Majesticangelfish's 115g SPS ZEOvit Reef [TOTM Nov07]

[majesticangelfish]

Winner TOTM November 2007

G'day!

SO what has majesticangelfish been up to??

Well, after coming back from a holiday in the states in X'mas ‘05, I found
myself with a 99% tank crash due to Kalkwasser.
While in the states I set up a reef in Atlanta GA. Old 50g SPS/LPS cube


I'm finally ready to present the thread of my new 115g (430L) ZEOvit Reef!

I'm going to start a detailed story on the life of this tank,
whilst also providing positive feedback for the appropriate
sources for equipment and livestock.

First a little about me: I’m a student at Flinders University,
in my final year for undergrad in Aquaculture. I'm planning
to do honours and study stony coral Aquaculture and Ecology,
specifically methods to increase growth rates.

My goals for this system are to produce a unique open-aquascape,
with optimal water quality and physical parameters for SPS growth
and colour. The tank will run pure T5 and mostly DIY equipment,
I have been a “ZEOhead” since the RC “ZEOvit flame-war” days
, (mid-late) 2004, and plan to use this system (or hybrid).


Nikon D50 f4 1/50s ISO200 11,000K

FTS 3/4/07
I hope you all enjoy and benefit .

stay tuned...

[majesticangelfish]

Idol reefs:
1) Edward’s (invincible569) USA. New300g rimless and Old DTOTQ

2) Yasuhiro’s Japan. Blue Lagoon

3) Marko’s Reef Finland. T5 ZEOvit Reef

4) Peter's Netherlands. showroom system

5) Umbopa's Japan. Japanese Reef

6) Daniel Gan's Singapore (danano) 110g T5 tank

7) James’ (naka) USA. 180 Starphire tank

[majesticangelfish]

A few more pics of my system:
Please visit my flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/7628469@N02/ for High-Res copies
Acropora sp.

Acropora millepora

[majesticangelfish]

Acropora sp.

Seriatopora hystrix

[majesticangelfish]

Acropora sp. corals

Actinic+ and Super Actinic shot of Acropora sp.

[majesticangelfish]

Pyjama cardinal

Anthia

[majesticangelfish]

Tridacna squamosa


Tridacna squamosa

[majesticangelfish]

Duncanopsammia

[majesticangelfish]

Acropora sp.


Equipment/History coming tomorrow.

[old_mr2]

Beautiful colours mate!, and not a single MH light to be found. Congratulations!

[Rod the Reefer]

Hey Josh,

Were you up all night putting this thread together??

VERY impressive mate!!



Rod.

[Camocean]

Great colour and some nice looking specimens.

I await the history and more information eagerly.

And some of the non fish related technical photos - sump etc

Keep up the good work

Ian

[nanomilk]

As always beautiful tanks.

Can you show me more pics of the duncan. I've only ever seen them in a pale beigy pink colour which I never found really attractive.. Yours looks GREEN though. Never knew they came in more colours.

[Ross B]

Very nice champ keep it up

[Dunny]

Awesome looking tank and amazing pics...cant wait to see more.
And some great links too. I LOVE Naka's tank

[Mr Miagi]

And some of the non fish related technical photos - sump etc

He should have some great macro shots of his equipment!

[majesticangelfish]

Beautiful colours mate!, and not a single MH light to be found. Congratulations!

Thanks! Yeah I would only go back to MH if I could source Japanese spotlight MHs at reasonable prices. Loving the T5s, may add some HO LEDs for shimmer later.

Were you up all night putting this thread together??

Yeah night owl Havn't forgotten about that salt have you?

Great colour and some nice looking specimens.
I await the history and more information eagerly.
And some of the non fish related technical photos - sump etc
Keep up the good work
Ian

Thanks mate, equipment info coming soon.

As always beautiful tanks.

Can you show me more pics of the duncan. I've only ever seen them in a pale beigy pink colour which I never found really attractive.. Yours looks GREEN though. Never knew they came in more colours.

Cheers, Yeah started the usual brown colour from LFS, but coloured up nicely. It's now right at the bottom, of the 20" deep tank. I gave a frag to a mate, but it lost it's colour after being in a softy/macro nano tank with less flow and PC light.

Ross and Dunny,
Thanks guys

[majesticangelfish]

And some of the non fish related technical photos - sump etc

He should have some great macro shots of his equipment!

LOL you mean this:

[Mr Miagi]

Classic.

How was Fish Bowls weekend BTW, no one replied in the MASAOG forum.

[majesticangelfish]

And some of the non fish related technical photos - sump etc

Being an "Equipment Junky" I know how you feel, however believe it or not, I'm not running much Equipment at all For the Moment. Simple 200L(net) sump,
with Jager 250w heater, Eheim 1262 Return, Skimmerless, two little fishes Phosban reactor for ZEOvit and small cup of ROWAphos. Carbon in
mesh bag. I also don’t have the hood yet. I’m still collecting Acrylic tools and parts to build some very cool stuff, but that comes later the wait
should be worth it… (I hope!)

Here is the Iwaki MX70 CL (with two Penductors) it's literally the heart of the system.

[majesticangelfish]

:roflmao: Classic.

How was Fish Bowls weekend BTW, no one replied in the MASAOG forum.

Yeah they had some good specials (lots of Bangaii), but nothing that really grabbed my attention (cough sps), they did have an awesome Chevron Tang, but at $490 or something... well....

[majesticangelfish]

System Startup:
This system was filled in July 2006, and uses a modified RO/DI from Peter at PSIfilters .
I’m currently using IO salt. Still trying to source Tropic Marine ProReef
or Korallen Zucht’s Reefers Best, true “reef salts” (due to low Potassium,
Calcium and Magnesium in IO salt).

I used some left over dead LR from the crash of 2005, and seeded this
with new rock from Peter at Oceanarium (always been very happy with Peter’s service and
livestock). The LR had lots of interesting critters, I can still find new things!
As always, I’ve been waging war against Acro eating
crabs and mantis shrimp, one is still conducting guerrilla warfare on me,
and clicking away at night…

[majesticangelfish]

Aquascape

The LR is arranged in two bommies, with a low rise connection between
them. The tank is 6’ (183cm x 45cm x 50cm), but I decided to only use 4’,
to have a darken area on either side, to help distract from the pumps/penductors
also giving plenty of room for the fish. When I build my lighting hood,
I may add some extra reflective material on the ends of the T5 to
decrease stray light to the sides.

[majesticangelfish]

Stocking

The tank was slowly setup (July 2006), giving plenty of time for this mesocosm to develop the
various cycles to mature. After setting up a many systems, I believe giving your reef
ample time, especially during the early stages is a key to success. Only one fish, the
Pyjama Cardinal, the sole surviving fish of ’05 was introduced to the tank, no other
fish were added, as I feel this puts too much predatory stress on the establishing
zooplankton, it also means you can reduce feeding. The tank was also slowly stocked
with coral, mainly frags from various reefers in MASAOG and random colonies from Adelaide’s
LFSs. Three months ago (Jan '07) the Anthias were introduced, from Reef and River (LFS),
also a large red brittle star, and one large Catalaphyllia. In the last two months a large
LFS here in Adelaide broke down its manjo-overrun display and sold nearly all the
corals. I got lucky and picked-up many of the browned out SPS, most of which have
really improved in colour in a short time. Just last week, a shipment came in from
Peter at 100% Reefsafe, with one juv. Majesticangel (something I have been after for
about 4 years!), one large Tiger-coloured Tridacna squamosa and one purple plating
montipora sp.. Very happy with Peters packaging better than stuff I’ve seen from the Solomon’s to the
US. Customer service was great too. .

[majesticangelfish]

Currents

I’m using a BB system, to aid in reducing a major nutrient sink (IME) and detritus
settling locations. BB also allows me to have the current I do. An Iwaki MX70
(through a supplier in Singapore) on a CL with dual penductors
Premium Aquatics (USA) provides the majority of flow within the tank.
The Iwaki is a pressure rated pump, meaning it can utilize the Penductors design to
increase output by (claimed) 5x at 10PSI. Personally I hate to use “X LPH turnover”
when describing in-tank current, IMO It’s a bit like using wattage/gallon when
describing light. Without measuring the velocity of the water, I can say that the
Anthias cant swim in a straight line from one side to the other, the water surface is
anything but still and the acro polyps are always moving. There was one slight dead
spot, on top of the left bommie, this has been corrected by a Tunze 6060, connected
to the actinic light photoperiod timer. IMO Current is the most important variable in
our systems. Water current sets up concentration gradients, allowing the corals to get
the nutrients and feed they need, while flushing the wastes. More Info HERE

I’m using an Eheim 1262 as a return from the sump. The sump consists of a
temporary 200L tank, to be changed to a much smaller acrylic sump. The Acrylic
sump will be my own design, I’m aiming to incorporate some type of detritus settling
trap (centripetal acceleration or simple baffles) with an automatic WC
idea I’m developing. Whilst I do agree with having a large sump for water quality
stability, this system is in my bedroom, and I just don’t have the room.

[majesticangelfish]

Skimmer

Belive it or not, the tank has been running for around 4 months skimmerless! As the turboflotor
pump burnt-out. It’s replacement is still in the designing phase.
I’ll post it here when that skimmer is done…

[majesticangelfish]

Supplements

Using IO salt, I find I need to dose lots of supplements to reach natural levels and meet the coral and bacterial demands.

My Calcium, Alk and Magnesium are tested (with Salifert) and corrected via CaCl2, MgCl2 and Bicarb manually.
I’ve ordered a Grotech TEC 3 Channel dosing pump, from Charles at Seame and plan to use the Balling Method (in German)
for a while and compare that to the classical Ca Rxtr + Kalk method, when I get the reactors built!
A Potassium Testkit (Korallen Zucht) will be coming at the end of this month.
Due to the nature of using a bacterioplankton harvesting/feeding method potassium is depleted, and needs
to be corrected (IMO!). I have been dosing Potassium somewhat blindly in the last few months (via KCl, I think my blues have improved). I also dose
Strontium Chloride in a ratio of 100:5:0.1 Ca:Mg:Sr.

I also dose some of the ZEO supplements (Please visit http://www.zeovit.com for information regarding Zeovit)!

[Cale W]

Fantastic as always mate

[majesticangelfish]

Were you up all night putting this thread together??

I think "Lighting" will need to wait!

Stay tuned!



One of my fav corals and one of the casualties of 05', thanks to tip-offs by some MASAOG
members, I have two new specimens, both without the colour of the old one, but both getting better!


For anyone not in a MASA society, please consider joining. You dont know what your missing!

[Scooby]

Great work Josh, I am looking forward to seeing this "in the flesh" in a couple of weeks time.

Regards