CaptCrash's Tank Journal 6x2x2

[CaptCrash]

Introduction:
I’m new to Marine Aquariums and am just starting out. In the past my girlfriend has kept tropical fish and we have some goldfish. So no real experience to speak of in marine.

We are both into motorbikes (track and road), I also keep and breed snakes and have 14 at the moment of various species (10 x stimpsons pythons, 2 x carpet pythons and 2 x black headed pythons).

We are in the process of setting up a marine tank.

Ill look to add some pictures once its not just a big box of water.

System Objectives: Soft Coral and fish
System Type: Mixed Reef

Display System:
Strike up Date: 19/10/2009
Display Tank: 6' x 2' x2'
Display Lighting: Lighting (10000k lighting in white and blue)
Stand: Wooden Cabinet (Pine, second hand)
Hood: Wooden Cabinet (Pine, second hand, needs some adjustment and is currently not in use)
Sump: Two Sump's.

Sump 1
Refugum, with macro algae
Includes bubble trap for incoming water and sensor probes for Profilux
Return pump assists with water movement to Sump 2. This is also controlled by the Profilux with a water level sensor.

Sump 2
Houses return pump, heaters and skimmer
Includes DIY bubble trap and skimmer housing to raise water level to skimmer operating level
Live rock has been added

Sumps are connected with DIY over the top plumbing

Refugium: TBA - Sump 1.
Refugium Lighting: LED Lighting installed.
Two small LED fixtures running 12 hours each per day.

Support systems:
System Water: Artificial salt water
Display Water circulation: 2 x Tunze 6105 Nano Stream Power Heads connected to Profilux II Ex controller.
Soon to be added 2 x Tunze 6060 Power Heads connected to Profilux controller
Return Pump:Tunze 3000l/h return pump.
Skimmer: Tunze 9015 Protein Skimmer
Heater: 2 x Aqua One 300W heater
Chiller: TBA
Evaporation Top Up:Manual

Chemical Support:
Calcium Addition: TBA
Alkilinity Addition: TBA
Other Chemical Maintenance: TBA
Current Water Chemistry: If applicable
Nitrates: TBA
Phosphates: TBA
Alkalinity: TBA
Calcium: TBA
Salinity / Specific Gravity: 1.022
Magnesuim: TBA

Images:


The story so far
1. Cleaned the inside of the tank (as it was second hand and had not been used for 2-3 years)
2. Checked for leaks
3. Plumbing for both overflow and return
4. Installed the Sump (came with the tank)
5. Calculated the volume of the tank and the level of water drop on power outage
6. Added a second sump to hold overflow water
7. Plumbed sumps together
8. Added power heads and return pump
9. Checked that everything works
10. Added sand
11. Added salt
12. Processing water
13. Added some base rock
14. Protein Skimmer added
15. Existing lights need to be placed on tank, they work, but I am waiting till I place more rock into the tank so that they need to be moved the minimum amount of times.
16. Tested water and No cycle appears to have started. 28/10/2009
17. Large amount of base rock added and a structure started, has small amount of "Live" but more live rock will need to be added. 2/11/2009
18. 28/10/2009 two crabs added to sump with some rock and food (I know its naughty but they needed a home and were not going to like their other options)
19. Tested water and No cycle appears to have started. 5/11/2009
20. Setup of a salt water storage bin
21. Setup of a fresh water storage bin
22. Making a second overflow for the tank via an over the top weir design

Items to be completed
Install of RO/DI water filter
setup of a quarantine tank

At this stage the intent is to get some live rock going in the next week, then around Christmas if all is well to add some fish and learner corals (if there is such a thing).

The goal is to have a reef setup with a small load of fish (and maybe an eel).

The focus at the moment is deciding on lighting, rocks etc and reading as much as I can from books and the internet.

I have descided to go with LED lighting rather than MH so that I might be able to go without a chiller. But we will see how this goes. In terms of the LEDs.

worst case I have some interesting work lights for the shed.

regards

Darren

[CaptCrash]

It looks like good things are going on.

I have brown alge in the tank (quite a bit) on old rock, glass, power heads etc.

I have tested the water over the last few days, and the Amonia is 0, Nitrate/Nitrite is moving around a bit.

As of yet no water changes have been performed, just topups with fresh water.

I moved to using a Refractometer rather than the plastic tool I had before and it shows that I am at 1.028 rather than the 1.022 that the other tool presented.

My RO/DI unit has arrived and I will get it running this week, and add some more top up water.

My Profilux has also arrived, so it to can be installed. That will also give me some more regular measurements on the tank.

I seem to have quite a bit of life on the Live rock, including various worms, a few small shrimps and crabs and a transparent mushroom looking thing. Plus some worms that look to fish with a long line (Spionidae Worm maybe).

Ill try to identify what these are and/or post some photos.

[CaptCrash]

On looking into what some of the "life" was it turns out its Aiptasia. So Ill look to get rid of it.

Though at the moment, there is not a lot for it to harm.

RIP, Joes Juice is great stuff.

[CaptCrash]

Wier Overflow is now completed and has been running in the garage for 4 days now.

Have ended up removing the Durso's and am just tuning the draining noise with ball valves.

This gives me a lower water level that I will then make higher with the wave controller (that I cannot really use at the moment as the water is to high).

[CaptCrash]

Heaps of updates,

We now have life in the tank in the form of

2 x Amphiprion ocellaris (Ocellaris Clownfish)
2 x Nemateleotris magnifica (Fire Goby)

1 x Green Bubble Tip Anemone
5 x Corrals of various forms

Clean Up Crew
2 x Hermit Crabs
6 x Turbo Snails (now 5 as one did not make the first night)
5 x Peppermint shrimp

Hitch Hikers
1 x Anemone Crab
Bristle Worms (2 spotted so far)
Feather Duster Worms (3 spotted so far)
many small snails
massive numbers of small tube worms

The tank now has the Profilux controller working, this control's the following

LED Lights on and off (leds also have controllers that turn on and off 1/3 of the pannel at various times)
Water control between the Refugium and Sump
Power control to all devices
Wave Making via Tunze 6105's
Probes for monitoring
* Temp
* PH
* Redox
* Conductivity

Most of the management of the Profilux is just controlling basic stuff.
But alarms are working for most things, warning me if they are out of the norm.

Next up is Internet Access to the tank and having it email me if there is an issue. :-)

[Lukey]

Picturessss......