If Algea is the curse of fresh water what is the reef equiv.

[Bad Inferno]

I am thinking of changing over my 450 litre tank to a reef tank.

Being fully planted the battle is always balancing algea with plant growth. What is the equivalent problems that reef tank face. ?

rob

[Matt15]

Rob they are very much the same if not worse.

I don't know the technical names but the algea (if thats the name for it) and crustation buildup is much much worse and it often won't just wipe away. The stuff grows onto everything...!!!
Also the salt water gets into everything metal and rusts like crazy. A sump is a must here... as the general cannister filter is lucky to last you a year.

There's a few people here who keep marine.. i'm sure they'll beable to give you loads of PROS rather than CONS.

[Tommo]

Hey Rob

One of the algae problems is , but we all grow it is coraline algae, it is the purple stuff/red,it is hard type of algae.And does grow on all power heads ,pipes,glass,rocks,It is very nice to have it growing but cleaning power heads and glass is a PITA!

The bad Alage is the cyano this is the brown/red type of algae, that grows on the sand.

As for salt gets everywhere , well this is not true LOL.

If you are planing on changing your tank to reef Rob, 1 thing for sure is you need a sump.
My advice with the sump is to have a refugium/Deep sand bed , and grow some macro algae down there "this is just sea weed" and helps in reducing nitrates.

A simple sump is like this , i just sketch this one up so you get an idea.
You can not choose to use a Deep sand bed in the sump , you can make it a Remote Deep Sand Bed "RDSB" , an easy way is using a 20 liter bucket and using a 1000 LT/HR pump,doing a RDSB is better , if the sand bed fails , you just remove it and start again, if it fails in the sump "and sometimes they do , it makes it hard to start again with it.

Skimmers , Can be in sump meaning they are place inside your sump.
Or out of sump , meaning you need a pump to feed the skimmer.


The main things you need are.

Metal halide lighting "or T5's" Depending on what you want to keep.

Skimmer "big enough to handle your display tank and sump volume"

Return pump " i have a 4x2x2 and use a 7000 liter/hour"

Power heads "i have 3/2500 liter/hour and 1/4500 LT/HR"

You also need to drill out your tank to make a durso stand pipe "over flow/ weir ".

Also there are heaps of mods for skimmers/ sand beds etc etc . Really it is never ending LOL but very very addictive.
I used to keep freshwater, but marines with corals is truly unreal!
also the down side is that tank maintenance is a little higher , as well as changes in some elements can kill corals over night, "this happened to me when i first started"




Cheers Andrew

[nicholas76]

I am thinking of changing over my 450 litre tank to a reef tank.

Being fully planted the battle is always balancing algea with plant growth. What is the equivalent problems that reef tank face. ?

rob

Id rate coraline Algae as potentially your biggest problem. Although I have had my tank setup now for over a year and rarley see it. Just lucky.

Salt creep is an ongoing pain , constant wiping down argh.

In your initial months the various algae explosions will haunt you too, as long as your patient you will work through those in stages.

Nothing more satisfying then owning a well estabilished reef tank

[Bad Inferno]

I setup a small nano reef, which has provided me great pleasure. It still costs a lot to setup however no $ for real ongoing maintenance or additives/ water.

When my kids leave school and have more money to run it, I may finally convert my larger tank.

My nano has been going for 10 months and am currently upgradiung to slightly larger size. Fully automated of course, if you've ever seen my Discus setup. I have recieved a linear actuator which will raise / lower a suspended light when I need to control temps and for cleaning.

I have the new tank, rimless 24x16x16 (star glass front) modded ac110 for fuge and votec programmable power head. Just need to get the plyboard manufacturer to cut and edge my cabinet.

[Tommo]

Hows the progress comming along ?

[Bad Inferno]

Hi Tommo,

Yes its coming along. I have managed to take some shots of the tank whilst still under construction. It will give you an idea on how it is comming together. The last phase is electrical & controls however here is where I am up to so far:

Shot of tank with light at lowest position:



Light raised for access



ATO float switch and 1wire temperature probe mounting



Rear of tank showing light rails and electric actuator



Shot of Refugium light, 3x 3W LED's

[Bad Inferno]

Really off original topic however completed the 1wire relay interface panel.


Complted 8 channel relay mounted onto 4mm perspex plate. It looks alittle complicated however it really allows easy connection of the tank devices and also distributes the 12VDC power.

From Left to Right
1wire interface - Relay boards (double decker) ATO float relay and light actuator relay - terminals



You can see I had to mount the two relay boards ontop of one another



Under the 1wire controller I ahve mounted the refugium LED constant current power supply. This supply enables up to four 3W LED's to be driven.


I will mount it in the cabinet next weekend.

[Bad Inferno]

AC Power Control

I required only two 1wire controlled AC powered devices. One being the main light the other the heater. I debated for quite a while in how best to acheive this in the safest way however deviced to simply use two good quality 12V relays inside a small box. These relays are controlled via the 1wire relay isolators on the main interface. above And yes there are now two relays controlling these outlets however all AC wiring is contained within the small box.

The heater needed to be normally ON thus without power to the relay the outlet is ON. That way if the controller fails the heater will be on, as it has its own thermostat, it will function as normal. The reason I wanted to be able to power off the heater was so that I can better regulate temperature on hot days. I did not want the heater fighting against the cooling fan when the tank temp was low. That way on hot days, ambient >26 I can just use fan control to regulate the tank temperature and turn off the heater.

The other outlet is simply the main light. Powering on the relay will turn the lights on.

[Tommo]

Nice

Thats sensational stuff

Now as for the relays will they handle the current of the light fitting ?

Also are you using an isolated DC power supply ?