My Maldivian Puddle

[Simon Garratt]

Hi folks. many thanks for the compliments..(where is the blush emoticon when you need it)..

hey Simon, does your fish bury itself in the sand?? btw the coloration on yours is far better than any pics that ive seen so far!!

Yes she does, usually strait after the halides go out, and she rises within 10 min of them comming on. Terry's write up is bang on the money imo. and Id emphasise what he says that these fish have a very high metabolism so need both a large and well established system and regular feeds of high quality foods. Ive managed to get all my wrasses onto high protien pellet foods which does help as well as a lot of mixed frozen foods.

And may I ask...is that a koran angel in a reef tank?

No, its an Emporer angel. Pomocanthus imperator. I wanted to experiment with this species over the long term to see if the usual habit of predating on LPS as they reach maturity can be diverted by way of more diverse feeding methods involving wild collected sponge, tunicate and algal type food stuffs in addition to normal commercially available food types.

Jonathan...No problems, Im allways happy to oblige.

Josh.

when i get 5, I'll bang up some more details and images of the actual tank build, plus details on how i actually run the system on a day to day basis, feeding, suppliments etc.

regards to all and thanks again for the compliments which are greatly appreciated.

Simon.

 

[leoskee]

Very, very nice set up. Wish I had the room to do a set up like that.

How much did the full set up add to your electric bill? Thats a lot of electric with the pumps and lights.

 

[18oreefer]

WOOWOWWOHAWEEE! Very sweet set up!

 

[Simon Garratt]

How much did the full set up add to your electric bill? Thats a lot of electric with the pumps and lights.

oh crikey..if i recall correctly, my tanks share of the electricity bill is around ?75 per month which to be honest isnt much compared to what i pay in food, replacement lamps, rowaphos, service items, new stock, and travelling around all over the place so i dont realy begrudge it.

To be fair..i think alot of people (when starting out) seriously under estimate what it costs to actually run a large system. They think about the electric etc, but dont think about factoring in repaires and other running costs.

Im quite lucky in that this tank doesnt seem to need much in the way of water changes (about 25% in the last 18 months). If i was doing it like alot of people at 15 - 20% every month or it was one of those systems that just needed larger water changes, Id be looking at a monthly salt bill of around ?40.00 on top of everything else.

regards

simon.

 

[FocusReefing]

Sick tank man! I was wondering, where did you happen to get the glass for the tank? And what kind of glass is it? I ask because Im planning to take on a similar project, on a lesser scale ofcourse. Great work. Thanks,
JV.

 

[Simon Garratt]

Hi JV.

The tank is made from 12mm all round with an inner base of 10mm. Its all in standard float glass, but i had each panel ground edged and chamfered to give a better quality feel to it. The ground edges also make assembly allot easier as well.

You can see in this image how it all comes together. no sharp edges and fitting the componants ie brace bars etc in place is a doddle becouse everything is nice and square when bonding.

if you look carefully in this image, you can also see a thick rubber gaskit in place between the front pane and the wall it sits against. In reality there is a 5mm gap between the pane and the wall itself. This allowed 2 things. 1. the expansion and contraction of the tank and the wall independently of each other during summer and winter times which lessens any pressure points. and 2: it cuts the transmission of pump noise through the tank to the wall which would otherwise resonate. as it is, you can stand in front of the tank in the dining room and its virtually silent despite the fact that its only a 6" thick plasterboard partition wall (although admittedly lagged with insulating wool to dampen noise).

luckily we have a large glass supplier just a few miles from me who i use on a regular basis for supplying glass for tank builds. They don't build tanks themselves but will supply glass to any dimensions that i ask and its always with 0.5mm tolerances which makes life allot easier.

I could have gone for optiwhite on the front pane, but at 12mm thick i didn't see the need. If id gone 30" tall, then it would have needed 15mm in which case i would have considered optiwhite a more viable option despite the 50% price increase per panel.

Regards

Simon

 

[fernandokng]

Incredible.

How do you keep the tank cool?

 

[UnknownWaters]

WOW amazing tank. Hats off sweet set up.

 

[Simon Garratt]

Hi fernandokng.

I have 2 fans that blow across the surface and a ceiling mounted fan that exits out through the flat roof above the tank. all three of which are wired into a temperature controller that also manages 2 x 300w heaters.

Additionally, i feed my skimmer air from outside via intakes through the external wall. This is actually so effective at stabalising the temp, that in winter i have to be carefull (on freezing nights) that i disconnect the skimmer from this external air source otherwise it just cools the tank way too much and beyond what the heaters can put back in. generally though, on all but the worst nights, it stays connected to the external air source.

in a closed space such as this room, i think its important to have good ventilation, not only for temperature control, but also to limit pH suppression. as it is the system runs a very respectable and stable pH without any assistance from me and I think a big chunk of that is down to the skimmer to be honest and the benifits of drawing in external air..

Regards

Simon.

 

[jhale]

an air cooled skimmer for temperature control is super creative. now that's using what's available

 

[SIReefer]

Exquisite !!!!!!

 

[reefs4life]

hey simon I have a question about this fish. I have the same one and I think mine is really odd. He changes colors to a sort of brown army pattern color and I dont think it's from stress either because he'll just do it randomly and stay completely still till he changes back to his original color. Let me know what you think. Thanks Fortunato

 

[Simon Garratt]

Hi Fortunato.

To be honest mine only shows the cryptic markings when its either stressed (had an argument with one of the tangs) early in the morning just before lights are on, or when its resting out in the middle of my big thumb gorgonia.

generally ive noticed that if the dorsal spines are down, then its just cryptic camoflage, but if the spines are up, then its a stress or mood reated change (keep an eye out for another fish harrasing it when your back is turned).

I think as well, many species will (within a certain range of ability) adapt colour changes to blend in with thier surroundings, If you have a bright background then they will show either paler or brighter colouration, whereas if its a dark background, some species will mask gaudy colouration slightly to take on a darker appearence so they stand out less against the background.

This isnt the case in all species by a long way but its something ive noticed in quite a few tangs, rabbits, many file fish, most blennies, groupers, some dottybacks and quite a few gobies.

regards

simon.

 

[RGibson]

Simon what is the branch media that you used in your calcium reactor?
Ralph

 

[reefs4life]

thanks for the answer Simon but I don't think any fish are really attacking him, he's the "big boy" the tank and I only have 5 other fish besides him in my 75G reef. A sailfin tang, pajama cardinal, flame angel, black saddleback clown and a zebra damsel, all smaller then him. I think he just does it out of mood like you said.

I had another thing to ask though...I'm interested in beadlet anemones and when I searched them on google I noticed that most of the info was coming from sites from the UK and I also saw that many people sell them on the eBay from UK. Have you had any experience with them? Any tips/suggestions?

Thanks for your help,
Fortunato

 

[Simon Garratt]

Hi again Fortunato.

mmm...the beadlet anemone thing is a bit of a shame to be honest.

The common myth with these is that just becouse they are occasionally found in rock pools, they are claimed to be able to handle higher temperatures, which is right to certain degree but not on a permanant basis.

In reality, most of them live just on the lower edge of of the intertidal zone where even though exposed at the low tide they still get a fair amont of spray that keeps them wet and cool. Those that get trapped too far into the intertidal zone may survive the odd spell of prolonged exposure and drying out, but certainly not on a regular basis and will usually eiither demise or migrate further down towards the lowest tidal mark.

Those that are caught in rock pools, will occasionally be subjected to temperatures in the mid summer months in exess of 90f in some cases, but this isnt a common occurance by any means and shouldnt be considerd the norm. in reality a more stable average temp would be around 7degC..with a summer high of 16degC and winter low of around 1degC Remember its realy cold in our waters for a vast majority of the yearr.


All that asside, if you can offer them a more temporate tank with regular feedings of meaty foods, then they are generally quite hardy as far as i recall and they make a stunning addition. There are a few guys who play with cold water systems here in the uk, but what seems a common issue with these setups is nutrient control. It may be something to do with the reduced bacterial activity at lower temps giving rise to reduced filtration capacity in a closed environment.

Regards

Simon.

 

[reefs4life]

Thanks for the info Simon...the reason I want to keep one is because I heard they stay very small and I just set up a nano and I don't know what other anemone that stays small

 

[tangmaniac]

AWESOME set up looking foward to see more shots of it in future ,

 

[Simon Garratt]

Simon what is the branch media that you used in your calcium reactor?
Ralph

Hi Ralph.

i was origionally using schuran media (quite expensive) but now use a media by a company called Wave here in the UK at ?9.99 for 10 kilos, Its basically a mix of very large coral gravel and broken coral branches. I'd say the average size is bits 5-10mm in diameter and about 10-25mm long.

The main benifit is that you can use it in very high flow recirculating reactors such as mine without getting the loss of turnover that you get by using fine medias, plus you dont get the gas pocket issues that you get with some that can cause a lifting of the media or surges that shoot fines up into the pump intakes and damage them.

Heres a photo of my DIY twin pump reactor when it was first built filled with about 15kg of Schuran media.

The recirc rate on this is around 2500lph against a volume of 29lts without media, so about 85x/hr.. Take out about 10lts volume for the 15kg of media and the recirc rate jumps to about 131 x/hr so its whizzing around in there like a mad thing.

So far im extremely impressed with its performance as it will kick out 40 dkh at 40ml/per min at 6.5 and thats 'just' ticking over with minimal gas consumption. I built a larger (1m tall ) one for another reefer with a larger system and he has reported that its the same case with his....a very good dissolution rate of around 40+ Dkh for minimal gas use against an output rate in exess of 200ml/min iirc so theres still scope for more if the pH was dropped further and the output increased. To be honest though, I have no idea what sized system it could cope with before it topped out. but for a DIY job, Im more than happy with it and the media.

Regards

Simon.

 

[DCG1286]

I have been reading through this thread a few times now ... I just absolutely love this tank ... It is amazing what you have done with it!!! Congratulations ... this would be by far my dream tank!

I have only been to London ... Southhampton is roughly 2 hours away from it correct? When I come back I would LOVEEEE to visit iF you do that kind of thing.

Have you ever seen David Saxby's aquarium? I think he is in London ... I don't remember exactly ..

-David