Paul's Marine Journal

[pmb_67]

Ok, here goes: my first tank journal on fishforums (ok, anywhere) and my first marine aquarium. Happy to get any feedback, comments, advice at any time!

First things first - equipment

Tank: Rena Aqualife tank & cabinet in cherry finish; "official" size is 150cm long x 50cm wide x 70cm tall, but allowing for the 10mm glass and a fairly sizeable aluminium rim forming the hood, usable volume = 148cm x 48cm x 58cm = 412 litres, or 90.6 UK gallons, or 108.8 US gallons. Why our gallons are bigger I've no idea, but they are...

Had to modify the rim/hood a little - took a hacksaw and file (v gently!) to the rim to widen one of the hose/cable entry gaps at the back, then to the lid/hood so the left side piece fits. Will have to trim the right side piece of the lid/hood so that the return pipe fits ok - haven't plumbed that in yet so won't cut the panel just yet.

Filtration: 40kg live rock planned once I'm ready for it. Acrylic sump is under construction - didn't brave it myself, it's coming from Talking Plastics down in Portsmouth. Sump will contain live rock rubble in the entry chamber, skimmer in the next, caulerpa in the next, return pump in the last one - all in a 38cm x 38cm footprint. I'll put up some pics of how all this works out when I get the sump and set it all up. Forgot one last thing - also putting a wee pump in the sump to feed water slowly through a UV filter to a pair of Phosban 150 reactors, one filled with a phosphate absorber and one with carbon; this water will either be dropped back into the sump or up into the tank directly, haven't decided.

I'm not using the supplied filters (I say filters as the tank is supposed to come with a single Rena XP3 filter, my LFS provided two XP2's as they'd sold the XP3 between me paying for the tank and them delivering it), so if anyone's after an XP2 drop me a PM, make an offer and save me the ebay hassle.

Heating: Got two Aqua One heaters, a 200W and a 300W - LFS didn't have the Rena ones the tank should have come with (see filters, above - don't know why they sold all my kit!) - anyway, one of them will go in the sump (if there's room), the other in the tank. With a bigger sump I'd have put both in, though even then I'm not sure it's the best idea putting all the heater input in one place.

Lighting: Using the standard Rena setup, but on LFS advice the standard tubes have been replaced by two Hagen Power Glo's (18000K), one Life Glo (6700K) and one Marine Glo (blue actinic). That's 160W total, should be enough for fish-only, but I suppose I'll have to upgrade if I go the reef route at any point?

Circulation: Two Hydor Koralia 3's - haven't quite decided where to put these, thinking at the mo to have them both in one corner next to the in-tank heater, pointing along different sides; the return from the sump will also come in here so there should be plenty of flow past the heater and the filtered water should be pushed in two directions round the tank.

Decor

Not much beyond the above live rock and a thinnish (live) sand bed, at least until I get the hang of this whole salty game. Any thoughts, opinions, etc. on use of fake corals, anemones, etc. welcome. I say not much, the only thing I'm planning at the moment is to construct a rock wall for one side of the tank out of some egg crate and live rock rubble - nicked the idea from BigC on this here forum...

Water
RO from a nice RO-man system, made up to 1.023 SG (measured with a refractometer) using Red Sea Salt. LFS chucked an API master test kit into my start-up package, bought appropriate Salifert kits based on what I read here on the forums!

Stocking plan

CUC first, snails & hermits followed by a few shrimps - assuming I don't plan on getting anything that would eat them...

Fish - haven't finalised the plan, but first in will be a few green (or blue-green) chromis and a couple of percula or ocellaris clowns. I fancy pyjama and/or banggai cardinals, a yellow tang, couple of neon gobies, six line wrasse. long nose hawkfish would be nice but I read they eat shrimps. Butterfly fish, banner fish, fire fish, flame angel, coral beauty all possibles (but not all of them, if that makes sense). I adore powder-blue tangs after spending a week in the Maldives snorkelling with them, but I'm told they're pretty ich-prone and I don't fancy a tank wipe-out. Finally I would *so* like a Picasso trigger, but am pretty worried about its invert-eating tendencies...

Right, that's a start. More as and when things happen!

Paul

 

[SkiFletch]

Great start if you ask me, you're well on your way. Couple comments: Put both heaters in the sump, tune one for like 25C and the other for 24C. That way most of the time one heater is going. If one fails, then the other takes over and keeps your tank from freezing .

For fish, I'd put those neon gobies and bannerfish in before any tangs, angels, or wrasses but after the clowns/chromis. I'd stay away from longnose hawks cause not only can they develop invert eating sensibilities, but they can also be bigtime bullies. I'd suggest if you can get your hands on them, some fairy wrasses as these look gorgeous. And lastly, consider Anthias or Pseudo anthias instead of the chromis... A much nicer looking schooling fish if you ask me.

Lookin forward to see this one happen

 

[pmb_67]

Ok, here goes: my first tank journal on fishforums (ok, anywhere) and my first marine aquarium. Happy to get any feedback, comments, advice at any time!

Filtration: 40kg live rock planned once I'm ready for it. Acrylic sump is under construction - didn't brave it myself, it's coming from Talking Plastics down in Portsmouth. Sump will contain live rock rubble in the entry chamber, skimmer in the next, caulerpa in the next, return pump in the last one - all in a 38cm x 38cm footprint. I'll put up some pics of how all this works out when I get the sump and set it all up. Forgot one last thing - also putting a wee pump in the sump to feed water slowly through a UV filter to a pair of Phosban 150 reactors, one filled with a phosphate absorber and one with carbon; this water will either be dropped back into the sump or up into the tank directly, haven't decided.

Equipment update 1: still waiting on that sump - apparently it's being/been water tested, no news since then. (ok, since yesterday - but it feels like ages!)

Equipment update 2: that "wee pump" was a New Jet 400 mini pump... supposed to have a head of up to 70cm (which it does, as I used it to drain the test fill over the 70cm tall sides of the tank), but it couldn't cope. Upgraded to a New Jet 800, which gives a nice slow flow through both reactors (P-absorber + carbon) and the Vecton and back into the plastic bucket that's sat where the sump should be

That's all for now - serious frustration setting in!

Paul

 

[pmb_67]

August update #1

Got the sump on Friday (August 1st), plumbed it in Saturday, started filling (with RO) Sunday.

Drain hose leaked where it attached to a hosetail that led to a tap that led to the sump - no amount of tightening the clip around the hose stopped the leak, so switched to just Tunze ribbed hose for the entire run down to the sump. No leaks now, but getting some drainage noise when I actually get the thing going.

Also having trouble balancing the return flow so that the whole thing circulates at a constant level in both tank and sump - one or the other rises at the moment depending on how I set the return pump, I just can't seem to find the right power for the return.

Popped a [post="2083584"]separate post[/post] to this end over on the Saltwater Hardware forum, no replies yet so any advice welcome - hope the link works!

Oh, I also started salting the water - so far added 11.1 kg of Red Sea's salt, giving salinity of 1.020 according to the refractometer. I figure that'll go up a little as the salt fully dissolves (it seems to just suspend somewhat at first), though actually it'll go down a little as well as the 30 litres of freshwater from the sump mixes in with the 400 from the tank (did the salting without the sump running). Will fine-tune once the circulation is sorted.

I also started heating the water, not that this is very exciting. Just one thing to bear in mind folks, if you connect an ATC300 (heater controller and temp monitor) to a tank that is at around 20 deg C when you've set it to 25 deg C with a 3 deg tolerance, it is going to start beeping very loudly when you're in the office and your other half is at home relaxing.

That's all for now. Gonna go water change my freshies, think they're feeling a bit left out with all this salty business...

Paul

 

[pmb_67]

August update #2

Finally got me a balanced overflow/pump set-up - not entirely sure it's really circulating as much water as I'd hoped, can can't really think of how to measure it short of somehow trying to collect the water coming up the return pipe and measuring the flow!

Anyway, other news:

> Have filled the two reactors in the right-hand cabinet - one with Aquamedic Antiphos Fe and the other with Aquamedic Carbon pellets. Pretty painless process, that was - washed the media in RO first, poured dust away, then ran first few litres of water through the reactors into the drain. Thought occurs that in the future I'm going to need to have a supply of saltwater handy - running 10 litres to drain meant 10 litres RO got sucked out of the top-up tank...

> Have set up the ATC300 for the rear light bar. Just a note for those thinking of adopting this piece of kit, it most ways it's pretty smart but its way of timing a light, or fan, etc. on the second (i.e. timed, non-heater) plug socket is that you basically have to set it up at the time you want the device to come on - and set how long you want in to stay on, then how long you want it to stay off. So for my rear light bar I want it to come on at 11am and go off at 10pm, so I set "o11" then "c13" for the 13 hours it'll be off before coming back on at 11 tomorrow... Missed the 10am deadline to set the front one which will run 10am to 9pm, giving me a total 12-hour lights-on window, with the end hours at half power. Can't do a siesta with this set-up...

> Thinking about starting my LR addition pretty soon - temp and salinity permitting...

Paul

 

[ox5477]

For flow, if you can get your downspout from the tank to flow into a bucket/container of known volume just time how long it takes to fill the bucket/container.... then you can transfer into gallons/hr...ltrs/hr.... whatever

For restricting the flow going to the tank as well, do you have a T fitting off of your return line that empties back into the sump? This will help you with your flow as you can put ball valves on both this line and the main line to help really fine tune flow back to the main display... also this removes any back pressure on the pump from just plainly restricting it with a single return line... will make the pump run smoother and last longer.

Ox

 

[SkiFletch]

Or if you can't get do what Ox mentioned, use a bag. Just put it over the bulkhead with a stopwatch, take it out, and see how much water goes into the bag in say a minute...

 

[pmb_67]

For flow, if you can get your downspout from the tank to flow into a bucket/container of known volume just time how long it takes to fill the bucket/container.... then you can transfer into gallons/hr...ltrs/hr.... whatever

Ox

Or if you can't get do what Ox mentioned, use a bag. Just put it over the bulkhead with a stopwatch, take it out, and see how much water goes into the bag in say a minute...

Hmmm, nice ideas but I can't figure out how to implement them as the tank's full and the pipework is all glued together (no leaks on my first attempt at Tangit gluing - pretty chuffed I can tell you!), can't lower the tank water level to catch the return pipe's outflow as it would stop the overflow working. Guess I could grab the overflow's big flexible tube and give that a go, but again flow is pretty dependent on the water height in the tank so once I stop adding to the sump I'll only have a few seconds before it's emptied and the flow rate dies... Anyway, will probably have a fiddle over the weekend!

For restricting the flow going to the tank as well, do you have a T fitting off of your return line that empties back into the sump? This will help you with your flow as you can put ball valves on both this line and the main line to help really fine tune flow back to the main display... also this removes any back pressure on the pump from just plainly restricting it with a single return line... will make the pump run smoother and last longer.

Ox

Now that has to be one of the best tips I've had yet. In short, no - I just have a single tap on the return line that heads all the way up to the tank. Seriously considering cutting into one of the lines to create the flow-back loop with a second T, then again if I just replace the single tap with a 3-way tap (i.e. supply in one side, tap just controls how much goes down each branch) then I'll be able to run the pump effectively full blast / unrestricted and just recycle water through the sump again - giving it even more chance to be skimmed and de-phosphated before it heads back up.

Hey, another question. If using reactors (mine are "Phosban" reactors by Two Little Fishies, or something like that), the flow should be fast enough to keep the media suspended, right? If so it looks like I need to increase my reactor pump's power again, the Antiphos Fe and Carbon are just sitting at the bottom with a gentle flow passing through...

Paul

 

[BigC]

Following this thread with great interest
Throw some pics at us.
Regards
BigC

 

[ox5477]

Now that has to be one of the best tips I've had yet. In short, no - I just have a single tap on the return line that heads all the way up to the tank. Seriously considering cutting into one of the lines to create the flow-back loop with a second T, then again if I just replace the single tap with a 3-way tap (i.e. supply in one side, tap just controls how much goes down each branch) then I'll be able to run the pump effectively full blast / unrestricted and just recycle water through the sump again - giving it even more chance to be skimmed and de-phosphated before it heads back up.

Now I'll be honest, not my idea... seen it done and it seems to be a very effective solution to bleed off extra flow from your pump if your overflow can't keep up. And as you said, it will give some of the water a second chance to go through the whole sump.

When you say a three way fitting as well, you mean that you can't restrict flow at all, it just divides it more to one side or the other? I have never seen this as most use a t-fitting with a ball valve on each outlet of the T to control each branch. Should work in theory... or atleast I cant think of why it wouldnt work.

Ox

 

[pmb_67]

Following this thread with great interest
Throw some pics at us.
Regards
BigC

Yep, will do when I can persuade the missus to lend me her camera and pull the pics onto her laptop... don't think my mobile/cell phone ones are very good (and I've lost the bluetooth dongle to transfer them to my old T21 anyway!)

Now that has to be one of the best tips I've had yet. In short, no - I just have a single tap on the return line that heads all the way up to the tank. Seriously considering cutting into one of the lines to create the flow-back loop with a second T, then again if I just replace the single tap with a 3-way tap (i.e. supply in one side, tap just controls how much goes down each branch) then I'll be able to run the pump effectively full blast / unrestricted and just recycle water through the sump again - giving it even more chance to be skimmed and de-phosphated before it heads back up.

Now I'll be honest, not my idea... seen it done and it seems to be a very effective solution to bleed off extra flow from your pump if your overflow can't keep up. And as you said, it will give some of the water a second chance to go through the whole sump.

When you say a three way fitting as well, you mean that you can't restrict flow at all, it just divides it more to one side or the other? I have never seen this as most use a t-fitting with a ball valve on each outlet of the T to control each branch. Should work in theory... or atleast I cant think of why it wouldnt work.

Ox

Ah, I get it - sounds good, but unless both ball valves after your T are open you're going to be getting some back-pressure on the pump, I'd have thought. But probably more adjustable than a single 3-way valve. Have popped a question to the chaps at Fish Fur & Feather where I sourced my original pipework from - I reckon the design of their ball valves mean I'll be able to swap out the 2-way for the 3-way without changing any pipes (the sockets that you glue the pipe in are separate from the valve body), just adding a short return-to-sump drain...

Can't believe I have to sit at my desk another 8 hours before I can go home and get on with the serious business of getting this tank set up

Paul

 

[BigC]

Can't believe I have to sit at my desk another 8 hours before I can go home and get on with the serious business of getting this tank set u

Sicknote

Just wait till you get going and reality kicks in. I thought the setting up was supposed to be the easy bit. lol

Regards
BigC

 

[SkiFletch]

I thought the setting up was supposed to be the easy bit.

 

[ben1987]

wish i had the £££ to go that big

 

[pmb_67]

I thought the setting up was supposed to be the easy bit.

Yeah, real easy... NOT!

First attempt at building the rock wall not successful, think I got the epoxy bit wrong though. Gonna try again in a separate container (thanks BigC for the idea) (and the original idea ) as I now have 35 KILOS OF BRAND SPANKING NEW LIVE ROCK in my tank. Well, I say new, like it's actually cured and that, but it's new to me.

Next steps - rearrange the rocks into a nice structure of some sort then watch the water stats...

Today's quick question - discovered a really small crab in one of the polystyrene boxes when I'd taken the LR out. Should I put him in the tank, or is that risking him growing to a foot-long fish devouring monster?

Today's second quick question - lights on or off during the LR's settling-in period?

Today's prize for stupidity goes to ... me! Yes, 35kg of rock occupies a fair volume = water displacement!

Today's prize for top piece of kit goes to ... Tunze Osmolater, whose depth alarm sounded and warned me of potential flooding. Turns out I actually had enough safety volume in the sump to accommodate the displacement...

Back later to check for answers

Paul