Well, I've been a bit of a lurker on these forums for a couple of months, gleaning bits of information here and there while I researched for my first fish-keeping experiment. So this is the result of my efforts so far:
- 48x24x24 12mm glass tank. Internal glass weir with 4 drilled holes and fittings (2x25mm drain pipes and 2x18mm returns).
- 3 foot sump tank with wet-dry trickle filter. Includes rotating trickle arms (one on the end of each drain pipe) to spread water evenly across filter, thin mechanical filter material, heaps of bio-balls.
- Reef Octopus DNW-110 recirculating needle-wheel driven skimmer. Fed by 1000L/hr pump.
- 2x2300L/hr return pumps in sump compartment.
- 2x300W heaters (overkill I know, but redundancy never hurts)
- 1x2300L/hr pump in main tank supplying a closed-loop circulation systems that sits under a supported egg-crate platform.
- Light fitting with 2x150W MH, 2x54W T5 Actinic and 2xLED moonlights.
- Custom built pine cabinet.
I did a little bit of mucking around in terms of the hardware. Two of the spare outlets from my pumps proved a perfect fit for the sump return pipes. You can see how I have used them in the above photo to create some nice surface agitation. Combined with the angle fitting on the pipes themselves, I have a lot of flexibility here in terms of directing flow.
I also created the egg-crate reef-rack standing on short lengths of PVC and surround by a drape of shade-cloth to keep the gravel out.
Also, the drain pipes and weir were quite noisy when I first set up the tank. I fixed this by purchasing 2 in-line garden irrigation style taps for the drain pipes. These were placed near the trickle filter and have a three-fold effect on noise: 1. Effectively fills the drain pipes with water instead of a part-full flow, eliminating the gurgling, draining noise. 2. Eliminates the venturi sucking noise in the weir due to an increase water level. 3. The increased water level in the weir also reduces the fall distance for overflows from the display tank, reducing that noise also.
So then in went some "things":
- 20kg of coral sand.
- ~15kg of artificial rock. Seems to be pretty neat stuff made by a local store out of what appears to be shellgrit and coral sand fused together somehow and cured in the ocean for a couple of months. I've seen a few established tanks with this rock and it takes on a nice appearance and harbours a lot of life as it matures. They "claim" it has an optimal density of aerobic and anaerobic zones.
- ~500L of rainwater. I live in a semi-rural area and we collect our own rainwater. I tested for the common chemicals and nutrients, and made sure that the fixture I took it from had no copper lines.
- Aquasonic Ocean Nature sea salt, locally made product.
I ran the tank like this for about 5 days to stabilise Ph, S.G. and temp.
On the 6th day, in went 23kg of live rock. This particular rock came from North Queensland and had been in the store about 3-4 days before I purchased it. Based on this, plus its appearance and smell, I'm guessing that is mostly "un-cured" (althought it hasn't travelled overly far and shouldn't have been out of the ocean for longer than a day). When the live rock went in, I began dosing with Seachem's Stability. Here are my readings since set-up:
Day Date Temp (â°C) S.G. Ph Ammonia Nitrite Nitrate
0 Start-up 25 1.0230 8.2 0 0 0
1 18/08/2007 25 1.0240 8.3 0.2 0 0
2 19/08/2007 24 1.0235 8.3 0.5 0 0
3 20/08/2007 25 1.024 8.3 0.6 0 0
4 21/08/2007 25 1.024 8.3 1 0.15 0
Here are some close-up pics of the rock:
In the third picture, you can see a small hole in center of the frame blockaded by a round shell. I have a small mantis shrimp in there that I will have to remove soon enough. Any tips?
Within minutes of placing the rock in the tank, I spotted many snails, worms and brittle stars throughout the tank. I am pretty happy with the rock, it seems like it has lots of good stuff growing on it. There are a heap of little zoo polyps on a few of the pieces. A couple of cool-looking dead coral skeletons as well.
I have a couple of queries. I am unsure exactly what ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings I should be expecting. I was hoping that I would see ammonia dropping by now and that nitrites and nitrates would be building. Am I being impatient? Are my readings in-line with what is to be expected so far?
My skimmer seems to be working quite well. It produces a collection cup-full of brown bubbles and scum each day. Should I lower the water level in it so that scum build up is slower and more "dense"? ALSO, very handy hint for removing micro-bubbles from the skimmer outlet: Run the outlet water over some sort of flat surface. This is very effective in remove all of the tiny annoying bubbles that could make it back the display tank. In my case, I have simply directed the outlet pipe of the skimmer against the sump tank wall about 5-6 inches above the water surface.
I have also noticed a strange spider-silk like substance on a couple of my rocks. I have absolutely no idea what it is. Here are some pics of it. Is it normal??
So, from here my plans are:
- Wait for ammonia and nitrite to drop back to zero.
- Purchase some more artificial base rock and another ~25kg of live rock (I want to try to find some fully cured stuff of a different variety next time, just for a faster cycle and a bit of diversity)
- Purchase some artificial rock ball thingies made of the same material as my rock that have been seeded in an operational reef tank to add to my sump filter.
- Purchase a 15000L/hr Resun Wave Maker for the display tank.
- From there, move on to my first livestock.
Any and all comments/critisms are welcome!
- 48x24x24 12mm glass tank. Internal glass weir with 4 drilled holes and fittings (2x25mm drain pipes and 2x18mm returns).
- 3 foot sump tank with wet-dry trickle filter. Includes rotating trickle arms (one on the end of each drain pipe) to spread water evenly across filter, thin mechanical filter material, heaps of bio-balls.
- Reef Octopus DNW-110 recirculating needle-wheel driven skimmer. Fed by 1000L/hr pump.
- 2x2300L/hr return pumps in sump compartment.
- 2x300W heaters (overkill I know, but redundancy never hurts)
- 1x2300L/hr pump in main tank supplying a closed-loop circulation systems that sits under a supported egg-crate platform.
- Light fitting with 2x150W MH, 2x54W T5 Actinic and 2xLED moonlights.
- Custom built pine cabinet.
I did a little bit of mucking around in terms of the hardware. Two of the spare outlets from my pumps proved a perfect fit for the sump return pipes. You can see how I have used them in the above photo to create some nice surface agitation. Combined with the angle fitting on the pipes themselves, I have a lot of flexibility here in terms of directing flow.
I also created the egg-crate reef-rack standing on short lengths of PVC and surround by a drape of shade-cloth to keep the gravel out.
Also, the drain pipes and weir were quite noisy when I first set up the tank. I fixed this by purchasing 2 in-line garden irrigation style taps for the drain pipes. These were placed near the trickle filter and have a three-fold effect on noise: 1. Effectively fills the drain pipes with water instead of a part-full flow, eliminating the gurgling, draining noise. 2. Eliminates the venturi sucking noise in the weir due to an increase water level. 3. The increased water level in the weir also reduces the fall distance for overflows from the display tank, reducing that noise also.
So then in went some "things":
- 20kg of coral sand.
- ~15kg of artificial rock. Seems to be pretty neat stuff made by a local store out of what appears to be shellgrit and coral sand fused together somehow and cured in the ocean for a couple of months. I've seen a few established tanks with this rock and it takes on a nice appearance and harbours a lot of life as it matures. They "claim" it has an optimal density of aerobic and anaerobic zones.
- ~500L of rainwater. I live in a semi-rural area and we collect our own rainwater. I tested for the common chemicals and nutrients, and made sure that the fixture I took it from had no copper lines.
- Aquasonic Ocean Nature sea salt, locally made product.
I ran the tank like this for about 5 days to stabilise Ph, S.G. and temp.
On the 6th day, in went 23kg of live rock. This particular rock came from North Queensland and had been in the store about 3-4 days before I purchased it. Based on this, plus its appearance and smell, I'm guessing that is mostly "un-cured" (althought it hasn't travelled overly far and shouldn't have been out of the ocean for longer than a day). When the live rock went in, I began dosing with Seachem's Stability. Here are my readings since set-up:
Day Date Temp (â°C) S.G. Ph Ammonia Nitrite Nitrate
0 Start-up 25 1.0230 8.2 0 0 0
1 18/08/2007 25 1.0240 8.3 0.2 0 0
2 19/08/2007 24 1.0235 8.3 0.5 0 0
3 20/08/2007 25 1.024 8.3 0.6 0 0
4 21/08/2007 25 1.024 8.3 1 0.15 0
Here are some close-up pics of the rock:
In the third picture, you can see a small hole in center of the frame blockaded by a round shell. I have a small mantis shrimp in there that I will have to remove soon enough. Any tips?
Within minutes of placing the rock in the tank, I spotted many snails, worms and brittle stars throughout the tank. I am pretty happy with the rock, it seems like it has lots of good stuff growing on it. There are a heap of little zoo polyps on a few of the pieces. A couple of cool-looking dead coral skeletons as well.
I have a couple of queries. I am unsure exactly what ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings I should be expecting. I was hoping that I would see ammonia dropping by now and that nitrites and nitrates would be building. Am I being impatient? Are my readings in-line with what is to be expected so far?
My skimmer seems to be working quite well. It produces a collection cup-full of brown bubbles and scum each day. Should I lower the water level in it so that scum build up is slower and more "dense"? ALSO, very handy hint for removing micro-bubbles from the skimmer outlet: Run the outlet water over some sort of flat surface. This is very effective in remove all of the tiny annoying bubbles that could make it back the display tank. In my case, I have simply directed the outlet pipe of the skimmer against the sump tank wall about 5-6 inches above the water surface.
I have also noticed a strange spider-silk like substance on a couple of my rocks. I have absolutely no idea what it is. Here are some pics of it. Is it normal??
So, from here my plans are:
- Wait for ammonia and nitrite to drop back to zero.
- Purchase some more artificial base rock and another ~25kg of live rock (I want to try to find some fully cured stuff of a different variety next time, just for a faster cycle and a bit of diversity)
- Purchase some artificial rock ball thingies made of the same material as my rock that have been seeded in an operational reef tank to add to my sump filter.
- Purchase a 15000L/hr Resun Wave Maker for the display tank.
- From there, move on to my first livestock.
Any and all comments/critisms are welcome!
... Saturate a 1gallon bucket with magnesium chloride or magnesium sulphate (epsom salts), usually 5 cups per gallon. Then dip the rock in there. The mantis (and other crustaceans/snails) will probably run screaming from the rock. Scoop him out with a bucket/cup (watch your fingers) and put him wherever you want.
