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Cultivated Reef

My River and Reef UK style.


atoll

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UK reefer had 7 tanks in my time ranging from 130 UK gallon to just 10gallons. Current set up is a River and Reef 94liter. I say a River and Reef tank but I guess I can hardly call it so as the only thing I have no modded if the glass itself. :huh: The tank has been set up just 4 months at the time of writting.

 

Here's a pic of the tank I took today.

latesttankpic002.jpg

 

Spec at present ( Lighting soon to to be upgraded for the 4th time ) is as follows:

Filter pumps: 1x Maxi-jet 1200 filter return pump at the top 1x 750 Maxi-jet return pump at the bottom. Circulation pumps: 1x Polario 7ML 1x Tunze 6055 on a Tunze 7091 controller.

Skimmer: Tunze 9002 nano skimmer.

Reactors: 2x TMC V2 600s one with phosphate media one with carbon media. Phosphate reactor with a Eheim compact 600 the carbon with a Eheim 300 compact pump.

Lighting: 2x 10K Power compacts. 1x TMC Aquaray 600 all blue LEDs. 1x Pacific all white LED bar. 1x Cheap eBay double strip all blue LED moonlights.

Cooling and heating: Techo mirco chiller with heater. 3x mini PC fans located in the feeding flap of the hood. 1x 80mm PC cooling fan located on top over the hood above the lamps.

Auto top up: Reefloat Neo-power with New-Jet 600 supply pump.

Extra filtration: Eheim Eco-pro 600 external canister filter supplying the chiller with reef bones, course foam filter pad and Eheim bio balls.Lost of other bits and pieces.

Tank Contents: 12kg of mature living rock. 20/25mm mixture of various grades of sand and coral gravel. Fish: 1x Swales basslet. 2x (true pair) Azure damsels. 1x red scooter blenny. 1x tail spot blenny. Corals: Variety of both LPS, SPS and soft corals but mainly hard corals as can be seen in the pic above. Most the corals I have bought as frags from other UK reefers.

Thanks for looking. :)

 

I have much more I am going to upgrade to the tank including lighting and filtration. All will be revealed as I go along.

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EURIKA!

Well finally done it and managed to fit not one but 2 TMC 1000 tiles into my hood. I am not aware that anybody has attempted to fit 2 tiles into a River and Reef 94L hood or one of its derivatives. The project took some thought and ingenuity to get them to fit into the hood so that they could easily be removed and at the same time enable heat from the heat sinks to dissipate and not to add anymore heat to the tank water.

 

The way I have mounted the tiles allows heat to escape and I won't be needing the fan on top which I added to remove heat from the Power compacts when I had them fitted. I have mounted a reef white (on the Right hand side) and a Marine white tile (on the Left hand side)to the hood for comparison plus I got them for a good price secondhand. I used Aquaray rails cut down to fit them securely to the hood which will enable me by sliding the rails along disconnect the tiles from the rails and release them from the hood.

 

I have also fitted my all blue Aquaray 600 in the front of the hood to enhance the blue colour further. This is also the first light to come on and the last to go off. All 3 are controlled by 3 separate Aquaray controllers set to come on and go off over a set period.

 

I will still retain the fans at the front and may even connect the River and Reef fans at the rear up to provide extra cooling if required although at the time of posting I have not connected them. Here's a few pic's.

Pic with all 3 lights on.

Tilehoodconversion014.jpg

Pic showing top of hood with tiles mounted, heat sinks showing through mounted with cut down Aquaray rails.

Tilehoodconversion010.jpg

Close up of one of the heat sinks of a tile with rails and securing screws which are a safety feature. I remove the securing screws to slide the rails off the heat sinks and in doing so release the tile from the hood.

Tilehoodconversion011.jpg

I have more pic's showing in detail how I fashioned the rails to allow them to side off the tiles and more pic's of the whole conversion.

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I have been working away on and off converting a HOB fuge to fit my tank and yet to still retain the hood. However this is a slow flow fuge with a slow turnover of tank water to try and cultivate both lots of pods and Cheato.

 

 

 

Here's how I did it.

 

 

 

First I cut off the inlet and outlet pipes on the fuge. I then added a John Guest 1/4" bulkhead fitting to one end as a tank water supply.

 

Fuge001.jpg

 

I then heated and bent some 1/4" hard pipe and glued it into the inside of the bulkhead fitting. I blanked off the original feed pipe with a sucker I had just as a precaution but this should only be needed if the overflow became blocked.

 

Fuge009.jpg

 

Fuge008.jpg

 

next thing to do was to make a blank to cover where I had cut off the return pipe, dill it and add a connector with one of those flexible knuckle joint type pipes. While cutting the overflow off very fine cracks appeared in the acrylic but they are water tight. I did however cover the worst cracks with some silicone type glue just in case.

 

Fuge002.jpg

 

Fuge010.jpg

 

A strainer off a small powerhead intake was then pushed onto the inside of the connector to help prevent blockages of Cheato etc.

 

Fuge003.jpg

 

Fuge005.jpg

 

To supply the fuge I cut into the 12mm supply pipe to my TMC V2 reactor and fitted a 12mm to 1/4" tee. Some supple RO (but it may in fact be CO2 tubing) was attached to the 1/4" Tee and a small John Guest tap was fitted to adjust the flow to the fuge. A short length of the 1/4" of the pipe was then pushed into the tap and the other end pushed into the new fuge bulkhead fitting.

 

Fuge.jpg

 

My fuge light is a 11watt power compact I bought with the fuge. I fitted this as per my pic below clamped onto a strengthening bar.

 

Fuge015.jpg

 

In order to fit the hood I had to cut 2 slots in the hoods rim to take the fuge's hangers and a hole to take the return pipe to the tank.

 

Fuge016.jpg

 

I added approx 1" of fine coral sand to the bottom of the fuge and filled it with salt water. I also added a small amount of fine sand from the floor of my tank to help seed it.

 

All ready, I turned on the tap supplying the fuge and held my breath. Water flowed into the fuge from my tank and overflowed back into the tank without any problem or leaks.

 

Here's a pic of it sitting on my tank just waiting for the Cheato which I will hopefully get tomorrow.

 

Fuge017.jpg

 

Just perhaps some fine tweaking of the flow into the fuge maybe needed as it is currently more than I was expecting from a 1/4" pipe even so the overflow handles it well.

I will let you know how it fares and update on progress (or lack of it) as and when.

 

__________________

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Very nice tank. Great job on all the mods you have done so far.

 

Thanks mate. I have done so many I don't think I can really call it a River and Reef tank anymore :lol:

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Here's a couple of pic's of the Cheato and some dead coral skeleton in the fuge lit by the 11wt PC lamp I added today.

 

Fuge001-1.jpg

 

Fuge002-1.jpg

 

 

 

I might add more light later if I am not satisfied with the Cheatos growth.

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Looks really good! That's a clever way to add on a fuge :)

 

Cheers, I just need to monitor and maybe tweak it as and when.

 

 

 

Swaped my Reef white and marine white tiles over last night so my acros will get more white light and my Montis, mushies and mainly Euphilias will get more of the blue spectrum of the reef white tile. This is what I intended to do in the first place but got them mixed up when I installed them in the hood DOH! However it was easy enough to swap them over with the way I had mounted them on the rails. I thought I would leave them like that just to see how things went and to be honest all went quite well but we will see what the change around might bring. I expect more colour from my blue mushies and even 2 of my Euphilias. My colony of Duncan's will get more white light now as well. The tile lights don't come on for a couple of hours yet and I will take some pic's later when they do.

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Impressive!

 

 

Thanks Nancy its coming along really well. I have ordered a couple of Arcadia underwater LED's to speed up the Cheato growth which should be here in a few days.

 

Well it didn't take very long for Amphipods to arrive in my HOB fugeI saw my first one today. Now I just want it to be become a refuge for them to breed in numbers along with copepods etc. I will feed the fuge mainly with Cycop-eeze, flake and other bits of marine fare.

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CO2 bottle = check. Aqua medic regulator with gauges= check. TMC V2 600 calcium reactor= check. ARM Aragonite calcium media fine= check. Just need a CO2 check valve and some CO2 tubing then set it up.

 

 

 

Calciumreactorandgear.jpg

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Calcium reactor set up and running now and I have added a TMC LED moonlight strip. Put 3 small frags in as well I got while at my LFS.

.

I did a quick 5 min update video of my tank last night 4 months after my last one. Quite a few changes and additions have taken place in that time in both stock and equipment as can be seen.

 

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Decided to take off my 3 TMC Aquaray controllers and replace them with a TMC 8 channel controller. This will reduce the number of plugs and PCUs.

 

TMCcontroller001.jpg

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As with most sun corals they need a bit of TLC but now after a few months of regular feeding they look wonderful. I got them for a very good price and they have multiplied enormously. I feed these most days and within a couple of months I had fragged them into 3 pieces. 2 are in my tank the third is in my girlfriends nano tank. Check out the video of them below.

 

My favourite corals right now.

 

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Awesome tank bro! I could use some DIY skills like you have, you got the skill and the creativity.

 

Thanks but don't put too much emphasis on DIY skills. A third is planning and knowing what you are aiming to achieve. A third is having the right tools then you can add a third DIY skills.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Picked up my LED's with remote dimmer etc control from DHL this morning. I have temporary fitted them and have them set at blues on 40% and whites on 80% at the moment. I do have a problem in that the case has a small but noticeable dent in it and in the most noticeable front part of the case. Not a big dent but a dent non the less. I have emailed the seller so I will see what he has to say.

 

 

 

I have used Arcadia hanging brackets I bought secondhand to suspend them but I will need to do some adjustments to them with the suspension cables provided with the LED's, no big deal.

 

 

 

I have to agree with others in that the blues are something else. I can't see me ever getting anywhere near 100% of the blues on. However over the next week or so I will play around with the settings on both the blues and the whites. At 80% the whites are certainly punching down further to the bottom of the tank with little if any noticeable drop of in light penetration when compared to my TMC 1000 tiles that this unit is replacing for sure.

 

 

 

I would also add that IMO the extra for the remote dimmer is well worth it if you are thinking of getting one or more of these and don't forget you can run 4 of these lights off a single remote. The remote is not wireless however but does the job well.

 

 

 

Here's a couple of pic's to be getting on with but as I say I have more fine tuning of the LED's to do.

 

 

 

LEDsontank40B80W001.jpg

 

LEDsontank40B80W002.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

After 10 days of running my lights I have now upped the lighting and now running them at 80% on the blues and 100% on the whites.

 

Here is a pic I have just taken although I have to say the tank does not look as blue as in the pic and even looks brighter when viewed directly.

 

80blues100whites.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...
albertthiel
I have been working away on and off converting a HOB fuge to fit my tank and yet to still retain the hood. However this is a slow flow fuge with a slow turnover of tank water to try and cultivate both lots of pods and Cheato.

 

 

 

Here's how I did it.

 

 

 

 

I added approx 1" of fine coral sand to the bottom of the fuge and filled it with salt water. I also added a small amount of fine sand from the floor of my tank to help seed it.

 

All ready, I turned on the tap supplying the fuge and held my breath. Water flowed into the fuge from my tank and overflowed back into the tank without any problem or leaks.

 

Here's a pic of it sitting on my tank just waiting for the Cheato which I will hopefully get tomorrow.

 

Fuge017.jpg

 

Just perhaps some fine tweaking of the flow into the fuge maybe needed as it is currently more than I was expecting from a 1/4" pipe even so the overflow handles it well.

I will let you know how it fares and update on progress (or lack of it) as and when.

 

Well less you sure did a lot of modifications to get this set up but I guess it all worked out well looking at the tank. Nice!

 

BTW is that a Biocube or is it something made in the UK by a local manufacturer ... looks like the Coralife/Oceanic BC 14 or 29 but can't be sure since you are in the UK and a lot of equipment and a lot of pre-configured tanks get made there as well.

 

In fact I was in touch the other day with a David Dunnett who sent me some pics of the filters and reactors he makes. Quite nice but on the pricy side and that would be before shipping from the UK to the US :(

 

Anyway I am not going with a BC I think ... I think that I will use a 20 gallon for the tank and another 20 gallon for the sump (with a refugium) ... details when I have it all figured out

 

Albert

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