First tank, 35L nano, here we go!

[Coketech]

Before the quakes I kept a tropical community tank and a Guppy breeder tank, these both fell over in the Sept quake (much to the delight of my 4 cats) and I have been tankless since.

I have always wanted to have a reef tank and have spent a fair chunk of time over the years researching and reading various forums but never had the time, space or money to give a reef a good go.

While I was cleaning out the shed a few weeks ago I came across a perfectly intact 35L tank and a box full of random pumps and fishstuff long forgotten, and the adventure began!

Now I have a tank full of dry rock curing in NSW and I am eagerly awaiting the ammonia levels to drop and the curing process to run its course.

My setup is:

35L tank

1x Boyu 339LV (It claims to be 1000L/hr but seems adequate as a circulation pump)

1x Resun King-2 Currently running as another circulation pump giving a nice flow over the rock but its too noisy to be viable long term.

Heater is decent enough but I cant remember what it is

70W DE AquaMarko off ebay in a shoplighter fitting I had kicking around - I hope that this isnt too much light!

My LFS has said that I can happily run the system without a skimmer if I use the Red Sea NO3:PO4-X additive and keep to a good water-change schedule but I am wondering if anyone here has had any experience doing this or is it tempting fate!

I plan to keep a small range of corals, a yellow tail blue damsel and a pair of clowns.

Any advice would be great, Ive never kept marines and my plans are by no means set in stone so I am open to ideas.

Cheers guys

[Godly3vil]

I've got 0 experience with marines but welcome and goodluck!

[F15hguy]

wouldn't it be cheaper in the long run to just shell out for a skimmer (there are some very nice nano tank ones available nowdays) than keep buying additives?

[Cricketman]

With marine, the bigger the water volume, the better...

more water volume means that swings and changes in the various levels (much more than tropical) are buffered across the entire volume, making them "slower", easier to handle... over 400L things become almost autonomous... (still require skimmer/liverock etc obviously)

Most people up thier water volume, store all thier gear (skimmer, live-rock, pumps, reactors, whatever) in a sump.

Fish shop would love you to become reliant on thier potions and lotions, buy a skimmer (pref a stand alone unit, rather than a HOB style, which are usually more expensive for less productivity), much easier/cheaper/better for your tank in the long run.

35L would not be so good for most fish species, but you could have a beautiful little hard-scape, few SPS/anemone, couple crustaceans...

I warn you now, Either be prepared to spend the money on quality gear, and have patience... or, take your time aquiring information, researching exactly what you want to keep and thier needs, aquiring well-priced, good second hand gear, and be even more patient. The latter usually works out much better for all involved...

The only things that happen fast in Marine are bad things unfortunately, and too often people start with a hiss and a roar, then get complacent, and suddenly the whole thing is out of whack and you're left feeling dissapointed...

Reefkeepers.co.nz - alot more informal than here, but some good people and good info, and Marine based...

[redracer77]

I have a 40L marine running for 18months with no skimmer 15-20% water changes weekly

I have had it crash a few months ago (kh dropped causing PH swings) seems to be stable for the last 3 months, and was before that.

I use purigen and seachem phos remover and never had an issues with phosphates.

I keep stocking low a few soft corals, camelback shrimp and blue/yellow damsel

I am going to get a skimmer from tunze when they are available in NZ.

[Coketech]

Thanks for the replies and the good advice guys

Ive been researching for a while and definitely plan to upsize my water volume if a tank comes along that will fit my budget and then this 35L can become my sump.

Ive been looking at the Bubble magus NAC3+ as a possible skimmer down the track if I cant find one second hand. - Anyone here had experience with these? They seem to get alright reviews and feedback on RC forums....

Good warning about the quick swings in small water volumes, I experienced this to a small extent with smaller breeders back in my tropical freshwater days and would hate my system to crash!

Im an engineering student so while money is relatively tight DIY and ingenuity are big so bring it on with any interesting DIY ideas

Cheers for your thoughts guys, its appreciated

[Phantom]

I've got a 22L nano marine, or at least I did until I got a 400L tank and stopped caring about the nano.

Anyway, I don't have a skimmer, used purigen and some carbon. Weekly 4L water changes and it never had a problem. Had 3 coral frags, a fire shrimp and a yellow tail damsel in it.

I wanted to do it after the quakes and seeing a nano at Organism. John told me what he runs in his and I replicated the same at home, but put in additional LED lighting that I custom fitted to it.

[Coketech]

The tank cycled quickly with LR and some coral sand from organism and I bought a frogspawn coral which has extended nicely! The coraline on the LR from organism has bleached out, I'm wondering if this is from too much light or maybe my water quality isn't up to par as the system is currently skimmerless... Any ideas?

[livingart]

coraline can die off if exposed to air, lack of calcium etc, too much lighting

[Coketech]

Thanks, I've tilted the halide back to drop intensity on the LR, ill see what happens

[F15hguy]

DIY???, try building a large plastic sump holding around 200L as your rilter / refugium bringing your total volume up to 235L, lot less water quality issues there, and with a good enough refugium you may even be able to pull off a mandarin fish (maybe a 600L refugium) sumps are part of your total volume and dont have to look pretty, maybe a trickle stack of 3 50L fishbins draining into a partitioned 4th fishbin and a 5th running a couple of lighting tubes to get a algae filter running (5x $9.99 at bunnings plus a tube of silicone and some plastic sheeting plus filter media etc....)

it all comes down to how much you want it

[Coketech]

Now your talking my language! Ive got my eye on a few tanks on Trademe, if I succeed in getting one within my price range Im totally going to increase my water volume.

Im looking into skimmer options, Ive had a kind offer of a second hand skimmer and hopefully that will come through which would be *amazing*

Its a slow process buying stuff week by week as funds allow but I'm committed to get there.

Ive scored a pair of cube storage boxes which I'm going to make into my sump, they fit nicely under the table that I have the tank setup on and will add roughly 80 liters to my total tank volume.

Is there anyone around in Chch who is good at drilling tanks? Im nervous that I might crack my glass for my overflow box.

Lastly, on RC there is a lot of talk about saltwater grade PVC pipe, do people here stick to saltwater grade PVC or does it not matter overly much?

[livingart]

saltwater grade PVC pipe

??

most just use standard pipe

[F15hguy]

never heard of salt water grade

[Coketech]

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Thanks to the IRD and the fact that I have been accidentally overpaying my tax I will be getting a tax refund!

The budget could stretch to $1200 if justified

I would love some opinions on a tank build, the budget is $700 all up including stock and test kits etc

I am big on DIY so I am keen for creative options to get as much out of the dollar as possible. I am studying electrical engineering and my best friend is a sparky so all the electricals and lighting is a breeze.

I have plenty of nice rimu wood from our house alterations to make the cabinetry out of, im thinking of welding a steel frame that I can bolt to the floor and then making rimu panelling and a rimu hood to house everything, painting all wood in Nuplex M7 as this is a marine grade polyurethane that I have used many times in the past and hold up to the abuse a tank setup will give!

I currently have:

35L tank

Coral sand

3.5kg LR

Frogspwan coral

70W DE MH 14k

70W DE MH 20k

Resun King 2 pump

Jebo pump (same specs as king 2)

Elite 200W heater

(Cant remember brand) 200w heater

I would like to end up with a nice display tank on a stand that incorporates a sump housing all the equipment etc

Planning to keep SPS, some LPS and maybe some softies, some turbo snails, some fish, a cleaner shrimp or two and I would love to try keeping sea stars.

I want to take my time in the design phase with a view to get things as right as possible first time, computer modelling everything to ensure that the aesthetics and SAF (Spousal approval factor) work out well.

I would love this build to be fed with a lot of input from the community, the experience of those who have had bad and good experiences is pure gold and it would be great to incorporate others ideas into the build, especially as this really is my first foray into marines, my previous experience has all been freshwater.

Im thinking bean type overflow, entire tank length overflow box resulting in excellent surface skimming

Refugium of decent enough size to have some effect on the tank - but this will have to fit inside the stand, along with the sump, heres where creative ideas would be amazing! (maybe my existing 35L tank could work as the refugium, id like to get decent 'pod growth for coral feeding)

Is it worth staying with the metal halide lighting or would T5 be worth going to instead? Housing this in an aesthetically pleasing hood would be easy.

LEDs do not outcompete T5 for lumenous efficiency and certainly not on cost per lumen when setting up a tank like this with a fixed budget that will only stretch so far.

I guess I need to find/build/buy:

Large Display tank - Trademe or Forums

Sump tank - The same

Skimmer - Forums if someone has something they dont need or Im thinking the bubble magnus NAC3+ or NAC 5 from deep blue aquarium

More LR and sand will be needed and of course more corals and fish!

Media reactor?

RODI unit? I have particulate and carbon filters for drinking water, this is what I used to use for tank water for freshwater, so I would only require an RO membrane and DI resin, pressure meter and TDS meter.

I have already got pH probe and high resolution digital temperature sensors which will feed microcontroller which will control heaters, ATO, dosing, RODI water creation, light cycle and moonphase cycle.

Any ideas, please fire away!

Chris

[Coketech]

Huge thanks to spoon! He generously gave me an aquamedic hang on back Skimmer and some nice LR populated with sponges and brittle stars I've now got an ocularis cardinal and a frogspawn coral chillin in my 35l tank. Some friends of friends had a few secondhand tanks sitting around with various cracks and leaks, I've started stripping the tanks down to bare glass sheets and fixing them up to make a 180L tank and a 150L tank. My current plan is to make the 180L tank into the display tank, the 150L tank as refugium tank running reverse light cycle with macro algae and extra live rock, hopefully this will work as a nice place to grow wee pods and tasty things for the rest of the tank. My only current concern is the sump will have to be the 35L tank I'm running at the moment, unless I buy a dirty great plastic tub and use that to be able to deal with the water volume returning to sump in a powercut. Full speed ahead with the silicone! Photos to follow I promise!

[Coketech]

News just in! My flatmates just called me to tell me my tank just "exploded" and now nothing is working ... 15min of phone fault finding later I find that my cheap 70w metal halide lamp detonated, that'll teach me for buying cheap n nasty off eBay! Good thing I bought two so I could do a pair on the 180L tank, now I need to buy a new pair of lamps! Ill try fish-street I guess

[F15hguy]

gotta love it when saving a few $$$ costs more

[Coketech]

Hahaha I know right! Lesson learnt .... stoked my flatmates are into the tank too otherwise it would be 24 hours before I had any idea the entire tank was without power

[Coketech]

My tank is progressing nicely.

I moved house, so took the chance to buy a second hand 60 liter tank off trade me and get this up to temp with fresh salt mix before the big move took place, this gives me 50 Liters of actual water volume, judged by the displacement of water when I added my sand, LR etc.

Moving went smoothly, my Cardinal seems quite happy in his new home and the corals are doing well.

Spoon was kind enough to give me his old Aqua Medic skimmer, its running nicely giving consistently good skimmate, a little wet but thats not such a bad thing.

Currently I have:

Cardinal

Frogspawn Coral - Its has split from one head into three and is growing very nicely!

Candycane (three heads)

and a Hydnophora that is nicely extended, a piece broke off while I was moving it and this is now my first frag!

Im running Red Sea Salt (Cheap from Redwood Aquatics!)

dosing Red Sea NO3-PO4-X, Seachem Reef advantage calcium and Baking soda. The Mg levels are acceptable at the moment but I have some Magnesium Sulphate if it decides to drop a little low.

Im running Seachem phosphate remover, even though Im running the NO3-PO4-X, just because some of my LR is slowly leaching phosphate resulting in some Green Hair Algae where the tank gets sunlight for a few hours each day.

It turned out that the big BANG my flatmates heard (which took power out to the entire flat) was water dribbling out of the skimmer and dribbling into a multibox, shorting out Phase and Neutral hehehe - Drip loops are now installed!

[Coketech]

A wee update

Things are moving along nicely

I recently moved house which gave me a chance to upgrade to a slightly bigger tank (Trademe Win!)

My tank is now setup in pride of place in the living room, it has 50L of actual water volume, measured by displacement as rock and everything was added

My Frogspawn coral is growing fast and has got three distinct parts to it, my candy canes are growing in size and one has now split into two and my hydrophora has excellent polyp extension and is growing nicely in size.

I have bought big sacks of CaCl2, MgSO4 and CaOH for dosing and my parameters are sitting nicely smack bang in the range of enhanced coral growth.

Ive been battling with Green Hair Algae, especially after moving the tank but this has basically come under control with through weekly siphoning of the sand and water changes sucking the algae out of the tank as I clean the glass, Im also dosing Red Sea NO3-PO4-X (Acetic acid and methanol mix), Seachem Phosguard and Turbo snails are helping too.

The skimmer from Spoon is working well, sucking out dark stinky skimmate!

Much more technology is in the wings for the tank including real time temperature and pH monitoring combined with some webcams streaming live to the internet as the start of my reeftank controller.