Wrangy's Radium Reef

Wrangy

Acropora Nut
RS STAFF
PREMIUM
Introduction:
With a new upgrade in sight I thought I might make the first post to begin the official and documented planning of the new tank :) I will hopefully be getting the tank this week which means ther should hopefully be some pictures to go with all the shitty ramblings that I'm about to make you all suffer through :p
System Objectives: This will be my second reef tank after over two years with my wonderful CADE cube, having learnt a lot and knowing a little more abut what I want in my tank. Not that has changed really, just a **** load of sps, zoa's and a few clams too!
System Type: SPS, SPS and a few more SPS!


Display System:
Strike up Date: TBC
Display Tank: 3x2x2, 340L DT volume.
Display Lighting: Back to some old school methods! A single 250w Radium Blue metal halide bulb with 4 24w T5's. 2x blue+ and 2x actinic t5's.
Stand: 900x600x1000mm or 1200x600x1000mm, I have decided yet.
Hood: Negative! But eurobracing so not quite as rimless as my CADE!
Sump: No designs yet but nice and simple, skimmer > LR + Reactors > return
Refugium: No weeds here!


Support systems:
System Water: Blue bucket, I've had a lot of success with it over the last year so I'm going to continue rolling with it!
Display Water circulation: A combo of RW-8's and 4's, plenty of acro friendly flow,
Return Pump: Waveline DC6000
Skimmer: RLSS R6-i
Evaporation Top Up: ATO all the way, I haven't decided whether I continue using my Tunze ATO or if I give the ATO on my Kore 5th doser a go!


Chemical Support:
Well I'll definitely be getting the calcium reactor online for the new tank to get some killer growth and colours but for the moment until that happens I'll be continuing along with 3-part which is doing well so far :)

As you all know I've been using Zeo for quite some time now and because of what I feel has been many great benefits I will be continuing along the lovely zeo path! Dosing will on be a minor increase so no stress there at all :)

Planned Water Chemistry:
Nitrates:
0ppm
Phosphates: 0ppm
Alkalinity: 7.5dKH
Calcium: 420ppm
Salinity / Specific Gravity: 35ppt
Magnesuim: 1200ppm
Potassium: 400ppm

Scaled Friends:
With the extra space shall come extra fish! :D the one thing I'm really looking forward to doing with this tank, oh and all the new corals and clams it shall bring!
As you can imagine all my wonderful friends will be coming across with me :) so this means my stock will be as follows to begin with:
2x Flame Hawkfish
A Bellus Angelfish
A Black Eared Wrasse
A Mandarin
And maybe my dwarf although he's turned into a bit of a wanker so maybe not lol

As you can well imagine some thoughts have been given as to a few of the new additions that may be coming soon!
The number one on my list is a kole tang and I'm pretty settled and certain on getting a kole as they're just about the only tang I actually like, the rest are pretty much just ehh to me haha
The other major additions that I'm looking to make are some anthias! I really do love them as fish and they're such nice fish too! Although I'm not quite sure as to what species yet! Some of the species that are high on my list are the few following ones :) Red Saddled Anthias (Pseudanthias flavoguttatus) and Sunburst Anthias are my easy choice anthias lol but the species that I really really want are Pseudanthias ventralis or some Pseudanthias tuka are the species that I really want to get though, despite their obvious difficulties, with the right care and treatment I am reasonably confident that I would be able to keep them! Especially if I get a find pointers from Singapore Aquarium who have the most amazing anthias that I have ever seen in my life! :D
For the moment that's about all the thought I've given towards fish and it might all the fish I add depending on the amount of anthias that I do add haha

Well for now that's the first post it's late and I may have missed a few things so I'll re-read it tomorrow and fill any gaps that I come across lol

All thoughts and suggestions as per usual are very welcome :D
 

mtsully71

Well-Known Member
Look forward to you build Dom, this is what stood out to me...

Display Lighting: Back to some old school methods! A single 250w Radium Blue metal halide bulb with 4 24w T5's. 2x blue+ and 2x actinic t5's.

I would love to have a reef full of anthias, but because of the 4X5 day feeding requirement, I can't. Autofeeder a possibility, however what overfeeding could do to a tank :frown:.
 

Wrangy

Acropora Nut
RS STAFF
PREMIUM
Look forward to you build Dom, this is what stood out to me...

Display Lighting: Back to some old school methods! A single 250w Radium Blue metal halide bulb with 4 24w T5's. 2x blue+ and 2x actinic t5's.

I would love to have a reef full of anthias, but because of the 4X5 day feeding requirement, I can't. Autofeeder a possibility, however what overfeeding could do to a tank :frown:.
Well I've had it running over my tank for a little over a month now and the results are amazing so I'm definitely going to be continuing with it as I've simply fallen in love with it :)

It's another reason I want to heavily involve zeo again along with a little bit wetter skimming, so that I can feed nice and heavily while not having to worry about the impact as much :) Hopefully it works out haha
 

Wrangy

Acropora Nut
RS STAFF
PREMIUM
Well as I continue thinking, planning, plotting and conspiring about the new tank and I have to start with the basis of the reef and that's those lovely rocks will all take for granted! lol It's what's going to be crested with glorious acro's! :D
There are a few different choices that I'm thinking about, which is basically every choice there is lol. So I think going through the how will be more appropriate first rather than the what! The plans for the rock before they go anywhere near the tank will be to give them a very good old fashion cycling in a tub of darkness! I have a nice large tub that all the rock will be going into and along with a couple of powerheads, a good amount of GFO and then the addition of regular bacteria dosing in the form of ZEObak. What I'm hoping to achieve is similar to what the awesome Scotty has done with his new Entrance Reef, cycled and somewhat capable rocks to run the tank on! This cycle will probably be 1-2 months in length as I really want these rocks to not only be spotless and clean but also nice and seeded with bacteria. A good start!

The real decision is in what rock I use! There are several options I've been looking. Marco reef rock, West Mariculture Bonsai (for something different) and of course live rock! I'm currently leaning towards a very large portion of the tank being purely marco rock with some key seeding live rock placed in the tub for diversity and some base :) However for curiosities sake and because I want something a little different, I would love to add in some of the new rock by West Mariculture. The bonsai reef structures look quite interesting and would make for some really interesting acro-scaping!

Overall the plan is mostly macro rock with a few pieces of live, along with a few pieces of pre-cycled live that will live in the sump as well. Then on top of that I might order a few small structures from West Mariculture to see what they look like and try and create some interesting Biggles-inspired scaping!

That's my basic rock thoughts so far :)
 

Wrangy

Acropora Nut
RS STAFF
PREMIUM
GUESS WHO HAS A NEW TANK :celebrate::bounce:

Well after a long day of driving all around Victoria haha I was finally able to pick the tank up this afternoon and I am stoked with it :D I am so excited for the upgrade and having, what I feel is, a HEAP more room for activities!!

Enough with my silly nonsense and now for some photo's that I've actually taken of the new tank!






While I don't mind the corner overflow toooo much I'm definitely thinking about some work to make it external :hammerhead: I literally cannot contain my excitement here!
 

StirCrayzy

Well-Known Member
Nice ! 3X2X2 is one of my all time favorite sizes.

Good luck on the external conversion. I've thought about that before , but could never feel quite comfortable with having a hole in the bottom and water pushing down on it.
Of course it's probably just paranoia, I'm sure it could be sealed successfully.
 

Wrangy

Acropora Nut
RS STAFF
PREMIUM
Nice ! 3X2X2 is one of my all time favorite sizes.

Good luck on the external conversion. I've thought about that before , but could never feel quite comfortable with having a hole in the bottom and water pushing down on it.
Of course it's probably just paranoia, I'm sure it could be sealed successfully.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what I can do with the extra space! :D

I'll be intrigued and nervous all St the same time about it haha
 
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