Quartapound
Active Member
Hey guys, I’ve never actually made a thread for my tank before, but the tank will be turning 5 years old this November and I figured now would be a good time to start something out.
This can definitely be considered my first saltwater aquarium, I started out with a 10 gallon bought from kijiji a few months before I got my cube, it came with a clownfish and a damsel, which got me hooked, and I bought the 45G Marineland Cube with overflow (24x24x18) from Incredible Aquarium in November 2011.
The tank has been through 2 moves in those 5 years, as well as some neglect, and lots of learning… I’ve come a long way from where I started, but I’m still far from where I’d like to be!
Current tank setup:
- 45G marineland Cube (24x24x18)with built in overflow (overflow leaves much to be desired… one of the only things I wish I could change about this tank)
- 20G DIY sump, 3 sections, had to dismantle my bubble trap when I upgraded my skimmer.
- Vertex IN-100 Protein Skimmer-- Upgraded from Bubble Magus NAC 3.5
- Vortech MP-10 ES powerhead
- Mag 9.5 return pump
- 2x150W heater
- BRS media reactor with carbon and rowaphos
- BRS 5 Stage RO/DI system
- 25G shallow frag tank (36x20x7.5) plumbed into my DT/Sump
- 4xATI 24’” 24Watt T5HO (3xBlue Plus 1x Purple Plus) in a Sun Blaze 24” x 4 T5HO fixture (Workhorse 5 Ballast)--I just recently decided to add this to my system sept 2015
- DIY LED’s surrounding the T5’s - 18x Cree XP-E Royal Blue 3W, 10x Cree XP-G Cool White R5 3W powered by 2x Meanwell ELN 60-48D drivers
- Neptune Apex Jr Controller with temperature probe
- DIY Arduino Controller for Feeding, Lighting control and dimming, ATO (using Arduino Mega 2560, Ethernet Shield, relay board, PH probe, temp probe, RTC,
- DIY Dosing pump --amazon/ebay ‘special’... 12v Peristaltic pump running @6.5v, ALK dosing
- Auto-Feeder hacked to be controlled by the Arduino
- DIY ATO-- using Arduino, float switches, relay board, Toms aqualifter pump
- SMC IP network cam pointing at Display Tank
Stocking list
- 3x Green Chromis
- 2x Ocellaris Clownfish
- 1x Juvenile Yellow Tang
- 1x Six-line Wrasse
- 1x Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
Corals
A mixture of SPS/LPS and softies… I’d say my tank is LPS dominated at the moment, although I plan on adding a lot more SPS in the coming months.
Equipment Layout
Remote Sump!! I became quite excited during the planning stages of my last move when I realized that it was going to be easy to plumb the drain and return lines through the floor which allows me to have my sump and frag tank in the basement… keeping the ongoing clutter and ‘science experiments’ out of view while giving me lots of room for maintenance and equipment.
I still wanted to keep the distance between my return pump and the tank as short as possible, so I found some heavy duty steel shelves @ CT that will easily handle the weight, and set them up.
Maintenance in the sump/frag tank requires a small step ladder right now but I plan on building a small step/platform that will span the length of the shelving units to allow working comfortably.
My return pump feeds both the frag and display tank, both return via gravity.
I’m running carbon and Rowaphos (will be switching to HCGFO when the jar is empty) in a BRS media reactor fed from a MJ1200.
For Water movement I’m currently relying on a single Vortech MP10ES in Reef Crest mode around 70%,, with a DIY 12v backup battery, but I am seriously considering switching over to 2x Jebao RW4’s.
Water Parameters
I will be the first to admit, this hasn’t been my strong suite in the past. Over the history of the tank there have been many missed water changes, and only since the move have I started testing and dosing for Ca, Alk, Mag. That being said, the tank has been doing quite well in spite of some neglect.
latest testing:
- Salinity 1.026
- Temp 78.5
- PH 8.25
- Alk 7
- Ca 440
- Mag 1360
I recently setup a saltwater mixing station and ran a RODI line across the basement to it, as well as to my ATO container… I have no idea why I didn’t do this sooner, no more carrying buckets during waterchanges… which means I’m more likely to do them!
.....So! Any questions, comments, suggestions, please feel free to post them, I'm always open to new ideas and trying to learn more!
Thanks Everyone,
Quartapound
... online now, not sure how often I'll run this for... using trial software atm.
