Lasses Dream Build

[Brew12]

No more aquarium builds - promise that! Yes - but do not our youngest grand daughter need an own aquaria? - Well - okay then! but do not occupy the living room table for months this time! Promise? - Well - yea - (try too not)

Result

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A Red Sea Max nano was moving into our appartment last night. The goal with this aquaria is to create a easy maintained salt water aquaria with mostly soft corals and small fishes, invertebrates and other animals that can interest a young child. Will see how it will be developed during the nex half a year. It will come a new build thread for this aquaria in a while.

Sincerely Lasse

This is wonderful! Can't wait to see what you do with this one!

 

[neoGeorge]

Hi all

My name is Lasse Forsberg and I live in small place named Bohus – 20 kilometres north Gothenburg, Sweden. I got my first tank 1961 when I was eleven years old and lived in an inland country town 160 kilometres from Gothenburg – I had it for a couple of years but soon I become a teenager and get interested of some other living things. Back in 1974 when I move to Gothenburg together with my girlfriend I started with aquariums again. Today - the same girlfriend is my wife since 39 years ago so there has not been any reason to stop the hobbyJ. For those that is good in math – I know that 1974 is 42 years ago but here in Sweden – we like to test things for a long time before we decide us – at least the female part need timeJ. The best things with long partnership is that different project does not always need to be wife approved – only wife accepted.


My professional life has been everything that have with water, fish, water treatment, fish farming and public aquariums to do – both from a biological and technical point of view. I´m retired since 1 year ago but still working with recirculated fish farming (farming catfish) and with one of the public aquariums in Gothenburg – Sjöfartsmuseet Akvariet.

My old tank that I started 6 years ago did not work very well this summer and I was very busy during the autumn and in January I sold that aquarium (and another well working aquarium).

This movie show my Percula 120 during spring 2015 and the picture show my Red Sea Max 130.

However – I had a plan to start another tank – a tank that should be little like showcase what I have learned during my more than 40 year as an aquarist. In January this year I order an aquarium from Poland – a custom build tank with a display tank of 300 litres.

This is the first idea

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This was the final order - I want it like this. I send some text and some pictures to a guy that did not speak Swedish and not so good English either (and I do not speak Polish !) I have a friend that speak Polish so if I got some question - he could help me - I hope. The delivery (pre pay) was promised to be early march. After paying - the sound of silence was my Polish aquarium builders signature tune. No questions - no contact

March pass by - no Aquarium - a little bit nervous. My wife looks at me with special expression in her face. (after 42 years, I know what that look means) April start - and finally I got a e-mail - delivery on Monday. The tank arrived on Tuesday (same week)

It was perfect - it was like I wanted it.

Now - the build could start - I let the pictures talk for them selves

This was the technical part. Lets start with the aesthetic part of the aquarium

Left corner

From the right

Right corner

Hiding Chinese wavemakers - left

Right corner

I´ll come back with the biological part

Sincerely Lasse

Beautiful tank - really impressed with the background!

 

[norfolkgarden]

No more aquarium builds - promise that! Yes - but do not our youngest grand daughter need an own aquaria? - Well - okay then! but do not occupy the living room table for months this time! Promise? - Well - yea - (try too not)

Result

​

A Red Sea Max nano was moving into our appartment last night. The goal with this aquaria is to create a easy maintained salt water aquaria with mostly soft corals and small fishes, invertebrates and other animals that can interest a young child. Will see how it will be developed during the nex half a year. It will come a new build thread for this aquaria in a while.

Sincerely Lasse

Too funny. Lol, your wife is a saint.

Congratulations on bringing another tank into the house!


Looking forward to the build thread.

 

[neoGeorge]

Thank you all for the good words – If it will be a work of art or not – I´m not sure that I can answer that question.

But one thing is for sure – there will be some unusual solutions and thoughts – how wise – we will see after a couple of years.


As you can see – there is a special compartment at the back – behind the not total complete coast to coast overflow. This compartment is intended to contain a DSB. I will use it for other things, too - more on that later in the thread

I intend to have a water crevice under the bed (I could not find a better word than crevice for this – I think that plenum is an accepted term also). An old under gravel filter will be my base

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The pipe in the corner is intended to be a construction so I can put in an redox or pH electrode and do measurements under the DSB

After a lot of thinking and some dirty words (in Swedish) - the construction was placed at the back yard

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There is 4 pipes - the reason for this is that I should also be able put things down under the gravel (organic carbon as an example) , suck upp others (Phosphate rich water as an other example). I will also put in a construction that will give me the possibility to have a very slow flow through the bed (from the bottom and up) I will also put electrodes in the pipes

​

And now - every one understand what the right hole in the back compartment was for - for wires and tubes

​

Will be continued

Sincerely Lasse

And this time I got the pictures right - by myself

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Wow, this is fascinating - way beyond my experience level, but educational! I'm reading this thread a couple of years after the fact, which provides the benefit of binge-reading

 

[atoll]

Will you also have an Oxydator in this tank?

 

[Lasse]

which provides the benefit of binge-reading

I´m impressed

Beautiful tank - really impressed with the background!

Too funny. Lol, your wife is a saint.

Congratulations on bringing another tank into the house!


Looking forward to the build thread.

Thank you all - but that with a saint - I do not really know Not all the time at least - but we come together the summer of 71 (1971 ) so she is a women that can spell to "tolerate" Probably me too but some times I sing an old Elvis song for her - can you guess which ?

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Lasse]

Will you also have an Oxydator in this tank?

Probably - I have a small one at home. However - I´ll do this tank for one of my grandchildren living 280 km from here and I have to do this aquarium stable and easy to maintain. Probably a soft coral tank with lot of different small creaps and fishes. It should catch a 6 year old girls interest for more than 5 minutes . I will start the tank and make it stable and mature. It will probably be here till her birthday - half a year from now.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[crusso1993]

Probably me too but some times I sing an old Elvis song for her - can you guess which ?

Sincerely Lasse

So many to choose from but I'll go with, "Suspicious Minds!" Lol

 

[Lasse]

No

Sincerely Lasse

 

[crusso1993]

No

Sincerely Lasse

I should have made it clear that I was joking.

 

[neoGeorge]

Updated fish list

10 Pyjama Cardinal - Sphaeramia nematoptera
8 Threadfin cardinalfish Zoramia leptacantha
4 Yellow Wrasse Halichoeres chrysus
2 Yellow-banded possum wrasse Wetmorella nigropinnata
1 Leopard wrasse Macropharyngodon bipartitus
1 Bicolour blenny Ecsenius bicolor
1 Lemon Coral Goby Gobiodon citrinus
4 Midnight Coral Goby Gobiodon ceramensis
1 Prawn goby Probably Amblyeleotris steinitzi
4 Upsidedown Goby Probably Priolepis semidoliata
1 unknown goby - probably Callogobius amikami
1 Bluestripe Pipefish probably a form of Doryrhamphus excisus
1 Banded Pipefish Dunckerocampus dactyliophorus
2 High Fin Perchlet Plectranthias inermis
1 Sunburst Anthias Serranocirrhitus latus
1 Acreichthys tomentosus in the refugium for the moment
1 Caracanthus maculatus in the refugium

Sincerely Lasse

The Leopard Wrasse is beautiful! Is that a female? What tank parameters are most critical for the "expert (Liveaquaria.com)" fish?

 

[Lasse]

The Leopard Wrasse is beautiful! Is that a female? What tank parameters are most critical for the "expert (Liveaquaria.com)" fish?

I do not know - I had two but one jumped out for me. IMO - they are rather easy if there is no other bulling them.

I should have made it clear that I was joking.

So did I - but sometimes I sing the tune (very silent) You are the devil in disguise but rather seldom and rather quiet And if she hear me - I change the tune to this



Sincerely Lasse

 

[neoGeorge]

I do not know - I had two but one jumped out for me. IMO - they are rather easy if there is no other bulling them.



So did I - but sometimes I sing the tune (very silent) You are the devil in disguise but rather seldom and rather quiet And if she hear me - I change the tune to this



Sincerely Lasse

;Singing

 

[neoGeorge]

Update

Yesterday I did the first water change since start – 80 l -> 20 %

I also measure nitrate and got an idea which phosphate level I have. The NO3 was between 50 and 100 and – yes – there is some phosphate

The macro algae grows well and I did put in some nitrate during this three months since start. Its clearly that I have some uptake/break down of nitrate because the amount I have put in should has shown values around 200 – 300 ppm.

Some of my SPS does not going very well but the LPS and the mushrooms grows very well and shows good colours.

The nutrient should be lowered and I start with some phosphate remover from Triton today. I also start injection of organic carbon in the DSB. I use a witches brew consisting of ethanol, vinegar and sugar. The redox below the DSB is today -24 mV and I run around 12 l/day through it. 4 ml of the witches brew/day. I also pump down most of the skimmers production.



Some pictures

New coral

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Shrimp

Good colours

Strange - rather good coloured SPS at the growing aera

Sincerely Lasse

It's worth repeating - a fascinating build thread. I did jump ahead the other day because I couldn't wait to see how the tank looked after a few years of growth!

 

[neoGeorge]

An update of the small things which are important building blocks of a reef aquarium.​

And some fishes too

And a corall

Sincerely Lasse

Do you dip your corals to remove "unwanted" hitchhikers? If so, how do you get the desirable small/tiny filter feeders in your tank?

 

[neoGeorge]

Warning - strong movie - nothing for nervous SPS nerds



Sincerely Lasse

;Hilarious

 

[Lasse]

Do you dip your corals to remove "unwanted" hitchhikers? If so, how do you get the desirable small/tiny filter feeders in your tank?

I do not do any prophylactic treatment at all. Neither fish, corals or other inverts. If a problem ocours - I take hand of that in the moment I notice it. Normally with biological methods - who eats what.
Sincerely Lasse

 

[neoGeorge]

I do not do any prophylactic treatment at all. Neither fish, corals or other inverts. If a problem ocours - I take hand of that in the moment I notice it. Normally with biological methods - who eats what.
Sincerely Lasse

I'm still reading through your thread, so apologies if you have already covered this - which of your fish and invertebrates did you choose because of their "biologic methods" benefits to the tank? I currently have a six line wrasse (Pseudocheilinus hexataenia ), but don't plan to move it to my new reef aquarium because it harasses the yellow assessor (Assessor flavissimus), who is one of my favorite fish in the tank .

 

[Lasse]

For some flatworms - scooter blenny is very good. At the moment I do not have a scooter blenny because my giant sally lightfoot crab seems to like fish that behaves in that way. However - I will move sally sooner or later. Atapsia - peppermint shrimp or some file fish. My file fish is in my refugium for the moment - he likes some other things too. But when my atapsia have grown a little bit more (becomming a problem) he/she will be moved over for a week or two. I will get some more peppermints too. For bristleworms (a lot of small in the refugium but not in the DT) - a banded coralshrimp is good. I have taken some acropora from tanks with acropora eating flatworms - have no problem in my tank - probably because of my pipefishes. The yellow wrasses, the posoum wrasses and the leopard wrase take some things too. and the hermits takes whatever


Sincerely Lasse

 

[neoGeorge]

For some flatworms - scooter blenny is very good. At the moment I do not have a scooter blenny because my giant sally lightfoot crab seems to like fish that behaves in that way. However - I will move sally sooner or later. Atapsia - peppermint shrimp or some file fish. My file fish is in my refugium for the moment - he likes some other things too. But when my atapsia have grown a little bit more (becomming a problem) he/she will be moved over for a week or two. I will get some more peppermints too. For bristleworms (a lot of small in the refugium but not in the DT) - a banded coralshrimp is good. I have taken some acropora from tanks with acropora eating flatworms - have no problem in my tank - probably because of my pipefishes. The yellow wrasses, the posoum wrasses and the leopard wrase take some things too. and the hermits takes whatever


Sincerely Lasse

Very helpful, thank you!