Hi all,
I had the great pleasure of personally meeting some of you (here and there while buying stuff). I am relatively new to the hobby, and did not have a tank journal. I am bad at documentation but here are some updates/background story.
My wife and I had planted tanks back when we lived in Singapore (probably about 3 or 4 planted tanks (10 to 55 g) with discus, apistos etc). Freshwater tank is a big hobby in Asia. I have yet to see a 24 hr fish shop here.
We always wanted a saltwater tank but it was out of our means and required too much time commitment as grad students. My wife was and still is more involved than me with the tanks. She did all the planting, choice of plants, landscape, and all the photography (another of her hobby). I did all the hardware/setup and water changes. I always had a fish tank since I was a kid. So, it is not unfamiliar to me either. I am lucky that my wife appreciates the hobby as much as I do. Here are some random pics that she took when we first setting those up. Freshwater planted tanks are tough to keep clean.
a cool shot of a freshwater shrimp
Fast track to here, I managed to get a good bargain on an Aquatop 40 gal last year. It is not a high end tank but a decent beginner tank. So we finally managed to get our hands on a saltwater tank. I am an island native. So, it is even more exciting for me.
Here are some pics when i first got it late last year. I purchased some florida live rock to put in it.
We did not spend much time on it. We had a massive algae boom, and my wife and I both dropped the ball due to other commitment etc. I had a couple of frags in it which did not make it due to infrequent water changes etc. We took care of the livestock and all of them did well.
Recently, in an attempt to kickstart things again, I decided to investigate doing water changes directly from the basement which after some discussion with my wife, developed into the idea of having a sump in the basement. Therefore, I grabbed a used tank and dumped all my filtration etc and ran the setup for a few weeks for monitoring.
Instead of drilling the tank, I used a HOB overflow to investigate how easy/hard it was to get this system going. I have another thread on the issues that I was having with noise etc. That got solved by making a stockman pipe. So far, it is working well.
For a couple of weeks, I monitored the flow etc and the rate of evaporation (obviously higher but reasonable) to check whether it was a practical approach. I was happy with the end result. My water parameters were far more stable. So, two weeks ago, I tore down the tank completely, took the back AIO chamber off to get a clean nice look.
Did everything for the first time, from plumbing, woodworking to make the stand etc. I painted the back panel of the glass tank since I removed the acrylic divider in the AIO.
Now my red sea reefer lid is too small since I remove the back chamber of the AIO completely. Something that I need to fix since I have the wrasse.
Here is what I have so far:
System volume:
~ 80 gal (40 gal display and about 40 gal sump)
Livestock:
6 line wrasse
2 clown fish
1 bicolor blenny
1 royal gramma
1 peppermint shrimp
1 emerald crab somewhere
Equipment:
Kessil AP9X (upgraded from hydra32HD to this) . A huge difference in terms of setup and overall look
Tunze osmolator 3155
Jebao 15000 (i needed a bigger one due to my pump being in the basement). I prefer to run the pump at 50% rather than having a less powerful one running at 90-100%
Tunze 9004 skimmer (from PIF)
Big acrylic sump (40 gal or so).
Kessil refugium light (A80 or H80. I cannot remember)
Corals:
1 massive toadstool which serves as patio umbrella for the clowns
1 forest fire digi (not too happy and still recovering from our bad water changes)
1 monti (not doing too well and still recovering). I think it is an aquaman or something like that. I see that it has some polyps that are out but it does not seem to be getting better.
mystic montipora
tropic thunder montipora
nirvana zoa
blondie zoa
Still a lot of work to be done to tidy things up, rearrange the sump etc but at least things are off a good start for now. Need to pick up some clean chaeto from someone. We both do not like bristleworms even though they are awesome cleaners.
Thanks for reading!
I had the great pleasure of personally meeting some of you (here and there while buying stuff). I am relatively new to the hobby, and did not have a tank journal. I am bad at documentation but here are some updates/background story.
My wife and I had planted tanks back when we lived in Singapore (probably about 3 or 4 planted tanks (10 to 55 g) with discus, apistos etc). Freshwater tank is a big hobby in Asia. I have yet to see a 24 hr fish shop here.
We always wanted a saltwater tank but it was out of our means and required too much time commitment as grad students. My wife was and still is more involved than me with the tanks. She did all the planting, choice of plants, landscape, and all the photography (another of her hobby). I did all the hardware/setup and water changes. I always had a fish tank since I was a kid. So, it is not unfamiliar to me either. I am lucky that my wife appreciates the hobby as much as I do. Here are some random pics that she took when we first setting those up. Freshwater planted tanks are tough to keep clean.
a cool shot of a freshwater shrimp
Fast track to here, I managed to get a good bargain on an Aquatop 40 gal last year. It is not a high end tank but a decent beginner tank. So we finally managed to get our hands on a saltwater tank. I am an island native. So, it is even more exciting for me.
Here are some pics when i first got it late last year. I purchased some florida live rock to put in it.
40 gal tank
Hi all, As promised, I cleaned up the tank a bit over the weekend. Took some lousy pics. The rocks are not enough for the tank. I ordered some 20 lbs live rock which are due to arrive in early January.. So, for now, I am just looking at...rock. It doesnt matter. I have a lot of things to keep...
www.bareefers.org
We did not spend much time on it. We had a massive algae boom, and my wife and I both dropped the ball due to other commitment etc. I had a couple of frags in it which did not make it due to infrequent water changes etc. We took care of the livestock and all of them did well.
Recently, in an attempt to kickstart things again, I decided to investigate doing water changes directly from the basement which after some discussion with my wife, developed into the idea of having a sump in the basement. Therefore, I grabbed a used tank and dumped all my filtration etc and ran the setup for a few weeks for monitoring.
Instead of drilling the tank, I used a HOB overflow to investigate how easy/hard it was to get this system going. I have another thread on the issues that I was having with noise etc. That got solved by making a stockman pipe. So far, it is working well.
HOB overflow in AIO tank
Hi all, I managed to get a HOB overflow that fits very nicely in my 40 gal AIO tank. However, I am having a hard time keeping the desired water level in the overflow. I am dialing my pump and the return valve on the drain and overflow but the liquid level tends to decrease with time (about 4-5...
www.bareefers.org
For a couple of weeks, I monitored the flow etc and the rate of evaporation (obviously higher but reasonable) to check whether it was a practical approach. I was happy with the end result. My water parameters were far more stable. So, two weeks ago, I tore down the tank completely, took the back AIO chamber off to get a clean nice look.
Did everything for the first time, from plumbing, woodworking to make the stand etc. I painted the back panel of the glass tank since I removed the acrylic divider in the AIO.
Now my red sea reefer lid is too small since I remove the back chamber of the AIO completely. Something that I need to fix since I have the wrasse.
Here is what I have so far:
System volume:
~ 80 gal (40 gal display and about 40 gal sump)
Livestock:
6 line wrasse
2 clown fish
1 bicolor blenny
1 royal gramma
1 peppermint shrimp
1 emerald crab somewhere
Equipment:
Kessil AP9X (upgraded from hydra32HD to this) . A huge difference in terms of setup and overall look
Tunze osmolator 3155
Jebao 15000 (i needed a bigger one due to my pump being in the basement). I prefer to run the pump at 50% rather than having a less powerful one running at 90-100%
Tunze 9004 skimmer (from PIF)
Big acrylic sump (40 gal or so).
Kessil refugium light (A80 or H80. I cannot remember)
Corals:
1 massive toadstool which serves as patio umbrella for the clowns
1 forest fire digi (not too happy and still recovering from our bad water changes)
1 monti (not doing too well and still recovering). I think it is an aquaman or something like that. I see that it has some polyps that are out but it does not seem to be getting better.
mystic montipora
tropic thunder montipora
nirvana zoa
blondie zoa
Still a lot of work to be done to tidy things up, rearrange the sump etc but at least things are off a good start for now. Need to pick up some clean chaeto from someone. We both do not like bristleworms even though they are awesome cleaners.
Thanks for reading!