CW's

[pcw]

Hey guys,

I've decided to start a tank thread to document my new tank's progress. I started my previous tank some time in May 2014 and I guessed that it's now time to start a new tank that is bigger. I've had my fair share of failures and I think it would be apt to note some of them here. Before proceeding, I would like to thank the many friendly reefers who have helped me a lot along this journey. They would know who they are (: Thanks! Any errors remain my own of course haha

Here's my previous tank. With this tank, I had a couple of issues. First, I had a cowrie climb into my overflow pipe and die there. Choked all the time and it was pain to deal with perennial flooding. Second, as with all reefers, there can never be too much space (hence the upgrade). Third, spaghetti worms kept stealing food from my corals. Fourth, bristleworms were all over the place. I had to drop a lot of pellets in so that my dragonets would get to them.

Around April this year, I started searching for equipment and a new tank. Eventually, I got hold of enough equipment to start my tank and after cleaning everything, I started cycling some time around October (if i recall correctly)

Equipment list (everything here is pretty low budget so take whatever I say with a huge bucket of salt  ):

- 2 x 165W China LEDs

- 2 x 39W DIY T5s and 2 x 24W DIY T5s (not up yet but will be up soon)

- Hailea HS-90A (1/2hp)

- Jebao DC 12000

- 2 x TLF Phosban reactors (one of them is running on rowaphos and the other on biopellets)

- Jebao RW-4 (gonna add WP-10 and WP-25)

- Skimz SM 151

- Marine pure block

- Revoreef reef salt (decided to give it a try after testing the parameters. They had a sale anyway so why not)

- Revoreef nutricore/ intense/ reef start (discount once again)

- DIY floating algae scrubber (inspired by Xiggie's build)

The rest are DIY stuff, with a lot of help from Leon. For the pipes, I decided to use multiple unions all over so I can dismantle them for cleaning (lesson from the cowrie incident). Dead rocks + dead sand so I don't end up introducing all sorts of "freebies". Anyway, here are the pictures from the set up.

 

Spent almost 2 months cleaning with vinegar. Got the tank at a great price though. Beggars can't be choosers anyway.

Spent almost 2 months playing around with my rockscape till I was satisfied.

Sump with DIY piping

DIY light stand with aluminium profiles. With Leon's help once again. Thanks! haha

The chiller. I've rigged it up to a separate controller outside the cabinet but I haven't taken photos of that yet.

Cycling...

My pair of black clowns were the first inhabitants of the new tank.

Current state of the tank (with a duncan recovering still :/)

As regards the "theme" of my reef tank, I suppose it's gonna be a mixed reef? With a lot of dragonets or course.

Live stock (less sessile invertebrates) (pellet trained):

2 x Green mandarins

2 x Spotted mandarins

2 x Scooter dragonets

6 x Blue green chromis

4 x Lined chromis

1 x Bannerfish (H. diphreutes)

2 x Black ocellaris clowns

2 x Orange ocellaris clowns

5 x Banggai cardinals

1 x Tail spot blenny

4 x Nassarius snails

(Only eating frozen mysis):

1 x Red scooter dragonet

1 x Kuiter's dragonet

I'll upload more stuff later on.

 

Edited December 13, 2015 by pcw

[Damianiac]

nice... keep the updates coming.

[Yono_Pranata]

Nice scape bro! Keep it up

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[Zhi Long Oh]

Looking gd!!

[Law88]

Way to go CW ! You got patience that not all reefers have! I'm sure this will be a solid tank as it builds up. 

[Guest]

This patience thingy only you have . And nice scape btw!

[Admiraltian]

That tank looked familiar...from a sengkang reefer? Lol, nice scape!! Keep the update going.

[SimonLSB]

Camping here to to learn from Dragonet Master.. Lols.. Nice scape bro..

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[Harlequinmania]

Nice scape CW !! Maybe you want to consider covering up your reactor from the refugium light as it can cause unwanted algae growth inside your reactor.

 

[pcw]

nice... keep the updates coming.

haha will do (: thanks

Nice scape bro! Keep it up

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks!

Looking gd!!

thanks (:

Way to go CW ! You got patience that not all reefers have! I'm sure this will be a solid tank as it builds up. 

haha still a long way (: thank you hahaha

This patience thingy only you have . And nice scape btw!

Got secondhand one to sell also?

That tank looked familiar...from a sengkang reefer? Lol, nice scape!! Keep the update going.

yeap it was (: thanks!

Camping here to to learn from Dragonet Master.. Lols.. Nice scape bro..

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

still have my fair share of failures luh haha still learning. thanks (:

Nice scape CW !! Maybe you want to consider covering up your reactor from the refugium light as it can cause unwanted algae growth inside your reactor.

 

that's true haha thanks (: I shall go cut some black acrylic sheets lying around haha

Just did a measurement of my tank's PAR values. Decided to turn up the blue channels by a larger ratio as compared to the white channels. It doesn't actually look so blueish in reality but my camera can't capture the colours as I perceive it. Shifted stuff around till the light values were acceptable. I'm still gonna add t5 tubes so this is probably not the final look.

Thanks Leon for the advice!

[SubzeroLT]

I bring my camera the next time

.

Edited December 15, 2015 by SubzeroLT

[pcw]

I bring my camera the next time

.

[edmund_23]

Nice scape.

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[ReDDeviLs]

bro you mean bristleworm snatch food from your dragonet?

anyway i like your new rockscape! 

seems like you did a wonderful job cleaning that tank. cant wait for more photos!

[pcw]

Nice scape.

 

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

 

 

Thanks!

bro you mean bristleworm snatch food from your dragonet?

anyway i like your new rockscape! 

seems like you did a wonderful job cleaning that tank. cant wait for more photos!

The bristleworms eat quite a number of pellets before the dragonets get to them :/ Slow fish haha but mainly, it's my bannerfish that eats most pellets even before they end up on the rockscape/ sand.

Thanks!

[pcw]

Updating with a couple of old photos

Decided to DIY an algae scrubber as an alternative means for nutrient export. I only installed it 2 weeks after cycling. At that point in time, diatoms were all over the place. While the this is characteristic of a new tank, it nonetheless is unsightly. In any event, a few days after installing the scrubber, diatoms were reduced significantly. Interesting how effective a scrubber can be in controlling algae outbreaks. Here are photos of the build.

Daiso tray with sponge that was cut to size and glued appropriately so the tray sits nicely inside

Roughened and epoxied plastic knitting mesh to the tray. Hot glued pieces from cable ties. Strings were then tied to the plastic pieces. The intent here is to remove some strings and replace them whenever it's time for "harvest".

Par 38 grow light. 6 Red, 1 Blue. 21W in total.

Unrelated to the algae scrubber. Found it quite fascinating that the marinepure block was so porous

Edited December 17, 2015 by pcw

[SubzeroLT]

Is your scrubber on 24/7? Or just at night?

 

[Clement Chen]

Interesting scrubber build. Do update us on the growth! 

[Darren Sim]

Nice tank !! Good effort ! 

[pcw]

Just some quick updates

Picked up a NYOS test kit to compare with Salifert test kits (I'm comparing two brand new boxes of Magnesium test kits here)

Salifert (above)

NYOS (above)

Salifert's test kit gave a reading of 1300ppm while NYOS gave a reading of 1350ppm. Not that far off I suppose. The NYOS test kit does seem more aesthetically attractive though. 

Update on the algae scrubber: I pulled out another lump of algae to dispose off from the scrubber last night

[pcw]

Fish ID help needed!

Looking to confirm the ID of this flasher wrasse. Has a red tail that doesn't look forked (unlike P. filamentosus) The tail turned a little more reddish after I added it into my DT but i can't get a proper picture of it. The orange portions of the fins in the picture are more towards yellow instead in real life. Right now I've got a few suggestions as regards it's identity. Just want to get more opinions (especially from the wrasse experts out there)

Thanks in advance!

[pcw]

Quick update. Gotta let these sticks grow... slowly lol

LPS:

Galaxea

Leptastrea

Torch

SPS:

Zoas:

Captain America

Pink Elephant (?)

Blondies

(Cat Eyes, Utter Chaos, Candy Apple Red/Orange (?), Sunkist, Blue Hornets...)

Sunny D

Purple Death

Indigo Death

Taiwan Rastas

Rastas

Candy Apple Red/Orange (?)

King Midas

Superman (?)

Other softies:

Blue Efflatounaria (or is it purple?)

GSP garden

Clam:

 

 

Edited February 1, 2016 by pcw

[Darren Sim]

Nice corals collection! Love the zoa garden 

[Sharan Guna]

Ahahhaha Amazing tank bruhhh!!  and that bannerfish 

[Guest]

Is that Golden crocea ?