Jump to content
inTank Media Baskets

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Reef Aquarium


ChloroPhil

Recommended Posts

Hello all, thanks for checking out my little corner of nano reef! I'm a long time member/lurker, but not very active poster. Thank you all for the inspiration you've given me over the years, you're awesome!

A little background-

The nomadic life of a transient researcher/consultant has prevented me from keeping a reef tank since 2006. :(:( Since that time I've been daydreaming about/planning a 100% Florida nano and the time has finally come. One of my aquatic passions is creating biotope aquaria (typically FW planted) and I've found myself in the perfect position to make my dream of a Florida tank come true. I'm now working as the curator of a store nearby and as part of my duties I'm the one who handles incoming rock shipments so I get to cherry pick every piece that comes in. I'm now in a position to create an extremely location-specific biotope; talk about luck!

The tank's name/thread's title was inspired as a play on the title of the famous book. Since every single non-equipment thing already in the tank (or going into the tank in the future) are hitchhikers on rock orders, the name seemed appropriate. :)

 

As of 8.20.16 this is still very much a holding system while I (impatiently) gather everything I need to do the final design and build. That being said, even holding tanks can look good so there's some semblance of an aquascape there. Expect lots of changes in the future as things are finalized.

 

Since the most helpful threads for me have been the ones where the author was brave enough to share the problems he/she had, I want to do the same for those who come along later. This will be a full disclosure thread with both the good and bad, and the results of remediation of problems.

(current) System specs-

Tank: Deep Blue 12x12x12 rimless 8 gallon

 

Lighting: 3x 24w 6700K and 1x 24w plant grow T5HO 8 hrs/day with 2x blue LED 10 hrs/day. This will eventually be changed to an appropriate LED fixture when funds allow. For now I'm using what I had laying around and it seems to be working out ok so far.

 

Rock: 10ish lbs of Florida rock from Gulf View/Florida Live Rock. I'll be adding more as we get appropriately sized smaller pieces in.

 

Substrate: Will be a mixture of sand and rubble. From the videos I've seen of the collection site, there looks to be an extensive rubble zone around the rock piles which suits me just fine; I love the look. Plus, I did my Master's thesis on substrate mixtures for growing aquatic plants, so a thick and "messy" substrate full of different critters to watch and provide nutrients to the corals makes me happy.

 

Filtration: 2x Phosban reactors, one filled with Xport-BIO and one with Purigen, linked in series. Water goes through the bio media first then the purigen.

 

Refugium: AquaClear 50 with various macros. I'm still debating the merits of putting the algae in the tank vs. keeping it in the filter. I love macros in tanks, but I need to see what the tank looks like once all the rock and corals are in it.

 

Feeding: One scoop of Cobalt dry coral food mix 2x/day.

 

PICTURES!

 

7.18.16- Trash pile! I'd just returned home from being gone a week for my wedding and found the choice corals had been taken out of the holding tank and sold. GRRR! I immediately got the tank, grabbed a hunk of rock, and took everyone home. Not pretty, but safe at last. :)

 

13613383_1283665424985568_10042513210223

 

13640981_1283665428318901_83008719839688

 

7.25.16- Finally got my portion of the wedding gift money and went on a shopping spree. More rock and Reef Glue. Exciting, I know. ;) Also chopped up the big Candelabra gorg for mounting. Those things are champs! The cut areas had visible re-growth after two days.

 

006_4.jpg

 

Sadly, a couple weeks later a cyano outbreak started so I added some Xport-NO3 to the filter and think I overdid it. Two days later the gorgs had bleached and started receeding at the mounting site. Needless to say, I took it all out and started feeding heavily. They're all now on the bottom of the tank recovering. Nothing looks like it's dying and the zooxanthellae are coming back so I'm hopeful for a full recovery.

 

8.20.16-

 

032_1.jpg

 

033_2.jpg

 

034_2.jpg

 

035_2.jpg

 

036_1.jpg

 

037_2.jpg

 

 

Cheers,

Phil

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment

9.6.16 Update-

 

Glued the gorg frags to the rock, did a little re-arranging, and added sand/rubble mix. The rubble is the only thing in the tank that hasn't come from Dale at Florida Live Rock/Gulf View. One of my coworkers brought a pound or so in and I couldn't resist adding it. Dale's putting together a personal order of small rocks and critters for me and the store should be getting another shipment in the next week or so, depending on conditions at the site. It's like waiting to open a present that you know is going to be cool, but you're not sure exactly what it'll be. The store orders usually have a bunch of sediment/sand left from rinsing and there's no telling what cool critters, algae, and corals will be ripe for the picking. Aside from possible future fish additions everything else should be finished in the next couple of weeks. I can't wait!

 

Still contemplating making a foam wall to hide the plumbing. Also considering using an old but unused MP10 on this rather than the Rio powerhead. So far the PH has worked well and everything's happy so I'm still on the fence.

 

Sorry about the washed out color and junk pics, I've got a crappy phone. If anyone could suggest a reliable PAR20-38 light I'd be grateful. The plant bulbs just don't do the colors on the rock justice.

 

053.jpg

 

054.jpg

 

056.jpg

 

055.jpg

 

Cheers,

Phil

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...