New Member - Iowa City

Back in Iowa City after graduation.  Its good to be home..
After seeing a book on aquariums at work one particularly bleak December afternoon, I decided I wanted to start a reef tank.  Several weeks and many, many hours of reading later, I decided to actually do it.  So here I am, building away.  According to all that Ive read - the more volume you can keep the better.  So I decided to combine what I had with what I wanted to have, and decided to set up a 20gallon display tank initially and connect it to a 20gallon sump on a 36" X 24" X 36" tall stand for an upgrade later.  Bam! went the plastic and Zoom! went the power tools and a couple weekends later I have a full-fledged science project underway. 

The sump was based on sumps from www.melevsreef.com, incorporating concepts gathered from www.reefcentral.com, www.3reef.com as well as several publications (The Nano-Reef Handbook; Brightwell.  Aquarium Corals; Borneman.)  It was designed with a refugium running the length of the front for visibility (whats the point of having all that extra activity if its totally hidden by other equipment?) and was designed deep for a potential deep sand bed (still debating the pros and cons of a DSB) as well as use as a frag tank.  But everything looks different on paper...

The display tank was an old 20gallon tank Ive had since the late 80s I found in the basement of my parents house and decided to drill for a quasi-coast-to-coast style overflow system.  The idea is much simpler and as far as I can figure, will push much more water once I increase the column height - IE dropping the sump down below the display tank, but for now it will have to suffice!  The plumbing is entirely temporary - I just wanted to set up something to get things rolling.  I will eventually design a rigid system for plumbing, as well as for tank flow.  I figure as long as Im cycling the rocks, I can clean them as I go. 
So after getting a 24" 2x24W T5 fixture I was ready to get some live rock. 


Well, here I am, ready for my cycle!  Nothing much to do now but test the water, wait, and poke around on the internet looking for more ideas...

Im gonna work on the white balance on my digital camera - the actinic lighting isn't very friendly!
- Peter

 

Just wanted to add some updated photos. (still figuring this photo posting out, please bear with me)   Things have been moving extremely slowly, but then again, I keep hearing thats a good thing.


The cabinet was built with materials I had laying around, as well as some project specific materials.. who says planning gets you anywhere?











The mangroves are bundled as Ive seen photos of them doing this, I have also heard that they are apt to starve out a neighbor of nutrients - and as you see, I have plenty of them in there in close quarters, with a couple in filter floss behind them in the baffles. Im waiting to see if the mangroves will starve each other, the chaeto, vice versa, or if I end up with a super nitrate/phosphate filter. As of yesterday, a month into the mangroves placements, my nitrates and phosphates are zero. I have also been running this system skimmer-less from the beginning. However, I do plan on adding one as my bio-load increases. 

and perhaps some in-tank shots?








Thanks JMadison!






Im curious what you guys think

 

Thought Id update. It seems that this thread doesn't see much traffic, so maybe this will end up being for my own records.

new frags, new growth.

 

and these

 

Just checked my parameters after two weeks of vacation (who am I kidding, I dont test as frequently as I should) which means nothing but fresh water via ATO for a couple weeks, and some good faith. Honestly though, the only things I "add" to the system are weekly 5g water changes (into a 35-40g total system volume) each week with Reef Crystals, so two weeks of "hands off" probably did more good than anything!
NH3 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 0 (!)
PO4 - 0 (!) - keep in mind this is a skimmerLESS system
PH - 8.1 - a little low
Balmy 80 Degrees F
dKH - pretty high at 13dKH or 4.65meq/L
Ca - a little low at 400ppm - Im already planning according to this great article about Ca/DKH relationships located at http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm
SG - 1.0255
Mg - ~1200 - Ive been told to watch this as mangroves use up a lot of Magnesium, but so far with frequent water changes it hasn't been too much of an issue, though im starting to see the Mg fall more and more between water changes. Perhaps the mangroves use more Mg as they mature, and as you'll see with the following photo, they have sprouted several tiers of leaves as well as significant root growth.

 

Yes, im a bike builder at World of Bikes - which means I dont handle shop repairs.

Aside from major overhauls and replacement parts, I could probably just do it on my own time for you. As a point of reference, aside from a thorough cleaning, most of the older/neglected bikes we see need cable/housing, brake pads, and sometimes tire/tube replacements, which can add up quickly - but maybe I could trade you a frag or two for the labor


Either way, I think the place to start is to take it in and ask one of the mechanics to give you a proper assessment/estimate.

 

Time for a little update. If you're looking for glorious corals, Im afraid I cannot show you many. With the purchase of a couple acroporas I quickly fell in love with SPS corals and fully intend on stocking a highly efficient system with these "high energy" corals. Im waiting on purchasing mass amounts of stony corals as I plan on moving in the next couple months. I am also in the process of building a new nano system and have decided to take my time.

I have been doing some serious questioning of what, where, and why im in this hobby over the last several months. To date, I have come up with a few answers that look good. In a system I decided that I want 1) ease of care. This means access to all parts of the system without a ladder, or diving into my tank. The system needs to be small, and well designed to take care of an extensive list of possible maladies. 2) compact. This goes with #1 in the maintenance department, but also with my own lifestyle. I dont have a big house, nor do I think bigger is always better - the big element in keeping ANY system is stability. While larger systems are inherently more stable, diligent service and vigilance as well as good design and habit go a LONG way for keeping smaller systems stable. Smaller systems are also 3) energy efficient. This means no giant heaters, ridiculously strong pumps (noise is energy waste, too), or my number 1 energy waster; lighting. The system will be mostly lit by LEDs with some t5s for the frag tank. I have already purchased an Arduino and begun learning how to control sunrise and sunsets on my reef. There are plenty of good examples of people caring for beautiful SPS reefs with LEDs, and for my purposes, they will work brilliantly.

I will post a quick picture of the tentative design of this project, which will hold somewhere between 40 and 50 gallons.

What is pictured is actually two of the same thing - just different views of its construction.

While the majority of this project is still somewhere on the horizon, some of the elements in the project are starting to come together.

The first element was a relatively compact "mixing station" for getting "seawater" all ready for my aquarium. With SPS corals, lighting and water quality are the two most important elements of success. The mixing station uses a 5 stage RO/DI unit from Bulk Reef Supply (highly recommended!), as well as a 10 gallon holding tank where I run carbon and gfo. there are several pumps to keep the water churning almost violently and a lit for evaporation. Since the station is so low to the ground, Ive routed a bleed line in the gfo reactor for easy fill-ups when I do water changes. I decided on the 10 gallon because my system is small enough that a 5 gallon change weekly is plenty. I am a fan of keeping things smaller and simpler as they are easier to deal with on a regular basis. And we all know that "easier" maintenance means more maintenance, and by virtue, healthier aquariums!

Anyway, here it is.




The second element I got done this weekend was an in-line tank for my mangroves. I struggled for a while with how to deal with this system before I just decided that keeping them on semi-permanent display would be the most advantageous. I'll just have to make sure I dont loose too much evaporated water or heat just keeping them healthy. The tank isn't 100% complete yet, but I got far enough to show some progress shots.




Finally, I thought Id do a quick update on the mangroves themselves. I have been experimenting with lighting for these guys. One is quite a bit higher on the Kelvin scale (5500k or so? about "daylight") and the other is a yellower bulb which I cannot quote the kelvin rating of. So far the leaves under the more intense daylight bulb look healthier, and provide a more compact growth habit which I am looking for out of these plants. While the leaves under the yellower light are larger, they also do not look so healthy - there are noticeable veins and folded or burned edges to the leaves. The smaller leaves under the more intense light look full, green, and happy. The mangroves DO provide some filtration, but that is not my main reason for keeping them. I enjoy growing all kinds of plants and hopefully these will provide a unique opportunity for yet another biotype within my system somewhere down the line.



and the root structure, which is the most important part for my purposes.



As always, im open for ideas or willing to explain my reasoning to any curious parties. In the meantime, happy reefing!