Fish ‘N’ Chips

Title: Stars
Copyright: Mitchell Brown, Photographer and
Mail Order Pet Supplies Inc.
Link to Wallpaper: http://www.mops.ca/wallpaper/stars800.jpg

By Reefs UK, edited by Elizabeth M. Lukan.

Introduction

Following on from our last article describing the concept of a reef garden (please refer to the previous editions of these articles) we will now start to explain the type of aquarium we will use for our reef garden and some of the reasoning behind its set up. To help hobbyists who are new to reef gardening and setting up marine aquariums, we have provided a good deal of information on the equipment we will use and how we will install it. This will demonstrate some of the problems we and many other hobbyists encounter and how we overcome them. It will also help new hobbyists understand what equipment is considered essential and what is not. Although we touch on some of the technologies and theories behind the equipment and the methods of running a marine aquarium, these articles do not provide an in depth look into information in this area.

What type of aquarium?

One of the first things hobbyists obviously consider when deciding on a new marine aquarium is the type and design of the aquarium. With the many designs and different manufacturers out there, it can be quite a battle deciding which type to purchase. Reefs UK had already decided that our reef garden should be glass as opposed to acrylic and that the water capacity should be about 100 to 150 UK gallons. We also wanted enough room from front to back to build up a good amount of rock work and so eventually decided on an aquarium size of 5 feet (154.4cm) in length by 30 inches (76.2cm) tall (24 inches of water) and 24 inches (61cm) from front to back. This size aquarium would provide us with approximately 125 UK gallons (566 liters).

When setting up any new aquarium we, like most other people, want an aquarium to be well built and put together professionally by a reputable supplier. Although we decided to use a Seabray manufactured aquarium we would recommend hobbyists have a good look around at the different manufacturers as there are a lot of different designs to choose from. When ordering the aquarium we asked for a few modifications. The first was to ensure that there was a gap between the back of the hood and the back of the glass. Most aquarium manufacturers leave a little gap at the back of their aquariums so that pipes and electrical cables can be fed through. However, we wanted this gap to be quite big and run all along the back of the tank. This would allow us to feed larger pipes to and from the external skimmer and to also allow for maximum airflow within the hood. The airflow is important as it allows for the heat of the lights to escape from the hood rather than building up inside the hood. The second modification was to allow for a larger gap on the top right hand side of the cover glass which faces downwards towards the surface of the water. The Seabray aquariums are built with cover glass and we needed to ensure that a large gap was cut into this to allow for our pipes from the external skimmer to enter the water within the aquarium. The cost of this aquarium was 450.00 UK pounds.

What is a sump?

Now the first thing most people will tell you when planning any new marine aquarium is that you must have a sump. For those of you who are new to marine aquariums, a sump is a separate tank which is generally located below the main display aquarium inside the cabinet and allows you to store such things as skimmers, calcium reactors, etc. Water overflows from the main display aquarium through a pipe (which is drilled and sealed into the aquarium) into the sump and then pumped back up to the main aquarium.

What no sump?

As you can see, a sump is useful for hiding away the equipment needed to run a marine aquarium however, we decided not to have a sump. Now this may sound strange to many of you but our decision was based on the following reasons:

• Our reef aquarium garden will be located in an office and needs to be as quiet as possible. Even though water noise flowing into a sump can be dampened considerably, we have never managed to find a sump system were there is no noise at all.
• Evaporation levels tend to be higher due to having 2 surface areas (the main aquarium and the sump). Although this is good for dripping kalkwasser, we wanted to ensure the humidity did not become a problem.
• Having a sump requires another tank that needs to be cleaned as detritus collects in the sump. This is a maintenance task we wanted to avoid.
• The only piece of equipment we set out to have which is traditionally located in a sump was a skimmer. Skimming from the main tank is as efficient as skimming from the sump.
• A sump requires addition pumps to return the water back to the display tank. This can introduce more heat and is something else to go wrong, e.g. water leak or pump failure. If a return pump in a sump fails, the main aquarium is no longer being cleaned or heated and you are left with skimming and heating the water in your sump while your main aquarium with the livestock in it receives no heat or skimming.
• We planned on using a battery backup (Un interruptible Power Supply or UPS) to provide power to essential equipment in the event the main power is off. This, unfortunately, is something that seems to happen on a regular basis in our office. To prevent cold water returning from the sump to the main aquarium after a long power cut, a UPS would need to power 2 heaters (one in the sump and one in the main aquarium). Removing the need of a sump allows us to keep our aquarium tank running longer during power failures as only one heater located in the main aquarium is using the batteries on our UPS.
• Last but by no means least, our office is regularly visited by a very inquisitive 1 year old baby (Mark Taber of Reefs UK’s daughter) and we would live in fear of her opening the doors of a cabinet and playing with the water in a sump. Even worse, climbing into the sump. For those hobbyists with children, this is a very important consideration and we would like to remind you that if you have a sump in an easy accessible area then this is a very real danger and it is time to buy those door locks for the aquarium cabinet.

Although some of these points may not be considered that important, we decided to remove the need for the sump and install the skimmer next to the main aquarium. The biggest obstacle we would have to overcome would be to disguise the skimmer in such a way that it does not look too unsightly.

Why a skimmer is needed for your reef garden?

One thing we do recommend you use on your reef garden is a protein skimmer. A protein skimmer is currently one of the most efficient ways of removing nutrients from saltwater and although some people run marine aquariums successfully without a skimmer, they are a good safety feature. For example, we have witnessed 2 coral spawnings in the past where without the skimmer working overtime to pull out the mass of eggs and sperm, these spawning events would have certainly caused massive pollution and killed some, if not all, of the livestock. There are many other benefits of using a skimmer, such as providing the hobbyist the ability to feed the tank a little more than they would normally as the skimmer will remove the excess food. Also, as most of us keep more livestock than was considered possible in the past, it ensures the water quality will not deteriorate with this extra overhead. Now having said all of that, some people will argue that skimmers take out important trace elements from saltwater and pull out too much microscopic plankton which is so important to our enclosed living systems. We believe both of these elements can be manually added back into a reef garden through regular water changes and culturing phytoplankton and zooplankton.

What type skimmer?

As many of you will know, choosing a skimmer is not exactly the easiest of tasks due to the costs of these items and that some manufactures making claims about their skimmers which are somewhat optimistic. When planning a skimmer for your reef garden, it is best to listen to other hobbyists recommendations and experiences. Also, it would be wise to be prepared to spend a good deal of money on this equipment or alternatively build your own. To ensure our reef garden was adequately skimmed, we decided to choose a model in the Deltec range as these skimmers have proven very efficient. As our reef garden would hold approximately 125 UK gallons (566 liters) we could have purchased a Deltec AP600 or an APF600 which are rated by the manufacturer as easily coping with the water volume our reef garden would hold. However, there is a school of thought that you cannot over-skim a marine aquarium so we opted for the Deltec AP850 which the manufacturer rates at 333 gallons (1500 liters) for normal stocking or 222 gallons (1000 liters) for aquariums heavily stocked. As we had not yet decided how heavily stocked our reef garden would be, this skimmer would be more than adequate for our needs.

Costs to-date (UK pounds):

1 x Seabray Aquarium (60″ x 30″ x 24″) including cabinet 450.00

1 x Deltec AP850 protein skimmer 300.00

Total : 750.00

Liz’s Notes: Editing was limited to spelling and grammar corrections and formatting. Please note that this article is at least two years old and while some of the information in it may dated (like the costs), the principles discussed are still viable and worthy of passing along. The images were provided by Reefs UK along with the article and are copyrighted to them. Thanks to Mark Taber of Reefs UK for his permission to use this article in Fish ‘N’ Chips. Don’t forget to visit Reefs UK for more information, articles, and forums.

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