My salty box

[Craig the plumber]

Thought I’d start up a tank thread on here hopefully people can share their experience, help steer me in the right direction and maybe learn from some of the mistakes I hopefully won’t make... and let’s face it most people on here are going to like looking at reef tanks!
I had run a zeovit system before on my previous tank which was 400l net volume. I’ve just upgraded and doubled the water volume the new tank is a custom diy 120cm x 100cm x 61cm with an external overflow box sump is 70cm 80cm x 35cm I’m currently on day 2 of the zeovit cycle the tank was aquascaped dry using mature live rock that I kept wet by spraying it with salt water till finished I then filled the tank with 800l of natural sea water instantly. I do have a disclaimer... I have gone for an automatic reactor made by another company and due to stone size have opted to use their version of zeovit stones I am going to treat these as you would running full zeovit so for 800l I am using 2l of stones with 800lph flow. Tank is lit with 2x ati sunpowers that have been customised to hold ai hydras so running 8x 54w t5 bulbs and 4x ai hydra 52HD’s
Protein skimmer is a bubble king doublecone 200+, return pump is a vectra l1 and in tank flow is provided by 2x gyre xf150’s and 2x mp40qd and the tank is managed by an apex classic I have installed a clarisea fleece filter which can be bypassed if needs be, a deltec pf501 CAco2 reactor and I have a 3 Channel dosing pump that I’m going to use to dose start3, mg and k balance.
So that’s the back story but everyone’s here for the pics I guess...
Here’s the stand being built





The tanks being built





The equipment starting to build up





Finishing the stand




Aquascaping and filling the tank







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[berlin-riff]

Hey it Looks realy good

I hope it works realy well and you have fun with it
Dont Forget updating us here from time to time

[blackizzz]

This looks great! Love the aquascape

[Craig the plumber]

First bit of livestock in the tank (sorry about iPhone pics)






Going to give it a few weeks before adding more fish as want to make sure they have settled but will be adding more coral soon.


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[Craig the plumber]

Bit of an update have moved in my fish from there holding tank have been steadily adding coral over the last few months. Calcium reactor has been running smoothly but nutrient levels had risen from all the fish feeding but back on their way down now. (Last checked on 9/9/18 @ aprox 1.5ppm) Replaced my stones last weekend and started dosing bak daily then realised I was supposed to be dosing every three days only side effect is some bacteria film on the sand and glass. Doing some tank maintenance today I’ll try upload some parameters later after my waterchange just checked my alk which has been sitting at 6.8 for weeks. After noticing a seriatapora had limited polyp extension started to dose k+ at 8ml/day just received my test kit and checked that, it’s at 410 so going to monitor now and alter dose accordingly. Have also ordered some b balance and kaliumiodidefluor so they will be worked into the dosing regime when they arrive. Some of the corals that where added first are starting to base out and colour up the leds are due to finish the acclimation period next week so hoping once the lights are at full power I’ll see improvements in growth and colour. Here are some of the corals probably worth mentioning that a lot of the shops I have been visiting have had coral stock affected by the heat wave and other issues so corals where not purchased in the best of health but got them nice and cheap

Here are some pics of the tank and it’s inhabitants
























Thanks for looking


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[blackizzz]

Looking good Craig! I really like that scape

[Craig the plumber]

Time for an overdue update...

I lost my moorish idol unfortunately it just stopped feeding and went down hill. I took this as a sign not to get another. I moved on my majestic angel as he was nipping at certain sps and demolished any zoas or lps I added. It’s been a few months since the last update and I’ve been stocking up on coral wholesale. The tissue colour has yet to pale out but I made a few changes to the tank at the start of the year I have changed my t5 bulb combination and set my ai hydras to a copy of radions ab+ schedule with a 4 hour “whiter” photoperiod and then predominantly blue with 6 ati blue+ and 2 Fiji pink bulbs giving me a 20k look. The leds are still acclimating slowly once they reach full intensity I may start to extend the whiter photoperiod.

I added an additional Zeo reactor back in December as I’m using the fm automatic one and wasn’t getting enough flow through 2l of stones in the one reactor.


I had some cyano issues in December so I re evaluated my dosing and have been dosing the following over January.

Daily- 0.4ml zeostart 3, 4 drops sponge power & 10ml of k balance(set up on a doser and adjusted to tests)
Mon- b balance 8ml, zeobak 8drops
Tuesday- biomate 8 drops
Wednesday- b balance 8ml then 16drops cyano clean and 8ml a balance in the evening
Thursday- 8 drops zeobak
Friday- 8ml b balance, 8 drops biomate
Saturday- 10% waterchange then evening 16 drops cyano clean and 8ml a balance
Sunday- 8 drops kaliumiodidefluor

The cyano has cleared up but still get the odd patch. The coral tissue has started to pale out slightly but some of the acros deeper in the tank have darker tissue but I’m starting to see it become paler I have an Aussie acro that looks brown with a blue hue to the polyps however the base tissue is starting to show a nice golden yellow in places. A lot of the coral has been basing out considerably and some are really exploding with growth now. I have started adding cv a few times a week and polyp extension has been positively affected.
My last test results (due to test again today) where
No3- 0.25
Po4- 0.02
K+- 400
Ca- 470
Alk- 6.6 (very stable I test daily)
Mg- 1400

On a whole the tank seems very happy and it’s looking good just waiting to see those pastel colours. The tank is now 6 months old water was added in July so I’m sure it’s just a waiting game.
Here are some pics of the tank now that it’s pretty much full... (apologies for iPhone pics they don’t do it justice)






the growth on that Millie has been unreal its grown about 3x the size it was 4 months ago

the dark acro with yellow showing through








sponge growth in the sump
newest addition pic doesn’t do it justice it’s a metallic turquoise colour



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[jacky]

It looks good. From your narrative, many corals disappear a lot. Can you know why?

I like simple descriptions and layouts. You are a player who loves nature corals. It's great.Forever story version, I enjoy it and look forward to the next update.

[Craig the plumber]

Originally Posted by jacky

It looks good. From your narrative, many corals disappear a lot. Can you know why?

I like simple descriptions and layouts. You are a player who loves nature corals. It's great.Forever story version, I enjoy it and look forward to the next update.

Thanks I’m pretty pleased with how it’s looking
Not really had a lot of coral death I lost a few due to stn in the beginning but think this was just down to placement. I have been tracking the main 3 ca, alk and mag I also track potassium and occasionally test for strontium and iodide but with the hobby grade kits I think I’m just going to start to do a triton test monthly I was talking to vince over at aquarium connections and he was saying about the new triton n-doc test and how it could potentially be used to dial in dosages of the base additives (bak, start3 and food7) so might start to do one of each for a few months just don’t know if I can justify another £65 each month but could at least try it for a few months to dial it in a bit then do once every few months.


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[jacky]

Originally Posted by Craig the plumber

Thanks I’m pretty pleased with how it’s looking
Not really had a lot of coral death I lost a few due to stn in the beginning but think this was just down to placement. I have been tracking the main 3 ca, alk and mag I also track potassium and occasionally test for strontium and iodide but with the hobby grade kits I think I’m just going to start to do a triton test monthly I was talking to vince over at aquarium connections and he was saying about the new triton n-doc test and how it could potentially be used to dial in dosages of the base additives (bak, start3 and food7) so might start to do one of each for a few months just don’t know if I can justify another £65 each month but could at least try it for a few months to dial it in a bit then do once every few months.


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Thank you

[Craig the plumber]

Few pics I downloaded from my camera With macro lens





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