Our 12ft self contained reef

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Synodontis

Synodontis

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Nice update pictures :)
Thanks mate, should really try & do it more often lol.

Great update! Lol that rack has grown some funky stuff! Love seeing Moo doing well. And WOW oh WOW! I can't get over your RE skimmer! SO jealous, thing is a beast. You remember the model of RE skimmer it is?? Lol, And you have a Gyre in the sump skimmer chamber to make sure no detritus settles?! Awesomeness
lol, the skimmer is a Bubble King Deluxe 500 Internal. It really does pull some nasty stuff from the tank.
The Gyre worked well in the old 10ft, but really did little in the new tank. They where just sitting around when one weekend I decided to put them in the sump to help keep detritus moving and into the skimmer. Still get some settle but very easy to suck out every now & then.
As for the frag rack, that's looking so much better after the Tangs have had a poke around there, so much soo that I've thrown another in the DT as well lol.

Keep us up dated please I am in Australia 2, with my little 4 footer
Hi Susan, I've seen your name pop up on Thereefuge every now & then :)
I'll try & update more but life, time & work seem to get in the way lol

Amazing tank. Forgive me if this was mentioned but what happened to your 10 ft tank?
Hi locito, we had the 10ft for sale & for a few months there was no interest. It was put on FB a couple of times & listed on 3 or 4 local forums & still no interest. It was the 10ft Starfire DT, 8ft sump with built in RO chamber & frag section, fully lined & lit 12ft cabinet & the 10ft light rack included. Towards the end I just wanted an offer but didn't even get that. In the end, the tank went on the back of the ute & taken to the tip, I put a 16mm MDF top on the cabinet & turned that into a workbench / storage in the garage, the aluminum light rack was pulled apart & is out in the garage somewhere & the sump is out the back under cover collecting dust lol. I keep looking at the sump thinking I should take that to the tip as well just to get it out of the way.
Jen posted up a couple of pics when the tank went to the tip, all of a sudden we where the worst people in the world! Everyone wanted it & why didn't we just give it away lol.

The tank waiting for new owner
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Sump still outside
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Last time we seen the tank
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Such a waste but that's what happens when you need the room & it's been sitting in the entrance way for months.

Thanks mate

amazing !!!
lol, it's getting there, this year should see some interesting we hope :)
 

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I am agreeing with most following this thread, it is time for an update . Although I could contribute to this thread also, seeing as though, I have the 4" x 12" end of the tank, lol.
 
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How is everything going on the tank? Any pics or videos you want to share with the class? :)

Yeah OK I have been very slack about keeping this TJ updated lol.
I've decided to rename this build the build from hell :(
Looking back, the last decent update was Aug last year. So much has happened since then I don't know where to start.

For a start we never did beat the hair algae & Bryopsis with manual removal, water changes, nitrate or Phos control. No mater what I did it just kept coming back. So along with many others we have Flucon to thank for ridding the tank of those problems. It was a little daunting taking the step & adding 132 capsules to the tank & turning the skimmer down. All of that cooked for 11 days & then the standard issue water change. Everything came through OK with no loses which I was very happy about :)

So we thought the corner had been turned, till the reefing god's decided otherwise lol.
We got an Achilles tang from a friend, he had out grown the tank & I've always wanted one :)
Did the drip thing over a couple of hours & introduced him to the DT. Never thought there would be a big problem, oh how wrong we where :eek:
Big Moo took one look at the new comer & decided to eat him! Of all the fish we have added to the tank Moo has never bothered them, this one was just a nightmare. We've never seen Moo move so fast or with such skill maneuvering through the rock work. That Achilles tang is like a go-kart when he he gets going. It was that bad I nearly destroyed the rock work trying to catch the Achilles out again. Didn't have a hope of catching him. The first few days for him where hard going that's for sure. We all know what happens when a tang gets stressed, & Achilles are notorious for it, yep, white spot in a big way. We where treating the tank with 35% peroxide which alleviated the symptoms but not a cure. At it's worst the Achilles sat under a rock shelf for 3 days, almost leaning against the rock. Every night I got home I was was surprised he was still going. I really thought he wouldn't make it. Of course everyone in the tank coped it, we lost 95% of the Anthias, the male Bellus angel, a pair of Margin Butterfly's & a few others. It was a very disheartening time. Took a month or 3 but we came out the other side with the Moo & the Achilles getting along OK 95% of the time, they still have a game of cat & mouse every now & then, we get a few frags out of their play time. Still have a pair of angels & 2 other females. The one that surprised me was the little 2" upside done yellow assessor.

On the coral side of things, while all the above has been going on, working stupid hours & life in general, the hardest thing has been to get the big 3 stable. Cal & Mag seem to sit where they should but Alk & Ph have been a drama. I pulled a window out & replaced with a sheet of acrylic so I could run the skimmer air lines outside. Started dosing Kalk as well. That helped with the Ph. The Alk swings have gone from 6 - 14 with lack of testing, finding time to make Alk & general life. I've made a decision to get on top of these in the next few months. Alk is made in large batches now so it's ready to go as the container gets low.

I've hooked up a Liter Meter to do the water changes at 43ltr's a day instead of the weekly 300ltr weekly water changes. At least I have the water change consistent now, 1 job out of how many? I was going to grab a KH Guardian until I read a post by a mate that there was no reagent in Aust?? I thought really?? For the price of the unit & the importance / reliance reefers place on this to keep things stable, your telling me there is no reagent in the country till the end of March?? Won't be installing one of those lol. Like the rest of the world I've been waiting for the KH Director, no idea if the same problem will happen but I need to do something to help stop the KH swings instead of relying on me, that hasn't been working well ;Shifty
So we have also lost a lot of SPS due to the swings. Very frustrating times believe me.

There's a thread here somewhere, I can't remember the name of it, along the lines of "ever wanted to give up or can't do anything right" lol, that's exactly how I've been feeling with this tank, just one head ache after another. Since the Butterfly's have gone we have an explosive out break of Aptasia with a sprinkle of clove polyp takeover. Just another problem to over come. Every time you think it's starting to get there something else comes along. When I lose interest in the tank I've taken to slowly upgrading the sound system that helps me stay motivated on the weekends while playing in the tank. My non reef related hobby lol. I don't think the neighbor's are enjoying that hobby as much as me, I would take request's from the neighbor hood tho :)

Geez I've had a real whinge tonight lol, sorry about that. A few random pics off the phone to round out the update.

The elusive Sea Hare that slips around the tank. Don't see him out much so lucky to get a few half decent pics of him.
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The Liter Meter hook hook up.
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I made a "thing" to hook up 2x 72w UV tubes.
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Moo making Chalice frags ;Rage
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& that's about it from me!
Will try to keep this updated better then I have :rolleyes:
 

samparker

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Full on Ken! That's a tough road for sure. You won't look back with the litermeter, they are the best thing ever.
 
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Full on Ken! That's a tough road for sure. You won't look back with the litermeter, they are the best thing ever.
Hey Sam, I have to agree with you there, kicking myself for waiting so long to hook one up lol.

Oh the joys of reefing
I'm searching for the joy Renae, I know it's out there somewhere but for now it's coming from the new toys :)
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I did add a couple more Chalice pieces, looking forward to watching them settle in & start growing.
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Still the largest Chalice we have, really going well considering the ups & downs the tank has been through lol. It's about 14" across at the widest point now.
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We've been using the Coral Essentials Trace A,B,C from Sustainable Reefs for about 5 weeks now. Started with 2ml of each for the first 3 weeks ^ noticed a difference after the 1st week. Have been dosing 3ml of each for 2 weeks now & colours have really started to come back. Next Monday night I will up the dose to 4ml of each & leave it there. Really impressed with the Trace we are using so I'm going to ask questions about the rest of the range. If you have the chance to grab some, don't walk past it lol.
When I find the battery for the camera I will try to get some decent shots, well, as best as I take anyway lol.
 
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Hi again,
hope you 2 are still following along & not to bored :)

I dug out the camera yesterday afternoon, took an hour to find the dang battery :mad:
Once I had charged the battery up & worked out where the on button was, I had a fiddle with some other buttons & wheels but had no idea what did what o_O Then I had to use Uncle Google to find out what button did what on the camera. I did know where to look for a idea's on how to set the buttons up. If you haven't had a look at this guide then your missing out, thanks @samparker :)
With all the ups & downs with the tank, I could see an improvement but nothing spectacular, just a general increase in colour. Threw me head over the top of the tank & was pleasantly amused, seems there was more going on in there then I thought. Only thing I could put it down to is the Coral Essentials we've been dosing. Went back through my book & it's been 5 plus a bit weeks using the Coral Essentials Power Trace A, B, C. I really think it has made more of a difference then I expected. So much so I'm going to try & pick up a bottle of Power Grow tomorrow at some stage. Loving the fact it's an all researched & produced Aussie product ;Woot Really nice change not having to wait for imports like just about everything else down here.
The first 3 weeks was a dose rate of 2ml daily, next 3 weeks which ends on Sunday has been 3ml daily, so come Sunday night I will increase the dose to 4ml daily. I'm expecting another step up in the tank after the next increase, pr I'm sending it all back for a warranty claim :rolleyes:

So anyway, the pics I took, not the greatest but about 100% better then the one's off my phone lol.
I like Lobo's, just something about the way to wobble
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There's a few Zoa's in the tank also. Not as many as we once had but down the track we'll start another collection. The PVC pipe is what we use to put the nori on. Not pretty but saves the bigger fish running away with a hole sheet.
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A few other bits sprinkled around the tank.
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The Chalice are coming along nicely :)

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count krunk

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beautiful reef sir! I don't even want to say tank since it is so large it is basically a tiny reef. I looked at the first page and the last lol so sorry if you've answered this already. How many gallons (or liters) is the tank? How many fish do you have it?
 

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Thanks for the update, sorry to hear about the struggles. Glad the Martin Logan retail therapy is working however :)
 
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beautiful reef sir! I don't even want to say tank since it is so large it is basically a tiny reef. I looked at the first page and the last lol so sorry if you've answered this already. How many gallons (or liters) is the tank? How many fish do you have it?
Thanks yungreefer, first & last page is OK, there's only lots of my dribble & rantings in between those 2 pages lol. Tank volume is a bit over 4000ltr's or just over 1000 US gallons. As for fish, umm,
1x Moo
1x Achilles tang
1x Foxface
1x Rabbit
1x Yellow tang
1x Kole tang
1x Bellus angel
2x Semifasciatus angel M+F
1x Watanabei angel
1x smooth Toadfish - lives in the sump
2x feeder fish
1x upside down yellow Assessor
7x various Anthias
1x stumpy tail Cardinal
1x cleaner Wrasse
1x large fat Sea Hare
I think that's about it for the fish list. Want a couple of Margin Butterfly's tho.

Thanks for the update, sorry to hear about the struggles. Glad the Martin Logan retail therapy is working however :)
Hey Mr. Bear, the ML therapy is working marvel's for me, the neighbor's in the other hand.............

:)
 

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Bloody awesome Ken, keep going with that coral essentials trace element program and this reef will make those silly old speakers look like junk in comparison. Ok, maybe not junk - but perhaps as equally enjoyable.

Reef on!
 
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Bloody awesome Ken, keep going with that coral essentials trace element program and this reef will make those silly old speakers look like junk in comparison. OK, maybe not junk - but perhaps as equally enjoyable.

Reef on!
Hey Sam,
Yep, Coral Essentials trace element program is now a long term plan, along with the rest once I find time to get down & grab them lol. On the second night of 4ml daily dosing of the concentrated trace. Most are dosing drops, we are dosing mil's lol.

A few more of the pics I was going to add the other night
A few of the citizens..........
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Photo bombing like a pro lol. :)
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A few of the SPS, some of these are really starting to shine again
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That's about it from me tonight.
 
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