Tropical Fish Forums

[Dusko]

Hi all, long time no see
After maintaining my 58 lit. Nano-Reef for a year I thought about upgrading to a bit bigger tank (the way it goes )

I decided to dismantle my 180 litres planted tank and give it a new reef look

The way it used to look;


The clean up was messy, taking out all the soil, etc...it took a few hours;



I will keep the 2 x 30watts T-8 Juwel fixture. I added 2x 30watt T-8 Actinic Sylvania.
I also fixed 2x39 Watts Hagen Glo lights with 2x 39 watts T-5 Aquablue Giessman 15000K



I decided to test the new Ferplast Blue Skimmer designed for up to 250 litres tanks;

It has very handy magnets. Easy to attach


I used Instant Ocean salt;


Once the salt was well mixed I introduced 15kg of cycled LR and 18 kg of live sand (all from the Pet store I work at)

Tanks to the sand the water turned milky

The skimmer worked hard and after 48 hours the water started to look much better;


The water is circulated with 2 x 2300 l/h Koralia 2 and 1 x 1000 l/h AquaEl in which I placed the Phosphate Killer from Salifert.



Once the water cleared out this is how it looked. My idea is to create 2 islands. I will add more LR by choosing corals with lots of LR on them to get to about 1 kg of LR per 10 litres;



First corals introduced;

S. flexibilis changing day after day;

And then came the day when Diatoms took over;




Diatoms started disappearing but Hair algae took over instead;


I introduced a few Tectus niloticus snails and a few Blue/Red legged Hermits and the algae started to decline;
31th of Dec introduced 2 small A. ocellaris;


Tank photo made today 1st of January 2009;





Salinity - 1.023 (instant ocean salinity meter)
NO2 - 0ppm (Salifert)
NO3 - 0ppm (Salifert)
KH - 6dH (Tetra)
pH - 7.5 (hard to see on the Nutrafin test)

Since pH and KH seem low I will have to re-test with Salifert tests.

I wonder is this too little LR. It is kind of hard to create 2 islands in a 180 lit tank and have enough LR.
I am still deciding on which fish (and how many) I will add to this set-up
Since I will not have a stone wall with lots of LR I will have to compensate with adding LOTS of Soft/Leather corals which grow fast and can uptake nutrients faster (Sinularia, Sacrophyton, Anthelia, Xenia, Discosoma, Rhodactis, etc...)

My plan is to dose weekly (once most corals are in) Salifert Coral Grower (Ca, St + traces), Salifert Amino-acids, KH-Booster from Aquarium Systems and Bio- Magnesium from Tropic Marine. Iodine in form of Potassium Iodide from Aquarium Systems.
Bi-weekly wc 25 litres.

Thanks for reading.

Kind regards, Dusko
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[FISHBOY3]

Great looking tank so far.

IMO I would add more live rock becasue it is still too open for my tastes but maybe when you add more corals and they grow in that should fill in the spaces.

As for fish I always like wrasses and firefish, but its up to your personal tastes.

Hopefully the algae is defeated now.

[FloridaBoy]

Dusko,

Looks like you are on your way to a great soft coral tank, nice work.
I would consider removing most or all of that substrate down the road and adding more rock, but that's just me. Since your planted tank was stunning, I'm sure whatever you decide to do it will be even more beautiful than it is now. Best wishes for your continued success, here is a nice mixed reef setup that may give you some ideas and inspiration as you move forward...
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-12/totm/index.php
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Keepin' marines happy for 25 years

[MackEmmons]

Looks great so far Dusko.

You should double check the pH, and if it is actually that low, try and work to correct it. It should sit at about 8.3
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The Gymnogeophagus Study Group

[Funky Fish]

You make it look so effortless, it's going to look great. Make sure you post of a few pics as the tank grows. That Aquael filter you put in, would you recommend it? I wanted to find a small internal filter, just so I can run a polypad and to put my RowaPhos.
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Funky Fish

[James in OH]

do you have any updated pics?
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James in OH

[LordVolker]

Very nice, I like the two island set up your going for.

I would also like to know when you took down the freshwater tank, introduction of the corals and when the algae took over.

[Dusko]

Just a quick update;
The tank seem to be in order now. All algae are gone. I first got the diatoms, then hair algae which all disappeared thanks to the snails and hermits.

I am dosing Iodine (tropic marine) every 2-3 days one drop and I dose SAlifert's All In One once a week. I decided to perform monthly 20% water change instead of weekly (and see how it goes).

The actual look (I gave up on the island look);



I installed a surface skimmer and the surface film is gone now (was really bad before);



The AquaBee 500 is really noisy and for that reason I am running the surface skimmer for only 6 hours at night (can't hear it in my bed room)

I already have lots of equipment and no space for Active Carbon nor for Rowa Phos. I was thinking to buy an AquaClear pump which has a quick filter (to remove the particles) and has a bit of space to add some AC and RPhos.
Will see is it necessary (testing, testing).

[James in OH]

what a great looking tank!!!!!
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James in OH

[Flame Angel]

Wow looks great Dusko! as usual

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but I can't see it anywhere, do you have a finaly stocking list planned?

Keep the photos coming!