Barney's 58l Modified Marine Nano

[chrissaysyes]

You might as well keep the goniopora unless there's someone around you who you think will know/care more about them than you can/do. Just try to make the goni as comfortable as possible and who knows, you may unlock the secret to goni-longevity! ....but probably not

 

[SkiFletch]

All in good time Barney. This side of the hobby is always a learning experience, yet you'll get more comfortable with it. Heck, I still learn things all the time about the salty side of life.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Well finally got the courage together to drill the tank for my fuge. Was actually easier then I thought it was going to be. I now have most of the pipe work in place, I need to put in the dividers, modify the hood and leak test it.

Pics:
You can tell which hole was the first one

Tank connecters in:

T connections and downpipes on:

Downpipes on and tank in place:

Will leak test tommorrow, I'm going to put the dividers in at the weekend.

I need to move the electrics around a bit and I'm going to build a box around it. I also need to dig a light unit out for it.

Now the question (you didnt think you would get off that easy did you? ).

Using very fine grain sand is it worth putting in a deep sand bed covering a 9X9" area and 1-2 inches deep (I read that using fine grade sand means you only need it to be 1 inch deep to work).

The other question is that there are bracing bars all the way around the tank (to fit the cover glass on mainly I think). Does anyone think it would do any harm to remove the one on the right hand side? I wouldnt wont to remove the front and back ones but I cant see the side one hurting. This would make it easier to get the skimmer in and out (cover glass isnt going back on).

 

[chrissaysyes]

Everything is looking really good man! I was confused as to how things were going to look by your diagram but this is puts things into perspective and looks much better than I thought it would.

I dont see how removing that side brace would hurt anything. I dunno about the 1" DSB though...

 

[SkiFletch]

As for the brace, anyway you could take a top-town pic of the tank? It looks like the side brace is kind of like an equillateral rhomboid shape? It doesn't LOOk like it suports any water weight but I'd love to see a top-down before I confirmed that. Also how big is the tank? dimensions and water volume?

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Everything is looking really good man! I was confused as to how things were going to look by your diagram but this is puts things into perspective and looks much better than I thought it would.

I dont see how removing that side brace would hurt anything. I dunno about the 1" DSB though...

Yeah I was pretty sceptical too. It is in issue 12 of Practical fishkeeping.

Quote - Phil Hunt - PFK issue 12:
"With fine substrates (from the oolite or sugar-fine sands with 0.1mm diameter grains) you can create an effective sand bed for denitrification which doesn't require a lot of tank space. A 3cm bed of sugar fine sand can be as effective as a bed of at least twice that deapth of typical "coral sand" with 2-3mm grains."

 

[xxBarneyxx]

The tank is 24X10X12. Probably only about 9-10gallons after displacement.

..equillateral rhomboid shape..

Yep exactly. It has the corners cut in. I think I will remove it and maybe just stick it on the outside to be safe

 

[SkiFletch]

Sticking it on the outside wouldn't help. If it really is there for structural support, it would have to connect the long walls together which it can't do from the outside . At a water volume that low though, you'll be fine, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[chrissaysyes]

It may be a good idea to wrap the entire exterior of the aquarium in duct tape also...for precautionary measures.

 

[Matthew5664]

With regard to the sand bed I would safely say that a 1" fine sand bed would do the job of a 2" coarse sand bed. A mix would be more beneficial like 1" fine sand for the anaerobic layer with a 1" coarse sand on top for the aerobic layer. This would be the best option.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Well giving it a "wet test" now and it seems to be ok. blocked the overflow and it filled to the second one and then drained. No leaks so far (fingers crossed).

 

[SkiFletch]

Good man. Just watch those bulkhead seals for a week or so after it's up and running. THey can sometimes leak and require a little extra tighten

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Small update. Dividers where put in a couple of days ago and the silicone left to cure so tonight I can wet test it again and all being well get it in place tomorrow. I have cut out the sections of the hood and it actually doesnt look too bad (you cant even see the cuts from the front).

I have added a Xenia (it is actually xenia this time) and a small rock with yellow polyps on. This is my tank pretty much finished now unless I can get some small zoo or mushroom frags to fill in a couple of gaps.

The bad news is that I lost one of my clowns. They had both had whitespot from when I got them and while one of them now looks perfectly fine the other one never seemed to get much better. The other morning I woke up to find that it was in the claws of the hitch hiking crab who had pretty much finished him off completely. I'm not sure if the crab had got him (possibly, i think he killed the two turbo snails as well) or that he just died from the whitespot and the crab was just cleaning up.

The crab will be going in the fuge as soon as it is set up just in case. I need to check into if the clown will be ok left by itself. I was thinking of getting a small goby instead but not sure (have at least 8 weeks to look into it anyway as I want to make sure the whitespot has completely gone).

Corals are all doing well so far. I have noticed a LOT more little critters in the tank over the last couple of weeks which is cool.

I have got some polyfilter as well to try it out but once the fuge is fully up and running I probably wont buy anymore.

 

[chrissaysyes]

The whitespot will only die off in that 8 week period if there are no fish present. Although your other clown appears to be getting better, cryptocaryon irritans often appear to be going away, this is the stage of the parasites life where the white cysts on the fish burst and release the eggs I believe. Either way, it's typical and most of the time it will come back twice as hard A good thing to do at this point is to quarantine the remaining clown in very low salinity (dont do this to the main tank as it will destroy your corals and inverts.)

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Well I finally got the fuge in place today, finished off the holes and piping on the tank and now I'm just salting up the water in the fuge. Tomorrow the slat level will be the same and water will match up with the tank so I can put the pump in the tank and add the extra bit of water to set it all in motion

Anyway heres the pics:

Fuge, empty atm and has the pump in there circulating water round while I add salt.

Side hold in the hood for the return pipes.

Side hole from the outside with return pipes.

Return pipes into the tank. Notice the one and only "Crabicus Mysterio" sitting out of the water on the top right compartment......

The return pipe under water.

This is the hole in the back up the hood for the pipe going from the tank to the fuge.

Full tank shot (planted tank needs trimming up)

Favorite spot in the whole house

Crabicus Mysterio again, but what is that in his claws...

... that would be one of the other crabs I did have in there then... this guy is definetly going into the fuge tomorrow.

This is my only clown now. I think the other one got to close to Crabicus