Alex's 65 gallon reef tank, aka my peice of the ocean
I am setting up a 65 gallon display with a 35 gallon sump/refug. I have been planning this tank for what seem like forever and I am finally getting a little closer so I thought I would set up a tank journal.
I started my research a couple of years ago and discovered Talking Reef while I was living in Australia at the begining of a year spent there. I can already say I would have been lost without it.
I have done a good ammont of travel in my life and have always had a facination with the ocean. Which is the main drive for the tank. After living in Thailand and Australia I got used to being close to the ocean... and well, now, being back in Canada that part of my life is missing. So this is my way to keep it.
I have been back from Aus for about 6 months now and I have accumulated most of the stuff I need. Now I guess it is time to dive in and see how it goes.
I will be posting pictures of the point I am at soon...
I have had some live/base rock curing for the last couple of weeks in a big food grade container with heat, light and flow. It had sat out of water but moist for about two months before I bought it, which is why I called it live/base.
It will be going in the tank once I get my sand for my sand bed.
Hello Alex and to TR. This is the best time to start a tank journal. Too many of us *raises hand* wait a few months and then try to go back and fill in the blanks.
2. Sump/Refug (35 gal) with the sump on the right and refug on the left.
I put in 4 baffles to make sure I don't get any micro bubbles going back up to the tank and put the refug on the left so I can control the amount flow.
Right now I have a 950 gph internal pump but I am considering adding another pump if I feel I need more flow in the future. So by having the refug on the left it won't be affected.
3. This is a little shelf that I made to set some of my rocks up on and get some flow at the back of the tank.
4. A post I made that I will use to set rocks around using a bit of fishing line to try and create some interesting shape (it actually sits vertical in real life).
Tim,
It is going to be a reef tank. As for corals I am going to start mostly with soft corals and depending on how it goes work towards hard corals in the future.
Hey Small Fry,
It would be good to get some frags from you... I was checking out your journal and your tank looks awesome. But Kingston is pretty far from Windsor - about 2 hours east of Toronto on the 401. If I am ever up your way I might have to take up on that though.
I know this is probably going to open a can of worms but I figured I might as well see what people thought...
I have always had the plan of going with a DSB after hearing the benefits of it and now I am trying to buy the substrate for my tank.
For aesthetics, I would like something that is about medium grain size.
I am afraid to go with something that is too fine, because I have heard a lot of people taking out fine sand beds because it becomes so compacted that it eventually becomes problematic.
On the other hand a really grainy substrate doesn't seem like it will work as well for filtration purposes.
At this point I am thinking about going with all Caribsea seafloor reef sand. Or 80% Caribsea seafloor reef sand and 20% Caribsea crushed coral
I ended up using Caribsea sugar fine based on the info, but my DSB has only been in for a few months, so I can't really speak to how it will eventually mature.
It did take a couple months before the sand clumped some and filtered out the finer stuff from the top layer before I could run my full circulation in the tank without stirring things up.
I use sugar fine sand. My DSB has shrunk by about .5" over 20 months or so. I think that some of this may be compaction but aragonite also disolves slowly to buffer your tank. I would start with 5-5.5" if I was doing it again. I am going to add another 50# which should plump it back up. I would not mix the 2 types of substrate.
Thanks for the advise CarmieJo. I was thinking of a 5" sand bed in the display and maybe a bit deeper in the refug. I think I am going to go with the Caribsea seafloor reef sand, it will be bigger - 1 to 2mm but I think it will be good for what I am looking for.
Sounds good. I don't think that grain size matters a lot just so is not so big as to become a detritus trap.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hiero
Thanks for the advise CarmieJo. I was thinking of a 5" sand bed in the display and maybe a bit deeper in the refug. I think I am going to go with the Caribsea seafloor reef sand, it will be bigger - 1 to 2mm but I think it will be good for what I am looking for.
to TR. This is the best time to start a tank journal. Too many of us *raises hand* wait a few months and then try to go back and fill in the blanks.
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