r0cksteady's 5ftx2ftx2ft AUSSIE - first MARINE Tank with many pics

[r0cksteady]

CURRENT FULL TANK SHOT



Hi All,

Starting my first marine tank, originally decided to go for a reef\invertebrate safe setup without fully understanding that many inverts are nocturnal and do not display themselves during normal hours. As such my focus has now been changed towards fish that are not necessarily invert safe but am still trying to work towards getting a community based tank.

Have had fresh water tropical tanks, but this is my first salt water. I've looked through a lot of the TOTM both here and on www.masa.asn.au (Aussie version of ReefCentral) Also spend time browsing tank journals here to see what I like and what I don't like.

I have found that my tastes are a little different to most. I seem to prefer to have something a bit more unique, less popular and rare compared to what the general populace go for. Though there are some creatures that are universally cool no matter how popular they get.

Its funny how I started by flipping through books and just writing down the names of fish that I thought looked good and then started posting, got a list together that I felt was compatible. Then went into the LFS to see how much they cost, availability etc only to find I was absolutely disappointed with how they actually looked in real life ie colour, patters etc. Photos are so deceptive. eg. Tomini Tang, certain wrasses just to name a few. Sorry to those who do like these fish.

So now I have gone in the reverse and go and look around the LFS to see what creatures are available and how they behave, then come home read the books descriptions on them and then post questions about experiences, habits, compatibility etc....hoping that when I return to the LFS it hasnt been sold.

Ive made a custom cabinet\stand which turned out to be way more expensive than if I just bought a pre-made one and looks like something you would expect a year 10 wood work student to do Though im a bit more critical because I know where all the mistakes are. I highly recommend you finish the stand\cabinet completely BEFORE placing your tank on it and filling it in excitement. lol.

The cabinet is 950cm high so that theres no bending required to look in the tank and also, when sitting down at the dinner table you have a great view of the whole tank. Its also painted white as the misses is in the interior decorator trade and apparently thats "in" and wont "date" as quickly.

I have tried to include my wife as much as possible in every aspect and the things she shows remote interest in (which is rare), I latch onto as much as possible It seems like its going to be an ongoing battle. So far her favorite is the cow fish and she cant stop giggling at its little mouth when it eats.

My whole plan with the 5x2x2 is get the experience required to do an built in wall tank for the house we own. This will be substantially larger than the 5ft obviously but I wasn't willing to trust any amount of research I did to attempt it without having some decent experience in the field first.

Hardware & Config Details:

Tank (5ft Long x 2ft Deep x 2ft Tall) = 150 US Gallons or 570 Liters.
COST $340 with holes and overflow

Pine Tank Stand (Home made) - 950cm off ground.
COST - too embarrassed to want to add up. lol.

90kg of Live Rock with 20kg of it in the sump to help grow Macro-Algae.
COST $14 per kg

60 Kg (133 lbs) of Crushed Coral Substrate. 5" Deep Sea Sand Bed.
COST - 5 Bags ($25) = $125

13L Water container from supermarket with Plasterers Lime ($9.80 from Bunnings for 20kg) used as Kalkwasser drip/top off.

Lighting - SunSun 2 x 250W Metal Halide Reflector 20K + 2 x 80W T5HO + Moonlight 7 LED + Stand
COST $495

Power Board with built in digital timer configured to:
T5HO - 8am - 11pm
MH 10am - 9pm (Desk Fan is set to turn on and off with MH)
Moon Light - 9:30pm - 11:30pm, 5:30am-8:00am
COST $20

Protein Skimmer - Via Aqua SK888
COST $219

Heater - 2 x 300 Watt Jager Eheim
COST $45 each

Cooling - 1 x Desktop Fan (Connected with MH Lights)
COST $10

Filtration - Custom Sump (40" Long x 24" High x 14" Deep) 38 US Gallon (145 Litres) with 1 pump Eheim Compact Submersible Pump 5000
COST $195 for pump, Custom Sump was $100

Power Heads - 4 x AquaPro 5000lph ($75 each)

Wave Controller - 1 x Ocean Pulse Duo WM_01 ($120) - Just use double adaptors to run all 4 power heads off the duo.

Emergency Power - Sola 320 UPS - Will last 4 hours at 750W

MISC - Lots of old towels, Magnetic Algae Cleaner, Long Tweezers

TEST KITS
High PH
Nitrate
Nitrite
Salinity
Alkalinity
Calcium
Phosphate

Now feel free to glaze over this next bit of information but im keeping track of what I learn from others and reading. Maybe it will help you guys out too...

CHEMICAL REQUIREMENTS
The recommended values for water parameters in a marine aquarium are as follows:

Parameters

* Salinity/Specific Gravity - 35ppt/1.024-1.027
* Temperature - 24-29�C
* Alkalinity - 2.5-3.5 meq/L
* pH - 8.1-8.4
* Calcium - 400-450 mg/L
* Magnesium - 1250-1350 mg/L
* Oxygen - saturated if possible

Nutrients

* Ammonia - undetectable
* Nitrite - undetectable
* Nitrate - undetectable
* Phosphate - undetectable

FOOD - Home mad mix - will post recipe soon

Daily Maintenance List
Health Check - Temperature, Equipment Working, Creature Health.
Feeding
Glass Cleaning
Additive dosing \ Kalk top up - Calcium & Alkaline where required
Water top up

Weekly Maintenance List
Water testing - High PH, Salinity, Alkalinity, Calcium and Nitrate
Log Book
Equipment Cleaning - Blockages, filter bags, skimmer cup etc

Fortnightly Maintenance
Water Changes - 20%

Yearly Maintenance List
Clean and check everything completely


CURRENT STOCK LIST

FISH

BLENNIES
1 x Jewelled Rockskipper (Salarias fasciatus)

CLOWNFISH
1 x Ocellaris Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris)
1 x Black & White Ocellaris Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris var)

COWFISH
1 x Longhorn Cowfish (Lactoria cornuta)

ANGELFISH
1 x Flame Angel (Centropyge loricula)
1 x Regal Angel (Pygoplites diacanthus)
1 x Emperor Angelfish (Pomacanthus imperator)
1 x Lemonpeel Angelfish (Centropyge flavissima)
1 x Golden Angelfish (Centropyge aurantius)

GOBIES
2 x Green Clown Goby (Gobiodon atrangulatus)
2 x Yellow Clown Goby (Gobiodon okinawae) - Mated pair


INVERTERBRATES

STAR FISH
1 x Blue Sea Star (Linckia laevigata)
1 x Spotted Sea Star (Nardoa SP)

SHRIMP
6 x Peppermint Shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni)
2 x Coral Banded Shrimp (Stenopus hispidus) - Mated pair, rare variant - yellow bellies with blue legs.
1 x Mantis Shrimp (Gonodactylus smithii) - Thankfully located in my sump. Very pretty though.

CRABS
1 x Red Porcelain Crabs (Petrolisthes spp)
3 x Anemone Crab (Neopetrolisthes spp)
10 x Dwarf Hermit Crabs
1 x Decorator Crab (Majidae spp)

ABALONE
1 x Abalone (Haliotis spp)

SEA CUCUMBERS
1 x Sand Sifting Sea Cucumber (Holothuria hilla, Thymiosycia hilla)

SNAILS
6 x Banded Trochus Snail (Trochus sp)
6 x Turbo Snails (Turbo sp)
1 x Tiger Cowrie (Cypraea tigris)
6 x Large Stomatella Snails (Stomatella varia)

ANEMONES (Need to be 12" apart)
2 x Green Bubble Tip Anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor)
1 x Rose Bubble Tip Anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor )
1 x Magnificent Sea Anemone (Heteractis magnifica)

CLAMS
1 x Maxima Clam (Tridacna Maxima)


CORALS

HARD CORALS
1 x Plate Coral (Fungia spp)
1 x Favia sp - Not sure if its got a common name
1 x Open Brain Coral (Trachyphyllia spp)
1 x Maze Coral (Platygyra daedalea)
1 x Lobed brain coral (Lobophyllia spp)
1 x Purple Tipped Elegance Coral (Catalaphyllia jardinei)
1 x Purple Tipped Green Elegance Coral (Catalaphyllia jardinei)
1 x Pineapple Coral (Favia helianthoides)
1 x Hammer Coral (Euphylla ancora)
1 x Blue Cluster Acropora (Acropora sp)
1 x Purple Cluster Acropora (Acropora sp)
1 x Pink & Peach Cluster Acropora (Acropora sp)
1 x Pink Bird's Nest Coral (Seriatopora hystrix)
1 x Purple Montipora w/ Christmas Tree Fan Worms
1 x ??? Montipora

SOFT CORALS
1 x Green Star Polyps (Pachyclavularia sp)
2 x Finger Leather Corals (Sinularia spp)
2 x Leather Coral (Sarcophyton spp)
1 x Finger Leather Coral (Cladiella sp)
2 x Carnation Coral (Dendronephthya spp.)
2 x Red Owl Eye Coral (Cynarina lacrymalis)
1 x Frogspawn Coral (Euphyllia spp)
1 x Spiny Sea Rod (Muricea elongata)

NON-CORALS
7 x Red Corallimorphs \ Mushroom Polyps (Discosoma sp.)
3 x Blue Corallimorphs \ Mushroom Polyps (Discosoma sp.)
1 x Green Zoanthids (Protopalythoa spp)


MY CURRENT WANT LIST - THOUGH ALWAYS EVOLVING AND CHANGING
I have tried to put in in order of what I would stock them in as well. Im aware that im at risk of overstocking the tank so basically my plan is to just add one fish at a time and assess the tank as we go. Im currently about to upgrade skimmers to a giant one and also add another 30kg of live rock. My pod population is in plague proportions (in the sump and refugium) now so I feel that if I can find some Mandarins that are accepting frozen foods as well Ill jump at them.

FISH

ANGELFISH
1 x Potter's Angelfish (Centropyge potteri)

DRAGONETS
2 x Male/Female Pair of Green Mandarinfish (Pterosynchiropus\Synchiropus splendidus)

CARDINALS
2 x Male/Feamle Tankbred Pair of Bangaii Cardinals (Pterapogon kauderni)

WRASSE
1 x Sixline Wrasse (Pseudocheilinus hexataenia)

HAWKFISH
1 x Flame Hawkfish (Neocirrhites armatus)

TRIGGERFISH
1 x Niger Triggerfish (Odonus niger)

EELS
1 x Zebra Moray Eel (Gymnomuraena zebra)
1 x Blue Ribbon Eel (Rhinomuraena quaestia)


INVERTEBRATES

SHRIMP
2 x Indo-Pacific White-Striped Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis) - want mated pair
1 x Blood Shrimp (Lysmata debelius)
1 x Pistol Shrimp (Alpheus sp) - Paired with Goby

CLAMS
2 x Crocea Clam (Tridacna crocea)
1 x Maxima Clam (Tridacna maxima)
1 x Squamosa Clam (Tridacna squamosa)

SCALLOPS & OYSTERS
2 x Electric Flame Scallop (Lima sp)
2 x Flame Scallop (Lima scabra)

Now for some pics:

[r0cksteady]

[r0cksteady]

[r0cksteady]

[r0cksteady]

[r0cksteady]

[Mattmcf]

very nice, i never would have guessed there was so much life in the tank from the initial full tank shot. Do you have an problems with the angels nipping at the acros?

[r0cksteady]

None at all, I did a fair bit of reading on the Angels and basically decided to slowly stock the tank with corals going for the cheaper ones first. The one I thought would be definitely get nipped was a button coral and after a few weeks of being nip-free I decided I would get a second one just to make sure it and put temptation in their face. No nipping. I have had the acros & clam in there for about 4-6 weeks now and no nipping what so ever.

I guess only long term keeping will tell especially with the Emperor and the cowfish but so far so good. I make sure I heavily feed my tank that way they are too full to even consider it. My Jeweled Rockskipper is hilarious as he is so fat now he doesnt even enjoy browing on the macro algae and at the moment ive got a massive bloom of sea lettuce (the good kind).

The cow fish is the only fish that seems to be a semi-nuisance and its only in cute ways. At night he seems to sleep on either the Green Star Polyps or the Sinularia, and I do mean sleep he stops flapping and perches on either one, the corals dont seem to appreciate it but at least he only does it at night.

I try to feed my tank two large meals a day and then just a pinch of pellets\flakes every say 3 hours or so depending. When I say pinch I do mean just a small pinch. All of the fish seem to like the flake better than pellets, I think its because they enjoy chasing the stuff around the tank (i leave my power heads running).

[FUA]

wow, pics look great. THat first post is possibly the largest post I have ever seen!!! NIIIICE!!

[r0cksteady]

lol thanks. I started all my research originally @ ReefCentral but found I was lacking some local Aussie opinions so migrated over to www.masa.asn.au (the aussie version of ReefCentral) but then realised "Hey why not do both now?". So hopefully I can help people with insights into availability, experiences etc in Australia.