My new Clearseal tank

Noopti

Got this from Aquarium Solutions in Ashbourne yesterday, it will be my new reef system. Main tank is roughly 340 litres and sump about 100 litres. I also got some second hand gear from them, which really helped with the costs - have to say the guys in Aquarium Solutions have been deadly.

Here is the equipment I have currently:
* Deltec MCE600 Protein Skimmer
* 2 Tunze 6055 Nanostream powerheads
* Aquamedic Oceanlight 1x250W Metal Halide, 2 x 24 Watt T5's
* 3000 lph sump return pump

Still need to get:
* Pipework
* Water :P
* Water containers
* 2 x 200 Watt Heaters
* 30KG Live Rock
* Live rock rubble (for sump)
* Chaeto Macro Algae (for refugium in sump)
* Refugium light

I need to try and fit my light to the ceiling next, it weighs about 7KG. Was thinking that a couple of Rawplug spring Toggles should do the trick.

flas

if you dont mind me asking how much did all this cost?

unklerosco

flas wrote: »

if you dont mind me asking how much did all this cost?

I'd be interested too... I nearly bought that tank just over a week ago. Got him down to €600 inc lights, by the time I added pumps and filter media it went up to €750...

Went to finsfursnfeathers n got a brand new 4ft clearseal (as apposed to a display unit) for €500... Guys down there are great, I found aquarium solutions to be pretty overpriced...

Noopti

Hey guys, I got the tank, return pump, Arcadia MH lights, MCE600 Skimmer, Two Tunze 6085 powerheads for €1200. I am pretty happy with the price.

At the weekend I half filled the tank, added some more sand and 18KG of live rock. Still need to add another 10KG of live rock so that when I then add the rock from my old tank I should have about 38KG in total. I also fitted the light.
Went to Fins, Fur & Feathers at the weekend also. Must say I am impressed, and delighted there is a good marine stockist only down the road from me. I do think their live rock is a little overpriced though (I think it is €19 at the moment).

Here are some pics, before I added another 8KG of live rock.





Now the daily water testing begins!

godtabh

Is that a sponge filter in some of the pics?

Noopti

Yep, I just put that in after adding the water to collect some of the debris thrown up, took it our after a few hours when the water had cleared up.

Getting the pipework on Wednesday, so I should have an interesting Wednesday evening after work!

godtabh

I'm thinking of setting one up its just ugly as sin so thats put me off

unklerosco

They might be as ugly as sin (although I like em) but they're bloody well built... After my last tank nearly exploding I'll go for build quality over looks every time...

Noopti

Yep, build quality is top notch - very solid. (And I don't find them ugly either!)

unklerosco

Noopti wrote: »

Yep, build quality is top notch - very solid. (And I don't find them ugly either!)

Yep, looks best in Walnut.. I'd to go for black as the missus said the walnut didn't match the rest of the furniture.. Women!!



Thats a bad pic of mine, waiting for my lights to be delivered before I stick the hood on.. Just using the light off my old tank for the plants..

godtabh

I meant the sponge filter!

Noopti

godtabh wrote: »

I meant the sponge filter!

Ah right! lol.....

The filter wool was only a temp thing to clear the water, it is gone now and there will actually be nothing obtrusive in the tank once the sump is setup. The sump will have filter wool, live rock rubble, protein skimmer, refugium with macro algae, heaters and return pump.

Main display will only have the two powerheads and the return feed from the sump.

Looking good unklerosco. Is that the tank you got from FFF?

Noopti

Quick update. Was looking around the rocks last night with a red light to see what sort of creatures were coming out at night, and along with the usual copepods, amphipods, peanut worms and bristleworms there was this guy:



90% it is a Pistol Shrimp.....a pretty cool hitchhiker to get with live rock.
I need to firstly confirm it is a Pistol, and then try and determine the species so I can see whether it will pair up with a Goby.

unklerosco

Noopti wrote: »

Looking good unklerosco. Is that the tank you got from FFF?

Yep, that's it... Hoping to get my new light tonight..

I'd say the guys in that shop are sick of me, it's a 2 min walk from my house so I'm constantly in there! :p

Noopti

haha.....they seem to be getting busier and busier! With them being so close I am now thinking I will just get my salt water from them for water changes rather than create my own, as I have been doing.

So handy having them nearby!

godtabh

They are a good shop but having got some bad advice from Gavin I'm unlikely to use them again. Other places are easier to get to and closer by

Noopti

Got the tank fully filled now and sump plumbed. Also added another 10KG of live rock. Some other hitchhikers on this new rock also:



Found a crab on one of the rocks, removed him to the sump (also spotted another crab in a rock in the tank, will have to try and catch him.


An Aiptasia anemone on one of the rocks. Will need to get rid of this fast:


This anemone appears soon after I put the new rock in. I think it could be a bubble tip, or perhaps a malu. Hard to tell, but an odd hitchhiker to get:



So now it is a waiting game. Will continue daily testing of the water before moving my old stock to the new tank.

Cookie_Monster

all those crabs and shrimps and anemones are pretty cool.

Why do you need to remove the one mentioned if you'll forgive my ignorance?

EDIT: ah, cos they're little feckers

google search website wrote:

It can be difficult to see them when they are small and you obviously wouldn't want to knowingly buy live rock if you saw this pest on it at the store. They can hide inside the small crevices and rock pores only to come out weeks or months later if they are given the right conditions.

Why are they considered a pest?
Well, they are not the most attractive looking specimen, they multiply rapidly and more importantly they can sting other, more desirable corals and other reef tank inhabitants. It's a typical story... You get some new rock and a few weeks go by and you notice a small anemone starting to grow on the rock. How neat, a free anemone! Well, the honeymoon ends a few weeks or months later when you notice that your live rock starts to become overgrown with them, especially if you have a reef tank with expensive corals!

Ways to Control Aiptasia
Controlling them can be a chore. If you try to smash them or cut them they are thought to release pieces of themselves into the water, thereby multiplying even more rapidly. Listed below are some natural and chemical methods for controlling aiptasia:

* First, if you can, reduce the amount of nutrients available to the anemone. This may mean limiting the amounts, types and frequency of fish and coral feedings. Do you just drop in a frozen fish food cube? Defrost the frozen food first and then slowly spoon feed it to the fish. Give the fish a little, give them 30 seconds to eat it all and then spoon feed them a little more. This makes for less waste and juices entering the tank and more food for the fish instead of the filter.

* Peppermint shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni) are used by many hobbyists to eat this anemone. It can be hit or miss though. Especially if you get the wrong version of the "peppermint shrimp". There is another peppermint shrimp, Lysmata californica, that looks very similar to the wurdemanni but doesn't do the job on aiptasia that wurdemanni does.

* Raccoon Butterfly Fish and the Copperband Butterfly Fish will also eat this pest but they can pose other problems in reef tanks. They may eat and/or pick at corals. The copperband butterfly may be the better choice because it may be less inclined to eat or pick at corals than the Raccoon Butterfly but the Copperband is less hardy and more difficult to feed long-term. However, they may only eat bits and pieces of the aiptasia causing some the aiptasia to scatter and relocate in other places inside the tank.

* Bergia Nudibranch (Berghia verrucicornis) are great aptasia eaters but the problem with them is they might starve once the aiptasia is gone. They can also easily be eaten by tank mates.

* Calcium and Kalkwasser is thought to destroy aiptasia too. The trick is applying it directly into the anemone or on the oral disk using a syringe before it retreats into its hole.

* A sting from an Elegance Coral (Catalaphyllia jardinei) is supposed to kill them. If you have one and you can pick up your elegance coral by the base, this may be an option for you.

Noopti

Yep, Aiptasia are a total pest. They multiple easily and rapidly and can overun a tank!

The other nem is a good one, but you would usually only get one when a tank is established and mature, as they require very stable condition to thrive.

Noopti

I have moved over my stock from the old tank to the new one. It was a painstaking job and I lost a sexy shrimp, but other than that it went well. Will upload some pics later.

I also added a yellow tang, which seems to have settled in well. It is grazing on the rock, and also been cleaned by the cleaner shrimp a few times which is cool looking.

Noopti

Update pics:





New addition (Yellow Tang)


Sun Coral


Scolly eating some Krill

Noopti

Added some macro algae to my refugium and also added 3 peppermint shrimp, which will hopefully help tackle the Aiptasia problem.

Just a few more pics:

godtabh

They are some great photos

IvySlayer

Good tank. Nice clownfish, and the yellow one, reminds me of finding Nemo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPyKhsfzxZE

Noopti

Thanks guys, slowly getting there. Added a toadstool leather coral yesterday (Sarcophyton sp.) and as they tend to do it is sulking big time since I added it (won't open and listing to one side). Hopefully it will settle in soon and come to life - I will post pics later.

Noopti

Ok, the toadstool is starting to settle in, and had pretty much fully polyp extension this evening when I came home from work.

mcdoogle

Lad, that is an unreal looking set up! How much do you estimate it cost you? I'd love to get something like that going. I've a tropical tank going but looking at the marine tanks they seem way more interesting and colorful.

Noopti

Thanks! I would guess I have spent just over €2,000 on it so far. If course it is always the intial outlay which is the killer, but then you can just take your time and add livestock as you go.

I have added some more livestock this weekend:
Coral Beauty fish
Another large live rock piece for the back
A rock covered in mushrooms
Fungia plate coral
A large green zoanthid colony.

I will take some pics tomorrow after I do the water change.

mcdoogle

Two grands a lot! Would you mind roughly breaking down the cost? Am really interested in getting a marine set up but that's well beyond the budget.

Am currently planning to build a tank from scratch and seeing how it goes.

godtabh

Holy **** €2k?

Mind you just thinking with my tanks I probably have spent close enough to that on kit, fish etc! Defo more than €1k

Noopti

It's probably a little more than 2K to be honest.... :eek:
(I try not to think too much about it!)

Mcdoogle you could always go for a smaller sized setup and that way the equipment would be cheaper, and also the live rock would be cheaper. Live rock averages about €15 a kilo, and I needed to get about 40 KG for my setup - and with LR being an integral part of the filtration system you can't skimp on it really.

The most expensive things are the tank obviously, the lights and the live rock.

Here are some more pics, with some of the new corals. I couldn't get a picture of the coral beauty because it is spending a lot of time amongst the caves in the rock.

Noopti

Another quick update. I got my new MH bulb today, a 10000k 250 Watt Blue Life SPS bulb.
The reason I got a new bulb so quickly is because I just wasn't happy with the one I got with the 2nd hand light - it was too yellow so was probably 6500k. Anyway I am MUCH happier with the new bulb, see comparison pics below

Old bulb


New bulb


Other new pics:
Mushrooms


Halloween Hermit Crab stealing dinner from the Sun Coral

ctrl-alt-delete

Excellent thread, some fantastic pictures you have up!

Money well spent when you get it looking like you have it!

Senor Willy

Looks very natural dude.
Well done..