54 x 24 x 30 reef tank

[alexandre]

First shot...

[alexandre]

From Below

[alexandre]

Scaping...

[godzillaliu88]

a lot of rocks.

a lot of space for fishes to swim.

[alexandre]

Still very cloudy... Pipes were leaking so have had to switch pump off... Going to have to replumb...

Hopefully will hve some water flow by tomorrow

[alexandre]

Forgot to show you the latest toy!

[alexandre]

Return & flush system

The flush runs along the whole back of the tank..

[alexandre]

Another view of the scaping

[cjh]

Hopefully these won't rust too quickly..

hi, maybe you will want to put some grease to prevent rusting??

[alexandre]

I will try to find some this weekend... Having real trouble with micro bubbles at the moment..

Anyone have any ideas that don't involve filling the sump with sponges? (That's what I'm doing at the moment).. I have three baffles and I've put huge sponges in front of the return bulkhead...

Also, what do you think is the highest temp you would be comfortable for your tank to reach? and the range?

How about salinity at 27 degrees? I think I may have added a touch too much salt!

Last question, my skimmer is relatively noisy.. Would you guys be comfortable with leaving a skimmer off for 2-3 hours every couple of days? gf already unhappy and with the noise on top of it she'll probably end up leaving me!!!!

Thanks for the advise, still learning a lot..

[tjchan]

nice scaping. skimmer noise from air suction or pump?

[Gouldian]

I will try to find some this weekend... Having real trouble with micro bubbles at the moment..

Anyone have any ideas that don't involve filling the sump with sponges? (That's what I'm doing at the moment).. I have three baffles and I've put huge sponges in front of the return bulkhead...

Also, what do you think is the highest temp you would be comfortable for your tank to reach? and the range?

How about salinity at 27 degrees? I think I may have added a touch too much salt!

Last question, my skimmer is relatively noisy.. Would you guys be comfortable with leaving a skimmer off for 2-3 hours every couple of days? gf already unhappy and with the noise on top of it she'll probably end up leaving me!!!!

Thanks for the advise, still learning a lot..

Hi Bro,

You may want to determine where exactly is the micro bubbles coming from in order to solve the problem.

Adding baffles will only work if the bubbles are created by your skimmer or overflows. Those created by return will not be able to solve by this method.

Sometimes micro bubbles in new set-up might be due to pipe joints. Meaning:- The joints on your pipes may not be fully sealed with silicon and thus may suck in air. This problem is usually be temporary as the "mico-holes" will be sealed in due time.

HTH

[alexandre]

It's clearing up slowly...

[alexandre]

Last one was actually from yesterday..

I think the micro bubbles were coming from the water level being too high in the sump.. I think this is fixed now.. Will still need to put

Algae already started growing.. Should it be there this early???

I haven't switched on ozone or UV yet.. Am waiting for the bloom to properly start and will hopefully then be able to ttack it quickly

I thought it would take a little longer.. Test kits arrive tomorrow so I should get a clearer idea of what is going on...

Do you guy think that 26 to 28.5 degrees celsius is too high?

[colinsoon]

The lack of proper circulation in the tank (absence of wavemakers from the FTS) can cause quite a problem in terms of diatoms. Especially for a new tank like yours. mine hit bout the same times as yours, but should clear up pretty quickly even without ozone or UV. installation of a wavemaker should help quite a bit too, as diatoms usually occurs in low flow areas.

no need to switch on the chiller so early. nothing inside yet.. can save you some electricity. my tank is chilled down to 28 degrees. its all LPS inside, so yep, 28 is alright. all blooming well too.

anyway bro, juz a thought of mine, your rockscape is too high on the leftside. its like already exiting the water. stuff might use the rocks and crawl right into the overflow box. and this makes the rockscape looks rather lob-sided.

[alexandre]

Help!!

Was setting up the kalkstirrer and accidentally poured half a glass full into the sump, since then the PH reading on the aquatronica has been 9.1/9.2. It was 7.9 before..

I have tried to put CO2 through the skimmer and this lowers the PH but as soon as I stop it goes right back up to 9... I don't understand why so little kalk would have such a dramatic effect...

I have no living creatures in the tank so am not too worried, but what would you recommend I do to bring the PH back to acceptable levels?? If I leave it 2-3 days and run the calcium reactor 24/7 do you think that it will drop naturally or do I need to do something more drastic???

[alexandre]

New additions.. If you can spot them!

[alexandre]

The belly of the beast...

[alexandre]

Ltest attempt at stopping the micro bubbles

[alexandre]

FTS..

[Ah-lim]

Hi,

Juz curious, do your get dead spots behind the live rocks? those areas that ya rocks are leaning on?

If its a yes, any advise to prevent that?

[alexandre]

There are pipes that go from the top of the overflow all the way across the back of the tank. The pipes have small holes in them. I can divert all the return through this flush system every couple o days to clear any debris that has settled in dead spots behind the rocks..

[Skimmer]

You have invested so much on equipments, why dun u pay a little bit more to get good quality big live rocks? It will aid in ur scaping and reduce dead spots.

Juz my 2cts.

[haroldteo]

Wow... your system Rocks..man!

[Gouldian]

Help!!

Was setting up the kalkstirrer and accidentally poured half a glass full into the sump, since then the PH reading on the aquatronica has been 9.1/9.2. It was 7.9 before..

I have tried to put CO2 through the skimmer and this lowers the PH but as soon as I stop it goes right back up to 9... I don't understand why so little kalk would have such a dramatic effect...

I have no living creatures in the tank so am not too worried, but what would you recommend I do to bring the PH back to acceptable levels?? If I leave it 2-3 days and run the calcium reactor 24/7 do you think that it will drop naturally or do I need to do something more drastic???

Bro,

IMHO, never do anything drastic. What you can do is to do frequent partial water changes to slowly bring the parameters back.

HTH