peacemaker Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 Hi all! I've started reefing slightly before the Finding Nemo craze, and have been fascinated by this wonderful hobby. Had my fair share of ups and downs, learning from past mistakes and experiences from others. Been lurking in Nano-Reef for quite awhile, and the beautiful setups and useful information found here amazes me. Finally decided to start a tank thread... pls feel free to share your views. Cheers~ Dimensions: 18" x 18" x 12" with 6" IOS (display area = 18" x 12" x 12"), 3-sided crystal glass, 6mm glass thickness Lighting: LumenAqua Max 300 LEDs (will add 2x CREE Royal Blue LED moonlights at a later stage) Filtration: Filter wool (mechanical), live rocks, live sand & Biohomme (biological), carbon (chemical) Skimmer: Bubble Magus NAC 3.5 Cone skimmer Temperature control: Office A/C during office hours, Sunon fan on digital timer during off-office hours and weekends Nutrient export: Cheato, lit by JBJ Nano Glo LEDs (may explore algae scrubber options should there be a need) Auto Top Off: Tunze Osmolator Universal 3155 with reservoir tank Wave maker: Ecotech Marine Vortech MP10 Return pump: Ehiem Compact 1000 Dosing plans: Grotech Coral A, B, & C, Brightwell Aquatics Coral Amino, Tropic Marin Iodine, Sodium Ascorbate (as needed) Currently going through cycling. Dosed Prodibio Bio Digest & Bio Tim and dumped a market prawn to kick start the cycle. Stocking plans are a pair of Yasha gobies with randal's pistol shrimp, yellow neon goby, green banded goby, and prolly a Helfrich goby. Clean up crew will consist of nassarius and turbo snails. I might add a hermit and a pom pom crab. Some photos of the tank... I've DIYed a burrow for the Yasha gang with PVC elbows, pipe and a T-joint. Drilled some holes and stuck a piece of epoxy to break the shape of the hole so that it looks more natural. Glued some sand to further camouflage the burrow entrance. What it looks like buried under the sand Scaping done, and the tank is officially wet! My first FTS... Last shot of the month till cycling is done. Quote Link to comment
WillWork4Frags Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 Tank looks great! Quote Link to comment
rok3535 Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 Love the lights, it has a great shimmer, but i gotta say not a fan of the statue. all personal taste of course. Quote Link to comment
bluecoyote79 Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 Very nice! Did you build the tank yourself? Quote Link to comment
peacemaker Posted July 28, 2011 Author Share Posted July 28, 2011 It is difficult to capture good photos with the amount of shimmer it produces. It only has a thick acrylic sheet to act as a light diffuser. The Easter Island statue is just for fun. I might be giving him a GSP afro hairdo... Thanks bluecoyote79! I had it custom made by one of the local tank makers. He does a pretty good job with minimal silicon. Quote Link to comment
rok3535 Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 okay a gsp afro would be pretty cool. Quote Link to comment
castiel Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 I like the statue! And an afro would look very cool =0) Not all tanks need the 100% 'natural' look. Quote Link to comment
JoelRHale Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 One of the lfs here has done the Afro with a head like that, it looks pretty cool. Your tank looks like it's off to a great start! Quote Link to comment
peacemaker Posted July 28, 2011 Author Share Posted July 28, 2011 okay a gsp afro would be pretty cool. I like the statue! And an afro would look very cool =0) Not all tanks need the 100% 'natural' look. One of the lfs here has done the Afro with a head like that, it looks pretty cool. Your tank looks like it's off to a great start! Thanks guys! Can't wait till cycling's finished... patience patience... Quote Link to comment
Paolissimo Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 The burrow you build is that something common that people that house the goby do? I never seen and i was curious if they actually use it. Tank looks great. Quote Link to comment
GOODgREEF Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 It is difficult to capture good photos with the amount of shimmer it produces. It only has a thick acrylic sheet to act as a light diffuser. The Easter Island statue is just for fun. I might be giving him a GSP afro hairdo... Thanks bluecoyote79! I had it custom made by one of the local tank makers. He does a pretty good job with minimal silicon. Im looking for a tank like that. Can you give us information of who made it. Also how much you paid for Quote Link to comment
peacemaker Posted July 29, 2011 Author Share Posted July 29, 2011 The burrow you build is that something common that people that house the goby do? I never seen and i was curious if they actually use it. Tank looks great. Building this burrow serves 2 purposes... to provide a stable structure so that the rock work doesn't collapse and cause it to cave in, and to somewhat fix the location of the entrance for better viewing pleasure. The Yasha gang could choose to dig on the other side of the tank, which doesn't allow me to enjoy the burrow "construction" process. They do not venture very far away from the burrow, so if they stay hidden from view, it is as good as I have no fish in the tank. Quote Link to comment
phi delt reefer Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 if you get a yasha get a lid... THEY JUMP... jumped through a 1/4" gap on my lid... true story. Quote Link to comment
listen_to_slayer Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 it wont take long for the easter island head to look better. this was mine in my recently pulled down 180. I really like the tank too! and i like the little under sand burrow/tunnel you've made! very cool Quote Link to comment
peacemaker Posted July 29, 2011 Author Share Posted July 29, 2011 Im looking for a tank like that. Can you give us information of who made it. Also how much you paid for I'm from the other side of the globe, so I don't think providing the tank maker's information is going to be very useful... if you get a yasha get a lid... THEY JUMP... jumped through a 1/4" gap on my lid... true story. I'm keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed on this one. I hope they choose to bolt back into the burrow instead of superhero tendencies. it wont take long for the easter island head to look better. this was mine in my recently pulled down 180. I really like the tank too! and i like the little under sand burrow/tunnel you've made! very cool Wow, that looks very well established! I do hope I can get it covered with encrusting corals before the coralline takes over. Quote Link to comment
peacemaker Posted August 4, 2011 Author Share Posted August 4, 2011 Into the 3rd week of cycling. Diatoms are starting to appear. Pimples appearing on the statue. The MP10 has buried the burrow with sand. Looks like the pistol shrimp will be kept busy. Quote Link to comment
evo_2679 Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 Nice / clean looking tank! I have always liked rimless tank. Quote Link to comment
peacemaker Posted August 4, 2011 Author Share Posted August 4, 2011 Thank you! I was tempted to get an ADA tank, but after much consideration on the filtration needs, I decided to custom make this tank with 3-sided crystal glass in an attempt to come close to what I would enjoy from the clarity and silicon work of an ADA tank. Quote Link to comment
peacemaker Posted August 10, 2011 Author Share Posted August 10, 2011 (edited) I've DIYed a simple (ghetto looking) LED lamp holder with a piece of acrylic to support the 2 LED moonlights. Top down shot of the moonlight assembly How it looks from the side. The angle of the bend on my lightset stand is just nice for this purpose Front shot I like the looks of the heatsink when it is lighted. Looks like some Star Craft gadget. Pretty much done with cycling! As you can see, diatom bloom is to its fullest. I'll be adding the CUC this week. Edited August 10, 2011 by peacemaker Quote Link to comment
JoelRHale Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 Coming along nicely, keep it up! Are you going to order a cuc or just buy a few hermits here and a few snails there? Quote Link to comment
peacemaker Posted August 11, 2011 Author Share Posted August 11, 2011 With the amount of diatom I have right now, I'm tempted to order a platoon of CUC to clear the stuff. Realistically, I'll just get a few snails... Just threw in a tuxedo urchin today for a start. I'm not sure if he is just plowing through, but the pathway of clean sand he makes gives me hope that he is the right solution to the problem. Quote Link to comment
peacemaker Posted August 23, 2011 Author Share Posted August 23, 2011 (edited) Some updates... I've added the cleaning crew. The list are as follows: 1x Tuxedo Urchin 1x Red Scarlet Hermit Crab 10x Nassarius Sp. Snails (the mini kind) 1x Sand Dollar They have done a pretty awesome job so far, but I ran out of patience for a clean tank, so I gave Dum Dum (the statue) and the rocks a little scrubbing during water change. Added some coralline algae flakes from my home tank to seed this one. Bio-load is really light at the moment, so the BM NAC 3.5 doesn't skim much out. Its green tea for now. I had an Ice Probe that was laying around, so I thought I'd give it a try to see if it could keep my tank cool when the A/C is off. I'm surprised it could keep the tank at 25oC. Prolly works well for weekends, but not for long periods. I'll put it at the filter compartment when I have time to DIY some kind of holder. I failed miserably at my first attempt to somewhat force my Yasha pair and pistol shrimp to use the DIY burrow. I used a plastic container, cut a hole and placed the trio with the hole of the container towards the burrow. The shrimp escaped before I could even reach the burrow, and the size of the cut out was too big, so the Yashas eventually explored every other area EXCEPT where I want them to be. I left them on their own, but it bugs me not to be able to watch them at all, which completely defeats the original purpose of having the DIY burrow. While removing the rocks and Dum Dum for the scrub, I discovered that one of the Yashas didn't make it. I removed the remaining Yasha, the pistol shrimp, and devised attempt No. 2. I cut one 1.5l bottle in half and use it as a funnel. This helped to guide the pair to the burrow without much problems. Here are some peekaboo pics. I still want a pair of Yashas, so I'll be looking out for a replacement as soon as shipment comes. Current FTS. I'll be going slow on stocking and addition of corals. Sprouts of green hair algae have started to appear, so hopefully the hermit will do its job. That's all for now! Edited August 23, 2011 by peacemaker Quote Link to comment
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