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Viewed: 275 -- Replies: 21 | ||||||||
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| Posted | Results of Skimming |
| 06-02-2007 18:05 by yanton |
Previously I tried to run my 6x2x2 without a skimmer, relying on increased water changes, plenty of caulerpa, and live sponges. I tried this natural system. Well, I got myself a new skimmer. I situated it 'in tank'. The skimmer is an Aqua Medic Turboflotor Multi SL. It is totally silent in running. No leaks, as it is 'in tank'. I placed rockwork around the unit.
The point of this thread is to show the results with just one of the soft leather corals. |
| 06-02-2007 18:06 by yanton |
Here is the picture of the finger leather coral before the skimmer was added. I thought it looked OK at the time ...
 |
| 06-02-2007 18:06 by yanton |
but just 10 days after the skimmer was added:
 |
| 06-02-2007 18:06 by trik |
Not |
| 06-02-2007 18:06 by yanton |
...
 |
| 06-02-2007 18:07 by yanton |
so, I am a convert to skimming and would recommend this model to anybody. |
| 06-02-2007 18:07 by yanton |
see this close up of the polyps:
 |
| 06-02-2007 18:08 by trik |
thats better , well a little any way.
the not was after the first pic, but u beat me to it with the second one, sorry.  |
| 06-02-2007 18:51 by tasha |
wow i would love to set up a marine tank but it seems very costly |
| 06-02-2007 19:20 by Red hook |
tasha be like our boggy and get parents to spend all there money |
| 06-02-2007 19:37 by wayne |
yanton that looks like a familiar coral well at least your skimmers working proper now |
| 06-02-2007 20:37 by yanton |
wayne, yes thats the coral i got from you. its looking great. |
| 07-02-2007 10:39 by Alan |
I have been impressed with the eco system method nut I have always been reluctant to go completely skimmerless hence I have a small internal airdriven skimmer.
Just a lateral though on this the improvement in polyp extension might not be down to a reduction in disolved organics it could be down to an increase in oxygen content in the water. I used to run a really pants skimmer it was a seaclone absolute toilet it was never got any skimmate from it but it had plenty of bubbles for gas exchange. I turned the thing off because I wasn't getting anything and all my corals closed up so turned back on all corals openned still no skimmate. Moral of the story skimmers are more important than people realise for boosting oxygen levels driving off CO2 and maintaining ph than people realise they are not just about removing protein. I'm an advocate of the eco system method but I do believe skimmers have a very important place even in eco set ups. Incidentally what was the water turnover like pre skimmer. An eco system needs a very high turnover to be effective pressumably down to the gas exchange reason. I would say a minimum of 20 x total tank volume per hour should be used in the eco method but the higher the better. |
| 07-02-2007 10:45 by Alan |
Tasha cost is relative to tank size.
If you go for a shallow tank you will not need the expensive lighting a bank of T8 tubes would be sufficient up to about 15" depth. You would need live rock equating to 1 kilo for every 2 imp gallons of tank capacity. Live sand to a depth of about an inch. A refractomer don't bother with hydrometers they are pants. A good quality salt best I have used is TMC pro reef the polyps extension is greatly improved with this over reef crystals kent and the other one made by the reef crystals lot. However the calcium and alk needs to be boosted slightly this is not expensive I use calcium advantage and builder made by seachem lasts me ages. In a shallow tank you would be resticted with possible tanks mates to the smaller species but perc clowns firefish gobies a dwarf angel would all be possible. The fish in my set up are all suitable for a shallow tank aside from the yellow one thats a fox face they can get quite big.  |
| 07-02-2007 11:00 by Alan |
The orange and purple one is a coral beuty had him for about 7 years.
The 2 fish above the coral beauty are black perc clowns those to the right level with the percs are emperor cardinals below that there is a purple blur thats a pyjama wrasse and the big yellow one is a fox face. That tank is a bit sparse at the moment as I recently rehomed a coral that used to fill the tank it got totally out of hand at its biggest before I started fragging it it was 2 foot by 18 inches it touched the back and front of the tankand would have completely filled this picture at the bottom right you can see numerous frags. The tank will be mainly housing button polyps and mushrooms once I get some additional funding, another good fish for a shallow tank would be green chromis I will be adding a shoal of 4 to my tank. If you go for something like a 48 x 15 x 15 you would have 39 gallons to play with. Costs would be as follows: Refractometer £40 Bucket of salt £60 TMC pro reef from Sevenoaks Tropical Marine 20 kilos of live rock £189 for premium grade from stm about £230 for their ultra grade stuff. Skimmer could go for the wave skimmer sold by stm very similar to the v2skim by TMC I suspect the design is licenced to wave by stm. £90. Test kits £40 roughly for Alk PH Calcium phosphate nitrate. Lighting from 4 conventional T8's 2 marine white 2 marine blue £60 for the 4 starters and about £40 for the 48" tubes roughly. Grazers 20-30 turbo snails 15 cerith and 15 nas or scrub the nas and cerith and go for 20-30 turbos and a similar number of reef safe hermits. Sand sifting starfish. About £80 for all this buy in bulk. Filtration a small external canister go for an eheim classic rated appropriately for a vecton2 8watt uv sterilizer this manages pathogens. As far as media in the external just phosphate remover nothing else. |
| 07-02-2007 12:18 by Alan |
Fish to go for would be easy stuff like a coral beauty pyjama wrasse green chromis (not a damsel though they are evil) pyjama cardinals/or a pair of emperor cardinals neon gobies fridmani basslet anything small really.
Corals could be mushroom anemones button polyps and other easy stuff such as the finger coral above or leather corals anything easy. Inverts could be lysmata wurdermererereremeerry I can nevel spell the last bit basically the true peppermint shrimp these in my view are vital as they prevent aiptasia taking a hold 3 of these would be sufficient you could also add 3 or 4 cleaner shrimp a blue linkia starfish and perhaps a pencil sea urchin to stop coralline algae getting out of hand and impeding denitrification. You would also need a couple of stream pumps I would suggest 2 of the smallest marea pumps one at each end of the tank they are £17.99 each. In fact instead of the canister and uv sterilizer you could go for an internal uv sterilizer from rockettrading the larger model costs £54 which is a considerable saving. In total aside from fish shrimps and corals the set up would cost you something like £700 it sounds like a lot but it is everything you would need to get a good easy to maintain reef tank. I would suggest a few good books and a magazine subscription too the best thing about marine is the research it can be fascinating. |
| 07-02-2007 12:23 by Alan |
Sorry I hijacked the thread a bit yanton I think Tasha was thinking a marine tank could cost thousands to set up one thing I forgot was RO water either get your own RO unit from somewhere like RO man or buy it from a LFS in the long run it is cheaper to get your own you would also need 2 large identical containers for water changes one for mixing the salt water in the other for removing an equal amount of water to what you want to add this is important if you are to keep salinity stable. |
| 07-02-2007 12:58 by wayne |
alan are you writing a book by any chance??? thats got to be 2 chapters just thier |
| 07-02-2007 13:23 by Alan |
I know I know when I start writing I try and cover all angles its a habit I don't mean to write essays they just spew out of my head. |
| 07-02-2007 13:53 by wayne |
sorry alan i was only kidding , it what i get up for in the morning to read what you have put it saves me 3.40 a month , no need to buy pfk |
| 07-02-2007 15:44 by nige |
excelent skimmer yanton, i run the same (mite have been me fecomending it to you?) but its silent enough for my bedroom and pulls off pleanty of good dark skimate |
| 07-02-2007 15:47 by Alan |
Fair enough Wayne |
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