My Reefing Journey

[SamuelTan]

Finally I have started my own tank thread even though my current tank is far from complete! I'm a full-time student working part-time, I first started off as a 5gallon nano tank, as you can see from the pictures below. I had it for around a month before it crashed when I was in overseas Finding that nano is to small for me so I decided to get a bigger tank!

This tank was bought from another reefer from

Some of the rockscapes I have done. The tank itself has only cycled for 3 days as I was using livesand, liverocks and NSW. Added some zoas on the 3rd day and fishes on the 5th day.

Bought some monti from a reefer, after using single 54w T5 for 2 months they grew and encrusted to the rocks before switching to MH. Once I started using 1 x 250w MH all the red monti starts to bleach slowly

Tank Pic taken a month ago.

Tank Pic taken 20/3/2011

Some random pics,

My sump tank,

Currently temperature is maintained at 29-30. Doing no water change, adding additives & salt-mixed DI water. Running MH lights 4 Hours and T5 5 Hours everyday.

Tank Equipments

Tank : 134cm Diameter x 65cm Height(25% cut-in behind) Base is 77cm Height (approx. 698L)

Pipings : George Fischer piping and parts

Sump : 70cm x 40cm x 55cm

Lightings : SOLITE 4ft Type 3 250W X 2 + 54W X 2 + 1W X 4 (Currently only using 1x 250MH & 1x 54w T5)

Chiller : Teco TW6/CT (RA680) (Currently not using)

Skimmer : N/A

PumP & Wavemaker : Iwaki MD55 , 1 x Seio wavemaker (Going to change and add more soon)

Auto-top : 2 float switches and ehiem pump

Controller : Legrand timer

ETC : Deltec denitrator, Phosphate reactor

Tank Running Since Jan 2011

Livestocks & Casualty list

Scarlet Hermit Crabs x 5

Decorator Crab x 1

Damsel x 1

Blue Tang x 1

Dragon Wrasse x 1

Mandarin Goby x 1

RabbitFish x 1

Tomato Clown x 2

Clarkii clown x 1

Maroon Clown x 1

Cleaner Shrimps x 2

Saron Shrimps x 2

Sexy Shrimps x 3

Marble Shrimps x 2

Pink Knobby Cucumber x 4

Black Cucumber x 1

SandStars x 3

Twinspot Goby x 1

Phyllidiella pustulosa x 1

Unknown Goby x 1

Torch coral

Plate Coral

Sun coral

Normal Digitata

Staghorn(Got stung by Torch )

Anemone

Pink birdnest

Spiral/Wire Coral

Leather

Blue Sponge, Yellow ball sponge

Green Monti

Red Monti (Showing little signs of hope, keeping fingers crossed!)

Chill pepper monti

Green Favia

Zoas

Toadstool Leather

Jasmine polyp, Star polyp

Mushrooms

Red Bamboo

Gracilaria curtissae

Sump Tank

Large Crab x 1

Small Crabs x 2

Large Spotted orange hermit crab x 1

Cheato & Caulerpa

Casualties

Cleaner Wrasse - Disappeared on the 3rd day never been found

Damsel - Eaten by Large crab

Green Birdnest - Dropped and broke into pieces, didn't make it.

Mini Clams x 2 - Killed by Dragon Wrasse...

Scarlet Hermit x 1 - No idea how it died!?

[SamuelTan]

The Blue sponge encrusted on the coral, can anyone ID that coral?

[Terryz_]

The spiral coral is doing well.. worth the buy..

[SamuelTan]

The spiral coral is doing well.. worth the buy..

Agree! Will look out for other colours too!

[Underwater]

Using mh without chiller is taking a big risk. Somemore you are keeping sps.

Careful on the cucumbers going near wavemakers and some of yr non-reef safe shrimps.

[peacemaker]

Why are you not using the chiller...? MH produces lots of heat. The weather is also getting hotter by the day, so temperature is definitely something you want to watch out for when it comes to the health and survival of your corals and livestock.

[SamuelTan]

Using mh without chiller is taking a big risk. Somemore you are keeping sps. Careful on the cucumbers going near wavemakers and some of yr non-reef safe shrimps.

I have used rocks to block around the wavemaker, had the shrimps for 3weeks already they seems to be doing fine as long as they are being fed. Read that they usually will only pick on corals when they are hungry.

[SamuelTan]

Why are you not using the chiller...? MH produces lots of heat. The weather is also getting hotter by the day, so temperature is definitely something you want to watch out for when it comes to the health and survival of your corals and livestock.

With the heat from MH my tank reaches 30.5+/-, without it'll drop to 29.5+/- during the hot day. One of the reason why I'm not using is because the chiller takes 1 hour to chill down 1degree which I think that the coolant might be running out? And I won't be going to have it service soon so.. yup not using for now. What I observe is that fishes and inverts grows really fast under such temperature, wouldn't that shorten their life spans?

[peacemaker]

With the heat from MH my tank reaches 30.5+/-, without it'll drop to 29.5+/- during the hot day. One of the reason why I'm not using is because the chiller takes 1 hour to chill down 1degree which I think that the coolant might be running out? And I won't be going to have it service soon so.. yup not using for now. What I observe is that fishes and inverts grows really fast under such temperature, wouldn't that shorten their life spans?

This is an extract from about.com.

"If the temperature is too low or too high, the zooxanthellea, which most corals require for survival, will die or vacate the polyps. When the algae leaves the coral, it exposes the white base calcium carbonate of the coral, it is sometimes called Coral Bleaching."

A general guideline is to adjust the temperature of your reef to the same temperature range that your corals and livestock are naturally found in.

It sounds to me that you are putting the servicing of your chiller off due to finances? If that's the reason, I would suggest to use a fan as an interim solution till you have saved up enough to fix the chiller. Losing corals and livestock due to temperature can be more expensive than servicing your chiller.

[Ketchup]

You temperature is too high for marine tank. At most you should go is 28 degree. if you do not want to use chiller, i suggest you switch from MH to LED and add some fans for surface cooling or some ice (in 1.25l pepsi bottle) to the sump for periodic cooling.

[BFG]

Seems a growing number of new reefer not using chiller for their tank.

[SamuelTan]

This is an extract from about.com. "If the temperature is too low or too high, the zooxanthellea, which most corals require for survival, will die or vacate the polyps. When the algae leaves the coral, it exposes the white base calcium carbonate of the coral, it is sometimes called Coral Bleaching."A general guideline is to adjust the temperature of your reef to the same temperature range that your corals and livestock are naturally found in. It sounds to me that you are putting the servicing of your chiller off due to finances? If that's the reason, I would suggest to use a fan as an interim solution till you have saved up enough to fix the chiller. Losing corals and livestock due to temperature can be more expensive than servicing your chiller.

Yea most likely will go for fan and see how it does. Thanks for the advices

You temperature is too high for marine tank. At most you should go is 28 degree. if you do not want to use chiller, i suggest you switch from MH to LED and add some fans for surface cooling or some ice (in 1.25l pepsi bottle) to the sump for periodic cooling.

Yea I did consider LED before but its too expensive as you can see from the design of the tank, it will need a lot of LEDs. Plus I don't intend to fully go into SPS and I choose my livestock very carefully and only introduce 1-3 new livestocks to the tank once a month. Using ice bottles seems to be more risky as there'll be temperature fluctuation if I don't do it on hourly basis.

Seems a growing number of new reefer not using chiller for their tank.

[ryanlio]

Wow Ukiya..

Finally gotten your own thread going.. Keep the updates going..

[SamuelTan]

Wow Ukiya..Finally gotten your own thread going.. Keep the updates going..

Yup! I will, thanks!

[RushAct]

wow i like the shape of your tank =) very nice.

[vidextreme]

I, too, liked the shape of your tank.

You mentioned you are not doing any water changes. (actually, I'm doing that as well), but why are you adding in 'salt-mixed RO water'? From what I understand, when saltwater evaporates, the salt remains. Salt doesn't evaporate so it will accumulate through time.

[SamuelTan]

wow i like the shape of your tank =) very nice.

I, too, liked the shape of your tank.You mentioned you are not doing any water changes. (actually, I'm doing that as well), but why are you adding in 'salt-mixed RO water'? From what I understand, when saltwater evaporates, the salt remains. Salt doesn't evaporate so it will accumulate through time.

Because of the large amount of evaporation, sometimes i do manual top up instead. When that happens i notice the salinity drops from 1.026 to 1.025/4, in order to reduce the fluctuation salt is added at the same time it helps replenish other trace elements too. Oh ya I use my tank water to water my plants too

[vidextreme]

Because of the large amount of evaporation, sometimes i do manual top up instead. When that happens i notice the salinity drops from 1.026 to 1.025/4, in order to reduce the fluctuation salt is added at the same time it helps replenish other trace elements too. Oh ya I use my tank water to water my plants too

Are you sure you're getting your salinity level at a the same temperature? From what I gathered, salinity level changes in different temperature.

Check this online SG-temperature compensation calculator

http://www.hamzasree...yCorrection.php

Considering I'm not doing any water changes too, I use Tropic Marin Pro-Mineral to replenish minerals. It got 70 trace elements similar to salt-mix but without sodium chloride(the most common salt in seawater). I'll stop before you think I'm working for them.

[SamuelTan]

Are you sure you're getting your salinity level at a the same temperature? From what I gathered, salinity level changes in different temperature. Check this online SG-temperature compensation calculatorhttp://www.hamzasree...yCorrection.phpConsidering I'm not doing any water changes too, I use Tropic Marin Pro-Mineral to replenish minerals. It got 70 trace elements similar to salt-mix but without sodium chloride(the most common salt in seawater). I'll stop before you think I'm working for them.

Interesting, you could be right. As I'm using a floating arm Hydrometer, I'm sure not sure if its 100% accurate but my water has been maintaining at 1.026 without any problems.

Maybe I should try out your method too!

[Underwater]

Because of the large amount of evaporation, sometimes i do manual top up instead. When that happens i notice the salinity drops from 1.026 to 1.025/4, in order to reduce the fluctuation salt is added at the same time it helps replenish other trace elements too. Oh ya I use my tank water to water my plants too

U mean yr plants can survive using saltwater? Not a very good idea.

[SamuelTan]

U mean yr plants can survive using saltwater? Not a very good idea.

Yea why not? Got this idea from someone who always dump water on the bamboos when he's changing water. I also use the used carbon from my sump on the plants as fertilizer. Everything is Eco and nothing is wasted!