Marine aquarium set up that provides excelent results
liquidg
Member Posts: 44
You can make most of what you need to make your tank secure for all forms of corals and fish with a little construction.
Drill two holes or glass cut a scolap cut in the top of your tank for an over flow at the height you wish your water to remain at, make a glass partition to glue in your tank.
The partition needs to be the height of your tank,by 250 mil wide by 50 mil thick,this partition should be grilled at the front to allow water through easily than silicon on the back of it onion bag mesh to keep your fish out of here.
Use a length of plastic U shaped moulding cut to fit in this section as a slide to slide a section of egg crate into and back out again while wrapped in wadding, I glue the corners over to hook onto the egg crate barrier to stay on the egg crate, this is your first pre filter to be cleaned no less than each 3rd day.
Use 90 degree bulk heads for those holes on the back of your tank and attach pipes from them down to the sump.
This can never fail as the water that comes into the tank via return pump over flows through the holes, fool proof!!!!
Use a fish tank sized sump and cut the top edge off a plastic tub to sit on top of the sump as your algae area,use LED fluro replacement tubes of 1.1 blue and white diodes over this, they grow algae very nicely and the water goes here first to be processed.
Algae should be grown on calcium chunks, small pieces of live rock,or similar, it has to be porus to enable some aerobic and anaerobic work to be done and on egg crate with supports so it does not sit on the bottom of the converted tub.
Add iodide each day or your algae will do very badly!!!!
Drill over flows out of it with bulk heads used in those holes into another pre filter, than calcium media filled chamber as your very important aerobic and white spot reduction area,cycle this to start your tank not live rock, live rock should be a placed in the tank later on to put corals/inverts as such on and some biological media (back up),no more!!!!
Than over a fine calcium media area as anaerobic (nitrate reduction).
Now make a section to cascade waters to sustain fantastic gas exchange and the last section have a little protein skimmer to do what they were designed to do, remove pee and similar (protein) and than the return pump at a great volume to enable a spray bar across the back of your tank aimed up so it breaks the surface at the centre of the tanks waters and circulates down the front of your glass.
Each hole in the spray bar to be drilled slightly angled towards the end of your tank where the pre filter exit is, you have now a fool proof aquarium with no part of the nitrite cycle ever showing its head and complete conversion of all other substances into trace elements for your corals.
Two pumps only,return and circulation combined and the one on the protein skimmer,cheap as!!
Use LED lights over the tank,resistance lighting is rubbish compared to them,no less than 90 watts of 60 degree blue and white LEDs per 2 foot of tank, buy a good quality power head as your return pump(never skimp on this) and you can now have a near 100 percent success with your reef /fowlr what ever aquarium!
Drill two holes or glass cut a scolap cut in the top of your tank for an over flow at the height you wish your water to remain at, make a glass partition to glue in your tank.
The partition needs to be the height of your tank,by 250 mil wide by 50 mil thick,this partition should be grilled at the front to allow water through easily than silicon on the back of it onion bag mesh to keep your fish out of here.
Use a length of plastic U shaped moulding cut to fit in this section as a slide to slide a section of egg crate into and back out again while wrapped in wadding, I glue the corners over to hook onto the egg crate barrier to stay on the egg crate, this is your first pre filter to be cleaned no less than each 3rd day.
Use 90 degree bulk heads for those holes on the back of your tank and attach pipes from them down to the sump.
This can never fail as the water that comes into the tank via return pump over flows through the holes, fool proof!!!!
Use a fish tank sized sump and cut the top edge off a plastic tub to sit on top of the sump as your algae area,use LED fluro replacement tubes of 1.1 blue and white diodes over this, they grow algae very nicely and the water goes here first to be processed.
Algae should be grown on calcium chunks, small pieces of live rock,or similar, it has to be porus to enable some aerobic and anaerobic work to be done and on egg crate with supports so it does not sit on the bottom of the converted tub.
Add iodide each day or your algae will do very badly!!!!
Drill over flows out of it with bulk heads used in those holes into another pre filter, than calcium media filled chamber as your very important aerobic and white spot reduction area,cycle this to start your tank not live rock, live rock should be a placed in the tank later on to put corals/inverts as such on and some biological media (back up),no more!!!!
Than over a fine calcium media area as anaerobic (nitrate reduction).
Now make a section to cascade waters to sustain fantastic gas exchange and the last section have a little protein skimmer to do what they were designed to do, remove pee and similar (protein) and than the return pump at a great volume to enable a spray bar across the back of your tank aimed up so it breaks the surface at the centre of the tanks waters and circulates down the front of your glass.
Each hole in the spray bar to be drilled slightly angled towards the end of your tank where the pre filter exit is, you have now a fool proof aquarium with no part of the nitrite cycle ever showing its head and complete conversion of all other substances into trace elements for your corals.
Two pumps only,return and circulation combined and the one on the protein skimmer,cheap as!!
Use LED lights over the tank,resistance lighting is rubbish compared to them,no less than 90 watts of 60 degree blue and white LEDs per 2 foot of tank, buy a good quality power head as your return pump(never skimp on this) and you can now have a near 100 percent success with your reef /fowlr what ever aquarium!