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Coral Vue Hydros

My African Ocean Away From The Ocean


AllOutAfrican

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AllOutAfrican

Hello to all you nano reefers.



i am a reef keeper from Swaziland which is a landlocked country neighboring South Africa and Mozambique, closest pet shop is 250 miles away about 5 hours drive. I have been visiting this site for about a year and a half now awaiting the next monthly reef profile then the next.. It fascinates me how each and every person on this site have the different views on the ocean and the reefs contained in it. There are some truly spectacular tanks displayed on this site.



I started my first tank in December of 2012 with a 130 liter tank built by a buddy and I. It was just for learning and getting used to the salty side of the hobby( as everybody does had freshwater for many years) rand that tank for 2 years and then started with a bit of a larger water volume around 350l a shallow tank was what I wanted, lights are not cheap to buy nor are they cheap to run and maintain. OK enough with the boring stuff.



TANK SPECS



Display is: 170cm x 50cm x 41cm (66.9' x 19.7' x 16.1') 350L / 87.5G



Sump is: 100cm x 60cm x 50cm (33.4' x 23.6' x 19.7') 120L / 30G



Refuguim: 40cm x 40cm x 30cm (15.7' x 15.7' x 11.8) 50L / 12.5G



TANK HARDWARE



Lights: 3 x 85 Watt Intellisun Led Lights 3 Color Spectrum (Aquaspecial, BluePlus and PurplePlus)



Skimmer: Bubble Magnus Curve 9



Flow: 1 x MP 10 On Random Flow and 1 x jebao RW 15 Short Pulse



Doser: Jebao 4 Pump Head Doser For Alk Ca And Mg



ATO: Electronic Auto top off Optical water level sensor, Overfill Sensor And Empty top off chamber



Filtration: Reef Octopus Br 70 Pellet Reactor And Refugium Filled With Macro Algae



Return: 2400 L/PH cheap pump



Everyday you learn something new in the hobby and as it continues to evolve we try to follow it and try to keep the animals in our captivity in the best environment possible , this often means spending alot of money on the newest and latest equipment available which is not always necessary.



Heres A Picture Of The Led Unit and Controller, 1 Controller Handles Up To 10 Led Units


post-87264-0-09876200-1423928422_thumb.jpg



And the Under Side With Remote Control


post-87264-0-87349200-1423928533_thumb.jpg



Hope to meet some new people and get some help from some of the ultimate reef keepers.



More to Come Soon


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AllOutAfrican

Here are a few pictures of the build Built by me

 

Stand 40cmx40cm square tubing painted with red oxide for rust and then painted with Glossy Black Paint to stop and water staying on the stand

post-87264-0-09118400-1423930381_thumb.jpg

 

Stand With Styrofoam insert

post-87264-0-98105500-1423930405_thumb.jpg

 

Tank Built with coast to coast overflow and without bracing

post-87264-0-56769500-1423930484_thumb.jpg

 

OverFlow with bulkhead inserts

post-87264-0-06995100-1423930793_thumb.jpg

 

Tank with planning for plumbing

post-87264-0-03844500-1423931058_thumb.jpg

 

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AllOutAfrican

Please excuse the messy pictures didnt really take the time to set up the tank for pictures during the build..

 

Promise they will get better as we go along

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AllOutAfrican

heres a teaser and something you can expect to see more of

 

post-87264-0-43166100-1423932561_thumb.jpg

 

 


Good luck!!

 

Thanks but i dont really need the luck my tank has been running for almost 7 months now so am just fine tuning the system to find the right balance

 

Just got a bit of a late start with the thread

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AllOutAfrican

Lookin real nice! With the closest shop being a 5hr drive... I hope all goes well for you! Following this one!

thank you @saltwatercoral for the comment and glad to have you along for the ride. The drive is very far but we have 3 reefers in our country ( its really a small place ) so we all put a few bucks together and go all out on coral shopping at least once a month so you'll see quite a few coral picture..

 

PS I am a ZOA fanatic and will soon have a collection of 45 color zoanthids

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  • 2 weeks later...
AllOutAfrican

looks like a clean build, I like the tank so far :)

 

Thanks ghill762 tank is finally starting to take shape this is my second tank and i dint realise how long it actually takes for a tank to establish..

 

Just brought my self one of these bad boys busy playing with settings as it has all the bells and whistles really loving it so far.. much customization

 

top of fixture

post-87264-0-55636300-1424945419.jpg

 

Side view with onboard contoller

post-87264-0-51737400-1424945418_thumb.jpg

 

close up of led pads 16 blue and 16 white on each pad times 8 pads

post-87264-0-40500300-1424945424_thumb.jpg

 

Fixture on for testing

post-87264-0-77387800-1424945416_thumb.jpg

 

Uses meanwell drivers

post-87264-0-05445000-1424945423_thumb.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
AllOutAfrican

Hi guys havent had time to update the thread as i have another tank in mind that i am busy playing with, it will be a starphire rimless cube of maybe 100cm x100cm x40cm

 

in the meanwhile here are some recent tank pics

 

as i already said i really love zoas easy to keep and propagate and also very pretty colours and there are endless types

 

post-87264-0-22893100-1425913831_thumb.jpg

 

post-87264-0-72986900-1425913849_thumb.jpg

 

post-87264-0-17540800-1425913869_thumb.jpg

 

post-87264-0-94745200-1425913889_thumb.jpg

 

post-87264-0-85780400-1425913908_thumb.jpg

 

these are just a few i have about 40 colours that i have been hording

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Nano sapiens

Welcome to NR! That is one heck of a long trip to get to a LFS. I salute your dedication!

 

Looking good and following along :)

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AllOutAfrican

Welcome to NR! That is one heck of a long trip to get to a LFS. I salute your dedication!

 

Looking good and following along :)

thanks for the welcome nano sapiens

 

once you get hooked to the hobby there is not very much that you wouldn't do to fulfill your desire to add more creatures and critters to your reef addiction and it only gets stronger the more you put under your belt..

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AllOutAfrican

In other good news last night I came home to a very strange acting lawn mower blenny ( Salarias fasciatus ) he was darting up to the glass then swimming away to behind one of my rock structures, he did this for 30 mins while I feed fish and admired my hard work.. before I tell you what happened let me explain something

 

I had a single blenny in my tank for roughly 6 months this is one of the hardest cleaners I've had in my tank so far real Trojan when it comes to keeping algae at bay.. then about 2 months ago a friend had to shut down his tank as he was moving houses so I adopted his lawnmower blenny.. as soon as I put the blenny in my tank they started chasinging each other around ,each chasing one another I then read up that it very hard to find a compatible pair of LMB's and that if they were not compatible they would fight till one died.. I tried to catch one of them for days with traps nets with no luck.. if I was going to catch the I was going to have to dismantle the rock structures.. no way in hell so I left them after few days the fighting got less and less.. then we come to 09/03/2015 yesterday

 

I found my blenny hiding in the spot that he kept dashing back to and I saw that there is a big clutch of eggs.. and the eggs have eyes they are looking back at me... and they are definalty his

 

so stoked

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AllOutAfrican

so i know you were waiting anxiously to see what what going on with the blenny here are some pictures of the blenny and the eggs

 

here is a picture of the blenny and the eggs

post-87264-0-21902000-1426004460_thumb.jpg

 

Just the eggs

post-87264-0-92783200-1426004479_thumb.jpg

 

Zoomed in photo so you can see the eyes in the eggs

post-87264-0-93512000-1426004581_thumb.png

 

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AllOutAfrican

Just a bit of info on my refuguim, i am a firm believer in natural filtration and try to stay away from adding any chemical additive to my tank.. both marine tank i have owned have been run this way without any large losses to my system and i say this is why my tanks have been so stable.

 

I have three different types of macro algae

1. Cheatomorphia

2. Caulerpa

3. Chlorophytacsc

 

I also have one mangrove which i collected while i was walking on the beach, ive had it for almost a year now and it just about to show it leaves been a long time

 

some pics of it

 

post-87264-0-17875800-1426005571_thumb.jpg

 

post-87264-0-53297300-1426005587_thumb.jpg

 

post-87264-0-75326900-1426005603_thumb.jpg

 

post-87264-0-47783300-1426005623_thumb.jpg

 

 

 


very cool

 

 

Thanks probably one of the 5 most exciting this that has happened in my short reefing history.. i hope to document with a daily photo of the eggs developing until hatching and by this time i hope to setup a breeding tank to try and raise the fry on rotifers and green water.. hope you stick around for the journey


This is nice! We want a full tank shot!

 

 

hi mark my tank is not at the place i want it to be yet... im nervous of a tank shot as i think it could be a way lot better

 

stick around and it will soon be revealed


looks like a clean build, I like the tank so far :)

 

Thanks for the kind words sorry for the late reply still getting used to all this

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AllOutAfrican

So last night i was bored and decided after the white lights started dimming and the coral florescence was just shouting for me to take some pictures, so here we go close up of few different species i have in my tank.

 

so here we go:

Plate Coral

1.post-87264-0-31959500-1426089133_thumb.jpg

post-87264-0-74161700-1426089174_thumb.jpg

post-87264-0-88865600-1426089152_thumb.jpg

 

 

Plate Coral

2.post-87264-0-72532700-1426089226_thumb.jpg

post-87264-0-33778100-1426089244_thumb.jpg

 

Chalice Coral

3.post-87264-0-82493200-1426089275_thumb.jpg

 

 


Continued..............

 

chalice coral

4.post-87264-0-98687200-1426089418_thumb.jpg

 

Mixed Zoanthid Rock

5.post-87264-0-62447300-1426089448_thumb.jpg

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