Tivoli's $2000 3ft tank upgrade

[Mellow]

Your tank shud be featured as the extreme make-over tank! Really money well spent!!! The cabinet and new rock structure etc looks really good! I'm like u too! I will prefer a smaller tank with good equipments (not that i have alot though ) and make sure maintenance wise wouldnt be that much of a hassle...and true...price increases exponentially with tank size! heh...

Keep it up...and more pics plz...

[tivoli]

A few reefer sms regarding the Resun chiller.

So hereare a few pics.

First the Resun CL-450 chiller from the front.

This is the new batch chiller.

[tivoli]

The only obvious diff between the new batch and old batch is that

- front cover of the new batch has magnetic catch at the bottom of the cover.

- old batch has only a physical catch.

[tivoli]

Hi folks,

I managed to get a pic of this unidentified brown algae that is quite stable.

It survive my dark room treatment for 2 weeks without major rotting.

It grows quite fast once established in my refugium.

I got this alage from the east coast beach.

It looks like the brown version of the "Tang's Heaven" algae.

[tivoli]

Hi folks,

a pic of the deep sandbed of my refugium.

It has a sand depth of 6 inches and is 1 month old.

I added in 1 inch of coral rubble, old ceramic rings, coral chip etc .....

becos Dr. Ron Schimek recommend it to foster establishment of pods and

other planktonic life.

After 3 weeks, I noticed that the pod population has grown.

I have at least three different type of pods being established in my tank.

They are literally small, small large .....

The medium type of pod dominate the coral rubble.

From my physical observation, my current pod density is around 2 pod per square inch of sand bed.

I hope that the planktonic life/larvae will be able to feed into my main tank - - after surviving the pumps and chiller tubing

[tivoli]

Why is a grown man sticking his head into the fish tank cabinet ?

[tivoli]

Ans : to look for pods !!!

[tivoli]

Amazingly after another 1 week, my pod population density has double from 2 per square inch to more than 4 per square inch.

Why am I concern about this ?

I am interested in my main tank as much as my refugium. To me, it represents an ecosystem. I am quite fascinated by the small pods running around. I am hoping to see more wild life reproducing in my refugium . I hope to see more variety of life forms running around in my refugium.

My old tank use to have lots of small brittle star .... but they were all wiped out while my sump was in transition to another.

Also I hope that the pod populatio will grow so numerous that the larve will feed into my main tank then I keep live stock like Mandarin fish.

I thing I notice. When I stick my hand into my refugium, it becomes very itchy after a while, weheras I don't experience that when I place my hand into the main tank. Maybe its the minute pods biting my hand ((

[tivoli]

Another thing i notice about my tank.

Usually after around 3 days, brown diatom will cover about 15% of my tank glass surface. When that happens of course I will use the magnet float scrubber to scrub away the diatom.

But recently after one month of setting up my planted refugium .... I notice the brown diatom has reduced to say less than 5 % of the glass surface after 3 days.

So it means my refugium is performing its role as nutrient export pretty well.

And my algae is actually growing very well and fast much faster than my old tank.

eg. the red bamboo algae is actually new heads and segment after around three weeks. where as in my old tank ... i kind of slowly rot away.

Overall algae growth is quite good.

A pic of my algae in the refugium.

[tivoli]

Also three weeks ago I bought a pack of green ulva alage for pet shop boys and tried to keep the green ulva algae in my tank. Within three tanks , it started to rot and I have to haul it up and throw it away.

Three weeks later as in now, i find that that the juvenile ulva is taking root in my tank and growing on the walls of my pink plastic container.... and everywhere else in my refugium.

I find that quite strange.

This time in my new tank and setup ... I don't know why but strangly the algae growth is alot better than my old tank even though i am using the same flourescent light.

Maybe my H&S skimmer is getting mixing more air and oxygen into the water.

[tivoli]

This is another pic showing my alage.

[tivoli]

My spagetti Chaetomorpha algae is actually growing quite fast.

I think once it is established ... it will grow very fast.

As shown in the pic above, I have now two big turf of Chaetomorpha.

[tivoli]

Actually my two big turf of Chaetomorpha is actually grown from one small 1 cm by 1 cm turf of Chaetomorpha strand stuck to my now deceased feather algae 5 months ago.

[tivoli]

Also on vesek day, my resident clown fish actually bit a 2 cm hole right in the middle of my rose anemone !!!!

I don't understand this phenomena !

Why the heck is my clown biting a hole in its host ??!!$%$*^!@

After that my rose shrunk and it almost look like its gonna die.

And the amazing thing is : it recovered after 3 hours.

The attached is the pic of my anemone after the clown attack.

[tivoli]

Here is a pic of my tank from the diagonal view showing the rock structure in a more three dimensional way.

And after 2 months my wife finally agreed that my tank actually looks quite good.

[iewnehz]

nice coraline algae

[tivoli]

Hi iewnehz,

its very easy to get coralline algae.

Just raise the carbonates aka KH in the water by adding additives like

SeaChem reef builder + add lime water Kalweiser.

From calcium from KAL + the carbonates from reef builder =

Ca + CO3 = CaCO3 calcium-bone structures for both corals and coralline algae.

Cheers

[terryansimon]

but beware of excessive dosing. you'll get Ca precipitate in the form of CaCO3. I think.

[tivoli]

Hi terryanSimon .... i don't know

I have never experience CaCo3 precipitation before .....

Never had high concentration of calcium before ....

[tivoli]

Hi folks,

I just bought a new anemone from CoralFarm.

The colour is amazing .... it is florescent yellow Bulb Tentacle

Dunno whether is that the natural colour ..... but it is beautiful

striking yellow !!!

Now I have three BTAs !!! One rose, one yellow and one green !!!

[tivoli]

What happens when a big girl see a small male for the first time ?

She bullies him !

After reading Gouldian's thread on pairing clowns,

I just bough a juvenile percular clown to pair with my lone clown.

So far the small male (I guess the ######) is being rejected by the bigger female.

At least he is not getting physical abused ......

Will see how it goes for the next few days.

[tivoli]

Hi folks,

I had just pruned my refugium.

I have 4~5 fist-size portions of excess algae to give away.

The algae is a mix of Chaetomorpha, red algae, brown algae.

pls PM me if you are interested.

Cheers

[YzF]

maybe can get some from you later as i trying to build my 4 ft now... a lot of stuff left to fix.. haha

BTW NICE tank you have..

[tht79]

Beautiful coraline aglae how much u dose & how many times aday i hve try many mths but can't get tis result

[tivoli]

Hi tht79,

I keep a deep sand bed, plus dose reef builder (calcium carbonates) + limewater (kalkweiser) one/twice a week.

I think the circulation is important plus take time. But once the coralline

takes hold in the tank , it will grow very fast and consume lots of your

calcium + carbonates !!!

Cheers