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Journal Oase Scaperline 60 Reef Tank

Tanksy

Tanksy

Member
Joined
7 Sep 2018
Messages
225
Location
Cambridgeshire
I had to tear down my FOWLR tank, about 5 years ago. I rushed it and things went south pretty quickly. But this time I'm going to take my time. This is going to be a boring thread.

I dug out an Oase Scaperline 60 and a Fluval Roma 90 cabinet a couple of days ago. They've been gathering dust for almost a year.
The cabinet was a bit short though, so I added 4 castors (loading capacity 50kg each), 2 of them with break. The advantage of having it on castors is that I'll be able to move it, if I have to replace the plumping behind the tank.
This will be my first venture into softies and LPS corals and I'm very excited!

tank and stand.jpg

The first step is to start the fish-less cycling process. I plan to dark cycle it for at least 5-6 months. Since I can't find any live rock, I'm going with Marco rock, dry Aragonite sand and bottled bacteria.
The next step... I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Cheers!

**************************************************************

Cost so far 25/11/2023 (prices rounded up to the nearest pound):

Equipment
Display Tank: Oase Scaperline 60 £150
Sump Tank: Diversa 25L (Amazon) £30
Cabinet: Fluval Roma 90 £145
HOB Filter: Seachem Tidal 35 £45
Heater: Aquael Ultra 75W £30
Temp Controller: Inkbird ITC-308Wifi £27
Wavemaker A: Jebao RW-4 (Already had it)
Wavemaker B: Jebao ELW-3M £54
Salt Mixing pump: Newa MaxiJet (Already had it)
Power Strip: TPLink Kasa (3 outlets) £29
Plumbing for sump: Pipes, Gate Valves, Unions, etc. £180
Protein skimmer: Bubble Magus Mini Q £42
Auto top up: Kamoer ATO One 2 SE £53
Light: AI Prime 16HD with bracket £246
Subtotal: £1,031

Hardscape
Rock A: Marco Rock Foundation 2kg £20
Rock B: Dry Reef Rock 5kg £40
Sand: Caribsea Arag-Alive Special Grade 9kg £28
Subtotal: £88

Water & Additives
Salt: Instant Ocean 4kg £14
RO/DI Water: Spotless Water 60 L £3
Bacteria: FritzZyme Turbostart 900 1 oz £13
Dr Tim's Ammonium Chloride 4 oz £5
Subtotal: £35

Tests
Refractometer + TDS Meter: Amazon (Already had them)
Salifert Nitrate £9
Salifert pH £6
Salifert Calcium £14
Hanna Phosphate ULR (ppm) Checker £35 (used)
Hanna Alkalinity dKH Checker £30 (used)
Hanna Nitrate LR Checker £40 (used)
Hanna Calcium Checker £63
Subtotal: £197

Total: £1,351

Future purchases
Corals £???
Fish £???
CUC £???

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10 days after set up. Nitrogen cycle complete. 6/11/2023.

Reef-6-11-2023.jpg
 
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5-6 months shouldn’t be necessary, but incredible patience if you can go that long.

Try and keep up with regular maintenance during that time as you’ll uncover the tank to find out it’s become a breeding ground for sponges.

If you really wanted too, you could just run it as a FOWLR for the 5-6 months until it’s become well established and you’re ready to introduce corals.
 
seedoubleyou said:
5-6 months shouldn’t be necessary, but incredible patience if you can go that long.

Try and keep up with regular maintenance during that time as you’ll uncover the tank to find out it’s become a breeding ground for sponges.

If you really wanted too, you could just run it as a FOWLR for the 5-6 months until it’s become well established and you’re ready to introduce corals.
Click to expand...
It will be 4 months of complete darkness, and 2 more months of low light, just enough intensity and the right spectrum for the coralline algae to start growing.
If I manage to grow coralline algae, then I'll know for sure that the tank is mature enough for corals.
 
FrankR said:
It will be 4 months of complete darkness, and 2 more months of low light, just enough intensity and the right spectrum for the coralline algae to start growing.
If I manage to grow coralline algae, then I'll know for sure that the tank is mature enough for corals.
Click to expand...
That’s fair enough. How do you plan on introducing coralline to your tank?
 
I've managed to finish the cabinet. Well, the only thing I did was wrap the drawer front with black vinyl and then mount it to the runners.

cabinet01.jpg cabinet002.jpg cabinet003.jpg

I sat on the cabinet to "test drive" it (I'm 105 kg) and it didn't even squeak. Then I engaged the brakes and adjusted the cabinet leg to check it's stability. Thankfully it's locked in place.
Bearing in mind that my only experience with carpentry was putting together IKEA furniture, I reckon I did well 😎

Also, I received the sump (40x25x25 cm) and I'm testing it for leaks.

sumptest.jpg

On another note, I've decided to go with dried reef rock (Pukani or Fiji), instead of Marco rock. Dried reef rock is more porous than quarried limestone. That's an advantage.
I'm going to bleach cure it and strip almost all PO4 out of it, before starting the cycling process.
 
Bought some Pukani (or Fiji?) rock from a local coral shop. I'll let it dry for a couple of days, rinse it and then throw it in saltwater to test for phosphate.

dryrock.jpg
 
After 3 days of drying in the sun, I've added the rock in a bucket full of tap water and about 10% of 3% H2O2 this evening.
I'll leave it in the shed for a couple of days and then I'll bleach it. Bleach in water breaks down in 24 hours. That means I have to change the water every day, if I want the bleach to be as effective as possible.
I'll add 1.5l of bleach to 20l of water. 2x 5l bottles of bleach should be enough for 6 water changes.
Oddly enough I couldn't find thin bleach in any of the big supermarkets. I went to Asda, Tesco, Lidl and Morrisons. Nada! So, I've ordered it online.

On another note, today I received the return pump and I must say, I'm very happy with the purchase.

VAP2500.png

First of all, it took only one week to arrive from China (Official Jebao/Jecod store).
Although it has more flow (Hmax: 3.2m) than the previous 2500 models (DCP 2500 Hmax:2.5m), it's more energy efficient. At 30% it uses 5W and at 100% it's 20W.
Flow can be adjusted in 1% increments and the LCD shows flow percentage (30-100%) as well as wattage. However, the LCD is not illuminated and the controller cannot be connected to WiFi.
Another nice feature is the 4 different wave modes, Continuous, Wave, Sine and Random. It can easily replace a wave maker in a nano tank.
Last, but not least, it's dead silent!
 
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I've finally found some time to set up the tank. It's been sitting empty since May.
Although I bought everything I need, I don't have the time to do the plumbing at the moment due to my workload.
Anyway, to kick things off I hooked up a Seachem Tidal 35, an Inkbird ITC-308Wifi, an Aquael 75W and a Jebao SOW-4 wave maker. That was two days ago.
I've also added a small bottle of FritzZyme 900 and Dr Tim's Ammonium Chloride. I'm using the matrix that was included with the filter.
Today I picked up a piece of live rock and some bio balls from a fellow reefer. I dropped the rock in the tank and added the bio balls to the filter.

Salinity: 1.020
pH: 7.8 (Tetra Test strips)
Temperature: 28 C
Ammonia: over 0.5 ppm (Seachem Ammonia Alert)
Nitirites: 0 ppm (Tetra Test strips)
Nitrates: 0 ppm (Tetra Test strips)

Reef-Tank.jpg

Reef-Tank-28-10-23.jpg
 
Looking pretty good, I like the tanks clean when they are newly installed. I have never used any ammonia additive to cycle the tank, it's likely that you just need the biological filter media that you added to your filtration.
 
Yesterday I spotted a couple of Micro Brittle Stars and a Bristle Worm on the piece of live rock. Also, a few copepods on the glass.

Today's readings:

Salinity: 1.015 (Refractometer)
Temp: 27.5-27.8 C (Inkbird)
pH: 8 (Salifert)
NH3: 0.05 ppm (Seachem Ammonia Alert)
NO3: 50 ppm (Salifert)

I gather the nitrogen cycle is complete. Probably has been for the last couple of days. I'll do a 50% WC tomorrow. I plan to add a Black Molly and keep the tank covered for 2 more months. I'd like to add more biology from a natural source, as soon as the Dark Cycle is over. I was thinking of getting some sediment/sand from a nearby beach, but then I noticed that Aquaforest sells a product called Life Source, which is mud taken from the ocean. So here's my dilemma. Should I get some sand from the sea, or dose AF Life Source?

Cheers!
 
I’d go for the mud by AF if that’s the route you’re looking to go,

A few questions though.
Why is the specific gravity so low?
Why is the temp so high?
Are you going to be keeping a fish in a pitch black tank for 2 months?
 
seedoubleyou said:
I’d go for the mud by AF if that’s the route you’re looking to go,

A few questions though.
Why is the specific gravity so low?
Why is the temp so high?
Are you going to be keeping a fish in a pitch black tank for 2 months?
Click to expand...
According to Dr. Tim Hovanec bacteria populations grow faster when salinity is around 1.015 and temperature is 25-30 C.



It won't be complete darkness. I'll cut a "skylight" so that some light can come through, but I won't remove the cover completely.
 
Are you looking for a live substrate for your tank? In that case I would go for live sand from Nature's Ocean, I used it years ago and it's wonderful. I have never heard of Life Source, I have heard of Miracle mud for years and it works for many.
 
Tanksy said:
According to Dr. Tim Hovanec bacteria populations grow faster when salinity is around 1.015 and temperature is 25-30 C.



It won't be complete darkness. I'll cut a "skylight" so that some light can come through, but I won't remove the cover completely.
Click to expand...

Yes this is true, and I’d assumed this was you’re reasoning.
It just all seems like overkill to me and I don’t have the personal patience for it, so I admire you for that.

My personal style is bottled bacteria, live sand and heavy coral stocking stocking from day one. I also keep my tank cooler at around 22 degrees as I find the cooler temps prevent algae.

I look forward to seeing how your tank develops once you light it up.
 
LaloJ said:
Are you looking for a live substrate for your tank? In that case I would go for live sand from Nature's Ocean, I used it years ago and it's wonderful. I have never heard of Life Source, I have heard of Miracle mud for years and it works for many.
Click to expand...

What I'm doing is applying the same method I used for my 30 lt planted. Which was 100% successful. The Dark Start method. And trying to introduce as much biodiversity as possible to battle the ugly stage.
It would be ideal to get some sand directly from the sea, but it seems that most beaches in the UK are polluted with sewage. I guess I'll have to wait until I go on vacation to some tropical place. 🙂

I googled AF Life Source, and it's most probably a mineral supplement with denitrifying bacteria and it requires regular dosing. Whatever's in there dies or is consumed and it has to be replenished. People like it though.
What threw me off was that it contains basalt particles, which are magnetic, and could potentially damage pumps and wave makers.

So I guess the only way to increase biodiversity at the moment is by adding phytoplankton, pods, corals, CUC, fish, etc. when the time comes.

seedoubleyou said:
Yes this is true, and I’d assumed this was you’re reasoning.
It just all seems like overkill to me and I don’t have the personal patience for it, so I admire you for that.

My personal style is bottled bacteria, live sand and heavy coral stocking stocking from day one. I also keep my tank cooler at around 22 degrees as I find the cooler temps prevent algae.

I look forward to seeing how your tank develops once you light it up.
Click to expand...

My first SW went downhill because I rushed it, so now I'm taking my time.
Didn't know that cooler temps prevent algae. That is interesting! Is that from personal experience, or you've read it somewhere?
 
Tanksy said:
So I guess the only way to increase biodiversity at the moment is by adding phytoplankton, pods, corals, CUC, fish, etc. when the time comes.
Click to expand...
Yes sadly that’s the best we can do without access to proper live rock. I always try and find the biggest colonies of zoas and mushrooms in my LFS as they tend to come on rock. This helps import that micro fauna and bacteria we need.
I also do not dip corals (this obviously can have its cons).
Tanksy said:
Didn't know that cooler temps prevent algae. That is interesting! Is that from personal experience, or you've read it somewhere?
Click to expand...
It’s common practice in the freshwater world and Aquascaping, Green Aqua run all their tanks cooler as they say it prevents algae. (Or for the most part helps)
I’ve adopted this in my own tank and had zero issues beside diatoms, which you can’t exactly avoid.
 
Hi all,
Tanksy said:
It would be ideal to get some sand directly from the sea, but it seems that most beaches in the UK are polluted with sewage
Click to expand...
I honestly wouldn't worry. You would only need a small inoculum of (slightly muddy) sand. If it was contaminated with coliforms etc. it doesn't really matter, conditions in the tank aren't suitable for them and they aren't going to provide a problem.

cheers Darrel
 
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