Ogres cave

[at0g]

Introduction:
This is my 1st tank journal and my 1st marine aquarium.

I used to keep freshwater tropicals ~25 years ago and have wanted a marine tank ever since.
Seing a peacock mantis a few years ago bought the idea back into focus and as of November 2015 I decided to ahead and do it - a specimen tank for a Peacock Mantis (preemptively named Ogre) with LPS corals.

System Objectives:
Thriving Peacock and LPS
Maintaining very high water quality to minimise shell rot
Provide adequate materials for the peacocks industrial endeavours
Balance brightly light areas of the tank with shadowed and black zones
Balance phosphorus export via macro algae as herbivorous CuC options are limited
Low noise
Autonomous enough to take a week away

System Type: Predator with LPS


Display System:

Strike up Date: 22 April 2016

Display Tank:
180L 36x18x18” starfire front and sides
External coast to coast overflow box
Acrylic false bottom plate (shock absorber)

Display Lighting: Kessil A160WE Tuna Blue

Stand: Painted pine stand, modified with removable ply panels front and sides (held with inset magnets)

Sump: 30x12x15” glass.
3 chambers (skimmer, return, refugium)

Refugium:
12x12x12” sump chamber fed from tee in return line
chaetomorpha for nutrient export
marine pure block base for additional bio filtration
holding pen for pre quarantined crabs and other live foods (death row)

Refugium Lighting: Petworx LED


Support systems:

System Water: Continuum Halycon synthetic salt mix

Display Water circulation: 2x Sicce voyager 4, 1x tunze nano stream

Return Pump: Sicce syncra silent 2.5

Skimmer: Bubble Magus curve 5

Evaporation Top Up: ATO via Kore 5th doser + 10L tank of RODI water


Chemical Support:

Calcium Addition:
TBC, but yes

Alkalinity Addition:
TBC, yes

Other Chemical Maintenance: Magnesium, TBC

Current Water Chemistry: N/A
Nitrates:
Phosphates:
Alkalinity:
Calcium:
Salinity / Specific Gravity:
Magnesuim:

[at0g]

A quick run down of backdated events

9th Feb: After requesting a few estimates from different tank builders in the Melbourne region, I’ve gone ahead and placed an order for a custom tank, sump and stand from Aquatic Creations in Highett - will post photos when it's delivered.

12th Feb: Ordered a RODI filter unit from ebay.

21st Feb:
Purchased the following
2x Sicce Voyager 2 powerheads
1x Sicce Syncra silent 2.5 return pump
1x Sicce Wavesurfer
1x 8 way powerboard with individual plugs

[at0g]

Ordered additional equipment from Guppies:
Bubble Magus Curve 5 protein skimmer
Duck bill return enductor
Refactometer
10kg bag of Seachem silver shores substrate
Glass thermometer

Also found a promising local supplier (Hydramet) of grey PVCU pipe and fittings - waiting on a price update in the coming week - surely it's going to be cheaper than price + freight from NSW online stores.

Edit: Also found this supplier (NSW), who appears to have a good range of fittings.
http://au.rs-online.com/web/c/plumbing- ... cessories/

[ssscuz]

Interesting choice of store to use for a marine tank. Have not been in there for years, last time they had minimal marine stocks.
The grey piping sounds interesting, please update with details if they come through with the goods

[at0g]

@ssscuz They [Hydramet] have almost everything I was after except for grey SC 40 pipe:

http://www.hydramet.com.au/systems-comp ... s-fittings

They did send me through a price list, but it was more than I was prepared to pay. Turns out that including freight, the NSW supplier was a little less than 1/2 their quoted price!

That said, I think I will need to go there to get grey pipe caps (can't find them anywhere else) - will be interesting to compare the quality of one to the other.

[at0g]

Quick update:
1. The guppies order was delivered today - my first protein skimmer, yay me!
2. Ordered most of my plumbing from aquarium online supplies last night.
3. Got an update from the tank builder, delivery ETA is next weekend. #eager

Anyone know where I can buy halycon or tropic Marin reef salt in Melbourne (~$100-120)?

Edit *Halcyon

[Abarnes]

Most shops sell the Halcyon reef salt, Deer Park certainly have it in stock.

[at0g]

Thanks @Abarnes - I will pay Deer Park a visit.

Quick update:
- Plumbing arrived during the week. Still need to get 3x 25mm pipe caps and hose clamps
- Plumbing order included a digital PH meter (with broken diode), contacted supplier about return/exchange and no reply 3 days later. Not great customer service.
- Ordered a big block of marine pure from amazon
- Received a message saying tank is ready and should be delivered tomorrow. #exciting
- Found someone willing to sell me their Kessil A160WE, should get it Monday #shimmer

[at0g]

So, a funny (not so funny) story...
During the week I had a bit of freak out: was all of the plumbing (already ordered) one size too small?
This mostly happened thanks to this page, which lists adapters for backwater to metric with sizing such as 3/4" to 25mm, 1" to 32mm etc:

http://www.coralvue.com/metric-to-stand ... c-adapters

I already have in my possession a 25mm bulkhead and a sicce syncra 2.5 return pump.
According to the sicce docs, the pump has an outlet of "20 - 25mm". I read this as meaning that female thread in the pump body was 20mm, but got confused when the male thread from the 25mm bulkhead fits perfectly. It would seem the female threaded part of the pump is surely 25mm.
It was my understanding that 3/4" is also a very common size for average size return pumps.
So the 3/4" return pump has a 25mm fitting, and the coralvue 3/4" adapter adapts to 25mm, 3/4" pvc plumbing must be equivalent to 25mm, and 1" equivalent to 32mm, contradictory to my understanding throughout my planning that 3/4" was equivalent to 20mm and 1" was equivalent to 25mm.

Upon further reading trying to get to the bottom of the matter, it's interesting that pipe sizes really mean sweet FA in terms of actual measurements - as in you can measure a 20mm pipe however you like and no part of it is actually going to be 20mm. Good times, or not. Upon further investigation, it seems that it also matters a lot where you get the pipe, for example USA pipe is not compatible with AU pipe, but some AU vendors sell USA sizing for aquariums.

Anyway, I'm fairly sure the plumbing is the right size, provided 20mm = 3/4" and 25mm = 1", guess I'll find out tomorrow when the tank arrives with its predrilled bulkheads

However, I've now been second guessing the size of my return line.
1. If the female thread on the pump is 25mm - does this mean my 20mm return line is too narrow, or does the outlet of "20 - 25mm" indicate the return line should be in that size range?
2. The return will be tee'd off to feed a fuge in the sump, if 20mm is indeed too narrow, would this split feed help?
3. The pump has a 25mm male thread to 20mm barb adapter. The barb has a short length of 20mm clear tubing. Is it ok to slide the 20mm tubing over the 20mm pipe (which fits well) and secure it with clamps, or would another barb adapter (+ a reducing bush) be better? (if it does come loose, it will be in the sump)

The moral is this story is that communities should band together to abolish the metric system.

[Matt1961]

Hey mate for a cheaper range of grey upvc fittings try towner raindrop, about 1/3 tp 1/2 the price of hydramet. Any of the smaller plumbing supplies stores can order throught them like total eden,samios etc, dont think reece or tradelink will but you could try, or even direct if theres a branch near you?

All australian pipe upvc is measured via in side diameter NB nominal bore, however where this gets tricky is when you order different callses of pipe pressure ratings. All 25 nb fittings have the same Outside Diameter, and the 25mm measurement comes from a normal class 15 fitting, when you go to a different presssure rating the wall thickness gets thicker while the outside diameter stayes the same, eg class 18 is a higher pressure rating and has a thicker wall ( most of the white pve fittings are class 18. When you go to grey upvc the schedule 40 has a thicker wall again than the white class 18 pipe but the outside diameter is the same, then the next step up is schedule 80 which has a wall thickneess of nearly double that of the schedule 40 pipe but the same fittings can be used as the outside diameter is the same.

Hope this helps but in escence they do this so that the same fittings can be used for all the different pipe pressure ratings with the the fittings normally of the highest pressure rating.

Then you have the imperial stuff form america which just plain sucks

Matt