Marks 132l

[thefirethief]

Long post... got carried away. Let me know if the pictures take long to load and I'll resize.

As much as I am a fan of deep reef tanks I like the rugged, almost primitive look of a lagoon style tank with lots of Macroalgaes, rubble and bright white lighting. Thats the direction I'm heading in although it will be far from a biotope. I also use plants in my FW tanks for nutrient export and find it gives me peace of mind that they will do the job better than anyhting else, so thats the thinking behind the Macros too. Nothing too fantastic in my setup, just keeping it simple.

Tank
32" x 14 x 18
132L

Parameters
pH 8.2 although drops to around 7.8 after a few weeks.
SG 1.025
Temp 79/26
Calcium 40ppm
Nitrates 0/undetectable

The tank doesn't seem to have needed a cycle as I've never had ammonia, nitrite or nitrates. May be due to the freshness of the. LR The water has been circulating for about 7 weeks, added live sand about 5 or 6 weeks ago and the rock arrived in bits n bobs for a few weeks, added the last 5KG about a fortnight ago. I also hoped the Calcium level would be higher as the salt I'm using reef crystals but I can aaaalways dose it. I've yet to test for phosphate although I'm going to add a remover tomorrow because I've been getting some brown algae (diatoms?).


Inhabitants
I'm hoping to have...
Jawfish (pearly or blue spotted)
Scooter dragonet

Some interesting mid-dwellers, bangaii cardinal maybe?

Some easy to keep corals, mushrooms, ricordea, leathers zooanthids.

Just now the tank holds ...

5 blue legged hermits
2 turbo snails
Critters from the LR including some calcerous macroalgaes, feather dusters and unknown polyps.

Coral...
Porite w/christmas tree worms and other unknown inverts.

Filtration
I decided to go the Live rock + Skimmer method, not quite berlin as I've got a sand bed.
15KG LR and 1KG LR rubble from live-rock.co.uk
Tunze DOC 9002 Skimmer, as recommended by quite a few folk here.
And of course the Macroalgae. I've read a lot of conflicting evidence about running a skimmer with Macro's but I'll see how I get on.

Circulation

1 x Koralia 1 (1200 Lph)
2 x Maxijet 600's (600Lph Each) to eliminate dead spots

18 x turnover per hour which is a bit much so I'm thinking of putting the MJ's on timers which will to help with flow direction too.

Substrate

Crushed coral from my decent LFS's display tank. Added oyster grit last night to try bring the pH up and to add some grain variation if/when I get a jawfish.


Lighting
Good question. I've got nothing light demanding just now so its the 2 x 18W bulbs i got with the hood until I decide on how I'm going to construct my hood. The tanks going to need to be covered due to the fish I want to keep however I'm going for 150W metal halides to try keep any Macro's I get healthy and for aesthetic value. I'm also unsure of whether I want actinics or not.

The leading plan so far is to construct a 4 sided hood with eggcrate in the middle and have either a suspended MH or somehow fit a bracketed unit on. As for which unit, that's another good question. I've heard mixed things about the EQJ units so I've considered the arcadia series 4 pendant or even this unit which I could fit to the wall behind the tank. Any ideas/recommendations welcome!



Speil over....

Apistia?

There ye go. I know I've got issues that will need flattening out so hopefully you can all keep me right.

 

[SkiFletch]

Great start. Love the christmas tree worms

18x flowrate isn't much at all, you'd be surprised

 

[_daniel]

NIce looking tank man. Cool worms too! And I love your rock work.

 

[thefirethief]

Thanks guys, the worm rock was actually an impulse buy which I should never have done. I didn't realise it was an SPS I was buying so I really need to upgrade my lighting and up the calcium levels as soon as possible.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Looks really good! I like the arrangment on the rock work and really like the smaller bits and rubble you have around the base which I think makes it looks so much more natural (I plan on adding a fair amount of rubble around the base of my rock when I get it set up to).

There are loads of places putting coral and lots of swim space and hidy holes for livestock, I think its going to look stunning with a few corals in there

 

[littleme1969]

Looks good Nice rock work. Your middle pic looks more like a button polyp than a glass anenome to me. uniform tendrils tend to give it a way. Anenomes tend to be of different lengths.

 

[thefirethief]

Looks good Nice rock work. Your middle pic looks more like a button polyp than a glass anenome to me. uniform tendrils tend to give it a way. Anenomes tend to be of different lengths.

Ah thats good news, I've got a few of them kicking about the rockwork. Just noticed my phosphates have crept up and nitrates are at 20ppm . Time for the first water change I think.

 

[thefirethief]

Thought I'd post a photo update with my progress. Things still look slightly bare and I'm still getting some of the Macroalgaes under control but I've got some nice mushrooms and yellow zooanthids in quarantine so I'll get photos of them in once things are settled. I've also introduced a firefish and 2 catalina gobies which in hindsight, might not be ideal as they prefer slightly lower temperatures. Jawfish to (hopefully) come soon! Oh, and nice flatworm infestation as you can see.

flatworms

 

[SkiFletch]

Wow that's a lot of flatworms

Might wanna try a flasher wrasse or pseudochromis in there to control that pest problem

 

[thefirethief]

Yep, and that photo is just a few inches of substrate. They are literally all over the place and I think they might be the reason my zooplankton population has all but disappeared. I'm thinking of adding a six line wrasse but I'm going to wait till my jawfish have settled in before adding anything too lively.

 

[Redstratplayer1]

How do you like the Doc 9002?

 

[thefirethief]

How do you like the Doc 9002?

I'm can't really say much as its my first skimmer and don't have anything to compare it to but but it easily fits to the side of the tank and produces nice thick dark brown skimmate once settled in. I bought it on the recommendation that it was silent however its a bit noisier than I expected, I have to turn it off at night if I'm sleeping in the same room although I leave it on through the day and its virtually un-noticable. I'm not sure how noisy most skimmers are though, might be quieter than most. Seems to do the job well. Because of the noise I skim periodically but if i leave it on for a few days it works wonders for the water clarity. Chuffed with it anyway.

 

[littleme1969]

Tanks looking good despite your infestations. I think I must have too much clean up crew as I never get any pest issues. The macros look natural too and add a nice dimention to the tank

 

[thefirethief]

Thanks littleme! I've got a few macroalgaes in there and a few of them aren't actually doing too well so I'm considering dosing various nutrients. Still undecided so I'm just leaving things to grow naturally just now before I start pulling bits out and messing around with nutrient dosing, which is my planted tank pet hate. Hopefully things will start to look really nice over the next few months, I'll get some new pictures up when/if they do!

 

[chrissaysyes]

Keep it up man, the macros look nifty