Resurrection - 4ft Bay Tank Reef
Until last year I had been successfully keeping a few marine tanks, a wife & four kids. Then 6 years of battling brain tumours (me) finally became too much and "everything" imploded, hobby, family, income, everything. Anyway that's old news and I provide it for context only.
Now I'm ready to start the marine hobby again, with little money but plenty of time and so, thought I would journal my little experiment. Fortunately my wife and I are facinated by all aspects of the marine world including microfauna. In fact my wife has a nano into which she has never put anything into except natural sea water (NSW), live rock & occassional food and the micro life and mushrooms that spring from nowhere is amazing.
So - we are happy to go very slowly with this project and develop the biosystem while keeping an eye open for good quality, well priced stock, especially frags.
Step 1: Collect all equipment, accessories & resources from around the house and garage. List it to see what I really have & what I need to get. Then sell what I can of surplus stuff to help fund this. As I round it up I'll add to this list.
What I have:
Equipment A - for display tank.
I had previously painted the back of this tank with black paint & I was very happy with the effect BUT I've discovered that salt destroys the paint (obvious in hindsight) and magnetic powerheads tend to wreck to paint when they have remained in one position too long. I considered using black acrylic on the back as I could use various effects on the acrylic panel to create an illusion of depth but since I'm drilling holes in the back, I don't want the extra sheet interfering with the seal. I've heard that applying signwriter's vinyl is a major PITA but that seems the best option so I'll try to buy some locally or online. I'll stay with the black colour though as it really makes things pop.
As I'm partially parylised I had been avoiding a lot of DIY stuff but it occured to me that if I was that lazy back when they said I would be paraplegic for ever, I wouldn't be walking around the supermarket doing my own shopping (using a shopping trolley as mild support) so stuff it, time to man up and do it all myself. It'll be an interesting challenge and a good example to my kids.
Things I DO Want in the DT
Mysis Shrimp - buy in.
Turbo Snails.
Cerith snails.
Dragon's Tongue algae.
Zooanthid garden.
Coralliamorph (mushroom) garden.
Stomatella snails.
Abalone.
Miniature Sea Hares.
"Deep Purple" Rhodactis - from Matt Richards Aquacultured Coral.
Sea Cucumber - Had them before with no trouble & they're great sand sifters.
A mated pair of Coral Banded Shrimp.
Things I DON'T Want in the DT
Hermit crabs, I'm sick of them killing snails & winding up with empty snail shells everywhere.
Now I'm ready to start the marine hobby again, with little money but plenty of time and so, thought I would journal my little experiment. Fortunately my wife and I are facinated by all aspects of the marine world including microfauna. In fact my wife has a nano into which she has never put anything into except natural sea water (NSW), live rock & occassional food and the micro life and mushrooms that spring from nowhere is amazing.
So - we are happy to go very slowly with this project and develop the biosystem while keeping an eye open for good quality, well priced stock, especially frags.
Step 1: Collect all equipment, accessories & resources from around the house and garage. List it to see what I really have & what I need to get. Then sell what I can of surplus stuff to help fund this. As I round it up I'll add to this list.
What I have:
Equipment A - for display tank.
- 4'x18"x18" bay tank (approx 250 ltrs). Stained 2 door timber stand & hood to match.
- 3ft x 6 globe T5 lighting unit. All globes working plus 3 spare white + 1 spare actinic. The light unit has two banks of three globes with a switch for each bank. one cord powers the whole unit. 1 globe fitting currently loose and not working.
- New 300w heater.
- 2.5' 3 chamber sump that i want to modify a little.
- Fishbowl Moonlight system with three light output units.
- 2 x 3500lph Korallia copy powerheads.
- SunSun 100 litre tank & stand - gave the whole hood unit the flick as they are very dangerous and use uninsulated wire.
- Clamp on 150w single globe MH light & reflector with 14k globe.
- Two foam boxes of base rock (ex live rock, dry for 6 months), about 40kg approx.
- 1m of 12mm acrylic rid + 1m of 8mm acrylic rod.
- N52 Frag Rack.
- Bag of frag plugs.
- 2 x Superglue gel.
- About 10kg activated carbon.
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The Display Tank
The Display Tank
I had previously painted the back of this tank with black paint & I was very happy with the effect BUT I've discovered that salt destroys the paint (obvious in hindsight) and magnetic powerheads tend to wreck to paint when they have remained in one position too long. I considered using black acrylic on the back as I could use various effects on the acrylic panel to create an illusion of depth but since I'm drilling holes in the back, I don't want the extra sheet interfering with the seal. I've heard that applying signwriter's vinyl is a major PITA but that seems the best option so I'll try to buy some locally or online. I'll stay with the black colour though as it really makes things pop.
As I'm partially parylised I had been avoiding a lot of DIY stuff but it occured to me that if I was that lazy back when they said I would be paraplegic for ever, I wouldn't be walking around the supermarket doing my own shopping (using a shopping trolley as mild support) so stuff it, time to man up and do it all myself. It'll be an interesting challenge and a good example to my kids.
Things I DO Want in the DT
Mysis Shrimp - buy in.
Turbo Snails.
Cerith snails.
Dragon's Tongue algae.
Zooanthid garden.
Coralliamorph (mushroom) garden.
Stomatella snails.
Abalone.
Miniature Sea Hares.
"Deep Purple" Rhodactis - from Matt Richards Aquacultured Coral.
Sea Cucumber - Had them before with no trouble & they're great sand sifters.
A mated pair of Coral Banded Shrimp.
Things I DON'T Want in the DT
Hermit crabs, I'm sick of them killing snails & winding up with empty snail shells everywhere.
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