Dendrobate's 4 footer Marine Treescape from Down Under

[dnsfpl]

amazing scape

[dendrobate]

Nice ls u have, envy u.

amazing scape

Thanks guys, this tank is sort of an experiment for me in terms of scaping, I wanted something different from the usual rockwall or island scapes for this tank, and having done freshwater planted tanks for the last decade or so, I wanted to combine the design concepts of both fresh and salt water into this tank. I totally loved my last freshwater treescape, and wanted to replicate this in the 4 footer. Here's a couple of pics of my treescape from the very beginning.

[dendrobate]

Went out collecting yesterday to get a cleaner wrasse to replace the one that has gone missing (probably got sucked into the overflow) since thursday, got that plus a pair of scopaz tangs as well

The cleaner wrasses straight to work once they're in the tank.

The Scopaz tangs cowering in one corner, hopefully will settle down by tomorrow.

[Gouldian]

Thanks for sharing, it good to read about your skimmer-less filtration method too - hope you can share more!

[dendrobate]

Thanks for sharing, it good to read about your skimmer-less filtration method too - hope you can share more!

Thanks for expressing interest, my filtration method is modelled after one of the club's most senior member's setup. When I first joined the club and was in the planning stages for this tank, I did a lot of research, listed out the biggest issues of my last setup, and looked at many members' tanks as well as actively seeking advise and input. Many members of the club were influenced by this particular member's tank that did not have any sofisticated equipment and tried to maintain water quality simply through good understanding of how nature works and applying it to the hobby.

My display tank is 48" x 18" x 24", while my sump is 48" x 18" x 18", it is a lot larger than most sumps used for a 4 footer, the reason behind that is because I need the extra area to grow macro algae, my main biological filtration. Here's a little explanation of my sump setup, the water from the display tank drains into the sump via 4 seperate 1.5" pvc pipes (2 active & 2 emergency), each of these pipes goes into a custom/DIY filter sock that's 100 microns, to remove as much detris as possible. The filter socks are changed every 3 days, I have 5 sets of the filter socks and I hand wash them slightly and leave them in a bucket filled with water and bleach for a couple of days before going into the washing machine for a good wash without any washing powder. the water on exiting the filter sock should be relatively clean, but not 100%, so I have each of these pipes sitting inside a larger (100mm) pvc pipe with the bottom capped off. The idea is to have the water than comes out of the filter socks stay in the larger PVC pipes and any detris will settle to the bottom of the pipes and only clean water oveflows out of the pipes.

The area immediately after these are my aerobic filtration section. I have heaps of dead coralline corals that I collected and cleaned thoroughly then bleached and dried for a couple of weeks before use. These dead coralline corals serve 2 purpose, because they're very porous (more porous than live rocks), they'll host heaps of the nitrifying bacteria to convert NH3 to NO2 and NO2 to NO3, also, because they're mainly made up of calcium, as it breasks down, they'll increase the carbonate hardness, however, the breakdown is too slow to replace dosing, but since I don't have many calcium demanding stuff in the tank, I don't need to dose, however, since adding the clam, I might consider dosing a little kalk in near future.

After the aerobic section, is the largest chamber of the sump, the DSB/Macroalgae section. I've filled the chamber with shellgit of different size in layers, starting with the finest at the bottom. The DSB is 8" deep, then I added a layer of the dead coralline corals and on top of it, a piece of egg crate. The macroalgae sits on top of the egg crate and is exposed to 20 hours lighting. I've DIYed the lighting using the LEDs (12 Red & 8 Blue) from Aquastyle. The macroalgae I'm growing is a local variant of the Caulerpa racemosa. The growth rate of these are amazing under the LEDs and I have to trim them every week or so. The purpose of this chamber is to provide a media to host the denitrying bacteria via the DSB, as well as to grow the macroalgae. Most setups will manage the NH3 to NO2 and the NO2 to NO3 part of the nitrogen cycle, but many struggle with the nitrate conversion, which often leads to algae outbreaks and poor water quality.

The water from the DSB chamber enters a small chamber where I have my cheato tumbling around, before finally entering the last chamber where the water is fed back to the main tank via the return pump.

There's really isn't anything special about my filtration, in fact, most sump these days are very similar, except for the additional equipments and reactors. I do however, monitor my water very closely and always add fish slowly and always remove any visible waste/uneaten food.

Having said that, to anyone who is reading this, please do not disconnect your skimmer, reactors, etc. Every setup is different and what I've done here is done with the intention of minimising the number of equipments in the sump as well as to keep the system as natural as possible. Also, I do have a skimmer and a nitrate reactor around that can be hooked onto the system should a need arises. I guess the problem with my setup is the amount of space taken up by the sump as well as the lack of aesthetic appeal.