UK 250gal soft coral tank using Reef Zlements

[surcalation]

After such a warm welcome in the welcoming section and a few questions of "show us your build" here is the start of my reefing journey. This is my 4th fish tank and 2nd marine tank. My first marine tank was running for 6 years before it was closed down due to a suspected tank leak and upcoming house move. Kind of two birds with one stone incidence and it later conspired that the tank wasn't leaking but it was actually salt creep from the HOB skimmer.

My first marine tank which held a mere 160litres (UK)

Anyway this second build!
Planning stages:

Tank in stages:
Delivery time with all the muscle!


Tank in place

Tank Spec:
Tank
68" long, 36" wide and 26" tall in 12mm thick glass with an external weir with 3 down pipes.
Tank sits on a steel frame powder coated in black 34.25" high with 18mm plywood board and 22mm thick polystyrene.
Tank volume before displacement 963 litres (254 US gallons)

Sump
60" long, 19.5" wide and 19.5" tall
Compartment 1 (Refugium) where water enters is 19.5" x 15" x 19.5" holds 93 litres before algae and rock displacement
Compartment 2 (Skimmer) is 19.5" x 10.5" x 9.5" holds 32litres if not for skimmer
Compartment 3 (Return Chamber) is 19.5" x 24" x 9.5" holds 73 litres without stuff in it.

Skimmer
Quantum Nyos 220

Return Pump
Jecod DCP 10000

Reactors
2 D&D h20 fluidised (1 Rowa Carbon, 1 Rowa Phos)

Lighting
4 Maxspect 160W Razor 420R's (Display)
1 Kessil H80 Tuna Flora (Refugium)

Wavemakers
2 Maxspect Gyre XF350
Maxspect Controller

ATU
Reefloat ATU Pro-3

Rockwork
30kg been left outside in a bin live rock
16kg been left for dead dry rock
26kg been in storage for months with heater and wavemaker
21kg Marco rock
Total 93kg

 

[surcalation]

There is a load of shots of the house being built but maybe this post can be saved for the pictures of that stage.

 

[surcalation]

There was a bit of setting up stage






Then there was 3 lights


Then of the 2nd of June 2019 it got filled with salt water and some rock

 

[Katrina71]

Nice start for sure!

 

[surcalation]

Here is a little video of day 1 to give you an idea of the noise


and after 48hrs the cloudiness has started to clear


3 days after setting the tank up I decided one macro algae wasn't going to do enough as I am cycling and curing rock at the same time so I popped to two of my local LFS to get some more varieties (cheato and Caulurpa):


and then for Father's day my better half decided I should get a 4th tank light to even it out, wasn't going to argue so managed to find another 2nd hand one. All my Maxspects are 2nd hand.



I then decided that I didnt have enough rock so got some more

I even cheekily sneaked the lights on for literally minutes just to see how good it was

Next step was to sort the refugium out, my kessil tuna h80 is probably a bit small for it and the light isn't spilling the greatest and my algae was pushed up all against the skimmer side due to the current. So trust egg crate ordered and installed


Since then growth has been much better!

Then on day 19th life was spotted! Obviously crept in from the macro algaes and multiplied exponentially!


Pods


Along with the good stuff some bad stuff came too. Medusa Hydroids but I know they WILL cycle out


After 27 days my cycle had finished, well the first one anyway, no NH3 and no NO2 so picked up some CUC and fish to keep it going with the lights still being off.

8 blue/green chromis


And that's about upto speed. Shall share another post later on my plan with this whole setup.

 

[surcalation]

So what's the plan with the tank and what is it going to contain?
Well it's a fairly large tank (x10 than my last) but my taste in marine tanks hasn't changed. I like soft coral tanks where you can see corals moving in the flow and I also like zoas. I want this tank to last for decades and is by no means some kind of halfway tank or tester to see if I like the hobby. This tank has been in the plans for 2+ years and I want this tank to be a TOTM contender and potentially even get featured in some publications. At the minute I search for soft coral reef tanks and they are either nano or zoa frag tanks, I can't see anyone who has kept a large-ish tank of softies that isn't a public aquarium. Feel free to point me in the direction of tanks like that.

So how are you going to run this tank?
I plan to use the triton method as it's going to be the most cost effective and hopefully simplistic method. Hence why I don't want to have to do regular water changes and I don't want to keep twigs which need lots of dosing chemicals. Don't get me wrong I know that water changes are effective, that's what I did on my last tank, but as this ones x10 the size it works out at 1/3 of the cost of water changes to go the Triton Core 7 Bulk method. £9.20 per week water change vs £2.98 for triton core 7 bulk method so at this i would be happy to do the odd water change. These calculations are based off the starting doses so as my journey continues I can re-calculate usage etc. But from the get go Triton Core 7 Bulk > Water Changes in terms of cost %.

So we know you like softies but what about fish/inverts?
My current dream fish which is in the realm of keeping is a Madarin goby. So it's going to take a few years to get my tank ready for them as I want the display mature enough with copepods and other life. Other then that, it's a case of some yellow tangs (3 hopefully) a regal tang, shoal of blue/green chromis (already started), pair of clowns, a butterfly (copperband or forceps which ever is best for pest control) peppermint shrimps for aiptasia control mainly and then other than that a lot is up for debate. Be nice to get an angel of some kind as well but time is on my side.

So what are you doing for startup?
Well as you will have read I have (hopefully) enough rock which is being cured/and cycled in the display tank as I didnt see the point in curing it in another vessel to transfer to the display tank. With all the die off and phosphates from the curing process I could use them to feed the refugium which you can see is currently going to plan. I am testing daily, the skimmer has been running since day one and the refugium is lit for 12hrs a day. I plan to not have the display tank lighting on until week 8. It will then mirror the lighting schedule of Indonesia but to my viewing preference with the refugium lit opposite it with a slight over lap.

So that brings things about up to speed as it's only day 32 since being wet. I shall continue to keep you updated with weekly postings hopefully, thanks for taking the time to read through those that have Thread should not progress as normal haha

 

[surcalation]

So after reading horror stories and doomsday advice I decided to make a boring yet necessary purchase in case my tanks power decided to fail.

I give you the IceCap battery back up from Neptune systems. Cost me £117 with free delivery from mainland Europe. Didn't fancy attempting to DIY a car battery like some of the guides and didn't like the idea of water potentially getting on to it with it being kept in the vicinity of the tank.



So should power decide to go off for the whole house one of my maxspect gyres will still be able to function in order to keep the flow going



I will get round to sorting those wires out at some point! Be less of an eye sore once the false cupboards are on though.

As for the fish, 1 week on and all seems fine. Ammonia is being detected on my columbo test kit so until that goes nothing else going in. But don't want anything till 4 weeks after these have gone in so that things can settle down.

 

[surcalation]

Well turns out I couldn't wait 4 weeks till adding more fish. 2 weeks after my blue/green chromis I bought a forceps butterfly fish, eyelash blenny and 3 peppermint shrimps to deal with the little aiptasia popping up. Sadly the eyelash blenny didn't last longer then 48hrs, didnt feed and just sat on a rock So first casualty of the system. My local LFS have a 48hr refund policy so took the deceased fish back which had already been half chewed up by the peppermints and picked up a royal gramma. Royal Gramma has been find and feeding as normal. Still continuing to test daily with my Columbo test kits which show:

NH3 - 0
No2 - 0.25
No3 - 4
Po4 - 0.06
dKh - 9
Salinity - 1.025
Temp - 25.3c

Waiting till day 56 till I turn my lighting schedule on for the display tank. Refugium is currently lit 12hrs on and 12hrs off. Probably going to add some more trochus snails tomorrow to make sure for when the lights come on they can be ready for the surge in algae I suspect will happen. I currently only have 6 trochus and 5 red legged hermits. I have had a light dusting of algae on the DT windows from the tank being in sunlight but nothing major.

I am still continuing to research dosing but currently in the Triton camp. Yes it's only a softies tank but they must be consuming something and continual testing and research will help me discover what it is. Obviously need to wait for my dKh to drop below 9 till I start dosing so unfortunately will have to buy corals for that to happen!

 

[sam.veilleux30]

Nice setup!

 

[surcalation]

Jeez, a lot has sure happened since July last year. Been really sloppy keeping this forum thread up to date as I only seem to update it on the Ultimatereef.net forum

But anyway since July 2019:

Added fish
Lost fish
Had some dinos
Overdosed phosphate to try and eradicate dinos
Had an outbreak of white spot / marine velvet
Put all fish in hospital
Lost some fish in hospital
Cured the fish
Left the display tank fallow for 12 weeks (84 days) just to be on the safe side
Had the tank covered in purple cyanobacteria
Had the tank covered in green cyanobacteria
Had lots of green hair algae
Defeated cyanobacteria and green hair algae
Have a full quarantine set up now utilising copper power and sera tremazol
Have a strict quarantine regime of 76 days for corals and inverts

And here's a couple of videos of how the tank was as of last week. Tuesday will mark it's 1 year birthday since becoming salty!





Still using the Triton Method and currently manually dosing 10ml of each solution everyday.

Latest parameters:

Temp - 25.3
SG - 1.023 (Currently working on increasing)
No3 - 2.5ppm (Salifert)
P04 - 0.00ppm (Hanna PPM)
Dkh - 7.7 (Hanna)
Mag - 1350 (Salifert)
Cal - 440 (Salifert)

Thanks for reading/watching

 

[Jimbhoy13]

After such a warm welcome in the welcoming section and a few questions of "show us your build" here is the start of my reefing journey. This is my 4th fish tank and 2nd marine tank. My first marine tank was running for 6 years before it was closed down due to a suspected tank leak and upcoming house move. Kind of two birds with one stone incidence and it later conspired that the tank wasn't leaking but it was actually salt creep from the HOB skimmer.

My first marine tank which held a mere 160litres (UK)

Anyway this second build!
Planning stages:

Tank in stages:
Delivery time with all the muscle!


Tank in place

Tank Spec:
Tank
68" long, 36" wide and 26" tall in 12mm thick glass with an external weir with 3 down pipes.
Tank sits on a steel frame powder coated in black 34.25" high with 18mm plywood board and 22mm thick polystyrene.
Tank volume before displacement 963 litres (254 US gallons)

Sump
60" long, 19.5" wide and 19.5" tall
Compartment 1 (Refugium) where water enters is 19.5" x 15" x 19.5" holds 93 litres before algae and rock displacement
Compartment 2 (Skimmer) is 19.5" x 10.5" x 9.5" holds 32litres if not for skimmer
Compartment 3 (Return Chamber) is 19.5" x 24" x 9.5" holds 73 litres without stuff in it.

Skimmer
Quantum Nyos 220

Return Pump
Jecod DCP 10000

Reactors
2 D&D h20 fluidised (1 Rowa Carbon, 1 Rowa Phos)

Lighting
4 Maxspect 160W Razor 420R's (Display)
1 Kessil H80 Tuna Flora (Refugium)

Wavemakers
2 Maxspect Gyre XF350
Maxspect Controller

ATU
Reefloat ATU Pro-3

Rockwork
30kg been left outside in a bin live rock
16kg been left for dead dry rock
26kg been in storage for months with heater and wavemaker
21kg Marco rock
Total 93kg

Welcome to R2R. The first tank looks lovely. The second tank great. You must be excited to get that up and running. Are you from the UK. If so how about joining the UK forums too

 

[surcalation]

Welcome to R2R. The first tank looks lovely. The second tank great. You must be excited to get that up and running. Are you from the UK. If so how about joining the UK forums too

Will have a nosey in the UK section, didnt realise we had one.

 

[Devaji]

I also love soft corals! I really like that pick/redish leather coral. really nice piece!

 

[najer]

Great build, looking very nice.

 

[surcalation]

Some tank shots

 

[surcalation]

Some videos of the tank that I took a couple of weeks back. Up the video playback quality and turn the YouTube free music down if needed

 

[surcalation]

Quarantine has done once again and few more corals have gone into the tank (3 strains of zoa and a green kenya tree). My melanarus has quite the task of munching through these flatworms and I may need a silver bellied yellow wrasse to help him. Now the task of deciding what to quarantine next?

 

[surcalation]

Tank is still ticking along, Melanarus Wrasse is now in the tank and has made a large dent to all the small snail population but hasnt made much of a dent in the flatworm population. So I currently have a pink streak wrasse in QT which should be ready to go in mid-January to help with the fight. Here is a video from last week.

 

[surcalation]

Since my last post I have been battling a little bit of cyano for 3 weeks now and I have been keeping the tank at 24c (recommendation from Triton with Cyano) and micro bubbles seem to be increasing. There is none at lights on but by 6pm you can see where they are. All the white dots in this video are air bubbles.



The matting of cyano isn't exactly spreading everywhere. The tank is developing some green patches and the glass is needing scraping much more often. I think the increase of greenery is due to the addition of phosphorus (Triton P beta). My salifert measured phosphate this week remains at 0.03ppm. The next scale is 0.1 so without chucking £70+ at a Hanna ppb checker i won't know exactly.

So in order to try and be proactive rather then reactive i have reduced my main tank lighting to 10hrs and increased the refugium to 14hrs. I am also going to dose 50ml a day of Microbacter 7 over the next week instead of 25ml a week. Looking back at my diary it was not necessarily the mb7 which helped me but reducing my tank lights whilst increasing the refugium lighting and keeping the temperature down for 6 weeks. So another 3 weeks to see where we are at for that.

In terms of other levels:
Salinity 1.025
Temp 24.1c
Mag 1470ppm
Cal 490pp.
No3 25ppm
Alkalinity 201ppm (11.2dkh)

Alkalinity is the biggest flag, its increased 12ppm in a week and my dosing has gone down since last week. 12ml a day this week (144ml), 13ml a day last (159ml). Wary that its continuing to climb i am not going to dose for a week and see where it comes down to. Dialing the amount to dose and alk consumption on my tank seems to be a constant battle.

 

[surcalation]

Apologies for the lack of updates but here is one for you all