My little 2ft Haven

[jxlex]

After meddling with my 1ft tank for the past few months, i have again stupidily decided to take another step and bring a tank back home. With much persuation from the monsters at home and "encouragements" from the CFO i went ahead to procure a 2' x 2' x 2.5'(h) tank from a nice reefer here.

This time round with 2 years of reading (thank you SRC ),multiple experiments with my old 4' and my office 1' and of course the endless sharing session with the nice folks here and at LFS, i should be in slightly better shape.

Some details of my setup:

Tank: 2'(L) x 2'(W) x 2.5'(H), 12mm thick with internal top and bottom overflow (Back breaking work!)

Sump: 1.5'(L) x 2'(W) x 1'(H) - 2 compartments

Cabinet: Solid wood + Hood

Lighting: Radion XR30W (Articial Mode)

Wavemaker: 1 x Vortex MP10 (Upgrading soon) + 1 x Tunze (Cant remember model)

Chiller: Hailea HS28A

Skimmer: BM NAC 3.5

Reactor 1: TLF Phosban 150 with NPX Biopellet

Reactor 2: TLF Phosban 150 with Phosban & Activated Carbon

Dosing: BM 3 way currently dosing C-Balance AB, looking for a Mg supplement

Supplements: Ultralift media in net bag, BioDigest, Julien Spring Reef Elements, Ultrabak, Bac7

Saltmix: undecided yet but good chance gg for H2Ocean

Tank has been cycling since early November and currently only contains inverts for clean up purpose.

Will slowly be introducing my corals from the office tanks and of course wallet burning purchases. Fish wise still deciding as tank is small do not wanna add a tank full norms.

Scaping wise, i decided to scape dead rocks this time round to remove the hassle of hitchhikers, die offs and many more issues i am not comfortable with. Hence the longer cycling period too. Massive amounts of epoxy and expoxy form used

Will appreciate any comments/feedbacks from the expert here in case (as usual ) i screw something up again

Some pics to start of this thread.

Scaping in progress:

Almost complete scape in tank w/o water:

With Water (bac bloom from BP):

Sump w/o dosing yet (yes, i agree its a mess):

DIY Aluminium light stand (Thanks to bro James for his inspiration! )

to be continued...

[patricklhc]

Nice one bro! Following you closely off topic a bit.. have you receive the cable ?

[jxlex]

Thanks bro... just trying only la... Oh Yes! the Cable! Yup yup i did! thank you so much bro!

[Admiraltian]

Very detailed planning and good choice of equpments.

[jand118]

Hi Bro

Nice DIY Aluminum light stand ! Can advise on where we can purchase ? Cos needed to fabricate one stand for my light. Many Thks !

[jxlex]

Very detailed planning and good choice of equpments.

Thanks for the compliments bro, most of the "planning" are stole of the information available in this site

[jxlex]

Hi Bro

Nice DIY Aluminum light stand ! Can advise on where we can purchase ? Cos needed to fabricate one stand for my light. Many Thks !

Its not purchased ready made bro, i used sketchup to draw with measurements then went down to King George (new lavender MRT) and begged the guy to cut the aluminium into exact size for me. Cost dependant on size but its not necessarily "cheap". buy the components, ask for stainless steel and you are ready to go home assemble. lemme noe should you require further information i try my best to help

[Admiraltian]

Thanks for the compliments bro, most of the "planning" are stole of the information available in this site

Always good to read abt other reefers' thread on how they set up & run their tanks & reef keeping methodology.

[jxlex]

Always good to read abt other reefers' thread on how they set up & run their tanks & reef keeping methodology.

For sure! so much information available so my habit is read, google and if i cannot find a practical logic i look for something else... hahaha

[james72]

Good DIY work done. Looking forward to more pics.

[jxlex]

Good DIY work done. Looking forward to more pics.

Thanks for the compliments... Have to tank all the experts here for their unselfish dedication to sharing...

[jand118]

Thks Bro for yr kind sharing and updates, mind leading me out of the wood by filling me in on the name of the Aluminum shop in Lavender MRT ? Thks once again !

[jxlex]

Bro, manage to find the details again... Its actually stolen from bro James post:

For the aluminum bar (conveyor system structure bar), you can either get from Teck Cheong Aluminium (Pte) Ltd or those aluminum shop at Kelantan Lane

Teck Cheong Aluminium (Pte) Ltd

Office - Blk 803, King George's Ave, #01-246/248/250, Singapore 200803

James hope u dun mind and thanks for the info

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[[V]tEc]

nice tank, 2.5ft ht is very nice but maintainance and scaping is a bitch.

[jxlex]

tEc' timestamp='1355024996' post='1078302']nice tank, 2.5ft ht is very nice but maintainance and scaping is a bitch.

Tell me about it man.... Horribly difficult to scape n place corals...today tried to put an acan n a hammer almost cried...

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[patricklhc]

Tell me about it man.... Horribly difficult to scape n place corals...today tried to put an acan n a hammer almost cried...

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Bro looks like u are already getting the hang of it. Could u come help me when my tank is ready

[jxlex]

Bro looks like u are already getting the hang of it. Could u come help me when my tank is ready

No problem glad to help but with my weight i dun think u would want me inside... Hahaa... I stand outside and pass u and help u position

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[patricklhc]

No problem glad to help but with my weight i dun think u would want me inside... Hahaa... I stand outside and pass u and help u position

send via tapa

That's too exaggerating la bro hehe if u need the livestocks in my tank let me know I'm considering decom it or reduce its bio load so that I can focus more new tank follow by jellyfish very excited when i think of it haha

[jxlex]

That's too exaggerating la bro hehe if u need the livestocks in my tank let me know I'm considering decom it or reduce its bio load so that I can focus more new tank follow by jellyfish very excited when i think of it haha

For sure bro lemme stablise my tank first k wanna make sure stuff can survive first... Likewise lemme noe if u need any help too bro

[jand118]

Thks Bro for yr kind sharing ! Appreciate ! Happy Reefing ! Cheers !

[jxlex]

Pleasure

[mpshino]

i love build threads.. cant wait to see this stocked and kicking butt..

[kirbysjb]

Nice scape bro, thanks for sharing =)

[jxlex]

Thanks for the kind words

[jxlex]

been quite busy lately and also trying to balance up the water parameters. Feel so silly to order my test kits online which apparently were out of stock and didnt have a chance to test for my calcium, kh & alk levels yet. tonight tonight!

Since the last update have started of my C-Balance AB dosing at 30ml/day and top up. All running through the dosing pumps now.

Lack of photos at the moment but definitely soon k...

Some advice if anyone see this will be appreciated, my cycling is complete, biopellet bloom is over, tank was clear for a few days and then boom....... cloudy again, i am suspecting bacteria bloom again, but whats weird is i am only dosing abt 10 drops of ultrabak everyday, together with the BioDigest every fortnight wonder whats wrong... i was trying to avoid using chemical means (it's clear!, etc) to solve the problem, but if it persist till the this weekend, i may really have to consider liao.

Parameters update:

NH - 0;

NO2 - 0

NO3 - ~5ppm (its hard to guess so i used the low range method and divided) coming down by the week so im not too concern yet

PO4 - 0ppm

I am seeing some hair algae appearing so i am really pondering if these tests are showing me whats in the water or whats left in the water after the algae has consumed what they need.

hmm... more pics to follow soon...