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Journal Eden

seedoubleyou

seedoubleyou

Member
Joined
29 Mar 2022
Messages
1,219
Location
Windsor
It’s taken me a while to get here but I’m finally ready to start a proper journal.

I’ve been sitting on this tank for almost 6 months, I’ve had many ideas on what I’d like to do with it and I honestly never thought it would become a reef tank. I give thanks to @Deano3 and @Geoffrey Rea for knocking me off the band wagon with their tanks.

So without further a due here is my journal “Eden”.
 
The tank I will be using is the Waterbox Eden.
It’s a 45cm cube that comes with a stand and sliding glass lid.
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So far I’ve installed a bottom drain which will be used for easy waterchange. This was never planned, but as I had previously intended on using the tank as a vivarium I had drilled it to help drain excess water from the substrate, but I digress.


I had a delivery today for most of the equipment I intend to use on this system. I will list them below.
 
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Filtration
will be an Oase Biomaster Thermo 850. They essentially act as a giant media reactor. I will remove all sponges and only retain the pre filter.
This one unfortunately arrived damaged but will be replaced.

Dosing
DD P1 continuous dose. This pump was essential as I will run my ATO from it. This is far more accurate than using a conventional ATO and will allow me to top up the water continuously throughout the day.
I will also dose Tropic Marin all for reef when the time comes.

I have paired this with 2x TMC 1.5L dosing containers.

Parameter testing
I’ve made the investment into some Hanna Checkers. These will make testing my parameters easier and more consistent. They will also inspire me to actually test my parameters as I can be lazy in that department.
I have purchased Po4 ULR, Nitrate HR, Alkalinity DKH and I have the Salinty tester which doubles as a thermometer.

I then have a few other various bits and pieces for maintenance etc…..
 
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The rock also arrived today. This is actually a first for me. In the past I have always given my idea to the talented Col of RR reefscapes who then produces a custom scape from ceramic.

I have chosen to use Caribsea Life rock and create my own scape.

It follows a triangle composition and will win no awards for beauty.
I feel with reef tanks providing refuge for fish is important and coral placement supersedes the initial hardscape.

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I will sit on the Aquascape for a week or two and make adjustments as I do. I’ve found it’s always best to live with the hardscape for a few days before committing to it.

The rocks are already coloured to look mature. This was favourable as I like to run my lights on the whiter side.
Fresh white rocks soon become green and can be unsightly under white light.
 
So this morning I wanted to do a cost breakdown of the tank so far. Hopefully this will help anyway considering a reef tank and the potential costs involved.

I consider this setup to be relatively inexpensive in comparison to the majority of systems owed by the typical hobbyist.

Tank: Waterbox Eden £280
Hardscape: Caribsea life rock 9kg £110
Filter: Oase Biomaster Thermo 850 £370
Dosing: DD P1-STP x2 £240
Dosing containers: TMC 1.5L x 2 £36
Kamoer dosing pump bracket £30
Testing: Hanna checkers - Dkh, Po4 ULR, No3 LR, Salinity tester (Specific gravity) these range from £70-80
Misc items for maintenance £100
Water: I have chosen a pretty expensive option and will be filling with Aquaforest Perfect Water it’s 20L pre-made in their lab. I have used various salts and Natural Sea Water in the past. I definitely prefer something pre-made for ease.

So far the total sits at around £1,300
I still need a few additional bits that are fairly inexpensive.
I estimate a further £750-1000 for livestock over the duration of the next year.

I hope this provides some insight to anyone considering a reef aquarium.
It’s entirely possible on a canister filter provided you do it right, it doesn’t even have to limit your stocking choice on corals and high end SPS can be successfully grown inside a canister reef.

As already mentioned I consider this to be fairly inexpensive in comparison to some sumped systems out there. Other options are AIO systems like that of @Deano3
You could still do this cheaper if you bought cheaper equipment!! A biomaster 350 would do this tank, salifert test kits at £13 each are suffice, cheaper dosing pump…… and so on.

Cheers,
Chris.
 
Brilliant so far and very helpful for us beginners to see it all come together. I have been looking forward to watching your build and learning more about marine. Thanks Chris looking forward to seeing more updates 😊
 
Wet the tank today but unfortunately had a leak from the bottom drain.
I’ve applied as much silicone as possible and hope it does enough to seal the area.
Failing this I’ll dig out my gum shield in preparation for telling my wife I need to order a new tank (nervous laugh).
 
The tank is finally wet. The leak has been solved with plenty of silicone.
I don’t believe it was coming from the bulkhead but rather the soft tubing.
This has sadly meant I will no longer have use of the bottom drain but it’s not the end of the world.

So, as for water, the tank has been filled with RODI water from my local spotless water.
I’ll let the tank run like this for a couple of weeks so the rock can leach off excess nutrients.
This will benefit me later down the line and help provide better stability and less nuisance algae.

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The lights will remain off for this period as the tank isn’t yet cycling.
In a perfect scenario I’d cover the tank too, but that would only create an eye sore in our living room.
 
The tank is now filled with salt water and fish have been added. I will wait for the ugly phase to hit before adding any clean up crew.

The cycle
I done a fish in cycle, it’s been my go to method for a few years and it works really well for me.

The rock + Filtration
I’ve removed some rock and lowered the scape. It’s more inline with something that you would typically find in a lagoon setup but it serves me and my end vision.
Less rock means more water volume which will help with stability.
This unfortunately means less surface area for bacteria and therefore less filtration, however as I have such a large canister filter that is essentially acting as a media reactor this combats the lack of rock. (Running seachem matrix and carbon)
The sand-bed is also fairly deep at 2”.

Lighting
I have set the light on an acclimation mode, it will ramp up in intensity over the next few months. Allowing livestock to adjust to the LEDs and mitigating an algae bloom.

Livestock
The tank currently houses 6 black bar chromis, they loosely shoal and the larger of the group holds a territory for himself in the centre of the rock.
These fish stay small and their size suits the shape of my tank well.
I’m enjoying their movement amongst the rocks and the odd bout of sparring over territory.
As coral is added this will provide further refuge for the fish.
I don’t have any further plans for fish in this tank as I want the coral to be the main focus and the fish will only serve to accent that.

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Conort2 said:
Never seen those black bar chromis before (although I don’t know much about marines!)

They’re stunning but in a more subtle kind of way to most marine fish.
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I had never seen them before either. They’re not uncommon, I’ve just never come across them.
You’re right about their subtlety and that’s what attracted me to them.
I love angelfish and these remind me a little of the half black angelfish.
 
Deano3 said:
Love the neat cabinet , tank coming on now can't wait to see it progress
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Cheers mate. Space is very tight in there. I don’t know how I’ll cram an algae reactor in at some point. Hopefully it won’t come to that. I’ll probably have to export most nutrients chemically and via large water changes.
 
Update

Livestock
I’ve added a few corals and by a few I mean I’ve basically stocked the tank out.
This isn’t isn’t something I’d normally do or recommend for such a new system. So I’ll just pray that I can keep it all alive now.

I’ll take some pictures once stuff settles in.

One of the Black bar Chromis has been beaten up pretty badly and spent the first 48hrs in the top corner of the tank.
The introduction of coral has seemed to stop this and allowed the fish back into the shoal.
This might be due to territory being broken up.

Water
I done a 5L water change today and will continue to do this daily. The salt mix I’m using is ATI absolute ocean which is a 2 part concentrated liquid that just mixes into RO with such ease.
The daily 5L waterchange will equate to around 50% weekly with the benefit of not needing to heat the water and it’s actually really simple doing such a small change.

Dosing
I’m also dosing 30ml of phytoplankton daily to help feed te copepods whilst the tank matures. This will also serve as a food source for the corals.
I have Tropic Marin All for reef on standby too should I need to start dosing trace elements.
This is a 1 part solution that is perfect for smaller systems not requiring too much dosing.
It can be used on any sized system but can prove quite costly if dosed in large volumes.

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Next steps will be to continue my water change regime. Nail down the tanks parameters and add some clean up crew once algae starts to form.
 
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