Diogo's First Salt

[Diogo Matias]

Hello,

I'm Diogo, 23 years, portuguese freshwater aquascaper for almost three years. I've been in nano-reef.com for about 1 year, reading and learning a lot. Now I think I'm ready to take one step into saltwater.

 

The tank

 

To take that step I will use an 2 gallon (8 litre) almost rimless cube.

 

 

Lighting

 

I ordered an 5*3W PAR30 bulb with CREE leds in ebay. Also I asked the seller to exange two cool white leds for 2 blue leds, and to send me both 60º and 45º lens. I think it would make an wonderful effect in that pretty cube. I expect that bulb in September's end, just in time to get the first livestock.

 

Arrived at 12/10/2010

 

Filtration

 

The biologic filtration will be made mainly by live rock. I will buy about 2 pounds of it.

Also I will install an Eheim Liberty 2042 (the biggest hang on filter that adjust in the back of the tank) with Seachem Pugien and planning to do a fuge.

 

5 lbs of live rock

 

Maintenance

 

I'm planning a simple DIY ATO. Just the water sensor and reposition pump connected in circuit. I'll post the construction latter.

Also planning to do weakly water changes with both synthetic salt water and Atlantic ocean water (depending on the time I get to go to the beach in winter).

 

Photo comming soon

 

Livestock

 

I'm really newbie at saltwater. So I'll start with the most simple: soft corals.

I hope to get a good collection of zoas, shroms and cloves. Some rics and acans may have place latter in tank.

 

Photo comming soon

 

Evolution

 

21-09-2010 Setup

 

10-11-2010

 

Note: I will update this post as the material arrives and tank evolves.

 

Hope you like it!

Best regards,

Diogo Matias

[LFPR]

Ola' Diogo,

Mais um portugues no n-r.com

 

Good luck with your first reef and remember... take it easy!

Luis

[Diogo Matias]

Ola' Diogo,

Mais um portugues no n-r.com

 

Good luck with your first reef and remember... take it easy!

Luis

 

Olá!

É óptimo saber que há mais 'tugas' aqui no nano-reef.com

 

Keep following

[Diogo Matias]

I'll get the live rock and coral sand tomorow.

Today I ordered pieces for my DIY ATO and for an DIY Vortech style pump that I'm planning to improve circulation. They should arrive in two weeks.

[Anthonymatheson]

Im following along too! Goodluuck!

[Enyo]

DIY vortech? Subscribed.

[Diogo Matias]

I've got the rock!

Pics coming!

[Diogo Matias]

 

I buyed about 5 lbs of cured live rock. However in the store I was unable to find any small rocks, so I have to brake this into several pices to make a good composition.

 

First question of the topic: What's this that I found in the live rock?

 

 

Best regards,

Diogo

[bmgrocks]

looks like an old favia skeleton.

if there happens to be any residual tissue it may come back,

if not....well...you know the rest

 

Looks like a great build

Keep it up!

[Diogo Matias]

Hope I had that luck!

But it seams having only coraline on it.

[Diogo Matias]

The tank is filled!

 

Pics in next post.

[Diogo Matias]

So... starting with the sand. It's some good looking coral sand. I hadn't use live sand because I belive that live rock and algae in the fuge will do the work well.

 

 

Next is time to prepare the tank. I added an black background because I belive it work well in Reef style tanks. Also it will help to hide equipment in the back of the tank.

 

 

Then i filled the bottom with about 2 cm high of sand.

 

 

And smooth it.

 

 

The rock that I get yesterday was too big for this tank, so I brake it about the middle. But even this way it still remains to big for the composition I imagined. So I keep braking it until get the pieces I wanted.

You can see the aquascaping work in the next GIF image.

 

 

The final rockwork is this:

 

 

It's a triangular layout with hiding places in the back of the main rock and good space to display some zoas, rics and polyps.

I filled it with natural sea water about 2 hours ago, and the water is almost clear, but my camera is out of battery so I'll post the filled pic tomorow.

 

Hope you like it!

[Phyto4life]

Nice.

[Diogo Matias]

Should I keep the light on or off when ciclying?

(I have an 8W T5 6500K light over it now).

[Mr. Microscope]

Welcome to nano-reef and to the pico community! Your thread looks great.

 

Awesome scape! I hope you put water in there.

[bxz]

Since u have the live rock, I would leave the lights on.

 

Should I keep the light on or off when ciclying?

(I have an 8W T5 6500K light over it now).

[.Newman.]

yes leave the lights on. about 4 hours a day should be good.

[lizardfish]

looks awesome ill be fallowing.

can you post a link to were you got your led light and diy vortec ?

[Diogo Matias]

looks awesome ill be fallowing.

can you post a link to were you got your led light and diy vortec ?

 

The light would come from Ebay, specifically from this seller. Until now I can only say that he is really nice! He made on propose que light I asked for a really good price.

 

The Diy Vortech is still just in my mind, but is inspired in this project. I hope it work!

 

Thanks Newman and bxz, i'll follow that advice.

 

Mr. Microscope, the photo is comming!

[LFPR]

ahhh... there's nothing like starting a new tank

[Diogo Matias]

[Mr. Microscope]

Splash! Well done!

I'd take your thermometer and stuff out of there. At least for photos. Just measure it a few times a day until you get a hang of the temperature swing. If you have decent flow, a stable heater, and a relatively temperature stable room you should be okay.

[Diogo Matias]

That's the floating densimeter I am using until the refractometer arrives.

I'll take it out for next pics

 

Question: When should I test the water for the first time? I was thinking doing that only after the first week because of the great initial instability.

[LFPR]

There is no rule when you should test the water: you can test it everyday from tomorrow on and witness the complete nitrogen cycle developing (and ending) or leave it for 1 or 2 weeks and measure it then. If you are not interested in the details, you can measure it every 2 or 3 days... maybe you will catch a nitrite spike at some point which tells you that you are "half" way through...

Until the diatoms come you can pretty much sit back and relax

[Diogo Matias]

I'll wait for diatoms then