Raied's punyquarium build

[mrhasan]

Hello Everyone.

Used to post at reefcentral few years ago but then got more involved in the local forum. I am Raied from Cananda and have been in this hobby since 2012. My first tank was a 20L reef and in a year, it turned into this:

819158_10151462719534808_106939327_o by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

Afterwards, I upgraded my tank to a custom 40x20x20 (in) tank which I took care for about a year and half before taking a break from the hobby for a year. Here is a picture of what my tank looked like before leaving:

DSC_0340 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

So, after a year of break, I decided to be back but in a smaller size. Keeping up with a moderately sized tank in rented apartment is quite a challenge. This time, I decided to go for a smaller 16"x20"x15" (4" is taken away by AIO) AIO custom build tank. Three sides are starfire (low iron) glasses and all edges are polished. Chose the tank to be rimless for simplicity.

2015-12-30 16.31.20 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

For lighting, I chose kessil a160we with the spectral controller. I work at an LED manufacturing company and kessil's dense matrix made the most sense to me for overcoming the infamous disco effect, which I hate. Should give plenty of light for LPS and few prized SPS. (Please ignore the dusts in the tank, it wasn't clean at that time)

2015-12-30 17.39.54 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

For salt, I went with aquaforest probiotic reef. Was able to grab them from a source since Canada does not have any distributor yet. But the pail came broken, luckily the bag inside the pail was still intact.
2015-12-22 16.54.29 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

For return pump, I will be using an Ehime compact 1000. For ATO, I will be using Tunze nano osmolator. And for the flow, I will be using 1 jebao rw4. Should give me enough flow.

For skimmer, I have been able to get aquamaxx ws-1. Heard a lot of good reviews on this and that is one of the prettiest skimmer I have seem (although I haven't seen a lot of skimmers).

2016-01-04 16.47.06 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

For live rock, I will be getting walt smith reef rock 2.0; will be getting it sometimes next week. Alongside, I am waiting on the RODI system along with a stand and some other stuffs (heaters, carbon, etc.). Almost everything is coming from separate sources and the holiday season is causing the shipping delays.

My primary goal with this tank is to have something small, colourful and maintenance free (in reefing terms). This should a tank that I should be able to enjoy and keep my hands out of the water. Over time, I know I will turn this one into one cramped tank with SPS and LPS but until then, I will just keep things slow and low maintenance.

 

[JaihWill]

Welcome Back!!!! Great looking setup thus far, can't wait to see the outcome.

 

[mrhasan]

Welcome Back!!!! Great looking setup thus far, can't wait to see the outcome.

Thanks It's quite frustrating to look at the empty tank and wait for everything else but with the holiday season shipping backlog, not worth complaining.

 

[mrhasan]

Finally I have been able to fill the tank after almost 2 months in decision making process :biggrin:

After failed attempt at making a stand, I ended up buying a biocube 29 stand. Looks good and works well and I got it at a nice discount, tanks to J&L.

2016-01-22 18.03.40 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

For power outlet, I bought an 8 outlet DJ power.

Here it was, sitting in its empty glorified form, waiting to be wet!

2016-01-22 19.40.54 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

And I just can't highlight how cute this thing is:

2016-01-22 17.57.02 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

Since I planned on not getting a controller and doing old school setup using timers (I am yet to start using it) and Ranco for temperature control, I finally got it, thanks to an LFS:

12656095_10153884869714808_255228969_o by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

Wasn't pre-wired so had to do it by myself. The termination blocks are not the most user-friendly, especially considering how tight the inside of the enclosure is but I got it working without any hiccups.

2016-02-05 18.02.33 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

2016-02-05 18.33.33 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

Since I didn't have a stain relief handy, I made my own:

2016-02-05 18.36.17 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

Just a headsup: the probe is IP67 and is not meant to be submerged all the time. Although industrial devices are always underrated from what they can withstand, I heat shrink wrapped the joint between the wire and the rubber for added protection. It is better to be safe than sorry!

 

[mrhasan]

Did my best to get everything as "organized" as possible; not the most elegant way but its enough to make me happy and everything is hidden within the cabinet itself.

2016-02-04 21.15.22 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

2016-02-04 21.15.29 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

2016-02-04 21.15.36 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

Aquascaping was a bit of a pain since the rocks were of unique shapes so I had to stare at them for a long time to decide on this one:

2016-02-05 20.30.12 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

2016-02-05 20.30.24 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

2016-02-05 20.30.31 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

2016-02-05 20.30.53 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

And it was time to fill it up:

2016-02-05 20.38.19 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

And it lives......

2016-02-05 21.05.08 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

The water cleared up quite nicely within few hours but over night, it became a bit cloudy; not the one which would be of concern but it was a bit cloudy. Although I have been curing the rocks for 3 weeks now, I decided to add prodibio startup just for fun. And buying ammonia and nitrite test kit seemed like a waste of money to me.

For filter media, I am running chemipure elite and polyfilter. Will also add purigen for that extra kick of clarity. Skimmer seems to be quite loud but in reality, it is about 10 dB less than what curve 7 was. But since it is not inside a sump, the sound gets to my ears. Will probably take couple of weeks to calm down (that's what Aquamaxx said) of I can always get a bigger silencer .

I am getting my first livestocks for the tank tomorrow

Wish me luck!

 

[mrhasan]

Two weeks update. Introduced a pair of clowns, a cleaner shrimp, a lawnmower blenny, an open brain coral and few scarlet hermits. Parameters seems to be in check. Will get to testing Ca, Alk and Mg from next month. Will continue to do 5 gallon WC every week until I am happy with the direction that the tank is heading.









Constructive criticism and suggestions always appreciated

 

[zchauvin]

Any updates?

 

[mrhasan]

Any updates?

Thanks for the bump

I wasn't getting much feedback from others so decided not to update regularly.

Things haven't changed much honestly. Having some quick new tank algae which is been taken care of. Changing water every few days to gets things going. Got a new lawnmower blenny that is just chomping through the algae and pooping like a goat. Also added few CUCs to get things moving. Ordered an aquatronica controller too.

And a picture is worth a thousand words so here's couple thousands words:

 

[zchauvin]

Lol yeah I hear ya, its ok though. Time to start getting some coral in there!

 

[mrhasan]

Lol yeah I hear ya, its ok though. Time to start getting some coral in there!

I am waiting on an bubble tip that I had to special order and waiting on the shipment to arrive. Once that stingy mover settles in, I will be looking into corals. With the wonderful situation of the CAD exchange rate, we are not getting much stuffs on our side of the border so it may take a while to get the corals I am looking for. Since this is a very small tank, I am being very picky of things I put in it; my eyes are set on exclusive stuffs only LOL.

 

[Speedfreak241]

That clown is beautiful I love the platinum clowns. Normally you don't see one with so many "bullets".

 

[mrhasan]

That clown is beautiful I love the platinum clowns. Normally you don't see one with so many "bullets".

Thanks It's not a platinum actually. Most closely related to frostbite but the local breeder over here named it northern lights.

 

[FishyFishy69]

Raied, Where did you get that switchable powerbar? Did you get it online or source it in Calgary?

 

[mrhasan]

Raied, Where did you get that switchable powerbar? Did you get it online or source it in Calgary?

I was able to find it in Calgary after a wild goose chase. I am PMing you the link

 

[mrhasan]

Time for an update

So it has been 1 month of the tank running with little to no hiccup.

Few problems that I encountered until now:

1. Overfeeding: since the clowns weren't eating initially and I am not a very patient guy, I tried to put as many types of food as I can, leading to over feeding syndrome. Thankfully, small tank = small water change = big impact so I could address this very quickly.

2. Brown hair algae: instead of the green variant, I somehow go the brown hair algae bloom. 5 gallon WC every few days + 3 maxican turbos (will need to get ride of two shortly; these buggers are poop machine and instead of coraline, my rocks are covered in snail poops) took care of it. There are still some here and there but will run its course.

Maintenance:

I think I have pretty much nailed down the maintenance for now. 3 gallon water change every Saturday (takes about 30 minutes starting from mixing to putting the water in the tank). Aquaforest salt mix is ready within 15 minutes and that alone is very convenient. No need to "plan" for water change.

I removed filter floss for a day or two to see how that impacts the tank but all the floating stuffs were eye sore so I started using it again. Will change every 2 - 3 days. This is going to be an LPS tank anyways so some nitrate/phosphate is welcome.

I am doing prodibio program for the fun of it and have completed 2 cycles of dose. Not expecting any result until for another month or two. Phosphate is below 0.1 so not concerned about that. Nitrate is below 1 so overall, the nutrients seem to be in check.

Inhabitants

The clowns are clowning around and the lawnmower blenny is mowing down the algae and pooping like a beast. Seriously, the poops are half the size in left of the fish itself. DAMN!

I have added a royal gramma but it is still timid and stays inside a cave. Only comes out when the lights are out. Will have to wait few more days before I can take a decent picture.

The brain coral seems to be getting fleshier day by day which is a good thing. I will probably have to start looking into snake oils to see which ones promise more vibrate coloration. The brain is quite colorful by itself but I would the color to be more bright.

Now to the show stopper: the flame anemone. Been waiting for over a month to get my hand on this bad boy but had hard time finding it anywhere in Calgary. Finally, a LFS put in a special order for me and here I am, a proud owner of the flame anemone. It bubbled up nicely, moved few inches and stayed there over the weekend and the mama clown has already started hosting it. A wonderful sight Few pics:

About an hour in:

After few hours:

And on Sunday (has been at the same spot since Friday):

New gadgets:

1. Another RW04 in the tank: wasn't happy with the amount of flow I was getting for an RW04 in the tank and being a cube, it wasn't helping much. Instead of getting a bigger pump, i decided to get another RW04. Each of them run for an hour during the photo period. This resulted in the tank having more floating objects in the water. Although this bugs me, I think this will all be trapped in the filter floss within few days. Will get ride of the pooping snails which should help a lot too.

2. Aquatronica controller: thanks to Eric from ocean enterprise, I got a sweet deal on an aquatronica ACQ115 kit that includes temp, pH, salinity, ethernet, float switch and pc interface, 8 bars and the non-touch controller. Didn't have the budget to get the touch and ACQ115 has more than what I need for the tank. Did some basic setup and calibrated the probes to get the controller going. Need to get a ethernet switch (I use powerline) for the ethernet module and waiting to receive some more stuffs that Eric shipped out. This is my first "real" controller (my last one was a reef keeper light which was basically a glorious power bar).

 

[mrhasan]

Some pictures of how things looks right now under the cabinet:

Not the prettiest cable management but not a snake of wires either.

And lastly, some tank shots:

Sorry for the crappy pictures. My brother took away the DSLR and my good camera phone is in for repair so all I have is a crappy loaner phone right now.

 

[mrhasan]

Borrowed the DSLR of my buddy and took a few snapshots

DSC_0100 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0096 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0095 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0093 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0092 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0091 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0090 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0089 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

 

[mrhasan]

DSC_0087 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0086 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0085 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0083 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0081 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0078 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0076 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0074 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0072 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0069 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

 

[mrhasan]

DSC_0066 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0064 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0062 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0061 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0060 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0059 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0056 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0053 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0052 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0048 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

 

[mrhasan]

DSC_0045 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0044 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0043 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

DSC_0037 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr