The Interim Tank

[The Reef Dork]

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Latest FTS (28 January 2018)
2018-01-28_08-32-39 by Alex Brooke-Smith, on Flickr

Temporary
ˈtɛmp(ə)rəri’
adjective
1. lasting for only a limited period of time; not permanent.
"a temporary job"
2. synonyms: non-permanent, short-term, interim;

At this start of this year, I told my missus I would temporarily shut down my last tank ahead of a house move. TEMPORARILY. That house move is taking longer than I’d hoped so I looked up the word temporary in the dictionary. You will note that a synonym is ‘short-term’. Clearly, January to September cannot be considered as a short period of time and you really can’t argue with the dictionary can you?

The above is of course not true and would not win any argument with a non-reefing partner. So I just bought the tank without telling her. It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission after all. Fortunately, when she saw it she just laughed and rolled her eyes *breathes sigh if relief*

As this tank will (hopefully) only be running for a matter of months before being tansferred to my upgrade, I’m going to keep it simple. 3 or 4 small fish, some high-end zoas, some encrusting montis and that’s about it. No dosing, just weekly water changes. Well, at least that’s the plan...

In order to keep costs of this mini project down, I’m using equipment I have ready for my next tank - that will be a 4x2x2 so this will be the most over-equipped 120 litre tank you’ve ever seen! I’ll be using an MP40QD (yeeshk), a Kessil A360 and an ALR1 chaeto reactor. No skimmer as I want to test the ALR1 and there isn’t room in the sump for both. The only thing I’ve bought specifically for this project is the tank and I went 2nd hand so I won’t lose too much wonga on it - i’m paying for all of this from my upgrade budget which I want to be as big as possible.

Kit list:
Kessil A360 Tuna Blue with Spectral controller
Eheim Compact 3000 return (fingers crossed the lowest setting will be OK)
MP40QD
ALR1 chaeto reactor with Sicce 1,350lph pump
Small bag of siporax
D-D ATO
300w heater (!)
Simply Aquaria temp controller
Seneye Reef

Fish list
Midas Blenny (Ecsenius midas)
Koi Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus solorensis)

Coral list
SPS:
Rainbow montipora

Zoas:
Speckled Rainbow
Rastas
Radioactive Dragon Eye
Mohawk
Purple Hornet
God of War
Fire & Ice
Super Saiyan
Darth Maul
Utter Chaos
Watermelon
Alien Anti Venom
Scambled Egg

Mushrooms:
Florida ricordea

LPS
Acan lord - blue/green
Acan lord - red
Acan lord - Pink Dragon
Frogspawn
Hammer - purple tipped, green
Hammer - metallic green
Hammer - purple

Here's a timelapse video of me setting up (to the tune of Benny Hill).



Here are some photos.



Simple scape


The engine room


First additions


Guess the fish...


Fish intro vid.


First coral (speckled rainbow zoa)

 

[The Reef Dork]

Some teething issues to report.

Firstly, there's no RO reservoir in the sump so I have this ugly thing as a temporary measure. I've bought a neater, 18L tub but i'd far rather have an in-sump reservoir. Ah well.


Unfortunately, i'm not going to be able to use my MP40. I can only have it on 20% and when you run it that low for long enough... it drops off


So i've put a temporary Sicce pump in to keep oxygen up and I should have a replacement tomorrow - a far more sensible Jebao SW4.


Either way, i'll still need to address the return pump. At 1,500 to 3,000 lph, that's far too powerful as well and means that my water level is quite high - roughly in line with the green line below.

I'd rather have another cm gap to the top of the tank to allow me to turn the powerhead up so I may have to get a smaller return pump. So much for saving money by using kit i've got ready for my upgrade!


On the plus side, ammonia is at 0, nitrite is at 0 and nitrate is at 1ppm so it looks like the tank is cycled and ready to receive more zoas! ;Woot

 

[spiraling]

Unfortunately, i'm not going to be able to use my MP40. I can only have it on 20% and when you run it that low for long enough... it drops off
;Woot

Did you use the correct spacer for your glass? I've had one running that low for long periods of time without issue.

 

[Vincent100]

Double post

 

[Vincent100]

Looking very nice mate and glad your missus wasn't too hard on you ;Hurting
Benny hill .....you gotta be from the UK like myself lol , brought back some memories with that one

 

[The Reef Dork]

I tried using the 0-6mm one and the 6-13mm one too (it's 6mm glass). The 6-13mm worked better, surprisingly, but it kept slipping off with both. I didn't try the 'gasket' spacer but it'll be handy having the Jebao as a spare pump for my next tank anyway. I was also slightly worried about the MP40 generating too much flow and splashing some water over the side anyway.

 

[The Reef Dork]

Oops, forgot to press 'add quotes'

Did you use the correct spacer for your glass? I've had one running that low for long periods of time without issue.

I tried using the 0-6mm one and the 6-13mm one too (it's 6mm glass). The 6-13mm worked better, surprisingly, but it kept slipping off with both. I didn't try the 'gasket' spacer but it'll be handy having the Jebao as a spare pump for my next tank anyway. I was also slightly worried about the MP40 generating too much flow and splashing some water over the side anyway.

 

[The Reef Dork]

Benny hill .....you gotta be from the UK like myself lol , brought back some memories with that one

Got it in one!

 

[The Reef Dork]

A couple of minor improvements tonight. The cabinet doors don't come with rubber nubbins so when they slam, they make a racket. So I bought a pack and that has actually reduced vibration noise too which is a nice bonus. Although it says a little about the build quality of the tank that the sump vibrates the entire cabinet !


https://www.flickr.com/photos/131370939@N06/
Wrasstopher is currently in hiding. I can see him in a gap under one of the rocks almost completely still. Definitely alive but i'd like him to come out a bit in the next few days. He's not eating at the moment despite me putting in yummy mysis. Maybe I should to that thing you try with kids where you have a bit, say it's lively then threaten to eat it all?!

I also fitted an improved RO reservoir. Still a little unsightly but at least it looks better than the 40L builder's bucket I had before! It's 18L so should last me a good 10 days - I measured top off at 1.7 litres in 24 hours the other day.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/131370939@N06/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131370939@N06/
And finally, I have a confession to make. I bought a piece of SPS the other day... 3 days after setting up the tank in fact. I won't let it happen again, I promise. But it was a rainbow monti and I ruddy love encrusting montis so...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/131370939@N06/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131370939@N06/
Polyps are coming out VERY slowly. It's currently as close to the sand bed as possible but i'll move it up over the next couple of weeks.

No CUC in the tank yet so that's the next job - i'll probably get a hermit and a cleaner shrimp to start with then build up slowly.

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

You can just add an inline ball valve on the output side to tune down your return pump.

 

[The Reef Dork]

You can just add an inline ball valve on the output side to tune down your return pump.

That's a good shout, thanks.

 

[The Reef Dork]

Tidied up the sump last night - moved the algae reactor pump to the left hand section so the middle chamber is empty. I tried to hard plumb in but that ended with the hose slipping off and spraying water everywhere;Facepalm. Fortunately, I was staring at it so no harm done.


Also added a black sheet of cardboard to the back of the sump to reduce light spill. That made more or less no difference but there's still work to do there! What I should have done is vinyl wrap the back, bottom and sides of the sump white then do a 2nd outer layer black on the back. But I got too excited when the tank arrived so I filled it up with water immediately instead of planning the setup





Got my CUC started tonight with an obligatory cleaner shrimp. Hermits to follow...


Oh, and Wrasstopher is about 3% braver tonight. I'll see what a bit of live food does on Thursday..

 

[The Reef Dork]

New return pump and powerhead in place. The return is brilliant - it's half the size of the Eheim. Although i'm sure it'll be significantly less reliable! I now have more appropriate flow though - dialled down to 50%. In hindsight, i'd have got an RW8 instead of an RW4 but it's still doing a decent job. Looks very sleek too. 2 RW4s would be ideal - set on master/slave.


Haven't figured out the best setting for the RW4 yet. I like how they call the random mode 'else'.


Bought 6 zoa frags and a ricordea this week from local reefers . As a result, i've added a large zoa rock to hold my frags for now. The plan is to let them grow out over that rock which I think will look awesome. And I can put frag plugs in the hole and sell frags when they spread.

As you can see, diatoms have started in the last few days so here's to a few weeks of the tank looking ruuubish.


I'll take photos when all the zoas come out - here's the Rastas for now (and a half hiding ric)...


Wrasstopher is now out and about much more and eating so all good with him. I might get a pair of Skunk Clowns at some point but will leave it for now. It's annoying having 2 hiding fish though!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looking great! I enjoyed the time lapse set up vid. Haha! First time I've seen that done.

 

[The Reef Dork]

Looking great! I enjoyed the time lapse set up vid. Haha! First time I've seen that done.

Cheers - i'll do another one when I get a snail

 

[The Reef Dork]

Decided to make a frag rack tonight. More because I want one than need one considering I have diddly squat to frag. I have a suction frag rack but it's rubbish - never sticks for more than a few days, a pain in the **** to move and can't carry any weight. The magnetic ones look much stronger but they cost about a billion dollars so...

Step 1. Take spare, redundant cheapo powerhead.


Step 2. Pull prop unit off wet side magnet.




Step 3. Glue 6x4 piece of egg crate to wet side magnet.




Step 4. Place 24 plug frag rack in tank (photobomb courtesy of Chepe).




Step 5. Have a celebratory beer.


Step 6. Watch frags grow

 

[The Reef Dork]

First proper CUC added today (sorry, cleaner shrimp - you don't count because you're more for decorative purposes). I've decided this tank will be a hermit-free zone so it's snails all the way.

Shout out to my man Conchy for apparently chewing through diatoms! Did not know they did that - he's cleared a 3x1 inch path so far which is good going given that they don't exactly look like sticky toffee pudding. Maybe it's not diatoms?? Whatever - it looks crap and he's hoovering it up.



Plus 2 black foot trochuses. Trochusees? Trochusi?

 

[The Reef Dork]

I also saw a Red Sea Peninsula 650 set up today for the first time in my LFS. I have major reservations about only having flow from one end but they looking niiiiiice. 4 Hydra 26s looked perfect over them too - you can't see from these pics but the light was a gorgeous colour. The scape was really simple but gives you am idea of how great a peninsula scape would look.

Still leaning towards EaReef 1200 Pro for the upgrade but dang, this is mighty fine.

 

[The Reef Dork]

I've managed to take photos of some of my new zoas that aren't completely terrible. There are 2 more I haven't managed to snap yet but i'm working on it. They're just being shy for now.

Radioactive Dragon Eye


Rastas


Mohawk


Purple hornet (this is excluded from the 'not terrible photo' category)


I also have a God of War (reminds me of Lord of War - great film) and Fire & Ice that are closed tonight. Plus Darth Mauls and Utter Chaos arriving on Thursday. On the 'to buy' list are Watermelons (I refuse to give them their full name) and Sunny Ds.

When it comes to placing them - i'll be using a colour wheel and colour calculator to identify which colours will look good together.

 

[The Reef Dork]

It's new coral photo time!

So the plan is to have several gardens - starting with an acan garden and a euphyllia garden. Here is exhibit acan A.


And exhibit euphyllia A.


Exhibit euphyllia B.


These guys are already budz.


Now, I did take a shot of the hammer under blues but it looks washed out as heck so you'll have to make do with the froggy which still looks fairly washed out and which, by the way, looks stunning - green with maybe gold-ish tips.



I want to get 2 more single head euphyllias to complete the garden - no torches which are apparently not good bedfellows with other euphs. Which is a shame because they are my favourite euphyllias. Upside down smiley face.

And for the sake of completeness, here's the Super Saiyan zoa under whites then blues.




And finally the speckled rainbow again under blues because... well.. it's fit.