My barren tank!

[tanzy]

Hi guys. It's been about a month and a bit since my tank crashed. I've restarted it and the survivors are doing pretty well. I moved the rocks around and cleaned out the sump.
The aquascaping is not finalised. Little LR is used, cause I like the lighter and sparse look instead of the wall type. The tank is lit by 3 VHOs only now while I am waiting the delivery of my new MHs from Premium Aquatics (Hmmm.... haven't heard from them in a while, wonder what's coming of my order).
Anyway, I know its not impressive and ready to blow your socks off, but I am just happy that my reef recovered. Water parameters are fine. Undetectable nitrate, phosphate, nitrite, ammonia. Alk 4.5 meq/L and Ca 450 ppm. Diatom bloom is over and it's the dark green stringy kind on the sand now.
Any suggestions as to how it can be improve? Thanx!

 

[IcantTHINKofONE]

Looks great! What kind of Live Rock is that and did you epoxy the bridges together? Are they stable?

 

[tanzy]

The rocks are locked/wedged into place, no epoxy is used. Allows me to shift it cause I'm still undecided of the final look. I tried epoxy before but it just doesn't stick and is too brittle to hold up a rock. I prefer to go with good ol'shoving it into place. The LR is from Indonesia.

 

[Anonymous]

8) 8) 8)

that is the amount of live rock i think is ideal for a tank!

very nice-keep us posted!

 

[reefland]

Looks very good. I agree, just enough live rock.

So what are you going to do different this time to avoid a crash?

 

[tanzy]

The crashed was due to the return pump. It failed because of a faulty fuse or plug. The tank lost circulation to the sump, I wasn't around for more than a week, lights remained on, temp swings, you get the picture. The pump works when I replaced the plug but I replaced it anyway cause it's been running for 2 years.
The tank I got was totally unfit for reefing. It was more like a freshwater fish only tank. It must be my ignorance that allowed me to be suckered into buying it cause it was cheaper. It had a bioball wet-dry filter sump that was meant for one drop-in return pump. The water return was plumbed next to the overflow so I get surface scum collecting on the left side. With a reef tank, I had 3 pumps, return, chiller and skimmer, all of them used siphon hoses from the sump because it was a glass sump and I can't drill. As anybody can see, it was a totally crap setup that had so many areas that could fail, not to mention, unsightly with so many hoses.
The sump has been replaced with another drilled glass sump with 3 bulkheads so all the pumps are directly plumbed. All flexible hose were replaced with PVC pipe. Water return outlet is placed on the left now so no collection of surface scum. 2 fans are built into the new hood plus 2 fans that are attached to the lighting. I still don't have a second return pump because I can't fit one in due to lack of space, but now that both the chiller and return pumps are of the same model they can be easily swapped.
Thanx for asking, it sets me thinking. Honestly, I can't say the system is perfect and full-proof. It may fail again, but hopefully I'm around. I've instructed those in the house to consult a standard-operations-procedure I wrote should there be an emergency when I'm away. :wink: Hopefully they will.