A 3ft tiny piece of ocean in my living room

[danccy]

Was in this hobby for the last few years. Started with a normal open top tank ( left over from keeping gold fishes) with an external Ehiem filter and airstone skimmer and overhanging T5 lamp.

The results were not too bad for about 2 years than had a sudden cyno-bac bloom and crashed the tank. Than moved house and bought a red sea 130D, thought an all in one system will be ideal but it needs more maintenance than I thought and every 6 months or so there will be an algae bloom. I was later told that for that system, there is a need to change 10% of water every week and wash the sponges frequently as everything is in the tank.

For both tanks, I was using tap water to mix the salt in , later realize that was a bad move as it contributed to all the Cyno-bac and algae bloom plus over feeding and bad maintenance.

Recently about 3 months back I invested in a proper tank with a overflow box and chiller. Costs me a bomb but figure this will be the last shot at giving this hobby a try. Hopefully with my previous experience and all the advice I got from this forum the stability of the tank will last for many years to come

Specs:

- 15mm Glass open top with cabinet ( 3ft x 2ft x 2 ft)

- Sump tank with Bio tower filled with Bacteria King medium

- Schuran Jetskim 150 Skimmer

- Ehiem 1264 Main Pump

- Arctica DBA-200 Chiller and Accessories

- Ehiem 1260 Chiller Pump

[danccy]

Finally got the lights up and running after 3 weeks. I Bought an AI Sol for the tank after reading quite good reviews of it but worried that the false ceiling may not be able to take the weight and was contemplating if I should get a tank mount instead but could not find a decent one within my budget or met all my criteria of ht above the tank the length of the light etc. So decided to just take a chance with the hanging kit and surprisingly the false ceiling is very stable and solid.

[danccy]

This is about 6 weeks into the cycling process have added some corals and fishes. Staring to have hair algae and diatoms growing.

[danccy]

This is about 8 weeks into the new tank. The algae has cleared and added more corals and fishes.

[danccy]

About 10 weeks on I added 4 anthias, bubble coral and elegance coral

[HappyReef]

Admire ur determination in this hobby, will follow ur update.

[danccy]

This is what the tank looks like now. Still missing some SPS and an Archilles Tang to complete the look but these are the hard core ones which I am taking my time to look for the perfect specimen

[Admiraltian]

Very detailed and neat setup.

[Kakani]

Is it recommand to keep AT in 3ft tank? Because they need bigger place to swim.

Very nice tank and neat. Like your scaping. Alot of people give up this hobby due to tank crashing, alway start right is very important in this hobby.

[inwear]

What lighting u using ?

[danccy]

I am using the Aqua Illumination Sol series.

[danccy]

I am looking for a small AT about 2-3 inches (really hard to find) . After about a year I may upgrade to a larger if this tank goes well

[fishyfishyfishy]

hey bro dont mind pm where you got your AI sols from and its' price !

thanks in advance

[inwear]

I am using the Aqua Illumination Sol series.

can pm me the lfs and price. Great set

[Anchorman]

I am looking for a small AT about 2-3 inches (really hard to find) . After about a year I may upgrade to a larger if this tank goes well

Nice tank bro, i saw one small AT arou 3" at LCK last friday. Cheers,

[HappyReef]

Yah, AT still at LCK today noon:)

Nice tank bro, i saw one small AT arou 3" at LCK last friday. Cheers,

[danccy]

thanx guys! will go check it out these few days

[danccy]

The AT was sold when I called this morning .. wow it really fly off the shelves.

[brent]

Hey Bro,

Please PM me where you bought the AI SOL and how much you paid. Do you find the coverage enough for 3ft?

Thanks

[danccy]

Hi

I have been getting a few request for the details of the lighting.

It was bought a few months ago in June from www.saltysupply.com

During that time there was a promotion whereby the light + hanging rail + controller was on sale for USD500. With shipping its about SGD780.

So far the corals seems quite happy and open up nice and big during the day. At night the royal blue really makes the colours on the corels pop.

The controller is really cool as it has a built in timer, moon phases and a lightening function.

Each individual LED colour can be controlled. Mine is only at 60% intensity and its already super bright.

For full specs you can visit www.aquaillumination.com/sol/

Hope this is helpful!

[danccy]

Happy Year of the Water Snake to all fellow reefer

Did a clean up of my tank to prepare for the new year, added some SPS but the colours are not great yet after 1 month.

Any ideas what can be done to improve the colors?

[brent]

What are your phosphate and nitrate levels? Are you running GFO?

[danccy]

what is GFO?

I have am running a bio-reactor with bio-pallets.

Nitrate = 0ppm ( API and Red sea same readings)

Phosphate - 0.08ppm (using the red sea test kit not sure how accurate it is)

Calcium = 400ppm

PH :8.0

[brent]

GFO = Granular Ferric Oxide (most popular brand is Rowaphos) -- removes phosphates, use a media reactor like Phosban

In order to avoid brown outs, when keeping SPS it is recommended that you keep your phosphates at 0.03 or below. Unless you have a massive tank, it seems like everyone who keeps nice SPS with fish needs to use GFO to maintain a low level of phosphates. I'm just a beginner but that's what I've learned talking to the more experienced reefers. High phosphates also inhibit growth and cause a greater incidence of STN. If you are feeding a lot, that should also be reduced.

If you decide to get media reactor, try not to overdo it by bringing the phosphate down too quickly. As they say, "Only bad things happen quickly in a reef tank."

[danccy]

Oh I see.. I do run a bag of Rowaphos under my skimmer outlet (not in a reactor). Is it better to be in a reactor? Afraid may not have enough space to have so many reactors as my sump area is not very big. This is a picture of my tank in the daytime. The one above is taken at night under blue lighting.