My Saltwater Adventure!

[Kaaaarrrll]

Hello All,

Long-time lurker first time poster! I would like to use this thread as a space to show off my successes and seek help to rectify my failures.

Having kept freshwater tanks a number of times in my life I have recently decided (albeit a little forced, more on that later) to enter the exciting world of saltwater aquariums.

Just over a year ago I had a custom sized aquarium and sump built, my intention was to have the tank as a central piece within a set of cupboards and shelving units. Looking back on it I wish I would have done things a little differently such increase in tank width and also one more hole drilled in the bottom, but this will be rectified in the future at some point I'm sure, for now I am happy with what I have.

So, up and until October I was happily keeping African Cichlids, that was until a I sprung leak from a badly installed bulkhead that became lose after I moved the pipe connected to it during a water change. After hours of trying to fix it with the tank in situ, I came to realisation that the only option I had was to break the tank down and remove it from its stand, I ended up having to hacksaw the bulkhead off even after doing this though! After some deliberation I decided on the following things, firstly I would use this as an opportunity to fix all the things I didn’t like about my DIY setup and secondly, to convert to something I have wanted to do since I was a little boy and have an mixed reef aquarium!

After re-homing my Cichlids, I set about planning and implementing the conversion.

First on the cards was building a new custom stand, from which I would then build the cupboards and shelving units around. Built from 18mm plywood and a mix of 2x4 and 2x3, painted black and sealed with several coats of PVA for some water resistivity.

The Tank is 120cm long X 39cm wide X 60cm deep with a central weir and 2 holes drilled for 1" plumbing.

The sump is 90cm long X 30cm wide X 55cm deep with 3 chambers. I am making a few modifications to this sump, firstly I am running 2x Red Sea filter cups in the first chamber so I needed to add a horizontal plate to hold the cups in the first chamber and secondly I am splitting the third chamber into two to hold fresh RO for my auto top off.

The equipment

2x Red Sea Reef LED 90s
1x Reefwave 25
1x Jecod SW80
3x 100 watt heaters
Bubble Magus Curve 5 protein skimmer
TMC auto top off
TMC Reef pump 8000 return pump

The scape

Due to the narrowness of the tank and to avoid the look of a pile of rocks, I wanted to make some of my own rock formations and create negative space by building overhangs caves and swim throughs. The rest of the rock I use will be live, I want to avoid the tank of rock look and so will probably stick some additional rock inside of the sump.

From here, I need to glue all my pipe work together, seal in the modifications in the sump and also a new weir I had made. Once this is completed, I will run a leak test before filling it with salt water and get the tank ready for its inhabitants.

Anyway, this is my setup and where I am at and I look forward to where it takes me.

Karl

 

[debug3000]

A build-in tank is always what I am looking for but never did...Nice work!!!

 

[Kaaaarrrll]

A build-in tank is always what I am looking for but never did...Nice work!!!

Thank you very much, I had never been 100% happy with it as there were a few niggles that bugged me. This saltwater conversion has allowed me to re do a lot of things and I'm much happier with it all now.

 

[Kaaaarrrll]

Good morning all, time for another update!

The run up to Christmas turned out to be rather busy for myself and I wasn't able to progress the build as quickly or as far as I would have liked. However, now Christmas is over I have been able to spend a bit of time and have gotten the tank to a place where I can now run a test before I fill it with salt water and begin the cycle.

Initially, after fitting the bulkheads and gluing the new weir in place, I filled the weir with water only to discover that not only was there a leak from the weir but both bulkheads were also leaking, not a great start… After some “playing about”, I was able to get the bulkheads watertight and to be extra sure, I covered them in silicon…

The next job I set about completing was fitting all the ancillary equipment into the sump and placing all the various controllers. Initially I wanted all the equipment to be located in the sump cabinet, but due to lengths of cables and locations of socket outlets, I ended up placing the pump/wavemaker controllers above the tank.

Whilst I wait for my silicon handy work to dry, I’m now starting to think about the cycle, something that I hope to begin in the next 2 weeks, and I had a couple of questions.

I’m planning on using 50/50 dry rock and live rock, is there anything additional I can add/do to help the cycle along, adding pods, additional bacteria, running the tank in darkness for a period of time, adding ammonia/ghost feeding or water changes for example?

I still need to purchase test kits, I’m interested in the Hanna Checkers but don’t want to buy a whole suite of them, not to begin with at least. Can you recommend any must haves? I have heard the Alkalinity and Phosphate checkers are a good place to start. I have an old refractometer; would it be worth purchasing a new one or attempting to calibrate the old one. Are there any test kits you can recommend for testing the other multitude of parameters I need to keep track of and perhaps an app that I can input the data to?

How do you determine what parameters you want keep to? Is it based on what you are intending to keep or is there a more generic set that a beginner can’t really go wrong with?

Thanks in advance for any responses I get!

Happy Reefing!

 

[Zach B]

Nice setup! I would get yourself some salifert test kits to start and a good calibrated refractometer. Parameters are usually based on what you want to keep but there are general guidelines you will find here. Good luck with everything

 

[Kaaaarrrll]

Nice setup! I would get yourself some salifert test kits to start and a good calibrated refractometer. Parameters are usually based on what you want to keep but there are general guidelines you will find here. Good luck with everything

Thank you very much, its miles apart from how the tank used to be and I'm much happier with it, I'm very much looking forward to stocking it, but i know i have to take it slowly.

I'm just working my way through the Randy's Reef Chemistry thread, the guides are great reads.

 

[Kaaaarrrll]

Update number 3

WE HAVE WATER! Well, not salt water, just bog standard plain ol’ tap water for now.

So, after what seems like an eternity (about 3 months since I closed down my fresh water tank), I am finally in a place where I have been able to fill it with water and start testing it for a few days to make sure that there are no leaks and that all the equipment functions as expected. OH! and one other thing… to make sure my DIY stand is man enough to take the strain.

I’m pleased to report that for the most part everything appears to be a success, so far… No leaks and creaks to report! However, there are a few items that I have stumbled upon that haven’t been quite right, some that I’ve managed to fix, some I have an idea of how to fix and others I’m not quite sure about.

Firstly, the successes…

Lighting: I am very impressed with the Red Sea LED 90s so far, the ease of use, quality of build and light output as far as I can tell is excellent. I look forward to tinkering with the schedule to get something that is both pleasing to the eye and perfect for my future livestock.

Wavemakers: I am using the Red Sea ReefWave 25, which again, use, quality and customisability are IMO excellent. In addition, I am using a JECOD SW-8 wavemaker situated at the opposite end of the tank to supplement the gyre flow. I believe that these two pieces of equipment will be just perfect for me and in the future I may upgrade the JECOD to a second ReefWave.

Things that didn’t quite work but I have fixed...

I am using Red Sea media cups, but at no point did I even consider that they would float… even though I am well aware of how densities work in water and now I think about it, of course the cups will float! So, I spent a bit of time thinking about how I might be able to weigh/hold them down whilst keeping in mind what I was intending to run inside of them (filter wool, carbon and GFO). I was looking to keep the solution simple and effective, so I chopped up a piece of egg crate in such way so that it could be wedged between the glass of the sump. Happily, this was enough to keep the cups in place!

Things that I’m not quite sure are right and could need fixing…

The water level I think is just a little too high and I’m a tad nervous about it; currently the water level seems to sit about 5/8ths of an inch below the rim of the glass. Now I think I would be much happier if it were about the 1inch mark at least, maybe 1 ¼ inches. Do you think that it is something I should be worried about? Is 5/8ths fine? or is it a little too close for comfort? As far as I’m aware there are only two options that I have to lower the water level in the display tank. The first would be to use a Dremel and make the teeth longer or wider. The second would be to cut the weir out, chop the desired amount off of the bottom and then reseal it back into the tank. I think in the long run, cutting the desired amount off the of bottom would look the nicest so I think I’m going to do this. The question is though, am I mad?

I have never owned and operated a skimmer before; I have an understanding of what its purpose is, but I’m not sure how to tell if I have set it up correctly. I intend to do some research into setting the skimmer up, but any help with the following would be greatly appreciated. When I turn the pump on water rises to towards the cup and I can control this level by adjusting a piece of the skimmer, where should I aim for the water to rise to and stay? The pump also makes the sound of a chugging train but a bit more sporadic, I appreciate it is due to air being sucked into the pump, but is this a good noise to hear?

I’m about to start 5x night shifts at work, so I’m going to leave the tank running as is for this time. Depending on what I choose to do with the weir, I should be looking to fill and scape in the next 7 to 14 days. After this I’m just going to let the tank sit and mature for a few months before I think about adding the first inhabitants. It shouldn’t be too much of an issue to leave alone because I’m expecting the birth of my first child in a month!

Anyway, that’s it for update number 3, thank you for reading and thank you for any comments in advance

 

[Kaaaarrrll]

Quick question i was wondering if anyone knew the answer to the following. What is the minimum flow rate if the TMC Reef Pump 8000, there isn’t much if any information I can find except that it’s max flow rate is 8000lph. I did find a few posts suggesting that it is 2000lph but nothing concrete.

 

[Kaaaarrrll]

Short update today

So after some much ummmming and ahhhhhhing I made the decision to increase the size of the weir combs rather than reduce the height of the weir to bring the water level down. I proceeded to cut the weir out of the tank (and my fingers...) to work on it in open space. Using a dremmel and ruler I carefully increased the length of each comb by 1cm.

I have some new purchases and some items on order, these include an Inkbird temperature controller and 2 Hanna Checkers (alkalinity and the new Phospate ULR)

I intend to lock myself away and avoid covid on the run up to the birth of my child, so yesterday i went to my LFS and picked up water, live rock and sand so that i have something to do and to get things moving. I won't be filling the tank until i prove my new weir modification which i cant do until the silicon sets properly which will be a few days. So in the mean time i put the new live rock as well as the scaped dead rock I made into a plastic container to get things moving.

In the container I have a heater keeping the temperature at 25c, a power head and air pump. I haven't dosed or ghost fed anything to the rock, is it OK to just leave or should i be adding anything?

 

[Kaaaarrrll]

I’ve done it! After 3 months of fiddling, faffing, umming and ahhhhing I now have salt water, rock and substrate in the tank. I even managed to convince my wife to help with aqua-scaping so it’s something we can both take enjoyment from rather than just me! As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve gone with a Live/Dead rock mix and I intend to allow the tank to mature for a few months before I add any livestock. For the meantime, I’m running the tank with the lights off and have added some prawn (Shrimp) to the tank for an ammonia source/food source for anything that wants it. I plan to test to see how the nitrate cycle is progressing every other day or so and have purchased the aquarimate app to log all the information.

I used marco rock to create some interesting structures and have supplemented them with live rock, the sand is Colombo marine sand aragonite which has some pink flecks in which I am fan of. The scape is essentially two separate areas with an island on each side, one of which I intend to place some GSP on as I have heard that that will grow on any hard surface but with not grow on sand so I hope to confine it to one of the islands. I have left a space between to the two areas to one day be home to a clam of some description.

In the filter I have added some carbon and GFO in the filter cups, I have been told that marco rock will leach a ton if phosphates so I’m hoping to keep this down and not have to battle it in the future. I turned the protein skimmer on the day I filled the tank to give it time to bed in, its still overflowing so I’m guess that process is still taking place. I have directed the skimmer cup drain into the first chamber of the sump, the idea being any solid particles it has skimmed will then get picked up by the filter wool rather than chuck it back into the display. In an effort to reduce evaporation I have cut lids for the sump from some acrylic, I have also ordered two 12v 120mm fans which I will use to create air movement so the humidity doesn’t linger in the cabinet.

For testing, I currently have the Red Sea Nitrite/Nitrate kit, Marine Labs Ammonia kit, Hanna Phosphate ULR, Hanna Alkalinity, electronic PH and TDS testers I got from amazon (jury is still out on these) and an old Refractometer from Maidenhead Aquatics that I was given. I really like the Hanna checkers and will hopefully one day be able to test exclusively with these. For the time being though I believe I’m only really interested in checking for Nitrate cycle, when I start to test for all the other parameters I will either use Salifert or Red Sea.

My future livestock aspirations are pretty loose at the moment to be fair, but I do have a few things in mind that I definitely want. For me, and I presume a large number of other people, it wouldn’t be a reef aquarium with a pair of clowns and anemone. I’m also interested in a Flame Hawkfish, watchman goby shrimp pair and maybe one of the smaller tangs. I also need something to occupy the higher levels of the tank, so any suggestions would be appreciated. In terms of corals and nems, I’m interested in GSP, RBA and ZOAs to begin with, other items on my to have list is a clam and the obvious CUC..

Please excuse the photos, I am no photographer… I have purchased the aquarium camera app so once I’ve worked it out I should be able to get some better pictures.

Thanks for reading!

 

[twolittlefish]

Hello All,

Long-time lurker first time poster! I would like to use this thread as a space to show off my successes and seek help to rectify my failures.

Having kept freshwater tanks a number of times in my life I have recently decided (albeit a little forced, more on that later) to enter the exciting world of saltwater aquariums.

Just over a year ago I had a custom sized aquarium and sump built, my intention was to have the tank as a central piece within a set of cupboards and shelving units. Looking back on it I wish I would have done things a little differently such increase in tank width and also one more hole drilled in the bottom, but this will be rectified in the future at some point I'm sure, for now I am happy with what I have.

So, up and until October I was happily keeping African Cichlids, that was until a I sprung leak from a badly installed bulkhead that became lose after I moved the pipe connected to it during a water change. After hours of trying to fix it with the tank in situ, I came to realisation that the only option I had was to break the tank down and remove it from its stand, I ended up having to hacksaw the bulkhead off even after doing this though! After some deliberation I decided on the following things, firstly I would use this as an opportunity to fix all the things I didn’t like about my DIY setup and secondly, to convert to something I have wanted to do since I was a little boy and have an mixed reef aquarium!

After re-homing my Cichlids, I set about planning and implementing the conversion.

First on the cards was building a new custom stand, from which I would then build the cupboards and shelving units around. Built from 18mm plywood and a mix of 2x4 and 2x3, painted black and sealed with several coats of PVA for some water resistivity.

The Tank is 120cm long X 39cm wide X 60cm deep with a central weir and 2 holes drilled for 1" plumbing.

The sump is 90cm long X 30cm wide X 55cm deep with 3 chambers. I am making a few modifications to this sump, firstly I am running 2x Red Sea filter cups in the first chamber so I needed to add a horizontal plate to hold the cups in the first chamber and secondly I am splitting the third chamber into two to hold fresh RO for my auto top off.

The equipment

2x Red Sea Reef LED 90s
1x Reefwave 25
1x Jecod SW80
3x 100 watt heaters
Bubble Magus Curve 5 protein skimmer
TMC auto top off
TMC Reef pump 8000 return pump

The scape

Due to the narrowness of the tank and to avoid the look of a pile of rocks, I wanted to make some of my own rock formations and create negative space by building overhangs caves and swim throughs. The rest of the rock I use will be live, I want to avoid the tank of rock look and so will probably stick some additional rock inside of the sump.

From here, I need to glue all my pipe work together, seal in the modifications in the sump and also a new weir I had made. Once this is completed, I will run a leak test before filling it with salt water and get the tank ready for its inhabitants.

Anyway, this is my setup and where I am at and I look forward to where it takes me.

Karl

This looks absolutely amazing

 

[twolittlefish]

I’ve done it! After 3 months of fiddling, faffing, umming and ahhhhing I now have salt water, rock and substrate in the tank. I even managed to convince my wife to help with aqua-scaping so it’s something we can both take enjoyment from rather than just me! As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve gone with a Live/Dead rock mix and I intend to allow the tank to mature for a few months before I add any livestock. For the meantime, I’m running the tank with the lights off and have added some prawn (Shrimp) to the tank for an ammonia source/food source for anything that wants it. I plan to test to see how the nitrate cycle is progressing every other day or so and have purchased the aquarimate app to log all the information.

I used marco rock to create some interesting structures and have supplemented them with live rock, the sand is Colombo marine sand aragonite which has some pink flecks in which I am fan of. The scape is essentially two separate areas with an island on each side, one of which I intend to place some GSP on as I have heard that that will grow on any hard surface but with not grow on sand so I hope to confine it to one of the islands. I have left a space between to the two areas to one day be home to a clam of some description.

In the filter I have added some carbon and GFO in the filter cups, I have been told that marco rock will leach a ton if phosphates so I’m hoping to keep this down and not have to battle it in the future. I turned the protein skimmer on the day I filled the tank to give it time to bed in, its still overflowing so I’m guess that process is still taking place. I have directed the skimmer cup drain into the first chamber of the sump, the idea being any solid particles it has skimmed will then get picked up by the filter wool rather than chuck it back into the display. In an effort to reduce evaporation I have cut lids for the sump from some acrylic, I have also ordered two 12v 120mm fans which I will use to create air movement so the humidity doesn’t linger in the cabinet.

For testing, I currently have the Red Sea Nitrite/Nitrate kit, Marine Labs Ammonia kit, Hanna Phosphate ULR, Hanna Alkalinity, electronic PH and TDS testers I got from amazon (jury is still out on these) and an old Refractometer from Maidenhead Aquatics that I was given. I really like the Hanna checkers and will hopefully one day be able to test exclusively with these. For the time being though I believe I’m only really interested in checking for Nitrate cycle, when I start to test for all the other parameters I will either use Salifert or Red Sea.

My future livestock aspirations are pretty loose at the moment to be fair, but I do have a few things in mind that I definitely want. For me, and I presume a large number of other people, it wouldn’t be a reef aquarium with a pair of clowns and anemone. I’m also interested in a Flame Hawkfish, watchman goby shrimp pair and maybe one of the smaller tangs. I also need something to occupy the higher levels of the tank, so any suggestions would be appreciated. In terms of corals and nems, I’m interested in GSP, RBA and ZOAs to begin with, other items on my to have list is a clam and the obvious CUC..

Please excuse the photos, I am no photographer… I have purchased the aquarium camera app so once I’ve worked it out I should be able to get some better pictures.

Thanks for reading!

This is so beautiful

 

[Kaaaarrrll]

This is so beautiful

Thank you very much its taken a while but I'm very happy where its at and its awesome to see others like it too!

 

[twolittlefish]

Thank you very much its taken a while but I'm very happy where its at and its awesome to see others like it too!

Would you mind if I followed you ? I would love to watch the progress of your tank.

 

[Kaaaarrrll]

Would you mind if I followed you ? I would love to watch the progress of your tank.

By all means, please do!

 

[twolittlefish]

By all means, please do!

Thank you so very much !!!

 

[DeniseAndy]

Looking good!

 

[Kaaaarrrll]

Looking good!

Thank you very much

 

[Kaaaarrrll]

Quick question i was wondering if anyone knew the answer to the following. What is the minimum flow rate if the TMC Reef Pump 8000, there isn’t much if any information I can find except that it’s max flow rate is 8000lph. I did find a few posts suggesting that it is 2000lph but nothing concrete.

• REEF-Pump 1000 – 250/hr – approx. 37.5l/hr increments
• REEF-Pump 2000 – 500 l/hr – approx. 75 l/hr increments
• REEF-Pump 4000 – 1500 l/hr – approx. 125 l/hr increments
• REEF-Pump 6000 – 2000 l/hr – approx. 200 l/hr increments
• REEF-Pump 8000 – 3000 l/hr – approx. 250 l/hr increments (Must use largest fittings to achieve more than 6,000l/hr max)
• REEF-Pump 12000 – 4000 l/hr – approx. 400 l/hr increments (Must use largest fittings to achieve more than 6,000l/hr max)

• This is based on using the largest pipework fittings in each box. User experience will vary.

The explanation:

We don’t have exact flow rates for the different stages of control and our supplier doesn’t either. Reason being, the actual flow rate delivered will vary depending on the length of pipe attached to the pump, the diameter of this pipe, the number of curves or corners in the pipe, the actual head height (height at which the water needs to be pumped) is required to deliver the water, then finally, whatever is attached to the end of the pipe! All of this, we would refer to as total head height. The pump’s motor performance will be altered with every change in head height and also setting change. Meaning it could be more powerful or energy efficient at different head heights. This is then before you change the settings using the controller. This throws a whole another level of variation.

For future reference for myself.

 

[Aqua Man]

Congrats on the new reef and the new addition to your family!