Aquarium Lighting - FLOURO's "lighting for thought"

I have been running the planted tank for a while now and, I have been unhappy with the plant growth - I double checked my flouro's and, they were tri-phosphor t8's. On previous planted tanks I have used say a 3 foot flouro with predominantly a blue spectrum + a 3 foot bulb with a predominantly red spectrum. So Basically never used tri-phosphor t8's by Phillips or NEC before however, was told they were good for aquariums.
Now after doing a fair bit of research I have discovered that these particular tri-phosphors are very high in the green spectrum of light therefore, appearing brighter to the human eye. For fish only aquariums this wouldn't pose a problem however, for planted tanks such as mine this is not beneficial as the plants absorb predominantly the red spectrum for growth.

Basically the best type of bulb for planted aquariums which I might add aren't hugely popular from what I can tell in Australia (or sydney at least) are the flouro's which are high in the red spectum of light + blue also .... but, red being more important.

Both bulbs are 30 watt - therefore giving my tank a total of 60 watts of lighting to 120 litres of water = 2 watts per liter which should be very sufficient for a planted tank.

Go check out the following links for some more information on lighting:

http://watershed3.tripod.com/lighting.html
http://aquaticconcepts.thekrib.com/Articles/AFM_Lighting.htm

20000k 150 watt + some corals etc

As you may have read it is important to replace your Metal Halide(MH) bulbs every 12 - 18 months as the wavelengths of light (colour) tend to shift therefore, not giving your corals etc etc the best spectrum possible. When I first started this blog I added a 150 watt MH with I believe a 13000K bulb. I purchased the tank + accessories of eBay so wasn't 100% sure how long it had been since the bulb had been changed so decided to purchase a new bulb.

There are a number of different types of MH bulbs available i.e. in terms of Kelvins. The standards ones you are able to find in OZ include:

- 6000K (High-end planted tanks - gives your aquarium a very yellow looking light)
- 13000K (Marine aquarium - with some corals however, lacks blue wavelengths therefore, corals won't look as nice - probably not the best for Small Polyp Stony {SPS} corals - white looking light )
- 16000K (a mix between the white and blue spectrum provided between 13000K and 20000K - would work well for reef or coral free aquariums - crisp white light)
- 20000K (This brings out the best colouring in your corals + gives your water a colour similar to deep ocean .... blueish lighting)

Everyone is different and prefers different lighting for their aquariums but, I would suggest you go for the crisp white light as a minimum for your tank if using MH's.
Another reason that I did change my lighting to 20000K bulb was because, I noticed that my SPS corals weren't doing as well with the old 13000K bulb. I recently bought a Acropora and after putting it in my tank it appeared to go a tinge of brown (Itc ould just be due to a conditioning period....). I have read and, I don't know how plausible this but, when the wavelength of light drops off the Zooxanthellae in the corals move forward i.e. into the top layer of the coral and therefore the coral loses its colour and, goes a brown colour due to zooxanthalae being brown (Not sure this has been proven either way). I can say however, that after changing the bulb the Acropora and Montipora's colouring improved.

So have attached a couple of pictures so you can compare:

Nice Flouro Orange Fungi

Bi-Colour Hammer Coral (LPS)

2 x Monti Plates
Acropora (was a dark brown when I fist put it in the tank but, now is starting to colour back up)

Go check out this link

Was doing some research on Acropora's and found this great link:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=180538

I am currently running 1 x 150 watt 13,000K Aqua Medic Metal Halide (MH). All the soft corals are loving the lighting but, my acro doesn't seem to be responding as it is a little brown (not bright blue as when I first bought it). The MH I purchased off eBay second hand so just to be safe I think it would be time to change the bulb.

Will update once new lighting is in.

White spot out-break (and I have corals!!!)

I am writing this blog because, most saltwater enthusiast will have problems with White spot/Ich at one stage or another and, if you have corals sometimes you don't have a spare quarantine tank etc available.... The only option can be to treat the fish in the reef tank.

So when I first set-up my saltwater tank I didn't have a cooling mechanism set-up at all and because, its summer here we can get 40 degree days; leading to 30 degree's inside the house (which is fully tiled). The saltwater tank did at one stage get up to 29 degrees and, I think it was what had caused the outbreak of the white spot i.e. maybe accelerating the growth of the parasites.
The temperature over this period did fluctuate from 25 - 29 degrees all in one day - not the best for any tank.
So anyway the only fish to get the white spot was the sailfin tang - from my research I believe that tangs do seem to be pretty sensitive to changes in aquarium water parameters so are good indicators to something being off. I did know that the temperature fluctuations were no good for the fish however, had no real way to fix this that was within budget at the time. However, I did a few days later come up with a solution i.e. attach a fan to the inside of the stand that would continually cool down water in the mini-reef and, now the temp stays at around the 25 degree mark (a cheap solution if you can't get your hands on a chiller or a fridge).

The sailfin started off with small little specks of white spot and, eventually did start to flick itself off the rocks and, I also did notice the blue wrasse flick itself once or twice and, maybe have one or two white specks appearing.

Now if you were researching the ways to cure white spot you may have heard about putting the fish into a freshwater bath (raising the pH to the correct level - then bathing the fish for a few minutes ... I have also heard of bathing it for a few seconds and, then doing this again in 4-5 hours). Now that was the original plan however, the sailfin was way to quick to catch and, the only way I would have caught him was if I demolished the whole tank first! so that plan fizzled out.

I rang around a few shops and, no one experienced enough new how to cure the white spot without hurting the corals..... So for a week or so I kept all parameters as prefect as possible - the sailfin or any other of the fish for that matter had any problems eating. And, my second plan was to make sure the water quality etc was great and, maybe the white spot would cure itself. But this didn't work :<

FINALLY i found a product that was coral safe called "Myxazin" and, treated the tank with this. It leaves a little green tinge (not bad like malachite green more like Bactonex) to the water and, doesn't seem to bother the corals at all and, I can attest to this. So its been two days now (48hrs of treatment) and, the white spot seems almost gone and, the cleaner wrasse seems to be having a field day picking off the parasite from the sailfin tang.

Lesson - make sure you maintain a stable water temperature.
Also please note none of the corals were adversly harmed by this misadventure :>

There is a link to Myxazin on the top right of the blog :>

planted tanks - some interesting links for diagnosing defiencies in your plants...

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm


https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidgEmzJRtFfCt3SS_wXhJPaB9EekZYTD7YqmvAnKctnFYniVYgaikvi1weWr2VkFK__vyWxfaFE8BfLrFuRfoHIBtZrpgC1qICXYWJbNku3eo05hOWjVQgLP5g2K7lU_3BKuWXxCwSLr0G/s1600-h/3591814040_bc03c264a5_o.jpg

And, just when I thought I was done..... Freshwater Update

As you can see from my previous freshwater blog post my freshwater tank was looking a bit bare.... I was hoping I could just keep cutting the plants and, replanting however, this was taking a bit longer than I hoped. So I popped down to my local fish shop - fishbowl aquarium in carlton NSW where ken (the owner) has a bit of a fetish and, good knowledge of planted tanks and, quite a nice display tank also. I had previous purchased a whole bunch of plants + crystal red shrimp after seeing his amazing display - this is what inspired me to go this way rather than having a discus tank.... the shrimp really are a surpirse once you notice they are there :> just when you think you have seen and, kept it all something else inspires your interest.

SO I went and, purchased the following four plants:

- 1 x Amazon Sword

- 1 x Lace Fern

- 2 x Rotala Rotundifolia " Colorata"

- 2 x Ludwigia Brevides

I purchased these to fill out the background of the tank and, over the next few weeks I hope to fill out the foreground with some short-hair grass and, others types of small plants. Also, purchased 4 x Otocinclus Arnoldi fish (sounds like autostinkus) which are really good for planted tanks and, they seem to be getting stuck into the algae in my tank which at one stage was growing a bit wild. Apparently cherry red shrimp also love algae - so should make a good combo with the Otoclinclus.

2 x Otoclinclus + 2 x neons

And, now some vid's

saltwater with addition of some new fishies

I have just added a cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) and Green Wrasse (Haliochoeres Chloropterus)to my three foot saltwater. The Green Wrasse has the most amusing behaviour when scared.. it buries itself in the sand and, then doesn't emerge till the next morning. I believe it also does this when sleeping - really peaceful with the rest of its tank mates.

The cleaner wrasse seems to be widely available in all the shops at the moment and, this particular one has had no problems eating brine shrimp and, slowly picking parasites off it's tank mates. It is quite an amusing fish to watch as it swims around constantly and frantically. I have done a bit of research on this particular fish and, it seems as though there existence in the wild is become threatened by the aquarium hobby :<>


My tank is really starting to flourish and, some of the corals are even growing back over old wounds (i.e. as purchased in the aquarium store) - the LPS corals all seem to be getting longer membranes growing around the actual coral polyps. I have attached a few up close pictures of the corals below. The Xenia has sprouted some new colonies that seem to be growing all over the place - not sure how the iodine additive does aid the growth of the soft coral however, the Xenia sp. appears to be growing super well.

The addition of some new corals

I found a aquarium store in my local area that was moving shop and, as a result had a whole bunch of corals they were trying to get rid of. I snatched about 5 montiporas + a polyp coral and another of which I am unsure of the name of at present all for $60.00. Admittedly they apparently haven't been paying a huge amount of attention to these species so they looked a little lacking but, they have made a great addition to my tank (all a similar red colour). I have attached a few pics and, I am quite chuffed about how far the tank has come since I started it 5 weeks ago. The funny thing is my skimmer isn't skimming that much .... yet nitrates, phosphates, ammonium, nitrite all remain at 0 (except for nitrate). I have been feeding the fish/corals rotifers and brine shrimp.

above is a picture of the Frogspawn coral growing really nicely (very easy coral to keep in your tank) and, also attached a picture of the polyp corals I picked up (Zoanthus sp.) which also seem like quite an easy species to get growing well. I have of course been adding a trace elements + calcium and iodine.

Peace out

3 foot salt fishy

So as promised I wanted to attach a video - I have added another 8 1/2 kg of live rock + one piece had a small pulse coral colony. I also added a mushroom which I hope to propagate and, help grow all over the tank. As you can see the corals have now all opened up; I have been adding Fuel (a.k.a. trace supplements) + feeding them rottifers and brine shrimp and, the occasional dose of Iodine, calcium and sera coral food. I went away for about 5 days and, when I came back the pulse coral seem to have died a bit.... I suspect the protein skimmer had sucked all the nutrients out of the water i.r. trace elements and so it started to die. However, it seems to be recovering well - once I got back home I turned the protein skimmer off and, dosed the tanks with trace supp's etc etc and, all the corals have never looked better.

So on a compatibility scale all the corals seem to be quite happy together and, as a guide are quite easy to take care of - Although I have read that the pulse corals are a little more difficult to care for.

Water chem:
Ammonium : 0
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate : 10 - 20 ppm
Calcium : 440ppm

Freshwater Tank

So as per my first post I was in the process of re-arranging my whole 3 foot freshwater set-up. I decided that instead of Discus I would opt for a planted tank with some crystal red shrimp etc.

I took all the Cichlids in to a local Aquarium store except for the two Pakistani Loaches (I have grown fond of them) and, traded them in for a bag of new substrate a whole bunch of plants (all the plants you can see in the picture) and, about 13 neon's. I haven't introduced the shrimp as yet as I would like to make sure the tank settles as I needed to change a fair bit of water plus remove all the sand I had in the previous tank (i.e. bit worried about the microbial load). In the picture you can see a whole bunch of logs (which originally were one log and, I have broken into 3 pieces) which I aim to tie some Moss around with some fishing line and, get it growing.. I have this vision in my head of a great looking tank and, hopefully I can turn that into a reality. It will also give the shrimp some great hiding places which currently don't really exist. I have been adding both Potassium and another type of fertilizer as from what I understand some of these aquatic plants are quite expensive.

So at the moment I am kinda having a bit of competition between my saltwater and freshwater to see which one I can make look better....

Sil3ntj

Introduction of some new corals for the 3 foot

Tested water chemistry 23/11/09

Ammonium : 0

Nitrite : 0

Nitrate : 10 ppm

Calcium : 420 ppm

pH : 8.2 - 8.4

kH : 170 - 196

phosphate : 0 ppm ( I have been using a phosphate reducing product)

So There was a sale on in a shop in western Sydney (3 corals for $90.00) and, I grabbed myself a 3 x LPS coral (one is a frogspawn type, tree/polyp coral and the third I am not sure of the name but, will update the name later on).

Cataphyllia (4x2x2)

Added the cataphyllia to the tank its the purply green type (a.k.a. Jardinei from what I can tell - but, correct me if i'm wrong). Have placed in the mid to low part of the tank and, turned of one of the power heads which would have been blowing directly onto it. There are two power heads in the tank and, both are situated behind the live rock at the bottom of the tank blowing water onto the front glass window ... might not be ideal for the cat.

Updated 3 foot Saltwater

So have after 3 weeks added some corals - the turtle hair grass is still growing however, no where near as strong when I first started but, it surviving. The Damsel and Yellow Chromis seem absolutely fine if not more relaxed and healthier. I have been feeding them some Brine shrimps + also fed the corals with some trace elements and Coral food in the liquid form. The two corals I have put in the tank are a polyp coral (a.k.a tree coral) and a pulse coral; however, I haven't seen it pulsing yet and, have seen another tank with this coral without it pulsing but, it still grows very well. I am super amazed that everything is doing so well however, I guess the use of cycled live rock does the trick + the loads of bacteria i.e. the store bought kind I have also added a pebble star which I think looks great in the tank.

The Polyps aren't fully opened in this picture however, they have since opened all the way .

Updated 4x2x2

So Just wanted to post a few pictures of the corals after they had opened up. I have now added a Cataphyllia also to the tank and, will post pictures shortly - however, all in all the tank is looking awesome. You have two pictures of the Kenya tree now fully opened up and, one picture of the Hammer Coral (there was a polyp coral right next to it and, once I moved that it seemed to open up way more)

3 foot Saltwater set-up (2 weeks old)

So I have just started a 3 foot saltwater set-up at home. Basically I bought the cabinet, light and protein skimmer along with about 15-20kg of live rock from eBay (as one + I bought a new Dalbard 3 foot tank as the previous one was very very scratched i.e. the one that came with the cabinet from eBay). I bought a 2 foot mini-reef (second hand) - got the bulk head and the overflow/inlet pipe for the mini-reef cut out by a aquarium store. I have bought some extra live rock and already added two fish after 1 week .... however, the live rock was well cured and, I dosed the tank with culture everyday.

Set-up

* Aqua-medic 150 watt halogen (brilliant!)

* standard 3 foot Dalbard tank - really good quality tank. A great feature is in the lids as they are cut smaller than the tank width and, you add a plastic sleeve which covers the gap and, can be shifted in order for the cables to go through i.e. no more trying to cut/break the glass to fit tubes, wires in the tank etc etc. The glass is a standard 6mm....

* Made the hood (not completed yet) with the help of the old man whose is pretty good with these sorts of things

* Pine wooden cabinet

* Plastic bulkhead which you can buy from bunnings for around $15.00

* Plan PVC pipping to fit into bulk head

* 2 foot mini-reef with a 4 spinning arm filled with 10 kg of cured live rock + pumice that you find on the beach (works just like matrix except it floats) + filter wool + fish filter foam with is 50mm thick that I bought from Clark rubber

* Aqua-medic protein skimmer

* 1500L p/h internal power head

* 2000L p/h return pump

* 3mm coral sand

Turtle hair grass

I added a few pieces of live rock which are covered in turtle hair grass and, i know many people aren't keen on using this however, in my experience both this and green algae play a big role in keeping the nitrate's super low. However, the down side to this is that you will have to continually trim it - upside however is that you may (i say may....) have to change your water less often - we will see how it goes and if it survives in my new tank.

I have been using sera and cycle bacterial cultures, prime for declorinating the water and Seachem salt to make the salt water (haven't added any trace supps etc yet).

After 1 week I have already added 1 x damsel and 1 x yellow chromis - I wouldn't recommend this however, i have loads of cycled live rock so I wanted to get the ammonium cycle going.

Water chem after 1 week:

Ammonium : 0 - 0.01ppm (the fish were darting around a little at first, so I think bit of ammonium is present - did a 25% water change right after and, that settled them

Nitrite : 0 - 5ppm

Nitrate : 40ppm ( seems high but, I seen fish survive in 100ppm nitrates... still not good for them)

Salinity : 1.021 - 1.022

Temperature: 25 - 27 degrees (will get a chiller shortly to keep around 24 degrees)

pH : 8.4

Salt Water 4x2x2 setup

I will post a few pics of a saltwater set-up I am playing around with (it belongs to my bro and mum) - you will notice that is quite bare in terms of corals as it only has a couple of Kenya trees, a hammer coral, tree coral, half alive bubble coral and a couple of corallimorphs. I will be updating the blog over the next couple of months whilst updating the tank and hope to have one awesome tank by the end of it.



So at the moment the tank has been cycling for about 2 -3 years. When I first started playing around with it the corals and, the fish weren't doing that great. There was loads of left-over dead coral skeletons in the tank. The water chem was a bit funny as it had a bit of phosphate, Ammonium, nitrite = 0 (as you would expect with a cycled aquarium), nitrate was a bit high (roughly 30ppm -40ppm) but, the main problem was the salinity (around the 1.030 mark).

SETUP

* It is running about 20 kg live rock fully cycled

* 2 1/2 foot mini-reef system with a bi-spinning arm

* Hailea Chiller set at 24 degrees

* has a protein skimmer that hasn't been used for about a year and, it doesn't seem to be a drama (think its JEBO or something like that)

* Mini-reef is full of Bioballs and, coral sand, sponge, filter wool

* Quad T5's with chinese tubes (were just replaced)

* Substrate is a mix of fine coral sand and 3-5mm coral sand

* about 5 fish (damsel, coral beauty, domino + two others I have forgotten the names for.. will update).

* 1 x sea urchin and 1 x red starfish

Corals prior to pic were :

1 x Kenya tree and 1 x other white coral that looks like two hands (not sure of name - let me know if you do know common or scientific name)

2 x Corallimorph were already there however, weren't as large as they are at the moment.

Changes I have made:

- Reduced the salinity to 1.021-1.023
- Washed and rinsed the biomedia in the mini-reef in tank water (it was very clogged)
- Added some filter wool
- added the kenya tree (blue-green), hammer coral and tree coral (green polyps)
- regular water changes i.e. every two weeks
- added trace elements too the tank once a week + sera coral food once a week also

* as soon as I adjusted the salinity it made a huge difference to water clarity, the fish and, the corals.

I also adjusted the water temperature to 24 prior it was set at 26 degrees.

- I think this tank could look absolutely smashing with a few more corals and, a couple of interesting fish - I hope to add a Frog-spawn, cataphyllia, torch coral maybe a few donuts and, try a golf-ball coral. Will add a few tangs (not the coral eating types) and, hopefully make one beautiful tank.

sil3ntj

Cichlid tank - part 1

One thing I have been playing around with for ages is the following Cichlid tank. I confess that it isn't the best looking tank at the moment. I have totally demolished all the the internal structure in the tank i.e. the hiding holes for the fish (rocks etc etc). I did a bit of a dodgy job of painting the back with standard blue spray paint which is not recommended i.e. as I had to buy some Toxivec to lock up the toxins in the water..... I sprayed the back of the tank whilst the fish where still in the tank! A mistake I will never make again; it was a shortcut that I wouldn't normally take.

SETUP

I am using a standard canister filter which is cycling about 750 Litres per hour - its a standard 3 foot tank (roughly 120 litres). There is a fairly big air pump which is only used because, I am not creating a big amount of turbulence in the tank (not necessary if you break the water surface tension with powerhead etc etc). I also have a power head (2000L p/h) which just circulates the water around the tank.
I have used builders sand I bought from the hardware store and, coral shells (bought from the fish shop) as the tank substrate. I wouldn't recommend that use of garden or builders sand as it is so fine in texture. The reason this is a bad idea is that when you clean the glass with a magnet it is so easy to pick up the sand particles and scratch the glass which can scratch the tank glass. If possible go with some type of substrate that's a few mm's thick or just use your ordinary every day toilet brush to clean the glass.

TEMPERATURE

Tank temperature stays about the 23 - 24 degree Celsius mark (heater is set to about 23 degrees).

FILTRATION

The canister filter is stuffed with biological filtration media (no charcoal at all). There are two trays in the filter i.e. the first containing filter wool/tank sand and, bio-balls of sorts (little ceramic tubes). The second tray contains just bio-balls and ceramic tubes and, lastly on the bottom of the canister I have stuffed a 1 litre bag full of matrix just for over kill.
I am feeding my fish 2 times a day I do a 25% - 40% water change every two weeks however, it looks better and, the fish are happier if a 25% water change is done weekly + I might change the filter wool change every 2 - 3 months (you can tell it is time as the water starts to get a tad murky). I rarely clean the filter material but, when I do I just fill a bucket with aquarium water and give the substrate a really quick wash to get rid of the gunk (never use chlorinated tap water to wash your filter!!).

LIGHTING

I use a 3 foot dual Flouro which has two white Tri-Phosper globes and, for the current set-up it does the job but, I always recommend you use the best equipment you can get your hands on and, that includes lighting.

Cichilds are very easy to maintain they basically will eat anything are quite hardy and tough and, as long as you KEEP YOUR WATER CONDITION GOOD they will stay in good health and look happy. My advice to anybody starting an aquarium is not to get bogged down to much in the complexities of running a tank i.e. there is a lot of misleading information out there - find good advice and follow that.

FISH

2 x Clown Loaches
1 x Talking Catfish
2 x Pakistani Loach
1 x Electric Blue
1 x Marbled Peacock
1 x Red Rubin (female)
3 x Electric Yellow
1 x Bristlenose (male)
1 x Lichnochromis Acuticeps (male)
1 x Synodontis Ocellifer
1 x (not sure of name will update)

Tanks Water Chem parameters:

pH : 7.8
Ammonium : 0 ppm
Nitrite : 0 ppm
Nitrate : 40 - 50 ppm
(fully cycled and set-up for roughly 1 1/2 years)

*Please note that I did a quick water change to drop the Nitrates and the difference was immediate i.e. first pic on the blog.

Fishy Business

Hi

Decided to post a blog i.e. in regards to progress of both a 3 foot saltwater and freshwater aquarium I am playing around with at home. I will be posting videos and pictures of the setup I am using - please note by no long shot am I an expert rather just a super keen aquarist who hopes to be able to one-day make a living from his passion. Feel free to send me pics of your tanks or post links....

Cheers

Sil3ntj