Tank Setup History

In the beginning,

 When a friend (Thanks George and Ann Marie) gave me a 120 gallon reef ready tank for my family room. I had originally thought about setting it up with salt water. I had given up my 70 gallon tank about two years earlier when it was broken down to remodel the dining room and construction of my basement family room had not been completed yet. At the time the 120 gallon tank was given me I wasn't sure that I wanted to spend the extra money involved in setting up a salt water - reef aquarium.  The 120 gallon tank was originally set up with African cichlids instead.

 Then in March of 2005 as part of another attempt to stop smoking. The smoking secession plan I was looking at this time recommended that you use the money saved by not smoking as an incentive and put it towards a reward. For some that might be new clothing or jewelry for others it might be a hobby. I chose my salt water reef aquarium. I have been a non smoker since April 1st 2005. At around 50.00 dollars a week for cigarettes the savings have provided considerable funding for my reef tank project.

Continued from the home page,

Construction.

  Having done some research on the GARF website and then deciding to convert my aquarium to a reef system using aragocreate base rock. I started to locate the materials for the DIY live rock. I was fortunate to locate 10 bags of Southdown or Oldcastle tropical play sand at a garden center. The sand was used as  a rock mold, an ingredient in the DIY rock, and in the display tank and refugium as the substrate for a DSB (Deep Sand Bed). A small amount of Live rock and live sand will be added to seed the base rock and sand bed. I also decided to us crushed oyster shell in my recipe. It took some time but I was also able to locate white cement. Many nights during the month of June was spent creating cement based concrete sculptures for use in the tank as base rock. I also installed a 100 gallon per day RO DI filter for both house drinking water and aquarium water filtration.

 The tank was broken down and existing substrate removed in the early part of July. I sold the cichlids from my 120 gallon on ebay with a local pickup only option in the early part of  July 05. The price was very good as my main concern was to find them a new home rather than just returning them to a LFS. I put that money aside to buy new livestock when the tank is up and running.

Construction of the canopy , Sump and refugium, along with plumbing kept me busy in my spare time  for most of the summer. During this time the Cement rock sculptures were curing in an old plastic pool. Water in the pool was changed frequently. Proper curing of cement based rock is critical.

 Even with the constant water changes the rock curing process seemed very slow. PH readings did not change during the first 6 weeks. Eventually the readings started to drop. Since I would not be using all of the rocks that were made. I decided to place the ones I liked best into the tank and continue curing with fresh water there.  This cut the quantity almost in half and with the larger volume of water the PH readings began dropping even faster.

Setting up the Deep Sand Bed and Base Rock.

 Before adding the sand for the DSB (Deep Sand Bed) substrate to the tank. A 48" x 24" piece of egg crate was cut and fitted onto 1 inch PVC pipe. This was originally planned as a plenum set up for the tank using screens as instructed using the GARF bullet proof reef directions. But after reading the research from Advanced Aquarist Online Magazine regarding DSB and plenum research (See both part 1 and part 2) and many other forum posts and articles . I decided on removing the plenum and use only a deep sand bed. There are a lot of opinions either way including those who advocate a bare bottom.

 The egg crate was still added without any screen installed to elevate the rock work above the sand bed and allow better water flow over and around the bed. After the egg crate was installed 100 pounds of south down - old castle tropical play sand was layered over the crate. Many forum posts I read recommended not rinsing the sand first. But because of my experience with adding the sand to the refugium and other posts regarding Southdown milkshake I decided to rinse all the sand lightly to remove the milky fine grains that might cloud the water. After the sand was added to the tank I began staking the aragicrete cement rock. it took many tries and careful arrangement to get a look that I was happy with. in the end I was very happy with how the base rock aquascaping turned out.

Cycling the tank and the first live stock.

After the base rock and sand bed were installed and a fresh water test of plumbing was completed. Salt was added to the aquarium. It took several days to make enough RO DI water. I have set up a fresh water reservoir using a float vale. this will be used for make up and water changes it holds around 22 gallons. I also have two 20 gallon rubber made trash barrels that will be used for water changes.  2

Initially  2 pounds of uncured live rock was purchased from a LFS (Local Fish Store) to start cycling the tank. After the first two weeks 15 pounds of mature Live rock from a BRS members tank, much of witch was covered in mushrooms and yellow polyps was added. Initially at about 3 week nitrites started to show up and began two rise until they reached between one and two ppm. Two days latter they were gone and the reading was zero. A clan up crew of snails, hermits and emerald green crabs were added next.

At the same time as the nitrogen cycle had completed different stages of algae began to cover the rocks. At first all of the base rocks began to be coated in brown diatom algae. Once the brown diatom algae began to fade green hair algae began to show up and some of the rocks. At this time I added a few more Mexican turbo snails. They do a great job and leave a clean path like a lawn mover down to bare base rock.

Once the nitrites had zeroed out the first fish ( a maroon clown ) was added. The first coral frags were also added at about 6 weeks. The were given to me by a very generous BRS member (Thanks again Mark).

At 8 weeks I add my second fish ( a scopas tang ).

Six month tank update.

The Tank has been up and running for 6 months. everything has been very stable. All of the SPS frags I have been given and the two that I purchased have done really well. They have at least doubled in size and incrusted onto the live rock. Mushrooms and Zoa's have all spread onto the DIY rock along with various tub worms and other life.

The DIY cement rock is now covered in coraline. For some pieces it is hard to even tell it is not regular live rock.

Nitrites and importantly nitrates have remained un detectable. The low nitrates could be a result of the fuge or the DSB but it could also be helped by the DIY rock. If nothing else using DIY rock has not caused a nitrate problem as I was told it would (This is what some LFS sources had stated when I described what I had planed). These sources beileve that only rock from the ocean will work. They even were not high on cultured LV. I tried to explain that the density of the rock is what mattered. The DIY rock I created is very porous.

Sadly soon the Concrete Reef will need to be broken down.

Well my wife Julie and I have decided to look for a bigger house than our current 2 bedroom. This of course means that I will be breaking down the 120 reef once the house is sold. Hopefully I can set up a new reef in the next house if there is enough time, money and room for it. might even be able to look at an even bigger tank. Who know's.

More to come..... THE CONCRETE REEF TWO. 180+ in the wall maybe ???