Lotus 4 feet tank

[lotus_e1]

Got many tips from this forum, so posting this to share my experience. Any constructive feedback or suggestion welcomed.

4 feet by 20 inch by 18 inch 10mm tank (from TANK).

2.5 feet by 15 inch by 18 inch 10mm sump (from Kwong Ling Framework).

Skimz SM162 skimmer (from Aquamarin).

Eheim Compact 3000 plus return (from NA Nature).

Hailea HS66A 1/4HP chiller (from NA Nature).

LED lights (2 white 1 blue).

DIY plumbing (all parts from Sun Hee at Clementi).

Sun Sun wavemaker (may upgrade to MP40 or MP10 when the corals and livestocks are in).

DIY plumbing took me many weeks of planning, and 2 days of installation. Plan changed along the way (as usual). End up with one 25mm overflow connected to a T (one to chiller and the other to sump). Return pump connected to a T (one to protein skimmer and the other to the return pipe). Return pipe connected to a T that is connected to a DIY spray bar. Final configuration was done so that the overflow and the return can be balanced. May review and change later on.

Skimmer impeller broke on first power up - got it repaired today. After dinner, came back to see the water in the collector and overflowing. Maybe I did not adjust the level correctly. After some cleaning up and re-adjustment, so far so good.

While waiting for the tank, I did plenty of reading at this forum, at TheReefTank forum etc. Finally decided that I should go bare bottom. Followed a thread by Geoff at TheReefTank - and the arguments are sound - remove all the waste before it turned nasty. Don't let the sand hide all those stuff. We flush our toilets after using, so I suppose the fishes also prefer that we remove those waste and give them a nice clean environment.

Now day 2 of my baby - cycling (with 1 prawn) as recommended by all the experts. Will cycle for 1 month before adding corals. Fish will come later.

Can view my tank from 4 sides : front and both sides (at the dining area), back (from outside the house) - also allow some diffused natural light to come in during the day. With my house N-S facing, the sunlight will not be too strong to cause much problem? Temperature (without chiller on) is observed to be around 28 degrees.

Some pictures to share:

[Gouldian]

Nice set-up. However, do note that using rain bar will cause salt spray.

[scrach]

Yes would do away with the rain-bar... would have gone for a larger volume turn-over... Am using a 3x2x2 and using a 8000l/hr return pump. BTW nice rock shapes you have there!

[lotus_e1]

May remove the spray bar afterall

My overflow is 25mm diameter but I reduced it to 20mm (to match initial piping to the chiller).

My return is 20mm diameter. I actually used the Eheim 1262 first, but perhaps of the reduced overflow diameter, the display tank water level started to rise (and would spill over if I don't stop the pump).

Maybe I need to remove the 25mm-to-20mm reducer and go back to conventional set up (25mm overflow straight to the sump, use the Eheim 3000 to feed the chiller, and then get another Eheim 1262/1264 to provide the return)?

BTW, I find the skimmer pump to be rather noisy - is it normal?

[lotus_e1]

adding a piece of cloth below the skimmer reduces the noise (from vibration) quite significantly.

using Salifert test kit:

tested Ammonia (<0.25mg/L)

tested nitrate (>25mg/L)

cycling seems to be faster than normal?

[lotus_e1]

added some corals ..

any idea what is the red plant?

[starfish123]

if i am not wrong this is red bamboo algae

[james72]

Tangs love them.

[RushAct]

looking at your zoa, i dont think you got enough light

[iskay]

"some corals"??? That's too many too soon. Also, some are NPS ( first two photos and the last one) and are very hard to sustain. Read up and plan your additions...

[lotus_e1]

iskay :

to be perfectly honest - my purchase was made in impulse at JM - u know what I meant. I re-negotiated (rejected the quick start) and changed the config to over-flow, added the chiller, skimmer etc at my own costs. The package included the corals - which JM added at one go. Understood after some research that the Sun may be tough to keep - will do target feeding etc. ya - the Sun doesn't open much ...

Rushact: picture taken when the white LED is off. I have 150W (2 white strips and 1 blue strip) LED - hope it is sufficient?

[lotus_e1]

another week passed ... feeding daily phytofeast live and zoofeast live, target feed the sun also.

daily change of 4 litres water and removing of detritus from tank and sump

rainbar removed, added one more wavemaker.. waiting for my mp10wes (2 of them) in the coming week...

so far so good.. the corals are opening, except for the green goniopora (last pic)?? the other goniopora is very happy from day one - open up around 2 inches

rich nutrients - daily skimmer empty 1 cm junk..