Titus' new 120g

Titus · 03-18-2007, 10:51 AM

Hey reefers!

I'm new to the hobby having many years of freshwater keeping under my belt particularly with oscars. How cool are they? They have tons of personality. When deciding how i'm going to stock my new 4 by 2 by 2 ft 120g saltwater setup i naturally felt like choosing a large intelligent fish like a picasso trigger. Unfortunatly that would seriously limit what else i could keep! So i've decided against that and i'm now aiming for a more peaceful community tank like most ppl.

I got my tank setup from a little local fish shop here. They have many years of experience but after doing some research (after actually buying the thing) i find that it's not what i want! For starters it's got a wet/dry trickle filter. The fish shop was kind enough to get me started with used bio balls, how many of you are using these filters in a reef tank? I've also got a big coral life skimmer in the sump it seems to need constant babysitting and i can never get it to bubble up in the main chamber like how i see other skimmers except for when the water was very new.

I plan to post pictures of my progress. So far i have eggcrate all over the bottom to protect the glass/spread out weight of rock, and a thin layer of carribsea substrate that barely covers the egg crate. I've also got about 21kg (we're metric here in australia) of live rock. We're not allowed to import rock from overseas so all rock comes locally. It seems to be of variable quality i can't say how it compares to fiji rock for eg.

I've also got a mated pair of maroon clowns, the larger female is a little aggressive to the smaller one and her first stripe is turning yellow! Pretty cool. The male doesn't have any signs of changing colour, i hope he does later.

There is also a small regal tang that likes to sleep in the rocks! I've had not much luck getting her to eat greens yet. They have all been eating frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms.

I don't have any MH lights yet i'm considering a couple of 150W giesemann nova IIs.

Down the line I really would like to add a juvi emperor angel, could i still add some LPS corals? I don't mind taking a bit of a risk. If any of you have one of these in your reef tanks i'd be glad to hear all about it!

Cheers,

iglowce · 03-18-2007, 03:12 PM

very nice. got a pix?

iglowce · 03-18-2007, 03:13 PM

and welcome to TR =]

chase33 · 03-20-2007, 12:16 AM

Welcome. Do you have any pics? I would reccommend against a wet/dry in a reef tank. LR and a good skimmer is all that is needed. Some use UV units and maybe LS while others like bare bottom setups. Wet/dry sumps are nitrate factories. This isn't a problem for a FO tank and is actually good for a FO tank because there is no other place for the biofilter to grow, other than the substrate. LR efficiently converts ammonia and nitrite into nitrate. But, it also converts some nitrate into nitrogen. A wet/dry won't do this. Nitrates aren't a huge problem in a FO tank because you don't have the high intensity lighting that you would have in a reef tank so you don't have quite the algae problem. Also, fish aren't terribly sensitive to nitrate...inverts usually are.

**CarmieJo** · 03-20-2007, 12:21 AM

Hi Titus,

to TR.

I have modded a wet/dry into a sump/refugium but other than that would not recommend one because of the nitrate issue that Chase detailed.

Titus · 03-20-2007, 10:37 PM

You can see my classic kind of setup here and what i have in there

Titus · 03-20-2007, 10:52 PM

Here you can see my beautiful aquascaping skills where i have utilised the method of placing each rock equidistant from each other on top of the substrate haha. I'm getting a box of what is supposed to be premium rock tomorrow. Then i plan to build some sort of ladder frame to stack it all! I think a gentle slope on the left and a tower island/arch on the right would be cool.

Titus · 03-22-2007, 07:09 AM

I got some more rock today! A shop i went to had a 100kg shipment flown in from cairns in northern australia just this morning. It was all unpacked sitting before me in a big shallow tank. I was spoilt for choice filling up my container. The rock was fresh from the barrier reef and was absolutely crawling with life. It's now sitting in a tank with my skimmer and a big pump for circulation. There's one piece in particular that has the most beautiful shape and is covered with corraline algae.
What's more is the skimmer i've been tinkering with trying to get to work properly on my display tank is now bubbling up like there's no tomorrow! Must be the fresh salty water. Here's what it looks like - sorry about the poor quality pics.

petunia · 03-22-2007, 12:38 PM

Welcome!

We are all looking forward to your progress pics.

I can't see anything for flow in your tank. What are you using? (just curious)

iglowce · 03-22-2007, 02:33 PM

is this gonna be FOWLR or reef tank?

Titus · 03-22-2007, 11:02 PM

Thanks, i'm really glad to have found this site!
Only thing is i recon it should look sexier with more graphics on the main page. Don't you agree?

So far i'm keeping it FOWLR with the intention of converting it into a reef setup... my problem is that i really like the emperor angels i know i'm going to add one i can't help myself...

but in a reef? Being limited to sps corals kind of sucks! I personally don't see the appeal of them.

Titus · 03-23-2007, 08:40 AM

Hi Petunia - my circulation is dismal atm. I've got the return from my sump (spray bar) and a return from my chiller which is not much more than a trickle. I'm planning on either those tunze jets or drilling for a closed loop. Right now i think tunze is the way to go because i don't want all the messy drilling haha

chase33 · 03-23-2007, 09:36 PM

Though more desireable, you don't necessarily need to drill the tank for a closed loop. You can bring the return lines up the back and over the top of the tank. Follow the links for an example.

Melevsreef.com - Closed Loop
How to make a closed SCWD loop

keyozoxmfc · 03-24-2007, 02:42 AM

Hey Titus

i have the middle version of the Coralife super