though :)
found a rather large crab in my tank as well - think it came in on some live rock I got from someone elses tank... he's now living in the sump :)
loads of tiny brittle stars everywhere as well... anyone know if these things get any bigger?
Nah mate the little brittle stars dont get bigger than 2cm. I had a few in my nano tank. After 8 months there were loads of them. But then I got some kind of sand goby and he ate them all in a few weeks! :wacko:
I have a few in the current tank, but I know it will take em months and months to establish a largish population.
These and the pods/mysid shrimp type creatures are all good. :)
There are loads in my tank too. After feeding the fish I watch these little buggers fight for the food that falls on the sand. Hehehe, some of em look like microscopic aliens from the ALIEN film! :unsure:
cool... well I will watch and see how it goes... think i'll be going down to stm after christmas for some more live rock may add in about 20Kg's more.
Need to scape the right hand side of the tank and havent found any rock that I like apart from the STM stuff.
I've decided to enclose the hood as I dont like all the light spilling out into the living room and thats a task over the christmas hols... still need to finish the stand bit its not important. apart from the GF moaning at me all the time about it... ;)
just an updated pic of the tank, plus a few others... trying to upload to my webspace will see if I can do that if not I will try upload here.
one of the 2 red firefish :)
one of my fave acro's... got as a small brow frag... took ages to grow and now cant stop it... colouring up really nicley as well...
this is a gorgeous coral, still only a frag but i'm hoping that it will grow out into a great colony, was aquried via Tropics and Marines in mortlake, took a few visits to get Hammat on a good day (thanks mate ;) )
another acro frag thats gonna be a winner (i hope) :D this was in my old 3ft tank and did no growin watsoever for about the first 6 months, I then started to grow very very slowley, and in the new tank again wont stop growing. :) I can not wait for this to get to a good size as its so nice, sorry this picture does it no justice at all :)
another tank shot....
Flame Angel (From Andrew N's tank) in shot looking for something to eat as is the purple and yellow tang... all the tangs are straight to the front of the tank when I stand there which is rather cool...
last picture for today :)
its my frogspawn (bought as a two head frag from reef encounters if anyones seen it in the show tank) - grown to 3 times the size I got it at :D
:wub:
Marc Foord
06-01-04, 14:32
hi fuzed
if you ever frag that stunning frogspawn,please let me know. i've been waiting on getting a frag of it from t&m for ages now......
cheers
best regards
marc.
Marc ask Darren at reef encounters - he should do you one, otherwise your first on the list... its now getting 5 heads... :D
You should see it in its full glory, that was just after I cleaned the glass, got to get a better pic of the frogspawn - will try tonight! :)
edit: spelling :S
a tank picture... full length... think I like the style of the stand now... what do you guys think?
Very nice - a lot of potential in those acros there too. Like your aquascape with lots of swimming space.
Nice shot of the purple fire fish too - cool! How are the purple and red firefish getting on with each other?
Is your red flame bothering them at all? My flame is a bit loony and chase everything for a bit of fun so methinks if I have fire fish they'll shoot right out of the tank!
Nice piccies!
I went to Reef Encounters yesterday and saw what I assume must be the mummy to your frogspawn in the display tank.
First visit to this place and have to day it's pretty good.....shame there isn't any prices on the SPS tho <_<
How are the purple and red firefish getting on with each other?
Is your red flame bothering them at all? My flame is a bit loony and chase everything for a bit of fun so methinks if I have fire fish they'll shoot right out of the tank!
cheers guys...
Tuan, the purple and the red firefish dont seem to interact much at all... no harrasment between the other fish either.
Not sure if your asking about the flame hawk or angel so....
The flame angel can get a bit boisterous at times if theirs anyone in its territory but never amounts to anything...
The flame hawk seems like a good little boy... must get a picture of him getting cleaned by the cleaner shrimp :wacko: :lol:
I've ordered some more rock for the tank about 20ish kg's from NickJC, will post some pictures of it when I get it... then more fun aquascaping the rest of the tank.
Marc, yep the monster frogspawn u saw is the daddy of mine :)... ask darren for prices on sps its normally fixed dependant on size of coral. :)
ok update time... I went mad at nicks (nickjc) today, went to pick up the live rock and came home with some of the nicest acros i've seen in a while, Thanks Nick for the rock, all aquascaped up now and corals in place.
I did break the very large acro :( :huh: but it was only 1 branch and so we now have a very niced sized frag.
The rock was good shapes and nice an flat so I got to style the tank the way I wanted, looks good, cant wait for the corraline to grow now...
Will get some pics in the next few days once the tanks settled down a little. :)
CoralCulture
01-02-04, 10:16
oh no... I did mention it was very fragile :(
Good to meet you guys yesterday ;)
Keep the pics coming.
:) I was going to take a frag of it anyway mate so it was done already :)
Good to meet you to.
fuzed, I love that stand of yours. I need a new stand for my tank as I want a sump and the stand mine's in can't accomodate. Did you make it yourself or buy it. If so where did you buy it or can you detail the construction so I can try my hand?
Also do Red Hawkfish eat soft corals? Thanx
Rich Snell
hi mate, they stand was built by myself... got the idea from one of the US sites..
full documentation on how to build is on there
http://www.cnidarianreef.com (http://www.cnidarianreef.com)
Take a look at his stand idea, just used it as it was the nicest looking stand i've seen... still not finished need to make a lid as well now :D
The handles can be bought from homebase for 12 pounds a pair...
wood used to cover was wbp (water and boil proof) ply from homebase as well. just covered in a clear coat of varnish.
My red hawkfish has never touched a coral, and I've never heard of them doing so in the past.
:)
a few new additions :D from NickJC...
a very very large acro colony - sorry to say I did accidentally brake it so its a little smaller than it should be, but at least I now have a few frags of it :)
amazing piece... :)
a full tank shot with the new live rock that I again got from Nick - expensive weekend for me :)
Like the scaping now as their loads of room around the front and the back of the tank for the fish to swim around, also means that I can get to the back of the tank to keep the sand bed clean.
a few frags that I also got from nick - this one of my fave's... pic a bit blurry though :)
you should see the colour of this in real life :wub:
hmmmm another nice frag - cant wait for this baby to grow out :D
:wub:
a pic of the very nice sun coral that I got from reef encounters.
oh an heres my one and only cleaner shrimp, he's now been with me for well over an year and a half, I think he's malted in the region of about 10 odd times now... and he's got rather big :)
a little macro of a feather duster, had these about 8 odd months now... doing great. :)
WOW WOW
Complements back to you my friend in bag fulls!!! Very nice pics. Especially the last one. What is it of. Saving it in my photo file as favs.
Nice one m8. MORE MORE
Aidyb
thanks mate, its a close up of a feather duster I have right at the front of the tank... :)
I'll take some more tomorrow, their the better picks I took tonight. :)
Another picture... the purple tang - doubled in size in 6 months, he's one of my favourite fish. :wub:
Mountainman01
04-02-04, 09:10
:wub: That is looking really great now , Fuzed. Some fantastic pics. I love the pic of your Tang!
Paul.
picture of the mandarin displaying and lightining colouration...
Beautiful m8
Tanks really coming a long very nicely.
Watched my pair of mandarins swim up an down the tank last night for about 30 mins, they then released eggs and sperm... what an amazing sight!!!! :) was going try and catch some eggs in a net and see if I could get them to settle in the sump somewhere but had no chance with the water flow in the tank they were gone in seconds.
I don't know if anyones ever been sucessful in rearing mandarins but I would love to know! :)
an update of the tank taken yesterday - not cleaned for you lot but it'll have to do for the moment.
a couple more to come.
unknown anemone or mushroom... about 1cm across, seen it open about 2 times now...
this is it closed up... anyone have any clues as to what it could be?
mr anemone crab again... although alas no more anemone as I stupidly let it walk into the power head :(
love the porcilain crab m8, glad to see someone with a bit of alge on the glass, i was starting to think it was just my tank..manderins spawing must be great,how did you pair them up ..? i have a female...
steven02620
17-03-04, 20:31
hi fuzed... FAB tank and set up, great photo. i would like ask you did you say flame hawkfish dont bother cleaning shrimps cos i heard hawkfish do attack shrimps as bait, so i do have flamehawkfish in my tank and all my shrimps had gone missing for sure i been told cos of hawkfish.. cheer steven
cheers guys,
in regards to the mandarins I just added a female that was looking a bit sorry for herself from the local shop (shes nice and fat now), they seemed to have paired up after a few weeks.
My cleaner's rather large so I dont see the flame hawk getting it into his mouth, although I do add river shrimp every week for the fish I think that helps keep him happy.
another pic - of the purple firefish again - I like em sorry! dont see them much now - the clowns seem to chase them into hiding :(
upto date tank shot... put a little bridge in the middle of the tank! :) looks rather nice if I do say so myself! :D
http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/uploads/post-3-1085348988.jpg
ok more pictures - a little closer this time, what do you guys think I am very happy with the rockwork at last - well as you can see their have been major changes since this tank has been setup - think I changed the rock work about 5times!:)
hmmmm left hand closer shot of tank as it is today...
oh heres my fav's the euphillya... I love thse things....
and heres my new urchin!!!! was going to go into the nano with the mantis but then I thought i'd better not - just in case mr mantis gets a bit hungry!!!
Originally posted by fuzed@May 24 2004, 11:30
upto date tank shot... put a little bridge in the middle of the tank! :) looks rather nice if I do say so myself! :D
Hey Fuzed,
you've just nigh on created the same aquascape that i have in mind to setup in a 6x2x2! :bow:
Sigh! Wish i had my tank now!
Anthony.
hey good luck mate... took me long enough to get it like that!!! :( but happy as pie now, just want my acros to grow out! :D
i really like the aquascaping, i dont suppose you have any pics of it whilst you were doing it?
hi pomme, sorry just the before and after pictures... a good few attempts to get it right, was lucky that the rock I got was the right lenght (just about)...
would like to move it up higher but I think thats pushing it a bit!
you wont have room for those frags to grow if you take it any higher.
wow, Suberb mate, its amazing looking at your earlier shots and seeing how its matured.
If you ever decide to frag any of those coloured acros add me to the list! :D
Nick :P
hi mate, thanks its taken a long time to get it the way I want it! :)
Just added a lovley purple plating montipora that 7000ltr supplied me with its just :wub: :wub: :wub:
i'll get some pics as soon as possible...
also got some more green ricordea.... :D
Thanks marc for the extra effort of dropping them to me (in london) now thats service ;) :whistling:
Fuzed is it just the pic or do your hallides look odd.. they look like open relfectors with a wrap around blind or something?? they diy??
yeah their stripped out larger versions of the stm compact lights - removed the ballast and the units and extended the power cable... the units came with a metal frame :D
they are to be going into a hood - just need to get round to doing it like everything else! :)
a few more piccies...
picked up some bits from 7000ltr, damn royal mail screwed up so mark being the good fella he is actually bought the bits up with him, very good of you mate thankyou....
anyway purple plating monti! the piece de resistance, or whatever you say ;)
still aclimatising at the bottom of the tank, I havent decided on the location for it yet - will do soon though! :D
oh an some green ricordea also from mark - this is what royal mail failed to deliver, and mark being the good fella he is replaced em! :)
the orange ones I got from NickJC...
heres my anen, (a nice close up - :wub: ) think its a malu - although it was sold to me as a sand anen... its not white, which im very happy about, kinda browny green... the female clown will not let anyone near that end of the tank now!
a macro of another ricordea thats in my tank as well a little different this one...
heres a few frags i've accidently done - a bit clumsy I am I thinks!!! :)
this shot came out really well of a frag :wub:
an another close up of a frag...
done for tonight :D thanks for looking
Well, i'm no fraggin expert, but that looks pretty darn good to me! :cheers:
control center
02-06-04, 13:17
im going to have to come over soon rash looks like some nice changes since i last saw ya
:bow:
Rob,
your more than welcome anytime, hope to see you soon.
Rash
Paul Burton
03-08-04, 14:14
Very nice mate!
Paul
I'll be there by seven to rid your tank of those messy looking frags on the sand ;)
Very nice :wub:
Tim
lol... maani beat you to it... sands not got many frags on it now.
Going to have to make some more... :)
http://www.ultimatereef.net/photopost/data/500/1213tank1.jpg
http://www.ultimatereef.net/photopost/data/500/1213close.jpg
http://www.ultimatereef.net/photopost/data/500/1213crab.jpg
Awesome mate,
real fantastic photos,
Keep posting the close ups of the corals - simply stunning
Ian :thumbsup:
Awesome Rash :)
love the surfing crab!
e
Marc Foord
02-02-05, 13:30
just superb mate
i can't believe my baby bangaii's got so big so soon...... :o :thumbsup:
keep up the good work :bow:
cheers guys... yep marc he's got massive.. may need to get a female from another source for him :)
hope you guys like, the tanks changed alot, looks better day by day! :)
:wub: :wub: :wub:
http://rashidraja.bulldoghome.com/photos/BDRES/rashidraja_bulldoghome_com/IMGP0537.jpg
:wub: :wub: :wub:
http://rashidraja.bulldoghome.com/photos/BDRES/rashidraja_bulldoghome_com/IMGP0534.jpg
:wub: :wub: :wub:
http://rashidraja.bulldoghome.com/photos/BDRES/rashidraja_bulldoghome_com/IMGP0548.jpg
http://rashidraja.bulldoghome.com/photos/BDRES/rashidraja_bulldoghome_com/IMGP0553.jpg
hmmm some lovely ricordia from 17000ltr! :)
http://rashidraja.bulldoghome.com/photos/BDRES/rashidraja_bulldoghome_com/IMGP0549.jpg
http://rashidraja.bulldoghome.com/photos/BDRES/rashidraja_bulldoghome_com/IMGP0551.jpg
Looks awesome....love the top pic.
In the bottom pic.. is that simon's purple milli behind the green acro?
Looks like mine.. just wants to bud a lot at the moment
elliot
naa not simons mate... thats from nickjc's tank think that was a martyn hullyer frag... lost a little flesh from the underside of it this week for no reason, all the other milli's are fine! :o
an the top pic is awesome, you should the the coral in real life mate, gob smacking pink edging!!! :D
Marc Foord
18-02-05, 15:46
once again superb.... :thumbsup:
marc
p.s. frag those pink zoos..... ;) :)
Cool, love the blue gorgonian!!
Cheers
Cain
very very nice ,great colour :thumbsup:
that purple rimmed green monti's stunning :bow:
Andy j
One cooll looking setup here. Love the blue gorgonian
Steve
fuzed. what power are your lights. do you have any cover glass on them and if not is it bad for your eyes. i,ve been told this is so. tank look a bit bear in the early photo,s but has slowly grown over the last few months and is now looking good. lenny
cheers guys... another shot for Mr Foord ;)
I love my euphillya... so here's a couple of different ones...
http://rashidraja.bulldoghome.com/photos/BDRES/rashidraja_bulldoghome_com/IMGP0538.jpg
:thumbsup: Wow :thumbsup:
Sorry to copy and paste a picture :blush: Hope you don't mind :thumbsup:
:bow: But this shot is just stunning and so inspiring :bow:
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/fuzed1reef.jpg
All the best, Martin
Sean the Prawn
21-02-05, 13:23
Hope it's ok fuzed but I just set that shot as my desktop background! :D
Sean
glad u liked guys! of course I dont mind! wish the whole tank would look like that... shouldnt take too long to grow it out now! mind you! :)
bristlebasher
28-02-05, 13:10
Hi - looking good - How about a full tank shot to show how things have progressed.
stunning colour....post a full tank shot please!!
:wub: :wub: :bow: :bow:
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