Solar dos Frades Reef v2 - 265g from Portugal!

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

Hello everyone!

I am going to start my build thread in this forum ...

It's 1.5 years old and a lot of stories, misadventures, aventures that seems not to have an end.

It's going to be picture intensive as I want to record everything that was done, the mistakes I made, the choices taken and lessons learned. So I will be copying some information from other forum and them in the last post I will update the changes that are happening and why.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I have during the last 1.5y without the frustrations ...

All the best,
Rui

 

[G8trBait16]

Can't wait to see it. Following for sure!

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

And so it begins ...


So first a little introduction. I am in the hobby since I was 8 years old keeping guppys and neons. From there I evolved to harder species and finally I gave my self up to reefs after maintaining and reproducing discus.

This was 18 years ago. I started with a 24g and due to several house movements (total of 5) I had also 5 tanks.

The last one was this 130g reef.

Unfortunately this project died due to 3 days without power after a power outage. That's why I I decided to buy an APEX.

I was happy with this project as I have a 35 square meter room for my home office and aquarium stuff until my wife came one day and said to me "honey ... we need to do something about this space". I think she hadn't finished her sentence and I was designing the ultimate project.

I have no experience in construction although I really like wood working, electricity, plumbing, etc.

The project started last July 2015 and I am building everything for my self except for the tanks as I don't have the confidence to build this monster.

So I grabbed Sketchup and started drawing to show to my other half what should look like the finished product.

Overall view.

Aquarium View (200x80x60cm visible)

Aquarium.

Detail of the overflow (this would change with time and I will post updated pictures ahead)

The red line represents the water level in the event the return line gets offline.

One of the main objectives is to have zero visible pumps inside the tank. Since I don't like Vortech because of the noise I use Tunze and I build some boxes for them.

There are two holes in the bottom of the Tunze boxes to be used only for cleaning.

Also I will use a Bean Animal design I simplified so I use only two holes instead of 4. I use this design for the past 2 years and it's fail proof.


For the setup of the aquarium I have:

Skimmer: ATI PowerCone 250iS
Circulation: 3x Tunze 6095 + 1x Tunze 6055 (will be replaced for another 6095)
Return: Jebao DC12000 that will feed the reactors
Reactors: 2x Vertex RX-Z (for carbon when needed and anything else)
Reactors 2: One DIY Kalk Reactor and Calcium Reactor (it's too expensive to go balling with this volume of water)
Heating: 3x Jagger 300W
Light: 4x 165W chinese leds (will be replaced by Kessil A360W) + one bar 1.8m of 40 Prolight 5W Leds (it's a DIY fixture I build in the past)

As you will see later almost all of this has changed ...

Sump design

It need to take 100l so I can do the water change and heat the water before sending to the aquarium again. BTW I use NSW.

Also another feature is that all the water passes trough the heaters before returning to the aquarium as I have some problems heating the water. Even in summer it still fires the heaters to get the water to 25º.

The green boxes will receive the water from both overflow boxes, goes thru the skimmer and then the red box where it will be pumped to the aquarium again.

So in the meantime I asked for several proposal for drywall build and I had values from 1500€ to 2000€ just for 14 square meters of wall and 30m of ceiling.

I decided to buy myself the tools and material. I spent 500€ and a lot of head aches ---- :headwally::headwally::headwally:

So in August 2015 I started cleaning the space, moved the aquarium with the help of a good friend to my madness.

The concrete structures will be used to create the frame for the aquarium.

On August 6th 2015 I started ...

Very easy to build the frame ... but the work progressed slowly ...

and in the end I was ready for a bath ... This is nothing compared to the sanding part ...

The days after the progress continues. Slow ... very slow ... sooo very slow. It will take forever to have things done. At this stage I was so sorry not to award the work to others ...

And another day .... I feel tired.

Inside view

The bad thing is that all the walls and columns are not straigh. So I had a drawback.

The gap was huge and I had to remove the board and do it again.

The day after ... and after 30 drill holes in the column this was the final result.

You might notice the tube for the main sewer of the house.

I have to take that thing off otherwise I will end up with a two meter from floor to ceiling. I was able to move that up and gained almost 40cm.


I also took the time and whenever I can't make drill noise I leverage other tasks. This was the electrical one. I had a major short circuit and since I had to replace the electrical bus I used the power outage to create a new dedicated circuit for the aquarium.

I have a vent straight to the street. I will put a S&P air blower to help circulate the air inside the false ceiling and in this small room.

I got the necessary courage and removed the main drain of the house. Stupid enough the tube was 90mm but the feed from the house to this tube is only 50mm so I replaced everything with 50mm tubing.

At this stage I was deeply engaged to get married so the work stopped for about a month.

Meanwhile I was back to the planning phase.

Remember the initial image of the aquarium with the nice sea bed image?
This was to be done with 12mm glass, vinil image and another 4mm glass on top.

Well a friend of mine that actually did it that told me that there was problems with water getting between the two sheets of glass so I moved to an alternative.

I used laminated 6+6mm glass with vinil in the middle build at factory for the front of the overflow and designed the aquarium with 15mm glass.

230cm x 80cm x 60cm and the two black glasses at 15cm from the border.
The tank will have euro bracing on the top and in the bottom.

I went for the 15mm glass to avoid the central bracing.


It's not "Man in Black" ... it's Tank in Black coming to a cinema near you ...

Without the black to see the overflow boxes.

Return calculated so even if the return pump stops the tunze cases will still hold water. The returns will also fall inside the tunze boxes ensuring that all the returned water spreads rapidly thru the tank.

Detail of the overflow ... this will change my friends ... it's not the last drawing ... and definitely not the last tank ...

At this stage I was having electrical problems. Every time I connected a lamp to the outlets the differential blowed.

The good thing with this hobby is that there are so many people skilled and willing to help that I was able to solve the problem in no time

Actually I was connecting the neutral to the wrong bus ....

Meanwhile to collect NSW in Portugal you have to have a special license otherwise you risk a 3000€ fine.
After one year and two month trying to figure out who was responsible to issue the license it came ...

And finally the big day arrived ....

NOOOOO not the Tank in place ... where do you have your priorities??????

The wedding .... LOL - Sept 6th 2015

So ... I hate the overflows with all those teeth ...

I was dwelling to find an alternative and finally I think I nailed.

This are the final drawing sent to the aquarium construction company.

Tank

Tank in Black

Overflow and Tunze boxes

The overflow holes and return drills.

Continues ...

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

The level indicates its straigh but either the ceiling of the visual efects of the two electrical lines to the left ... looks off bubble.

Meanwhile I bought in ebay a 10m led strip to try to do the same as Bink (from Reefcentral)

This. I hope it's ok to copy your idea and to use your photo ... and Thanks for the inspiration.

The work progresses very slowly at this phase

A good friend of mine was able to cut the overflow glass and brought to me. Now two more month before I order the tank.

My objective to hide the pumps will be achieved .... (OR NOT)

The overflow glass:

Overflow openings. The central one is for overflow and the side ones for Tunze boxes:

With Tunze 6095 protection. Just like I wanted it.

Things evolved slowly. Very slowly due to my line of work. I spend a lot of time out of home.

I went to talk with the tank builder and after seeing my design he agreed that the tank would be feasible with 12mm glass.

If necessary it will have a center bracing. I don't mind to much. (NO !!!!)

The good thing is that I was able to leverage on a 20% discount promotion and got the tank for 500€.

They are still waiting for the order to build that should happen by the end of this month.

The work proceeds ...

I had to change the drain pipe to a straight line.

And the light in the fish room as I need that to start working the drywall.

Leveraging one of my trips to California I brought some toys while I wait for the APEX.

Meanwhile my APEX arrived. It took me almost two weeks before I could plug it in. But is now configured with all the features I want given the equipment I have.

Working slowly but at this stage ... one week away to put the ceiling in place.

Two of my good friends came and we were able to put all the ceiling in place.

and then was the time to build the structure to support the "brute" ...

Done. So now the challenge is to level this.

I will use a special resin (auto leveling) used in parking lots to create a smooth surface for the aquarium. That will happen in three weeks time frame I hope.

Meanwhile at night in the hotels I saw tons of images of layouts to decide what I was going to do and finally I came to a layout I really like.

Meanwhile I ordered three Radion Gen3 XR30 Pro with 120º lenses to light the tank ...

Also got my quarantine system.
three 100x30x40cm aquariums. The top one for Corals and the two bottom ones for fishes. They are going to be completely independent of each other.

Next thing was to wash all the equipment. Everything into 1:10 muriathic acid bath.

Also the quarantine aquariums to check for leaks as these were bought 2nd hand.

Continues ...

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

I bought also the Rock. All death rock that is going to be treated with leach, muriathic acid and agent green (almost like sea Klear but from ATM)

And finally the work is done inside the fish room. Almost ready do receive the aquarium :bounce3::bounce3::bounce3:

This is just a small system to control Osmose and Quarantine

And the final looks ... I am very happy with the result.

Continues ...

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

Can't wait to see it. Following for sure!

Thank you G8trBait16. I hope you do not get disappointed!

 

[G8trBait16]

Great work! No disappointment here, it is all about living and learning. I am working on the design process of an in-wall tank as well.

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

I had a lot of work just removing all the paint from the Quarantine stand:

Painted.

I leveraged the time to change the lenses to the Radions. Now with 120º lenses

And I made a replica of the hanging kit.

They do not stay straight and I hated. So later you will see that I changed it.

I finished the frame also.

Nice ambient ...

I bought this to make a new support for the Radion

And with a simple contraption

Here a small video of the effect


Also I started the Cable Management. One of the things I always hated in my reefs and that I think I managed to tackle it properly now.

Before

After:

Next was time to treat the Pukani Rock!

Step #1 - Pressure wash
Step #2 - Bleach for 24h

Step #3 - Pressure wash again
Step #4 - Muriathic Acid in the ration of 1:10 for 15m

After 1m:

After 5m:

After 10m:

After 15m:

Step #5: Back to RO + Sodium Bicarbonate to eliminate the acid.

Step #6: NSW with circulation pump and Lanthanium.

Still in NSW as I haven't filled the display tank since March 9 2016.

The values I read initially was: 1.41

Now with Water Change I manage the values between 0.02 and 0.03

So this brings us to March 11 2016

I went to pay the aquarium and arrange for transportation.

After seeing it ... I was a happy man ... too bad the happiness did not last.

The Delivery:

I had to give a help ...

Supervising ...

And started to fill with TAP water to check for leaks ...

And then my hapiness .... CRASHED !!!!

With the aquarium full I heard a huge crack ...

The eurobrace broke: :facepalm::facepalm::facepalm::facepalm:

This resulted in removing the aquarium (two weeks delay), level the stand and repair the aquarium

Meanwhile a friend of mine took is aquarium apart and gave me one of his fish that does not fit in his new tank!

I moved it into quarentine.

Continues

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

So April 20th the aquarium got repaired:

I made also 4 aditional holes in the lateral glass to compensate the strength of the tunzes.

I had to took a little part of the ceiling to put water in the fish room

I made the holes to the stand and level it ...

Aquarium silicone cured.

And the side glass with the protections.

Since I had sometime without getting help to put the aquarium in place, I managed to finish the construction work inside.

Meanwhile four volunteers came and we put the tank in place.

It was May 14th ...

I filled the aquarium with tap water to check for leaks and to see if the support we put in middle of the tank solved the problem. Everything was ok after a few days so I started the plumbing part.

This is just one of the side as I have two overflow boxes.

After what happened to my last tank (a family member spilled water over the electrical part the triggered the power outage) I decided to post some warnings.

May 25th I finished all the construction work and painting was the only thing missing.

And during that week I completed the plumbing and the manifold.

By May 28th I have finished the plumbing.

Video of the aquarium full of water.


As you can see in my next picture ... I have fully achieved my goal for this tank construction wise. Not to see any pump, not to see any return, not to see any wire inside and not to see the water line or silicone.

I am very happy! (but as you will see later not for long)

June 12th I finish the painting ... and finally I started to fill the tank.

I pickup by hand 1000l of NSW lifting almost 3 tons by my self in one day ...

The weekend after a friend helped me to get 700l more to keep as backup for water changes.

Filling ...

Still dirty from the construction dust

Finally I went on vacations with my family. I configured the remote access to APEX and started configure remotely.

I added the WXM module to control the Radion.

I created this profile that I have then replicated in profiles to put the light to follow the season table from APEX. I have everything following the season table!

I also put the rock inside the tank to start the cycle and just left it there.

At this stage the APEX dashboard is just funny! not real usefull.

And the photo that was missing ...

Testing the moon-light with the Radions. Even at 1% white, blue and royal blue it seems to me lots of light.

Today I took a picture from my home desk ...

Meanwhile my SUMP is leaking. So I emptied everything and the SUMP is drying to put silicone inside around all the joints.

By now as two friend of mine either quit or moved to a smaller tank I keep two fishes that are going to be in the display three of four months after the cycle ends. I want to start first with CUC and Corals before I introduce fish.

But they are beautifull and happy in a 100l tank ... (one of the three I have for quarentine)

The gold flake and the Olivaceus.

I also did today the cables to connect the tunze pumps to APEX and tested the profiles.

Next step ... glue the SUMP, let it cure and assemble everything.
I also want to try to do the scape this week.

ALMOST THERE ....

My partner in crime a very good friend of mine came here and we started to build the aquascape.

This is what we came up to:

We used a special resin to glue the rock ... something went wrong and as we pick it up to put inside the tank all broke.

I was until 1am in the morning drilling, putting acrylic rods and epoxy ...

Today after the epoxy cured, I have put the rock inside the aquarium

I was able to create 3 islands and after just laid on the bridge connection.

Part I

Part II

Part III

This is the final result. Hope you like it.

So officially started today (May 7th 2015) ... Hope it cycles soon.

Continues

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

Twelve days after the scenario was brown ...

The day after my SUMP Broke !!!!
Consequence? 200l in the floor ... Not nice. All sort of bad luck is happening to me.
I installed a temporary one ...

And I introduced 55Kg of Aragonite Sand sugar size.

As if the bad luck was not enough, I broke my kalk reactor.

Bought and installed a new one.

twenty days after the official start and the brown stuff is going away.

and I introduced the initial CuC.
I have now: 1x holothuria, 3x Strombus SP, 1x Archaster Typicus and 12x Turbo snails.

A friend from the LFS gave the three pieces of coral to try out the aquarium:

Purple milka

and an orange digitata

These picture were 20m after being in the water.

Finally I finished the cabling part and also connected the float switches to APEX. I was running a temporary solution with a 3rd party ATO (fish-street) and I was not really happy about it.

With the little time I had today I managed to make it work.

Float Switches

Cabling I

Cabling II

The SUMP part is still temporaty as I need to buy another SUMP

And finally I moved the APEX probes to the SUMP and removed everything.

This is the final result. No returns, No Pumps, No Silicone, No Overflow and No Waterline.

OBJECTIVE ACOMPLISHED .... (Watch OUT ... THIS WAS NOT FOR LONG!)

Just need to glue the hole protections in the Tunze boxes.

If this wasn't my tank I would not believed it ...

On top of all ... I had a bacterial bloom. Don't know why because I am not dosing anything aside Kalk.

Initially I tough it was Kalk overdose but I had a flat pH graph in APEX.

I started UV, did a 350l water change and that was it.

Before the bloom

After the 350l water change.

I went on business trip and when I returned everything was fine.

Meanwhile the business trip was to San Jose California and I manage to visit Neptune Aquatics before I went to the airport. Really nice store and people. Really enjoyed it guys. Thanks for the hospitality.

I looked like a kid in christmas eve in "toys-r-us" ...

I didn't resist the temptation on bringing with me a few frags. I used it not only to start the tank but also to test the trip of 24h back to Portugal.

24h transit on the cargo hall and two planes after here are they in my aquarium

One of them came pretty bad (middle one in the first picture) and STNed in 12h. The others are doing really well with a lot of polyp extension.

lesson learned: bring a heat pack with me .... the water was really cold even inside a Styrofoam box.

Meanwhile I release the fishes that were in quarentine. One of them was there since February 2015 ...

And I picked up new toys

The MP40w are already attached to APEX and are connect in the back of the aquarium just for uniform flow.

The DC is for Backup in case my Jebao decides to stop.

In an aquarium this big there is no way not to have some backup.

Here is some zoomed picture (iphone sorry) so you might want to help me identify them.

Unidentified #1:

Unidentified #2:

valida tricolor?

Unidentified #3:

Unidentified #4:

The setup started 45 days before although the rock was curing for almost three months. Since I had the rock more than 24h outside water to build the aquascape I am assuming July 5th, 2015 as the official start date.

No algae what so ever. The ones you can see in the frag pictures above disappeared 24h after introducing in DT the Olivaceus tang.

Now what bugs me is the constant values of PO4 and NO3 that remain undetectable or 0.00.

The colors of the frags are there, they haven't loosed the color altough I don't have any polyp extension. i don't see the angel nipping at any coral at least and I spend the day contemplating while I work.

I will also add 4x T5 80W to the three Radions to have better coverage.

Here is the FTS

The pictures are a crap ... but you can see before (Calendrium added 25 days ago)

Today:

I am very happy with the progress so far.

Meanwhile I have milky water ...
The first time it happened I thought it was a bacterial bloom.

Now it happened again.
Again I thought it was a bacterial bloom but I should see a drop in the ORP which does not happen. It keeps steady between 410 and 430

If it's not a bacterial bloom then it must be a KH, Ca or Magnesium percipitation right? Kalk percipitation?

Well ... I have been measuring the triad every two days and the values haven't changed. Rock steady.

KH: 7.7 dKH
Ca: 390
Mg: 1230

So that leads me to conclude it's the 12x Astreas that I have that are trowing a sex party in the tank

ohhhh well ...

The next two things are the build of 2x double T5 80w to put side by side with the Radions for a total of 4x T5 80w and the SUMP.

Meanwhile ... in a work break called lunch ....

I managed to create my "copy" of the ATI fixture with two lamps only.
I will have one of this in each side of the Radions for a total of 4x T5 80w

Testing the connections!

Ventilation on tube tip just like ATI!

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

On October 5th the aquarium turned three months. Not huge but pretty stable.

T5 still not on top of the aquarium. I need to reinforce the Radion support

Parameter maintain the same

PO4: 0.00
NO3: undetectable
KH: 7.7 a 8
Ca: 400
Mg: 1230

I received finally my SUMP !!!!

It's a three part SUMP!

And here it is assembled ...

Table duct ready ...

And finally all cables organized.

Starting to fill!

And if I was Jynxxi enough yesterday was the day of all days ... in which I should have been in bed all day.

The gaskets between the SUMP aquarium were leaking and I had to go and spend three hours trying to find new gaskets to put between the three modules.

Work done ... Looks good hein????

But do you think it's this good at the first attempt? Jynxii remember???

The valve on the second photo on the left started to leak water ... what the heck?????? it never leaked in three months ... what is happening?

I put my hand to try and tighten a little more and nothing. Still leaking ... I went again .... AND ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE !!!!

The PVC pipe jumps out of place and I got water all over the place. Result?

Lot of water to gather from the ground again

So the "idiot" that is writing this words .... forgot to glue one piece of PVC pipe ... Fortunately it hasn't happened when I was away from home!

That day was until 2am ... gluing and cleaning everything ...

Some more frags went in. A BIG, BIG THANKS to Sahin.

shortcake

aculeus

desalwii

blue tortuosa

nana???

red planet

ice-fire

green tenuis

acropora SP

green digitata

cervicornis

microclados

valida

valida tricolor

ceralis

gorgonia

ice-fire

feneri - Mrs Pacman

acropora SP

FTS. Sorry I wasn't in the mood to put the background.

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

And for those who know me ... you know I cannot keep still for long.

So I went shopping for some wood, some paint, PVC ... and voilá!

Leak test!

And finally:

My Water Station ready ...

The photos are terrible as I don't have the skill set to take proper pictures. But it's enough to get the idea.

I have to find a case for underwater fotos.

blue tortuosa - Sahin

SSC - Sahin

olivaceus the only fish

olivaceus

red planet - Sahin

acropora SP yellow

cerealis

cerealis on Oct.15

nana - Sahin

microclados

valida tricolor

Acropora SP - Neptune aquatics

blue tort

aspera

nana from top

aculeus - neptune aquatics

valida

redplanet above. Bad picture but you can see the growth

Acropora SP

tricolor - neptune aquatics

porites

SSC - Sahin

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

This is what I see at night. Prior feeding time!

And this is during day!

cerealis

brown turd when I got it. microclados

tortuosa - Sahin

plana

valida tricolor

acropora SPP. I don't know what this is

aculeus

aculeus 2

valida

SSC sahin

SSC sahin whitout the fish ...

nana - Sahin

loripes - Sahin

prostrata - Sahin

digitata verde

porites

histerix

anemone

granulosa

desalwii

ice fire

aculeus and valida

setosa

plana

cerealis

microclados

loripes

tortuosa

aspera

carduus

carduus

acropora SP

echinata

nana

 

[Big B]

You sir, are a trooper. Enjoyed reading this and great job!

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

red planet and valida

FTS

New fish. Does any one know the species?

Meanwhile I did some changes to the light to reflect Santa's presents.

Some more work done ...

Some fishes got in ... some more corals that are retaining and improving coloration.

I need to start two part method as kalk is not holding the tank anymore.

And and FTS now that the aquarium turned 7 months.

My cerealis ... we are making a contest in Portugal. Everyone got a frag and we are measuring it every month to track growth and color in diferent tanks and technics.
It consistently grow 6mm per month.

My recent aquisition. spatulata ... coloring up.

Sahin's Red Planet

desalwii

and my ice-fire. this picture was taken 45 days ago when I got it

and this is now

And here started the real problems ....

The aquarium has passed over this past 5 months over several issues. Fortunately none very bad with corals of fishes as I haven't lost anything. YET ...


1 - I was not happy with the tank glass. Aquarium maintenance in the higher places was not easy due to the central braces

2 - Several plagues ... (Aiptasia, Valonia, AEFW and a grey algae the fish won't eat)

3 - light. Although I love Radions I needed 3 more to get full coverage of the tank

4 - The space inside fish-room. Everything was very tight.

That said I decided to make some changes. With the help from several reef friends that gave lot of advise I think I am in the right track now!


1 - I changed and lower the layout. It's now much more easy to do maintenance

Front View

Left View

Right View

Right view from the top and back of the tank

Left view from the top and back of the tank

2 - Plagues ...

I setup a small frag system so that I can treat corals and to be able to move them away from the layout for the redo.
All bases got out, and bath before going to frag system.

Valonia does not worry me has Leucosternon and Siganus Magnificus deal with that.

For the aptaisa I need to decide on a chelmon, shrimp or any other natural predator.

Also created a "blower" connected to return manifold so that I can blow corals and rock work.

And I am going to setup a small elevated refugium with Chaetomorpha so that it competes with the ones in the display.


3 - Light ... Sold my Radion. Going back to the origens. So from next Monday or Tuesday I will have 14x 80W T5 lighting the tank!


4 - Rescaped also the Fish Room so I have more space now!

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

Now NWC 200l, clean the rock of algae and rests of corals and new set of baths in 4 days.

Meanwhile these are the only corals left in the tank as everything else is living the frag system with bath every 4 days.

I have two level filter from the frag back to the display so that none AWFW can go back to the display.

The display will be coral free for two months before I begin to move them back.

Meanwhile I went for furniture to see if I can finally after almost two years finish my home office!

Still one missing ... Radions out ... hello T5.
I am trying the E5 blue PoP and I am loving those lamps.

I have only one fixture yet configured with:
2x E5 Blue Pop
2x ATI Blue Plus
1x ATI Purple
1x ATI Coral Plus

To be honest i am loving the color temperature!

Waiting for the second fixture to see the lamp distribution but I am really tempted to replicate the same lamp configuration in the second.

all the corals remains in quarentine with the exceptions of digitatas, histerix, porites, etc.

I gave baths to all the corals (no exception) with Bayer every 4 or 5 days.
Last bath displayed no dead AEFW. I inspected all of them and I don't see any bites or eggs.

Before

After

No let's sit for 15 days before starting the random baths.
Before getting the corals back to display ... they will all go for Jacuzzi again :bounce3::bounce3::bounce3:

1.5 month as passed and I need to wait another 1.5 month before starting the move.

FTS

The other T5 fixture arrived.

Before

After. Notice the lack of aptaisa? My Acreichthys tomentosus is working well

Orange digitata

Green digitata

porites

zoanthus

more zoanthus

and more ...

...

I have been thru lot lately in my aquarium ...

Aptaisa outbreak, AEFW (solved finally), dictyota algae, pale corals and I lost lots of fishes to Crypto and Brookynela you name it.

I lost a lot of fishes:
1x Naso elegans
1x tennenti
1x pyroferus
2x oceallaris
10x anthias
1x leucosternon
1x stigmatura
2x filefish

I cannot even count anymore the amount of times I talked and thought to quit.

A friend of mine looking at the corals and the algae outbreak told me to increase the water changes with NSW and stop dosing any products for a couple of weeks.

I did that leveraging the WC to vacuum the algae with a air tube (10mm). Imagine what is to change 200 litres of water with 10mm tubing???

So with a heavy 3 month fight I got rid of aptaisa (the bulk of them at least)
With two and a half months of NSW WC I changed 5.400 litres of water, 200 litres every 3/4 days and I am in the process of dealing with the dictyota. I am trying to find the fish that eats it and meanwhile doing the WC and removing as much as I can.

I also bought 10 Kg of live rock to enhance the biodiversity of my system as it was too sterile. That led to an aditional layout change.

The results are to be seen:

The new rock:

When I started to vacuum!

And lately. This is what I remove every 3 days.

It get's into return pump, tunzes, skimmer, etc.

3 days after vacuum ... here she is all back!

Now finally things are getting much better. The corals loved the 5000 plus litres of WC.

spathulata

tenuis

aspera

desalwii

Visiting...

milka

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

aspera

milka

red planet

aspera

digitata

nana

red mille

tort

view

florida

tort. another one. Sahin made me love this coral :lolspin:

digitata

digitata

FTS

right view

aculeus

left view

right view

FROM HERE A LOT HAS CHANGED AND WILL CONTINUE TO CHANGE!

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

A lot has changed ... from construction, to cable management ...

Changed some gear ...

removed the Tunze 9v from ATO and replaced it with the PMUP

Also replace two of my Tunze 6095 for two WAVs. Very happy so far with these pumps and eager to replace the other two Tunze (that I will keep as a backup)

Nov.18th.2016 ... sorry for the crappy picture but this was the state of the nation

And also bought a new viewer that allows me to hold the phone inside

desalwii

tenuis

granulosa

spathulata

red planet

setosa

plana and valida

red millepora

orange digitata

Bought also the Jebao harness from FishStreetStore that allows me to plug my Jebao 12.000l/h return pump to a VDM port from APEX and free one outlet.

Another good purchase was a Kindle Fire 7" in London airport black friday for 30€ that allows me to have an APEX Fusion console

Polip extension at night

and the chaeto in the fuge growing like mad

on 25.Nov.2017

Garf bonsai

my precious ... red dragon

this is what I removed ... a salt bucket worth of chaeto

I did a frame to hold the tablet.

and the board to clean the APEX wires

going from this

and this

to this

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

Some more coral photos

spathulata (another one)

milka

pichoni

aculeus

setosa

still haven't identified yet ... but it's beautiful

tort (joe)

turaki

nana

Sahin's tort (finally i took the first frag out of it for backup)

tenuis (really hoping for this to be the walt disney - already started to get red and yellow tips)

shortcake (microclados)

and the final work for cable mangement

Lastly the refugium (former frag system) without the massive ball of chaeto

Hope you like it.

Still a lot to be done. I want to redo my sump, implement the automatic water changes and some other stuff that I will keep posting as time allows it.

Due to Sahin suggestion I decided to take the dust out of my old DSLR ...

It's a 12y old Canon 400D with 17-55 lens that comes with it. I also used a 50mm 1.8 that I have specially for fish photos.

It's just the first pictures but not so bad for first attempt!

31.12.2016

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]