First Marine Tank :)

[seffieuk]

I must admit to being a little that you have bought a Goni - please try and search out the thread of the week for this species, there are a few tips in there for trying to keep this very diffficult coral alive.

You actually have two Hammer (anchor) corals - one is Euphyllia ancora and the other is Euphyllia parancora, the name difference is actually in reference to the skeleton

Seffie x

 

[drsquirrel]

I was talking about the heat of the pump.

And 24-26 in a day feels excessive.

How high are you running your main tank? Is your pump return pipework that deep inside your tank? Maybe if you look at that you won't have to worry about flooding and/or messing around with filter floss (its very hard to clean out as the fine stuff gets really far inside).

The coral beauty pose is a good one.

 

[indir-emir]

That is the temp of my main tank It is in teh water maybe an inch with a hole pierced about 15mm under the water surface to stop the syphon if it back flows in a power out.

Thanks for hcomment on the coral beauty, he is still shy and hides between rocks will occasionaly swim with the clowns picking at the rock work chewing away He has eaten mysis last night, so im happy there. Just waiting on him to not be as shy and start coming out more, very pretty fish.

And yes i did realise that the goni was going to be a tough one after the missus bought me it, but its one of my favourite corals. It is a very beautiful coral. I will do everything in my power to get it to survive Im doing a ton of reserach and have read that coral of the weak thread Thanks seffie.

I think you are correct actually sephie. Is there even a differenc between the hammer and anchor coral? If not, it does explain a few of hte sites ifound calling them the same thing.

The Euphyllia ancora has been opening with no problems since within 30 mins of arriving in my tank. However the Euphyllia parancora is only just starting to open up as much as dad said it was, but he says its still got alot of opening to do (says it was a big football shape when open). So im hoping its still just getting used to the tank, is this normal?

 

[drsquirrel]

I was suggesting wrapping the pump up will affect the temperature of the pump.


And I am surprised 18"x18"x15mm would flood your sump.

45.72 x 45.72 x 1.5 = 3135.4776cm3 = 3.1 Litres

Even if you had a blockage in the top, I doubt a full return pump compartment would be enough to flood your display tank either.


As for the tank temp - could someone else comment on that too - as to me 24-26 is a large swing in half a day (and you don't have that small a volume either).


How much evaporation are you getting also? Do you know yet?

 

[indir-emir]

A few litres of evaporation. Maybe 1-2L on average.

The tank gets higher because of the heat up stairs, i need to get a chiller but tight on cash right now. And its winter! Just the heater for the house is on alot lately which rises upstairs.

My tank is 48 inches by 18 inches. So just over 8L of water i beleive, plus the water in the return pipe, plus a L or two from the overflow. The sump is 2 foot by 16 by 16. The return compartment is about 1/3 -1/2 the way up the chamber. I filled it a few mm off the rim and turned the pumps on and it stops at this level that it is currently on. Afraid to put it higher as if the power cuts out the siphon from the display tank will fill up the sump and overflow it onto my floors.... Need to find another way around the bubbles, any sugestions? Nee dto remove the filter wool, as now that i think about it, i think it would get quite hot eventually (sorry i take a bit of time ).

The temp was average temp during the week, it can be higher or lower sometimes. And sometimes it barely changes at all. I am using no heater on the tank at all...

Stuck on what to do for the bubbles getting tossed inot the tank :\ Suggestions please!? I will go and test to make sure the tank doesnt over flow after this post and see how much room i have to play with again.

 

[drsquirrel]

Opps 48x18 sorry !

And your filling method is probably the best way to make sure the water volume won't flood the sump - maybe you could consider putting the anti-syphon hole higher.


If you turned the sump, you wouldn't have the bubbles but you would have less "empty space" in the sump to stop flooding. Ideally if it was turned the bubble traps being a lot lower would lower the water level in the return chamber and DSB area giving more room for powercuts. If they were lower it would give you a bit more room for this even in the current directly.

I've seen angled glass/acriylic in sumps for various uses - I cannot think from my head how you could apply it here, have a look online.


You could try for now, putting filter wool on the water surface in the return chamber to stop the bubbles crashing to the bottom of the chamber.


Surely 1-2L a day will empty your return chamber?

Another thing I noticed, is your clip on the pipe exiting the return pump is metal. salt water + metal = bad



Any space for a second sump next to it?

 

[indir-emir]

Not with daily top ups! Its not THAT shallow Oh and i cant turn the sump because my skimmer will not fit in the other section :\ Never using a 2 foot sump again, didnt think that one through! But sorted it atleast.

Have fixed it either way. No more bubbles at all! I lifted the return pipe a little higher in the tank so it only pulls out about an inch of water depth at most. Keeps me an inch from the top of the sump (so lower then before!), and its high enough to have 0 bubbles! Took a bit of playing around with, but ive done it.

#41#### good spot I totally forgot but te return pump holder, what is the alternative to that? :\ I think it is aluminium though, does that make it better? :\ Not sure on an alternative

Got some updated pics for you guys. Got a decent shot of the coral beauty! With the clowns in the background Will be at the end of this post

I also fed the tropic marin phyto plankton, reef snow and zooton to the tank about 20-30 minutes prior to main lights going out, moon lights have been on for about half an hour. Usually all the corals are shut by now, they are all open! They MUST really like this stuff! Especially the goni!! Its usually first to close up, but seems to have spread even more since i put it in the tank haha. Good sign that im happy to see, even if it is an extra cost. I am more than happy to pay for it as the coral seem to love it

Man the goni and the Euphyllia ancora are very very very cool looking in the moonlights. TV is off so i can sit in darkness with the moonlights on

Anyway without further a due, pictures!

The crew!

Coral Beauty:

The sump now, left the writing to show you the height difference.

Just got one question guys and girls, does it normally take Euphyllia parancora a while to open up completely? It is open, but dad says it was alot bigger at the shop, said you could not tell the shape of the rock when it was open. I know its probably getting used to the tank, but would just like to make sure... So is this normal?

P.S - Anyone want to suggest a good name for the coral beauty? We are stuck on a name for him/her!

 

[seffieuk]

There are usually two reasons a euphyllia does not expand properly:

Flow and tank conditions, phosphates, nitrates etc. As the other euphyllia is expanding well I assume we can rule out the phos/nitrats, so is more likely to be either too much or too little flow - they are very picky about flow

Seffie x

 

[indir-emir]

Well it is in mid tank, the rock it is attached to is half burried in the substrate. It gets moderate flow, however it is more than the other coral one wave maker is aimed towards it while the other coral is behind a rock so only gets a low indirect flow. Strange...

May be i will have to move the coral somewhere, any ideas on where to try next? Should i shoot for closer to the wave makers or further? Its opened up, but since i dont konw what it was like at the shop when dad bought it I cant say it is fully open. I might give it another day or two to see if it may just be settling in... The other was wide open within 30 minutes lol, musta liked that spot.

Man its been over an hour since lights out and ALL corals are still wide open, must be feeding on the plankton, reef snow and zooton! Any else hear much about this product?

 

[drsquirrel]

Plastic clips - although personally I find these are crap.

Although the pressure isn't that high imo, a good tight fit should be enough on it's own.



Something else I noticed is your sump feed. It's rather deep and the air rushing back to the surface will make more noise - and I can see you have filter floss there to probably silence that. If you have it just below the surface the air will have a shorter distance to travel up. Or, I have seen others put an air hole in their down pipe (for you, you'd do it at the elbow half way down) which will let the air out the top rather than forcing as much down the water.

Got any old tights(stockings)? Stick one over the end, will catch all the little bits without needing buy a specific filter sock and it will catch a load of crap - your bubble trap will help remove some but not all - I use a tight actually to keep the air noise down too

 

[indir-emir]

Haha yeah i have to find some tights to stuff on that thing. I actually intentionaly put it that low, the filter floss is gone now and it is just as loud and no bubbles make it past anyway. I will however get some tights or something to put over the edge.

Well plastic ones barely even do anything, hence that clamp being used. There has to be an alternative which is just as strong? I really dont trust a good tight fit enough Considering it will empty my tank to my floor pretty fast if it screws up lol. Better safe then sorry. That and dad would kill me if it leaked all over the floor upstairs :\

I need to go buy a proper elbow piece, so i will put it higher once i get that piece. The one currently used has the end cut off So just redirects the flow a little bit lol... Was a left of PVC piece when iw as trying to make a druso to fit my tiny overflow, ended up using the stockman one though Well my version of it

 

[drsquirrel]

How do you tighten that one anyway? I wouldn't put a screwdriver in the water tbh... though I was going to say you could use pliers to close the plastic ones (I do this on any above water level).

I don't see the problem with your "half cut" elbow now, most other people just go straight down\slight angle.


Any more stock plans?

 

[indir-emir]

clip was tightened prior to water going into tank. To prevent it bursting up lol.

Will sort out the overflow when i get a chance. Back at uni now.

As for stocking, i do intend on more stock. Some more CuC, snails, starfish, that sort of CuC. Also want a few more fish, fire goby is one i want. Would really like a fish that sits in the open 99% of time lol, gotta half lean of my wall to see the fish hiding. Clowns like their corner and the coral beauty hides inbetween rock!
Do intend on a mandarin dragonet later down the track when i can support one! Love the little buggers hehe.

Any stock suggestions? Cuc, coral, fish, inverts, etc.

 

[drsquirrel]

My Turbo snails are out 99% of the time

 

[indir-emir]

Haha im afraid they might move a rock and itll shatter my glass as it rolls down lol. My rockwork is stable, just worried

Anything else?