Maroun 150g Build Thread
- Thread starter maroun.c
- Start date
maroun.c
New member
thanks Marc.
Had to rely a bit on the quarantine of the LFS this time donsidering that I don't have a Q tank at my parents house, which was a bit stressful especially with what happened on your last additions...
Luckily all seems to have went well.
Wouldn't add any more tangs for sure however was wondering if adding:
3-4 cardinals
3-4 anthias
2 mandarins
1 sixline wrass would cause a big increase in the bioload?
Had to rely a bit on the quarantine of the LFS this time donsidering that I don't have a Q tank at my parents house, which was a bit stressful especially with what happened on your last additions...
Luckily all seems to have went well.
Wouldn't add any more tangs for sure however was wondering if adding:
3-4 cardinals
3-4 anthias
2 mandarins
1 sixline wrass would cause a big increase in the bioload?
maroun.c
New member
finally finished a long list of consecutive flights and have some time to take care of the tank.
tank has been running for 2 months without a water change as I was only coming back for 1-2 days every week and just couldn't do it...
first thing I had to deal with was the skimmer issue. My Hurricone CAT 1 did not fit in the skimmers section of my sump and I placed it in the return section which was causing 2 issues:
-Microbubbles
-Overflowing whenever the return pump was shut as my sump water level would increase.
I decided not to change the sump design or get a new one as I'll be getting a new bigger sump with the coming tank upgrade so I built this stand to elevate it a bit this way I can keep my return water level a bit higher without floding the skimmer. Will also add a 5 min delay switch so that skimmer will turn on 5 min after power is restored this way water level in the sump would be at normal working level.
I'm also still raising my Ca and Mg levels back to normal as Ca had dropped to 350 and Mg to 1130
still not back to where I want them to be but coraline alga has exploded and I see some clear growth on corals.
My frag tank had all this buildup on it in just two weeks:
tank has been running for 2 months without a water change as I was only coming back for 1-2 days every week and just couldn't do it...
first thing I had to deal with was the skimmer issue. My Hurricone CAT 1 did not fit in the skimmers section of my sump and I placed it in the return section which was causing 2 issues:
-Microbubbles
-Overflowing whenever the return pump was shut as my sump water level would increase.
I decided not to change the sump design or get a new one as I'll be getting a new bigger sump with the coming tank upgrade so I built this stand to elevate it a bit this way I can keep my return water level a bit higher without floding the skimmer. Will also add a 5 min delay switch so that skimmer will turn on 5 min after power is restored this way water level in the sump would be at normal working level.
I'm also still raising my Ca and Mg levels back to normal as Ca had dropped to 350 and Mg to 1130
still not back to where I want them to be but coraline alga has exploded and I see some clear growth on corals.
My frag tank had all this buildup on it in just two weeks:
maroun.c
New member
Lost the bicolor blenny although it seemed to be doing well... came back and never found it. Noticed that all my clams are opening much more now so not really sure but it could be that the blenny was nipping at them as I saw it clearly bite one on a couple of occasions.
this one I added few weeks ago and wasn't opening this much
and my latest clam addition:
this one I added few weeks ago and wasn't opening this much
and my latest clam addition:
maroun.c
New member
Thought about it but it can't be done as the skimmer tubing points down and can't be taken above the glass partition. what I'm considering now is one of two things:
-Using an Eheim pump which comes with a sponge that might reduce the bubles.
-craeting some sort of baffles or bubble trap to put the pump in...
-Using an Eheim pump which comes with a sponge that might reduce the bubles.
-craeting some sort of baffles or bubble trap to put the pump in...
maroun.c
New member
Some new additions.
While on travel last week one LFS received a shipment where I had preordered some corals. Wan't here to pick them up so a friend of mine picked them for me and kept them for two days in his tank.
decided to go with 3 bangai cardinals in addition to the one I got.
also with a sixline as it seems to be more agre3ssive than mandarins in picking pests such as some redflatworms I ahve in the tank. I already eradicated most of them by freshwater dipping the affected corals but can still see some from time to time. I guess I'll still add a mandarin pair in the future as I have loads of pods in my fuge and frag tank where they can breed, also with the upgrade I will be adding a second and bigger sump so I guess I should be able to maintain a decent amount of pods for them. So far I'm hoping my 2 cories wrass and sixline will start eating those FW.
unfortunately the corals I ordered weren't shipped in perfect conditions and 2 large colonies of "tabling blue accro" arrived as skeleton with one still having minimal living parts that were fragged in an attempt to save a part but they all RTNd in my tank as well as in my friends tank. ordered a pink birdnest which didn't arrive, however got this "Special purple accro" in good shpe as well as a "horn coral" instead of the red montipora digitata I had ordered:
did a revive dip before putting them in the tank:
most of these frags RTN the next day and I only still have the green one which broke off the large colony and part of one of the blue tabling accro:
On the rack for light and flow acclimation for the coming couple of weeks before placing them on the rocks.
these shipped as "special purple accro" and "horn coral" any Id or suggestions for flow and light requirements?
While on travel last week one LFS received a shipment where I had preordered some corals. Wan't here to pick them up so a friend of mine picked them for me and kept them for two days in his tank.
decided to go with 3 bangai cardinals in addition to the one I got.
also with a sixline as it seems to be more agre3ssive than mandarins in picking pests such as some redflatworms I ahve in the tank. I already eradicated most of them by freshwater dipping the affected corals but can still see some from time to time. I guess I'll still add a mandarin pair in the future as I have loads of pods in my fuge and frag tank where they can breed, also with the upgrade I will be adding a second and bigger sump so I guess I should be able to maintain a decent amount of pods for them. So far I'm hoping my 2 cories wrass and sixline will start eating those FW.
unfortunately the corals I ordered weren't shipped in perfect conditions and 2 large colonies of "tabling blue accro" arrived as skeleton with one still having minimal living parts that were fragged in an attempt to save a part but they all RTNd in my tank as well as in my friends tank. ordered a pink birdnest which didn't arrive, however got this "Special purple accro" in good shpe as well as a "horn coral" instead of the red montipora digitata I had ordered:
did a revive dip before putting them in the tank:
most of these frags RTN the next day and I only still have the green one which broke off the large colony and part of one of the blue tabling accro:
On the rack for light and flow acclimation for the coming couple of weeks before placing them on the rocks.
these shipped as "special purple accro" and "horn coral" any Id or suggestions for flow and light requirements?
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maroun.c
New member
Finally got some free time to cleanup the frag tank front galss
and to take some pics of corals there. Nothing really fancy but it's just a duplicate storage of corals I have or tiny frags that survived from a bad shipment and also peices that broke off while manipulating corals...
and to take some pics of corals there. Nothing really fancy but it's just a duplicate storage of corals I have or tiny frags that survived from a bad shipment and also peices that broke off while manipulating corals...
maroun.c
New member
My brother woke me up at 6:45 AM on a near disaster...
The second he said "there's water on teh ground" I jumped like crazy and ran to the living room where the tank is. Needless to say that I slipped on water bumped into a closet and sprained my back...
floor was flooded with water that had drained towards a drain on the balcony after filling the living room and corridor.
checked the sump and there were no leaks however the return area was at lower level, skimmer partition was also at lower level which was very weird as there was sign of leak in the skimmer partition...inspected the frag tank which was also at 3/4 level and then notidec that a drain tubing which had a lock from inside was draining the tank. a smooth line of water was dripping out of it which is always better than having a leaking seam or a crack in a tank.
removed all frags from frag tank and drained it all. and changed that "tube lock" (not familiar with plumbing parts names in English)
Whats really wierd is that the plumbing was done since more than 1 year and this has not been manipulated so i'm really wondering why it cracked.
On the brght side I'm very lucky that this happened while I was at home as I've been traveling non stop for the last weeks.
I'm also very lucky that I was able to clear some of the water from the ground especially where the wooden furniture is as that would have rose some serious questions about how safe a tank is in my new appartment....
finally as I have stated before I had failed to do water changes since 2 months so the night before I mixed around 30 G of water for a water change and so had water available immediately to refill the tank...
after I located the falty part I understood the sequence of events to explain the drained partitions:
rag tank leaked for that tubing and was getting refilled by it's supply pump in the skimmer partition however that didn't explain the drained return partition? so i filled the return partition leaving the skimmer aprtition empty and noticed that water was also leaking on teh seams of the baffles from teh return partition to the skimmers partition. normally this is not an issue as when water levels are full on both sides allw ater would go through the baflles instead of through this small leak however I did clean the seam and resilicon it from both sides so now things are fine.
This will for sure add some stress as I have 4-5 unused holes in the sump and frag tank (initially intended for connecting an external Carbon and phophate reactor as well as a drain for water changes that is not used yet and acouple of holes for a CL in the frag tank... all these are closed by the same type of tube lock which failed so I believe I'll be adding a second one to have one lock from inside and another one from out for more security. once tank is moved the sump and frag tank will be changed and I'll make sure not to have any holes I don't use. the biggest concern is a hole in the bottom of the tank meant for a mechanical filter that is not used...
Still considering the possibility,advantage of having a humidity sensor under the tank that would cut the power from all pumps circulating water between different parts of the system so that if any fails the damage is contained.
Luckily none of my my pumps was damaged
The second he said "there's water on teh ground" I jumped like crazy and ran to the living room where the tank is. Needless to say that I slipped on water bumped into a closet and sprained my back...
floor was flooded with water that had drained towards a drain on the balcony after filling the living room and corridor.
checked the sump and there were no leaks however the return area was at lower level, skimmer partition was also at lower level which was very weird as there was sign of leak in the skimmer partition...inspected the frag tank which was also at 3/4 level and then notidec that a drain tubing which had a lock from inside was draining the tank. a smooth line of water was dripping out of it which is always better than having a leaking seam or a crack in a tank.
removed all frags from frag tank and drained it all. and changed that "tube lock" (not familiar with plumbing parts names in English)
Whats really wierd is that the plumbing was done since more than 1 year and this has not been manipulated so i'm really wondering why it cracked.
On the brght side I'm very lucky that this happened while I was at home as I've been traveling non stop for the last weeks.
I'm also very lucky that I was able to clear some of the water from the ground especially where the wooden furniture is as that would have rose some serious questions about how safe a tank is in my new appartment....
finally as I have stated before I had failed to do water changes since 2 months so the night before I mixed around 30 G of water for a water change and so had water available immediately to refill the tank...
after I located the falty part I understood the sequence of events to explain the drained partitions:
rag tank leaked for that tubing and was getting refilled by it's supply pump in the skimmer partition however that didn't explain the drained return partition? so i filled the return partition leaving the skimmer aprtition empty and noticed that water was also leaking on teh seams of the baffles from teh return partition to the skimmers partition. normally this is not an issue as when water levels are full on both sides allw ater would go through the baflles instead of through this small leak however I did clean the seam and resilicon it from both sides so now things are fine.
This will for sure add some stress as I have 4-5 unused holes in the sump and frag tank (initially intended for connecting an external Carbon and phophate reactor as well as a drain for water changes that is not used yet and acouple of holes for a CL in the frag tank... all these are closed by the same type of tube lock which failed so I believe I'll be adding a second one to have one lock from inside and another one from out for more security. once tank is moved the sump and frag tank will be changed and I'll make sure not to have any holes I don't use. the biggest concern is a hole in the bottom of the tank meant for a mechanical filter that is not used...
Still considering the possibility,advantage of having a humidity sensor under the tank that would cut the power from all pumps circulating water between different parts of the system so that if any fails the damage is contained.
Luckily none of my my pumps was damaged
maroun.c
New member
And some more tragedy,
while working with the tank my tweezers hit one of my millepora which is one of my best looking fastest growing corals and broke of a couple of branches:
That was Ok as I always wanted to take out a couple of frags of this one but never had the heart to. however while gluing the frags I looked at the tank and saw the colony falling on some rocks and then land face on in the sand... took it out and saw some more broken pieces...
was finally left with this:
and some frags:
while working with the tank my tweezers hit one of my millepora which is one of my best looking fastest growing corals and broke of a couple of branches:
That was Ok as I always wanted to take out a couple of frags of this one but never had the heart to. however while gluing the frags I looked at the tank and saw the colony falling on some rocks and then land face on in the sand... took it out and saw some more broken pieces...
was finally left with this:
and some frags:
maroun.c
New member
I learned from an LFs that there is around 150 persons with marine fish tanks in the country. still most of them are FO. I have only seen 3-4 of those and 2 of them are very nice systems. Still noe is running frag tank and usually its so hard to get SPS aronud here that no one considers having a frag tank. most wouldn't even touch an SPS that is doing good in fear of causing it to RTN... so no trading going on. to me it's only a backup of corals I have as well as a holding place for tiny frags that I brake off while working in the tank and that would get lost if placed in the tank...As to heat and electricity its still the same as the war days with frequent daily power failures of up to 8 hours and sometimes more however now most buildings or streets have thei backup generator so it's a bit easier than before....
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Maroun you have got to have the most patience of anyone on Reef Central! From all the equipment problems, too much travel, having to move your tank, small disasters, no local fish store support... I probably would have given up the hobby by now if I were you. You have taught me that with this hobby one needs to take the ups and downs with calm and positive outlook. Thank you!
Your daughter has really grown up and is very sweet. I bet she is a great help along with your son.
As always I enjoy reading your thread.
Your daughter has really grown up and is very sweet. I bet she is a great help along with your son.
As always I enjoy reading your thread.
