Aussie closed loop SPS reef.

[davez104]

Thanks for the comments guys, appreciate it.

I do have plans to hide the eductors, but want to wait till I play with different directions a bit to get the flow how I want it. I will probably just hollow out some liverock pieces to sit around the eductors, then put some encrusting montiporas on them, or maybe some zoanthids, something that won't grow outwards too much and get close to the glass.

Most corals are doing well so far, although I have one colony that is showing some tissue loss. I'll probably have to frag it tomorrow. the rest are fine, although browned out a bit due to a couple of tank changes and a long period of darkness during the changeover. Fingers crossed they come back fairly quickly.

Also added this a couple of days ago:

A couple of other pics, just because.

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[lakee911]

I think it is good that you used True Union Ball Valves, but how would you ever replace/remove one since they are on the bottom of the tank?

Seems like whenever someone is starting a new tank it needs to cycle, how did you get away with just dumping all this live stock in at once?

Thx,
Jason

 

[davez104]

Hi Jason,

The true union valves are more so that I can remove plumbing or pumps if I ever need to or for cleaning. I will make up some fittings to thread into the top of each bulkhead, inside the tank, in case I ever need to remove a valve, for whatever reason.

The rock in the display tank is new, but I have 25 kgs or so of cycled live rock from my old display, in the sump. I figure that if the old rock was capable of supporting all my stock in the old tank, it should be able to do the same in my new tank. I also transferred my deep sand bed over.

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[fishybudguy]

many many cheers,im starting my new build and was thinking of a closed loop but i couldnt find any good builders in the states to put 9 holes in the bottom of a 110 so i went with tunzes instead....your build is more than off the charts,they need to do a install of the year and i know you would win ....great great great job

 

[saltedwater]

stunning.......

 

[davez104]

Thanks guys, it's been a pretty intense build I guess. I've thought long and hard about each step before going ahead. I think it has worked out OK so far. The only thing that disappoint me so far is that I cannot angle the eductors over a little more, about 60 degrees would be perfect I think. As they are at the moment, I do get a few micro bubbles in the tank from the surface agitation. I'm working on ideas to lay them over a bit, so hopefully can come up with something.

I started VSV dosing today. It's something I have never tried before, but it seems to get results so I'll give it a go for a few months and see what happens.

I'm also trying to decide what fish to put in next. I would like a group of small fish. I know it's not practical to have a "school" as such, but if they would hang about in a loose group, I would be happy. At the moment there are a couple of species of cardinals and a couple of species of chromis on the short list. I'll try to post some pics up later of the species I am thinking of.

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[davez104]

May as well start the new year with a tank update :thumbsup:

Tank is going through a bit of an algae cycle, as I expected it would due to the disturbance of everything being changed over. I guess it'll find it's equilibrium soon enough.

I've started Vodka, Sugar and Vinegar dosing, day 4 today. I've been dosing 0.5ml each day, but today will bump it up to 1.0ml for the rest of the week. I can't see any difference yet, but it is a bit early to expect anything yet.

I have decided to boost up my lighting and have ordered two 400W Icecap electronic ballasts from Premium Aquatics. I am also about to order two 150W Solarmax electronic ballasts from guppies to run the shopfitters. My, possibly flawed, thinking is that if I convert the three magnetic ballasts I am running now, to electronic, then my total power usage won't increase much, despite going to 400 watters.

I got to watch the Coral Banded Shrimp moult last night, which was pretty cool. Looked like there where two of them for a while, standing side by side, both with their claws waving in the current. Then the empty shell got ripped off the rock by the water flow and torn to pieces as it got sucked through one of the eductors

I still have the Vortech in the tank, running on short pulse mode, but it's not really doing a lot. I wonder how a proper wave box would go? I've been thinking more and more about building one. I could mount it on the side of the weir, would not even notice it there. Food for thought.

Anyway, enough of the dribble and on with the pics!!

Here are a couple of pics of the coraline growth after the blender episode. Everything was clean when I put the coraline soup in. This is 10 days growth. Forgive the green algae.

A few coral and fish pics followed by the first FTS for the new year.

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[MMERITT28]

Very nice build........Happy New Year.

 

[davez104]

Took a bit of video footage today. The quality isn't real good, but it'll have to do.

A bit of a top down look, followed by a look through the front, then some nori feeding. The little rabbitfish is the biggest guts! I reckon he would chew on nori all day long if I let him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9g7DRXvQAU

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[davez104]

Posting some pics from today just because it's been a while.

I'm still battling brown corals, not real sure where to turn next. Some show real intense coloration on the new growth, mainly the greens, but purples are also pretty good. The pink table just never changes no matter what I throw at it, gotta love that one. I'm skimming as aggressively as I can. VSV dosing @ 3.5ml per day, but doesn't seem to be having any effect on the corals. Dosing pro bac and an amino acid product. I'm thinking of stopping all dosing for a bit, let everything settle and go back to basics, try to get a decent bed of macro growth for starters.

Anyway, I'm a bit lost at the moment and just feel that every extra step I take to try to reduce nutrients is building the house of cards higher, ready to tumble when I screw up the dose or go away for a few days.

Just got results back from our group Hannah phosphate meter test, 0.00 :celeb2: Will cut right back on the VSV dosing as of tomorrow morning, probably dose @ 1ml for a while and see what happens.


On to the pics.

Corals.

Some fish

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[davez104]

And finally a Full Tank Shot.

 

[StripestheEel]

Looking good Dave !

 

[davez104]

Thanks matt :thumbsup:

 

[wjgeese]

nice tank! Just how big is that maxima? is it one of the Tuamotu clams?

 

[thenewone]

good looking tank very well planned out

 

[davez104]

The clam is around 8-9 inches long.It would just be one collected from our local reefs as we are not allowed to import inverts into Australia.

Dave.

 

[dougie]

beautiful tank, and great flow

 

[zaheda]

Can you show me a pic of your diy Bekkett skimmer. Is it noisey, because I had one and it made lots noise so I had to get rid of it.

 

[TriggerHappyDude]

davez104,

Love the tank, great work. Is there a way you could have designed your rock work to hide the plumbing in the tank? Or was there a special reason for how you did it?

 

[davez104]

Thanks for the comments.

I'll try to get some pics of the skimmer later on for you. I didn't build it, there is a guy here that builds them as a bit of a hobby, does very nice work. He also built my calcium reactor. The skimmer is not noisy at all, but I needed to build a silencer for the air intake as it sucks a lot of air in.

As far as the plumbing goes, primarily this tank was designed with function first, form second, I wanted to achieve a large amount of flow and wasn't too concerned if the plumbing was visible. I am however, going to hide the outlets with flat pieces of rock, just as soon as I can get my hands on some appropriately sized pieces. We don't have a fish store where I live, so it means I have to wait until I go away to try to find the bits I need.

Cheers,
Dave.