Shadow Walker's reef chronicles

[tofubox]

Wah! Nice tank bro! Love the external side overflow

Your minimalistic scaping is really nice! I ever had the idea to do something similar after having seen many minimalist aquascapes exactly like yours. Keep it simple, and brings the attention to the corals instead, it will look beautiful with some outstanding pieces of corals, sps or lps =D My advise would be to keep the back glass clean since ur overflow is by the side. Will make the scape stand out better.

Cant wait to see u stock up. Will be following your thread!

[tofubox]

By the way, if ur observing a noticeable cycle occurring in ur tank, i.e the usual ammonia/no2/no3 rise and drop. Than ur tank has bacteria colonising which means ur rocks are free of chlorine. The diatoms are inevitable and will come and go. Thats when u can add ur cuc, any hint of chlorine will immediately be noticeable if theres any death.

[ahchris]

Bro, very nice setup.
Looking forward to more updates.

[Shadow Walker]

Wah! Nice tank bro! Love the external side overflow

Your minimalistic scaping is really nice! I ever had the idea to do something similar after having seen many minimalist aquascapes exactly like yours. Keep it simple, and brings the attention to the corals instead, it will look beautiful with some outstanding pieces of corals, sps or lps =D My advise would be to keep the back glass clean since ur overflow is by the side. Will make the scape stand out better.

Cant wait to see u stock up. Will be following your thread!

Yoz bro, I got the sand from you rmb? Also yr thread is one of my frequent reference when researching how to bleach the rocks. Thanks for the guidance tat day at yr hse. I will buy 1 fish this weekend as by then it will be the third week of cycling. Major spike of ammonia and nitrite should be gone by then. By the way I'm doing about 10% water change weekly during this period, read somewhere that it will hasten the cycling process. But most peeps will only change water at the end of the cycle anyway so trying out something new.

My idea is also to keep all the glass clean for all the sides like bro toufu mentioned so that it will give a clean and refreshing look. Have got no time to take a vid of the flow created by only the outflow as I was in a rush this morning. The overflow at the side also means slightly bigger space in the tank and imo looks neater as I got the temperature and ph probe inserted there too.

Have not yet mention my lighting yet. The stands for my Glaive is quite low imo and will tend to kena water splashes if wavemaker is pointing upwards, will probably upgrade when my tank matures along the way. The holy grail I assume will be none other than T5.

My lights on schedules follows the season carpark timing from 7pm to 7am, reason being that I wanted to condition my livestock and coral's timing upside down so that I get to see them in their most active hours when I got home from work.

Got something to ask for opinion tho, do we on the lights 24/7 for refugium cheato or should it follow my display tank timing? Read quite a few reviews of both ways and both arguments seems fairly logical leh.

My parameters are tested by API test kits for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Salifert for calcium, Po4, magnesium and KH.

Sorry for squeezing so many things in a post as I only got a few post count left for the day.

[Edmund Koh]

Some say on refuge lights alternate to the main lights. So wen main lights on, off refuge lights. When main lights off, on refuge lights.

Some say on together with main lights and off with main lights.

But 24/7 abit too much. Plants need to rest too so got to give them some downtime

[Shadow Walker]

Some say on refuge lights alternate to the main lights. So wen main lights on, off refuge lights. When main lights off, on refuge lights. Some say on together with main lights and off with main lights. But 24/7 abit too much. Plants need to rest too so got to give them some downtime

Personally I would prefer to follow my display tank timing so that the timer plug I can share with my main lights.

[Shadow Walker]

Playing around with some lighting colors. Notice nobody likes to use green color as I seldom see ppl post tank with green lights.

The first pic is actually yellow but dunno why my cam can't capture the yellowness who I tot was pretty intense. Lol

[Shadow Walker]

Googled my pump model and results tells me that it's rated 2880 lph however this morning I took a look at the pump and saw the sticker on the pump says its 3800 lph and so does the box. So which is which? Either way I'm gonna change it sooner than later le.

Below is my 3 ft sump, sorry the picture a bit dark.

I haven got anything in my refugium yet. Anybody harvesting cheato got some to spare me?

[Evolutionz]

how does your sump works? i thought usually return pump will be at the last compartment..

[Shadow Walker]

how does your sump works? i thought usually return pump will be at the last compartment..

Yup bro the return pump is at the last station. First from the output then to my skimmer then to a small compartment to the left, overflow to the largest compartment where my JNS Omega is now temporary as this is reserved for refugium and lastly the return pump

[Damianiac]

U only need anti chlorine to remove the bleach in ur rocks. Not for the rodi. If u did soak in anti chlorine then i guess you are fine. Best is to smell see if got anymore smell or buy a chlorine test kit to test.

Learned something again. Lol. Think i'll probably buy used live rocks from forumers.

[Damianiac]

Yup bro the return pump is at the last station. First from the output then to my skimmer then to a small compartment to the left, overflow to the largest compartment where my JNS Omega is now temporary as this is reserved for refugium and lastly the return pump

Bro... Will the water in the skimmer compartment go through like a normal sump system? Or u gotta put outlet pipe to the return pump compartment?

If skimmer work slower to skim the skimates.. Wouldnt the un-skimmed products bypass the skimmer.. Go to the return pump and return back to the main tank? Sorry ah. I noob in this.

[Shadow Walker]

Bro... Will the water in the skimmer compartment go through like a normal sump system? Or u gotta put outlet pipe to the return pump compartment? Yup it does go through like the normal sump, outlet is the first station and return pump last station.

If skimmer work slower to skim the skimates.. Wouldnt the un-skimmed products bypass the skimmer.. Go to the return pump and return back to the main tank? Sorry ah. I noob in this.

My understanding is that the skimmer sure skim slower than the water flowing through its compartment and confirm will have un-skimmed bypass and it will be skimmed in the second round or the next few rounds. It all depends on how you choose the return pump flow rate. The normal flowrate commonly used is abt 4-6 times the tank water volume, so if you choose a real under powered pump that goes even slower than the skimmer pump then there's a chance the skimmer's work might catch up with the water flow. Some people believe in faster flowrate while some dun, it's all up to each individual preference and the bio filtration setup.

My tank total water volume is 230 liters and 4x flowrate means my pump have to be rated 920 liters per hour and above. Hope the above can help clarify your doubts.

[Shadow Walker]

Bro... Will the water in the skimmer compartment go through like a normal sump system? Or u gotta put outlet pipe to the return pump compartment? Yup it does go through like the normal sump, outlet is the first station and return pump last station.

If skimmer work slower to skim the skimates.. Wouldnt the un-skimmed products bypass the skimmer.. Go to the return pump and return back to the main tank? Sorry ah. I noob in this.

My understanding is that the skimmer sure skim slower than the water flowing through its compartment and confirm will have un-skimmed bypass and it will be skimmed in the second round or the next few rounds. It all depends on how you choose the return pump flow rate. The normal flowrate commonly used is abt 4-6 times the tank water volume, so if you choose a real under powered pump that goes even slower than the skimmer pump then there's a chance the skimmer's work might catch up with the water flow. Some people believe in faster flowrate while some dun, it's all up to each individual preference and the bio filtration setup.

My tank total water volume is 230 liters and 4x flowrate means my pump have to be rated 920 liters per hour and above. Hope the above can help clarify your doubts.

[ahchris]

When is your first livestock coming in?

[Shadow Walker]

When is your first livestock coming in?

This weekend bro, I will add one fish to replace the rotting mp. My chiller should be connect by then and will stock up one fish/coral every two weeks ba. Think yours also can start to add livestock very very soon

[ahchris]

This weekend bro, I will add one fish to replace the rotting mp. My chiller should be connect by then and will stock up one fish/coral every two weeks ba. Think yours also can start to add livestock very very soon

After waiting so long. Finally your time has come. lol

[Shadow Walker]

Manage to take some time to show the powerful pump that I have. First vid is without wavemaker, only return pump at work. Maybe it's becos my tank is narrow that's why the waves are much amplified.

http://youtu.be/obes5OMBfcQ

The second vid is with the wavemaker at the lowest possible settings. Really a bit 大才小用 imo.

http://youtu.be/-0surNLeqpU

[Edmund Koh]

Bro, put ur biopellets reactor in the compartment where the skimmer is and put the skimmer where the return pump is.

Bioplellets reactor usually discharge excess bacteria that's why it is always advised to put the reactor output to where the skimmer is. Else u will be pumping back a lot of these excess bacteria into your main tank.

[tofubox]

skimmer at return pump section is a nono. water fluctuate, good luck tuning.

[Edmund Koh]

Hmm.. What about switching the entire orientation of the sump. Where the return takes the smallest section and the biggest section can house filter bags and biopellets reactor.

[Shadow Walker]

Hmm.. What about switching the entire orientation of the sump. Where the return takes the smallest section and the biggest section can house filter bags and biopellets reactor.

Thanks bro for bringing up this point, previously I never research on the issue of excess bacteria. Actually I never planned to run a biopellet reactor in the first place since I will have a refugium. The biopellet reactor pump have also increased my temperature by one degree. But really love the design as it's confirm the coolest reactor ever invent so far. Can I ask something , if I already have a refugium, I can skip running biopellet? Or still better to have?

[Edmund Koh]

Eh .. That's really dependent on how well ur Refugium is exporting nitrates and phosphates.

This exportation is done when u grow and harvest macroalgae in large quantities. So if your exportation is enough to match the amount produced in your tank, then biopellets is not needed.

[Shadow Walker]

Eh .. That's really dependent on how well ur Refugium is exporting nitrates and phosphates. This exportation is done when u grow and harvest macroalgae in large quantities. So if your exportation is enough to match the amount produced in your tank, then biopellets is not needed.

Tats a fast response bro, you are so active here. In terms of exporting I'm pretty sure biopellet wins macroagale hands down as most refugium is really really small. Dilemma now...my refugium is quite tight fit and I purposely bought an oversized skimmer and footprint is big so there's no way I can shift it around. Got to go back and relook liao.

[Edmund Koh]

Haha! U say urs small. Mine Lagi small. I just managed to squeeze a biopellet reactor in.

Anyways .. I read somewhere that biopellets takes 4-6 weeks to become useful. So got to consider this especially when adding new biopellets. Cannot wait till kosong already then add