Dt's Dream?

[dtdream]

It's been many years since I decommissioned my first 3ft tank due to my university studies. Now, with a half approval from my wife, I got a new Red Sea Reefer 350. Half approval because I did not get approval to have the tank at home, but I get to put it in my office. 100% happy with the half approval. Decided to start a tank thread to document both the progress and regression, of my new tank. Plus would like to share some tips and lessons I’ve learnt along the way which I wished I knew earlier.

It took about 7 weeks from placing an order to delivery of the Reefer 350. Would like to take this opportunity to thank Francis from Red Sea. He went beyond the extra mile to ensure that information on my order was relayed as quick and accurate as possible. If any others who also bought/own Red Sea tanks and have questions or issues, just reach out to him and he’ll be sure to help you out.

Initially, I thought I could just get live rock like in the past, but only after I bought the tank, I found out live rock is now ridiculously expensive as compared to before. Apparently, it’s under CITES now, so importing is expensive and a chore. In fact, even if you want to pay for it, it’s not that readily available too. A couple places have cultured live rock, but did I mention that it’s very expensive?

Anyway, decided that since I had to wait for the delivery of my new tank, to go with the option of dry rocks instead. It’s not all bad as starting with dry rock has the advantage of being able to dry scape, which is much easier to do than scaping in water. Once scaping is done, if you have to wait for your tank like I had to, you can also cycle the rocks in advance. This would help shorten the time needed before adding fishes when the tank is finally here. As far as I’m aware, for dry rock in Singapore, there is the Marco, Stax, DD Aquascape, Aquaroche, Caribsea Life Rock and Caribsea Moani. You can google to roughly see how they look like or go around to the different LFS to look, which is what I did, and here are my here are my brief observations.

Marco: Very white, but they had some nice shapes, especially shelf shapes if you buy loose. If you want to go for a “clean” look when starting, would be a good choice.

Stax: Basically Marco but cut into slices. Cutting it into slices makes it easier to get creative and build interesting structures. Personally, I like a more natural look so not my cup of tea. But I can see why some people will like it. Probably a good idea to consider combining it with some Marco.

DD Aquascape: Similar to Marco.

Aquaroche: Had some big structures if you’re lazy to aquascape too much. Made of Ceramic.

Caribsea Life Rock: Dyed purple. Have the option of some nice shape (eg. arches) for easy scaping. Good choice if you want to have a purple look right at the start without waiting for Coralline algae to grow over.

Caribsea Moani: More yellowish as compared to Marco. Not dyed purple like Life Rock, but still had little purple specks. I went with this option as it looked more “natural” to me. Bought a box which came in random shapes, so your mileage may vary in terms of shape of rocks.

After dry scaping, bought a tub to start cycling. Here’s a pic of the tub with the rocks:

Used a 3 stage RO/DI unit I got on Carousell for water, 2 used Jebao Wavemakers I got from a reefer here for circulation, Dr Tim’s ammonia to cycle and a Seneye Reef to monitor.

I ended up buying some Salifert test kits as well as the Seneye Reef was not what I expected, and not in a good way. For reefers who are thinking about the Seneye, I would say that it is absolutely not necessary or even recommended. The set up was not intuitive and instructions were not very clear. After set up, it was kind of clunky to use. You need a computer connected to the internet to access the data real time. I knew this before buying and thought the offline data upload feature was a fair compromise, but for me it always takes a few tries before I was able to uploading the offline data successfully. I hope to change my mind on it after I use it for PAR readings in the future.

For starter bacteria, being the kiasu (aka Defensive Pessimism, learned this term from the new GCT book) Singaporean, I used Microbacter 7 for the first 3 weeks, and added Fritz Zyme 9 on the 4th week. In fact, I also added Dr Tim’s One and Only just in case after adding the cycled rocks to the tank when it arrived as well. Cycle was done by about the 6th week (Ammonia at or very close to 0 and Nitrate way above 50) in the tub, just a few days before the tank arrived.

One of the issues I faced during the cycling process was low PH levels after just the first couple days. I guess being in an enclosed Aircon office contributed to this issue. The first couple solutions I tried was to open the windows overnight and increased the flow of the wavemakers. It did help and PH stabilized at around 7.6 for a day or two.

But by the 2nd or 3rd week, PH went down to as low as 7.2 (in fact 6.9-7.0 on the Seneye but I found out that was inaccurate. Bought a separate PH meter to reconfirm). Tested KH and it was at about 6.5 with a Salifert test kit. Even though I received some advice to not bother too much about KH and PH levels during cycling, I psychologically couldn’t stand PH being so low, so I added a little Kalkwasser and boosted KH to about 10. If adding Kalkwasser, ensure add a little only at a time, as a little goes a long way. About a teaspoon boosted my KH from 6.5 to 10 for the tub pictured above. After that, PH rose and ranged from 7.6 to 8.0 depending on the time of day (lower during day in enclosed room with Aircon, and higher at night when windows opened).

After about the 7 weeks, tank finally arrived. LFS faced some communication with the distributor, but Francis from Red Sea sorted it out promptly. The installers took about 45mins to set up the tank, and were pretty efficient in doing so considering that my floor was quite uneven. They did a good job levelling the tank.

But a small issue was that they installed the overflow and inner downpipe incorrectly, by accident I’m sure, resulting in loud overflow water noises which couldn’t be adjusted. But the installer came down again to fix it literally in about 30mins after I called him, so kudos to him for that.

The glass used by Red Sea is super clear and the set up looks clean and neat. It’s a well thought out system that most beginner to intermediate, and I dare say some advanced reefers, should be happy with. The only suggestion I would make to Red Sea is to have an option for a full-length sump without the side cabinet. I would probably still choose the stock option which I have, but I can see why some people would prefer a larger sump. But in any case, very happy with the purchase.

Here’s some pictures of the tank with rocks.

Does not look amazing for sure, but satisfied with the result because I think it looks natural and should be a good foundation for the future. I’m not the biggest fan of the branching complicated scapes I see a lot nowadays. But hey, different strokes for different folks.

Some tips I learned from others online regarding Rock Scaping:

1. For those who are using Epoxy, you can use small pieces of rocks to cover the Epoxy joint areas. See pic for example below.

2. Try to leave space not only in the front, but also side and back of the tank. This is for easier maintenance in the future, especially cleaning of tank. Also, with more space around the rocks, it will help water flow planning and avoiding dead spots. (I plan to scrape the back of my tank too for the clean black background look of the Reefer 350, but I might get lazy so let’s see...) Top view of tank to as example, arrows for space, at least 3cm.

3. Try not to stack the rocks too high unless you really like the look or have a clear reason why, especially if planning to keep corals. Keep the height to about 1/2 to maybe 2/3 the height of the tank, as you want to leave some space for future coral growth. Also helps with flow planning.

4. This one not a tip, but just something I thought of after placing the rocks in the tank. I dry scaped with an overhang/arch (did not epoxy for this part), but decided against overhang/arch as I plan to keep SPS later, and figured IF I’m successful with SPS, it’ll grow into a natural overhang anyway.

Another issue I had was with the sound of the return pump. I bought the Sicce Syncra Silent 4.0 thinking it was silent, as it says so in the name. But it is not really silent. There is a low humming sound which is pretty obvious to me. To be fair to Sicce, I have to admit I’m generally more sensitive to noise, plus my tank is in my office and I’m sitting literally only about 1m away from the tank. I even went to IKEA to buy those silicon food mats to put under the pump, which helped a little, but not by much. I think it’s ok if your tank is in the living room or you’re not too bothered by a little noise. But please don’t be mislead by the name of the pump.

After some googling and reading, I narrowed my choices of quieter pumps down to the Reef Octopus Varios and Ecotech Vectra. I decided to get the Reef Octopus Varios 4 as from the reviews I read, it seemed a little more reliable. Also, I went down to Reefing Reality to “hear” the pump as they have it operating in one of their tanks. Btw, not going to give details as it is a security issue, the owner of Reefing Reality was extremely kind to accommodate my request to hear the pump. I live pretty far from his shop, but mental note made to try to support him with at least some business in the future.

Anyway, just want to have a clear disclaimer that this is my opinion only, but for those of you who are sensitive to noise, the Varios pump is amazing. Its not dead silent, but I think it’s as close to dead silent as you can get for a pump. Was so satisfied with the Varios 4 that I got the Varios 2 for my Chiller pump. Try to support your local LFS, but if you can’t find the version of the Varios you want (I couldn’t find the Varios 2), you can get it direct from David at Reef Octopus. He’s was nice enough to arrange for me to pick it up on short notice too.

Below is a pic of Varios 2 and 4 on a couple of silicon mats from Ikea, fairly close to dead silent.

After about 3 days with the water running and rocks placed in the tank, I decided to get started on the refugium. I got the Miracle mud as substrate, as I’ve had great success with it in my first tank from years ago. I bought some glass food containers from IKEA to place the Miracle mud in, so that it’s easier to change it out if I need to, and just helps with general ease of maintenance of the refugium in the future. Got the Tunze Eco Chic 8831 for refugium lights, and I like it. Its waterproof so I can place it close to the water, and not have to worry about it getting submerged when I turn off the main return pump during maintenance. Got the chaeto from SAS as I thought their chaeto looked the "cleanest".

I also got one pack each of the Algagen Tisbe and Apocylops pods from Fresh n Marine to seed my tank with them, and hopefully since there is no fish when I added them, they can get a small head start in established a small population. I read somewhere that pods eat diatoms, so maybe I can shorten the ugly phase with a pod population? Got a small bottle of zooplankton too thinking I can use it to feed the pods, or at least serve the purpose of ghost feeding a little to keep the nitrifying bacteria going.

Pic of chaeto on day 1.

Pic of Cheato under Tunze light after about 1 week which is quite surprising considering I have no livestock in the tank right now.

I also  bought an Ikea Stotta strip light and stuck it on the top of my sump. This is so I have some light when working with the sump besides the purple refugium light. I bought a mounting tool from Shopee so I can mount and remove the lights more easily. Wish the light was brighter though. 

And for those of you thinking where is the skimmer, please take a deep breath… but I plan NOT to run a skimmer. I ran my first tank without a skimmer for 4 years, and I could keep SPS and LPS without issues, so let’s see. I may add one in the future considering some skimmers in the market nowadays look quite cool, but I hope to not have to get one.

So I’m ending here at about a week after setting up the refugium. I plan to go around the LFS’s probably this weekend to get my first fish, most like one or a pair of clowns.

If you're reading this, thanks for staying for what I'm realizing is such a long read! Will update again as we go along

 

 

[Jonnie]

Thanks for sharing ! good information and observation to have, cheers

Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

[JiaEn]

Great set up!  

A question for your rock scape though. What's the plan to reduce build up of detritus around and beneath the rocks? 

In my previous set up, I had something like yours. However the trapped detritus is rather inaccessible. That's why I went for a more skeletal rockwork for my current set up. 

Interested to hear your take on this. Thank you. 

 

[smartyjones18]

good read

[dtdream]

13 hours ago, JiaEn said:

Great set up!  

A question for your rock scape though. What's the plan to reduce build up of detritus around and beneath the rocks? 

In my previous set up, I had something like yours. However the trapped detritus is rather inaccessible. That's why I went for a more skeletal rockwork for my current set up. 

Interested to hear your take on this. Thank you. 

 

Hey JiaEn! Around the rocks should be okay. For the middle and top sections, I think the wavemakers should be strong enough to blow the detritus away. I'll probably get different and/or more wave makers as we go along, but the ones I'm looking at are pretty expensive so I'll wait till its time to add more demanding corals. As for the area around the rocks at the bottom section where the rocks rests on the sand, I've left enough space between the rocks such that it should be fairly straightforward to clean around it during water changes. I bought a regular gravel cleaner(Grex) that allows me to adjust the water flow, so that the suction is just strong enough for the sand to be lifted, cleaned of detritus and dropped back down.

Actually this is a good question because I didn't mention in my initial post that I'm using the Caribsea Special Grade sand for my set up, and the choice of this sand was deliberate. Initially I thought of getting the Oolite which looks nice, but the grain size of 0.25-1mm is potentially too fine to distinguish the sand and detritus while cleaning. Plus, your flow can't be too strong if the sand is too fine as it may blow around too much. The Special Grade sand is a little larger and has a relatively more consistent range of grain size, 1-2mm, so the adjustment of the water flow when cleaning will be easier too. Other sands like Natural Reef, the grain size range is too wide, 3-5.5mm, and should result in relatively more detritus accumulating and tougher maintenance. https://caribsea.com/aquarium/

As for detritus beneath the rocks, you got me there! I'm stumped on that one to be honest. I'm hoping that since I put sand first then rocks later (even though some recommend the other way around), the rocks will be sitting on the sand snugly, and not too much detritus will get beneath the rocks. Hopefully bacteria and pods get to to those which slip through, but I realize that most likely not all even if so. I think the only way to get detritus as low as possible is a bare-bottom tank with powerful flow all around and a Clarisea filter.  But I did read elsewhere too that some detritus is not all that bad, though I think that its most likely my confirmation bias at work, lol! 

Anyway, I like the look of sand with some larger base rocks, so I guess I have to live with some detritus unfortunately?

[JiaEn]

Thanks for the response!  I am using caribsea special grade too. Since I clean sand regularly,  this is what I observe: if I were to shift any corals or rocks, the detritus traped beneath them is fairly significant. That's why I'm interested to know if there are other ways to manage those. 

I like the look of sand bed as well, even if a natural reef normally don't have one. 

 

8 hours ago, dtdream said:

put sand first then rocks

Do be careful if you are going to keep sand sleeping wrasses. They may excavate under the rock and get themselves crushed under the rock. 

[dtdream]

13 hours ago, JiaEn said:

Thanks for the response!  I am using caribsea special grade too. Since I clean sand regularly,  this is what I observe: if I were to shift any corals or rocks, the detritus traped beneath them is fairly significant. That's why I'm interested to know if there are other ways to manage those. 

I like the look of sand bed as well, even if a natural reef normally don't have one. 

 

Do be careful if you are going to keep sand sleeping wrasses. They may excavate under the rock and get themselves crushed under the rock. 

Yea I know what you mean. I think its just part of reef keeping though; we try to reduce and manage where we can, but can only do so up to a point where it gets in the way of how we want to enjoy our tank. If I happen to find a way to manage better this detritus issue, will share. I'm sure you will too, I read your tank thread and it looks good! Sorry for your loss due to a chilling failure, but I'm sure you'll manage well!

Not sure which natural reef you're referring to, but I think most reefs have sand? at least those which I have seen... 

My sand bed is fairly shallow at 1-2cm, and I tried to nudge the rocks into the sand bed snugly when placing them, so hopefully its good enough. Don't plan on keeping sand sleeping wrasses too, but thanks for the reminder!

On 5/8/2021 at 10:05 AM, smartyjones18 said:

good read

thanks!

On 5/8/2021 at 7:39 AM, Jonnie said:

Thanks for sharing ! good information and observation to have, cheers

Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app
 

hope it helped you!

[JiaEn]

1 hour ago, dtdream said:

Not sure which natural reef you're referring to, but I think most reefs have sand? at least those which I have seen... 

If you Google great barrier reef,  most pictures you will see are miles and miles of coral,  growing on boulders (or coral remains). Most of the dive sites I have been to (not many), most of the reef don't have sandy substrate. 

Thats why I say sand bed looks right for us,  but it's not really in the close proximity to many of the corals we keep. 

 

 

Keep the updates coming!  Look forward to see your tank growing out. 

[dtdream]

2 hours ago, JiaEn said:

If you Google great barrier reef,  most pictures you will see are miles and miles of coral,  growing on boulders (or coral remains). Most of the dive sites I have been to (not many), most of the reef don't have sandy substrate. 

Thats why I say sand bed looks right for us,  but it's not really in the close proximity to many of the corals we keep. 

 

 

Keep the updates coming!  Look forward to see your tank growing out. 

Ah ok I see what you mean now, and yes I would agree that many of the corals that we keep in our tanks are not as close to the sand bed as in nature. I've dived a little too in the past, and am very lucky to have been able to do a dive at the Great Barrier Reef once, albeit just a tiny part, but there was sand there for sure.

And yea agreed as well, as long as it looks right for us, I think that's the most important, its a hobby after all, enjoy it! 

Thanks and will try to update and share the experience that I think I would like to know if I was another person reading this. 

On that note, guys, Coral Farm is definitively open to visitors. Read a thread somewhere with some people saying its closed to public, its not. The aunty and a couple of foreign workers there were friendly enough too. But as we are currently in an ongoing pandemic, as per the safe entry signs posted there, please keep it to 2 visitors per family.

It's a pretty big place and there is a large selection of fishes. Not only the range of fishes but also the depth. eg. 1 type of fish at least 10-20pcs to choose from, some gobies I think they even had 40-50 different pcs of the same species to choose from. They even had what I estimate to be 2m+ long sharks?! I think they had 5 of those, lol. But anyway, what I appreciated most about the place was that they had smaller specimens of fishes which you normally see larger specimens of in our regular LFS. eg. I saw some small six line wrasses (1-1.5"), powder blue/brown (2"). For me I prefer to buy smaller specimens so I can enjoy them growing up/out in my tank. As for corals, didn't pay too much attention because I wasn't looking for corals, but in any case don't think there were too many.

It's a bit of a hike, and since there is possibility that I was just lucky today, it maybe a good idea to call in advance before heading down if you are looking for something specific. Though for me I just wanted to jalan jalan so just swung by without calling. Was looking for a pair of true perculas but ended up going for a pair of Onyx because the black colour intensity and pattern on one of them was very appealing to me. I'll try to post pics in the next couple of days once they settle down. Hope they will be ok.

Again, please try to keep it to 2 visitors per family out of consideration to their safe entry policy. When I typed in google maps, there were 2 "coral farm" results, but the one that got me where I needed to be is: 60 Lim Chu Kang Lane 6F, Singapore 718843. Enjoy!

 

[dtdream]

Here’s the pair of Onyx Clowns I got from Coral Farm on Sunday. Feeding once a day on pellets, but they’re not eating much, only a few pellets each frustratingly. However, I think they should be ok because saw them feeding on the copepods whose population seemed to have increased quite a bit.

Here’s a short vid of copepods that are just hanging out on the back of my tank. It’s quite obvious that they’re everywhere now. I’m getting convinced until proven otherwise, that a combination of the refugium and the healthy copepods population is keeping unwanted algae at bay. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Ball of Chaeto is turning into a big ball. If all goes well on my non-skimmer plan, may expand the refugium into the bigger compartment of the sump when the bio load is higher. Other small change was that I moved the smaller glass container of Miracle Mud into the other compartment as it was getting in the way of me pulling in and out the filter holder/sock holder. 

For reduction of noise, am using 2 filter cups with floss instead of filter socks. With filter socks there is relatively more water trickling sounds. Plus, I think it’s just easier to throw away floss than having to wash socks.

Nitrates are less than 0.5 and phosphates less than 0.03. There's was a very very slight pinkish and bluish tint respectively on the Salifert test kits. Think the values are a little low and very surprised at the drop in nitrates, was at about 25 the about 1-2 weeks ago. Think I will lower the photoperiod of the Chaeto, and I have the happy problem of being able to add more fish?!

Did something very silly which I only realized only 2 weeks later; placed the Jebao SLW-30 wavemaker incorrectly. This is how I placed it.

 

This is how it should have been placed. Middle section INSIDE water.

 

And here I was thinking why the magnet is not strong and grumbling to myself what a crappy product it is. It’s not a crappy product. It was my crappy judgment in placing. After the correct placement, it’s quiet now and happy with it.

@JiaEnthought about the detritus question, and did some additional reading/watching. Basically, its about trying to prevent detritus from ever settling in the first place as much as possible. And one of the solutions which may help is Gyres. See 0:40 and 5:20 section of the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy348tkzMWI&t=2s

It’s not a 100% foolproof solution, but after watching the video I thought having gyres might make good sense, so went and got one to try.

My gyre of choice is the Red Sea Reefwave 25. Got that because quite a few reviews online and even Red Sea’s own video said that it is dead silent. I’ve no first-hand comparison to other gyres, but again I think it’s slightly misleading to say that it is silent. It does make a little vibration noise, especially on the wave mode at higher intensities. During the revving up and down in wave mode, it does make a revving noise which I can hear.

But again, caveat here is that I’m quite sensitive to noise, so your mileage may vary. But just thinking to myself, do fish fuss over noise in the tank? Try putting your ear against the glass of your own tank. I think even the “quietest” tank will have some vibration noise for sure, more so with wavemakers. If you snorkel or drive, you’ll find that in nature you don’t hear any of the vibration noises you hear in our tanks.

It’s been suggested that whales and dolphins beach themselves due to the sound of boats, etc. Maybe the so called harder to keep fishes like Achilles Tang, etc. are also sensitive to noise, and are easily stressed by the vibration noise in our tanks too? Food for thought, lol.

But coming back to point, the Reefwave 25 does push quite a bit of water. Also, while it took me quite a while to figure out how to use the app, the scheduling function on the app is quite good once I figured it out. Especially if you’re a noise sensitive person like me. You can program constant flow for periods where you need it to be quiet, and other noisier wave functions when you’re usually not there. I find that at constant flow setting, the noise is quite quiet at lower settings (at and below 40%).

Other less noise sensitive folks will also find the scheduling feature in the app useful too, because you can configure the water flow to be in sync with your light schedule, etc. And... it did seem to lift detritus. So all in all, 8/10. 1 point off for not being as silent as I wished, 1 point off for time spent figuring out how to use app. But last point might be due to my own low intelligence, please don’t take umbrage at my rating.

[Validator]

Is your Jebao wavemaker a wifi version?  Any ideas how to lower the flow strength?  I am running 20s on both sides of my 2ft cube but the app only appears to allow me to lower it to 30%.  I was thinking of programming a setting for night and also for feeding instead of turning off.

[JiaEn]

52 minutes ago, dtdream said:

prevent detritus from ever settling

This would be ideal,  yes. And a gyre style current does help to a large extent. However,  the biggest obstruction to full tank gyre flow is.... obstruction.  When the sheet of flow gets disrupted by the rocks, the gyre effect weaken really quickly. Don't get me wrong gyre flow is excellent and I also implement it in my aquarium. 

The tricky thing is, for many smallest sized particles, they are the size of fine sand, or even smaller. For my tank,  even though there is almost no detritus on my rock,  the sand bed will always have these detritus. Perhaps from the excretion of microfauna,  or perhaps diatoms or whatever.  Detritus produced in the sand bed would be quite difficult to lift off on it's own. 

That's why I rigorously clean my sand bed, and appreciate a rock work which allows me to reach as much place as possible. 

 

1 hour ago, dtdream said:

sensitive to noise

I think this is one very important observation. I believe many fishes are constanted over stimulated through their lateral lines due to all the vibrations in the tank.  I also think the tank noise may affect their vocal communications,  and potentially make it more difficult to establish healthy social structure. 

[dtdream]

2 hours ago, Validator said:

Is your Jebao wavemaker a wifi version?  Any ideas how to lower the flow strength?  I am running 20s on both sides of my 2ft cube but the app only appears to allow me to lower it to 30%.  I was thinking of programming a setting for night and also for feeding instead of turning off.

Hi Validator, yes my Jebao SLW-30 wavemakers are wifi versions. Lowest setting is 30% unfortunately. Have you tried using the big rubber thing to adjust the direction of your wavemaker? You could maybe turn it to face one the walls of the tank so as to reduce the strength of the flow.

I'm looking at your tank thread as well (looks nice esp with the fishes!), could you potentially direct the flow to your rockwork (assuming it is stable), and let the rocks diffuse the flow?

[dtdream]

1 hour ago, JiaEn said:

This would be ideal,  yes. And a gyre style current does help to a large extent. However,  the biggest obstruction to full tank gyre flow is.... obstruction.  When the sheet of flow gets disrupted by the rocks, the gyre effect weaken really quickly. Don't get me wrong gyre flow is excellent and I also implement it in my aquarium. 

The tricky thing is, for many smallest sized particles, they are the size of fine sand, or even smaller. For my tank,  even though there is almost no detritus on my rock,  the sand bed will always have these detritus. Perhaps from the excretion of microfauna,  or perhaps diatoms or whatever.  Detritus produced in the sand bed would be quite difficult to lift off on it's own. 

That's why I rigorously clean my sand bed, and appreciate a rock work which allows me to reach as much place as possible. 

 

I think this is one very important observation. I believe many fishes are constanted over stimulated through their lateral lines due to all the vibrations in the tank.  I also think the tank noise may affect their vocal communications,  and potentially make it more difficult to establish healthy social structure. 

Hi JiaEn, yes agreed again. Either great minds things alike, or fools seldom.. never mind, lol. But yea, I do think with the gyre, if appropriately sized, adjusted and positioned, it maybe able to lift a good portion of detritus off the sand bed.

I'm looking at the Red Sea Reefwave manual, one of the configurations looks interesting, and could potentially have enough flow to lift most detritus off the whole sand bed, subject to the rockscape, as you mentioned also.

[JiaEn]

Try it out and see if it works. 

 

This is my experience, illustrationed in the diagram below.  Grey represent the sand bed. Red dots are detritus. 

A gyre flow is represented in blue,  which probably can only carry off the detritus at/near the surface. To effect a good cleaning of the sand bed, the current needs to flow upwards,  like the green lines. That's where turkey baster/siphon comes in.  

 

Sorry for blabbering so much on your thread.  Keep the updates coming! 

[dtdream]

13 hours ago, JiaEn said:

Try it out and see if it works. 

 

This is my experience, illustrationed in the diagram below.  Grey represent the sand bed. Red dots are detritus. 

A gyre flow is represented in blue,  which probably can only carry off the detritus at/near the surface. To effect a good cleaning of the sand bed, the current needs to flow upwards,  like the green lines. That's where turkey baster/siphon comes in.  

 

Sorry for blabbering so much on your thread.  Keep the updates coming! 

Hi JiaEn, thanks for the drawing. And blabber away! Thank you for sharing your experience.

[Validator]

21 hours ago, dtdream said:

Hi Validator, yes my Jebao SLW-30 wavemakers are wifi versions. Lowest setting is 30% unfortunately. Have you tried using the big rubber thing to adjust the direction of your wavemaker? You could maybe turn it to face one the walls of the tank so as to reduce the strength of the flow.

I'm looking at your tank thread as well (looks nice esp with the fishes!), could you potentially direct the flow to your rockwork (assuming it is stable), and let the rocks diffuse the flow?

Yes I watched many YouTube videos before I decided to get the wave maker and they did mention the magnet.  My wave makers I probably need to toggle.  I have them directed at my rock work which all is epoxy down.  Just that there are some dead spots in the tank.

 

Thanks for your kind words.  I am also looking forward to your set up being done!

[dtdream]

Long overdue update, been procrastinating. But in the spirit of recording my progress, regressions and mistakes, here goes.

Below is photo from today:

Lighting Update:

It was only yesterday that I managed to fix all the lights up properly: 

4ft Aquatic Life Hybrid Fixture White

Aquatic Life Hybrid Wall Mount White

4 x 54W T5 bulbs (1x Aquablue Special, 1x Coral Plus, 2x Blue Plus)

2 x Kessil A360X

1x Kessil Wifi Dongle

The Hybrid fixture with the T5s have been up for about 3-4 weeks, and the Kessil were only up 2 days ago. Reason was that I bought the 16" end bracket from overseas, and it took a little while to arrive. The stock 18" end bracket I find too wide for the Red Sea tank, and I wanted more concentration of light in the center of the tank where my rocks and would be corals are.

I chose the T5 combination above as I don't really like tanks which are too blue. With the above combination, the light would probably I guess around 12-14K (no Kessils). If you like Bluer tanks, replace the Aquablue special with a Blue plus.

Have not measured PAR ratings with the Kessils yet, but just the T5s alone are about 300 PAR at the top, 250 PAR in middle, and 150-200 PAR at the bottom. The mount is currently roughly 5-5.5" off the water's surface. I was initially thinking of getting 3 Kessils, but its really too damn ex and I don't want to spend all my kid's schooling money lol. So since the PAR ratings with just the T5s look fair, decided to just get 2 Kessils to supplement and mainly for the Kessil Shimmer. The Kessil Shimmer is amazing, it's main reason I got the Kessils. I know I could have gotten much better PAR per dollar with other brands, but no other LEDs even comes close to the natural shimmer of Kessils. The Shimmer is "straight" like natural sun, no fuzzy tv static like other LEDs. It reminds me of my old Metal Halide circa 15 years ago. 

FYI, I used the Seneye Reef to measure PAR, and it seems to be doing a fair job, so need to plus points to the Seneye Reef (was bashing it in earlier post). With the Kessils in, I'm guessing the PAR ratings should be higher but haven't got to measuring it yet. Here's hoping my lighting will be sufficient to keep any corals I may want to.

So any regrets/lessons? Yes. While I think it looks pretty nice in the photo, there's actually quite a lot of light spill with no hood covering the lights. As I'm sitting probably only about 1m away from the tank, the light from the fixture spills onto my desk and monitor. This makes it pretty my monitor glaring and harder to see. As a stop gap, I got an 9am high acrylic sheet secured with masking tape to block out the light when sitting beside it (not pictured), and it helps significantly. I'm planning to make a DIY hood using foam PVC sheets, will post again when I get to it.

So for those of you planning to do a rimless tank with no light hood. Yea pictures online look nice, but please remember to consider if you are ok with the light spill. This can be a problem if the tank will be beside your desk like me, or even in the living room and too close to the TV/Sofa (light shine on your TV and can't watch properly)!

Fishes update:

Besides the 2 clowns, which have since gotten nicer (got "blacker", will post pics again), I've added 1 Yellow Tang, 1 Gem Tang and 1 Purple Tang. I got another nice reefer to help me do a 2 week observation quarantine for a fee just as an insurance since I was lazy to set up my own QT. His DT is pretty amazing with a hell lot of tangs in it, and all look very healthy too. 

For those of you thinking how I got my 3 tangs to live in peace, here are some tips (which worked!) from the reefer friend who helped me do the QT (if you're reading this, thank you!).

1. Isolate the biggest/most aggressive tang, and put it side by side with the new tang in an isolation box. Preferably for 2-3 days.

2. Always let the newest/weakest tang out of the isolation box first to familiarize with it's surroundings without getting bullied by the "old" tang (who is still in isolation). Try to let the new tang familiarize its new surroundings for 2-3 days as well before releasing the "old" fish.

3. Feed the new tang a lot more when in the isolation box. Try to make it fat just incase it gets bullied too much when it comes out and goes into hiding.

4. Mirrors. This is probably the best tip. I put 2 cheap (~$2-3?) ikea mirrors at the side of my tank, and the aggressive fish immediately attacked it's own reflection and left the new fish alone. I initially placed 2 of the slightly bigger mirrors, and stuck it with masking tape. I have since removed the bigger ones, but I have replaced it with a smaller ikea mirror as an insurance. Plan to leave it there for a while more since its not that unsightly and I can't really see it anyway. Below is a pic of how I placed the smaller mirror.

 

Anyway, it was hard to get pics of all 3 tangs together, so here is a short video instead if anyone ones to see. 

 

For those of you who are wondering, I did it the introduction this order: Yellow Tang, Gem Tang, Purple Tang.

All is not smooth though, at about 6 weeks in, my Gem Tang is showing some sort of external parasite issue on its dorsal fin, its still pretty healthy otherwise and not affecting other fishes, so just monitoring for now. 

Ok I still have some stuff to update but it's getting too late, CO complaining. Will try to continue tomorrow or another day.

Thanks for reading!

 

[mhcraft]

Really nicely done bro. Good information on the tangs as I am very hesistant to introduce additional tangs to my tank due to their natural aggression. Mirrors are a good idea!

How are you coping with a much bigger tank? My dream tank is the RedSea Peninsula 500 but I am not sure I am up to it..of course need CFO approves but it is a great house divider.

My Nano tank alot is making me spend a lot haha….maintenance not so much but $$

[slapper]

Excellent write up! Seems that you are keeping a FOWLR? And plans to introduce corals in the long run? Also, what are the challenges faced in keeping a tank in the office compared to home?

My heart reaches out to fellow reefers who have to compromise between family/spouse commitment and reefing hobby. Personally I feel that reefing is a healthy hobby and can be appreciated by every member in the family. So let’s hope people are more supportive to their loved ones who enjoy reefing!

[dtdream]

10 hours ago, mhcraft said:

Really nicely done bro. Good information on the tangs as I am very hesistant to introduce additional tangs to my tank due to their natural aggression. Mirrors are a good idea!

How are you coping with a much bigger tank? My dream tank is the RedSea Peninsula 500 but I am not sure I am up to it..of course need CFO approves but it is a great house divider.

My Nano tank alot is making me spend a lot haha….maintenance not so much but $$

On the size of tank, I think it's a very personal choice. It would depend if you are just trying the hobby out, space considerations, etc. For me I don't plan on upgrading anymore, and the 350 was probably the biggest I can fit in my space, so went with that. Though I consider the Reefer 350 a "medium" tank, not "big" at all. Bigger tanks are easier to keep water parameters stable. Plus you'll have more margin for mistakes, like feed to much, dosed wrongly etc. Of course, in major mistakes, smaller tanks are better because you can do large water changes more easily. 

I think cost wise comparing smaller to bigger tanks, the largest difference will be lighting cost. It cost quite a bit more to add additional lighting per feet of tank. For example pump wise, you just bought a Jebao pump right? I think to go one level up is about maybe $30-50 more? But for lighting, your current light is a Red Sea Reef LED 50? Price about $350 each? If you go from Nano to Peninsula 500, you'll probably need at least x3 light fixtures if you don't supplement with T5. But  I saw your Nano still got plenty of space to put corals, so more fun times ahead la. When maxed out liao then can apply to your CFO again hahaha!

And yea the mirrors are great for tang management, here's a couple of videos showing the effectiveness of mirrors. 

A: Yellow Tang (most aggressive because biggest) was in isolation with new Purple Tang, with divider of course. But you see the Gem Tang keep rushing it also.

 

B: This was after I put the mirrors in, Gem Tang stopped rushing and just attack its own reflection haha. Didn't care about the Purple Tang anymore.

 

[dtdream]

5 hours ago, slapper said:

Excellent write up! Seems that you are keeping a FOWLR? And plans to introduce corals in the long run? Also, what are the challenges faced in keeping a tank in the office compared to home?

My heart reaches out to fellow reefers who have to compromise between family/spouse commitment and reefing hobby. Personally I feel that reefing is a healthy hobby and can be appreciated by every member in the family. So let’s hope people are more supportive to their loved ones who enjoy reefing!

Its not very clear in the full tank shot, but I do have some tiny cheap-ish ($10-$15) frags just to test water. But I did get a more expensive ($40) hammer LPS, so I get to see some "moving" corals at least.

Probably the biggest challenge face keeping a tank in the office is the weekends, because I don't usually go unless I have some larger maintenance task I have to do like change water, which I do every 2 weeks, but long run I'm going to try to stretch it to once a month. But anyway I bought a cheap battery operated fish feeder (white colour!) to feed the fish over the weekends, so its all good. We also have cameras around the office, so can monitor no issue.

The benefit of having your tank in the office is that I think most of us spend our waking hours in the office rather than in our homes actually (of course now covid is an exception), so get to enjoy the tank more. If your vendor/customer sends you a nasty email, then just look at the fish swimming then all will be well!

Yea my wife is supportive for sure. Its just our home is not that big, and we have 2 young kids, so she wants our kids to have more space to move around. Plus young kids and wires don't go very well together, and we all know how much wires we have in and around our tanks!

[mhcraft]

1 hour ago, dtdream said:

On the size of tank, I think it's a very personal choice. It would depend if you are just trying the hobby out, space considerations, etc. For me I don't plan on upgrading anymore, and the 350 was probably the biggest I can fit in my space, so went with that. Though I consider the Reefer 350 a "medium" tank, not "big" at all. Bigger tanks are easier to keep water parameters stable. Plus you'll have more margin for mistakes, like feed to much, dosed wrongly etc. Of course, in major mistakes, smaller tanks are better because you can do large water changes more easily. 

Yea..that's the advantage on a Nano tank as worst case, you can do a huge water change...imagine doing that on a 350 / 500 litre aquarium. I would also consider 250 / 350 as the ideal size for me...but like I was saying, really like the peninsular concept

1 hour ago, dtdream said:

I think cost wise comparing smaller to bigger tanks, the largest difference will be lighting cost. It cost quite a bit more to add additional lighting per feet of tank. For example pump wise, you just bought a Jebao pump right? I think to go one level up is about maybe $30-50 more? But for lighting, your current light is a Red Sea Reef LED 50? Price about $350 each? If you go from Nano to Peninsula 500, you'll probably need at least x3 light fixtures if you don't supplement with T5. But  I saw your Nano still got plenty of space to put corals, so more fun times ahead la. When maxed out liao then can apply to your CFO again hahaha!

 

Lighting & electricity as both lights & chiller would be running heavier. Yea...I just told me CFO the other day that i might abandon the plan as I am quite happy with my Nano right now. It is just we are always a big fan of having a divider between our dining area & living area and what better than a fish tank?  

Yea if i upgrade, i would have to change all equipment, maybe the current tank can be my QT? Bigger Chiller..better lights...refugium setup etc...insane. Thinking of it makes me wallet empty lol.

2 hours ago, dtdream said:

Yellow Tang (most aggressive because biggest) was in isolation with new Purple Tang, with divider of course

Big fan of yellow & purple tangs!

[dtdream]

12 hours ago, mhcraft said:

Yea..that's the advantage on a Nano tank as worst case, you can do a huge water change...imagine doing that on a 350 / 500 litre aquarium. I would also consider 250 / 350 as the ideal size for me...but like I was saying, really like the peninsular concept

Lighting & electricity as both lights & chiller would be running heavier. Yea...I just told me CFO the other day that i might abandon the plan as I am quite happy with my Nano right now. It is just we are always a big fan of having a divider between our dining area & living area and what better than a fish tank?  

Yea if i upgrade, i would have to change all equipment, maybe the current tank can be my QT? Bigger Chiller..better lights...refugium setup etc...insane. Thinking of it makes me wallet empty lol.

Big fan of yellow & purple tangs!

Well, just plan ahead, and plan slowly. Then IF the time comes, you're ready. But most importantly, enjoy what you have now! 

[mhcraft]

Did you do copper treatment for the new fishes? Might want to consider that especially for the tangs so you can be 99% certain your tank is ich-free.

I just purchased a purple tang and as per your advise, i set up a small QT tank and doing copper treatment on it. Been 2 days and so far so good - fingers crossed.