New plans, the resurrection of the 60L tank

The plans for a fragment and mixing aquarium have started. At this point the plans go out from using the 60 litre aquarium as the main aquarium on my desk.

From there water will overflow into a sump, which is placed on a small cabinet underneath the desk. There the whole filter process will take place. I have found one for sale for 20 euro’s on the internet, so I will probably get this one, together with the skimmer he has.

From the sump the water will also overflow into another tank/box. This will function as the mixing aquarium and as the collection bin. The idea is to have a tank/box which is 10/15% the size of the sump, main aquarium and the Red Sea Max 250 together.

From there the water is pumped back up into the main aquarium and when cleaning the Red Sea Max part of it will be pumped into the RSM.

The Main Aquarium

The current idea is to use the 60 litre aquarium we still have for mixing water. Just need to figure out how to put an overflow on this so the water can overflow into the sump.

I probably need to replace the whole light unit, I want to use 1 watt per litre, which means 60 watt lighting, preferably divided over blue and white light.

I think I will stick at one pump with a 600 litre per hour capacity. This might be good for attaching corals, so they don’t get blown all over the place.

Other then that only some corals and rocks to attach them on will be put in this aquarium. Maybe I will put in a little wall to separate my “projects” from the normal frags.

When cleaning the aquariums this one will run only on its own pump, no water gets pumped up, no sump will be included.

The Sump

The idea for the sump is still very vague, besides the fact that it will have an overflow into the mixing aquarium. It depends on how the sump I’m thinking of buying looks like. One thing is for sure, it will contain the skimmer and all filters. Maybe if there is room enough I will put in some life rock, maybe some unwanted invertebrate like a mantis which I stumbled upon on the forums. In that case I would need some light above it as well, think I will use the current lighting for the Main Aquarium for this, since it only needs to be 40 watt.

I don’t know if I need extra pumps, maybe one couldn’t hurt for the moment the flow gets turned off, because at that point no water from the Main aquarium will come down and no water goes down into the Mixing aquarium or up to the Main aquarium.

The Mixing Aquarium

Like I mentioned earlier this needs to be able to contain 10/15% from the Main aquarium, sump and the RSM250. This means in the current situation and plans it should be between 40 and 60 litres. It will probably need 2 pumps that are capable of pumping 10x the amount of water in the tank, so worst case would be 600 lph. It will also have 2 pumps for pumping the water into the Main Aquarium and into the Red Sea Max. Both need to be activated when needed only.

Then this tank will also have the cooling and heating in it. I have a heater, and for cooling I will probably use a table fan. On the side of the tank I will put markers for the amount of litres in the aquarium and a maximum/minimum marker.

I’m still unsure if I want life rock in here as well. Might get too much to endure if it runs dry each time, plus I don’t know if the water is still as good to refresh as it would be without being run over life rock first. If I use life rock I will have to put in some light as well, this will be the bare minimum then, about 0,25 or 0,5 watt per litre. So it will be between 20 – 30 watt light.

The idea is to drain the whole tank when refreshing the water. Then throw in the jerry cans with osmosis water and a bunch of salt and start mixing it. At this point the tank is cut loose from all others. Then first we refill the Red Sea Max, and then we activate the whole circulation system of my little side project with the remaining water.

Killing and Cleaning

It was time for cleaning again, and during this cleaning some tasks needed to be done.

The cleaning started with the killing of Majano Anemones. We had them some time ago, injected them with boiling water and never saw them again, until lately we started to discover more and more all over the aquarium. Time for another round of injecting them with boiling water.

I did do some research first, see if the Majano Anemone has, just like his Glass Anemone “friend”, any natural enemies. Unfortunately this list is very limited and the risks with corals and invertebrates are very high, these options are the Tasseled Filefish and Raccoon Butterflies.

Other option is chemical warfare. Using Joes Juice or Aiptasia-X seems to work for some, then again, other people have no luck with them. Since I don’t want to use any chemicals unless I have absolutely no other options…this one is off the list.

Mechanical removal, using forceps could work, but is very tricky. Leaving the smallest piece behind will cause a new one to appear. Too much risk of failure for me.

Boiling water or Kalk Juice/Paste. Both work with a syringe filled with either boiling water or Kalk Juice and inject it into the anemone’s head or neck.

Another option I found is placing something on top of the anemone, piece of Life Rock or a shell. This will cause the anemone to climb up, and then you can remove the LR or shell with the anemone on it.

Here is what I had to deal with. Three of them (noticed four actually when injecting) next to the soft coral. Injected them all with a syringe filled with boiling water, haven’t seen them return.

Then one on the rock with the Green Star Polyps. Also injected and haven’t seen it come back either.

Another one in the triangle between the buttons, Cabbage leather and frogspawn coral. This one is hard to get, couldn’t get a good shot at him so he is still there.

And two more located near the starburst polyps on the right side of the aquarium. Both injected with success.

Then while cleaning I bumped off a rock in the starburst polyp field. This was the original rock we got in the beginning. So maybe we can pass it onto the next person who then can create his own field with it. We do have a hole left now, but I’m sure it will close up soon.

I also cut off the Kenya Tree located underneath the orange buttons. It was messing with the buttons too much. There is still a piece remaining, so I’m sure it will grow back. But till then the buttons can grow again, and by that time hopefully I don’t have any Kenya Tree fragments left.

The clownfish have laid eggs again, yesterday we spotted a whole spot of yellow/gold bubbles. It will probably go to waste again, since we still have nothing to put them. But I do believe we have some time to get them. Not sure what we are going to do yet.

And last but not least I replaced another light tube. We’re halfway done now with the replacement.

Sold Fragments

Yesterday I have sold some fragments again. A member from the Zeewater Forum voor Nederland en België, called Bikerdick, wanted to buy the last Red Mushroom fragment and some Kenya Tree fragments. He left with 4 Kenya Tree fragments and the Red Mushroom. Now there are still 7 left for sale.

He also showed interest in many other things in the aquarium, like the Anemone. I gave him a price for it and he would consult it with his son. So who knows, maybe he will buy it from us.

He also took interest in the Starburst Polyps. I have put a big rock next to the smaller piece, hopefully it will grow onto that and kill some hair algae as well. And I put a small rock next to the big field, but someone doesn't like me doing that because I had to do this twice already and each time I find the rock on the bottom :p.

And also the buttons looked very interesting, but I heard this already before from someone else. So I also put a small rock next to the green ones and hope they grow onto that rock.

The anemone which was located on the Maxima clam has disappeared, only saw a very satisfied Peppermint Shrimp near it...guess someone had a good dinner :p

We have moved it after the picture was taken, because it keeps getting knocked over. Now it is leaning against the rock.

And last also an update on my other sold fragments from BvN. They still seem to do fine, pictures look great of his aquarium. The Kenya tree seems to have moved to the middle of the aquarium now, the mushrooms are still on the bottom of the left pillar.

Happy New Year 2011

First of all I want to wish all the readers all the best wishes for 2011. We started the new year with a big cleaning of the aquarium, which was necessary because we hadn’t done anything for a month or so.

Last year (last Thursday ;) ) we went to our regular aquarium shop in search of a solution for the Planaria and the Sea Pearls which we have a lot of lately. We ordered a couple of Mandarin Dragonets, they eat Planaria so we figured this would make a beautiful addition to the aquarium as well as a functional one. Unfortunately they didn’t have them in stock, so we have to wait. However, they did have a nice Tridacna Clam, so we ended up buying that.

The Fragcan had to go because of the clam, there was no more room for it. So the one Kenya Tree fragment still unattached was now put in a shell we have for the Hermit Crabs. At this point there are so many Kenya Tree fragments, I can’t tell them apart anymore.

But next Wednesday someone is coming to buy a couple from me, and also buy the Red Mushroom fragment still remaining and maybe even the Anemone which is becoming far to big. The toadstool is having a hard to staying alive it seems, his polyps are hardly visible anymore.

One of the mushrooms on mushroom rock 2 has released itself and moved somewhere else (not found yet). It was one of the green mushrooms that was overgrown by the red and striped mushrooms. Don’t know if I will see it again, but now there are three on the rock instead of the 5 we had. Also the red one that split of the big mushroom has disappeared.  

During the big cleaning I cleaned the skimmer, filters, window and put in another new arsenic light. Now we have replace 2 out of 6 light tubes.

And this is how the aquarium looks now, beginning of 2011.