Thanks mate It's really just a bunch of coral thrown in a temporary tank, nothing special really.

Overzealousness and careless oversight be my doom. I went from 57 Acropora to 0 in a matter of 24 hours. Despite my best efforts to stop it, my main display is now a milky soup full of stark white skeletons. It's depressing at best, but then again, it's definitely my own fault for playing loose with the rules. So... this tank is no more. At least, not until the new tank is set up and running stable. Plans have changed a bit, but that'll all come out later once the details are finalised.

For now, stocklist:

5x Dispar Anthias (Pseudanthias dispar)
8x Yellowstripe Cardinalfish (Apogon cyanosoma)
8x Indonesian Blackbar Chromis (Chromis retrofasciata)
1x Scott's Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus scottorum)
1x Decorated Firefish (Nemateleotris decora)
+ TBD "show species"

I'm hopefully getting the Chromis in the next few weeks, they'll sit in a low-salinity copper treatment for six weeks and then hopefully the display will be up. I'm focusing on colour and movement this time around. Ehhhh, oh well. Also doing a 55-LED array over it, whether I mount high and use optics or mount it low I'm yet to decide, but either way it'll be packing XP-Gs running at 1000mA and hopefully should give me some good results.

Reefing is ####### me off. I made dumb mistakes because I'm stressed the #### out, and I'm paying for it. I needed this break I think. Time to focus on the more important aspects of my world and hopefully save everything before it all falls apart any further...

Thanks Weetie just gotta keep swimmin', eh?

While perhaps slightly drunk last night, I decided I felt like a bit of a tinker... tried to come up with a plan for an aquascape and plans for flow, as well as a rough idea of what kind of colours and growth forms I want positioned where. Obviously the colours are much more outrageous than they'd be in life, but it's a basic plan to give me a decent bit of contrast and impact in the given space. I like bright things...



Basically, on the left I want tabling, plating, and uniform growth colonies to be the focus with a few stag-like forms to break it up, primary colours being purple, pink, and blue. On the right I want staghorn and non-uniform branching colonies to be the focus, with more yellow/green and pink to be the main focus at the front with blues and purples towards the back. For it I've tried to use φ as much as possible to give a visual continuity and aesthetic comfort, in a similar way to freshwater planted aquascapes (which I actually did before reefing, coincidentally...). I drew a lot of inspiration from Hu Haiwei's (Welles) Reef Central TOTM as this is one of my favourite tanks in the world right now. No small reason for that being that it shares almost identical proportions to my own tank...



The plan for flow. The 25mm return will be pointed roughly towards the front left corner where the MP40w will be situated to cut across the flow, with an MP10w ES situated on the back wall in roughly the centre of the tank to pulse against the MP40w. I will be running them in antisynchronous mode to allow for a more dynamic surge. This should aid in keeping particulate suspended, and also (at least I hope) help change direction of flow during high and low times. If I need more flow later, I'll look into a Tunze unit to put on the overflow pointing from the left to the right across the tank. This would be preferable if it was a controllable unit to give me a more random and dynamic pattern of surges similar to the reef crest I'm aiming for.


Thoughts? Comments? Critiques? Complaints?

Sounds like a pretty solid plan, Ben. I like it alot!

Cheers Chris, I'm really trying to think this one through. The joys of starting from the beginning and not in the middle... on that same point I've been planning more, attempting to render and trying not to look #### in doing so...










Basically, the stand is 150mm deeper than the tank itself, to accommodate for the pipework and a shelf for the dosing pumps and whatever other miscellanea I might need to store there. The sides will be held on with high-strength magnets, and as opposed to the original plan the entire front will open in one part instead of centre-open. I've decided this is a cleaner way to do things than having a pair of swing doors. The rear will be enclosed with a pair of 120mm fans running during light periods. The LED panels will be mounted roughly 750mm from the top of the tank, three separate arrays - the leftmost with a (4x3) pattern (4 front-to-back, 3 side-to-side), the middle and right with 6 front-to-back instead of side-to-side. These will be mounted by way of ball adjusters designed for speakers, on a lighting track suspended from the ceiling. Cabling will be contained within a single feed housing, and drivers/power supplies will be stored remotely. All arrays will have quick disconnects of some variety. Dosing suspensions will be contained remotely, as will top-off reservoir.

I like my tanks heavily stocked, so I'll be aiming for a lot of smaller species to fill out the stocklist. It's as follows currently:


Nemateleotris magnifica x1
Apogon parvulus x10
Apogon cyanosoma x10
Apogon leptacenthus x10
Pterapogon kauderni x5
Psuedanthias dispar x5
Chromis retrofasciata x3
TBD sp. x1

I expect it'll all be happening reasonably soon, just waiting for a few contracts to resolve to get some more dollars coming through. Then, it's full steam ahead...

This tank is going to be incredible.

Haha, that's the hope thanks mate, hopefully it won't disappoint!

I picked this up the other day from another reefer for $30...



Can anybody tell me what it is? I dunno. It was sold to me as a Nemo but I'm really not sure. The colours seem to be all wrong and stuff...

:jawdropsopen:

That's a $600 fish!

damn straight it is. Eventually I'm gonna try and get a small male for her, try my hand at getting a spawn. She came from a breeding pair so I know she will spawn in captivity. For the price I just couldn't say no, even if Clowns weren't my original intent this time 'round...

Positive: I'm making progress on the design stage of this tank, even to the point of inventing ridiculous flyers at 2 in the morning to try and cure insomnia.



Negative: the feed pump for my chiller spazzed out hardcore over the weekend, dropped from the back of the tank during the night and shattered the intake guard, sucking the Latz and 3 of my Chromis in and slicing them all to pieces. Yes. I did consider briefly giving up on fish and just staying with SPS... but then I realised I like fish and it was all good.


I swear to god, sometimes my reefing adventures could make a successful show of some kind, because there's always a lot of dramas for some reason and a ####load of laughs involved. Maybe I should market my memoirs?

I love getting paid twice in one day. ZEOvit gear is ordered (basic 4 + SpongePower), and I'm ordering my lights tomorrow. From there... once the stand arrives and some plumbing gear, it's strike-up time. Oh dear lord. I can feel it in my loins.

I wish your pictures worked.... What was the 600 dollar fish?

An Amphiprion latezonatus. Beautiful fish.

Woo progress

Aye, it's been bloody painful having to wait. I've had to wait for payments to clear because I'm being paid from abroad... thankfully I'll have about 90% of the gear I'm gonna need once these few things arrive.

Still to order:

• Tunze Wavebox Nano 6206
• Tunze Turbelle nanostream 6025
• PSI Filters PSI-019B-DI 4 Stage RO/DI Unit
• Tunze Osmolator Universal 3155.000
• Bubble-Magus NAC7 cone skimmer (decided against getting an ATB unit for now, my system is only tiny and there's no point getting a quality skimmer for 4-5x the system volume)
• Plumbing
• Live rock

It's all so close now...

Very close!

A lot of money left though

'bout a grand after all is said and done. Which isn't so bad really when you consider the rest of what I'll be using has set me back about 3.5x that amount good thing is I can progressively acquire it all too, none of it is really essential stuff I'll need for a few months yet, except maybe the RO/DI, the plumbing and the rock.

Then there's the livestock I've got in mind...

I like watching people spend their hard earned money on what they love...looks like a great build, and can't wait to see your tank showcasing your hard work....Are you still looking into balling light with a Profilux? If so, I can only give it praise, it's easy to program, dead accurate, and one of the best pieces of equipment I have. BTW, this is sweeeeet

That was one of my very favourite colonies I ever had. I got it the same day I met Anthony Calfo, it survived through a lot. Unfortunately when the tank crashed I lost it, right when it was starting to come back from having lost a lot of colour. I'm hoping to find another colony like it once I'm up and running again, he occasionally gets ones through but never with such nice colouration.

I'm gonna do some variation of Balling Lite and a few other methods I've seen (it's essentially a weird hybrid of 2-part, Balling, and Kalium dosing). Instead of the Profilux doser I've ordered a Bubble-Magus BM-001 unit, soon I'll be getting either 1 or 2 4-pump slave systems as well. Even with one slave unit (7 channels total) it works out much cheaper than the 4-channel stand-alone Profilux is here. I know a bunch of people using them who say they're spot-on which has given me confidence in it, even though deep down I would've preferred the GHL unit. But... can't say no to 11 channels of dosing pumps!

Basically looking at using the dosers to add a lot of my ZEOvit additives eventually, drawing from watered-down reservoirs so I can tune the input dosages as needed. Also looking at dosing zooplankton mix on two channels to feed the Anthias while I'm away. Save me a lot of effort... I've had entirely manual tanks for way too long now, it'll be nice to sit back and let it take care of itself...


Cheers buddy. I always love seeing your tank updates, it's one of my favourite systems on here

wow, that's a lot of dosing pumps, I used to dose 24 ml of vodka everyday, 1 ml a dose, 24 times, using the profilux..it is really nice to be able to automate your dosing schedule...with as many pumps as you will have, you thinking of auto water changes?

I had considered it, but with the ZEO I'm not sure I want to really automate the WC aspect of it. I like doing WCs by hand because it gives me an opportunity to inspect everything I need to closely, plus... it's a way to feel in touch with the system and not just an observer, y'know? As much as I want automation, I'd go nuts if it was all done for me.

I've gotta work out what I'm actually gonna dose with all those pumps and on what schedule. The BM units can deliver 1mL-9999mL every dosing period, 24 times per day as far as I know... lots of scope for what to do. To start with for the ZEOvit I only need to dose 4 things, half of them done with droppers... that'd probably more than run me well for the first few months. Time will tell as I've never really dealt with any of the more in-depth bacterial systems

I can tell you that starting your system with Zeo even Prodibio is beneficial. This is very critical especially if you are transferring a lot of animals into your new system...I was just dosing vodka and BioDigest every other week. I never had cyano, I really never got the diatom dusting on my sandbed...I didn't lose any coral, and all my fish survived. Another guy in my local club started his tank using Prodibio and he hasn 't had any loses that I am aware of...

Good luck with the Zeo...from what Ive seen, the product creates some of the greatest tanks around.

Aye, the systems deliver the results when done right and especially from the beginning, that's the main reason I've held off with setting up until my ZEO gear arrives. Luckily I won't have stock to put in there initially so I don't have to worry about transferring stuff, so it's less of a stressful occasion. Everything will be fresh though - rock, sandbed, pumps... no real source for any nasties. Never really had trouble managing nutrients though, I just see this as a natural progression of the husbandry I was already doing (carbon dosing + amino acid supplementation, feeding hard, skimming hard and doing frequent WCs).

What are you dosing on your system at the moment mate?

Im up to 245 ml of soda ash and Ca a day...I will suggest to initially start with the BRS calculator. And test ever couple of days, no need for daily testing..Start off with that dosng of a ml for everygallon..The other important fact was initially I tested, and thought I would have to dose my Ca at a 2:1 for the cats...I was told it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing to add that much more, other than the solutions should be used in a 1:1 ratio...,,,so even though my test said to dose 160ml of alk, it said to only dose 60 ml. of alk.so I decided to go with the advise and started at around 140 ml of each. The improved and stable ph as well as dosing many times during the day, has been great so far....I test my water for Ca and alk maybe once every couple weeks and add accordingly.

Sounds like a good method mate, I'll definitely keep it in mind when I set my dosing gear up. I don't see myself using a whole lot of either at first, I'm planning on starting out with primarily frags (see aquascape plan as to why) so should be slow for the first few months. From there I'll probably throw a few clams in the frag tank and get some small colonies to grow out... time will tell on that I think.

It's all so exciting. I've waited since September last year to make it this far, I think it's gonna be well worth it in the end...

Ordered some more stuff today. Getting 3 205L screw-top drums delivered next week from Tilkey, which can only mean one thing... I'm getting really bloody close to being there. Ordered my plumbing from Wet Earth, hopefully I've got everything I need because I've never done plumbing before... ZEO gear should arrive in the next few days from Michael @ Reefing Life... it's all getting very, very close...



Does that make sense...?

Wow, that's complicated!

Haha, it only LOOKS complicated. On a core level it's actually pretty damn simple really... like, moreso than most tanks I've seen...

Look what arrived in the mail this morning...






(yes, I realise I'm missing ZEObak - it's on backorder. I'm getting it sent when it comes into stock with some SpongePower, AAHC and Pohl's Coral Vitaliser...)

indeed

Also, Frohawks are so totally metal!

That sounds amazing! You order your skimmer yet?

Hellz yeah they are! I'm thinking of bringing it back to suit my beard...



I've got *A* skimmer, not the one I'm planning on using at the end though. Right now I've got a Marine Sources MS-150A-6340 which I'll be replacing with the Bubble-Magus NAC7. Current one is rated for 1400L so we'll see how it goes...

OMG DO EET!

and send me a pic....kthx

Lookin' Good!

Maybe I will...



Cheers buddy!


More good news. All my plumbing gear should get here on Monday or Tuesday, then really hot up. Also got a box of Caribsea Reef Rock coming sometime shortly as well so I can plan out my aquascape properly in the flesh (see here for aquascape mock-up, flow patterns have obviously changed to suit different tank positioning). From there basically all I need are my lights and my stand then I'm set to fill up. The having to wait is a killer...

Buried under a stack of porn (don't ask me, I'm as confounded as everybody else wtf it's doing on top of my stuff...), I got this when I got home...



Let the games begin, gents

Look what some mad bastard sent off to get welded up today...





Lights are coming. ZEObak and SpongePower are coming. Rock is coming. Tank is scraped down and ready to vinyl. Fish list is virtually finalised (with a few surprises...). QT tanks are ready to be filled and stocked. Chiller is cleaned out. Frag tank is emptied (still not drilled - want to decide whether to drill the "back" (which is actually the side...) or the "side"). LR is circulating in a bin. Bunch more stuff to order tomorrow. I'm either gonna have this sucker filled up by the day of the MASQ meet here in 2 weeks or go bat#### insane trying. Mark my words... this thing will turn heads.

This is going to be cool to see!

Woot!

Cheers guys

Update time.

• RO/DI ordered.
• Rock ordered.
• QT established.
• Tanks cleaned.
• Sump partially cleaned.
• Dosing pumps being ordered next week.
• ATO unit being ordered next week.
• Frag tank cleaned and drilled (finally... with the wrong size holesaw.. so now I've got a 25mm inlet and a 20mm outlet...)
• Oh, and this...
  
  
  ... also known as 135W of beautiful LED power (3 of 4 banks on 2 90W units...)

Not bad for someone who's been deathly sick and working 18 hour days since the weekend eh?

CUT THE GREEN WIRE!!!

:crickets:
Uh oh, mebbe he cut the wrong wire....

WATER !!!!!!!!

Nah, I went back to bed 'cos I'm deathly sick (which is rightly where I should be now and not getting ready for 14 hours of work like I currently am... ). All wire cutting is successful. Mostly. Except for that one time...

Hope you feel better.

Get Better soon

Thanks guys

Headway made. Ordered more rock. Ordered 5 Dispar Anthias. Got the QT fully ready to roll. And... I emailed Anton Burian of ATB Skimmers fame about getting an ATB for this tank. Looks like I'm dead set on getting one... such is the joys of having expensive taste...