Switch!!

[idle69]

Well I'll start off wiith a little intro of myself..

Started fresh water aquarium 12 years ago..From a small goldfish bowl to a big 3 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet, that was a major jump into fish keeping! Long story short, I gave away the tank and equipment as I grew bored of it, which include a working Eheim Pro 2 2028...I kinda of regretted it now as I could had use the tank for a reef tank!!! Argh!!

Before moving into our new house, wifey brought up the ideal of keeping salt water tank as she knew I was into this hobby. I sort of hesitated abit as I knew the various hardworks needed to put into salt water tanks..We could take this chance and built a 4 footer along the door way leading to the living room. However due to lack of experence and courage, I gave up that ideal...And took up fresh water...again...

But 2 weeks ago, I finally muster all the courage and took the plunge into salt water. And also I was on Mc for a week, so got alot of spare time on hand!!

Pic of freshwater tank

There are my 2 Oscars, 5 Jewel cichlids and 2 plecos..Oh its a 2 feet by 1.5 feet running on an Eheim pro 3. But I still prefer pro 2 coz pro 3 is a pain in the ass to prim it...took me nearly 2 hours for the initial setup of the filter....

Close up of the 2 Oscars..they grew from 3 inch to 6 inch..but the biggest i kept was a 10 inch in the 3 feet tank..pity its gone now...

3 male jewels of diff colours

This 2 are a pair that started breeding not long ago...But no matter how I seperate the fries from the parents, the fries will swim over the divider and ended up in the tummy of the parents. So now its the process of laying eggs, hatch, free swimming fries, fish food for parents..over and over again..Guess I'm a lousy fish fry guardian....

[idle69]

Papa and mama..

This 2 are a pair that started breeding not long ago...But no matter how I seperate the fries from the parents, the fries will swim over the divider and ended up in the tummy of the parents. So now its the process of laying eggs, hatch, free swimming fries, fish food for parents..over and over again..Guess I'm a lousy fish fry guardian....

Future tank space!!

Someday, a gaint 4 footer will be here...someday...wifey said no problem!! But have to pay myself....

Clean up started..

All the fishes had gone to a better place...No, I did not flush them down the toilet bowl..I gave them away!! But kept the pair of jewels in a breeding tank.

[idle69]

Getting ready for saltwater tank...

This are the supplies I gotten from various sources. I gotten a 2nd hand overflow box from skimz, 2nd hand Primz skimmer, Red sea coral plus salts, hydrometer, carbiSea sand should be grade 1 if I'm not wrong..Spare tank there..Wanted to use to keep fresh water at the same time with salt water..Think will be very troublesome so will be using it as a sump. Will setup when I'm free.

Setup completed! And my back hurts..Carrying pail and pails of water to and fro...

Using back the beamworks LED. Initial tank visibility is still cloudy due to the sand.

Wanted to speed up cycling abit..

Added a piece of market prawn. It was raw when I left it there. Now it's cooked. But I wanted to speed up more..So added 3 more prawns!!

[idle69]

Day 2 of cycling..

Less cloudy. Added Sera reefclear and took out prawns.

Skimmer producing light green tea. Good job!

Add carbon into skimmer filter media basket.

My Eheim Pro 3 and Bubble Magus Nac 7 from a follow reefer.

BM Nac 7 in standby mode for sump...Adjusted the return flow of the Pro 3 in a vertical way so water flow in a circular direction in the tank.

Full setup shot

Waiting for cloudyness to go away...

Day 3..All gone!!!

No more cloudyness!! So now it's just a waiting game...

But I'm no fan of fishless cycling...

Gotten these two to help mi cycle. As of now 2 weeks from day 1 of cycling, they are doing fine. Brought some dosing liquids to help coraline algae grow.. Needs abit of purple in the tank..

[RushAct]

lol.. i dont think ANYONE here is a fan of "fishless" cycle

[Evolutionz]

indeed... bad choice to put fish in right from the start.. poor fishes too, i hope they survive til your cycling completes..

[Admiraltian]

Camping here for updates...

[jxlex]

For sm1 cmg from fresh, its surprising... Sigh

[rudy17]

lol.. i dont think ANYONE here is a fan of "fishless" cycle

damn funny comment.

clowns probably only have 20% chance of surviving the cycle bro. tahan a bit more, save the fishes!

[VelvetAirwaves]

Everybody makes mistakes. your tank looks good.

[idle69]

I think all of u misunderstood...i added de fishes 2 week after it started cycling...before adding de fishes, i added some bio start 2 help cycling..

Anyway now its 1 month + and my tank is getting lively! Juz brought a 2nd hand resun cl300,,

Find dat it kicks in too frequent...n de external temp probe 's lenght is too short. Now its jus 20cm below de water line..gonna open it up n mod it someday..

My tank in its full gory, 1 month from cycling..de 2 clown are still doing well! Gonna dig out my dslr n do some shots when i'm free...

[Evolutionz]

opps! my bad!.. glad they are doing well.. what coralsi that on the ground? looks nice

[idle69]

Hi-def pictures!!!

Full tank

In blue light

Bunch of clowns...

clowns again...

Angry clown..very aggressive, but after a few days of 'jail time' it quiet down abit!

I dunnoe wat my blue tang is doing..always hiding..when i kept my dslr, it started swimming around..

Pinky and the brain

Boxer shrimp..tink I'll rename it spider shrimp..likes 2 hang upside down in its cave..

Green hammer and starfish

Rose hammer and frogspawn

Zoas garden

[Admiraltian]

Nice photography skills!!

[Guest]

Seem like you like clown fish alot.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[idle69]

Quite some time has passed since I updated...

Been spending some time designing my sump, getting rid of my canister filter...

A simple sump meant to hold my filter sock, skimmer, deep sand bed and return pump..possible expansion for an algre scrubber..

Cleaning of my leftover CarbiSea sand...

clearing of all de junks under my tank..i also used a piece of plastic sheet that we used to wrap our olld school text book to protect my mirror deco in de living room. Fitted the styroform into the stand.

[idle69]

My filter sock from bubble magus which i tink is 100 micron..well so long as it does the job well..

Finally my nac 7 is being put to work!!! Time to throw away my Primz skimmer..which is leaking n not doing the job well..

My return pump, Eheim 1264, fitted with a quick release coupling. Return pump will go thru the chiller before returning to the main tank. the coupling double as a flow control. Doubt a small 2 feet tank will require a large flow rate..

[idle69]

http://s720.photobucket.com/user/oklahloso/media/fishy/9F919E7E-4786-488C-825D-3C8A4E26C176-85551-00000444E9D2E5F0.jpg.html'>

Everything put into place. Juz add water...

http://s720.photobucket.com/user/oklahloso/media/fishy/8536E4D2-AEB4-4746-A7E5-4DEB3317EA9B-85551-0000044540C5F688.jpg.html'>

Wanted to make the sand bed deeper..which means I have to buy another bag of sand. Worried I'm gonna have leftover. Anybody with spare bag of unused sand?

http://s720.photobucket.com/user/oklahloso/media/fishy/BE4628C0-9134-4E15-B9BF-A3B6502B8722-85551-00000445978D58A3.jpg.html'>

Filling up a 150 liter sump is hard work!!! Can't complain....nobody forced me to return back to keeping fishes...

http://s720.photobucket.com/user/oklahloso/media/fishy/24C45A17-B411-4B7B-8C70-4BF794408E58-85551-00000445FA86438A.jpg.html'>

Waiting for water to clear up. Added Sera's Reefclear to start cycling, carbons to clear the cloudyness...

Been itching for a larger tank...juz haven decided where 2 place it...

[patricklhc]

Looking good bro! DSB.. I'm sure you have done your research Pitching up tent

Sent from my LG-E975 using Tapatalk 2

[Evolutionz]

nice upgrade! sure makes maintaining your DT easier.

[Admiraltian]

Good idea in getting a sump and ditching away your old canister.

[idle69]

Did a major re-scaping..so moved everything into the sump...

http://s720.photobucket.com/user/oklahloso/media/fishy/01B0F69B-A487-420C-AB45-810B742668CA-2456-0000001AC0C34FB6.jpg.html'>

Added some chaeto and red mirco algae to tackle green algae? Seems confusing...

http://s720.photobucket.com/user/oklahloso/media/fishy/CFBC5F02-F7FB-4064-A4C6-26B54FD28732-2456-0000001ACBFB87C3.jpg.html'>

Instead, i got ribena in my skimmer cup...

http://s720.photobucket.com/user/oklahloso/media/fishy/6695914D-9B78-43D9-B84B-97D485B711BA-2456-0000001AD5DC0170.jpg.html'>

Top view of my sump..

[idle69]

did a little DIY...fish guard for overflow box!

http://s720.photobucket.com/user/oklahloso/media/fishy/C707DB28-3AD9-4831-AEB9-BAA1431118F6-2456-0000001ADDF91A04.jpg.html'>

But right now using it to prevent fishes going into skimmer

http://s720.photobucket.com/user/oklahloso/media/fishy/0877B2D2-7489-4E21-827D-F34B8B253505-2456-0000001AE97D56C3.jpg.html'>

This was the first version at work..got the black plastic thingy from daiso..some marine grade silicon..but silicon doesn't work well on smooth plastic surface...so switch it to cable ties instead..The white piece is the longer version of the black 1..

[Jack 123456]

bro , really nice tank good choice to switch from canister to sump, alot easier

cheers jack

keep us updated!

[Keith khoo]

how does the flow work from your tank to sump?