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*March 2011 TOTM*
* TOTM - March 2011 - Chris J *
First of all I would like to say how honoured I am to be asked to talk about my tank and how surprised I was when Chris PM’d me telling me I had been chosen.
OK, where to start? I have been keeping fish for about 14 years now and started off with tropicals that I kept for about 8 years. All the while though I was going into my LFS and looking at the marines thinking I wouldn’t be able to afford them or keep them alive (both of which were probably true at the time). It is with great sadness when I think of all the tropical fish that I have had that have died. Yet within the 5 years of keeping marines I can count on one hand the fish I have lost (well 2 hands but only just). If I had the information available to me then that I have now I wouldn’t have had to have lost so many fish.
Anyway onto the marine side of things I bought a Vision 180 from ebay (complete setup with prizm skimmer the lot) and tucked it all up in the back of my car with all the water from the tank in containers and set off back home. Set up the tank as soon as I got home and didn’t lose any fish (Yellow tank, 2x B&W clowns, 2 x Green Chromis, 2 x yellow tailed blue damsels). I still have one of the chromis and one of the blue damsels and sold one of the B&W clowns. Also had some ‘corals’ that the guy told me come out more when the lights go on. After a little research I found out the majority of the rock was ocean rock and the corals were purple mushrooms and palythoas. The ocean rock was covered in hair algae as was a lot of the rest of the stuff in the tank. The lighting was the arcadia I-bar with twin T5 lights. As I gained more knowledge and started to realise a lot of the equipment I had on my tank was pretty pants I slowly started getting better equipment. The juwel internal filter went, the ocean rock was replaced by live rock, the prizm skimmer was replaced by an MCE600 I got two Seio M820’s and stuck as many fluorescent lights as I could get my hands on over the tank.
Things were starting to look better but I realised that my lights were not up to much but the cost was a big issue. Anyway I managed to find a twin 250W series 3 arcadia for decent money and although it was overkill for my tank (even to the point of most of the light was escaping over the ends of the tank) I went ahead in the knowledge they would be suitable for my upgrade.
Red Monti before it got large
The upgrade part 1 (blind optimism)
Around September 2007 I saw a 5x2x2 tank going fairly cheaply only problem was it was in Bristol! I had been slowly slipping into conversations with the wife how I would need a larger tank when some of my fish got a little bigger and didn’t get too much of a negative response (the ”It’s for the wellbeing of the fish” line works wonders) Anyway Bristol isn’t that far from Preston is it? A few months prior to this we had ended up going halves on a horse trailer with some people from the yard where my step daughter rides her horse. If anybody knows someone with a horse trailer they are magnificent things for moving large fish tanks as they have a split section down the middle which separates the tank from the cabinet, have a nice ramp to load up with and have a rubber matting on the floor to keep the tank in position and protect it from damage in transport. Only thing is you need to give them a good clean first! Anyway the fact that I could use it in a reef related instance softened the blow of having to buy it in the first place. So I enlisted the help of my Dad and convinced him that it would only take about 5 hours all in all to collect it. HA! It took us nearly that long to get to Bristol and that was with doing 70 mph with a horse trailer on. Anyway it took us from about 9.30 am to about 5pm to get there and back with only one small hitch on the way back. We were only alerted to this when after about half an hour of thinking “hmm it’s a bit bumpy this stretch of road” someone pulled alongside us and was frantically pointing at our trailer with a look of sheer horror on their faces. After pulling up rather promptly on the side of the motorway worrying that the tank was damaged/fallen off it appears that the jockey wheel had decided to come loose and had been banging against the tarmac and was now looking rather worse for wear and was smoking. Phew at least the tank was OK. Got back and got unloaded and had a look through the extra goodies that the very nice lady had given me as freebies (tub of Rowaphos, test kits and a homemade auto top up using a Silkepil transformer - nice). I then proceeded to clean the tank and start collecting all the equipment needed to run it. Hence rather long wait as bits were acquired as and when they came up and as I could afford them. I then decided that closed loops were the future and proceeded to drill about 15 holes in the base of the tank.
So the cabinet had a little bit of a bow in sheet of ply that the tank sat on but I thought well it’s held the tank full of water before and it is only a slight bow so shouldn’t be a problem. I think you can see where this is going. So there I was tank full of salted water 60KG of LR in there cycling in my front room for about 2 weeks. ‘Fortunately’ my son who was about 3 at the time got up between 5.30 and 6.00 each morning and I used to go downstairs with him and I would lie on the couch trying to get some more sleep. So there I was half asleep lying down when I heard a loud crack and that noise that all reefers dread the sound of leaking water. I shot up and went over to the tank to see water draining out into the rapidly overflowing sump. So got a bucket and started throwing water out of the patio window in a mad panic trying to stop the front room turning into a swimming pool (new carpet had been down 2 weeks).
The upgrade part 2 (the dark garage days)
Temporarily I had moved my tank contents into my spare tank in the garage while the front room was being redone.
After the cracked tank saga it stayed there for some time (about a year) while I decided what I was doing. Tank was knackered (obviously) and the stand wasn’t up to anything so I then had a rethink about what I wanted to do. I bought a temporary tank and stuck everything in there while I sorted out what I was going to do.
I then bought another second hand 5x2x2 but after getting it home the cabinet was pretty rubbish so thought I may re-strengthen my existing cabinet but although they were both 5x2x2 I couldn’t get the newer tank to fit on the old stand. So I sold this and then saw this tank for sale and talked the wife into how much of a bargain it was. So off I set with my horse trailer again and picked it up. Jeez it was bigger than I thought and it took 6 of us to lift the tank onto the stand when we got it back. I sat backing the front room and looked at it and couldn’t believe how big it was.
It was at this point the wife said she absolutely hated it. What followed can only be described as a stand off that lasted nearly 6 months with me saying how great it was and her saying how much she disliked it. A compromise was reached as I realised I would need to upgrade most of my equipment to be able to run it properly and if I was divorced then that I wouldn’t be able to afford it. So we agreed that I would get a new 5x2x2 tank built and then strengthen the existing cabinet and not have any closed loops.
The upgrade part 3 (all systems go) c Apr 09
After placing my order with Keith I occupied my time whilst waiting for the tank to be delivered by strengthening the cabinet by taking off the original base and putting a 25mm Marine ply board in it’s place (can you believe the original one was only 12mm ply?) and varnishing the stand. When all set up in the living room it looked like this before any water got in it:-
And like this when I had transferred all the stock over.
Everything was looking good till I noticed I had developed a flatworm problem so I decided to buy a peacock wrasse as I had planned on getting one anyway. As I did this I realised that I hadn’t put any sand in yet and that the wrasse would need some so I hastily added some sugar fine sand. This was a bad idea as I had originally planned to soak the sand for a few weeks before adding any. This resulted in a large diatoms outbreak due to silicates from the new sand. It was while going through this ‘brown’ phase I decided to start Zeo as I had started getting some cyno in the temporary tank in the garage before the swop over. I knew the diatoms would burn themselves out eventually but I thought it may speed the process up. After starting zeo I could see the improvement in the tank immediately with greater polyp extension within a week of starting. Also colours started to improve as did water clarity.
Few progress shots
Everything started growing well and got to the point where the big stag and the plating monti were overtaking the tank and every time I stuck my hands in I couldn’t get to anything and I ended up snapping something. So although it was nice to let the 2 corals get to such an impressive size they had to go. This was quite an upheaval but it left lots of room for new corals and the chance to rescape and get rid of the xenia which was starting to take over. After the rescape the sand in the middle of the tank kept getting shifted by the vortechs so I decided to add some coarser grade sand. Not learning from my earlier mistake the diatoms retuned and are only just beginning to subside. This coincided with a browning of some corals notably purples seemed the worst affected just before Christmas 2010. I struggled for a while to find out what was going on as I was also trying to keep nutrients low because of the now returned diatoms I possibly overdid it on the carbon as I could see signs of cyno returning. However after this things kept looking worse so I changed my bulbs, did more water changes, reduced the zeo dosing right down but it kept getting worse. I finally narrowed it down to my RO membrane which I think may have been ruined over the cold weather over Christmas. I have now got a new membrane and have done a few water changes and things are now returning
to their former glory. The thing to note was that the output was still reading 0 TDS even when the membrane was fouled.
Anyway enough rambling let’s see some pics
Tank details
Tank is 5x2x2 in 12mm glass built by Keith at Windsor Aquatics, weir with Twin standpipe method with 40mm and 32mm drains and 25mm return.
Current Parameters
Nitrate 0-0.2
Calcium 400
KH 7.6
Phos undetectable (Merck kit)
Mag 1300
SG 1.026
Temp 25.8- 26.5
pH 8.0-8.2
Filtration
50 Kg Live rock
Deltec SC2060 Skimmer
Deltec PF500 Calcium reactor
KZ Small Zeo reactor
Aquarium Lighting and photo period
2 x 250W arcadia halide with 10k BLV's and 4 T5’s (currently 2 x marine lighting actinics, 1 x Narva blue, 1 x ATI Pink)
1 x Blue aquarays
Photo period: T5’s on 11 a.m to 9 p.m. halides 12.00pm to 8 p.m. aquarays= whenever
Evaporation loss, control and monitoring:
Auto top up in use: Home made auto top up with peri pump.
Electronic meters: ph + ph controller
Aquarium Plumbing, Circulation and flow Main system circulation:
2 x Vortech MP40W Sump return: Deltec HLP 4040 return pump Cooling and heating TC-10 Temperature controller
Heaters 2 x 150w in sump Cooling Azoo x 4 fan
Aquarium inhabitants Fish :
Purple Tang,
Regal tang,
2 x clowns,
Peacock Wrasse,
Adorned Wrasse,
Mandarin,
Green Chromis,
Yellow Bellied Blue Damsel
Corals
LPS
Frogspawn Hammers
Favia Acans
Candy cane
Duncans
Catalaphyllia
Cynaria
Echinopora
SPS
Acropora Tenuis
Acropora Gomezi
Acropora Efflorescens
Acropora Millepora (Purple)
Acropora Nana
Acropora Valida
Acropora Stag with blue tips
Acropora Stag green with blue tips
Acropora Humilis
Acropora (Bali Slimer)
Montipora Hirsuta,
Montipora Confusa
Montipora Danae
Montipora Encrusting Purple
Montipora Digitata (Purple, Orange)
Montipora plate orange, green with purple rim & green
Pocillipora Damicornis (Pink, Green)
Porities Cylindrica
Seriatopora Hystrix, Guttatus Stylophora Pistillata (pink) Softies Zoas Purple Mushrooms Pom Pom Xenia (grrr)
Palythoas
Invertebrates and other livestock
3 Peppermint shrimp Fighting Conch
Turbo Snails
Trochus Snails Lots of stomatella Cleaner Shrimp 2 x Tiger Tail Cucumber Red Bubble Tipped Anemone
Blue Maxima Clam
Feeding regime
2-3 times daily New era flake Frozen mussel, marine mix, brine, mysis, cyclopeeze
Phyto
Oyster Eggs
Cyclopeeze
Nori
Zeo dosing
I use approx 750g stones changed every 6-8 weeks
Start 2/3 0.25 ml 2 x per day
ZeoBac 4 drops 2 x per week
Potassium Iodide Fluoride 3 drops per day
Sponge Power 3 drops per day
Coral vitaliser 5 drops every other day
Amino Acids 2 drops every other day
The following are used as and when
Pohls extra
Stylo Pocci Glow
K Balance
Zeospur 2
Coral Snow
Zeozyme
Final thoughts
Am happy with the tank at the moment and if I could change anything I would probably like more front to back depth 30” or even 36”. I have pondered changing lights to T5 as I find the central lighting point of halides can lead to certain areas of the coral looking well but around the sides do not receive anywhere near as much light. I feel T5’s provide a wider concentration of light. The flip side I suppose is the greater intensity directly underneath the halide so it is swings and roundabouts. Please feel free to ask any questions you like about my tank as I’m always happy to share any information/experiences I have and once again it is a great honour to be TOTM.
Chris
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Originally Posted by screwloose
a lot 
