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Innovative Marine Aquariums

First salty tank


Teapot

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Hi everyone, completely new to saltwater but I think everyone in this hobby has try a saltwater tank at some stage. I’ve cobbled together my first tank from as many spare bits and bobs from my planted tanks as I could.

Here’s my salty twin only 1 day old. In a few months I reckon I'll be ready to start thinking of what I'm going to grow in there.
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I have just enough room in my tiny sump for a skimmer or a light and cheato... what do you think will benefit most?
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First of all your tank looks great. And personally I would go with a skimmer over cheato.

 

Edit: And that planted tank is beautiful as well.

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Thanks for compliment about my little tanks, I have to say, I'm leaning towards a skimmer (Tunze 9001???) but always get drawn back to cheato...its green and planty, kind of familier to me.

 

Both the tanks are approximately 40 litres (ADA 45P). The salty one has a little sump of about 20 litres with the display and sump holding about 45 litres when I filled them up yesterday.

 

I think I just got lucky with the rock - ordered way more than I needed as I'm not used how low the density would be - floaty light compared to basalt and limestone for freshwater scapes.

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I thought I'd save some money and reuse my Radion XR15 - freshwater version. Less emphasis on the blue emitters than the XR15 pro, warm rather than cool white.and about 70% the power (currently running at 10%). Far too blue to look right for plants but a really nice light when I adjusted the spectrum. To give an idea of the colour, the planted tank has a 6500k over it.

 

XR15 Freshwater:

Neutral White - 5x Cree XT-E (25W)

Deep Blue - 2x Osram Oslon Square (10W)

Blue - 2x Cree XP-E (6W)

Green - 2x Cree XP-E (7W)

Hyper Red - 2x 660nm Osram Oslon SSL (6W)

Indigo - 1x 415nm SemiLED (2.5W)

UV - 1x 405nm SemiLED (2.5W)

 

Oh yes, Both lights are housed in a plywood boxes - DIY lampshades - I didn't like being blinded by the lights in their uncovered state.

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Love both tanks. Like someone said, they look "clean". Good job!! I have a planted tank as well but not as full looking. What's the short plants on the bottom? I want some, it looks great!! I have Angels and Rasboras in mine.

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Do you have any photo of the sump

 

Below decks - now with added skimmer. I just can't believe what it took out in just 12hrs! Still adjusting for a darker skim but really nice and quiet.

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Love both tanks. Like someone said, they look "clean". Good job!! I have a planted tank as well but not as full looking. What's the short plants on the bottom? I want some, it looks great!! I have Angels and Rasboras in mine.

 

Thanks, the carpeting plants are a real mix. Mainly Micranthemum 'monte-carlo' and Staurogyne repens but with a little Hemianthus 'cuba' and Marsilea crenata in the mix also.

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Thanks for the photo, for a second I was lost when I saw the canister filter, I was trying to figure out what you were using it for until I remember that you have your freshwater planted tank right next to it. By the way how do you like the skimmer I been looking into getting one of those?

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I like it, seems to work for me right out of the box. I just guessed the water level as I can’t see the level marker where I positioned it and produces a watery tea coloured liquid rather than the pictures I’ve seen of dark coffee colour - I know I’ve got to slowly adjust the height to get a dryer/darker product but reckon on waiting a while until its settled in. I was rather surprised it produced anything as the tanks under a week old… I guess the biofilm is expanding rapidly over the next few weeks and producing a fair amount of metabolic waste. The surface skimmer was a bonus and wondered how I was going to deal with the film/foam developing on the surface of the sump. Haven’t had any of the micro bubble problems in the display people have reported. Of course, this is the only skimmer I’ve ever owned… could be utterly rubbish and I wouldn’t know ;)

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  • 1 month later...

A little progress report of my first tank.

Things seem to going OK but still early days. Went through the ugly algae stages and out the other end fairly quickly. Two weeks ago I had the start of coralline - pink, red, purple and green.

 

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My first corals seem to be growing (yes, I know they're chocolate brown!) showing growth for Sept 02-30

 

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My other corals seem to be growing with their polyps showing

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Are you testing water at all? You might be able to figure out why they are browning out if you find a quality issue. Likely culprits are nitrate and phosphate if I'm remembering my reading correctly.

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I love both of your tanks! So fresh and so clean. Your planted tank has me drooling over here. We are about to start a 5g pico planted tank and those short plants are just fantastic. I also love how the plants grow out of the water. What type are those?

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Loving both your tanks. I'm a planted freshwater guy at heart. I do have one concern though. Your mp10 is bothering my ocd. May just be the glass but it doesnt look lined up with the wet side lol. ?

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Coolest setup I've seen in a while. The identical tanks are gonna really highlight the contrasting freshwater / saltwater. Can't wait to see it when the saltwater one is established.

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Nice setup! Glad I clicked on it.

 

What are you using for your drain/return? Looks like an ADA contraption that I've seen before but curious how it's working. Is there danger of the drain stopping in the event of a power outage?

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Are you testing water at all? You might be able to figure out why they are browning out if you find a quality issue. Likely culprits are nitrate and phosphate if I'm remembering my reading correctly.

 

That is just the glass on the MP 10....And more light less Phos will help color up those sticks.

Yes, I'm also thinking higher than optimum nutrients are the issue with the brown colour. As long as the corals are all growing (healthy?) at this stage I wouldn't want to do anything too extreme/sudden such as phosphate removal media. I'm thinking I'll be able to get them to colour up when the tank is a little more mature and settled and I could add a phos reactor then. I was going to just continue my large water change routine and see if this eventually reduces the load... anyway, the colour reminds me of the corals I used to see in the Maldives :o)

 

Noted about the light - saving up already.

 

I love both of your tanks! So fresh and so clean. Your planted tank has me drooling over here. We are about to start a 5g pico planted tank and those short plants are just fantastic. I also love how the plants grow out of the water. What type are those?

Thanks! The early stages of getting to know a planted tank were really difficult. You can have some great fun with a small tank and quite surprising what makes a home in them. Here's a hitchhiker that made himself known only when he eventually emerged:

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The main plant growing out the top is Rotala roundiflora. It took quite a while for the emerged tips to adapt to the dry air but given time, it eventually reverted to its normal terrestrial state. Actually, most of the aquatic plants for sale are terrestrial and only chosen by the commercial growers because they've evolved to live for short seasonal periods underwater and therefor easily cultivated in their greenhouses... you can grow pretty much any of LFS plants out the top of the tank (with a few true aquatic exceptions - Vallisneria etc).

 

Nice setup! Glad I clicked on it.

 

What are you using for your drain/return? Looks like an ADA contraption that I've seen before but curious how it's working. Is there danger of the drain stopping in the event of a power outage?

 

Thanks again. The overflow is a MAME- hand blown Japanese glassware. A real masterpiece of design and craft. Probably my favourite piece of equipment I've ever bought. The return pump creates a venturi effect in the overflow, sucks out the air and creates a syphon... in theory it's pretty safe as whenever the return pump is on you'll guaranteed a syphon. Fingers crossed! Saltwater Conversion sells them (A sponsor of nano-reef).

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