Tank Journal Archive

[Maddclimb]

Hi All,

I am jumping back into the hobby after an 8 year hiatus. I used to have a small 60L nano which was pretty basic and did okay (never really took off) for about a year until my house caught on fire and destroyed it. I felt so bad for my fish, especially the bi-colour blenny because I found him crispy near to the tank trying to save himself..

I have always wanted to start another tank and now that I have bought my own place, there was no better time!

Display
Fill date: 13 Jul 2018

Tank: Aqua One Mini Reef 160

Dimensions: ~ 90 x 45 x 45 cm

Display Lighting: Stock Mariglo (will upgrade eventually)

Cover: DIY mesh top

Stand: Stock Stand

Sump: Stock Sump

Rock: Carrib Sea Life Rock

Sand: I forgot what it was - looks like beach sand

I have about 28kg of rock in my tank. I have been moving the rocks around for the last 2 months and just can't seem to get it right. I think I have something I am relatively happy with now.... Might be too much rock considering I still need to add coral and how much they'll grow...



Support Systems
Water Circulation: 2 x Sicce Voyagers w/ Wave Surfer Controller

Return Pump: Jebao DCS 3000

Skimmer: Quantum Nyos 120

Heating/Cooling: 300 W heater with Inkbird Controller - will get some fans when Summer comes around

ATO: Aqua One ATO

I am planning to grow chaeto in the sump to help nutrient export. Currently the chaeto only has a fluorescent light on it. I had a par38 grow light from ebay but I accidently dropped it in the water while I was fiddling around in the sump . The chaeto is only in a small compartment right now (pic) but I think it needs a bit more room to be effective? I was thinking of cutting the piece of glass on the right of the chaeto so the skimmer can kind of fit into the current section and then building a box or something out of acrylic and have the cheato in the larger section of the sump. What do you guys think? Do I even need to contain the chaeto? Will algae growth from the light mess with the skimmer?


Issues
The tank is still cycling after nearly 2 months and 3 bottles of Dr.Tims! (I keep telling myself that I just got a dud bottle but it hasnt seemed to speed it up at all ). Currently at the nitrites phase but for some reason it hasn't gone down for nearly a month and I have stopped adding ammonia. The nitrates have been going up so something is happening (I think). I think using all dead rock/sand ain't helping...

This has given me some time to fix issues with the MR 160. The main one being the drain. The stock drain is a durso style standpipe and for whatever reason, it was creating heaps of bubbles and splashing all over the cabinet and getting my carpet wet. Not to mention the noise it was making! It was also annoying because the pipe sizes that Aqua One provide are not not Aus standard so its difficult getting the right sizes. I took all the stock piping out and converted the durso the a herbie overflow with 25 and 15 mm pipes from bunnings. Also hard plumbed the return over the back of the aquarium with 15mm pipes while I was at it.



Stock Wish List
2 x Clownfish
Royal Gramma
Purple Firefish

Suggestions welcome! I want to keep mainly lps and maybe try some sps at some stage so I'd like fish that are coral and safe. Can I get any kind of anthias small enough? Not really interested in cardinalfish or chromis...
Would also like to keep some cool inverts but am torn because I also like hawkfish. Also love boxfish but know my tank is too small . Could I maybe get away with a Valentini puffer?

Wowzers this got pretty long... Anyway thanks for reading if you got this far!

 

[Sam Parker]

Welcome back, what a horrible story about your last tank! I hope that this one goes much better for you. Replacing the stock plumbing is a good move, I see lots having trouble with it and not being standard piping causes all sorts of drama.

Keep us all updated!

 

[potatocouch]

Welcome back!

 

[Jacques Pels]

HI,
neat set up.
Only suggestion is not to rush it... it will tell you when it has moved to the next stage of the cycle, bugger what we think, anticipate and know.
You may want to "seed" it with a few rocks and some sand from a well established tank ?
Nice cover btw - wish I had done that before my long nose Hawkfish decided to take a leap...
Keen to follow your progress
Jac

 

[Shadyraro]

Hey mate,
Nice looking tank but I don’t see why you had to mod the plumbing so much.
Did u try extending the drain piping into your sump to reduce noise and splashing?
I have a 150 and all the plumbing is stock, it’s quiet, runs smoothly and it’s a higher tank than yours.

 

[Maddclimb]

Hey mate,
Nice looking tank but I don’t see why you had to mod the plumbing so much.
Did u try extending the drain piping into your sump to reduce noise and splashing?
I have a 150 and all the plumbing is stock, it’s quiet, runs smoothly and it’s a higher tank than yours.

The drain was already extended under the water line out of the box. I know a lot of people had to do this to with their aqua ones to get the tank quiet. I have no idea what it was but nothing worked...
At least now I have the security of a back up drain :)

 

[Shadyraro]

The drain was already extended under the water line out of the box. I know a lot of people had to do this to with their aqua ones to get the tank quiet. I have no idea what it was but nothing worked...
At least now I have the security of a back up drain :)

Fair enough.
All I did was change the return pump with a nyos viper 2, it’s adjustable so I could dial down the flow to stop the splashing etc from the drain pipe and it’s dead quiet now.