Monthly Archives: June 2015

Aquascape #1.

All my probes have gone bad. Temp reading with a glass thermometer in the tank reads 26 but the digital cheapie is out of whack, the Ph meter probe is out of whack too and reads way low (new probe on order).

OK, my bad. Everything is dead due to my impatience, and lack of experience with such a small tank.

It started mid last week when the fishies killed the shrimps and ate them all. Water was crystal clear though, and fish were doing great. One of the pieces of live rock had a lot of aiptasia on it (I assume as the water quality has been improving they’ve all started to show). I made the call to try and rid the rock of them with Joe’s Juice. There were a few of them, 5-6 of them and by the time I was done squirting the juice with a syringe I think the tank started to crash.

I made a decision to remove the piece of live rock with all the aiptasia on it anyways. I removed the 3 fish and I started aquascaping with leftover base rock I have from my old setup. Stirring up the sandbed doing so (adding to the crash for sure).

I re-introduced the fish to a holding tank within the display tank and instantly realised they were at the surface gasping for air. I used marine buffer to up the Ph and did a 50% water change. 2 fishes died a few hours later and the goby died the day after.

So now I’m back to square one, pretty much. I’m disappointed in my impatience (the fish and shrimp didn’t need to die!) and I’m also quite surprised at how sensitive such a small amount of water is. For example, I put a Koralia 1 I had lying around in the tank and the temperature went up by 2 degrees within an hour.

In some ways I’m glad this has all happened now. I’m tempted to start work on an overflow box and sump for more water volume and gear to hide in the sump (skimmer, carbon/phosban reactors etc), but I’ve decided to try and stick with the concept of a simple nano with weekly 20% water changes for now.

Low tide was at 8am so I thought I’d drop past the boat ramp down the road from my place to collect some natural seawater (NSW) for water changes. I used to do this often when I had my old 6ft tank. It’s actually a really satisfying thing to do, and it’s also great exercise carrying the 2 20litre jerry cans of water up the hill!

I also managed to catch a couple of glass shrimp.

And here’s a shot of the goby (middle), who likes to colour and flare up whilst looking at his own reflection!

A few pieces of live rock to cycle the tank from B&C Aquariums. That heater is just a few millimetres too big to fit in the hang on back filter. Last night I impulse bought an even smaller 50W heater on eBay which I will be able to hide in the filter (which of-course will make the aquarium look much cleaner).

Trying to keep things neat, this cable tidy wraps 3 power leads into one.

A few fish from a local rock pool to help cycle the tank (I realise fishless cycling is the thing to do these days, but hey I’m old school and have always done it this way).

A few pieces of live rock from my old tank which I found in from a big foam box in my backyard.

So I’ve decided to go marine! I’ve got quite a lot of gear left over from my old marine tank so I figure it makes sense, and you know, nothing beats marine (once you go marine you can’t ever go back?!).

Yesterday I bought a couple of pieces of live rock to help cycle the tank. I didn’t expect any hitchhikers to survive as the water in my tank is so new. A coupe of turbo snails fell right off the rock when I put it in the tank (shocked from the different water parameters most likely), but last night, with a torch in hand, I spotted a large bristle worm, and unfortunately a few dreaded aiptasia (pest anemones).

Today I thought I’d do a bit of local rockpooling in search of glass shrimp (also known as ghost shrimp). I looked all over my house for my fish nets and failed to find them, so all I had was a tiny triangular nano tank net which I bought yesterday with my live rock. I managed to find a few shrimp, but failed to net them as my net was too small AND the wind was picking up so much that I couldn’t see past the agitated water surface.

I did get a couple of fishes though and also one goby. I acclimatised them slowly as the temperature in my tank (26) is way warmer than the water in the rock pools. It’s been 4hrs since they’ve been released in the tank and all 3 fishes are doing amazing. I’m dead set sure they will take to flake food tomorrow.

So the cycling has started and the tank will stay as is for at least a week. I’ll do some water testing soon. It shouldn’t be to long until I’ll be ready to stock the tank (with what I’m not so sure!).

Plans. I’m starting to geek out about this build already (no surprises there, right?!). And I’ve been thinking of a few set-ups. They’re outlined below.

1) FOWLR (Fish Only With Live Rock): No corals thus no need to upgrade the flow of the tank or the lights, so this would be the easiest and cheapest setup to run. Lots of different fishes to choose from, interesting crustaceans too. There aren’t too many amazing looking FOWLR tanks out there IMHO. The ease of maintenance, low cost and challenge to create something special with only rock and fish makes this option tempting.

2) Upgrade the lighting: Lots of people out there have modified these tanks with much more powerful LED lighting in order to grow fussy plants and corals. There are a couple of guys on eBay selling LED kits for these tanks (with the option to control the lights from your phone even!). If I upgrade the lighting I’ll be able to not only keep some hardy corals, but they should actually grow and thrive.

3) Go all out: My 6ft tank started life like this, then I went bonkers on it and in the end, thousands of dollars later, it was a work of art. I can see the same thing happening here to be honest. The wall behind the tank is made of gyprock. I could very easily punch a hole through that wall, throw out the current filtration and put an overflow box on the back and run all pipes through the hole into the kitchen (which is the room behind this tank) into a sump which would hide all the gear (heater, skimmer, filter media, automatic top-up unit, dosing units etc. I could literally run the same set-up as my 6ft, all hidden away behind the wall behind the tank.

I found this saltwater conversion kit designed and made by an Australian guy who’s marketing to the US. It’s designed specifically for my tank, but at $800AUD I’m hesitant to impulse buy it. I’m not suggesting it’s a rip off. By the time you add up all the items the kit comes with you can see where the money goes (amazing lighting unit and a great skimmer not to mention a custom design and more water volume too.

If I was to keep hard corals I’d need more flow too. The top of the line VorTech wave makers I had on my old tank are still around, but they’ve been refined and are apparently much more quiet now. That’s a good thing! At $400 for one unit (all I would need) it’s pretty pricey but they’re the best (a cheap China unit is cheap at $40 but it’s larger, uglier and nowhere near as programmable or effective).

The Edge 2, in the box, and the location chosen behind it (replacing the wine rack).

What’s in the box.

Tank in situ.

I chose finer coral sand as I like the look and I’ve always wanted a finer substrate. It’ll harden up the water (higher pH) and open me up to either African Cichlids or Marine. It was an absolute bitch to clean. After much cleaning with the hose outside I still failed to get it to clear so I thought I’d just dump it in and use some filter wool to remove the dust (I’ve got SO much gear left over from all my previous tanks, filter foam, carbon, test kits, you name it!)

Unfortunately the surface the tank is sitting on isn’t 100% level, thuis this bubble in the corner. To be 100% honest, I’m not at all fussed as the tank is quite high up and you can’t see down from the top too easily in any case. Then there’s evaporation too, which is most likely always going to be an issue with this tank.

The Edge 2 uses a an Aquaclear hang on back filter. I’ve used these for years, they’re not the best, but hey they work just fine. Also note the sealed 42 LED light bar which has a deep blue night setting and a 7600k high luminosity white which I doubt will be suitable for hard to keep corals or plants, but it should be AOK for hardy species.

I had to go with the Two Little Fishies magnet glass cleaner, just a sucker for it’s cute hipster like design (so much better looking than most cleaning magnets out there!).

All set up for now, much dust in the water!

With the blue light on.

Been missing not having an aquarium in the house lately. Especially missing my old 6ft marine tank which was a work of art IMHO. I only let that tank go as I just didn’t have enough time to maintain and enjoy it when I started Zen in 2011.

I’ve been tempted to start another build since late last year, but the other night my Mum asked me if I could help her set up a tank in her lounge room so that Miles and Leo my little cherub nephews could enjoy. What a great idea! I was always brought up with tanks in the house as Dad was aquarium crazy (he was one of the first guys to sell salt water fish in Australia and had a small shop in Bondi Beach when I was little).

I did a bit of research and kept coming back to the Fluval Edge, a modern looking all-in-one style tank which is in a market of it’s own as it lets you fill water all the way to the top of the tank, thus giving you another “face” on the tank which allows you to view the fishies from above. They’ve been around for a while and there’s currently 2 sizes on the market, the original 23 litre and the 2nd gen which doubles to 46 litres.

Alain and I were due for adventure time as I’d not had a proper hang with the guy since testing tyres in Melbourne, we could have gone either way, a hike, or aquarium shopping, he’s had tanks before so he was totally down to go aquarium shopping, we visited Barry at B&C in Matraville first up (the guy remembered me!!!), then Slippery Little Suckers in Kingsford (who were shut), then we dropped in to Aquaristic in Beaconsfield and these guys had the little Fluval on display in pewter.

BOOM! I was pretty much sold right away. It looks so much better in real life (than in pictures all over the net). I had made my mind up to buy this set-up for my Mum, and keep it simple. Dark substrate, a few logs, maybe with some hardy plants and guppies for lots of colour and movement.

I then got thinking about getting one for me too, and as lovely as the little one is I decided to go for the larger version. The guys didn’t have any white units available so I went for the black one (no real biggie but I would have preferred white). One thing I’ve got to mention is how awesome the service was at Aquaristic. Dave was the guy who looked after me. He approached both Alain and I when we first walked in, greeted us, and welcomed us to have a look around. When we were deliberating about the tank he came back to us and helped us out. Far from pushy, just a mad dude who went all out to bring out the larger Fluval Edge 2 and unpack it out of the box for me to look at.

I’m still not sure what I’m going to do with the tank. I’m already kicking myself for putting the coral sand in, as bare bottom just looks so clean, and opens me up to thinking laterally (ie: not a typical fish tank set-up with substrate). One idea was simple to buy 8 (because it’s my fave number lol) electric yellows, done! Lovely movement, colour, perfecto. Another was to buy a ridiculous aquarium ornament every single week and fill it up to the top with them! You know… skulls, pirate ships, and other bad taste stuff people put in their aquariums! Could be HILARIOUS?! And of-course, the temptation to go marine is massive.

So, the build thread begins!!!