Tank Of The Month - October 2004 - MJAReef

[craigg]

UltimateReef.com is proud to feature its latest 'Tank of the Month'.

MJAReef's amazing reef tank.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef1small.jpg

Details can be found below tempory until I can get it uploaded properly.

Congratulations Mark superb tank!

If you have any questions or comments for Mark then please post them in this thread.

Craig

[craigg]

MJAReef's Reef Tank

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef1a.jpg

I’m not sure that my compact reef is quite in the same league as the previous 2 tanks of the month, with my volume being a mere 230 litres. I hope however my tank will give inspiration to those of you with similar sized tanks and show what smaller tanks have to offer.

September 2002

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef24a.jpg

June 2003

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef23a.jpg

I opted for the biggest tank I could fit in the living room without having to actually resort to standing up rather than using a sofa. This left me with 39x18x18. I had it made by Seabray with a colour matched stand to make the tank in keeping with the surroundings. The tank was not painstakingly planned out as I have seen other do subsequently and has changed and evolved as I will outline. I had kept marines 10 years previously but with numerous moves I had dry hands for a long time before returning to the hobby in April 2002. The tank was planned to be a fish only with live rock and some easy softies. This was mainly driven by my desire to have an easy low maintenance tank.

The tank was constructed with 2 corner partitions as advised by my LFS with one overflow weir into a sump and one dry to allow the return to be fed back up though the base of the tank. In a small tank this does rather impinge on the volume and space however. The sump was set up with an Aquamedic reef 500 filter unit including trickle tower and turbofloter skimmer. I rapidly filled the tank with about 2-3 cm of sand and used ocean rock as base rock directly onto the sand. With about 30 kilos of live rock I built a rock structure I feel gave me the best look. I didn’t at the time worry about dead space behind the structure and used the back and sides to help construct the rock wall, which has been steadily added to. I purchased my first fish and was delighted with the results immediately. A yellow tang and Clarks clown are still there to this day. As I am sure you are all only too familiar I became very much hooked with the hobby and was willing to try and develop the tank. So although I started out with keeping the obligatory pulse coral and leather corals began to try hard corals. The tank generally did well. The stocking was steady and my choices of corals were largely LPS and some Acro frags that grew well. I then began purchasing Acro colonies. This website was a godsend in leading me along this pathway and guiding me away from certain pitfalls. After about a year I changed the sump to a 3-compartment sump – Deltec skimmer, small DSB and Caulerpa bed and lastly a pump return chamber. It is lit with one blue and one white T5 bulbs overnight. This was in response to a small rise in Nitrate and a desire to keep more sensitive species. My in tank circulation is provided by 5 powerheads – one is well buried in the liverock and hence not cleanable so the flow is now reduced to a minimum from this one. The others – all maxijet 1200 seem to provide adequate circulation.

The Sump

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef22a.jpg

The lighting is 1 250-watt halide that currently runs with an Acadia 14K bulb and 3 T8 tubes 1 actinic and 2 Marine Whites.
The tubes turn on at 12 and off at 10.30pm
The halide turns on at 1.30pm and off at 10pm.

Other items of kit were added over the months
- A deltec kalk stirrer that delivers the top up water overnight via a home made float switch and timer controlled peri pump. This drips into the skimmer chamber where a further powerhead mixes it well.
- An aquamedic wave timer controlling the powerheads.
- Use of a de-ioniser to filter the water rather than purchased RO water. This works well for me as I don’t need the volumes to justify an RO unit and I run the tap water directly through the de-ioniser. Obviously this requires regular recharging but HCL and NaOH are not too expensive from Labpak. Which is where I also buy Kalk in bulk too.
- Pinpoint pH probe to watch for stability.
- I have recently set up 5 blue LED bulbs for night – moonlight effect.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef21a.jpg

Maintenance routine

Daily

- Feeding with a variety of frozen foods with added scoops of cyclopeeze BID
- Adding a variety of liquid feeds on rotation. Currently cycling through Kent Phyto, Kent Zooplex, Marine Snow and Marine Delux.
- Cleaning the glass every 3rd day
- Feeding the Sun coral 1-2 times weekly at night.
- Adding Calcium carbonate with top up water every 3rd day or so
- Adding Calcium Chloride with the top up water every 3rd day or so.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef20a.jpg

Weekly

- Cleaning skimmer cup.

Monthly

- Adding carbon for 3-4 days a month prior to water change
- 20% water change with Reef Crystals – I used to hoover the sand bed but have not done this for 1 year plus. I just siphon out and pump back via the sump.

2 Monthly

- Changing the Rowaphos in reactor and trimming algae bed.
- Cleaning/changing the kalk reactor.

Pump cleaning as required.

Stocking List

Fish

4 Anthias of varying types – Wreck Fish, Long tail anthias, one other –
1 Yellow tang
1 Clarks Clown
1 Australian leopard wrasse?
1 Coral Beauty
1 Green Coral Goby
1 Royal Gramma

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef5a.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef6a.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef7a.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef8a.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef9a.jpg


LPS and SPS

Sorry you’ll just have to id them from the photos as I’m not sure of species especially when it comes to the acropora.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef19a.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef14a.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef15a.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef16a.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef17a.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef13a.jpg

Other inverts

2 blood shrimps
Coco Worm
Tube worms
Mushrooms 3 species
1 purple and 1 yellow gorgonians (I have only had the yellow one for about 5 months and not sure its thriving)
Large Deresa clam and getting bigger !!

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef11a.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef12a.jpg


Levels

I have to admit to rarely checking these now – I did in the early days I now just monitor pH and temp constantly as these are done digitally

SG 1026
T 79-83F
Nitrate 5
Nitrites 0
Phos 0
PH quite high at 8.3-8.6 with all the kalk I add.

Learning the wrong way

When I look at the tank today I am pleased with the results but I have made mistakes and lost animals like everyone. I can’t keep filter-feeding Gorgonians such as Swifta – who can – so why import them? Clams don’t like temperature spikes and I lost two lovely blue Maxima clams before I upped my cooling with extra fans. Clown parrots eat polyps and I should have known they are not reef compatible. Wrasses are very territorial and will attack smaller new fish added to the reef and kill. Red linkia stars don’t survive in my tank despite my best efforts to acclimatise. The length of time they do live for before slowly deteriorating suggests to me a starvation problem rather than an acclimatisation problem. Always ensure corals are firmly attached – falling on top of each other damages them very quickly and they can take ages to recover. I’m still learning this lesson!!

Hope you have found this interesting reading and look forward to reading your comments.

Thanks, Mark

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef2a.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef3a.jpg

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http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef10a.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mjareef18a.jpg

[TRAMLINE]

Congratulation! Wining Ultimate Reef October Tank of the Month. And well deserved too.
Beautiful picture great write up great looking corals…worth all the hard work you put into it Mark
I know you commented on why yours deserved to win after the last two fantastic larger systems…well I’m sure most people would agree and tell you just the same…that smaller system are just as hard to maintain as any others, larger or smaller and need just as much dedications as next mans. To me you have been dedicated and yours is a true stunner, and what a credit to you….Well done Mark.

Regards Mark………..

[>>Marine<<]

Love the Tank......Love the Layout...Love the Inhabitants...Love the Pics..!!!

Guess what...??

Love It.....!!!!!!!!!!! :wub: :wub: :) :bow:

AND not too hi-tec.....Very Impressed...!!!! :thumbsup:

[marinekid]

Hi
Congrats on winning the october tank of the month very well desered.love the yellow tang lokks really healthy how often do you feed your anthias.
Thanks

[danny]

Absolutley Superb, a real inspiration for me and most other reefers with "normal" budget and tank size.

[wayne g]

very very nice!
:thumbsup:

[Reef bloke]

What a breath of fresh air.A smallish,technically simple and stunning reef tank.For me it has all of the visual impact of a larger tank without the huge expense and space.
Superb! :thumbsup:
Tony

[TurGe]

:wub: :o WoW :o :wub: Fantastic looking tank :thumbsup:

[pauljohno]

:thumbsup: fantastic looking tank, great looking colours.

:bow:

paul

[debo]

Wow.....that is GORGEOUS! :bow:


What a nice job you have done with the way you have arranged the corals etc...
Love that orange anthias too!




Debs B)

[kris]

great tank m8, real inspiration to someone like me whos planning their first tank :thumbsup: :thumbsup: ;)

[tuan]

Congrats! Very nice tank indeed. Lovely pictures too. :thumbsup:

[peachys]

i'm not usually stuck for words and all i can think to say is WOW :o

[maani]

great looking tank....

:thumbsup:

[wsmithwaz11]

yea amazingly stunning and like someone else said without major gubbins all over the place, maybe this could be a topic ov a new thread on wether we really need all the gizmo's we stick on our tanks lol.

[Darryl]

Great looking tank, a credit to you :thumbsup:

[sgrimmett]

Awsome tank - Very impressed :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Suk]

Congratulations,

A gorgeous tank, corals & fish look very healthy.
Well done.


:thumbsup:

[themmings]

An excellent tank :thumbsup:

As much as I like big looking tanks - this is proof that you don't need 5, 6, 7, 8ft tanks to create impact.

Respect due :bow: :bow: :bow:

[MJAReef]

Hi there guys,

Sorry for the late reply to your positive comments - much appreciated and I'm glad you like the tank as much as I do. I have been away on my hols and have returned to no major problems thankfully. The anthias are looking a little thin though after a week of fairly limited food instead of the twice daily usual feed. Its always a bit concerning to leave them to there own devices with Sod's Law fully in action. All the fish have survived with only being fed twice on one day in the middle of a whole week away. I don't have them used to dry feed so auto feeders are no use - may I should train them to accept it for future holidays.

I'm pleased you seem to find my "simple" approach heartening. I have thought about computer controls and Ca reacors but the space required and potential for things to go wrong have not encouraged me to go down that route.

Thanks again Mark B)

[chris allsop]

Very nice mate!! :wub:
A credit to your hard work!! :thumbsup:

[Jevs]

Just like to echo everyone's comments....stunning tank and a credit to you.

Andy

[Glenn@home]

Congrats on winning tom, i dont come into members tank section as much as i shoujld. Yuor tank all the other tom have been inspirational, gives me something to aim for.

Reading through your initial comments re lessons learned is helpful since it makes me realise that we all have problmes from time to time.

Still one day maybe ill be a contender.

Well done

Glenn

[pavlo]

Nice tank and a nice write up

Well done :thumbsup:

[clippo]

stunning tank mate - love that little wrasse too. :thumbsup:

[SPS Hoover]

Very nice :bow: looks like you will be needing snips soon it looks well grown together

Regards

[simon garratt]

Stunning. A well deserved TOTM :D



Regards

Si.

[sgl101]

Very nice tank, will be a hard one to Follow,

Regards Steve.

[russell]

A tank to die for. in my case if only?????????? Absolutely great

[chrisbuxton]

stunning.......what an inspiration!

Regards chris

[craigg]

Thankyou