[dazdaraz]

Hi there

I recently purchased a new glass tank, measuring 10x10x12 inches ( l*w*h ),
and have decided to going back into keeping marines.
It'll be a coral tank mainly and maybe some sexy or fire shrimp or something along those lines.

I will be posting pics as I go and trying to keep things as up to date as possible,
at the mo I haven't taken any pics, but I only literally have a tank.

Work so far, other than finding the tank, I've cut the glass straps out that would've supported the lid on the tank and cleaned the glass up.

I'm going use an over tank light on it, similar to an arcadia pod, but I have one of those from my previous nano and would like something that sits a little higher above the tank, any ideas welcome on that one. I also have a strip of LEDs that I'll be using as my moonlight, just as i did with my last tank.

as for the working equipment, I've got a piece of perforated plastic that I'm going to silicone in the tank to hide everything. I say everything, but it'll only be hiding a heater and some filtration. But before that goes in, I'm going to drill the holes slightly larger to allow water to pass through it more easily, and silicone ceramic media ( like the biorb stuff ) to it to 'hide' the plastic and I may put it in a friends tank to grow some bacteria and help speed up the process.

Any thoughts are welcome,
as is constructive criticism, as long as you dont make me feel bad lol

Will post as soon as I can find the camera and once I have done some more work

Daz

 

[chelseagrin]

nice to see someone else on this forum with reef tanks, you know there are alot of marine tank forums. i am a member of reeffrontiers.com and reefsancuary.com.

what kind of lighting are you using? if your planning on any coral i would suggest at least power compact for softies and for lps maybe t5's but any sps or clams either led's or halides but halides would probably fry that tank so your most likely stuck with led's. i have a panorama module on my 5 gallon sps nano and it works great. i would suggest this for your tank as it looks great and they also can come with remotes to change the light to any color you like. they are also fairly cheap.

Panorama Modules - Aquarium LED Lights

or you could go with a par38 bulb. i use one of those too.

LED PAR38 Lights - Aquarium LED Lights

 

[dazdaraz]

i'm looking to use pls bulbs on the tank,
i'll prob have a blue and white bulb in there, just as my last tank
but ill have to look about at other lighting, even if its just to broaden my horizons lol

i'm a member on reefsafe.com, and it's very quiet on there

i'll check out those other ones when i get a chance, see if i can pinch any ideas off of there


Daz

 

[chelseagrin]

i am not familiar with that type of lighting? do you have a link to where you got the info about them?

 

[chelseagrin]

i just did a quick google search and saw that they are power compact lights basically. that will be great for some nice corals. including mushrooms, kenya trees, star polyps and many other softcoral. stay away from any hard coral or clam with those though lps and sps. just not enough light output to support them.

 

[dazdaraz]

hi

i thought they were quite popular the pls bulbs,
they come in the arcadia pod.

i used two 11w ones of those bulbs on one of me first tanks,
i had hammer coral, a few buttons and yellow polyps in that one

the last one i had two 18w ones on it and that had hammer, favia, buttons, xenia and corkscrew coral in it

Daz

 

[chelseagrin]

watts per gallon is not very accurate nowadays but it does give a good guideline. with those types of bulbs your gonna want at least 4-5 watts per gallon to grow hard coral. of course with led's you can grow stony coral with 19 watt lights. for that small a tank i highly reccoment a panorama module or a par38. they are a little more expensive but the light looks great, it kind of shimmers like the real sun and it can grow anything.

 

[dazdaraz]

hi there

Change of plan, and I aint even started lol

Rather than make the porous divider and cover it in little rocks, I'm going to leave the plastic as it is, but I'm going to make an 'L' shape with it so I can put it in the corner of the tank, effectively looking like a weir in a sumped tank.

The reason i've changed my mind is I that I think the rock will slow the water up too much, especially as it get dirt and algae stuck in and on it, I may change my mind again though, because I believe I've seen something similar here already, and want to see if I can find it and ask the person some questions.

still no pics as yet, mainly because I haven't done anything worth taking pics of yet


Daz

 

[davesbray]

lighting wise i am eventually going down the par38 route for both my marine tanks, they come highly recommended

 

[chelseagrin]

yes even for larger tanks they can work. i put 5 over my 40 gallon tank and it was better than any halides ive ever had.

 

[burnseyenknight]

theres a forum called ultimate reef look up ocean corals he gets sum stunning stock in

 

[Moogloo]

This guy on the PFK did what you are thinking of doing with the liverock rubble/stones type thing... only his tank is 6ft and FOWLR.

Starting out...
Badgers 72x24x28 fowlr tank - Page 9 - Practical Fishkeeping Forum

 

[chelseagrin]

i really dont like that look at all, there are some awesome minimalist scapes on google. just type in minimalist reef tank and youll get some amazing results.

 

[dazdaraz]

hi everyone

havent been on for a while
busy with xmas and stuff lol

done some work and took pics as i went
so here we go
started by siliconing in 2 pieces plasic grid in as an 'L' shape, i'm going to hide the heater and filter in there.

then went about covering up the filter cover
i took another piece of the same plastic grid and started siliconing some biorb ceramic media to it, that took me about half hour

then the filling in bit took me an hour and ten minutes

heres a pic with it in the tank

and then a pic of the leds i have for night time

Daz

 

[chelseagrin]

looks great so far, however the led's may be a little bright for moonlights.

that is also a very strange overflow? does it not overflow over the top but goes through the ceramic rings? that is a good idea!however nitrates may build up there. but i wouldnt worry unless you start having problems.

does it have a sump? do you plan on adding a fuge or just the sump? also i wouldnt suggest adding a skimmer because recently it has been found they tend to do more harm and good. and i wouldnt want that if i was paying a couple hundred dollars for a piece of equpment.

 

[Devi]

Ooh, liking those rocks, if you get a few small pieces of xenia or daisy coral and add them there then you could probably get them to spread over it and it'd look even better.

 

[dazdaraz]

Ooh, liking those rocks, if you get a few small pieces of xenia or daisy coral and add them there then you could probably get them to spread over it and it'd look even better.

thanks, it took me long enough to do lol

as for the coral idea, its a very good idea, but i made the rock wall removable so i can take it out to clean it, and i dont thin the coral would like it.

i am thinking about sticking lots of the biorb or similar ceramic stuff together to make some 'branches' to give a bit more depth to the tank, so may attach some xenia to that

Daz

 

[dazdaraz]

any one got any ideas on a filter lol

i'm toying with using an external to give me some water movement, but cant find anything below 500 lph, and i think its a bit much, any thoughts?

other than that its use an internal with a large cage on it to put some LR rubble in it, and put the other medias in the corner part with the internal.

i may also get a little hang on refugium if i find one that looks nice enough, and thats not too big incase it topples the tank lol


Daz

 

[Moogloo]

Take a look at the JBL internal filters best internals anyone has made i think! It is basically an external filter that sits inside with trays thay all slot together and you can fill it with whatever you need!

 

[dazdaraz]

Take a look at the JBL internal filters best internals anyone has made i think! It is basically an external filter that sits inside with trays thay all slot together and you can fill it with whatever you need!

i like those filters, i've only got 10 inches which the water will be in, and not alot of room in the other dimensions, i may have to borrow one from work to test the size

Daz