Barney And Lyn's 5Ft Reef Tank (150G(Uk) System)

[xxBarneyxx]

Well just ordered 6 new tubes for the lights and a cheapo (but massive) skimmer off ebay. Not sure if the skimmer is going to be up to the job but it was only £60 and it looks like a good design. It would also be fairly simple to modify it and and a recirculating pump if I find its not really up to the job.

While ordering the tubes I also run into a discovery. Basically I found I had 3 blue tubes and one 7500k tube on there (so only 2 white tubes which are 10K). Not sure how this happened. think I must have got tubes muddled up somewhere along the line and I do remember one of the whites going and replacing it with the planted tube "until I can get to the shop" (about 8 months ago.....)

The tubes are well overdue a replacement so I'm looking forward to having a bright tank again (and not having algae that grows back so quickly with the slightest increase in phosphates).

I got a large plastic bin today to start mixing up some new salt water so hopefully the rescape will begin this weekend

 

[ben1987]

got a link to the skimmer mate?

 

[xxBarneyxx]

got a link to the skimmer mate?

Its this one:
http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/Aquarium-Fish-Tank-Sump-Protein-Skimmer-Inc-pump-marine_W0QQitemZ180431817729QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Pet_Supplies_Fish?hash=item2a02930c01#ht_2918wt_754

It does look like a fairly good design from what I can see (though its always hard to tell until you actually use it). The reaction chamber and body look very similar to the TMC V2 design and it looks like its easy to adjust both the water and air flow rates. I have got a mesh modded pump here too which I was going to use to build my own skimmer but if this skimmer isnt up to the jump I will add the pump in as a recirculating pump.

 

[ChilliPepper]

Just been reading your journal. Fantastic tank, I am so sorry about your losses though, especially the chromis. I had already decided to get some after seeing some in my LFS, they will be a must for my tank when I set it up next year. Watching yours convinced me even more. Will you replace the ones you lost? They did look fabulous.

Hope we get some new pics soon, and good luck with redoing it all

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yeah I think we will. They are really pretty fish and really add a lot of movement to the tank. Unlike a lot of marine fish that spend a lot of time going in and out of the rocks the chromis are out and about swimming constantly while the lights are on so I would strongly recommend them.

The skimmer arrived today while I was at home for lunch. Only had a quick look at the box and will be setting it up when I get home tonight

I will get some before and after photos of the tank. I will apologize in advance for the before photos as the tank really doesn't look that great at the moment

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I didnt get half of what I wanted to get done over the weekend. I have now picked up the other 4ft tank I was waiting for though so this should make life easier. I'm going to transfer everything to the 4ft while I work on the 5ft then transfer it all back again after.

The skimmer works really well. Its still bedding in so needs some adjustments. I also need to raise it up a bit as the water level in my sump is too high (makes adjustment difficult and isnt as efficient). Other then that though it works great, its very quite, easy to adjust and overnight it had pulled out about 1/4 pint of very dark skimmate.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Very brief update as I haven't been on here for ages.

Over the weekend I finally started on the rescape which I have had planned for over a year. We moved everything to a spare tank, cleaned off all the LR (had cyano issues in some areas due to a constant phosphate problem) and drained and cleaned the main tank.

Unfortunately things didn't go too well. A heater malfunctioned overnight and I woke up to a tank that was 31degC. Fortunately it wasn't a complete wipe out but we did have some loses and we are now down to the pair of clowns, 1 anthias, the mandarin, algae blenny and coral beauty. Not sure how well the corals will do, the torch coral is not looking good and the bubble coral isnt opened up as much as normal. The soft corals for the most part seem to be ok.

Also two of my 3 korilia powerheads got broken (shafts have snapped). They are working at the moment but need to be repaired/replaced

On the more positive side though we are now refilling the main tank (slow process waiting for the RO) and this should be finished by the weekend then we can start rebuilding it all.

I plan to go for a much more open structure this time which will give much better water flow and have a lot less debris build up.

I will update with photos once the tank is back together again

 

[seffieuk]

Nice to see you back Barney - sorry about your losses, certainly know how you feel, I am also battling cyano and have lost most of my euphyllias

Hope to here from you soon with an update - how is family life suiting you?

Seffie x

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Nice to see you back Barney - sorry about your losses, certainly know how you feel, I am also battling cyano and have lost most of my euphyllias

Hope to here from you soon with an update - how is family life suiting you?

Seffie x

Sorry to hear about the Euphyllias I need to ctach up with everyones journals but last I looked you had a pretty amazing collection.

Cyano is a major PITA and is one of the reasons I decided to strip down the tank and rescape. No matter what I did I could never get the phosphate levels down to a reasonable level. So doing a complete water change will hopefully take care of it then I can use the phosphate remover to control the build up rather than trying to reduce it from a stupidly high range.

When I came down to find the fish dead I was very close to calling it a day and selling up everything. Was even worse as it had taken me close to 8 hours the previous day to get everything sorted into the temp tank and I was felling pretty fed up with it all already.

Just hoping the rescape comes out close to what I want. Its going to be a difficult task because I don't have many bits of large LR to build with. Will see how it goes though.

Family life is very much to my liking Thanks for asking.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Woohoo!! After a lot of stress, swearing and back pain the rescape is 95% complete.

There is a little bit more I want to do with the rockwork and I still need to add sand. Then I need to get the sump filled up and sort the skimmer etc out. I will be ordering a heater controller today as well as I really, really don't trust my heaters anymore.

Photos arent great quality as they are just a few snaps from my phone last night. The main lights are out too.

FTS:

Angled FTS:

Left Side:

Right Side:

Short video:
http/img220.imageshack.us/img220/3152/vid00008201004112353.mp4

Well for some stupid reason the forum refuses to let me post images. Every time I try it says "You are not allowed to use that image extension on this board." so will just have to leave the links for now.

Edit: Never mind appears that image tags are now case sensitive.

 

[ben1987]

come up as 404 not found for me mate

 

[rdp50734]

They are all broken links!

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Bah, I give up. I can see them all here

 

[rdp50734]

working now for me! And I must say looks really good esp the clowns!

 

[seffieuk]

Barney i'm loving that scape, did you use rods for the middle section or expoxy? You have been very clever, me thinks, massive amount for future coral placements - reminds me a bit of Ben's aquascaping and you know he is a master Think its the best aquascape ive seen in a long time


Seffie x