Hi,
This is my 2nd attempt at a reeftank and my 1st try on something with more than 120L of water. My marine experience started out at keeping 2 x false percula clowns in a 2ft tank. The tank setup was similar to my freshwater setups, powerhead + cornerfilter, crushed coral on the bottom and a shell or 2 and 2 pieces of sandstone.
Needless to say I wanted bigger, so I got a 3ft with an overflow box. This tank was setup at work so that I could see more of my tank. Still having mostly freshwater knowledge, the sump had a jebo skimmer and bioballs and filter wool(Nitrate factory). Tank lights were 3 T8 tubes (Pink, white and blue) Got a few pieces of LR and thus a newbie reefer were born. This is where the bug got hold of me and almost also made me never look at marines again.
View attachment 61209
Grr **mental note to keep fingers off tab & enter button*
Anyways, with the bioballs I had algae 101. Could not get the nitrates lower than 100ppm (Doing weekly 30% waterchanges) So I tried the phone a friend option on the freshwater mailing list. Some kind people helped me sort out the nitrate factory and the bioballs where replaced with macro algae. Upgraded the lights and added a 150w MH to the system. Thus everything turned out to be okay. Oh I forgot about the water changes. Used to use tap water for the tank, nice algae fertiliser! So I phoned friend again and found out that RO is the better option, thus started my daily exercise, carrying 25l water to the 2nd floor. After a year I got fed-up bringing water from home and decided to start a nice big reef at home. This brings me to my current system.
1.8m x 0.5m x 0.5m (Display)
Standard 3ft (Refugium + algae scrubber)
Custom sump 0.9m x 0.6m x 0.6m (Skimmer + heaters + sump pump)
Skimmer Via Aqua SK388
Heaters 2 x 300W LFS special and a 250W in the main display in the winter
Lights 3 x 150W MH (2 x 6500K and 1 x 14000K)
2 x 54W 6500K T5's without reflectors and 2 x 54W actinic T5 also
without reflectors
Refugium 2 x 3ft 4000K T8's
Algae in refugium is Caulerpa and the bottom is covered in coarse crushed coral, about 10cm high. (Loads of critters in there)
The main display consists out of a thin layer of coarse crushed coral and some fine aragonite on the one side. I estimate about 50kg LR(may be less maybe more)
The inhabitants:
1 x Foxface
1 x Regal tang
1 x Sailfin tang
1 x Copperband butterfly
1 x Mandarin dragonette
1 x Sixline wrasse
1 x Fire clown
1 x Lawnmower blenny
1 x Fire goby
2 x Pajama Cardinals
2 x Cleaner Shrimps
1 x Coral Banded Shrimp
10 or so Turbo snails (Tectus pyramis)
1 x Bubble coral (Physogrya lichtensteini)
1 x Devils Hand leather
1 x Mushroom leather
1 x Sinularia Sp.
1 x Lettuce coral (Pectinia lactuca)
Various pieces of Torch corals (Euphyllia glabrescens)
1 x T. Crocea
3 x Mushroom rocks
1 x Green polyps
1 x Xenia
1 x Anthelia
1 x Sebae Anemone
1 or 2 other odd pieces that I'm trying to rescue after last years holiday
oops left out my poor Open brain coral (was a mercy purchase and and imho a very tough and tolerant coral)
oops missed one more - Green star polyps
Amonia and nitrites are 0
Phosphates uhm I think is okay( test shows good)
Ph 8.5
dkH between 4 and 7
Calcium 400 to 500ppm
Nitrates 10ppm
Running carbon full time at the moment.
Hmm I forgot to add my main means of water movement
2 x Resun wavemakers
Hope I did not left anything out and all advice is always welcome. Money however is a scarce resource and DIY advice will always be recieved better
I'll post some pics as soon as I can figure out how
Cya
Wikus
This is my 2nd attempt at a reeftank and my 1st try on something with more than 120L of water. My marine experience started out at keeping 2 x false percula clowns in a 2ft tank. The tank setup was similar to my freshwater setups, powerhead + cornerfilter, crushed coral on the bottom and a shell or 2 and 2 pieces of sandstone.
Needless to say I wanted bigger, so I got a 3ft with an overflow box. This tank was setup at work so that I could see more of my tank. Still having mostly freshwater knowledge, the sump had a jebo skimmer and bioballs and filter wool(Nitrate factory). Tank lights were 3 T8 tubes (Pink, white and blue) Got a few pieces of LR and thus a newbie reefer were born. This is where the bug got hold of me and almost also made me never look at marines again.
View attachment 61209
Grr **mental note to keep fingers off tab & enter button*
Anyways, with the bioballs I had algae 101. Could not get the nitrates lower than 100ppm (Doing weekly 30% waterchanges) So I tried the phone a friend option on the freshwater mailing list. Some kind people helped me sort out the nitrate factory and the bioballs where replaced with macro algae. Upgraded the lights and added a 150w MH to the system. Thus everything turned out to be okay. Oh I forgot about the water changes. Used to use tap water for the tank, nice algae fertiliser! So I phoned friend again and found out that RO is the better option, thus started my daily exercise, carrying 25l water to the 2nd floor. After a year I got fed-up bringing water from home and decided to start a nice big reef at home. This brings me to my current system.
1.8m x 0.5m x 0.5m (Display)
Standard 3ft (Refugium + algae scrubber)
Custom sump 0.9m x 0.6m x 0.6m (Skimmer + heaters + sump pump)
Skimmer Via Aqua SK388
Heaters 2 x 300W LFS special and a 250W in the main display in the winter
Lights 3 x 150W MH (2 x 6500K and 1 x 14000K)
2 x 54W 6500K T5's without reflectors and 2 x 54W actinic T5 also
without reflectors
Refugium 2 x 3ft 4000K T8's
Algae in refugium is Caulerpa and the bottom is covered in coarse crushed coral, about 10cm high. (Loads of critters in there)
The main display consists out of a thin layer of coarse crushed coral and some fine aragonite on the one side. I estimate about 50kg LR(may be less maybe more)
The inhabitants:
1 x Foxface
1 x Regal tang
1 x Sailfin tang
1 x Copperband butterfly
1 x Mandarin dragonette
1 x Sixline wrasse
1 x Fire clown
1 x Lawnmower blenny
1 x Fire goby
2 x Pajama Cardinals
2 x Cleaner Shrimps
1 x Coral Banded Shrimp
10 or so Turbo snails (Tectus pyramis)
1 x Bubble coral (Physogrya lichtensteini)
1 x Devils Hand leather
1 x Mushroom leather
1 x Sinularia Sp.
1 x Lettuce coral (Pectinia lactuca)
Various pieces of Torch corals (Euphyllia glabrescens)
1 x T. Crocea
3 x Mushroom rocks
1 x Green polyps
1 x Xenia
1 x Anthelia
1 x Sebae Anemone
1 or 2 other odd pieces that I'm trying to rescue after last years holiday
oops left out my poor Open brain coral (was a mercy purchase and and imho a very tough and tolerant coral)
oops missed one more - Green star polyps
Amonia and nitrites are 0
Phosphates uhm I think is okay( test shows good)
Ph 8.5
dkH between 4 and 7
Calcium 400 to 500ppm
Nitrates 10ppm
Running carbon full time at the moment.
Hmm I forgot to add my main means of water movement
2 x Resun wavemakers
Hope I did not left anything out and all advice is always welcome. Money however is a scarce resource and DIY advice will always be recieved better
I'll post some pics as soon as I can figure out how
Cya
Wikus
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