Please don't think of me as shallow..... 60x18x18

[GregP]

My progress so far leading up to a current FTS

This is what I have achieved in 13 months.

26th Nov 2010


27th Nov 2010


11th Dec 2010


11th Feb 2011


12th Mar 2011


16th Apr 2011


16th Jun 2011


6th July 2011


13th Sept 2011


20th Oct 2011


11th December 2011


March 2nd 2012 (and the last ever FTS prior to the corals being sold)


Hi all.

Well its been a while since I have maintained a thread on here and I finally have the time, so this is for my new tank.

My marine keeping life started with a catastrophic failure using a converted Juwel Lido 120 and led me to a fairly successful Betta 680 which is what is running at the moment.

My new house has the perfect space for a tank so I thought, after they get such amazing reviews on here, I would order a Godiva custom aquarium. I also thought it was time to treat myself to some new equipment as well.

Here's the spec:

Aquarium:

Its a Godiva Executive 60"x18"x18" (300 litres)
In Winchester Oak
Left side weir
Black Background
DSB sump (80-100 litres ish)
Slimline pelmet.

I saw the dimensions on another Godiva executive thread and loved the thought of a shallow tank. Its a total copy I know, but its different and was to good of an idea to pass on.

Lighting:

The tank will be lit by an ATI sunpower 6x54w unit. (If the owner of the the other shallow godiva tank thread reads this "I'm sorry...I know its the same as yours as well! Originality is not my strong point!")

I have had a mixture of Halide and LED lighting for the last year and loved the natural look and the glitter lines, but felt the colours were a little washed out and thought I would give T5's a go, seen as they have come such a long way recently

I have ordered 3 x Aquablue specials, 3 x Blue plus, and 2 x Pro Colour.

The tubes i'm hoping to use are in order below:

Blue plus
Aquablue Special
Pro colour
Blue plus
Aquablue Special
Blue Plus

I want a heavy amount of blue in the spectrum as its the look I like the most, but i'm sure the bulbs will change a lot before the final set up.

Circulation:

Circulation will come from two Koralias. A 5200lph and a 4000lph. The return is a 3000lph eheim compact which will mean 40 times turnover.

Filtration:

A Deltec MCE600, which I already have, will be used for the skimmer and two phosban reactors will help out. One will fluidize rowaphos, and the other will be filled with marine biopearls. I really want to keep low nutrient levels so i'm hoping this will suffice. There will also be a 25 UV from TMC which I already have which will run 24/7

I have a round 35kgs of live rock in my existing tank which will be used as well.

Heating:

A simple 300w aqua one slim line heater.

Supplements:

I'll start off as I have done with dosing salifert products and see where things take me. This has always been an easy and cheap option for me, but i'm considering using the balling method if my requirements go beyond what i'm currently dosing.

Testing:

I have salifert tests for:

PH
NO2
NO3
NH3
PO4
Mg
Ca
Alk/KH

and a DD refractometer.

I will also get some merc type kits in due course when things are running well.

Substrate:

3 bags of Caribsea Aragonite sugar sized sand.

Corals:

At present I have:

Softies:
2 x Purple Gorgonians
Red Mushrooms
Zooanthids
Carpet Xenia

LPS:

Hammerhead
Acanthestrea
2 x open brains
Candy Coral
Duncan coral
Pipe Coral

SPS:

Horn coral

I will be adding some more LPS (which I love) and also trying my hand at keeping some acropora and Montipora as well so there will be some good variety.

Fish:

At present i have:

Kole Tang
Algae Blenny
Striped Mandarin
Percula clown
Chalk goby

I'm still wandering whether or not to keep these as all my old stock will be transfered to the new tank over a period of around two weeks. I don't want to get spikes in ammonia or nitrate so i'm not sure what to do. Starting out with no fish would be ideal to allow the tank to settle...and it would allow me to start a fresh and really add some brightly coloured fish.

Additional/Replacement fish will be:

Yellow Tang
Flame angel
A shoal of lyretail anthias

So thats everything....I think.

Tank is due in the next 1-2 weeks so after that its time to start. I'd be lying if I said I was not excited but good things happen slowly so i'm trying not to rush.

Any comments on anything above, including the movement of the livestock, would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[jchambers]

Hi Greg, how are you going to incorporate your MCE600 into the set up - hanging on to your sump or perhaps within it - have you had any thoughts on this. The ATI units look ace and would like one on my upcoming new set up but will probably get a 250w MH as its just one bulb to replace. Like the sound of your tank and a good title too - gets peoples attention!

[GregP]

Jason - The skimmer will be housed inside the sump. All the reactors will go outside to leave more room for the dsb and pumps. Thanks for your comments

[dzidek]

Hi Greg
I see you well prepared to do upgrade.
Welcome in Godiva Club

I will keep an eye on this one
Good luck

[GregP]

Well the bank cards have had a beating over the last couple of weeks and this is the end result!



Have purchased some acrylic rods just in case I want to try any fancy rock structures but, with the tank being quite shallow, I probably won't need them.

Decided on the second reactor filled with bio pearls so that has been purchased as well.

Going to keep a nice open aquascape and position the rock away from the glass so that I can keep a clean tank. The aim is to give it quite a modern look rather than filling it with lots of rock and letting the tank grow coraline algae on the back and sides. There will hopefully be islands of rock throughout the tank with spaces in between to give an open feel.

I didn't go for the caribsea sand in the end as it was just too fine and, with a high flow, it would have just got blown everywhere. Instead I have purchased two 20kg bags of 1-2mm crushed coral sand which has a variety of sizes in it and should provide a nice look.

Thanks to Pete at Homeleigh garden centre in Launceston, Cornwall for the advice and help. If any of you are in the south west region then the aquatic centre there is well worth a look. Lots of equipment, corals and fish.

Had a 4-5 week delivery time on the tank which has passed now so phoned to see how it was going and they could not even give me an estimated time for delivery, despite it being a little late . Shame really as the service has been good up until now.

Fingers crossed it won't be too much longer. Have hit a bit of a wall now as there is not much else to do prior to the tank arriving......

[chrismcfc]

Looks well though out!

Just transferred my stock from old to new without any issues, the way I did it was to get the new tank all up and running, ie mm-sump, all water salted and heated etc and then moved half of my live rock over.
I then left this for a few days just as it would in full tilt, with lights and skimmer on. Tested the essential levels and they were fine, so moved all the rest. Nitrates went up to about 10 and I added a little dose of vodka, and it went down to undetectable after about a week. I don't have a phos reactor or any reactor for that matter so you probably won't need to do anything like that.

There shouldn't be a cycle seen as there shouldn't be any real die off, the only thing that happened way a light dusting of brown slime, which will be because of the new sand. This should burn out on it's own fairly quick. Mine came and went in about 5 or so days, but a little has come back after adding 4 new fish last weekend.

[GregP]

Well after looking at the substrate and opening the bags, the sand was a little coarse and not quite what I wanted. So off out again today and purchased the caribsea aragonite sand I had initially thought about.



Cost more than double the price of the other one, but this hobby is not exactly about going cheap!

Spent about half an hour looking at the different grains and colours they had in stock and eventually chose. (the mrs was looking very bored!)

Got two bags of sugar sized and another that was ever so slightly bigger, but its a nice white colour and has flecks of black running through it which looks real nice.

Never thought the day would come when I found myself spending a large amount of time in a garden centre, looking over grains of sand and constantly changing my mind.

The mrs says I have OCD . I don't know what she means!

Anyway. Im off. Have to flick the light switches on and off 15 times or something bad will happen.....

[GeordieDave]

Whats that sand? im after some fine sand for a sifter to work its way through

[meganlovescowfishes]

On a better note...........
I am really looking forward to seeing how u get on with this tank. I have a 48x18x24 and I find it far to high! The pelmet is half a foot on it's own too. It's not a Godiva but a seashell. Great tank! But I'm a short a**e
a shallower tank would be perfect

more lps sounds fab! Have u got any in mind? You got to love cats and toches

[GregP]

Thanks for the comments megan. Really looking forward to building this one. Only thing with a shallow tank is its difficult to create really interesting aquascapes, but im confident i should be able to think something good up.

Shame you think yours is a little high. My only concern is i might have a little to much light and flow for my lps and softies. But im sure with some careful placement and acclimatisation all will be well.