Introduction
Hello MASA.
I am a geologist by day and a reefer by night. Marine tanks have always fascinated me, after keeping countless fresh water tanks as a kid, I took a hiatus in tank keeping during my travels around the world – marine tanks are not big in Pakistan among other places. After I came back to SA I decided to take up the challenge of keeping a Marine Fish tank. I was perhaps fortunate in that when doing my research on a Marine Tank I stumbled across MASA and begun asking all sorts of questions…. My current tank is a success as a direct result of all the help I received on MASA.
Description and Short History
I bought my tank in March of 2008 from a fellow reefer who’s wife disagreed with the size of his new tank so while I bought it second hand, it had never seen salt water.
Dimensions
120cm x 60cm x 80cm (Length Width and Height) which equates to a display tank volume of approximately 550 Litres
The tank is made of 10mm glass and has a double 12mm base. The tank is fully braced.
The overflow is in the back left corner, and is drilled with a 32mm hole
I decided to make this pretty much a DIY project from the start; the ultimate aim was a mixed reef tank to be a feature of our lounge. Once I had the tank, I had a stand welded up for it; the stand is made from 50mm square tube and is fantastically strong. In many aspects building the display was a baptism of fire, first off a simple task of sourcing the 10mm glass for the overflow, then figuring out how to silicone these in place, nothing was simple in those early days.
I did all the woodwork on the tank myself and the final product came out pretty much as I hoped. The biggest challenge was the wiring, sounds funny looking back on it now, but after blowing my second T5 ballast with my wiring skills I sought the help of an electrician friend.
When I look back at the pile of rocks I proudly showed every visitor as my new reef fish tank, the evolution of the tank over the months is testament to my lovely wife’s patience and faith in her new husband.
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Filtration Methods
I decided right from the start that the filtration of my system should be as simple as possible and should provide my inmates with the best possible chance of survival. Simple because I travel intermittently with my job and the system has to function for extended periods of time without much attention on my part.
Filtration seems to be a continuously debated topic on MASA of late and I think this debate is healthy. While my filtration works for me, and works very well I believe each system needs individual tweaking and changing as the tank evolves.
I have a corner overflow which drains through a modified DIY durso pipe into the first chamber of my 3ft sump. The first chamber in the sump contains my TS2 protein skimmer, this has the needle wheel conversion and performs fantastically. There is then a set of baffles into the second chamber which has a DSB and chaeto with the sump light running on reverse photoperiod to the DT. This chamber also houses the heater and float switch for the DIY auto top off. The auto top up chamber is a 50L tank which slides in behind the stand (115cm x 12 cm x 40cm)
I have also housed an interesting ATS system above this chamber, a small pump pumps water into a Tupperware lunch box which I sandpapered to rough up, has the required lighting and a fan for cooling, and has resulted in lowering nuisance algae growth and in addition has resulted in a much more stabilized temperature.
The final chamber houses the return pump and a canister filer which I have converted to run both carbon and phosphate remover media.
As you can see, I have followed the fairly basic tried and tested technique of mechanical, biological and chemical filtration with some tweeks here and there
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Circulation & Waterflow
My current flow consists of 3 seio pumps with a combined turn over of some 40 times the tank volume per hour.
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Lighting
Lighting consists of 2 x 150w 12000 K MH’s
2 x 10 000K 54w T5’s
2 x actinic 54w T5’s
DT All lights on at 07h00
All lights off at 21h00
Sump Light on at 16h00 and off at 08h00
Other Equipment
No additional gadgets……… would love a chiller some day when funds permit
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Maintenance
What is a marine tank without maintenance ……
Weekly:
Skimmer cup is cleaned at least twice a week
Glass is cleaned as required
RO water topped up twice a week
Monthly:
Pumps are cleaned once every two months
I feel like I am at an AA meeting here ….
Hi my name is Neil ………and ……………..I have never done a water change. I am sure that will open up a can of worms, but in all honesty I have only ever done one “water change” and that was when I moved my tank from my old house to the one I am currently in and as that was a top up I am not sure it counts. Now in saying this I am not advocating this practice for everyone, and I am aware of the risks associated with this practice but it is working for me and until I see evidence in my tank that there is a need for water changes I will continue this practice.
Feeding & Additives
Feeding
I try to feed a variety of food to my tank mates, the tank is fed at least once a day fairly often twice a day. I feed nori, Omega One or Hikari pellets, and on the odd occasion brine shrimp and home made food mix.
Additives
With my philosophy of not performing water changes additives have become absolutely critical, I have been fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to test a new marine product called Marine One. At this stage this product is still in the testing phase and is due to be fully launched in South Africa in February 2010. I must say that I have been very impressed with the product to date and look forward to being able to get it readily in the future. I am currently using their Iodine, Magnesium, Calcium and Strontium and trace element additives.
I monitor the health of my tank holistically and not only through test kits, because in my experience test results are only one component indicating a systems health, and all too often one component of the system masks another such as phosphate being masked by the growth of GHA. Daily I monitor PE, fish activity, appetite, signs of chemical warfare, sensitivity to light, macro algae growth, skimmer performance, coral growth etc. It’s an approach that I believe can only be mastered through careful observation of the tank over a very long time, with supporting research into available literature, and of course monitoring of chemical levels through testing when appropriate.
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Corals
My corals are dominated by soft corals and LPS, with only a couple sps at this stage. I am useless at remembering scientific names so I am not even going to try ….
Numerous Zoa’s
Sinulara
Pink Cabbage
Green Cabbage
Pulsing Xenia
Pin Cushion
Red Mushroom
Green Stripe Mushroom
Watermelon Mushroom
Green Star Polop
Brown Star Polyp
Frogspawn
Candy Cane
Green Plating monti
Green Acro
Blue acro
Spiny Gorgonian coral
Fish
I list my fish in order of introduction into the system.
2 x Percula clowns - Amphiprion percula
Foxface - Siganus Magnifica
Sailfin tang - Zebrasoma veliferum
Yellow tang - Zebrasoma Flavescens
Regal tang - Paracanthurus Hepatus
Midas blenny - Ecsenius midas
Copperband butterfly - Chelmon rostratus
2 x lyretail anthia’s - Pseudanthias squamipinnis
3 x Green chromis - Chromis viridis
The Percula clowns have been breeding for the last two months, they are just one of the indicators I constantly look at to monitor the overall health of the system. I have tried so far unsuccessfully to raise some of the fry, and will continue to do so when the next batch is ready.
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Other Livestock
Fire shrimp
Hermits
Numerous snails
Boxer shrimp
2 x Anemone crabs
The biggest green bubble tip anemone I have ever seen
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Tank Specification and Water Params
Tank Specifications
Tank Dimensions: 120x60x80
Sump Dimensions: 90x32x38
Refugium Dimensions:
Tank Volume: 540L
System Volume: 600L
Water Parameters
Temperature: 26
pH: 8.2
Salinity: 1025
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate:0
Phosphate: 0
Calcium: 400
KH: 8.4
Magnesium: 1300
Iodine:
Redox:
Conclusion
I have enjoyed my journey into reefing immensely and doubt I will every live anywhere without a marine tank in some form or another being present. I love keeping difficult organisms in complex systems happy. I enjoy challenging the status quo as to how things are done in reefing and have been met with both success and disappointment in this regard.
When writing this article I was looking at past TOTM write ups and I am honestly completely flattered and humbled that the powers that be decided my tank was worthy of TOTM. I must thank every single member on MASA for in some way or another you have contributed to my knowledge of marine tanks and hence have contributed to my tank as a whole. I would also like to thank my beautiful wife Samantha for her understanding and support as I ventured into the unknown of reefing.
I have yet to meet a reefer who is 100% happy with his tank and I am no exception to this rule, I will be moving early next year and I intend taking the opportunity to upgrade the tank …. I have most of it planned in my head but it will have to be customized to suite the new house of course.
I hope you have enjoyed reading about my little reef, if I can offer one piece of advice in this hobby of ours, it would be the two words slow and simple. Take things slowly, add fish slowly and wait the nine months until you add the anemone…. Make things simple for your tank, simple filtration etc Albert Einstein said “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”
Neil Hamilton
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