Reef Aquarium Gardening
Part 5
At long last, all the equipment for our new reef aquarium garden had been fitted and after 5 days of continually running the RO/DI unit, the aquarium was completely filled with newly made salt water. The aquarium was then left for 3 days with the heater on, the Hagen power heads circulating the water and the protein skimmer skimming. Although there was no live stock or living rock in the aquarium, within 24 hours of skimming, we found that our skimmer had produced a small amount of scum in the collection cup. As it took 5 days to fill the aquarium with RO/DI water, we assumed this to have come from airborne dirt and dust getting into the aquarium during this time.
Filtration
For the main biological filtration, we had already decided to use living rock from an existing reef tank. Using living rock is a very efficient biological filter and with the quantities we already had, this would be more than enough for the water volume of our reef aquarium garden. Our existing living rock had been used in a previous aquarium for over a year and was now in a holding area so there was no need to worry about any die off from the rock or curing process.
Before we added any of the living rock, we put some carbon (approximately 2 golf ball sized amounts) and also a small quantity of phosphate remover into 2 separate old stockings and clipped them to the back of the aquarium glass.
The carbon would provide us with chemical filtration and the phosphate remover would ensure that our phosphate levels remained undetectable.
The next task was to build up the living rock on a solid platform to provide a realistic looking reef.
Aquascaping
Aquascaping a reef aquarium is a very personal task. What one hobbyist likes another will dislike. However, there are a few things that need to be considered when adding rock to your reef garden.
Rock needs to be stacked so that water can flow easily around and through the structure. This will ensure that there are no dead spots. Rock also needs to be placed securely to prevent rock falls as you do not want a large rock falling onto the glass sides of the aquarium or even onto living corals. It is also a good idea to ensure there are lot of bolt holes for fish to dart into when they feel threatened. Another thing to remember is to leave enough space between your rock work and the sides of your aquarium to allow your magnet glass cleaner to easily clean the glass without knocking the rock work.
We had already decided that we would have a clean bottom reef aquarium garden which means that we would not be using any sand. The structure of the rock would only expose a small piece of bottom glass as the rock would nearly reach the sides of the aquarium.
We had to somehow raise the rock at the back of the tank so that it was higher than the rock at the front. We did this by stacking the living rock at the back on solid circular piping. The piping was similar to normal drain pipe but smaller in diameter. It measured 1.5" inches in diameter and was cut it down to 3" inches in height (please refer to picture). We then drilled several small holes through the outside of the pipe so that water would flow through it preventing any build up of detritus.
It was now time to start moving the living rock from the holding area to the new reef aquarium. We started adding some of the bigger pieces of living rock along the back of the aquarium first placing it onto our pre-built piping platform. Each piece of piping was moved around until the living rock rested securely onto it ensuring the rock was stable and could support other rock stacked on top.
We used smaller pieces of rock for the front of the aquarium and rested these directly onto the glass making sure that water could easily flow under the rock. We also left a gap between the living rock at the front of the aquarium and the rock at the back. This would allow us to place a power head at the bottom of one end of the aquarium to push water along the middle of the aquarium ensuring sufficient water was flowing underneath the rock. By allowing the water to flow through the middle in this manner, we would prevent any build up of detritus on the glass bottom of the aquarium and also prevent any dead spots in between the bottom sections of the rock. We continued to build up the reef by stacking more rock into the aquarium. This took approximately 3 hours to put all the living in the aquarium and stack it so that it was pleasing to the eye and sturdy enough not to collapse.
Water Testing
Once all the living rock had been added, we left the aquarium for 1 week with the all the equipment on except the lighting. We then tested the water for some basic water parameters to give us a base level of testing to work against for future testing.
- Temp - 78f
- S.G. - 1.023
- pH - 8.1
- NH3 - 0 mg/L
- N02 -0 mg/L
- N03 -2 mg/L
- Alkalinity - 2.74 mg/L
- Calcium - 385 ppm
- P04 - 0 ppm
- Mg - 1170ppm
As we had the benefit of putting living rock in from an existing system we did not need worry about ammonia and nitrite spikes. Also, although the calcium and alkalinity levels were a little lower than we would have liked, we new that our regular top up water with kalkwsser could correct these parameters. The only other parameter that would need to be monitored would be the low Magnesium levels with which we started.
Adding The First Corals
At long last, our reef aquarium garden was up and running. All the equipment had been installed and our water parameters were good enough to add our first few species of hardy corals. So on went the lighting and in went the corals.
The first corals to be added were cuttings from corals we had propagated many times and were known to be hardy. A number of Mushroom corals were placed at the bottom of the rock work as these corals do not need as much light as many other types of corals. These corals are perfect for the reef aquarium garden as they self propagate helping us to keep sustainable species in our aquarium. They will literally bud off and one mushroom will turn into two without any help from the hobbyist. You can let this continue so you have a lovely display of mushroom corals and then harvest the rest and give them away to other hobbyists.
The next coral we added were a number of pink and green button polyps which were placed in several locations along the bottom of the aquarium. These corals were also cuttings of button corals we have had for many years and like mushroom corals, will self propagate making them excellent additions to the reef aquarium garden.
Costs to-date (UK pounds)
1 x Sebray Aquarium (60" x 30" x 24") including cabinet = 450.00
1 x Deltec AP850 protein skimmer = 300.00
1 x Eheim 1250 Pump = 50.00
1 x Eheim 12mm flexible tubing = 4.50
1 x Kent Hi-S Maxxima = 250.00
2 x Boots winemaker fermenters = 12.00
1 x Kent Salt (200US Gallons) = 47.50
1 x Hydrometer = 15.00
4 x Aquaclear 802 powerheads = 148.00
1 x Tronic 300 watt heater = 16.00
2 x Electronic Timers = 14.00
3 x Hagen 40watt Marine-Glo = 40.00
3 x Hagen 40watt Power-Glo = 42.00
3 x Hagen Glomat2 40watt ballasts = 57.00
1 x APC Smart 2200 UPS = 580.00
1 x Reef Carbon = 17.00
1 x Phosphate remover = 18.00
1 x Nitrite test kit = 6.00
1 x Nitrate test kit = 9.00
1 x Phosphate test kit = 8.00
1 x pH test kit = 6.00
1 x Alkalinity test kit = 6.00
1 x Calcium test kit = 8.00
1 x Kalkwasser = 13.00
1 x Kalkwasser dispenser = 20.00
1 x Magnet glass cleaner = 6.00
1 x ABS piping = 5.00
Living Rock = Reused from existing aquariums
Corals = Propagated from existring aquariums
TOTAL : 2149.50