Hi Reefers!
Im Nick from the UK. I got bored in lockdown and decided to revisit this hobby after 20 years out of the game. Wow things have moved on! I have found this forum a wealth of information and it was one of the reasons I wanted a reef tank again.
I have only had one marine tank before. It was a long shallow tank with a v deep sandbed that had an open passive plenum. It had very high flow. This was complimented by a lot of real live rock (so inappropriate these days and rightly so!) I built my own sump with trickle filter and skimmer. It was a bit home built and bodged because I was an impatient teenager but it basically ran itself and it endured plenty of mistakes. The live rock was such good quality that my tank matured very fast.
A lot of trends in the hobby have changed. Some hard corals are now considered easy and montipora etc. was considered expert ++.
I have been very impressed with the variety and quality of tanks these days. My own tastes might be considered a bit old school but I have set up a new tank with the following ethos:
Mixed reef with predominantly soft corals.
Floating rock shelves to keep sand clear.
Deep sand bed.
Very comprehensive CUC.
V high flow.
V high light but with shadows to allow for low light species too.
Chaeto/copepod refugium.
Specimen algae in main tank
I want to replicate the ‘natural’ system I had before which will be a much more gradual process without high grade live rock.
Basic tank setup:
94 ltr all in one interpet river reef (second hand eBay!)
Retrofitments/modifications
Fluval 3.0 marine LED in the post!
Auto top up.
Tunze 9004 skimmer
Removal of backing to convert to refugium with 9w light.
1000 ltr/h pump with outlet directed under the shelf.
Last filter compartment converted to fluidised bed filter with K+ sinking media with air bubbler (low tech but it works!)
Simple foam block mechanical filtration with space for phosphate remover.
The tank has been setup for 2-3 months now.
I was lucky enough to find a job lot on eBay which included all sorts of useful bits. The tank was encrusted with tiny tube worms and included was a large canister filter which was still wet and smelt so sweet! I know you reefers like things sterile and some might frown but I didn’t clean the tank much and I netted the clay media,rinsed it in sea water and hung it in the tank! The theory behind this being that there would be a diversity in bacteria and fauna in the media that would be hard to replicate from a bottle. I also used ‘live sand’ to speed up cycling.
I think I ended up having a skipped cyclIn other words the tank was almost immediately able to nitrify. I have never been able to measure any ammonia or nitrite.
I added my first 2 sapphire damsels within a week of the tank being filled. I needed them to fuel the nitrifying cycle. This worked and nitrates were low but measurable.
Once I had some nitrates I added chaeto to my refugium and an equal amount in a drilled fish hatchery in the main tank. This temporary refugium and the ‘seeding’ filter media was left in the tank for the first month. My nutrients went really low with the chaeto running so I knew I could start feeding more and adding corals.
My tank is less than 3 months old now. I have no algae at all and everything seems happy and stable.
Fish:
2 small sapphire damsels
1 Lawn mower Blenny
Corals:
Xenia frag
GSP strip
3 different single mushrooms
Clove polyps
Toadstool (deep water Japanese?)
Pink Pussey or colt coral (I think!)
Cataphyllia elegance
Photos to follow
Im Nick from the UK. I got bored in lockdown and decided to revisit this hobby after 20 years out of the game. Wow things have moved on! I have found this forum a wealth of information and it was one of the reasons I wanted a reef tank again.
I have only had one marine tank before. It was a long shallow tank with a v deep sandbed that had an open passive plenum. It had very high flow. This was complimented by a lot of real live rock (so inappropriate these days and rightly so!) I built my own sump with trickle filter and skimmer. It was a bit home built and bodged because I was an impatient teenager but it basically ran itself and it endured plenty of mistakes. The live rock was such good quality that my tank matured very fast.
A lot of trends in the hobby have changed. Some hard corals are now considered easy and montipora etc. was considered expert ++.
I have been very impressed with the variety and quality of tanks these days. My own tastes might be considered a bit old school but I have set up a new tank with the following ethos:
Mixed reef with predominantly soft corals.
Floating rock shelves to keep sand clear.
Deep sand bed.
Very comprehensive CUC.
V high flow.
V high light but with shadows to allow for low light species too.
Chaeto/copepod refugium.
Specimen algae in main tank
I want to replicate the ‘natural’ system I had before which will be a much more gradual process without high grade live rock.
Basic tank setup:
94 ltr all in one interpet river reef (second hand eBay!)
Retrofitments/modifications
Fluval 3.0 marine LED in the post!
Auto top up.
Tunze 9004 skimmer
Removal of backing to convert to refugium with 9w light.
1000 ltr/h pump with outlet directed under the shelf.
Last filter compartment converted to fluidised bed filter with K+ sinking media with air bubbler (low tech but it works!)
Simple foam block mechanical filtration with space for phosphate remover.
The tank has been setup for 2-3 months now.
I was lucky enough to find a job lot on eBay which included all sorts of useful bits. The tank was encrusted with tiny tube worms and included was a large canister filter which was still wet and smelt so sweet! I know you reefers like things sterile and some might frown but I didn’t clean the tank much and I netted the clay media,rinsed it in sea water and hung it in the tank! The theory behind this being that there would be a diversity in bacteria and fauna in the media that would be hard to replicate from a bottle. I also used ‘live sand’ to speed up cycling.
I think I ended up having a skipped cyclIn other words the tank was almost immediately able to nitrify. I have never been able to measure any ammonia or nitrite.
I added my first 2 sapphire damsels within a week of the tank being filled. I needed them to fuel the nitrifying cycle. This worked and nitrates were low but measurable.
Once I had some nitrates I added chaeto to my refugium and an equal amount in a drilled fish hatchery in the main tank. This temporary refugium and the ‘seeding’ filter media was left in the tank for the first month. My nutrients went really low with the chaeto running so I knew I could start feeding more and adding corals.
My tank is less than 3 months old now. I have no algae at all and everything seems happy and stable.
Fish:
2 small sapphire damsels
1 Lawn mower Blenny
Corals:
Xenia frag
GSP strip
3 different single mushrooms
Clove polyps
Toadstool (deep water Japanese?)
Pink Pussey or colt coral (I think!)
Cataphyllia elegance
Photos to follow
