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*** November 2011 TOTM ***
*** TOTM 2011 - NOVEMBER - JAMESFIRTH1***
Well I would like to say a big thank you to the moderator and admin team for picking my tank as the TOTM for October 2011. It a real privilege, especially as my tank has only been running for a couple of months, as it continues to grow out I can only hope it gets as good as some of the other TOTM's
I will apologise now for my photo skills.
This is how my tank is looking at the moment.
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FACT FILE
Water Parameters
Temperature: 26C
pH: 8.0-8.10
Salinity: 35-36 ppt
Ammonia: not measured
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 2.5 ppm
Phosphate: 0.00 ppm on Hanna
Calcium: 440 ppm
Alkalinity: 9.5 dKH
Magnesium: 1450 ppm
Equipment
Skimmer: Bubble Magus NAC7
Return Pump, Laguna powerjet 6000 pond pump with cage removed.
Pumps: Vortech MP40 ES w
Heaters: 300W
Coolers: Nothing at this time, but will be adding a TC-10, with some fans.
Lights: Fastlight 250w pendant, Coralvue remote ballast, with Radium 20k bulb, cheap ebay blue LED's for night time viewing. Halide on from 10:00-20:00 hours, blue LED's on for an extra couple of hours each side.
Top up: Tunze Osmolator Universal 3155, with a 25 litre top up chamber built into the sump.
Dosing: Babyfish 3 way doser, cheap Chinese one from ebay.
RO Unit: 4 stage unit with DI resin.
Reactors: Chippy with RowaPhos
Miscellaneous
Salt brand: Was using D&D, but have just changed to Red sea coral pro, due to higher levels.
Dosing Salts: Sodium Bicarbonate (FM), Calcium Carbonate Dihydrate (FM), Magnesium Chloride Heptahydrate (FM), with Fauna Marin trace elements.
Test Kits: KH (Salifert), Ca (Salifert), Mg (Salifert), N03 (Salifert), NO2 (Salifert), Phosphate (Hanna)
Tank Specifications
Tank Dimensions: 32x24x24
Tank Volume: 300l + 100 ish litre sump.
Live Rock: 25-30 kg, some reef bones/ plates
Sand Bed: 1-inch deep
Sump.
28.5x22x14 high. Prefect fit for the cabinet.
across, the front 25 litre auto top up chamber, then 3, 3 litre balling light storage containers.
Main sump, standard 3 chamber,
first compartment, Chippy filter sock holder with 200 micron filter, and Bubble Magus Skimmer
Second compartment, cheato, with Arcpod light, run on reverse cycle to the main halide. I will be looking at adding a deep sand bed in the near future.
Third compartment Laguna return pump and chippy Rowaphos reactor.
Fishes
Pair of clowns (Amphiprion ocellaris), Regal Tang (Paracanthurus hepatus), and a Manderin (Synchiropus splendidus), Flame Angel
Corals
LPS Corals:
Green/ purple hammer (Euphyllia parancora), torch (Euphyllia glabrescens), orange and green Fungia plate corals (Fungia/Cycloseris sp), Yellow Scrolling Turban Coral.
SPS Corals:
Montipora digitata, Montipora mollis, Montipora hirsuta, along with various others Superman, purple, green, orange and red.
Acropora, green slimer, tri colour, blue, purple, green stag.
Seriatopora hystrix, Pocillopora damicornis
Snails, Crabs, Shrimps and Urchins
2 x black foot snails, dove snails, True Mexican, Tuxedo urchin, 2 x Red leg hermit crab , 6 x Blue leg hermit Crab, Emerald crab , 2 x cleaner shrimp, 2 x Blood Shrimp, blue linkia starfish, black brittle star.
Well a bit of back ground about my fish keeping when I was probably 15/16 I got a job as a Saturday lad working at Waterscapes in Otley, I guess it was easy as my brother already worked there.
At that stage we setup a three foot tank with a sump in the living room, which was a bit of a reef system, but with mainly softies, and a few LPS.
I then went on to setup a 24x24x18 high tank in my bedroom, I could afford the thicker glass I needed to have it 24 high! This was a sumpless system, run with a suspended halide, and an external filter.
I think I probably ran this for a year or so with some good success, until I became far more interested in women than fish, so this is where my fish keeping stopped.
Well I would say 15 years later I thought I would give it another go. A number of things had changed, technology had improved, and I do like gadgets, so it all seemed a good idea. I looked round and found the Red Sea Max 130D, this was just what I was after, compact, neat setup, which wouldn't upset my other half too much.
I managed to find a tank which was technically second hand, but had been bought and never setup, everything was still boxed,so in the snow just after Christmas 2010 I drove to Leicester, other half was going nut, as she didn't think I would be able to get back, but hay it was too gooder price to miss.
I ran my RSM for about 18 months before I decided to have an upgrade. This was the RSM.
Well I wasn't allowed an upgrade until after the Wedding....... which was on the 23rd September 2011
Well it never really worked like that, but just don't tell Jess!
I needed to make it so it would fit in the same location as the RSM, so I measured up, and worked out that I could get a tank 32x24x24, with a sump. I was alway planning on having a tank made so I could get the best use of space, and I wanted it to be rimless and braceless. I just love the look of these tanks.
I researched loads as I wanted to have it sumped, but I never liked the look of the weirs, due to the fact that the tank isn't very big they tend to use a lot of space.
I started looking into ultra thin weirs on other sites, but there wasn't many about that were up and running, and I would really need someone that wanted a challenge to get one built.
It was then that I found the X-Aqua in-out's, I knew straight away that these would be the ticket for me, I could use two to create loads of flow within the tank. They didn't use any of the footprint of the tank and looked neat an tidy to go with my rimless look tank. I contacted Jez at Poseidon's Palace, to make sure he would be able to drill the holes etc before I got them ordered.
This is how they arrive, I am very happy with the units, but I do think they are expensive especially if you are wanting to use two!
It was then a waiting game, I had ordered the tank from Jez, and the stand from Steve at Burscough. I guess it must have been about a month or so before I got everything, as the tank was delayed.
I got straight on with setting everything up. At this time I hadn't ordered the sump, but this wasn't a problem as I was just going to use a large plastic storage box! I had also bought a second hand 250w halide, to get me up and running.
Well when I got everything setup, I was really impressed with the X-aqua, here is the video.
[ame="http://s787.photobucket.com/albums/yy158/jamesfirth1/?action=view¤t=MOV05796.mp4"]MOV05796.mp4 video by jamesfirth1 - Photobucket[/ame]
[ame="http://s787.photobucket.com/albums/yy158/jamesfirth1/?action=view¤t=MOV05796.mp4"]MOV05796.mp4 video by jamesfirth1 - Photobucket[/ame]
I got everything left moved over from the old tank, as I need to get that gone so I had some more funds.
and then started on my first bit of aquascaping. I wanted to make sure there was enough clearance all the way round the rock work, to ensure I would be able to keep the back wall clean, in the future.
After a couple of weeks of running the tank, I checked that I have enough room in the sump, if the pumps went off etc, and I didn't get a flood. I then contacted Jez again about making me a sump.
Now I wanted this to be a neat as the tank setup, so I needed to have the auto top up chamber built in, but I knew I was going to be using balling light so I wanted the three chambers for these built in as well. Well in a moment of insanity Jez said he could do it, so I got the order placed after sending him numerous drawing and and ideas.
After only a couple of weeks the sump was ready for collection. Now I have to say this looks a good as the tank if not even better.
I switched over sumps and got this one setup in no time. I also made plastic lids for the chambers.
I then decided that my rockwork still wasn't high enough for my liking, well with a load of Epo putty, from the Liverpool meetand some Alfagrog I set to work on improving it.
This was the finished result.
My last recent upgrade has been the change of light, where I moved from the Arcadia pendant to the Fastlight unit. This is a lot smaller, and neater, but also it meant that I could use single ended bulbs, like the Radiums. WOW what a difference these things make. Yes you do need to light the blue look, but I think they are fantastic.
To give you an idea of the colour difference, here are a couple of picture, the first with the Arcadia halide, the second with the Fastlight unit, with Radium bulb.
I will just finish with a few pictures of my corals. I have to say everything apart from the stock that came from my RSM, has all come from Pete (Killi) and Nev (Screwloose) so a big thanks to them as well.
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Re: *** November 2011 TOTM ***
Originally Posted by jaimeomg
for all the comments. Over the moon about getting tank of the month.
