View Full Version : My First Reef
Hello
Just a few pics of my first go at a reef aquarium still a few problems to sort with the sump i'm unable to balance the two weirs so a slight mod to the pipe work this weekend
(adding two more ball valves as i installed the first two to close to the tank
connectors)
Tank Specs
5x2x2 main tank
3x18"x18" sump with mineral mud
OR 6500 return
OR 2500 closed loop under rock
80kg LR (from two mature aquariums)
20 kg sand
2 kg live sand
Arcadia 3 twin 250w + Actinics
4 x mj 1200 + system 2000 wave simulator
Turbo floater 1000 skimmer
Stock
21 turbo snails
25 dwarf blue leg hermits
1 sand sifter star fish
also some button polyps and three colinies (spelling) of star polyps that came with the LR
Thanks Paul
PS sorry about the quality of the pics
A better pic of tank also re-arranged the rock a bit today all the equipment will be hidden once i,m happy with the aquascaping i should have my sump up and running tommorow had a few problems with balencing the two weirs installing two ball valves to hopefully controll the overflows
parameters this morning
SG 1025
PH 8.0
MAG 1260
ammonia 0.25
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
phos 0.03
temp 25c
calc and alk getting test kits at week end
any comments good or bad would be welcom (we have all got to learn)
cheers Paul
Hi,
I like the aquascaping :thumbsup:
Looking good, how long has it beem going?
Ross
Nice tank and I like the aquascaping. :thumbsup:
What make of tank is that?
Is it acrylic or glass? (Just noticed that the sides are curved that's all)
Hello Ross
Started filling with water last week (long job) got it up to temp and salted up on saturday and collected the first 30kg LR on sunday night the other 50kg of LR was placed in the tank on tuesday night both lots of LR came from mature tanks that were being broken down loads of life in all the rock so should give me a good head start :D
added some clean up crew as there was a bit of green algae
phosphate was 0 untill i added second lot of LR then it jump over a couple of days to 0.03 i'll keep a check on this and put some phos remover in a spare cannister filter if it rises again!!!! ;)
hopfully be getting my sump up and running this weekend had to shut it down too noisey lol at the present it as a or2000 ph in it for circulation
Cheers Paul :thumbsup:
Hi Slappy and :thanx:
Its a LAC (london aquatics centre) 570ltr its constructed of 12mm glass couldn't use the hood though as its constructed out of alli (can't spell it lol)
been moving the rock around all day trying to get a good balence and to keep it open so there is a good flow going through it , think i'm going to stick with the present aquascaping as i like now :wub:
cheers Paul :thumbsup:
Just a quick pic of one of the clean up crew
Wow! That looks really good :)
What fish are you thinking of putting in there?
Hi Louicopp and :thanx:
Not to sure yet still trying to get over building it lol :wacko:
I just want lots of colour as long as its reef safe kids want the usual (dori and nemo lol)
any suggestions would be great but definitly no fish untill the tank as settled down
Cheers Paul :thumbsup:
Looking good m8, :thumbsup:
Nice to see yet another reefer up "this neck o' the woods"
Going to Mark's (Acropora Hse) tomorrow night / if ya want owt collecting give me a shout
Cheers Ian :cheers:
Hello Ian
and thanks for the offer but i'm ok at the moment will be going down sometime next week i hope
cheers Paul :thumbsup:
Just got my sump up and running after altering pipe work its nice and quiet (thank god) thought the wife was going to kill me first time i tryed it LOL
The alteration was to run the sump the right way round (put sump in wrong way round Doh!!) :whistling: and to have a in flow in either end to slow the flow through the sump down and to fit two more ball valves on the in flows so i can back/slow the returning water up/down doing this also stopped the crashing effect the water had traveling down to the sump
very happy now as i thought this was going to be a nightmare lol
Just a quick question i,ve just started to get the brown algae now can anybody tell me how long i should have my lights on (arcadia 3 seris twin 250w 14000k + actinics)
Cheers Paul :thumbsup:
hi i run my halides for 10 hours with the actinics 1hour either side
hope that helps :thumbsup:
Found this 2night some sort of chiton another freebi that came with the LR and welcom addition to the clean up crew
Looks nice!
As far as the lights go - personally I had myactinics for 12 hr and halides on for 6hr at the beginning. Then gradually upped to 10hr for the halides. Not sure how much difference decreasing the light hours really makes to algae growth in the long term. You will go through the various stages anyway (brown = diatons). Main thing is to use RO and make sure you have sufficient clean up crew so it doesn't get out of hand. Measure phospahtes (deltec kit) and use rowaphos or similar if you have a problem. Some would advise using from the start anyway. Or do you have macroalgae in the sump?
Hello Stevielad
At the moment i have MH on 8hrs and actnics 12hrs brown algea as started to go slowly i think this is due to the cheato growing well in sump also phosphate as dropped just about dectable (sailfert test kit) and PH seems to have settled down
8.2 so looks like thins are settling down
As for CC 32 turbos 25 blue legged hermits may add some shrimps this weekend and some chromis just to start everthing moving
Many thanks Paul :thumbsup:
Edit
ps
i'm using ro unit from ro-man
Originally posted by crossi@Nov 8 2005, 14:50
Hello Stevielad
At the moment i have MH on 8hrs and actnics 12hrs brown algea as started to go slowly i think this is due to the cheato growing well in sump also phosphate as dropped just about dectable (sailfert test kit) and PH seems to have settled down
8.2 so looks like thins are settling down
As for CC 32 turbos 25 blue legged hermits may add some shrimps this weekend and some chromis just to start everthing moving
Many thanks Paul :thumbsup:
Edit
ps
i'm using ro unit from ro-man
Sounds spot on :thumbsup:
Chromis were one of my first fish - were three - now theres just one big one - damn bully! He's gonna get a surprise come the tank upgrade :evil:
Hello
Just a quick update new stock added
1 blue cheeked goby
1 carpenters flasher wrasse (edit)
1 cleaner wrasse
1pr common clowns
1 naso tang :wub:
1 sea urchin
more turbo snails (still adding)
1 cleaner shrimp
1 dancing shrimp
2 peppermint shrimps
1 boxer shrimp
1 large orange and black hermit crab
4 blue green chromis
1 regal tang
1 pearl scale butterfly
1 green BTA
green cylindrica coral (spelling)
blue mushroom rock
orange bush coral + 1 small frag
fire/flame coral
1 large branching sps coral
2 small branching sps corals (must get these id'd forgot there ) :blush:
1biege plating monti
1 blue and purple ric
1 orange and blue ric
Hello
I know i've added quite a bit of stock lately but all of my water parmeters are spot on only problem i've had is my MG as been low around 1200 which is being brought back up via the use of epsom salts dkh is 7.2 and calc is 410 ph is stable at 8.2
when i've got my Mg up to 1350 i should of got my calcium reactor installed will this help balence out my dkh and calc or will ineed to raise dkh with something
Cheers Paul
JasandJules
05-12-05, 14:48
Holy moley that seems like an awful lot of stock very quickly indeed.
I would also be concerned about the nem and regal in such a new tank (I know the rock has come from a mature set-up, but has your tank actually settled??) Also, do you have powerheads in there? If so, please get them covered to prevent the nem getting sliced and diced.
It will be ok for a few weeks, but I would really keep an eye on it if I were you.....
Sean the Prawn
05-12-05, 15:25
:blink: Nem after a month?.................. :o
Hello
Thanks for the reply ive constantly checked my water every other day lol
also had it checked at the lfs the reason that ive stocked quite heavly is that i've used well matured LR 80Kg and was transferred to my tank within 30mins of leaving its old tank had no die back at all just loads of growth ie polyps,discoma mushroms,xeinia and even a small soft coral thats about 2cm now so basicly its no different than someone upgrading and moving all there stock over to the new tank
Now if i had used new LR then that would be a different story and i would of waited a lot lot longer
I've had a small algea bloom of the brown variaty but only lasted 6 or 7 days the only thing thats got my attention is that my Mg as dropped from 1290 to 1200
(1290 is what my fresh mix is reading Aquamedic reef salt) but thats being addressed via the use of epsom salts at the moment calcium reactor is going in this week as soon some parts arrive
As for the BTA its looking a lot better than it did at the lfs the tips are more bubble like and as for the power heads i've covered the two at the back of the Lr (done my research LOL)
The regal tang
i was told by two lfs to put this in first because they get easily stressed yes its had a bit of ws but it hasn't bothered it at all eats like a pig a growing fast i've also just purchased a uv 30w filter being installed at the weekend
One of the main reasons ive got a lot of stock so soon is that there have been to large tanks being broken down locally and opportunities like this don't come along very often up this neck of the woods LOL
If any of the fish show any signes of stress or discomfort they will be removed to my local lfs which have been fanstastic with ther help and advice
Cheers Paul
Hello
Time for an update
Been quite busy lately got my 30w uv filter up and running using an old cannister filter i had wich as carbon and ulti-phos in supplied by UDA (great service from these guys) installed a home made auto-top up,aquamedic 1000 calcium reactor and a tunze ts24 kit
Bought some more sps corals from Nic Miller as he is stipping is tank down dur to house move shortly, he still as some nice hard corals left for sale large and small
Also added a medusa soft coral which has doubled in size and a frogspawn coral
The BTA which some of you where worried about as it is in a new set up as gone from strenght to strength so no problems there
Took the pearl scaled butterfly back to the LFS as it started to destroy all my button polyps and exchanged it for 2 scooter blennies and a tube worm (learnt a lesson there research your fish before you buy them )
Had two losses,one chromis went carpet surfing and my royal grammer got well and truly stuck in small hole in the LR
Added
1 yellow tang (got offerd this from another tank stip down)
1 midnight blennie
1 yellow tail wrasse
1 pr tomatoe clowns to host the BTA (percs are going into nano for my son soon)
40 creith snalls (20 in the sump and 20 in main tank)
Water Param's
Temp 26-27c
PH 8.2 @ noon
calc 450
dkh 9.2
mag 1290
NH3 0
NO2 0
No3 5
Cheers Paul
Some frags and corals from Nic Miller
This is one of my favorites one piece of LR with two leather toadstools loads of rics and purple tipped acro which is recovering well as it was over shadowed in Nics display
Another one from nics display that he is breaking down again this is recovering well as it was also overshadowed by some large acros
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