Tiny 500L Mix Reef in a Tiny Island State

[Je®vis]

Hi guys

I have recently restarted 500L tank due to the following reasons:

1) To cut down on power consumption
2) To achieve a more sustainable tank (in terms of maintenance at least)
3) To be less stressful (my previous full tank of SPS gave me a lot of stress)
4) Simply getting a bit bored So a change in concept will rejuvenate the hobby

I have been trying very hard to cut my power consumption (aka carbon footprint) by 50%... well I am pretty close I guess.

Oh yeah, I am residing in a tiny island state of Singapore (south of Malaysia and Thailand) and the currency shown is in Singapore dollars 1 USD = 1.43 SGD

More pix to come... look forward to the support from this amazing forum

 

[Je®vis]

Here's my equipment list and power management table

 

[Je®vis]

Here's my latest full tank shot (just added the clip-on 150W MH yesterday) :lol:

 

[Me No Nemo]

Looks great! Very nice aquascape!

 

[Je®vis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11635068#post11635068 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Me No Nemo
Looks great! Very nice aquascape!

Thanks!

Here's how I work on my rockscape... using artificial rocks (made of fibreglass)

I arranged them inside my dried tank and after I've gotten the right configuration, I glued the rocks outside the tank.

 

[Je®vis]

Found silicone to be the most suitable for the job (since I can cure them outside water for more than 24 hours).

Also applied the silicone elsewhere :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Je®vis]

And because there was no live rocks involved... I prepared my salt mix inside the tank (before adding the live sand)

Once the water reached the desired salinity... I added a couple of bags of Black Live Sand :rolleye1:

 

[Je®vis]

The tank cycled for a while... in total darkness (I wrapped the tank with cardboard)

Tank shown in temporary working lamp... as I finalize the lighting fixture/s.

 

[ReefingBuddha]

nice progress... I really like the way the rock work came out. Are you going to use live rock in the sump for biological filtration?

 

[thor32766]

love the aquascaping great job so far.

 

[boris MAC]

Nice work. Very interested at how thenk perofrm with artifical resin rocks?
You might have some info on this rocks? Or show us some tank with 100% resin rocks?

 

[zooloo]

i like the black sand really makes the stuff pop..

 

[itstheantitang]

You did a great job with the rocks...

In my own tank I have somewhat of an "arch" or "span" of rock as you do.

 

[Je®vis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11649740#post11649740 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thirschmann
nice progress... I really like the way the rock work came out. Are you going to use live rock in the sump for biological filtration?

Thanks! Actually I restarted the main tank while retaining the old sump... the sump has been running for 1+ years. As you can see from the pix below, I do not have any LR inside my sump... but I retained the 1 year old DSB (6" x 6" x 18").

 

[Je®vis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11651426#post11651426 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by boris MAC
Nice work. Very interested at how thenk perofrm with artifical resin rocks?
You might have some info on this rocks? Or show us some tank with 100% resin rocks?

I do not have much info on this brand of artificial rock... the LFS has a very large tank using these rocks on their SPS display... looking gorgeous and been running for years... that's all it takes to convince me... I did buy a small piece to do various tests on it before committing.

 

[Je®vis]

I have been constantly monitoring the NO2 and NO3 levels... both at safe range... still waiting for NO2 to reach zero (colourless)... right now at a very minimal level of 0.05ppm

Got my Arctica chiller serviced by the agent... before connecting the main tank to the sump

To avoid confusion, here's what I did in a nutshell:
1) Decom the main tank while still running the sump
2) Restarted and cycle the main tank (without affecting the sump, still running independently)
3) Once the cycling is over... connect them all!

 

[Je®vis]

I fired the Calcium Reactor about 1 1/2 weeks ago... I played with CR before... that helped tremendously in setting up this one... very smoothly

 

[Je®vis]

Some gadgets for my CR

 

[Je®vis]

Decided to give the Tunze Wavebox a try this time... very impressive :eek1:





Love the wave effect

 

[Je®vis]

For the return... I ordered a Wavysea from RC's sponsor, www.marinedepot.com