No idea what I actually own!

[bmaher1212]

Hi... I recently moved into our new home and we had a tank put together for us. Once in a lifetime chance to have it built in... always wanted one but never in one place long enough to make a marine tank a reality! Now I have a problem... I have no idea what equipment I own! Could someone help me identify the equipment?! I am really trying to get into this but maybe went too fast and now I need to catch up!

[Panther]

Wow! I can see you've built yourself a fantastic looking tank not knowing what you actually have!!

I'm a newbie who has yet to have my tank but can see your sump have the most important equipment - the skimmer! Of corse the coral chips and ceramic rings too. A chiller to bring down your tanks temperature.

[bmaher1212]

Thanks! Yeah, I'm learning as I go along a little... I'm using an expert to come in and make sure I don't kill everything but eventually I want to be able to take over and do it myself. I keep asking questions but we have a bit of a communication problem with language. Makes asking harder questions (like how often to change the chips, ceramic rings etc) just a little bit harder! Plus he'd prefer I keep using him! So time to learn it myself I reckon... thanks for the reply!

[jyoon]

You are confusing us!!!!!

On another post you asked why your fishes disappear. You mention the tank is setup sep /oct last year. Cannot understand how can someone built a tank and not sure what been installed. Please enlighten us or just me instead.

[bmaher1212]

Sure... condo is completely new, so we ripped the guts out of it and made the inside what we wanted. Part of that was to have a tank installed as I'd always wanted one. But it was done while the apartment was being built so I couldn't move in even when it was finished and the initial water fill added. I had coral before I had a home! So then I moved in (complete with damsel fish) and the expert who built the tank isn't all that forthcoming with information about what I own, how it works, how to clean it, when to replace etc. Part of it is language, part of it is him wanting to keep the money I pay him to look after it. I test my own water weekly, clean the protein skimmer etc. I'm learning but is a lot to pick up. For example, he says I can add tap water to the chilled section of the sump and just add water conditioner at the same time. And it seems to be ok, but from the posts here and the books I read you should leave the water alone overnight at least and then test before adding. Very confusing, so I figured I'd ask the wider community who have no reason to keep me in the dark! I read the posts, but I'm not sure what I own to know how the apply! Apologies if I am being confusing, not my intent.

[TayHongSiang]

You are confusing us!!!!!

On another post you asked why your fishes disappear. You mention the tank is setup sep /oct last year. Cannot understand how can someone built a tank and not sure what been installed. Please enlighten us or just me instead.

Relax la bro jyoon...he is obviously a newbie. Dun have to be so critical.

Looks like a H&S skimmer to me...experts here, pls enlighten me if i m wrong...

Pretty decent set-up with all the essential items...needed to maintain yr livestocks.

Your tank is mainly for soft and large stony corals + fishes.

Can show us your lightings?

Feel free to post your doubts / questions here in SRC...

[markietan]

Relax la bro jyoon...he is obviously a newbie. Dun have to be so critical.

Looks like a H&S skimmer to me...experts here, pls enlighten me if i m wrong...

Pretty decent set-up with all the essential items...needed to maintain yr livestocks.

Your tank is mainly for soft and large stony corals + fishes.

Can show us your lightings?

Feel free to post your doubts / questions here in SRC...

mm.. nope. don't think its a hns.. the pump doesn't look like a AB to me and the skimmer cup neck is different...

anyhow... here's abit about equipment..

since u mentioned cleaning the protein skimmer, i guess you know which piece of equipment that is. that is used to remove organic nutrient from the water... which is why the skimmate (the dark liquid collected) stinks so much

you also have the chiller, which helps keep the tank water cool as singapore's weather can get quite hot on some days. also depending on what lighting setup you are using, it does heat up the water quite abit.

as for lighting, the 2 popular lighting equipments found in sg are T5 and metal halide (MH). T5 are like slim fluorescent tubes, MH are like what people called flood lamps? T5 tend to run cooler but others claim MH has better penetration power and produces the shimmering effect because it is a point light source. both have to be replaced once a year (some say 6mths) as their light intensity and spectrum shifts after using them for awhile...

other than that, you should have some pumps to pump the water back up into the main tank.. many varieties and brands of pumps available in sg.. too many to go through here. you'll probably have a wavemaker in the tank too, to simulate 'waves' in the tank.

that's about it for basic equipments i think! read read read and you'll learn about this wonderful hobby in no time.

[bmaher1212]

Thank you one and all (even criticism is welcome, all part of learning). I realise I am running before I can walk! I'll post some pictures of my lighting and maybe someone can advise me on that too? Looking at the underneath section (is the whole thing call the sump?):

1. The water goes from the overflow in the tank down into the left most chamber. Seems to be filled with small circle item (ceramic rings?). What do they do? How often do you replace them?

2. The water then goes into the next chamber and I'm guessing is further filtered by the coral chips? Why is this two stage process (ceramic rings then coral chips) important? How often do you change the chips?

3. Now the water flows into the third chamber with the protein skimmer. Yep, stinks! There is also a bag of what I think is charcoal in this chamber? Does that sound right? What does that do? Filter process? I've read it in some books but can't get to grips with the explanation. How often should I change it?

4. Then the water goes into the final chamber where it is chilled and gets pumped back into the tank.

Is that about right for the water flow?

[markietan]

Thank you one and all (even criticism is welcome, all part of learning). I realise I am running before I can walk! I'll post some pictures of my lighting and maybe someone can advise me on that too? Looking at the underneath section (is the whole thing call the sump?):

1. The water goes from the overflow in the tank down into the left most chamber. Seems to be filled with small circle item (ceramic rings?). What do they do? How often do you replace them?

2. The water then goes into the next chamber and I'm guessing is further filtered by the coral chips? Why is this two stage process (ceramic rings then coral chips) important? How often do you change the chips?

3. Now the water flows into the third chamber with the protein skimmer. Yep, stinks! There is also a bag of what I think is charcoal in this chamber? Does that sound right? What does that do? Filter process? I've read it in some books but can't get to grips with the explanation. How often should I change it?

4. Then the water goes into the final chamber where it is chilled and gets pumped back into the tank.

Is that about right for the water flow?

yup the whole underneath section is called the sump. used to increase the volume of water in the system so it is less susceptible to parameters fluctuations

some people use ceramic rings to help cultivate bacterias, which are suppose to be good for the system because they help convert ammonia (fish poo) to nitrate. i believe the coral chip serve the same purpose at this point... these media are chosen because they are porous and have alot of surface area for the bacterias to grow on

mm. charcoal / carbon removes chlorine, sediment, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from water (wikipedia). i think it removes heavy metal also? there are many grades of carbon as well, some that leaks phosphate and some that don't. there's a thread on this forum that has a good read on that

and i think u are about right for the water flow down and back into the main tank! =)

[Thexder]

Brian,

I would suggest that over time you can remove the ceramic rings and coral chips from your sump and put in LR instead. This will save you the effort to replace ceramic rings. The 2nd compartment can be converted into a refugium also with cheato.

[Fuzzy]

Thank you one and all (even criticism is welcome, all part of learning). I realise I am running before I can walk! I'll post some pictures of my lighting and maybe someone can advise me on that too? Looking at the underneath section (is the whole thing call the sump?):

1. The water goes from the overflow in the tank down into the left most chamber. Seems to be filled with small circle item (ceramic rings?). What do they do? How often do you replace them?

2. The water then goes into the next chamber and I'm guessing is further filtered by the coral chips? Why is this two stage process (ceramic rings then coral chips) important? How often do you change the chips?

3. Now the water flows into the third chamber with the protein skimmer. Yep, stinks! There is also a bag of what I think is charcoal in this chamber? Does that sound right? What does that do? Filter process? I've read it in some books but can't get to grips with the explanation. How often should I change it?

4. Then the water goes into the final chamber where it is chilled and gets pumped back into the tank.

Is that about right for the water flow?

How much is your maintenance contract with the store/guy? That said you have a very nice tank! How long have you had it, and have you had any problems with it so far?

You actually don't need to change the coral chips or bio rings ever. These rings serve as biological homes for Denitrifying bacteria to colonize, so the waste and excess food can be broken down into less harmful substances.

But as another bro has pointed out you probably want to remove the bio rings at some point and replace it with Live rock and/or Biohome (a popular brand of bio material that comes in stick form instead of rings - http://www.reinbiotech.com/biohome/biohome.jsp) because rings have the potential to trap air pockets and detritus potentially turning it into a nitrate factory in the long run.

The skimmer removes dissolved organic compounds (proteins) and the activated carbon absorbs toxic non-organic compounds from the water and should be changed every 2 - 4 months or so depending on how big the bag is and how high the bioload in your tank is.

Also most importantly do not ever top up your tank with untreated tap water! Letting it stand overnight is not good enough, Chloramine which is added into our tap water these days does not evaporate and needs to be neutralized.

At the barest minimum you need to treat the water with something to remove the Chlorine and Chloramine and leave it to stand overnight. But even then treated tap water may contain phosphates and other minerals / chemicals which could lead to algae blooms and other complications.

Ideally you should use distilled water (not mineral water!) or use Deionized Water (DI Water can be purchased from marine stores, or you can buy a DI filter system to make it at home.) to top up your tank.

Reverse Osmosis systems are also good for producing even pure water, but the systems are more more expensive and involve more maintenance and frequent cartridge replacements.

Which leads to another important point, you probably want to remove 10% - 15% of the water from the tank about once a month, and replace it with fresh saltwater. You can either buy saltwater premixed in Jerry cans (30L each) from most Marine supply stores, or you can mix it up yourself with Distilled or DI water and a prepared salt mix.

I'm estimating your tank is approximately 5 - 6 feet long? what temperature is the chiller able to maintain your tank at? Also the skimmer may not be adequate for a tank of this size, might be wise to invest in a larger unit in the near future.

Aside from that everything else looks good from what we can see from your pictures. Maybe take more Fulltank shots and close ups of your inhabitants so the experts here can advise you better on the needs on your coral and other livestock?

[RockyBoy]

- Remove the coral chips as this will create lots of nitrate. Use cheato or algae scrubber to remove phospahte & nitrates.

- Skimmer is too small for this setup.

- You have leather. Try to put GAC (carbon) to remove the chemical warfare.

- The return pump looks like china brand. try to use reputable brand such as eheim. If the main pump breaks down, the main tank will be hot and will kill all the fishes & LPS.

- try to add 1 or 2 wavemakers.

[TayHongSiang]

- Remove the coral chips as this will create lots of nitrate. Use cheato or algae scrubber to remove phospahte & nitrates.

- Skimmer is too small for this setup.

- You have leather. Try to put GAC (carbon) to remove the chemical warfare.

- The return pump looks like china brand. try to use reputable brand such as eheim. If the main pump breaks down, the main tank will be hot and will kill all the fishes & LPS.

- try to add 1 or 2 wavemakers.

I din know coral chips will produce nitrate...looks like i need to remove them too. (learnt something tdy)

[RockyBoy]

I din know coral chips will produce nitrate...looks like i need to remove them too. (learnt something tdy)

Coral chips for planted tank where the plants can absorb nitrate. For our marine tank, not much stuff can get rid of nitrates except algae, denitrificator, etc.

Use biohome to replace the coral chips as biohome can house the bacteria that can breakdown the nitrates.

[dleecool]

Definitely not H&S skimmer. Looks more like Weipro or equivalent.

Also, I think ur skimmer may not be able to support ur tank if ur bioloads increase. U may need to consider updrading in near future!!

Relax la bro jyoon...he is obviously a newbie. Dun have to be so critical.

Looks like a H&S skimmer to me...experts here, pls enlighten me if i m wrong...

Pretty decent set-up with all the essential items...needed to maintain yr livestocks.

Your tank is mainly for soft and large stony corals + fishes.

Can show us your lightings?

Feel free to post your doubts / questions here in SRC...

[yikai]

is that a big leather coral on the left hand side of ur tnak? if so, rockyboy is right. some leathers and LPS cannot be housed togeher. chemical warfare may occur and u need something to remove the chemicals from the water. carbon and polyfilters are good choices. i reccomend carbon.

[bmaher1212]

There is a big bag of black stuff in my sump... assume that is the carbon? Will that stop the chemical warfare?

Why is the protein skimmer too small? Wouldn't a small size just mean I have to empty it more often? Or is it a capacity issue?

[yikai]

There is a big bag of black stuff in my sump... assume that is the carbon? Will that stop the chemical warfare?

Why is the protein skimmer too small? Wouldn't a small size just mean I have to empty it more often? Or is it a capacity issue?

the bigger the skimmer, the more stuff it can skim out. the smaller the skimmer, the less stuff it can skim out. the input of waste is faster than what the skimmer can output. if u get wat i mean... best is to get a new carbon and replace it. replace carbn once every 2-4 months.

[RockyBoy]

There is a big bag of black stuff in my sump... assume that is the carbon? Will that stop the chemical warfare?

Why is the protein skimmer too small? Wouldn't a small size just mean I have to empty it more often? Or is it a capacity issue?

The black thingie is carbon or GAC (granualated Activaed Carbon). Try to get GAC that is less phosphate content. Buy those heat/steam activated rather than acid activated coz acid ones leach phosphate. To be more careful, the steam activated normally very small granules.

Yes, you need to empty more often, also, the pulling of organic protein is not so powerful, so to speak.

[bmaher1212]

Bit of an unfair question maybe... but any particular store you would use to get your equipment?

[yikai]

if u wan good equipment, reef depot sells alot alot of variety, many differnet brands to choose. but they are pricey coz of good quality.