Matt's 5000ltr Display

[d3hree]

A couple more fish went in to QT.

15 red spot cardinals

6 gold stripe cardinals

Also a sargassum trigger that was a little camera shy

Fibreglassing is scheduled for week Tuesday

 

[NDJ]

A couple more fish went in to QT.

15 red spot cardinals

They look very similar to freshwater cardinal fish. Glad to see the tank progressing can't wait to see the pictures of it full of salty water and LR.

 

[d3hree]

They look very similar to freshwater cardinal fish. Glad to see the tank progressing can't wait to see the pictures of it full of salty water and LR.

Hi Neil

They are similar. I fell in love with them in Saxby's tank, the shoal very closely together. They are said to be pretty fragile and dont last long. I havent had them before so I will just have to wait and see.

 

[NDJ]

Hi Neil

They are similar. I fell in love with them in Saxby's tank, the shoal very closely together. They are said to be pretty fragile and dont last long. I havent had them before so I will just have to wait and see.

Best of luck with them. I also like the Spotted Cardinalfish (Sphaeramia nematoptera) think they are totally underrated by many reef keepers.

 

[kentrob11]

I'll be interested to see how they do as well...I think a large shoal of 30 or so would be very cool in a larger tank like that! I wonder if having larger fish in there would result in tighter groups with them...

 

[d3hree]

Best of luck with them. I also like the Spotted Cardinalfish (Sphaeramia nematoptera) think they are totally underrated by many reef keepers.

I am not a huge fan of the spotted cardinals if im honest..nor the banggai. I will be adding some more red spots, some threadfin (blue eyed). I also like the Red Stop Light Cardinalfish (Fowleria flammea) and Ring-tail Cardinalfish (Apogon aureus).

I'll be interested to see how they do as well...I think a large shoal of 30 or so would be very cool in a larger tank like that! I wonder if having larger fish in there would result in tighter groups with them...

IIRC Saxby had about 70 and they stayed in a tight ball about the size of a basket ball. When a larger fish swims towards them they break apart to let him through and then immediately reform back to the tight cluster. Very interesting.

I think with a large tank it is easy to get carried away with the large show fish. I do want tangs etc but I also want lots of smaller fish like chromis, anthias and cardinals that will add a sense of scale to the tank.

 

[kentrob11]

Agreed! Did they die off at all? Was he having to add to the school occasionally to keep up the numbers? I love the idea of several schools/shoals of smaller fish that react naturally to larger fish...very cool!

 

[kentrob11]

The first fish I plan on adding to my tank are a pile of green chromis, yellow tail damsels, bangaii cardinals and royal grammas.

 

[Moort82]

A couple more fish went in to QT.

15 red spot cardinals

6 gold stripe cardinals

Also a sargassum trigger that was a little camera shy

Fibreglassing is scheduled for week Tuesday

Nice choice Matt. I love smaller species that make the tank look more natural.

Sarah has had the red spots in before and they did really well. They seemed just as hardy as any other cardinal tbh.
Also seen the gold stripes destroy a population of cleaner shrimp quickly so keep an eye out for that.

There's a few interesting cardinals that i'm considering for a new setup at the moment

Apogon taeniopterus Bandfin cardinal
Ostorhinchus leslie Rose atoll cardinal
Apogon griffini Hookfin Cardinalfish
and as an outsider Apogon chrysopomus Spotted-gill cardinalfish

Also a big fan of triggers just don't have the space. Is the sargassum going to be paired up at anytime? I'm guessing its also a replacement for the one you used to have.

 

[Moort82]

Should've also said, really nice that your nearing getting wet. Let the fun begin!

 

[d3hree]

Hi Ad
I quite like the Apogon taeniopterus, depending on the origin. The Rose atoll cardinal is very nice as are the hookfins. Not sure about the spotted gills.

Can sazmo source these for you? I like the algaes and stuff she gets in, I plan on emailing her at some stage because I fancy trying a few different ones...even just for aesthetics if not export potential.

Thanks for the heads up about the gold stripes...I did not know that!
Yes the sargassum is one of my favourites, my last one jumped so I bought this one at the LFS and left him there for a week until I had chance to add a netting cover to the QT tank..there will be no where for him to go in the DT. i havent considered a pair of sargassums, cross hatch maybe.

 

[d3hree]

Agreed! Did they die off at all? Was he having to add to the school occasionally to keep up the numbers? I love the idea of several schools/shoals of smaller fish that react naturally to larger fish...very cool!

tbh I dont know, Saxby never mentioned anything, its just what I have been told by a few people. I think once you get them they are OK, they just dont travel well. I know a lot of you guys buy mail order, I think I would give these a miss unless you can get them locally.

 

[Moort82]

Hi Ad
I quite like the Apogon taeniopterus, depending on the origin. The Rose atoll cardinal is very nice as are the hookfins. Not sure about the spotted gills.

Can sazmo source these for you? I like the algaes and stuff she gets in, I plan on emailing her at some stage because I fancy trying a few different ones...even just for aesthetics if not export potential.

I haven't looked at the lists yet tbh as its only a plan in my head at this stage.

Algae wise there are quite alot that are easy to get hold of. There's a list that comes in every so often with plenty of seagrasses and macros and they are always very popular.

I know she'd love to catch up with you.

 

[davisju1]

Every thing is come together nicely can't wait to see the system up and going.

 

[KROS]

I thought you were going to go with anthias?

 

[d3hree]

hehe...I dont fancy them at all

 

[d3hree]

As well as fibreglassing the main DT next Tuesday GRP will also be fibreglassing the surge tank...so I thought I had better build it!

The surge tank is 30x30x18, approx 270 litres.

Made using the same methods as the DT it has 2x2 timber cut into "toblerone" to re-inforce the corners

I just need to sand down the expanded gorilla glue and its good to go.

 

[d3hree]

I commissioned a atu specialist to build me a bespoke unit for the tanks top up.

Box of goodies

The top up for this tank is quite involved. The top up reservoir has it's own 100gpd RO unit. This ro unit is fitted with an auto flush device so that it flushes the membrane for 10 mins every hour, making sure that when called upon the tds is zero.

The ro reservoir is approx 100 ltrs

When the water in the return vat lowers through evap the ATU-PRO will pump water back in via a kalk stirrer, the ATU-PRO will be timed to only come on after lights out.

As the water in the RO reservoir lowers it will trigger a seperate float switch that will open a solenoid valve and turn on the booster pump to the RO feeding water back into the reservoir straight from the RO unit.

There is also a safety cut off float valve that will kill the power to the ATU-PRO in the event that the water in the reservoir drops too low.

Here are the units from Reefloat, the ATU-PRO on the left and the RO unit controls on the right

The kalkstirrer sat above the ro reservoir and the abundance of cables from all the equipment in that corner.

I cant believe, considering the amount of plug sockets I have installed that, in some areas I could use a few more!

 

[d3hree]

Anyone remember this thing?

I took some pics of its current state to show Matt from GRP before he comes to fibreglass it on Weds...thought I may aswell add them to the thread. I have spent the past couple of weeks sanding and filling the tank to try and get the best possible finish.

 

[d3hree]