Our 12ft self contained reef

[Reef_Hobbyist]

Awesome.... love to see other large tanks!!

 

[dragonfish]

amazing
following

 

[Aussie paul]

White acrylic panels attached to the stand with magnetic strips would look pretty clean and sleek

 

[Synodontis]

Awesome.... love to see other large tanks!!

amazing
following

Thank you guy's

White acrylic panels attached to the stand with magnetic strips would look pretty clean and sleek

Hey Paul,
We did think of doing that but at 3.6m long & 1m tall, completely white would just make the cabinet stand out more then the tank lol. I like the idea of using magnetic strips tho so everything can b completely removed. Doing it all in black would have the same effect I think. An idea will pop up somewhere, just have to keep an eye open

 

[gettaReef]

What's NEW??

 

[Synodontis]

What's NEW??

Hey gettaReef,
To be honest not a heck of a lot lol.
I kinda lost interest in everything for a bit as the algae was just doing my head in. I have no idea what's in this rock but man, will I be glad when it has run it's course. I did my back about 5 weeks ago & tank maintenance really took a back seat. I missed quite a few water changes & sucking algae which started to show. I finally found the love again a couple of weeks ago & have started to play in the tank again, it needs it.
While I was having a slack attack the Alk somehow managed to get up to 12ppm! Acro's didn't like that one bit. Took a week to get it down & it's sitting at 8.5ppm now. Thought I'd try that Aqua Forrest stuff out. I put 15ml of the Component Strong in each of the barrels & starting dosing the Build & Micro, within 5 days every Acro was browned out big time So I stopped both the build & Micro, since found out that the Micro & other elements are in the Strong lol. I was dosing 40 drops of Micro every second day so talk about double dosing! My own fault & should have researched more before jumping in. It's been about 8 days since then & things are starting to colour up again slowly now. Tank is 11 months old now so I'm really hoping the next year is going to be better then the last lol, fingers crossed anyway.
The DT & sump have had the biggest clean up today since about 6 months ago. With losing the love & then doing my back it was bare maintenance only. The frag section kinda got away from us & most of the zoas have closed ranks & I have no idea how to get them off the racks, same goes for some of the acro's. Figured I might just knock the legs off the zoa rack & throw it in the DT on the base somewhere. Let them continue to take over the floor lol.

This lot below are about the only separate complete bunch I could find in the sump.

Not the prettiest frag section known to man.

That nice looking but plain green Monti started as a small broken off piece stuck on a tile. It's grown somewhat & solidly attached to the frag rack lol. Need to remove it in a couple of weeks to.

I can't remember what this is called, but they have become popular State side I'm told? If they have I won't tell you what I paid for it here lol. (What is it?)

I still can't get a good pic of these guys, I'll keep trying but hey, I take crap photos lol.

So really, how lazy can I be? Change your RO filters people!

That's about it I reckon, hopefully I can stay on track & get things cooking again.

 

[Scotch57]

Wow$$$$$

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

So really, how lazy can I be? Change your RO filters people!

That's NASTY!

 

[jsker]

That some pretty dirty filters. How long did you run them before changing them?

 

[Justin D]

How thick is the glass on your sump?

 

[Ortho281]

Awesome tank!!! Thought I would share with you what is planned for my 6' peninsula tank for the bulk head and laminate covers for the metal stand. Hope this gives you some ideas, but I really like how open, clean and neat your stand is.

Thanks Floyd,
I always knew the first year or so I would be playing with stuff, moving stuff, adding stuff & generally annoying the tank lol. I couldn't see the point of sealing it all up & always having to open doors or remove covers every weekend. I have been thinking it's about time we did something tho. What we do I have no idea
Our kitchen is all timber & we are going to remove the carpet in front of the tank. Then continue the floor boards along the front of the tank. Really not sure of going the standard issue type timber doors or doing something different. We also plan on putting in a bulk head around the top of the tank, making it look built in if that makes sense. As for where to start...well... anyone have any ideas?

 

[eg8r210]

I would love to know how you like the AF products?

 

[Synodontis]

Oh I really need to come back in here & update this don't I.
Time gets away from me when stalking around lol.

Wow$$$$$

Yeahh, we try not to think about that aspect

That's NASTY!

That some pretty dirty filters. How long did you run them before changing them?

Umm, yeah, very nasty stuff. They had been running for about 3yrs we think. 1yr before we moved into this place, 2yrs on the previous tank & about 6mths on the new tank. Wont let that happen again!

How thick is the glass on your sump?

The glass is 10mm all the way through the sump build.

Awesome tank!!! Thought I would share with you what is planned for my 6' peninsula tank for the bulk head and laminate covers for the metal stand. Hope this gives you some ideas, but I really like how open, clean and neat your stand is.

Thanks Ortho,
Love the detail on your plan & it's looking VERY well thought out! If the rest of your planning is going the same way it will be a build worth following

I would love to know how you like the AF products?

Happy enough with the AF products we have used mate. I mixed the strong with alk/cal/mag, mircoE is only dosed once week & build twice a week. The tank has only just passed the 1yr mark from being wet, with a lot of up & downs so far. Everything has just about found it's rhythm/balance so should be an interesting next 12 months lol.

What a post without a couple of pics? So a couple to finish with. These where from the start of Aug 16

This Monti has really taken off.

Closest thing to a group shot lol

Left side of the tank

Moo being taken care of by a 4yr old cleaner wrasse

I can never remember what this is called,branching orange ??? quite popular with the people who see it in person tho.

I pulled the rack out of the sump & tried to clean it up, lost interest fast lol.

So dropped it in the DT for someone to clean the hair algae up before trying to sort it out again. Butterfly's enjoyed the pods hidden away in there.

Still impressed with the skimmer! Pulls some very smelly stuff out.

That's about it for now.

 

[jsker]

Nice update pictures

 

[gettaReef]

Great update! Lol that rack has grown some funky stuff! Love seeing Moo doing well. And WOW oh WOW! I can't get over your RE skimmer! SO jealous, thing is a beast. You remember the model of RE skimmer it is?? Lol, And you have a Gyre in the sump skimmer chamber to make sure no detritus settles?! Awesomeness

 

[Susan Bates]

One thing I love about you folks Down Under. You do things BIG! This is just an awesome setup. Absolutely awesome!

Is that a Holden being used as a tow vehicle?

Now I thorough it is the Americans that did everything bigger and better L.O.L

 

[Susan Bates]

One thing I love about you folks Down Under. You do things BIG! This is just an awesome setup. Absolutely awesome!

Is that a Holden being used as a tow vehicle?

Think it is a ford

 

[Susan Bates]

Thought we would share our slice of reef with everyone here as we have been lurking for so long.

This tank is 12x4x2.5 with a 9x3x18" sump & replaces our 10ft. Tank has been wet for about 12 weeks but the first corals were transferred over about 10 weeks ago. All of the livestock came from our 10ft which had been running for 4yrs with a 18hr tear down / reset when we moved house 2yrs ago.
It was a bit of a mission to get everything timed with removing the 10ft & getting the 12ft inside. Holding tanks for fish & corals was another matter. All up it was all of August to tear down, install & get wet. After a hectic few months setting up, cleaning up, waiting for the Dino's to settle the tank is starting to take shape. Still have the tail end of the Dino's but another few weeks & they should be sorted.
We have a full build thread in our local forums so this will just show a condensed version lol. I do prattle on so if you like a good read, not sure if I'm allowed to post a link in here tho. This is a much larger forum & we would love to hear your thoughts & views about the build so far. We know it's a big tank so don't need to hear that anymore If you have any thoughts on what we did wrong, what we did right, what we could add, things we haven't thought of that would be great. The setup is nowhere near completed & still a very active build.

This is the 14ft stand we started with, 75 x 75 x 5mm SHS

Stand was fully lined with MDF, then covered with 6mm white acrylic & all joins sealed with white silicone.

The sump was the first piece of glass to turn up.

The next bit to turn up was the skimmer, a huge Bubble King 500 Internal

Once the stand was lined we married the sump, skimmer & stand

The 10ft was dismantled over a couple of days, last pic ever taken of the 10ft

Ended up being the holding tank for a few weeks on the floor

Moving day, long day but all went well taking the stand out of the garage & into the lounge.

DT ready for pick up, 4hr round trip to pick up, & then the install

Back home

In place ready to go

Filling & rock work

Started dropping corals in until the Dino's showed up

Once the algae showed up I lost interest & started playing down below
Return pump controls mounted

Trial fit of DIY reactors

All power supply units mounted, Tunze plugs accessible which is a bonus

Wave maker controls mounted

The worst of the algae after being lazy & letting it get away

That's about where we are up to now. The front electrical panel above is still a work in progress, it will be finished off in white acrylic to match the rest of the stand. The next week is back to finishing off the reactors, syphon out the last of the algae & then start moving our corals up from the frag sections in the sump.
So how are we looking to you? Thoughts, questions or ideas required

Keep us up dated please I am in Australia 2, with my little 4 footer

 

[locito277]

Amazing tank. Forgive me if this was mentioned but what happened to your 10 ft tank?

 

[revhtree]

Awesome!