Xian's 12G

[xian1925]

Just want to share recent pictures from my 12 Gallon Nano Reef.

What I have are a variety of mushrooms, frogspawn , sponge, leather and bubble corals..

My cleanup crew are as follows:

3 x astrea snails

3 x nassarius snails

1 x brittle star

fishes are:

1 x 3 stripe damsel

1 x blue damsel

The environment is running for about 5 months now on the 12 gallon. The system was previously on a 6 gallon for 2 months. hmm. how many months more before an upgrade

Here are some pictures of the tank just after daylight. I am on a reversed day and night schedule with lights on from 4pm to 2am.. This is to compensate the heat from the lights since I dont run a chiller.

The small tank is a 2.5gallon freshwater

[xian1925]

By the way the hardware used are as follows:

a. 1.5ft aquazonic 16W 12K and 16W actinic blue

b. 3000lph wavemaker modified to about half of that flow by cutting out portions of the propeller

c. Boyu wg308 skimmer

d. Atman CF-600

e. Jebo UV 9W

f. Fan to cool down temp below 29C its about 28C most of the day..

The first problem with the setup is the lighting which is a reuse from my 6 gallon setup.. 2 months more of saving and I will be able to get a decent lighting system

Skimmer performance is currently improving by constant tweaks and adjustments. The microbubble problem was solved by directing the flow to my cheato refuge.

Another problem is the heat.. the fan however is doing a good job on maintaining the temp to about 28C..

Here is a picture of the canister and UV filter

[xian1925]

Ways to improve the design is much appreciated Please share your ideas.

Here are some more pictures:

[xian1925]

By the way, for those who are wondering to the no chiller idea of mine.. Even though the fan is doing its job to drop the temp to 28C, I have about 1.5Liters of evaporation in 24 hours time.. I topup using tap water treated with microbelift Xtreme.. Maybe someday I will have a decent chiller to replace the fan

[albinosage]

Hey Fabian, thanks for sharing your tank pics! You are right, the lighting is insufficient for the LPS (frogspawn and bubble), they look stressed and bleached.

[raydiative]

nice and neat setup... bro, can resize ur pics alittle smaller? lol...

anyway.. it will be good if you are able to upgrade ur lights and from a fan to a chiller... a chiller would be able to provide a more stable temperature range as compared to using fans..

happy reefing!

Ray

[xian1925]

Hi Binosage and Rey,

Yup the advice is well considered.. as soon as I have the budget I will upgrade both lighting and cooling Those things atleast should come together since the extra Watts on lighting will equal extra heat..

[Ingwe]

hey xian, nice tank

I've started out with nearly the exact same set of hardware. If you've got enough flow in the tank turning the canister off will help with lowering the temperature by abt a degree or so. Congrats on keeping the fish count low, I have a hard time resisting the urge whenever i visit lfs

[LaW]

spend some money on LED, PAR38 seem to be good for your size. upgrade some of your equipments like chilling(chiller) & implement a sump. and do away the damsels if possible. they will be a pain in the near future.

[xian1925]

Hi Ingwe,

Yes, you said it.. I am always getting the same urge when visiting a LFS.. can still fight it for now Thanks for the feedback, I will consider putting the canister and UV filter on a timer as well, powered off between 12noon-4pm.. Please advise if that is too long or too short.. Thanks!

Hi Law,

Yes, I think LED is the way to go and will be a good investment as well. By the way what is a PAR38? You are right about the damsel..that little devil has been messing around with the sand for quite sometime now..digging holes and wagging his tail on the sand..

[LaW]

hi xian,

details of PAR38 is there in the link.

http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=89384&pid=928305&st=0&#entry928305

[xian1925]

hi xian,

details of PAR38 is there in the link.

http://www.sgreefclu...=0

Thanks! probably for the mean time this will complement my existing lighting given that the cost for a par38 is not that much

[LaW]

Thanks! probably for the mean time this will complement my existing lighting given that the cost for a par38 is not that much

my pleasure.

the price can be found here.

http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=89156

[xian1925]

my pleasure.

the price can be found here.

yup I saw it. quite pricey but I see worth it.. so that is another thing on my wishlist

[xian1925]

Some updates:

Some buildup of a oily film on my water surface triggered me to redesign the cheato refuge to become an overflow in order to skim the surface.. Well it seems that it is doing its job.

I recently bought a a TLF phosban reactor from jeremy1982 and now is inline on my setup. It holds denitrate for the mean time

Some recent pics:

Two little rascals

Mangrove on my freshwater setup:

[xian1925]

I have decided that in order to control phospate count on my tank, I will put Rowaphos on the TLF 150.. But.. Rowaphos is quite expensive.. any of you guys used Rowaphos or can compare it with other adsorbents?

[xian1925]

In order to put some sufficient lighting to my tank, I have decided to mod my existing 1.5ft aquazonic T5.. The modification will involve putting at most 2pcs 10W 20K SMD LED on the fixture.. I will get this done when the orders arrive

All are items from ebay.

10W 20000K High Power 800LM LED Lamp Blub

Description:

Color Temperature: 20000K

DC Forward Voltage (VF): 10-12V DC

DC Forward Current (IF): 1000mA

Viewing Angle: 120 Degree

Intensity Luminous (Iv): 800LM

AC Power Supply For 10 Watt LED Lamp Bulb

Description:

Input Voltage: 100-264V

Output Voltage: 8V-12V

Frequency range: 47-63Hz

Rated Current: 1A

Rated Power: 10W

AC Current(max): 0.15A/220V 0.25A/110V

Operating Temperature: 0~50 ℃

Storage Temperature: -20~95 ℃

Application: 1 x 10watt LED only

Safety standard: CE, FCC, CCC, GB4943

[xian1925]

The items already arrived. Can't wait to assemble the 10W 20000K SMD LED on my original 1.5ft T5 fixture. will post pics later..

[andez07]

hey fabian,

jus wondering what did u put inside ur atman canister??

[xian1925]

hey fabian,

jus wondering what did u put inside ur atman canister??

The atman CF-600 has two compartments. on the lower compartment I have two filter foams and on the upper compartment I have ceramic rings and carbon media.

Just arrived from an overseas trip and I will continue to construct my LED project. will post pics really really soon

[andez07]

The atman CF-600 has two compartments. on the lower compartment I have two filter foams and on the upper compartment I have ceramic rings and carbon media.

Just arrived from an overseas trip and I will continue to construct my LED project. will post pics really really soon

Cool bro........

[xian1925]

Update.

[AloysiusMun]

The atman CF-600 has two compartments. on the lower compartment I have two filter foams and on the upper compartment I have ceramic rings and carbon media.

Just arrived from an overseas trip and I will continue to construct my LED project. will post pics really really soon

Hey Fabian, make sure you change the filter foam regularly otherwise they will start to trap too much detrius and it becomes a nitrate factory.

[ayamdodo]

hey bro i like your idea in converting your chaeto refuge into an overflow to fix the oil scum problem on your surface water..somehow i have the same problem with the oil film..can you tell me more on how you modify the small chateo box to make it like an overflow? and where can i get those kind of box? Also by putting the chateo in there does it help in your nitrate reduction? sorry ask too much qns..hehe

[tunicate]

Alternatively, you can also buy a surface skimmer available from most aquarium shops & hook it up to your canister.

Below pic borrowed from http://mycichlidtank.oneinfostop.com/skimmer.htm.