If Algea is the curse of fresh water what is the reef equiv.

[Bad Inferno]

I am thinking of changing over my 450 litre tank to a reef tank.

Being fully planted the battle is always balancing algea with plant growth. What is the equivalent problems that reef tank face. ?

rob

[Matt15]

Rob they are very much the same if not worse.

I don't know the technical names but the algea (if thats the name for it) and crustation buildup is much much worse and it often won't just wipe away. The stuff grows onto everything...!!!
Also the salt water gets into everything metal and rusts like crazy. A sump is a must here... as the general cannister filter is lucky to last you a year.

There's a few people here who keep marine.. i'm sure they'll beable to give you loads of PROS rather than CONS.

[Tommo]

Hey Rob

One of the algae problems is , but we all grow it is coraline algae, it is the purple stuff/red,it is hard type of algae.And does grow on all power heads ,pipes,glass,rocks,It is very nice to have it growing but cleaning power heads and glass is a PITA!

The bad Alage is the cyano this is the brown/red type of algae, that grows on the sand.

As for salt gets everywhere , well this is not true LOL.

If you are planing on changing your tank to reef Rob, 1 thing for sure is you need a sump.
My advice with the sump is to have a refugium/Deep sand bed , and grow some macro algae down there "this is just sea weed" and helps in reducing nitrates.

A simple sump is like this , i just sketch this one up so you get an idea.
You can not choose to use a Deep sand bed in the sump , you can make it a Remote Deep Sand Bed "RDSB" , an easy way is using a 20 liter bucket and using a 1000 LT/HR pump,doing a RDSB is better , if the sand bed fails , you just remove it and start again, if it fails in the sump "and sometimes they do , it makes it hard to start again with it.

Skimmers , Can be in sump meaning they are place inside your sump.
Or out of sump , meaning you need a pump to feed the skimmer.


The main things you need are.

Metal halide lighting "or T5's" Depending on what you want to keep.

Skimmer "big enough to handle your display tank and sump volume"

Return pump " i have a 4x2x2 and use a 7000 liter/hour"

Power heads "i have 3/2500 liter/hour and 1/4500 LT/HR"

You also need to drill out your tank to make a durso stand pipe "over flow/ weir ".

Also there are heaps of mods for skimmers/ sand beds etc etc . Really it is never ending LOL but very very addictive.
I used to keep freshwater, but marines with corals is truly unreal!
also the down side is that tank maintenance is a little higher , as well as changes in some elements can kill corals over night, "this happened to me when i first started"




Cheers Andrew

[nicholas76]

I am thinking of changing over my 450 litre tank to a reef tank.

Being fully planted the battle is always balancing algea with plant growth. What is the equivalent problems that reef tank face. ?

rob

Id rate coraline Algae as potentially your biggest problem. Although I have had my tank setup now for over a year and rarley see it. Just lucky.

Salt creep is an ongoing pain , constant wiping down argh.

In your initial months the various algae explosions will haunt you too, as long as your patient you will work through those in stages.

Nothing more satisfying then owning a well estabilished reef tank :)

[Bad Inferno]

I setup a small nano reef, which has provided me great pleasure. It still costs a lot to setup however no $ for real ongoing maintenance or additives/ water.

When my kids leave school and have more money to run it, I may finally convert my larger tank.

My nano has been going for 10 months and am currently upgradiung to slightly larger size. Fully automated of course, if you've ever seen my Discus setup. I have recieved a linear actuator which will raise / lower a suspended light when I need to control temps and for cleaning.

I have the new tank, rimless 24x16x16 (star glass front) modded ac110 for fuge and votec programmable power head. Just need to get the plyboard manufacturer to cut and edge my cabinet.

[Tommo]

Hows the progress comming along ?

[Bad Inferno]

Hi Tommo,

Yes its coming along. I have managed to take some shots of the tank whilst still under construction. It will give you an idea on how it is comming together. The last phase is electrical & controls however here is where I am up to so far:

Shot of tank with light at lowest position:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/mkII-1.jpg


Light raised for access
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/mkII-3.jpg


ATO float switch and 1wire temperature probe mounting
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/mkII-4.jpg


Rear of tank showing light rails and electric actuator
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/mkII-5.jpg


Shot of Refugium light, 3x 3W LED's
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/mkII-2.jpg

[Bad Inferno]

Really off original topic however completed the 1wire relay interface panel.


Complted 8 channel relay mounted onto 4mm perspex plate. It looks alittle complicated however it really allows easy connection of the tank devices and also distributes the 12VDC power.

From Left to Right
1wire interface - Relay boards (double decker) ATO float relay and light actuator relay - terminals

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/1wirerelay-2.jpg

You can see I had to mount the two relay boards ontop of one another
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/1wirerelay-1.jpg


Under the 1wire controller I ahve mounted the refugium LED constant current power supply. This supply enables up to four 3W LED's to be driven.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/1wirerelay-3.jpg

I will mount it in the cabinet next weekend.

[Bad Inferno]

AC Power Control

I required only two 1wire controlled AC powered devices. One being the main light the other the heater. I debated for quite a while in how best to acheive this in the safest way however deviced to simply use two good quality 12V relays inside a small box. These relays are controlled via the 1wire relay isolators on the main interface. above And yes there are now two relays controlling these outlets however all AC wiring is contained within the small box.

The heater needed to be normally ON thus without power to the relay the outlet is ON. That way if the controller fails the heater will be on, as it has its own thermostat, it will function as normal. The reason I wanted to be able to power off the heater was so that I can better regulate temperature on hot days. I did not want the heater fighting against the cooling fan when the tank temp was low. That way on hot days, ambient >26 I can just use fan control to regulate the tank temperature and turn off the heater.

The other outlet is simply the main light. Powering on the relay will turn the lights on.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/1wirepower-2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/1wirepower-1.jpg

[Tommo]

Nice :)

Thats sensational stuff :)

Now as for the relays will they handle the current of the light fitting ?

Also are you using an isolated DC power supply ?

[Bad Inferno]

Relays are good for 10A @ 240VAC. ONly high voltrage is contained within the sealed enclosure. the realy boards which are double decker 98 relays) only switch 12VDC.

12VDC is sourced from a 3A power supply which will power not only the relays however the refugium lights, cooling fan, moon light, linear actuator, not all at the same time

The main light is 240VAC switched from one of the blue dedicated relays. I will eventually switch over to PWM controlled LED lights.

There has just been released a 1wire PWM slave device so 1wire can now do fan speed, LED light intensity etc etc.

[mickfox]

wheres the protein skimmer?

[Bad Inferno]

Protein what ?

I only have small tanks ~90L, and the debate over if they are required for nano tanks continues. I do a 25% water change every 2 weeks and have a moderate fish load. There are some great nano reef sites out there and most do not use a skimmer.

For me I am looking for a silent tank, thus no sump, no skimmer. I do run the HOB refugium with macro algea, heater and chemzorb and a lot of live rock with a good power head (Vortech MP10) in the tank. Sand bed is quite high at the back of the tank ~5"

rob

[Tommo]

You dont have to have a skimmer :)

[Bad Inferno]

Not really on topic however, its been a while comming however its now up and running. I really need to get new lights however at least its now wet. The actuator on the light frame works great. So easy to work on the tank, simply command the light to raise and it goes up about 18" so you can get into the top of the tank for cleaning or adding stock.

The controller I use is a new 1wire intelligent slave BAE0910 which holds all the program locally. The best thing about this controlelr is that it has 4 PWM outputs so it would be perfect for an LED setup. Maybe a 2011 project.


here is the completed tank. the light hangs from a frame which can go up / down.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/tank-5.jpg

This is a "bad" pic of the completed rear of the tank. You maybe able to see the actuator which controls the light
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/tank-6.jpg

The inside cabinet has the controls for all devices. It uses a DIY 1wire implementation to control all lights pump and fan speed control for cooling
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/tank-4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/tank-3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/tank-2.jpg

[Tommo]

Hey Bad Inferno

Now with the actuator can you control the height of it ?
Or does it go to the highest point then stop ?

Cheers mate

P.S Bloody good job IMO :) Sensational stuff
Although going back to feshwater "ill still be using my control panel :)"

[Bad Inferno]

The actuator takes about 10-15 seconds to travel. So at any point you can stop it. In theory you can change the light intensity by positioning the light higher /lower to the water surface.

The great thing is how easy it is to wipe the tank glass or do a water change without having to take the light physically off the tank. The way the tanks setup (skimmerless) I will have to do WC.

My Discus tank still uses auto water changes although its 450 litres so I need to automate that tank. My reef tank only being 100L it a quick change for only 20L

I plan on making a vid and put it on utube on the development of the cabinet, tank and automation.

rob

[Robdog]

Any updates?

[Bad Inferno]

Although the tank is simple in its filtration a WC every 10 days assists in keeping all levels correct. I have no nitrates at all which probably means my macro algea in the rear refugium is working well.

I have added some more live rock since the pics and also a small clam. I know it was probably too early for a clam and my lighting is not perfect however I have been able to position the clam on a large rock ledge and only sits 8" away from my lights (4 x 25w T5's.)

The ability to raise the light for a quick clean of the tank or a wipe of the glass is great.

[Tommo]

Looking really good Rob

Cheers mate

Andrew