MASRQ
Marine Aquarium Society of Regional QueenslandDavid's tank
This tank is 4’ x 14” x 18” and is an old tank that once housed African cichlids. I have modified it by installing a corner weir and drilling the holes for the bulkheads. There are two 25mm bulkheads in the weir and one 20mm bulkhead on the back for the return. My sump is also an old tank that I have siliconed baffles into. It is 3’, 180L. My return pump at the moment is a Sun Sun 3900lph, however this is about to be changed over for a Laguna 7500lph. The return also feeds the calcium reactor and will also feed a Hailea 1/2hp chiller when the new pump goes in.
For protein skimming I went with a custom made, 3’ tall beckett skimmer. This has a 9000lph Laguna pump feeding it from the first compartment of the sump. So far it has done an excellent job, although I am finding it a little finicky to tune. I have a couple of modifications planned, which should make it easier to tune properly.
Lighting was an area where there is so much choice and no definitive answers on what is best, very confusing for a newcomer. I ended up importing two Lumen Bright mini reflectors with 250W Coralvue ballast from the US. I figured this setup would provide ample light and it represented very good value when compared to what was available here. So far I am happy with my choice. A Fishbowl Innovations moonlight computer running two of their LED units provides moonlighting. It is set to follow the lunar cycle, although I have not quite synched it to the actual moon phase yet.
I built a hood to house all the lighting as the tank is in our lounge room and I wasn’t too keen on watching telly with 500W of metal halide glaring at me from the side. I had never built anything before, so it was a bit of a learning curve, but I think it turned out ok. To help get rid of the heat from the metal halides, I installed 6 computer fans in the hood, two on each end pulling air in and two on top extracting air out.
In tank circulation is provided by four Pro Aqua 3000lph powerheads. These are the cheap chines knockoffs of the Koralia units. Hopefully they will see out the life of this tank. A large single chamber calcium reactor filled with ARM aragonite media provides calcium supplementation.
The tank has around 30kg of live rock, with a further 5kg’s in the sump. I have recently changed my deep sand bed to a 12cm layer of beach sand. Previously I was using crushed marble, but found that it was too coarse for the purpose. I also have some macro algae on top of the sand bed, but it has so far been slow to establish.
I do a 50L water change every 3-4 weeks and test parameters around once
a week. If need be I adjust calcium with Damprid, alk with bicarb soda
and magnesium with Epsom salts. I have an automatic topoff that was built
from components from Jaycar. It is basically a float switch that operates
a relay to turn a pump on and off. I am using a 25L plastic drum with
a screw top lid to store RO water and a 600lph pump to transfer it to
the sump.
At a glance...
|
Tank dimensions |
4’L X 14”W X 18”H (=approx 190 L), with corner overflow and 180L sump |
|
Pumps |
Internal: Pro Aqua 3000lph X 4 |
|
Lighting |
Daylight: 2 X 250w MH with Lumen Bright reflectors,
Coralvue ballasts and 12000k bulbs |
|
Skimmer |
Custom made 3 foot tall beckett |
|
Cooling |
Hailea 1/2HP chiller |
|
Freshwater topup |
Auto via a float switch in sump |
|
Additives |
Dissolved bi-carb, dissolved calcium chloride, dissolved Epsom salts dosed manually when required |
|
Water changes |
Coralife scientific grade mix - 50L every 3-4 weeks |
|
Livestock |
Corals: Numerous hard coral frags, acro’s, birdsnest,
hammers, acan, montipora, turbinara and more. Also bubble tip anemone. |
More pictures (click on the thumbnails for a larger view)
