Keith's 20" Cube

Keith_Man

Keith_Man

Joined
8 Oct 2007
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Location
London, UK
Sorry for any cross over...I have my tank posted on several boards so apologies if you've seen it all before :)

This tank was setup as a medium term/temp tank until I found the time and money to setup a larger system. It was originally intended to be SPS dominant tank but has now become more of a test tank for me to experiment with new concepts (Ultralith, Balling etc) which I will implement in my future tanks.. (I have plans for 5-6ft azoox tank!)

I am now moving this tank over to a mixed SPS and non photosynthetic coral tank! *Shock Horror*… Some of the SPS corals you see in the photos have now been moved on to other reefers and I am now pushing on with the non photo corals.

Tank: ~ 130l (30 gallon) 20” x 20” x 20” Cube without braces, 12mm glass, 3 sides starphire and 40mm triangular (Si G) weir.

Recent shots:

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The Build:

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(sorry have to split the post because I'm limited on the number of images I can post!)
 
Sump: ~ 60l (14 gallons)18” x 14” x 14.5” (LxWxH), Water depth 8”. 6mm glass, built by myself!

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Lighting: Giesemann Infinity 250w MH with 4 x 24w T5s

Equipment:
Ehiem 1260 return pump fed directly into a wavysea unit
Tunze Nanostream 6025 and 6055 on controller
D-D (Hailea) DC300
Grotech TEC III-NG with extension peri
Fauna Marin Balling Lite in 3 10l containers.
Tunze Autotop up

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Filtration:
Fauna Marin Ultraskim2 with Meshwheel
STM ultragrade Liverock
I-aquatic Zeolith 2L filter (almost completely filled with zeolites)
Debary AN15E, 18W UV-C
Aquadigital Ozone unit
Fauna Marin Ultraphos (Aluminium based) in a filter bag
Fauna Marin Ultralith stones in filter bag (in addition to what is in the reactor)

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Additives:
Fauna Marin Ultrabak dosed with the Grotech TECIII peri about 3ml per day
Fauna Marin Ultrabio dosed whenever I remember..probably about once a week or more.

Foods:
Fauna Marin UltraminS, UltraminF, UltraSeafan, Ultraclam, Ultrapac, Ultrabooster, Ultraorganic
Cyclopeeze
New Era flake
Frozen Mysid

Back in December 2007 when I first started this tank…I had a massive overdose with ultraminS and ultrabak by a factor of 10 just before I went away for 2 weeks….Totally my fault… this was the result:

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However, after some persistent husbandry and sticking with the ultralith system at the correct dosage I was able to turn things around
 
Here's some of the food stuff I've been playing with:

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The stuff used in that photo was for the dendronephthyas and scleronephthyas. currently dosing manually (almost every hour when i'm home) but hopefully I will dosing this automatically very soon ;)

I do a second mix with just UltraminS, Ultraseafan, UltraminF and a small amount of ultrabooster into a thick paste and this is for the seafans. Again, dosing is manual the moment

I also use ultraminF, UltraSeafan, Ultraclam, coral frenzy, Cyclopeeze, golden pearls and a few other dry powder type foods in an autofeeder set to feed twice during the day when i'm at work and twice in the middle of the night (3am & 6am). I use the fishmate F14 which nicely pushes the food into the tank over the course of an hour. I will be adding another auto feeder so I can increase the amount I feed the tank (fish & corals)

Heres the dry food setup:
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And this is how much dry food I feed over 24 hours

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4 feedings per 24 hours... the above amount is for 3.5 days!
 
WOW Keith_Man... Looking REAL good. I always wondered why one would want to use a 250 watt metal halide - but your system REALLY shows off nicely with yours...
I have just posted another comment on another thread - requesting comment on Eric Borneman's suggestion that 250 watts are just for systems of which the water level is deeper than 650mm.... and him saying that 150 watt Metal Halide's should be fine for tanks were the water level is less than 650 mm.....
 
wow Keith looking good...very good. Can you give me some info on your overflow box. Have not seen one of those and setting up a new tank so all ideas are needed.

Also where did you get your dry feeder from been looking for one that works and that looks good...

Thanks for all the info.
 
Thanks for the kind words

jacquesb, 150w might work fine for my tank...but 250w works better for the SPS :) I don't know Bornemans science behind it all...but I let my corals tell me what they like..and from the colour I'm getting I personally would not go less than 250s for SPS. I'd rather reduce my photo period than reduce the wattage. It would be more felixble that way!

Sims, my overflow is setup like this:

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The weir design idea is not mine. I modified the idea from Simon Garratt (another UK reefer). The weird piping on the overflow pipe is to silence the bubble noise - works well

As for the Fishfeeder - its a fishmate F14 feeder. Its a good little feeder but its quite small. I've jsut ordered a Grasslin rondomatic feeder from Germany and it works on a similar design but has 28 compartments!!
 
Thanks for the detailed info Keith, I like the weir/overflow idea. Wish I had thought of it!
 
Some really stunning photo's there Keith, nice looking tank.

I am impressed with your success on the dendro's, nice :thumbup:. I failed miserably trying to keep one alive :(

Please tell me you have a link for an online shop for that auto feeder of yours (make sure it's a cheap shop :p).
 
Wow Keith that’s an awesome little set up. I love the aquascape in this pic, also love the rest of the photography.

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I think if someone had to ask you what you thought was the most important aspect of reefkeeping, I’m sure feeding would be in your top three if not top. ;)
Man that’s a hell of a lot of food even for a big system, but I do believe that if you are able to control and export waist product efficiently then the more food the better. It looks like you have a very well balanced system. Please do give us all the needed info on the feeders, as I to would like to get a couple units for my various tanks.
 
viper, its too early to call it a success!! I have only just started on those azoo corals last week - I'll let you know if it was a sucess next year ;) I spent many many months researching and speaking to people who have had sucesses so I am confident that I can do it. I must give credit to Claude Schumacher (Fauna Marin, Germany), Jens Kallmeyer (Germany) and Danny Dame (Holland) - These guys have given me the most guidance and help with the azoo corals. These are the real azoox coral gurus!

Sorry if i'm breaking and rules for posting the links...but since the admin asked so nicely..here are a couple links

Fishmate F14 feeder - scroll down about half way
http://www.aquatics-online.co.uk/catalogue/automatic-fish-feeders.asp

Grasslin Rondomatic 400
https://wwws.aquaterrashop.de/meerw.../2638?osCsid=d81ae8d50f69235a1b5143ecaee78776

I regularly use both online shops and they're both safe and reliable! Worth emailing to check postage


Millipora - If was to condense the three key areas to success (for Azoox corals) I would says it would be 1. Water Quality, 2. Food, 3. Flow

Water quality needs to be SPS quality or better! Dendros do not tollerate the slightest bit of yellowing from organics hence my need to over filtrate! skimmer is recommended for a tank 10x my tank....Ozone and UV employed to break down the long chain organic molecules.. large amounts of zeolites are used to asborb ammonium and zeo style dosing to boost bacterial filtration!

2. Food is very important...its less about the type of food..but more about the quantity! I tend to feed anything I can get my hands on within a suitable size range between 5-800 microns (the larger particles are for seafans)

3. I've recently (only yesterday!) discovered the importance of strong flow!..when I mean strong..I don't mean SPS strong..I'm talking about going beyond that!! I had problems with the scleronephthyas not opening properly..but Danny advised to put them in an area of high flow so that they can shed properly. Instead, I increase flow in the whole tank and noticed immediately that all he azoo corals opened up! the SPS corals weren't looking so happy tho...I now have about 90x tank turnover...I swapped out the Tunze 6025 for a 6045!!

HTH
 
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