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Reefer 350 Planted

Kajpai

Seedling
Joined
18 Nov 2015
Messages
17
Location
Oslo Norway
Hi all.

I've been a keen Reader of this forum for the past 6 months.
It has been very usefull, and I love taking part in others progress through reading their journals.
As I am starting a new tank, I would like to share as well. I hope you like it.

About my interest
When visiting my parents in january, I found my old Aquarium books and started reading them. I remembered how much fun it was, and I got playing with the idea of getting a small tank started again. Last time, I was 16 years old (22 years ago....)

Doing Research is a very fun part of any hobby, and I hit the Internet. I came across Pictures of Incredible planted tanks and I soon realized the Fish would no longer be my main focus. I learned there was a phenomena called Aquascaping, and a new world opened up in terms of research.

First aquasape experience:
A bit too quickly I ended up with a Fluval Edge 12G (Wife-approved design). This was a low-Tech approach with inert gravel at first.
I love Technology and gadgets in general, and I soon started adding and replacing Equipment.
It became more and more a high-Tech approach. I also tore it down to restart with Aquasoil, and other ADA range Products.
Eventually I was running two external filters, TMC 1500 Ultima Grobeam LED, CO2 injection and built a DIY HoB water fall for hiding heater & aeration. (The initial Investment was beeing dwarfed :))

I was very pleased With the healthy growth and Fish. (for being my first attempt).
I've had tons of fun and learned a lot through this setup.

I didn't take many Pictures of it. This Picture shows it as a bit overgrown, but from before the macandra and stellata decided to totally take over the aquarium:
20150622_170813.jpg


In my Research, found some posts warning me about taking the Fluval high-Tech. But I'm stubborn like that, and didn't quite know what to expect....
As the tank matured, growth shot through the roof (almost literally). Doing maintenance inside an Edge is basically a nightmare. Combine that with high-Tech and stem plants, and it eventually lost its charm.

What now:
Sooooo......having moaned about the Edge a bit, I really wanted to move onto a new, bigger and more maintenance friendly Project.
Meanwhile the my cool wife, had also grown to appreciate the hobby.
Now her only demand was this: If you go big, go really big!

I decided to be a bit unconvetional, and go for a reef tank with sump and overflow. I just love the idea of completely hiding away all Equipment. Not to mention the easy filter maintenance. The only thing I had to convince myself about, was being confined to a black background.

And here is the beauty, a Red Sea Reefer 350:
1.jpg


I scaped it this saturday, so it has now been running for 4 days.

Unfortunatly I didn't take Pictures during the hard-scape. But I will upload pictures of the finished scape and equipment in the following post.

Kaj
 
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And here is the finished scape:
Edit: Only finished With the plants I had on hand, I definately will add to and tweek the background planting. I will also add tons more Anubias in the foreground (bought everything they had in)

Day 1:
2.jpg

3.jpg


Day 4
The Macandra from the Edge has already grown a few cm.
4.jpg


Here is a few views of the filter/Equipment:
equipment_1.jpg

equipment_4.jpg

equipment_2.jpg

Here is the ATO resevoirs in the side cabinet:
equipment_5.jpg
 
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This is the tank I would really love (though I would run it low tech). How noisy is the sump overflow?

It is really really quiet. The reefer overflow can be dialed in to match Your Return pump perfectly. In fact, the only thing i can hear is vibrating noise from the Return pump itself. I intend to fix that somehow :)
 
1 word to describe how im feeling, Jealous :p
That stand is amazing + the sump and auto ferts is something i could only dream of.
The piece of wood you have in-front of the intake is drawing my eyes to the intake, i would move it over to the left and add some long plants there like jungle val to hide it. But of-course this could be all part of creating your masterpiece
and i am by no means "good" at aquascaping, just giving my opinion :D
Love the scape overall!
GJ man
 
1 word to describe how im feeling, Jealous :p
That stand is amazing + the sump and auto ferts is something i could only dream of.
The piece of wood you have in-front of the intake is drawing my eyes to the intake, i would move it over to the left and add some long plants there like jungle val to hide it. But of-course this could be all part of creating your masterpiece

Thanks:) But you wouldn't envy my bank balance ;) I did go overboard on this project, but I view it as an investment. Experience with the Edge showed that I might as well go all in, as opposed to the everlasting marginal upgrades, that only fills my storage.

Agree on root placement for now. I imagined the high root would help hide the intake chamber, but instead it draws you to it. I need some training when it comes to creating and positioning focal points.

There is sufficient space behind the rock in the center to get decent growth between the intake&root. I think this will counter the effect somewhat.
There is also a lot of space in the background of the right side. This is also where I ended up just putting down the last plants I had.

I will take some top-down pictures, to showcase the available space, and hopefully get some recommendations on suitable plants ;)

Photos taken with my Samsung S5 is a let down in any case, and as a sub-project I will finally learn how to operate my wife's camera.
The water is now crystal clear (you could see some residue of a GH-booster in the last pictures), and I should be able give a better impression of how it looks IRL.

Kaj
 
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Thanks for the positive feedback all :)

Feel free to suggest changes, as it is a work in progress. I am inexperienced with creating depth&perspective in a tank of this scale.

I have had tons of inspiration from beautiful scapes on this site (Pedro Rosa, George F, Luis Cardoso, Mark Evans, Stu Worrall and many more),
But when it is time for your own scape, sitting there with a heap of stones & roots , its definitely not as easy as those guys make it seem!

I forgot it in the first post, but thanks for the inspiration anyways!! ;)

Kaj
 
How are you finding (or keeping) CO2 levels with using a sump ?

I haven't run CO2 With a sump before, and only have data for a short amount of time.

This is a Reading from the PH-probe the last ~24 hours:
Capture_PH.PNG


As you can see I get a 0.8 PH drop from CO2, even though the probe is placed in the pump Chamber (where most of the off-gassing has already occured).
I might move the probe right next to the overflow pipe, to get a more accurate reading of the tank ph level. It will also give more insight into just how much gass is lost trough the sump when comparing to current data.

I'm running with 2 bps (as far as I can tell). The JBL bubble Counter releases quite large Bubbles, but it shouldn't be a crazy amount?
 
The reefer overflow is tuned to create minimal noise, and i think that translates into much less splashing and air Bubbles.
This in turn should translate into less off-gassing and might be an explanation.
We also have super soft tap water, with very low KH. (I raised the PH 0.6 with a KH+ solution to buffer it somewhat, prior to these numbers)

It is stille gonna be fun to see what levels are when moving the probe.
 
The UP New Inline CO2 Atomizer also seems to be doing an awsome job. Ultra fine mist that isn't too displeasing to the eye.

BTW here is the Complete Equipment list:

Tank And Cabinet - Red Sea Reefer 350 1200x50x50 (waterline)
Light - 2 x GHL Mitras LX 6xxx
CO2 - UP New Inline CO2 Atomizer and Dual Stage Regulator with Advance Swiss Solenoid and SMC Valve from CO2Art
Substrate - JBL Proscape Soil and Volcanic mineral + powder, ADA La Plata sand & Gravel
Ferts - Automatic dosing of EI Daily
Filtration -
Built-in Sump, Filter foam/socks for mechanical and Eheim BioMech & Sustrate Pro for biological.
Sirculation Pump - Tunze Silence 1073.050 & Tunze Silenze 150 (Permanently on to maintain filter sirculation when doing maintenance)
Computer and dosing - GHL Profilux 3.1T EX with Slave doser. Also Controls powerbar, ATO, heater, lights and pumps.
Heater - 2 x Eheim Jaeger
 
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Cant count mine on my sump driven 200lt
That would be expected for sumped system, the CO2 losses can be quite large.

This is my CO2 usage of grams per day for 180litres on 8 hours a day. Drop checker is green to yellow.
Grams%20per%20day%202_zpszu952xxl.png
 
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