Basenji's 3x2 Project - new pics 25/3/16

[Basenji]

Introduction:
The time has come to upsize my 2 foot nano to provide a little more room for my pair of Amphiprion ephippium (fire clownfish), in a system with the flexibility to create a quality display to fit in our lounge room.

System Objectives:
Stable, easy to maintain system that looks great.

System Type: Aiming for a dedicated anemone and clown tank.

Display System:

Strike up Date: Targetting September 2012

Display Tank:
36" x 24" x 20"
Square corner weir with two standpipes
Closed loop with 2 intakes on back wall and 2 returns in base of tank

Display Lighting:
Yet to be determined. Would like to go with LED's, but may end up with T5 or halides yet.

Stand:
Pine.
Doors on front and both sides of tank
Jarrah stain and varnish

Hood: Hood specifications.
None

Sump:
2' x 1.5' x 1.5' divided into 3 sections

Refugium:
N/A

Refugium Lighting:
N/A

Support systems:

System Water: Combination of Natural salt water and/or Instant Ocean

Display Water circulation:
Closed loop Mag drive pump (Rated at 3600 L/h). May need to be upgraded in due course

Return Pump:
Eheim 1262 (Rated 3400 L/h @ zero head)

Skimmer:
Yet to be determined.

Evaporation Top Up:
ATJ Version II DIY with Williamson peristaltic pump

Chemical Support:

Calcium Addition:
Calcium chloride

Alkalinity Addition:
Sodium bicarbonate

Other Chemical Maintenance:
Combination magnesium sulphate / magnesium chloride

Current Water Chemistry:
N/A

[Basenji]

This system has been in the back on my mind for quite some time.
Things finally hit the road when I got the chance to buy a 3x2 tank, cabinet, sump, plumbing and lighting from MASS Founding President, Gavan Harrison.

First task was to freshen up the cabinet.
Stand has had a new floor installed. Stained finish has been touched up and revarnished.
Hinges and handles replaced.




I decided to install an enclosure within the cabinet to contain electricals.






Of course, nothing is ever easy, and the electrical box position has meant having to realign all the plumbing. It turned into a much more complex task than I would have thought. But it's coming together.

[terbit]

Looks Great Colin.

[parrdog]

[mason91]

I like the idea of an anemone/clown focused tank. Interested to see how it goes tanks looking the goods thus far!

[wmackay]

Looks good mate!! Decided on a light yet?

[Jim]

I like the idea of an anemone/clown focused tank.

+1. I remember seeing one years ago, cant remember who owned it though. Was a great looking tank.

Best of luck, I will be following along.

[Basenji]

Looks Great Colin.

:with you:

Thanks guys. Progress has been slow, but its a start

I like the idea of an anemone/clown focused tank. Interested to see how it goes tanks looking the goods thus far!

+1. I remember seeing one years ago, cant remember who owned it though. Was a great looking tank.

Best of luck, I will be following along.

The idea all comes simply from the need to upgrade my nano for one pair of clowns. The female is a really cranky piece of work, so choices for fish tank mates are pretty limited.
I don't want to just do another SPS reef, so figured this might make the project interesting.
Have seen a few threads from overseas boards on stunning anemone tanks. No idea whether I'll even come close to replicating.

Looks good mate!! Decided on a light yet?

No, I haven't. The setup I purchased came with a substantial timber hood and 250W halide. However I prefer not to have a hood, and would like to avoid the heat associated with the halide.

The nano that this tank will be replacing currently has a 2 foot Inwatter LED unit. I had thought of buying a second Inwatter, and running two of them front-to-back on the tank.
But there are quite a few more varied spectrum options in LED coming out at the moment, so might just keep my powder dry in the short terms until I see the results from some of the new units.

If all else fails, it would be hard to go wrong with an ATI T5 unit.

[dejavu]

Hey Colin! Looking good. That old nano was a simple but cool tank. Love to see how this one turns out.

[Basenji]

Tank now in position. Starting to take shape.

[RedSeaSharks]

Good to see you're still reefing!

I'm about to launch into a similar tank so will be watching closely. Hope it goes well.

[cody.sheridan-2008]

*easy to maintain* system that looks great

looking good, can't wait to see it going I'm setting up a two tier 4ft rack ATM for nem propagation and peppermint shrimp breeding.

[Basenji]

Have just finished having a week's holiday at home, and was able to make some good progress on the 3x2 project.

Tank has been freshwater tested successfully. There were a few niggling plumbing issues, but have now been sorted.
I've ended up replacing the closed loop pump with a ECO DC GXB-8000 Pump due to a noisy bearing on the 2nd hand magdrive pump I'd originally intended to use. Very happy so far with this affordable, low energy consumption, high flow pump. Will remain to be seen how it performs longer term, but it seems to be doing the job nicely so far.

After the freshwater test, the tank was drained, and has now been refilled with the salty stuff
Twin standpipes in weir have been configured as full syphon retricted by ball valve, and secondary Durso as backup, and it is running as close to silent as I think I will ever achieve with any tank.
Must say I'm pretty happy with the noise level (or should I say, the lack thereof!).

Only thing remaining is to finalise the configuration of the pipes on the closed loop return (on the base of the tank), and then it will be on to the fun stuff of aquascaping.
I've got a bunch of base rock that has been cycling in my shed tank for about 4 months now, so that should get things kicked off nicely once transferred.

Still undecided on lighting, and starting to narrow down the decision on a skimmer.
Sorry, no updated pics yet. Will get some uploaded once the aquascape starts shaping up.

[Basenji]

Managed to have a shot at aquascaping over the weekend.
Rock is all recycled rock that I bought dry from another hobbyist. Most of it has been in my quarantine tank in the shed for around 3-4 months.

I had a dry run on a template board on the bench to get an idea of how it was going to work before transferring to the new tank. I did my best not to keep rocks out of the water for any longer than possible.
Height and stability has been provided by 3 rock stacks with a concrete paver base and perspex rod (Spotlight blind rod), with other bridging rocks stacked loose.
I had an attempt at steadying it up further with KZ Speedglue, but whether it is user error or whatever, I was disappointed with how it worked. I left it for an hour or so to harden up before putting it in the tank, but then much of it just crumbled away to sand. I guess it may have worked better if I'd let it cure dry, but I was conscious of not wanting to entirely void the benefit of having spent the time cycling the rock.

Still not entirely happy with how the 'scape has turned out. I struggled a bit with the position of the closed loop returns in the base.
It may evolve a little over the next week or so. (Hell, I may yet start over from scratch)

Once I'm happy with the aquascape I'll finish stabilising with epoxy putty. (bugger the KZ Speedglue ) and then add 50mm sand bed.

Pics of progress to date:







Rocks glued with KZ Speedglue. Looks great until I added it to the tank and had it all disolve away. So much for the instructions that say it is supposed to work in or out of the water.








Top-down shot of aquascape

[Jim]

Looks good

[ssscuz]

Looks great mate. Just need to cover up this returns with a little rock.
Really coming together well though

[AlexD]

Looks very good! Quick noob question: The two black intakes in the middle of the back wall are the intakes of the close loop? Will the anemone be sucked into them?

[Basenji]

Quick noob question: The two black intakes in the middle of the back wall are the intakes of the close loop? Will the anemone be sucked into them?

Not such a noob question, just a very good point.
That's one of the things I'm not quite happy with.
Really struggling with getting a practical as well as aesthetic look whilst working around the existing plumbing. Just one of the challenges of buying a second hand rig I guess.

Will have another shot at it over coming days.

[cody.sheridan-2008]

Considering this is a nem tank, maybe it's a good idea to cover the outlets up with some foam or something in case they decide to take a ride up through your impeller...?

I think you could pretty effectively cover up the left hand inlet with a nicely shaped, arched, bit of rock. may provide a bit of a transition down to the sand bed.

[Basenji]

Considering this is a nem tank, maybe it's a good idea to cover the outlets up with some foam or something in case they decide to take a ride up through your impeller...?

I think you could pretty effectively cover up the left hand inlet with a nicely shaped, arched, bit of rock. may provide a bit of a transition down to the sand bed.

Was aiming to try and keep rock where possible. Unwilling to stack rock up against the left hand end of the tank because that is the corner that faces the rest of the room, so will be viewed most often from that direction. Hence my attempt at having the high point at the right end rear, and working down to sand in the left hand front.

The rock at the back is not actually that close to the CL inlets, it's a little deceptive in the photos. But I'll go back to the drawing board. There's no hurry on this project, so I'll keep trying until I get it right.

[cody.sheridan-2008]

[Basenji]

Latest 'scaping efforts are pictured below. I think this is probably the final arrangement for now.
Sand has been added, and skimmer has been cranked up to clear the water after sand addition. Have also been running a canister with some floss to help settle things down.

Light is still only temporary. Have a 2 foot inwatter on there at the moment. Tossing up whether to buy another 2 foot inwatter to run along side it, or to replace it with another fitting altogether. But this will do for the time being to start getting the tank established.













Have installed an ATC 800+ temperature controller for the heater. Will install some sump fans at some point, which will also be able to be controlled by the ATC. Must say this is a nice piece of kit for $30 including delivery from Hong Kong.




Skimmer is a H&H V2001. The waveline pump does a great job at driving this skimmer. There's a few things about the skimmer that I don't like so much, like the skimmer cup attachment and the dodgy outlet flow adjustment, but overall a reasonable performance for the price.




Just about ready to start thinking about stocking. Let the fun begin

[Basenji]

Finally got around to updating.
Installed a Maxspect Razor (R420R) LED unit about 4 weeks ago.




Added a Red Bubbletip Anemone at around the same time as the lights went in. (Thanks Sailfin/Wayne at Dockside Marine - awesome as always).
After wandering for a week or so, it settled down in an OK spot and is behaving itself nicely, but hard to get a good photo. Am hoping that with feeding it will grow and fill out.

Have also added a kole tang and a flame hawk.
The kole is destined for my main 4 foot tank, but I figured since the new tank was up and running, it would work well as a quarantine tank for the time being.
Photo really doesn't do justice for the anemone, which is bright red.


The tank itself is tracking pretty well. Have a bit of hair algae happening at the moment, but that's all par for the course with a young tank. Am confident that will sort itself out given a little time.

[greeni]

Very nice, neat build Colin Like the concept of a dedicated anemone/clownfish tank. I'm tagging along with this build

[still_chris]

WOW nice tidy sump wish i could say the same for mine

[terbit]

Looking great Col
How are you finding the Maxspect?
Brett

[Basenji]

Very nice, neat build Colin Like the concept of a dedicated anemone/clownfish tank. I'm tagging along with this build

Thanks Joe. Probably the most planning and patience that I've applied in setting up a tank. Just hoping that now the hardware is in place I can achieve the display that I'm after.

WOW nice tidy sump wish i could say the same for mine

They always start out nice and neat. Let's hope I can keep it that way.

Looking great Col
How are you finding the Maxspect?
Brett

Pretty happy with it so far. I've borrowed the MASS PAR meter, but haven't had a chance to test the tank yet. Will try to post some figures up at some point.
I quite like the styling of the unit, and the programming of the controller is pretty basic but simple to understand, and functional enough.
As far as bang for buck goes, I think it is very good for the price. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the higher end units, but I'm hopeful that it will do the job.
Time will tell whether it has what it takes with maintaining livestock, but for what it's worth, the red Bubbletip seems happy enough with the light it is receiving, admittedly after only 1 month.

[cody.sheridan-2008]

hey Colin, what diodes does the unit use? and colors?

Tank is looking awesome . Let me know when the nems start splitting haha

[Basenji]

hey Colin, what diodes does the unit use? and colors?

Hi Cody,
Details are all on the Maxspect website:
http://www.maxspect.com.au/index.php?op ... ifications

My unit is the 160W / M16000 version.
6 colour of LEDs split between two timer channels.

Let me know when the nems start splitting haha

If it does start splitting, they won't be cheap

[cody.sheridan-2008]

hey Colin, what diodes does the unit use? and colors?

Hi Cody,
Details are all on the Maxspect website:
http://www.maxspect.com.au/index.php?op ... ifications

My unit is the 160W / M16000 version.
6 colour of LEDs split between two timer channels.

Let me know when the nems start splitting haha

If it does start splitting, they won't be cheap

no problem