Advise needed for apollo's new marine tank

[apollo]

Hi BFG

4x2x2 tank
2x250w MH
2x36w actinic blue
4x54w T5 (yet to install. still contemplating cos ex owner said actinic blue just for show)
9w UV light ( yet install. cos thinking of rigging it aft the chiller. but no chiller yet )
5800L/Hr QuietOne return pump

Currently testing the joints of the piping for leak. With such hight pressure. Really scare tht the pvc joints might not hold. To average the pressure, hv decided to split the outflow into tank with a T joint. Thus one throwing water on the surface with another at close to bottom on tank.

Will take some pictures these 2 days. But honestly..nothing much to see.

Hey ! Shudnt this be in a different thread?? Haha...

[apollo]

Tks Moderator!

Now i am pressured to post pictures and all ! Seow liao.

Vry new to marine.. wud prfer if moderator chg the title to "advise needed for apollo new tank??" hahaha

Kelstorm, arent u happy to hv another reefer??

[apollo]

Here goes my tank with the thermometer probe in the center.

The side view of the canopy holding 2x250w MH and the exhaust fan

Return pipe at the surface. See the thrust of the water stream?

Return pipe at the bottom. Pushing at my grade 0 sand !

My sump with the piping done by me !!

Mini waterfall at 1st chamber of sump.

Water bubbles at the last chamber of sump


Its now 1am.. Who got me into these?? Pls own up !!

[apollo]

At 10.30 pm last night. Tested my 2x250w MH to see how much heat the lights will heat up the water w/o a chiller.

Water temp w/o the lights was ard 27 C..Room temp ard 28. Was a cool evening last nite. Wife said it rained in late afternoon.

This mrg at abt 6 am when i woke up to chk, the temp in tank was 28 C. Not bad right?? Abt 10 hrs of photo period and the heat from my MH didnt drive the water temp to 35 C to wht many forumers predicted. Guess i hv to thank the 2 fans in the canopy. One blowing into the hood while another drawing the heat out from the MH.

Personally, 2x250w MH is too bright for my liking. It literally lit up my whole living room even in the dead of the nite. Wife complained liao !!

Am thinking of taking out one of the MH. Move one of the MH to the center of the canopy. Any comments? Was told tht i only need 2x250w MH if i want to keep SPS. If so, just want 250w can keep all other corals??

[benny]

Its now 1am.. Who got me into these?? Pls own up !!

er....nobody saw me do it, I didn't say I did it. You can't prove anything!!

ok, ok,. I admit. It was me.....

By the way, some of the pictures are not showing. Can't seem to view it.

Cheers,

[apollo]

Haha..tks benny

This mrg it was ok when i upload it. Really not sure why now..sorry

[BFG]

Yes you still could use 1x250mh. However the 2 side of the tank would receive minimal lighting. This could be good depending on circumstances though. Pro-You can place corals that do not need intense lighting in these area and also probably no algae growth will occur on the glass tank on this low lighting area.

If you still keen to keep sps, my advice is to wait until the tank is matured enough. What skimmer are you currently using? How long has the tank been cycled?

[apollo]

Hi BFG

The tank is not cycled yet..Just fill the tank with water to chk the strength of the water current and any leaks in the pipings.

Next, how much heat wl the MH do to my water since i hv yet to get my chiller. If the water is not too hot, might just consider cooling it with fans. I was able to achieve ard max 28 C on my planted.

Seriously. Going forward i hv to get a chiller. Dont think i wl fancy SPS. Just some mushroom, anemone and corals with tenticles?? Not gd with names at tis moment and hope to learn when the tank is in the cycle phase.

Last nite brought bck salt from Marine Environment and a 2nd hand Macro A350 seperately from forumers. Both guys are using Beckett skimmer. Really quite disheartened to be getting the Macro. But the cost of the Beckett is really frightening for me at this stage!

Upon inspection of the Beckett skimmer, i really dont unstd why it is tht costly. Guys said yu hv to used it to see the different!

Now my mind is thinking of ways to morphe the Macro to be a Beckett ! Anybody hv this mission? I really hope to work my "brand new" brain again!

[BFG]

Here is my understanding on Beckett.

The beckett are created tall is to be able to lengthen the contact time of the air bubbles with the water column in the tube. But to achieve massive micro bubbles, it need a very strong pump, pressure rated ones are ideal. Pressure rated pumps consumes electric like we drink water! I think beckett has longer contact time but shorter water turnover. My brain is a bit over processed from thinking about my marine tank setup.

For the heat issue, I can't tell you the outcome though. I believe it is still necessary to have a chiller to keep temp at 26 degrees. As to why beckett is costly- try to find out how much an acrylic tube cost. No need to mod the macro to beckett, there are other brands of skimmer out there-Deltec, Aqua-C, H & S, Bubble King and others too if I could remember them.

Apollo, have you bought any sand yet? If you bought those normal marine sand( not live sand ) you need a strong magnet to remove any metal bits or rust from the sand. The washing part will be a challenge too! Good luck!

[apollo]

HUH??

My sand is already in the tank ! Collect the sand from another reefer. He did warn me abt this.

But was thinking if he has been using those sand, any metal might hv already corroded ?

Must i take out the sand and use the magnet like u said?

[BFG]

How thick is your sandbed? Maybe, you should get the strong magnet and run it through the sandbed, just as a precaution.

[kelstorm]

[QUOTE=apollo]
Water bubbles at the last chamber of sump
[QUOTE]

Hi apollo,
welcome to the dark side.

for the bubbles, u might wanna consider putting some socks or filter bags to break them.. coz when u tank is filled with corals, they might be suck into the main tank and at the same time, shortening the lifespan of ur pumps..

[kelstorm]

Next, how much heat wl the MH do to my water since i hv yet to get my chiller. If the water is not too hot, might just consider cooling it with fans. I was able to achieve ard max 28 C on my planted.

Usually i would say that MH and chiller are mutually exclusive.. one cant really do without the other.. MH does give out lots of heat, esp if u are getting 250W and enclosed it inside a cabinet

Seriously. Going forward i hv to get a chiller. Dont think i wl fancy SPS. Just some mushroom, anemone and corals with tenticles?? Not gd with names at tis moment and hope to learn when the tank is in the cycle phase.

Last nite brought bck salt from Marine Environment and a 2nd hand Macro A350 seperately from forumers. Both guys are using Beckett skimmer. Really quite disheartened to be getting the Macro. But the cost of the Beckett is really frightening for me at this stage!

Cycle the tank properly will definitely save u lots of heartache when u are setting up later..Unless u are planning to go into SPS, for a 4x2x2, LPS tank, an EV-240 (aqua-C is more than sufficient). i'm letting go one unit of EV-240 ... that besides the pt, it also depends on the bio-load u gonna have, if extremely heavy, i can recommend like Deltec AP902 but it is gonna set u back up to S$1.8k and that itself is out of my league as well...

[kelstorm]

Here is my understanding on Beckett.

The beckett are created tall is to be able to lengthen the contact time of the air bubbles with the water column in the tube. But to achieve massive micro bubbles, it need a very strong pump, pressure rated ones are ideal. Pressure rated pumps consumes electric like we drink water!
For the heat issue, I can't tell you the outcome though. I believe it is still necessary to have a chiller to keep temp at 26 degrees.

to achieve maximum effectiveness of ur skimmer, u need to produce the micro-ness of micro bubbles..and usually done with highly rated pumps.. the height of the tube plays another role as well.. as mentioned by BFG

As for the temp of 26 degrees, if u can achieve a temp of 27-29 degrees, i dun see the need of getting a chiller.. a chiller is good coz it keeps the temp on a constant....

[kelstorm]

Personally, 2x250w MH is too bright for my liking. It literally lit up my whole living room even in the dead of the nite. Wife complained liao !!

Am thinking of taking out one of the MH. Move one of the MH to the center of the canopy. Any comments? Was told tht i only need 2x250w MH if i want to keep SPS. If so, just want 250w can keep all other corals??

1 x 250W is more than enuff if u are just keeping LPS...In fact, for my new 5ftx2.5x2, i'm gonna use only 1x250W and supplement the rest of the area with 4xT5. however, it also depends on ur reef structure..

Having 250W does not means that u can keep all other corals.. alot of other issues will come into play.. eventually, depending on wat u wanna keep, eg, lots of clams, u might wanna consider getting a Calcium reactor.. while such lightings will bring out the colors of the corals and maybe stimulate faster growth, it can also cause ur corals to die on u coz the intensity might be too much for it..

[apollo]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the sugestions. Am not goin to keep a DSB cos i dont want to harbour a nitrate factory or a time bomb for that matter.

Too late, already introduced salt into the tank. Dont think i wl bother to find a strong magnet to go thru the sand for tiny metals parts.

Since i collected the sand free from fellow reefer, hopefully all the tiny metals wud hv disintegrated.

Finally introduced some LR which came free with my 2nd hand TECO RA 240.



I know i still need more. Actually just got aeroplane by another fellow reefer who is suppose to sell me his LR. Schedule to collect tom afternoon but received his sms this evening and told me SOLD ! $%%^#$%^#$%^

Hv thrown in a prawn to kick start the cycling process. I wonder how long will it be ready to receive LS. Some say at least 3wks!

In the meantime, do i start my Macro A350 skimmer?? I chose not to at this pt of time but did try out to see if it works.

Skimmer in sump


The foaming in the chamber


Not too bad rite??

Its late..time to rest the creator ! hahaha..gd nite

[kelstorm]

Hi Guys
Hv thrown in a prawn to kick start the cycling process. I wonder how long will it be ready to receive LS. Some say at least 3wks!

In the meantime, do i start my Macro A350 skimmer?? I chose not to at this pt of time but did try out to see if it works.

usually the nitrogen cycle takes abt 4-6 weeks if starting from scratch.. if u have some media from an established tank, it might take a shorter time. However, time is not the problem, u need to take test kits to test out the NO2, NO3 and NH3.

when maturing the tank, skimmer to be OFF

[apollo]

Sunday afternoon. Got more LR from a fellow forumer and some from LFS.

Look what i found ! Yucks !!!


There are much more yucky stuffs which was destroyed like small crabs that hides in the crevices. Was too late to find and remove them before i introduce into the tank. Therefore hv to use the "crush" method.

Below is my new look of my tank with abt estimate 80kg in it.

I really think my tank is ready since its already cycled for 2wks with LR. This evening while on my way home, decided to buy zebra damsel to test it. Hopefully they live happy after !


Cant resist some green plants since i used to be from planted, decided to get some java moss like algae.


Hopefully i will not hv to report the lost of my damsels!

[kelstorm]

2 weeks cycling time is definitely too short!!.. u cannot assume.. good to buy a test kit to test it out.. as mentioned, do read abt the Nitrogen cycle.. rushing into it will lead to disaster, i.e system crash...

[apollo]

Hi Kelvin

Will take a nitrate test tdy