pauloshannassy
New member
Looking great!
Alex's 8x3x2' Australian Reef Build (340gal)
- Thread starter Peckoltia
- Start date
Thanks fellas.
I picked out my live rock on Wednesday night. Was actually a really awesome experience, I called the supplier on Wednesday ( who i had been in contact with) and he said its my lucky day as the collector was dropping off a fresh load. So i was picking my pieces as they are were unloaded from the truck. I must say some of the best live rock I've seen in terms of formations. I got one piece that will be a stand alone bommie on it's own, probably close to 3' across, 1.5' wide and tall, and only weighed 10kg (22lb). very porous and full of caves and over hangs.
Tanks filling at the moment with RODI water, hopefully pick up the rock either tomorrow or monday evening! almost there....
I picked out my live rock on Wednesday night. Was actually a really awesome experience, I called the supplier on Wednesday ( who i had been in contact with) and he said its my lucky day as the collector was dropping off a fresh load. So i was picking my pieces as they are were unloaded from the truck. I must say some of the best live rock I've seen in terms of formations. I got one piece that will be a stand alone bommie on it's own, probably close to 3' across, 1.5' wide and tall, and only weighed 10kg (22lb). very porous and full of caves and over hangs.
Tanks filling at the moment with RODI water, hopefully pick up the rock either tomorrow or monday evening! almost there....
McPuff
New member
Just one suggestion on the rockwork: you want to get a little more separation between the two clusters. I'd "condense" the left bommie so it's a bit tighter and therefore farther away from the right side. Perhaps turn the right-most rock 180 deg and then push it closer to the left-most rock?
Also consider the overall height of the structures and what will be growing on top of them. You want to ensure there is enough height for corals to grow out sufficiently. Having one side higher than the other will also help with the overall aesthetic.
Anyway, just my opinion but I hope it's helpful.
Also consider the overall height of the structures and what will be growing on top of them. You want to ensure there is enough height for corals to grow out sufficiently. Having one side higher than the other will also help with the overall aesthetic.
Anyway, just my opinion but I hope it's helpful.
McPuff. I totally agree with what you are saying, and funny you mention it. I sent some pics to my supplier and he said similar there isn't quite enough perception of depth. Especially considering the tank is wide at 3'. I'm going to do exactly that turn the rock on the right on the left bommie in slightly and make it tighter to the left and place a couple more rocks to the base of it pointing towards the front to give more of a zig zag view when looked at front the top of that makes sense.
GQuinn - Thanks mate. It is some of the best rock I've ever seen. I got it from a supplier in Perth, but was fortunate enough to be at his facility as a new batch was being delivered by the collector. So I was picking out pieces as they were being unloaded which was really good. Had a good chat to the collector who is licensed to harvest 5t of live rock. This was all collected from the Abrolhos Islands in Western Australia. I must say that the process that the collector puts it through also seems to be really good at eliminating a lot of pests. I havent found a single mantis or crab so far.
Few things have been done.
Drilled another hole in the wall and now all the cords from the lights feed through the wall into the garage. Much easier and neater.
Sand is in - used Carib Sea - 'Special Grade' mixture of live sand and dry.
First fish are out of quarantine and into the display - 2x Oscellaris Clowns, 1x Blue Sided Fairy Wrasse (male), 1x Bengaii Cardinal (other one got beat to death in QT - both males once fattened up), 1x Powder Blue Tang and 1x Orange Shoulder Tang.
Everything is going really well, fish are happy and healthy. First corals should go in, in the next week or so and need to fill the Qt with the next round of fish.
Drilled another hole in the wall and now all the cords from the lights feed through the wall into the garage. Much easier and neater.
Sand is in - used Carib Sea - 'Special Grade' mixture of live sand and dry.
First fish are out of quarantine and into the display - 2x Oscellaris Clowns, 1x Blue Sided Fairy Wrasse (male), 1x Bengaii Cardinal (other one got beat to death in QT - both males once fattened up), 1x Powder Blue Tang and 1x Orange Shoulder Tang.
Everything is going really well, fish are happy and healthy. First corals should go in, in the next week or so and need to fill the Qt with the next round of fish.
Just an update. Tanks been running for about 3 months now - seeing some amazing growth out of a lot of my SPS coral, and couldn't be happier with how the tank is tracking. I know a lot of people say not to add SPS for a year or until the tank is 'established' but everything I've added SPS wise has gone from strength to strength maintaining or getting better colour and some really great growth and PE.
I've dialed in my Calcium reactor nicely and my parameters have been super stable from the very start. Testing Alk every second day and Mag and Calc' weekly.
Alk 9.0
Calc 475
Mag 1500
Temp 24.9-25.3C
Nitrate: <5
Phosphate: I have never tested phosphate once. I have a test kit sitting there and should get around to testing it.
Chaeto/Algae reactor is growing really well. Harvest the Chaeto monthly.
Only hiccup I've had so far was had a very minor Dinoflagellate bloom that lasted all of 4 days. Only thing it affected was my Favia which is killed. I have since found (after drying) that this coral was 'infested' with gall crabs. Which makes sense as where the coral was initially hit by the dino's was the back side where about half a dozen gall crabs had made their home. I will be removing any gall crabs I find from now on.
I've dialed in my Calcium reactor nicely and my parameters have been super stable from the very start. Testing Alk every second day and Mag and Calc' weekly.
Alk 9.0
Calc 475
Mag 1500
Temp 24.9-25.3C
Nitrate: <5
Phosphate: I have never tested phosphate once. I have a test kit sitting there and should get around to testing it.
Chaeto/Algae reactor is growing really well. Harvest the Chaeto monthly.
Only hiccup I've had so far was had a very minor Dinoflagellate bloom that lasted all of 4 days. Only thing it affected was my Favia which is killed. I have since found (after drying) that this coral was 'infested' with gall crabs. Which makes sense as where the coral was initially hit by the dino's was the back side where about half a dozen gall crabs had made their home. I will be removing any gall crabs I find from now on.
McPuff - thanks. There are 30 + corals in the tank, but started with mostly frags. Still plenty more corals to go but am looking forward to them growing out and seeing the tank fill out a bit.
Yep, agree the Naso looks to be a young male. I held out until I found one that looked to be a male as I'm a big fan of the streamers in big boys.
Yep, agree the Naso looks to be a young male. I held out until I found one that looked to be a male as I'm a big fan of the streamers in big boys.
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