Setup of my Pasar Malam Nano Tank

[Fuzzy]

After pondering long and hard about making the jump from Freshwater to Marine,

I found myself in a situation similar to that faced by many newcomers in our hobby.

Confusion as to how to begin and a fairly tight budget.

After doing a considerable amount of research (over 3 months) I decided due to budgetary and space constraints that it

would be a nano tank, and then to started acquiring everything I needed, over the next 4 months.

Thanks to many of the bros here (you know who you are!), I managed to get pretty good deals off the marketplace,

and finally assembled everything.

This is an approximate list and breakdown, not all of this equipment is necessary, I just decided to buy some of it for future use / expansion.

All prices are approximate and to my best recollection, may not be 100% accurate, but its close.

From Pasar Malam and AQ Forum:

JBJ 28 Gallon HQI Nano tank (150W MH Lighting built in) - Full set

Stand for tank

Hailea HC-150A Chiller

20Kg of Live Rock

20lb of Live Sand

Hydor Koralia 1 Wavemaker

250g Biohome

---------------------------------------$488

RM Fluidized Reactor

RM 8" Calcium Reactor

TLF Phosban 150 FR

---------------------------------------$240

Dupla pH Controller Delta

---------------------------------------$120

3.5L CO2 Tank and JBJ Solenoid

---------------------------------------$120

JBJ Automatic Top Off + FW holding Tank

---------------------------------------$100

Tunze 9002 DOC nano Skimmer

---------------------------------------$120

FOX External Thermostat

---------------------------------------$30

API Saltwater Master Test kit

Tropic Marin Ca Test Kit

Seachem Reef Complete

Seachem Reef Carbonate

---------------------------------------$20

1x Digital Timer

2x Analog Timer

---------------------------------------$25

Bought new from various LFS:

Salinity Refractometer

--------------------------------------$90

Crystal Pro 3 stage + inline TDS meter

--------------------------------------$225

60 Litre water drum

-------------------------------------$17

Hydor Koralia 1

-------------------------------------$50

2 Bags Marine Environment Salt

-------------------------------------$68

Tanita Digital Kitchen Scale (3kg/1g)

-------------------------------------$57

20lb Caribsea Live Aragonite Sand

--------------------------------------$40

Grotech kH+CA 3 Remineralization

Purple Up

Aragamilk

TLF Phosban Media

Rowa Ezeclean

D+D Epoxy

API Reef Master Test Kit

------------------------------------$210

BLV 20K 150w DE MH Bulb

------------------------------------$90

Eheim tubing for all plumbing

------------------------------------$40

Eheim Compact 1002 pump

------------------------------------$50

1kg Biohome Plus

------------------------------------$40

The rest of the cleaning/scaping/maint stuff I had laying around my house, or already acquired previously for my Freshwater stuff.

Eeeek the Total damage is $2240 + probably $200 - $300 more of misc stuff spent over the last 3 months. I didn't quite feel the pinch as badly as I very gradually acquired everything.

I hope I haven't scared anyone off, this is probably serious overkill, and you can probably do it for a lot less, but I wanted to be sure my setup was as close to bulletproof as budget allowed.

Also, about $400 of the expense was for the Calcium Reactor which I am not even planning to use currently.

Pics of the tank and setup which has just completed cycling to follow!

[Fuzzy]

Here's my noob attempt at scaping, I decided to use only the live rock I had been given instead of going

and buying more live rock, broke...

Here's whats the rear looks like

Here is an attempted DIY conversion of an FR into a Chaetofuge reflective Mylar sheeting over the back of the FR,

Stuff chaeto in, stick 9w PL lamp beside it, and hope for the best.

Shot of the FR in the Dark

My tank is in my bedroom and the light bugged me, so I decided to do something fairly ghetto..

Mmmm I think thats all I have to contribute for now

[Gouldian]

Here's my noob attempt at scaping, I decided to use only the live rock I had been given instead of going

and buying more live rock, broke...

Here's whats the rear looks like

Here is an attempted DIY conversion of an FR into a Chaetofuge reflective Mylar sheeting over the back of the FR,

Stuff chaeto in, stick 9w PL lamp beside it, and hope for the best.

Shot of the FR in the Dark

My tank is in my bedroom and the light bugged me, so I decided to do something fairly ghetto..

Mmmm I think thats all I have to contribute for now

Nice set up! It shows when you have invested sufficient time doing the necessary ground works.Hope to see more of your post to be inspired.

[Fuzzy]

Thanks for the kind words!

I was surprised at how fast it cycled, probably had something to do with my using 20lb of live sand from established system and the live rock from the same system.

NH4 - 0

NO2 - 0

NO3 - 15ppm (Did a 40% water change before adding livestock)

Temp - 26C

SG - 1.024

CA and Mg not measured, freshly mixed Marine Environment (should be ok I hope)

I picked up a few small frags from GO last night, Yellow Sun, Mushrooms, red blasto, and what I believe is goniopora, but I may be wrong.

Lets see how this goes.

Feeding Hikari frozen Rotifers and Cyclopeeze, Hikari Mysis for the Sun.

[albinosage]

LOL! I like the night shot of the DIY chaeto fuge! Looks very sci fi hahaha. Nice set up and scaping, the 28G has duo return nozzles right? Do look out for the space behind the rock work on the left, potential dead spot since the tall rock will block the flow. Diatoms heaven

Edit: I see that you already have a K1 there

[Gouldian]

Thanks for the kind words!

I was surprised at how fast it cycled, probably had something to do with my using 20lb of live sand from established system and the live rock from the same system.

NH4 - 0

NO2 - 0

NO3 - 15ppm (Did a 40% water change before adding livestock)

Temp - 26C

SG - 1.024

CA and Mg not measured, freshly mixed Marine Environment (should be ok I hope)

I picked up a few small frags from GO last night, Yellow Sun, Mushrooms, red blasto, and what I believe is goniopora, but I may be wrong.

Lets see how this goes.

Feeding Hikari frozen Rotifers and Cyclopeeze, Hikari Mysis for the Sun.

Nitrate is a product of nitrification, thus it is not surprising that your nitrate will be high. With your investment in Cheato and Biohome plus, I believe you should be able to lower the nitrate in due time.

HTH

[Fuzzy]

LOL! I like the night shot of the DIY chaeto fuge! Looks very sci fi hahaha. Nice set up and scaping, the 28G has duo return nozzles right? Do look out for the space behind the rock work on the left, potential dead spot since the tall rock will block the flow. Diatoms heaven

Edit: I see that you already have a K1 there

Hehehe yeah, I noticed some detritus accumulating there when I cycling, so I managed to ninja a K1 back there. Yeah the tank has 2 return nozzles, but the return is really not strong enough to generate any appreciable amount of current.

I am still trying to figure out where the other K1 is going to go, can't really visualize the flow of the tank yet, surprisingly no sandstorm going on, I was expecting more of a mess.

Need to get rid of microbubbles still though. I am going to wedge foam into the return compartment in the rear and see if I can stop the pumps from sucking in bubbles, wish me luck.

Nitrate is a product of nitrification, thus it is not surprising that your nitrate will be high. With your investment in Cheato and Biohome plus, I believe you should be able to lower the nitrate in due time.

HTH

Hee, I was actually on the prowl for a denitrator also, but that would be serious overkill for a tank this size, and I didn't find one that would fit my budget.

I'll just stick to 10% weekly water changes for now. If I decide to try SPS when this tank is more mature, I'll start looking again.

[Gouldian]

Hehehe yeah, I noticed some detritus accumulating there when I cycling, so I managed to ninja a K1 back there. Yeah the tank has 2 return nozzles, but the return is really not strong enough to generate any appreciable amount of current.

I am still trying to figure out where the other K1 is going to go, can't really visualize the flow of the tank yet, surprisingly no sandstorm going on, I was expecting more of a mess.

Need to get rid of microbubbles still though. I am going to wedge foam into the return compartment in the rear and see if I can stop the pumps from sucking in bubbles, wish me luck.

Hee, I was actually on the prowl for a denitrator also, but that would be serious overkill for a tank this size, and I didn't find one that would fit my budget.

I'll just stick to 10% weekly water changes for now. If I decide to try SPS when this tank is more mature, I'll start looking again.

Very true indeed, with your current set up, you should be able to keep nitrate at acceptable for your livestocks. I also feel that denitrator will comes in when you need to bring the nitrate lower for the more demanding livestocks such as sps.

Keep those pictures coming....

[onizukaa]

wow, nice detail of what you brought and the process you go through studying / researching on it before commiting!

a very good post for those who wanna start a marine tank.

keep it coming, camping here with popcorn!

[peacemaker]

Here is an attempted DIY conversion of an FR into a Chaetofuge reflective Mylar sheeting over the back of the FR,

Stuff chaeto in, stick 9w PL lamp beside it, and hope for the best.

Nice.... pls kindly keep us updated on the conditions of your cheato after some time? I have an FR hanging around, so I might just do something similar if it works out for you.

[Fuzzy]

Nice.... pls kindly keep us updated on the conditions of your cheato after some time? I have an FR hanging around, so I might just do something similar if it works out for you.

Will do, my chaeto is alive, but not in great shape, I was storing it in a small betta tank with saltwater and light, but with no flow for a month, before I got my tank up.

Heh. Chaeto torturer..thats me. I'll see if it bounces back and update with pics next week.

Some quick updates, splashed a little cash at GO (little over a blue note) Mostly humble little frags, don't laugh hor.

Going to stock up slowly, don't want to risk the inhabitants going through a crash.

Can anyone ID this coral? I thought it was a gonio sp. but I don't think so now.

Got a bunch of multicolored shrooms on a small rock, one fell off in the bag and reattached to my LR scape, heh.

Some really bright blasto.

Small frag of Yellow Suns that just started opening

Okie thats it for now, I need to meet up with bro fUel to grab some of his inverts this week, hehehe.

[yongshun]

bro, gd to see that everything is going well for u!

[Fuzzy]

bro, gd to see that everything is going well for u!

Hey thanks bro!

The live sand and rock I got from you did wonders for cycling.

[Fuzzy]

Mmm ok, I'm thinking this is Galaxea astreata, can anyone confirm?

[jem]

Mmm ok, I'm thinking this is Galaxea astreata, can anyone confirm?

Clavularia sp.

[Fuzzy]

Clavularia sp.

Thanks! The worker at GO didn't know what it was either

[Fuzzy]

Update on DIY FR Chaetofuge.

The chaeto seems to be doing well, it has grown almost 25% larger and denser in 4 days. Compare them with my first post pics (they were taken minutes before posting here), its quite scary.

Its looking much happier than it did when I put it into the FR, heh.

FR is being fed by an Eheim Compact 1002 (1000L/hr) and goes through the chiller before returning directly into the tank.

I'll take nitrate measurements before I do a 20% water change tonight to see if it has actually impacted my nitrate levels.

My nitrate was at 20ppm after I completed cycling. I did a 50% WC then added the few frags I have in there now. I have been feeding the sun coral frozen Mysis and rehydrated cyclopeeze for the last 2 days though.

And I've tried to feed the mushrooms and clavularia some frozen rotifers too, I think I should be feeding them phytoplankton instead?

Will post update tonight on nitrate levels.

[Fuzzy]

Hi all, I've moved all updates to the Nano Reefs section of the forum.

Latest pics are up.

http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/index.php?...mp;#entry802024

Also, Dying plate coral needs your input