# Tank upgrade!!! Lots of pics to come :)



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

Hey there  I'm pleased to inform that the fever of upgrading has hit me already  im not even 2 months into my marine fish keeping yet and im Upgrading from my small 30 gallon to a ........ 70 gallon!!!!! :-D :twisted: I'm going to keep this thread updated with lots and lots of pics as my upgrading continues. the current tank dimensions are 3 feet length by 1' width and 18" height... the new one is going to be 3' in length, 2' in width and 18"in height.So that a whole extra foot to improve my setup :lol: its almost a cube tank. I will be ordering the tank today or tomorrow and it should be ready by Monday :smile: i will then start with the transfer!! I cant wait!! :lol: until then.. here is some pics of the inhabitants of my 30 as it stands today...
My Yellow tail blue damsel.. who i have found to be very mild.. he wont even touch my domino damsel... he minds his own business the whole time. With my Yellow eared angel fish Who is one of the reasons im upgrading tank size....








again my YTBD








My sweet occelaris clown fish.. he seems to be thriving and has grown about half an inch since i got him:smile:








an edited pic of the OC clown I thought id share since it looked so cool:smile:







Stay Tuned for further pics..


----------



## Tazman (Jan 15, 2012)

Great news on tank upgrade, am considering going from a 55g to a 90g. Look forward to seeing the tank as it progresses.

:thumbsup:


----------



## Reefing Madness (Jun 26, 2011)




----------



## FlyingFish47 (Sep 11, 2012)

Is that species of clownfish the same as Nemo?? I never knew until that movie came out that there was more than one kind  I saw a pair of them in a fish shop here, they were really really tiny, I wasn't sure if they were just babies or if there's such a thing as dwarf clownfish. Kinda hope not since it will make me want some!


----------



## Reefing Madness (Jun 26, 2011)

Clownfish for Sale: Clownfish Species for the Home Aquarium


----------



## evanlundberg4 (Aug 27, 2012)

I just got a pair of clowns a few days ago and I love them. They are very interesting little fish. They spend a lot of the day bombing around my tank playing in front of my power heads. I got a 55 gallon tank and while its definitely plenty big enough as time goes on I find myself envisioning a 75 to 100 gallon tank


----------



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

Yes Tazman definitely go for it!!:thumbsup: Didn't you just upgrade from your 20 gallon to your current 55? I look forward to seeing that new upgrade thread of yours... With lots of pics  ;-) 
I ordered the 70 gallon today.. it should be ready by Monday,latest Tuesday. As i promised and i have nothing else to show to y'all pic lovers yet..... here are some pics of India(as seen from my apartment on the 11th floor in pune)-(Where i live,though im actually German)- and where im going to place my tank... 
Hope u like them :-D One of them is me taking a pic of mysely in our huge mirror, I'm wearing my school uniform and yes I'm 14. ;-) :roll:


----------



## Tazman (Jan 15, 2012)

Started at 32 now on a 55 soon to be on a 90g, once I get the new skimmer and other stuff.

Like the pictures


----------



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

Oh hah-aha  Cant wait to see that build thread ;-) Could i see some pics of your 55 for the time being? Pleaseeeee? ;-) And thanks 
Ohh by the way how's your cichlid tank doing? Ill post some pics of my pond soon as my cichs have really grown :smile: Remember the thread about my cichlid pond? I'm talking about the same one.


----------



## Tazman (Jan 15, 2012)

I will get some pictures later on, sure. Not much has changed since I started it. Had an cyano outbreak although that seems to be gone now.

Cichlids are doing great thanks, lost a BN pleco but other than that still all the same.

Will for sure start a build thread once I actually pick up the 90g tank and all the new substrate and live rock, am considering options for lights, Ecotech Radeon XR30 may have to be an early christmas present to myself, either that or a cheaper LED option, not too happy with my T5H0's that I have at the moment.


----------



## SeaHorse (Dec 27, 2010)

Timothy 1998 cremer said:


> Oh hah-aha  Ill post some pics of my pond soon as my cichs have really grown :smile: Remember the thread about my cichlid pond? I'm talking about the same one.


Went looking for your Cichlid pond thread... found it... wow... that looks amazing!! Yes give us an update, want to see more. Do you sell your Cichlids to pet stores? How did you get permission to build such a huge pond at your apartment? 
For one so young.... you are amazing!! (She tries to remember what she was doing at 14? :shock: )


----------



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

Okay thank really look forward to seeing those  Sorry about the pleco :-( okay i will keep an eye out for that build thread  good luck in advance. I too plan on an LED fixture... There are actually some cheap and yet good ones out there ill be getting one soon though i dont know how soon. Ill be sure to tell you how it is if i get it before you do


----------



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

Jakiebabie said:


> Went looking for your Cichlid pond thread... found it... wow... that looks amazing!! Yes give us an update, want to see more. Do you sell your Cichlids to pet stores? How did you get permission to build such a huge pond at your apartment?
> For one so young.... you are amazing!! (She tries to remember what she was doing at 14? :shock: )


Thanks a lot for the praise :-D Ill get you the update by tomorrow  No i dont sell them yet as i have found no pet store willing to buy them at my price, though i do plan on selling some of the babies for a cheap price . We have a 2 floor apartment, the top floor is a whole terrace while the bottom is where we live. We can put whatever we want on the terrace, but there is a certain weight allowed per sq meter though i cant remember it :lol: ;-) The whole thing weighs about 800 kg :shock: 
(She tries to remember what she was doing at 14? :shock: ) -ha ha LOL :lol::thankyou: I spend most of my time tending to my tanks. I get home from school and go to look at my aquarium, My mom is always after me that i should eat something first and then feed the fish but im always like .... First the fish then me :lol:
thanks again for all the kind words

wow! that's a lot of smileys!!


----------



## SeaHorse (Dec 27, 2010)

I am intrigued... what took you to India? If it is ok to ask? So is your huge pond out in the yard area at the apt?


----------



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

No problem at all feel free to ask anything  I have been born in India as my mom and dad moved here 3 years before i was born. My dad started an IT business here in pune along with two other partners from Germany which he was allowed to do because he had completed his PHD and had written a very good one about how computers would affect earth in the future. The company flourished and he decided to sell it and start making a farm- so he went into farming business as he had always wanted. So we founded company- (green tokri) In Hindi, the local language, tokri means "basket" so its called green basket. that's basically why were here  Here are the promised pics of my pond..... And a few of both our cats called Findus and Felix... findus is the bigger one , the brownish one, hes about 4 years old and Felix is about 3. :-D
Enjoy!! 























































































The pond of the cichlids is one the terrace. We dont have a yard here but we own a lot of land on the mountains on the outskirts of pune. We bought land there a long time ago and the land there still just cost like 8 dollars a square foot!!! We built ourselves a farmhouse there and we go there every weekend. Ill show you some pics of the farmhouse too :grin: and thats where all our other ponds are. Pics of those as well soon :grin:


----------



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

As promised Pics of our farmhouse and our other ponds :-D enjoy ... As soon as i start working on my tank ill post pics of that as this seems to be more about me than my tank :lol: some Pics are of weavers nests, they are nesting n the olive tree in our courtyard. Some are of my 150 gallon mixed community pond and others are of the house and plants around it.


----------



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

Sorry couldn't get the pics of the mixed community pond :-( ill post some soon though  I am a certified PADI open water diver and recently we went diving in the red sea so here is a Pic 







For each request for another pic ill show another one. ;-) :-D


----------



## Reefing Madness (Jun 26, 2011)




----------



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

ha-ha thanks reefing  Uhh kk never mind i,m too impatient here are some more pics of my diving... Enjoy!! And let them inspire you and your reef tanks :-D I was certainly inspired :lol:


----------



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

I have a question.... I would like a mangrove tree in my new aquarium... would this be possible? does anyone have any experience or advice? anything helpful greatly appreciated :-D


----------



## Reefing Madness (Jun 26, 2011)

Yea, yoiu can use Mangroves in the tank. You just have to clena the leaves off every once in awhile because thats where it gets rid of the salt from the water. They are actually great for cleaning the water column.


----------



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

Thanks again reefing  Another question. Probably frequently asked but i cant find the answer anywhere... Can i dry seawater to make my own salt? Is sea salt ok to use in the aquarium? Its not the normal table salt im talking about .


----------



## Reefing Madness (Jun 26, 2011)

Now that one I don't know about. Never had that question posed before.


----------



## wake49 (Jul 2, 2008)

Timothy 1998 cremer said:


> Thanks again reefing  Another question. Probably frequently asked but i cant find the answer anywhere... Can i dry seawater to make my own salt? Is sea salt ok to use in the aquarium? Its not the normal table salt im talking about .


You _can_ dry seawater to make your own salt. You will be also taking all the fine particulates and other things that reside in your local seawater. I think it would be a process that wouldn't provide a good yield for the work involved. Why evaporate a 5 gallon container of salt to have enough salt to make 5 gallons of seawater?

As far as the "Sea Salt" that you buy in your grocery store for cooking. I do not think that it is a problem, but it usually is a lot more coarse than the salt you buy at your LFS and could be harder to dissolve. Plus you would have to be absolutely sure that there is no metal content (like from the process of turning it from seawater to salt).

Any reason you don't want to just use the "Instant Ocean" or "Brightwell Aquatics" ready-use salt?


----------



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

KK thanks for clearing those for me  I asked partly because i was curious and partly because i live in India and so there is no reef salt available i guess there is but i can find anywhere to buy it from.. My LFS sells it at a ridiculous price, 200 dollars for 4 kg!!!!!!! so i import it all the way from Germany.


----------



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

Sorry for all the delay in my posting here again :-( i meant to earlier but have been very busy with the new tank... I also started a log for maintenance of the tank. Would really like to know what you think :-D
But let the pictures speak for me......... as pictures tell a thousand words and i dont have the patience or time to write a 1000 words 

I cant seem to see the pics i dont know why they are not appearing Ill try again....


----------



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

Got the pics at last!! Here they are........ and remember i really want feedback!! sorry about the quality.


----------



## ItsKourtneyYoC8 (Sep 13, 2012)

Timothy 1998 cremer said:


> ha-ha thanks reefing  Uhh kk never mind i,m too impatient here are some more pics of my diving... Enjoy!! And let them inspire you and your reef tanks :-D I was certainly inspired :lol:
> View attachment 65153
> 
> 
> ...



Is that a mimic octopus 4th pic from the last??


I loooooove the lionfish pictures! <3


----------



## ItsKourtneyYoC8 (Sep 13, 2012)

Timothy 1998 cremer said:


> Got the pics at last!! Here they are........ and remember i really want feedback!! sorry about the quality.
> View attachment 66696
> 
> 
> ...




That looks awesome!
What size is that? It doesn't look that big!


----------



## DragonFyre14 (Aug 20, 2012)

I could have so much fun with a tank that size.... so jealous.


----------



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

Thanks guys  I´m happy you all like it  sorry about the lighting i´m getting my real light in the 2nd of November....... 120 watts of led 25:30 ratio of blue to white respectively. I cant wait  A question... will this light be OK for corals? the tank is not deep just about 18 inches and the LED fixture has a bout 5500 lumen so can i keep corals? thanks again. And i´m glad you like the pics.


----------



## beaslbob (Oct 17, 2012)

Timothy 1998 cremer said:


> Thanks again reefing  Another question. Probably frequently asked but i cant find the answer anywhere... Can i dry seawater to make my own salt? Is sea salt ok to use in the aquarium? Its not the normal table salt im talking about .


short answer----no.

Yes you can make sodium chloride by dehydrating seawater. But that is not the only thing in our salt mixes.

Various things like calcium carbonate will precipitate out when the concentration reaches a certain point. As many have found out overdosing this things. The problem is calcium carbonate precipitates out because it is not dissolvable in water. So when mixing up the resulting salt those things to no redissolve.

Which is why we have to use kalk (calcium hydorxide), calcium chloride, baking soda (sodium carbonate), epson saltes (magnesium sulfate). In that way we can add the calcium and magnesium from sime chemicals and the carbonate for the baking soda.

my .02


----------



## Reefing Madness (Jun 26, 2011)

When shopping for LED's you want to get at least a unit that says the LED's are 3w each. The 1w and .5w LED's are worth a darn to us.


----------



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

Yes i payed attention to that reefing and i got a fixture with 55 3 watt LED is this OK? an thanks for the info about drying seawater to make my own salt mix beaslbob  also do any of you guys have an ATS running? an advice on this topic would be great


----------



## Reefing Madness (Jun 26, 2011)

That light should do ya fine.
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/...powerful-nitrate-phosphate-remover-diy-18000/


----------



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

WOW i read every word of that thread and saw every picture .....AMAZINGG!:shock2: that an awesome thread thanks so much for that reefing. After i had read the first page i got to work on my DIY scrubber and now all that is left is plumbing it to the tank  i highly recommend everyone to read that thread and then i more highly reccomend to make a DIY scrubber for your tank.... You´ll thank yourself for it and so will your corals and fish!!


----------



## Reefing Madness (Jun 26, 2011)

You can preach it Tim, but every system is different. You should run some kind of sump in order to have a ATS. And then the size of the system and water parameters is going to dictate just how big that ATS is going to be. Don't get me wrong here, those things are great, but, its just like have a sump, its gotta be the right sized one versus your DT water volume, or it will only help, not completely scrub the water.


----------



## ReefTrooper (Jan 29, 2012)

Yes i completely agree with you except for the point about the sump... you don't need one ...here have a look at this diagram







and according to me its a lot easier than a sump too..... 
some examples of DIY scrubbers .... 














































Please do have a look at that thread if you haven't already...  im not trying to prove you wrong or anything, after all you've been in the SW hobby far longer than me 
You can even build a scrubber in your tank underwater!! Or just in a bucket...the material used for the screen can be virtually anything and there are many benefits of having a scrubber.... I myself feel this is a perfect solution to many of the problems reefers are facing and the working of these has been proved 1000´s of times. again i am not speaking against you or anyone else. All im saying is that these are what i think is the perfect solution to many problems facing reefers today.... benefits of an ATS include 

o Allows you to feed very high amounts without causing nuisance algae growth in the tank.

o Can replace waterchanges, IF THE PURPOSE of the waterchange is to reduce nitrate or 
phosphate or algae growth. Otherwise, it does not replace the water change.

o Grows swarms of copepods.

o Increases pH.

o Increases oxygen.

o Will NOT spread algae into the tank. It removes algae FROM the tank.

o There is no odor from the algae (only a slight ocean smell when cleaning it).

o Is very quiet when flowing, similar to a tabletop decorative waterfall.

o Introduces no microbubbles when adjusted.

o Removes ammonia too.

o You can even make a portable bucket! Just unplug the lights, lift up the pump 
out of the tank water, and go put it in your next tank (or your friend's tank).
Don't let the screen dry out though.

o Works in saltwater or freshwater.
* this is all from santa monicas thread


----------



## beaslbob (Oct 17, 2012)

Timothy 1998 cremer said:


> Yes i completely agree with you except for the point about the sump... you don't need one


Just to get really really nerdy and technical a sump by definition is the lowest container in the system. With a refugium, or in this case, an ATS ( and every other container) above the display the display itself by definition becomes the sump. 

And just like any other system one adjustment is to insure that should the drain becomes blocked, that container does not flood. So some use an additional emergency overflow/drain to prevent that from happening.


That said the ats/refugium still has many many benifits to the system.

my .02


----------



## Reefing Madness (Jun 26, 2011)

Tim, without a sump you can't make your ATS big enough to be completely useful. It would look totally gaudy hanging from the top of the tank like your thinking about. The ATS would sit in its own sump, thats how big i am talking about.


----------



## evanlundberg4 (Aug 27, 2012)

I'm prob going to be trying this at some point. Starting to have to battle that green algae on my glass. My snails are getting fat and happy but it needs to be scraped every other day at times. I'm going to try cutting feeding back though first.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------

