Tank of the Month - August '06

[madmac]

Congratulations. Thats a very inspiring setup.

Whats this for, the lighted squares on the tank's bottom? :

[cmc5dc]

I love the aquascape! Any particular reason you went to a modified Bali method over calcium reactor and Nielson reactor??

[Bebo77]

So nice.. my jaw dropped when i first saw this tank in the large tank forum.. congrats in TOTM... it is well deserved....

[Kluver]

WOW! I am so jealous. Do u maintain the tank yourself or do you have someone do it for you?

[RalfP]

Hi all,
thank you so much for your overwhelming judgement and kind words.
I am still supprised about the reactions I got after posting the first pics.
Feels great ;-)

Well, let's see if I get all questions right and do not overlook something, please remind me if
so.

@panic
regarding the jellyfish I am still gathering information, regarding different species' needs in the
different development stages (changeing temperature etc.).
They do not live so long, so one will have to breed them.
Maybe I start someday with local species from the Northern Sea, being able to eat small Artemia, not having to breed Brachionus etc.

@jadran
I have some other pics here, but they have been taken by the architects and I don't know
if I am allowed to show them public. I think so, but its good behaving to prior ask them,
what I did now. Let's see what they'll reply.

@dougie
It would be so great to go diving in the Great Barrier Reef...
Unfortunately it's so far away from here, digging straight down I should come out somewhere
near. Northern sea is far too muddy and the Baltic Sea thats near, I do not visit very often for diving. Nothing like coralreefs, still nice but only 10 degree Centigrade (50 F) in Summer at
normal diving depth. 7mm half-dry suite is minimum .
So I prefer looking into my reef most time ;-).

@Angel*Fish
I'll show your posting to my whife, who promised to make a vid some weeks ago.
Now she'll have to do it!

@jnarowe
Think you're right regarding the Kole.
It's leaving the anthias and sixline wrasses alone, but from time to time attacs all others.
If they resist, it leaves them alone and tries again in some weeks.
That one goby was only trying to take refuge, what was it's fault.

@madhouse
there is a bigger version as 3396x2260 jpg of the picture at beginning of this thread at http://www.cashh.de/gallery2/main.ph...g2_itemId=2292 .
Pls. drop me a pm if u need an uncompressed format (Canon RAW / tiff / whatever).

@Ciaran
like Skipper wrote, it's the UV, from Deltec 4*34watts.
It's connected directly at a bypass of the external water-movement pumps and not in the
sump. I was told, that one is getting best results if connecting directly to the tanks water
and not in the sump.
The Deltec UV was the only one I could get here with quartz-glas bulbs and quartz-glas bulb-containers.
Normal glas is filtering UV partly and most UVs here use normal glas.

@tentacles
Lights are 23cm (9") away from the water. Just enough to prevent water splashes
hitting the reflectors of the T5.

@madmac
wrong question ;-)
what was added were the black stripes... the white is the 2" birch multiplex board on the steel
frame, the black stripes is one side (down) self adhering foam of a neoprene like material.
The foam was added to prevent little dirt particles (sand/stones/etc) from giving point
load to the tanks bottom. The bottom was made of 3 parts, resting on the foam stripes.

@cmc5dc
I liked the idea of the "Balling"-method. Beeing able to adjust Ca/Mg/Alk. indep. simply by
reprogramming the dosing-pumps.
In the past I used a pH-regulated Ca-reactor with some Mg in it.
Well it worked, but I've had some issues like changing waterflow due to blocked up in-/outlets
and wasn't able to control the parameters independently.
Having low Ca but high KH and playing around with pH,waterflow to adjust wasn't that easy.

@Kluver
The only help I had is that described in the TOTM article, during buildup.
After the point of bringing the reef-base-structure in, no one else has had its fingers in or around it ;-).
I am doin' coralreefing for about 14 years now and will not let anyone steal the fun I have with it .

Thanks again for the privilege to share and discuss my setup with you.
Ralf

[NexDog]

Congrats Ralph. Words can hard express what I want to say so I won't bother.

[dp122098]

WOW!!!! This this setup is off the chain. I wonder how much the system pimp him to get it done?

[SEAFLOWERS]

simply amazing!!

[cward]

That is a very beautiful tank. I love the space that you have for your corals to grow.

[dc]

Another breathtaking tank! I really like the way you've done the wall, it really looks nice.

[newreefbishop]

I loved the setup and was amazed at all the work that was put into it. I am dreaming of the day I will be able to build a tank like that....

[laomedon]

Amazing planing skills, and of course precision not to mention other skills needed to build and maintain such beautiful tank. Congratulations Ralf you did it.

[Oysterman]

Hallo Ralf,
Glückwunsch zum "tank of the month"
das Aquarium ist einfach der Hammer.

ich wünsche dir noch viel Freude daran !

Gruß

Steffen


[ I just said "congratulation" - basically ]

[Habib]

Auch Glückwunsche aus Holland.

[alien9168]

i think its awsome that we were just talking about this tank as an awsome...totm quality... tank.

And it seems that it found its way to totm imediatly. AWSOME.

and once again...GREAT WORK!!!!!

[Ti]

really nice!

[fishy555]

love your webcam that reef tank made me pee myself

[dudeguy]

Could you describe what device you use for an automatic feeder and what your process is for that? Do you do anything to keep the food from floating away and being sucked down the overflow?
How long are you able to be away from home while keeping the tank running properly and all of your inhabitants fed?

[kinerson]

Yes please explain more on the feeding. I'm considering trying some Anthias but need to know more about feeding them as I'm at work all day which makes feeding them 4+ times a days challenging.

[NewSchool04]

Could you explain how you accomplished your aquascaping? The rock stacking, etc.
Thank you and congrats on TOTM!

[Shroom King]

Wow!!!! I must say again...

[GoblinFish]

Congratulation!! that is for sure one dream tank that one day we would all love to have!!!!

AMAZING!

[RalfP]

Hi again,
I am really not sure if I deserve your overwhelming praise.
Well, I decided to take it anyway ;-)).
To the german writing congratulators: Herzlichen Dank für Euer Lob!

@dudeguy, kinerson
How do I feed?
The autofeeder I use is a Grässlin Rondomatic (don't know if there is something alike in the US,
but any other will do, I think. http://www.shop-meeresaquaristik.de/...ondomatic.html shows one, when used, it's mounted with the disc horizontally.
The Grässlin has 28 partitions on a disc with about 3.5ml each. You can "program" it like an old analog timer and tell when it should release the content of the next partition.
The device itself is about 10" away from the water and food falling on the water near a
water-outlet from one of the water-movement pumps.
That works quite well and food is caught by the moving water before getting down to the sump.
(It works better with pellets, than with flakes).

Normally I feed the prior frozen food once in the morning before leaving home, one time
after coming home in the afternoon and a third time one hour before light is switched off.
The Grässlin feeds the flake/pellet mix 2 times during the day.
The lightcycle is adapted to my "uptime", so it turns on half an hour before I leave, which
gives me the chance to have enough time in the afternoon to look at it and feed.
The blue light that turns on before, and turns off after all the others is on for 14 hours
(no problems with coral and fish).

The plancter replacements I feed 2 times a day, in the morning prior to turning light on and
in the evening shortly before light is turned off (Anthias eat also the Zooplancter replacement).
AminoAcids are dosed after light went off.

Of course I can't do it each and every day like this, but most of the time.
If I am away for some days, the Grässlin feeds 4 times a day and other food is simply not
fed. I did that for about 6 days in the past which worked without problems.
All fish but the Copperband love to eat flakes/pellets and the Copperband is getting enough from the LR for that time.
I have SMS notification at the IKS for temperature/waterlevel/pH/poweroutage and my webcam which is all accessable with my mobile.
For that I feel ok to leave for about a week (6 days) without having anyone looking after the tank.
The Balling solutions are enough for max. 3 weeks if containers are full.
After a week the filtersocks etc. will have to be replaced.


@NewSchool04
About the aquascaping:

The reef mainly consists of reef-pylons, made by taking LR plates, drilling a hole in them
and stacking on a PVC-pipe.
Having different diameters on plates, this will result in the middle 2/3 of the tank. 4 1/2 pylons, which are interconnected by some extra plates,
which are put on the existing and secured by cable ties to give more stability.

For the right and left end of the tank, there are PVC angels (90 degree) secured with
silicone to the tank itself. Using cable ties to attach a PVC-pipe to it, this is the
basis to tie (cable ties again) plates and stones to them.

At the basis of the pylons and other reefstructure, there are simply LR placed to get
a more stable and more 3D view. Looking like they are somehow connected as a reef.

In my view its importand to have something high in front of other not that high things
to generate a 3D - deep - view feeling.
We tried (I read in a Bonsai/Japanese gardening book about) to arrange all things
in triangles (from topview and also frontview with different heights) to get a nice view.
I think diy books about japanese gardening are a great source of ideas on how to
place rockwork/plants (LR/coral) in a way humans like.


Thanks again,
Ralf

[NewSchool04]

Thank you Ralf and good luck with your tank in the future!

[o2bnh20]

here we go again...another huge tank that's beyound anyone in his right mind range of cost. 870 g, why not just put an inground aguarium in the living room and go swimming in there