mr.Green
Community Member
Hi all!
I've been lurking along here for quite some time, looking at peoples tanks with awe and trying to find inspiration for my own. I've did my first reef tank 2011, which was a 26 g total volume cube that I designed myself and had constructed. It ran for a year, with some success. But moving to a new apartment got the tank in a neglected state, and I uppgraded in the Spring of 2013 to keep the hobby going. The new tank is a 80 g (total volume) and almost completetly DIY. I've done all the drilling, the stand, the overflow box and the sump myself. It's been running for nearly two years now, and it's working quite ok, no real disasters. I've moved once more since then, and the apartment I live in now will be my home the next five years, according to the plan at least. You see, the town I live in is really low on rental flats and it's hard to get a permanent contract (which I've now finally got). I also just got a new job (yey!!), a four to five year PhD student position at the Gothenburg University. This will mean a nice steady income, and some serious time for the tank to grow.
So now is the time to go forward and develop the system further. I see lots of unrealised potential in the tank as it is, but I can't quite figure out what to do with it. I think I'm looking for a new look and new tech to "freschen it up" first of all, but I've also got some side plans to try out.
This winter I bought four Nemateleotris magnifica, with the aim to have my other fish spend more time in the open (they're quite shy), but what happened was the oposite, they got really shy and now they're just hiding, barely coming out for lunch or dinner. They also brought ich with them. When I realised it, I cursed my impatience and lack of quarantine procedure and in fear of loosing my other fish bought the largest UVC I could find. I never had it before, and I don't really want it either (the ich that is). The incident has sort of got a plan going in my mind on how to "start over" with the tank though.
I plan to set up a new quarantine system, put all my fish in there, and then re-aquascape the tank, let it settle for a while, and then hopefully, after a month or so without any fish host, the ich will go away.
I've tried to find some type of focus for the tank, but unfortunately, my belowed fish has put an end to that. Last year I started a plan to do xoxanthellate gorgonians and zoas. Bought a bunch of beautiful frags from my friends around town, and did a nice attempt at aquascaping. Problem is I've got this Pygoplites that I love above all else, and he in turn loves munching on gorgonians and zoas/palys. He has decimated polyp expansion on several gorgs, and even crumbled a large Palytoa colony to a withered husk. What works for me seems to be branching LPS (Euphyllia, Calaustrea, Blastomussa) and SPS of all kinds. Those wont get touched.
Estetics whise I love open tanks. But the setup I got now doesn't lend itself to that style at all. The tank is narrow (40 cm back to front) and the over flow box is big as well. I've painted the background black, which also doesn't work that well with open acuascapes. Therefore I think I'll go with a cramped/crowded look, which usually means just a wall of rock to the back. I'd like to do something unique with the rockwork though, I guess we'll find out what that will be later on.
I've also got this DIY stand that actually isn't finished. The doors aren't finished, I've painted it in a latex color, which flakes of in the moisture from the sump, the magnets are also to weak. Time for some refreshment there, definately. Apart from this, there's a second stand waiting for my frag/mangrove tank to get set up (to the right of the tank on the pictures).
The main idea behind running a profile here is to get some documentation of the changes I want to make. And of course to discuss reefing and progress.
Specs:
Tank volume: 64 gal (240 L)
Sump volume: 16 gal (60 L)
Total volume: 80 gal (300 L)
Lights: 10 000K 180w Maxspect Razor
Circulation: 1 Vortech MP10w (1574 g/h), 2 Tunze Nanostream 6015 (2*476 g/h)
Skimmer: Korallen-Zucht Revolution M
Dosing: RovaPhos, Carbon, Kalkwasser, Mg, Vodka
Water changes: 100 L every month/every other month
Tank as of last night, full blue:
Living room in the evening with tank.
Old 24 g tank:
Pygoplites responsible for coral nibbling (I've had this guys for nearly two years).
I've been lurking along here for quite some time, looking at peoples tanks with awe and trying to find inspiration for my own. I've did my first reef tank 2011, which was a 26 g total volume cube that I designed myself and had constructed. It ran for a year, with some success. But moving to a new apartment got the tank in a neglected state, and I uppgraded in the Spring of 2013 to keep the hobby going. The new tank is a 80 g (total volume) and almost completetly DIY. I've done all the drilling, the stand, the overflow box and the sump myself. It's been running for nearly two years now, and it's working quite ok, no real disasters. I've moved once more since then, and the apartment I live in now will be my home the next five years, according to the plan at least. You see, the town I live in is really low on rental flats and it's hard to get a permanent contract (which I've now finally got). I also just got a new job (yey!!), a four to five year PhD student position at the Gothenburg University. This will mean a nice steady income, and some serious time for the tank to grow.
So now is the time to go forward and develop the system further. I see lots of unrealised potential in the tank as it is, but I can't quite figure out what to do with it. I think I'm looking for a new look and new tech to "freschen it up" first of all, but I've also got some side plans to try out.
This winter I bought four Nemateleotris magnifica, with the aim to have my other fish spend more time in the open (they're quite shy), but what happened was the oposite, they got really shy and now they're just hiding, barely coming out for lunch or dinner. They also brought ich with them. When I realised it, I cursed my impatience and lack of quarantine procedure and in fear of loosing my other fish bought the largest UVC I could find. I never had it before, and I don't really want it either (the ich that is). The incident has sort of got a plan going in my mind on how to "start over" with the tank though.
I plan to set up a new quarantine system, put all my fish in there, and then re-aquascape the tank, let it settle for a while, and then hopefully, after a month or so without any fish host, the ich will go away.
I've tried to find some type of focus for the tank, but unfortunately, my belowed fish has put an end to that. Last year I started a plan to do xoxanthellate gorgonians and zoas. Bought a bunch of beautiful frags from my friends around town, and did a nice attempt at aquascaping. Problem is I've got this Pygoplites that I love above all else, and he in turn loves munching on gorgonians and zoas/palys. He has decimated polyp expansion on several gorgs, and even crumbled a large Palytoa colony to a withered husk. What works for me seems to be branching LPS (Euphyllia, Calaustrea, Blastomussa) and SPS of all kinds. Those wont get touched.
Estetics whise I love open tanks. But the setup I got now doesn't lend itself to that style at all. The tank is narrow (40 cm back to front) and the over flow box is big as well. I've painted the background black, which also doesn't work that well with open acuascapes. Therefore I think I'll go with a cramped/crowded look, which usually means just a wall of rock to the back. I'd like to do something unique with the rockwork though, I guess we'll find out what that will be later on.
I've also got this DIY stand that actually isn't finished. The doors aren't finished, I've painted it in a latex color, which flakes of in the moisture from the sump, the magnets are also to weak. Time for some refreshment there, definately. Apart from this, there's a second stand waiting for my frag/mangrove tank to get set up (to the right of the tank on the pictures).
The main idea behind running a profile here is to get some documentation of the changes I want to make. And of course to discuss reefing and progress.
Specs:
Tank volume: 64 gal (240 L)
Sump volume: 16 gal (60 L)
Total volume: 80 gal (300 L)
Lights: 10 000K 180w Maxspect Razor
Circulation: 1 Vortech MP10w (1574 g/h), 2 Tunze Nanostream 6015 (2*476 g/h)
Skimmer: Korallen-Zucht Revolution M
Dosing: RovaPhos, Carbon, Kalkwasser, Mg, Vodka
Water changes: 100 L every month/every other month
Tank as of last night, full blue:
Living room in the evening with tank.
Old 24 g tank:
Pygoplites responsible for coral nibbling (I've had this guys for nearly two years).
