Reef Aquariums

[iamn8]

Up until a year or so ago I'd been into reef aquariums. Some of you might remember I had a disaster. While I was out one night the tank cracked, emptying over 100 gallons of saltwater into my loft and into my neighbors lofts. It ended up causing around $20,000 worth of damage and was the trigger for my choice to sell the loft and relocate to a house of my own. Yesterday I bought a "new" aquarium to yet again build a reef. I picked up a 92 gallon corner tank, a shape I've always wanted. Fingers crossed that all hell doesn't break lose again. Here's my tank that I lost in the flood. These tanks are a tremendous amount of work, but when they go well it's very gratifying to sit and watch the micro-ecosystem that you built. These tanks are the most profoundly beautiful and fascinating things I've ever seen. They are so mind bogglingly complicated and fragile. It's a wonder that they can exist at all in the ocean.


And here's my new tank....

 

[ericusrex]

Damn, man. What other expensive hobbies are you into?

 

[bonehed]

I found Nemo! :laughat:

Looking forward to seeing the new environs - how long before you can move residents in?

 

[iamn8]

Yeah I know... expensive hobbies abound. I'm picking up sand today. I'm hoping I'll be able to move the only four fish I have tomorrow. I have about 150lbs of live rock already to go. It'll be at least a couple months before I start adding coral. I haven't even decided on the light fixture yet. The most common mistake is moving too fast. It'll be at least a year before things get humming I am not a patient guy.

 

[bonehed]

Ah, didn't know you could move them right in...

Sounds like the journey is the destination.

 

[iamn8]

With the water volume and already cured, live rock I can move the fish in. Four small fish in a 125gallon system is an extremely light load. If I was starting from scratch with dry rock, I'd have to wait at least a month to add fish. Currently my fish and rock are residing in a 55g trashcan, luxurious quarters.

 

[ericusrex]

I've never had a saltwater tank, but I have had freshwater tanks off and on (mostly 'on') for the past 30 years. I had a pretty successful discus tank for about 8 years. Got em to breed quite a few times. Now I've just got 2 goldfish in the kids bedroom in a 10 gallon bow front. Easy, peezy.

 

[weedsnager]

Good luck with the new tank !

 

[iamn8]

Anyone else here into reefs? Deciding on a light fixture is hard and expensive!!

 

[pruss]

Congrats Nate.
Here's another hobby we have in common.
I know what it's like to come back to fish keeping after long delay. I had researched a dive (ha!) into reefing until my little bundle of joy came along, at which point I realized that going salty was above my pay-grade.
On lights... what are you planning with regards to corals? Hard? Soft? Both? I know a lot of guys who switched from MH/UV combination systems to straight LED who are migrating back. They find that the MH just can't be replaced. Mind you, lots of folks are happy with their LED systems. I really like the look of Kessil lights, and think that the controller module offers a lot of flexibility.
Have you looked into the Maxspect Gyre as a powerhead replacement? It's pretty new to the market and looks like a great circulation/distribution system.
I'm in the process of building out a 80g rimless freshwater tank for Discus. It is carefully being packed into boxes with all the accessories as we plan a house move. I can't wait to get it up and running. We have a 50g community tank up and running in my daughter's nursery. But I need a tank for me.
There isn't much more meditative than good music, a lit aquarium in a dark room. Add a pipe and a Scotch and I'm a goner.
Congratulations on setting up your new tank. Have fun getting that tank cleaned up, and running.
-- Pat

 

[iamn8]

Very cool Pat! Glad there's a fellow Reefer here! Funny you mentioned Kessil. I'll likely be ordering their newish AP700. It might not be the best fixture, but they are a joy to do business with. I had one previously and was defective upon receiving it from Amazon. I called Kessil who, without needing to be asked, overnighted me a new one and had me then return the defective unit. I'll likely for now avoid SPS. Probably a couple H. Haddoni carpets and my clowns and purple tang. Then probably add one new LPS piece a month. It makes it fun to spend all month picking a piece, something to look forward to.

I've read about that Maxspect pump. Very cool!! I already have an MP40 Ecotech, but if it goes bad I'll try the Gyre for sure!

Rimless tanks are awesome!! Post photos! Let's see it!!

 

[prairiedruid]

I love salt water tanks but never had the money to invest in one. We has a 50 gallon fresh water tank when the kids were younger started with goldfish and darters but then the kids wanted to "add" their catch to it so I soon had a tank of 2 small bullheads, 2 sunfish, a small perch and a smallmouth bass. Mysteriously all the goldfish and darters disappeared. It also made a great place to drop in the leftover minnows from a fishing trip....some managed to survive for a week. Had to clean the tank a lot but the kids loved it.....the Department of Natural Resources probably not so much.

 

[hawke]

I kept reef tanks for 10 yrs or more. Never tried Discus pruss but admired them. Extremely rewarding! Cant wait to see more of your progress Nate! Not really that expensive "after you get the system components". There is a lot to learn and understand to get the corals to thrive. I was never real good at getting coralline algae to grow like I wanted, but did well with SPS and LPS corals. Here's a video of some of my pictures along with a song I did at the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owMKtEUpVpg

 

[iamn8]

Awesome Hawk!!! I'm glad I'm not the only one who takes video like that!!! Here's mine...

MY REEF
Clowns Battle For Rights To Carpet

 

[pruss]

Here's my plan... All on hold until we sell our current house and set up shop in a new one.
This will be my first run at keeping Discus and I've been scouring the web, forums, books and the brains of many hobbyists and breeders to form a basis for this tank.
The Tank - 79g Rimless Starfire Tank - 48"X19.6"X19.6"


Water Filtration, Cleaning & Polishing

Canister 1 - Biological - Eheim Pro 2229 Wet/Dry

Canister 2 - Mechanical - Eheim Pro3 2075

Coralife 9w Ultraviolet Sterilizer

Eheim Surface Skimmer
I'm looking forward to learning the ins and outs of the wet/dry filter, the increased O2 due to the wet/dry interface and the extra biological filtration will be welcome.
I'm also going to replace all of the soylent green Eheim tubing with clear, and replace all the input and output piping with glass lily pipes.
Lighting - Kessil - a160we Tuna Sun

I'm going to mortgage my house and add Kessils to this tank. I love the look, the directional capability of the lights, and the programming capability of the lights with the controller. I can't wait to dial these in.


Aquarium Backround

I'm not going to have one. I am going to try and go minimalist with my scape and as such will have a clear line of site to the wall behind the tank similar to what some folks do with nature aquariums
Substrate

I am initially going to go without substrate. I had planned to go with well washed pool sand (sugar crystal coarseness), which is a lovely white with sporadic black flecking. But I've been talked out of this for the short term, as I'll likely be getting young discus and I want to make sure that I'm able to efficiently clean the detritus from the bottom of the tank.
Decor

I'm going to start simply with driftwood only, and then as the Discus mature I'll add simple plantings of high temp, low light, plants.
Flora

Once I get the Discus grown out beyond 4" I will add a couple of well planted pieces of driftwood by this time, and I'll use them to accent the tank. I'd love plant recommendations if anyone has thoughts.
Fauna

At startup I'm going to go with seven Discus. I am still determining where I am going to buy them, but I'm leaning heavily towards picking them up Staendker Discus imported from Germany. I spent some time with him in his Alternatively, I quite like the look of the F1 Cuipeua that a local breeder is raising. Regardless of source, I'm going to be buying hardy stock, raised in tap water, with good genetics.
Once the Discus are grown out past 4" I'll add some of the following:

- Emperor Tetras

- Lemon Tetras

- Blue Rams
#fishnerdmodeoff
Cheers,
-- Pat

 

[hawke]

Quick post on the Seahorses I'm watching Nate. Shows you really knew your stuff there. Seahorses need calm water and most corals need a lot more water movement. Your putting the gorgonians at the bottom which don't need much and providing a calm spot for the seahorses while was skillful!
Back when I had seahorses they needed live food only and fed hourly. Looks like your were grabbing copepods there. Now they are captive raised and will eat frozen right?
When I was a kid you could buy dried seahorses in souvenir gift shops. Glad they stopped that!

 

[hawke]

pruss, I thought Discus needed a dedicated tank. and water is slightly brackish or something uh? How can you add - Emperor Tetras, Lemon Tetras, Blue Rams(love male Rams)

 

[iamn8]

Thanks Hawke!! yeah...this was a difficult one. conventional wisdom says horses can't reside in a reef tank, instead requiring their own species specific tank, but i used a chiller to maintain a steady 73deg and as you said, with flow used rock and gorgonians to create sancturary areas with little flow and something they can "hitch their wagon to". Losing my horses in my disaster was hard. they are such amazing creatures. their social bonding activities are a wonder to watch and often times provided a days highlight. Prior to adding the seahorses, i spent 6+ months stocking it and turning it into a pod farm in case i couldn't get them eating mysis. Luckily they would eat mysis when it was there and spent their days hunting pods, another very cool thing to observe. i could watch them endlessly. I hope to, after a year or so, get another pair of H. Erectus... assuming my H. Haddoni is hosting a few clown. It was their job to prevent the horses from haphazardly wondering to their death in the carpet...this was the primary concern adding them to the reef, but my clown was sooooo protective and faithful chased away any animal coming close to her anemone, the only reason my little experiment worked.

I remember my family would go to Destin, FL and stop at these little giftshops. All of them had buckets of dead seahorses. it made me sad then and still does. tragic. For food is one thing, but to kill these things for keychains is sad.

 

[iamn8]

WATCH THIS VIDEO!! I took this the day I got my first seahorses. Watch the little one make eye contact with me. He's like a tiny alien. I was hooked.

http://youtu.be/XZjexMfHTVU

POD INFESTED SEAHORSE TANK

 

[hawke]

Awesome! Very cool it looking at you. and I've NEVER seen so many adult pods! I had a 1 gal refugium I would grow them in and they would spill over into the main tank gradually. The smart ones got to be adult but never as many as in that tank. I still have all my equipment. But its all dry at this point. Hope I don't get bitten again. I'm about to do some serious overtime.