A reef on the 10th floor

JMacedo · Dec 9, 2016

Just a quick one from today...

Lowell Lemon · Dec 9, 2016

@JMacedo ,
On my way to Bangkok and arrive on the 13th of December. Visiting my son who is teaching high school at Ekamai academy. Would love to see some of the local shops and the market you recommended. I would love the chance to see your fantastic aquarium and learn how you manage your system. We leave on the 26th for our return. Looking forward to learning about your part of the world.
Regards,
Lowell Lemon

JMacedo · Dec 10, 2016

Lowell Lemon said:
@JMacedo ,
On my way to Bangkok and arrive on the 13th of December. Visiting my son who is teaching high school at Ekamai academy. Would love to see some of the local shops and the market you recommended. I would love the chance to see your fantastic aquarium and learn how you manage your system. We leave on the 26th for our return. Looking forward to learning about your part of the world.
Regards,
Lowell Lemon

Hi Lowell,

I live near Ekamai, just let me know when and we will arrange to meet up, except from the 20th to the 26th as I will be in Koh Samed during this period.

Wishing you a nice holiday over here.

Ortho281 · Dec 10, 2016

Just got thru looking at all your pages. Your tank and this thread are amazing! This is one of the best tanks I have seen, no doubt due to your great husbandry and knowledge about reefing! Thanks for sharing!

JMacedo · Dec 10, 2016

Ortho281 said:
Just got thru looking at all your pages. Your tank and this thread are amazing! This is one of the best tanks I have seen, no doubt due to your great husbandry and knowledge about reefing! Thanks for sharing!

I am the one to thank you for the very kind words! Really appreciated! Thank you!

Lowell Lemon · Dec 10, 2016

JMacedo said:
Hi Lowell,

I live near Ekamai, just let me know when and we will arrange to meet up, except from the 20th to the 26th as I will be in Koh Samed during this period.

Wishing you a nice holiday over here.

I have not figured out the whole private message yet. If you send me a message I can give you contact information. I use Skype and Line as well as a cell. Looking forward to seeing a whole new world half a world away. We are currently getting a good snow storm here and the warmer temperature sounds great about now!

JMacedo · Dec 10, 2016

Lowell Lemon said:
I have not figured out the whole private message yet. If you send me a message I can give you contact information. I use Skype and Line as well as a cell. Looking forward to seeing a whole new world half a world away. We are currently getting a good snow storm here and the warmer temperature sounds great about now!

I just started a "conversation" with you and sent my contacts.

Snow storm... hope everything will be alright over there. Over here it is "winter " season... and some 86ºF outside at the 10th floor level under the shade! ha ha

Lowell Lemon · Dec 10, 2016

86 sounds wonderful. I think it is in the low 20's tonight. Looking forward to some warm sunshine or even a warm rain.

Ljaus · Dec 10, 2016

Thanks for the video. Looks amazing as always

Frop · Dec 10, 2016

JMacedo said:
Hi all,

This is my 60"x24"x24" or 150x60x60cm tank (about 142USgal, 119UKgal or 540litres).

The tank was rebuilt five months ago after the chiller had let me down while I was on a holiday. When I arrived home the water temp was at 95ºF (35ºc) and I had no choice but to frag most of my colonies. The chiller has been replaced with an AC compressor with a drop-in coil since.

During the process of fragging and removal of the dead corals using a flat screwdriver and a hammer, the rockscape collapsed and I almost threw the towel and called it quits!... but, as all you know this is no simple hobby... this is an addiction!... an addiction I have since the first time a friend of mine invited me to see his saltwater tank and I was green with envy and then started my first saltwater tank 200USgal circa 1990.

This tank is smaller... because I now live on a 10th floor and the lifts are small!

Removed everything from the tank, gave it a good cleaning, placed new rocks, new sand, new everything, my frags, a few surviving colonies and the fish.

Cycling has been a nightmare (water is done but rocks take usually no less than a year). Nonetheless here is my humble reef as it looks today.

The sump is a custom made simple tank with no baffles (30"x 18" x 15")
Return pump: Eheim Compact+ Marine
Skimmer: Tunze 9430
Calcium Reactor: Bubble Magus
UV: Eheim Reeflex 800
Lighting: 6x AI Hydra52 modules.
Flow: 2x Maxspect Gyre 150
Power Backup: APC Pro 1500 with Battery Pack
ATO: Small tank with DIY system
Cooling: 9000BTU AC compressor with drop-in coil (I am going to install a second one as backup)

Old salt: (more than one year in use until end of February this year: RedSea (blue bucket - the Pro version is too rich and far from NSW parameters, I tried the pro but the non-Pro gives me better results and less algae)

Carbon source: RedSea NoPox

Feeding corals and fish: Fish poo and home made recipe (nori sheets, clams, salmon, shrimp, squid eggs, brine shrimp)

Water changes 10% weekly

This month I am in the process of changing things using some Fauna Marin products:

Fauna Marin Professional Salt
Reef Vitality
Coral Balance
Color Elements

Water parameters:

Calcium: must be alright.
Magnesium: Just fine, the corals tell me.
Alk: 7.5 - 8.0 dKh (tested every other day)
Phosphate: must be close to undetectable.
Nitrates: Very close to 0 (tested every 4 days)
PH: Not tested.
SG 1.025
Temp 77ºF (25ºC)

I will be updating.

Wow... great photo. And so much lighting!

JMacedo · Dec 10, 2016

Ljaus said:
Thanks for the video. Looks amazing as always

Very kind of you, Ljaus. Thank you.

Frop said:
Wow... great photo. And so much lighting!

That was when I had only 6 AI Hydra52 modules over the tank! ...now they are 7! hehehe Thank you very much.

Frop · Dec 10, 2016

That was when I had only 6 AI Hydra52 modules over the tank! ...now they are 7! hehehe Thank you very much.[/QUOTE]

What kind of par do you run at the sandbed?

JMacedo · Dec 10, 2016

Frop said:
That was when I had only 6 AI Hydra52 modules over the tank! ...now they are 7! hehehe Thank you very much.

What kind of par do you run at the sandbed?

To be honest, I really don't know, I have some Seneye thingy with a par meter but never used it as I don't think it will provide reliable readings.

IMHO there is more to it than PAR readings. Some acros like intense light others don't, it is up to us to learn where to place them. Nowadays I see a tendency to give corals too much of the kind of light for deeper water corals and sometimes people tend to forget that most of our acros are not from the deep, that's why IMO some people are having trouble with LED's.

JMacedo · Dec 10, 2016

Be102 said:
Amazing tank! Could you possibly explain the sump a little more? I was looking to purchase one however I am under the impression yours is built custom? I don't have as large as a tank as yours unfortunately however still have a decent amount of room in my tank. Is there a reason why you chose to not add in a refugium?

I am sorry, I forgot to answer your last question. It was not my intention to ignore it.

IMO a refugium is just another method of reducing nutrients and I have nothing against of having one but I always stick to the stuff that works well with my tank ... if ain't broken, don't fix it... I think.

Be102 · Dec 10, 2016

JMacedo said:
Thank you. Yes, it is custom made but very simple, there are no baffles, so it is really easy to clean! After a couple of years treating water for a living, I am done with calibrating probes, complicated automation, no more dosings of 100kgs of limewater (kalkwasser) per day, no more testing 2 times a day! An SPS tank is much nicer and easier to deal with! lol

Basically the the water from the display tank enters the sump through the blue pipe straight into the nylon filter sock. The drop-in coil is connected to an A/C compressor outside my balcony and it cools the water, then there is the Tunze 9430 skimmer and a small eheim pump (left hand side of the pic) pumping water through 2 UV units and back into the filter sock. The UV keeps the parasites under control, gives me the needed water clarity for certain sps and kills the bacteria in the water column aiding the export of PO4 and NO3 via the skimmer.

The sump is drilled and I use an Eheim pump externally to the sump as can be seen in the below pic to return the water back into the display tank. I know... I need to connect another return pump in case this one fails.

Then there is only the dosing and the diy ATO.

Simple!

This is very informative thank you. It really explains that baffles and all the fancy sections are not needed. Basically I should figure out the dimensions of a tank and then fit a skimmer inside and go from there. Im sorry for being clueless but how does an external pump work? Is there a reason you drilled the tank as opposed to putting a pump inside? Can you explain what type of parAsites your uv sterilizers are handling? I am under the impression that one isn't needed unless I was to get salt water from the ocean? Is this what you do? I am interested in nopox considering I have no other form of phosphate remover as of right now. Sorry for all the silly questions!

JMacedo · Dec 10, 2016

Be102 said:
This is very informative thank you. It really explains that baffles and all the fancy sections are not needed. Basically I should figure out the dimensions of a tank and then fit a skimmer inside and go from there. Im sorry for being clueless but how does an external pump work? Is there a reason you drilled the tank as opposed to putting a pump inside? Can you explain what type of parAsites your uv sterilizers are handling? I am under the impression that one isn't needed unless I was to get salt water from the ocean? Is this what you do? I am interested in nopox considering I have no other form of phosphate remover as of right now. Sorry for all the silly questions!

I love the hobby but really hate the hard work that comes with it! lol I love to spend hours looking at my tank but I hate to spend hours cleaning it and maintaining it. I am happy with a weekly 30 min water change and some cleaning done! I think I said this before... I am a very lazy reefer!

Pumps produce heat, if inside the tank they heat up the water and I live in hot Bagkok, the warmer the water gets the more expensive the electric bill. Other than that the pump stays clean, every 6 months I clean its interior and the impeller and that's it. Also this is a 220v pump and I don't trust equipment of this sort of voltage to go in the water it can be disastrous, I think.

Depending on bulb wattage and flow rate UV sterilizers can be very useful in controlling and killing parasites when they are in their swimming stage. I did quarantine fish years ago and by far I have way more success not having a quarantine tank and using UV instead. I buy the fish and in they go. The blue tang gets a little ich, the new fish develops more ich, bacterial infections but a week later all are fine. This is my personal experience. I have nothing against people using different methods. I do agree that fish exporters and LFS should quarantine fish before we give them our hard earned money, though. During the past week I added two fish, a bicolor and a keyhole Angelfishes, do they brought in parasites? Yes they did! Do they will recover? Yes, they will! But this is just me, alright?

Anyway I don't have the key to success reef keeping. Every tank is different, there are so many variables in this hobby. Please, take the things I write with a pinch of salt!

It is just my own experience.