ReefKeeperMark's 145g Peninsular Reef (very pic heavy) from 2012 - current

ReefKeeperMark · May 3, 2014

Tank L60in W30in H24in Started with closed loop system with Sequence 12000 Pump.
Sump L48in W17in H17in bubble Magus Curve 9 Skimmer and a DSB L17in W17in D6in

Sketch up design

Closed loop

Sump Returns

Sump

Reef Plates and DIY reef bones made from PVC pipe and putty

Plates being cleaned before use

1st week in

And this was how it was looking mid 2012

The doors to the sump I made into bookcases hinged and on wheels.

ReefKeeperMark · May 3, 2014

Towards the end of 2012 My Sequence pump was making some very loud noises so of it went to be repaired.
During this time and new coral or frag I put into the tank stripped and mostly died overnight. :cry:
For a few months I was banging my head on the brick wall. I couldn't work out what was going on and then a friend suggested having a test done by Triton in Germany. So test sent off and waited for results............ and then I found the problem
Tin = 14.96ug/l thats 14860% above what it should be
Lithium = 360ug/l thats 80% above
Nickle = 6.35ug/l thats 27% above
Zinc = 10.05ug/l thats 151% above
But why so high, then I remebered my sequence pump. When it went off for repair they told me parts had gone rusty inside. So out this came and no more closed loop instead 2x Jabao WP40s :bigsmile:
and from advice from Triton I started a series of water changes using Tropic Marin Reef Pro salt. I decided to do 10% water changes daily for 5 days.

Now while all this was going on I had a dream of my take on a floating reef inspired by Mr Kangs Korean Reef.
My take on this is not to use reef bones but to do something DIY :bigsmile:
So out come a load of pvc pipe Glassfibre tape and loads of resin and a few different grades of coral sand. (I shall post in the DIY section on this)

So as I said 1st week daily water changes of 10% then at the weekend I decided that all the old reef plate structures were coming out and the new floating reef going in. :behindsofa:

On taking out the old reef plates this is what I found....Plates stained with rust

Glad that had all came out :bigsmile:
And the new put in April 15th 2014

Corals have since been moved around and a couple sold on so I shall get a few pics done soon.
Hope you like any questions comments welcome.

Thanks for looking
Mark

ReefKeeperMark · May 3, 2014

Just taken with my phone

cpayne015 · May 3, 2014

Did u lose the big naso in the process

ReefKeeperMark · May 3, 2014

No still got it. In the last pic above the foxface. :wink:

Ryan2428 · May 3, 2014

Wow just awesome

ReefKeeperMark · May 3, 2014

Newbi said:
Wow just awesome

Thanks

Ryan2428 · May 3, 2014

Can I ask how hard it was to bend the pipe with heat

Ryan2428 · May 3, 2014

I am jealous ur build got me thinking bigger tank already lol

ReefKeeperMark · May 3, 2014

Newbi said:
Can I ask how hard it was to bend the pipe with heat

Very easy

ReefKeeperMark · Aug 29, 2014

Update. Had a change around of tubes, I'm now running 3x D-D Aquablue+ 3x D-D Actinic+ 1x D-D Aquapink 1x D-D pure actinic I started dosing KZ COral Snow and Zeobak lastnight as I have some troubles algaes. Heres a few pics I took today.

kingator · Aug 29, 2014

lovin it

ReefKeeperMark · Aug 29, 2014

kingator said:
lovin it

Thanks

Daniel@R2R · Aug 29, 2014

Great thread! Thanks for sharing! Please keep us updated!

ReefKeeperMark · Mar 1, 2015

Hi Guys
1st apologies for not posting for a while.
Towards the end of 2014 I was having huge issues again with loosing corals, so sent a test off to TRITON in December. I received my results and found that Lithium was 295.90ug/l and Nickle was 9.12ug/l my thoughts were that after the rust problems from my sequence pump back in 2013/2014 which although was removed and all live rock removed, my believe was that the metals was in the 2in sand bed in the display.
Jan 2015 I started to remove the sand bed slowly and then removed the structure I made last year.
In went Marco rock and branching reef bones and a new sand bed. I sent another test off to Triton and receieved the results back this week. Lithium now 196.60ug/l nickle 0.99ug/l so very pleased with that, still show 3.69ug/l Tin but thats a lot better than the 14.96ug/l that it was last year.
so here's some pictures
sand coming out

Structure out

New marco rock ect with 1/2in plastic legs to keep it off the sand bed and making it very stable.

Video day 1 of new rocks in.
[video=youtube_share;w8cJ4Brln28]http://youtu.be/w8cJ4Brln28[/video]

Day 2
[video=youtube_share;_a4N_vzTf24]http://youtu.be/_a4N_vzTf24[/video]

Day 6
[video=youtube_share;jF2B-pqYcIE]http://youtu.be/jF2B-pqYcIE[/video]

Day 19, today. Everything is looking great and over the last week I have purchased new corals which are all doing very well. Older corals had lost color due to the issues but they are now regaining their colours.