Fragment Tank 60L

Last weekend been shopping again. I ordered some Reef Rack from a store in The Hague and ended up with much more than just a reef rack.
They had these awesome looking buttons for sale, since most of the buttons in the Red Sea Max got lost I decided to buy them, also with the new tank planning I could find a nice spot for them. So now it is still located in the frag tank until I figure out how I’m going to use it.

I also got 2 peppermint shrimps to...

Been a long time since the last update, personal life been a bit busy so not much time to spend time on the aquarium besides the necessary maintenance. But we are back and picking things up, so let me bring you back up to speed with what is going on.
The crab/frag tank is doing fine, after long time I finally got the salt levels back to normal since evaporation is going so fast in there. Many of the mushrooms that released from the rocks in the RSM are in here now waiting for the RSM to settle or to go in my new aquarium. We got a Six Line Wrasse for the RSM (2nd one) which was attacked by...

Just a quick update before my vacation. On Saturday the 23rd I bought a couple of fish for the 60liter aquarium, “unfortunately” my wife liked them very much and we put them in the RSM250.
That same day I also noticed a frag on the Kenya Tree in the RSM250, I removed the frag and placed it on a rock using a rubber band. After that I placed it in the 60 litre tank until it attaches.


On Thursday the 26th I bought a couple of Reef Chromis at our regular aquarium...

Last Saturday I’ve done some work on the crabtank again. The new coral pieces have been moved a bit and I have adjusted the crab-rock.
But first the frag part, at this point I have 6 Kenya Trees on 5 different rocks on the top shelf together with a piece of the Pavona Coral and a shotglass with 2 corals still waiting to attach.
The middle shelf is filled with one big rock with starpolyps and purple mushrooms and 4 small rocks with star polyps together with a rock with buttons and a purple mushroom.
And finally at the bottom there is a shotglass with a ricordea mushroom.

Yesterday I got some nice new additions to the crab/fragtank. First I went to a forum member RobT where I got 15 euro’s of new additions, being a Green Clown Goby, Branched Montipora Coral, Pavona Coral and 2 pieces of Young Blushing Finger Leather Coral. The 2 SPS corals are currently located on the frag side, until I find a spot for them. The 2 leather corals are in a shotglass because he made the frags directly when I was there, so they need to attach to rock first.

Last Wednesday I made a big change to the crab part of the fragtank. I removed the covering rock and replaced it with the “crab-rock”. It was a rock that I was building up with all sorts of corals on it. Now the purple mushroom has been removed but instead the following corals where added, a Toadstool Leather coral, Kenya Tree coral, Button polyps, Starburst polyps and the latest addition to the crab-rock, a Cabbage Leather coral. Next to that rock I also moved the rock with a big Button polyp and Red Mushroom. So now the top of the Crab tank is covered with corals.
Here are some pictures...

Tuesday and yesterday I did some work on the frag/crab aquarium again. I got my new pumps in from Fish-street.com, 2 Sunsun JVP102A pumps and one Sunsun JVP201A. One small thing was a small miscalculation from my side. I came at more then 100x the current in litres, which is a bit too much. Besides that the pumps where rather big in size as well, so I ended up using only the Sunsun JVP201A. One of the JVP102A’s was for the Red Sea Max, so that one will go there when we start working on the RSM again.

Been silent for some time around the aquariums, but this doesn’t mean that nothing happened. The crab tank has 4 new inhabitants by now. All are there for cleaning in the aquarium.

First is a Babylon shell snail, this snail keeps the sand clean. I only got a picture when I put it in during night time, so the picture doesn’t look to good.


Second one is also for cleaning the sand and is a Horseshoe crab. This little crab can grow...

Yesterday we went to pick up 2 urchins we where able to trade for a couple of coral fragments. They are 2 really awesome looking urchins, one nice small Tripneustes gratilla and a bigger Echinometra mathaei. Traded both of them for a piece of Cabbage leather, starburst polyps and Finger leather.

Both arriving in the box

The Tripneustes gratilla moved into the crab tank. This shouldn’t give any problems for a long time since it is still...

Yesterday I installed moonlight on the frag/crab aquarium. I ordered 2 SMD LED Waterproof light strips – Blue of 30 CM each at Dealextreme.com. These work at 12v and provide 1.8 watt of light. So now I have 3.6 watt of night light in very bright blue.
I had to put a Power converter between for it to work which I also ordered from dealextreme, but this way I had a full working moonlight for under 10 euro. The LEDs had a strip to attach them to any surface, so I attached them to the already existing T5 armature.

And here is an example of how it looks.

Yesterday I went to pick up a piece of Cabbage leather coral from a city mate from the Nederlands en Belgisch Zeewater forum, called bawaruba. When I got there I was amazed by his aquarium, it was a fully automated 1000 litre aquarium that was supported by 2 sumps that both have a capacity of another 1000 litre. It all looked very professional with the way everything was placed.
His cabbage leather grows very well, and he had a big rock that he had to remove due to lack of space. I first thought it was going to be a big Cabbage leather, but it seemed to be a big rock with couple of smaller...

Yesterday I’ve put the final hands on the fragtank, it is now completely running with the sump and is fully equipped for frags but also for other life. From reefracks I made a nice looking construction that gives the tank 3 floors. This way I can put frags that need much light higher then the ones that don’t need much light. As a test I put in a small piece of Star Polyp bound to a small rock using rubber bands.


Since the work on the crab tank is going very slow...

The hole for the overflow has been made and I put a pipe on it. Everything should be working now. Yesterday I put in the first 18,5 litres of water to check if it was all waterproof, but so far everything seems to be fine.

Less good news is that everything I had put in the bin has died. I tried to save some fragments by moving them to the RSM250 but so far without luck. Only the Cabbage leather is still somewhat ok, but don’t think it will last.

Yesterday I went to our local store to get some water, salt and bacteria. Also I wanted to ask if they could make a transit for an overflow in an existing aquarium. Turned out they could do this for not too much money and could do it the same day as well. So I went home and emptied and cleaned the fragtank.

Most of the corals and rocks that where in the fragtank moved to a bin.

Last weekend of March we have done some work on the fragtank and sump again. I made a reefrack plateau in the tank so I can put rocks underneath the frags that I want to use. Up till now they where all located in the sump, which was more then full with rocks.

We are still trying to get the water flow between the sump and tank work. The first attempt was trying to make it work without a pump, unfortunately this failed. So next try was with a pump, unfortunately water went down faster then it came up again.
A smaller tube for downwards water seems to be a solution, but the one we...

Last Tuesday I started work on the sump. First I needed to sort all the life rock that was in there, doing this I found a snail and some corals. The snail stayed in the sump and the corals moved to the fragtank on smaller pieces of rock.

The snail

In the first part I made a nice reefrack construction with a part to put the filters in and a part for a piece of life rock. The middle part is still a bit too full of rock, but that is where the skimmer...

A while ago I got my order in from Fish-Street containing the new light armature for the frag tank, the Aqua Japan T5HO. Unfortunately then I noticed it had an Australian power plug, fish-street offered me a converter for free, which was great service. Only thing was, I lost my patience and just wanted to start using it :p
Yesterday I went into the city and searched for a travelplug that could convert Australian to European plugs. Unfortunately this wasn’t a big success, even a specialized electronics shop didn’t have it. He suggested I just cut of the current plug and replace it with a European...

Yesterday I have did a lot of work on the fragtank and everything in it. Someone was coming to pick up the anemone in the fragtank in the morning and because of the lack of space there I decided to start fragging and changing some rocks around.

Unfortunately the person who was coming for the anemone never showed up and didn’t give any reply so far. So it is still in the aquarium.


I did however remove the mushroom that was on the rock, just in case...

Saturday I had a nice aquarium drive. Went to pick up some extra life rock for the fragtank and ended up with some corals as well. I traded 7 life rocks for 2 Kenya Trees and a mushroom, well if that isn’t a great deal I don’t know what is .

In the fragtank there are a whole lot more corals, some might move to the RSM, some may not.
The first is one that really caught my eye, it’s a giant toadstool leather coral. Unfortunately we found it was even too big for the RSM. But it looked...

Wednesday I bought a new lighting armature and cooler for the fragtank. The armature is a lot cheaper then the cheapest I could get here and the cooler (just a bunch of fans) weren’t very expensive either. I ordered both of them through the internet at fish-street.com and I got the Aqua Japan 4X 24"Inch T5HO (60cm) and the Jebo Reef 4 DC Fan Silent New Design. I got some mixed messages for the arrival, at first it was 12 days and later I got a message that because of Christmas and thanksgiving it might become later. Guess we will just see when they arrive.

Meanwhile I will...

Here a quick update on the status of the fragtank. Currently it is running, but without any filters or skimmers (or heating). I already replaced water a couple of times, using water from the RSM to make sure it had enough good bacteria etc.
As noted in the previous posts I already have some life rock in it. This rock already contained some corals as well, spotted a total of 4 mushrooms and some weird blue flowery stuff. Also the box I had in the RSM is placed in it now containing some Kenya Trees and the anemone that had split is also located in the fragtank now.

This weekend...

A lot has happened in the last week, but I didn’t have the time to post many updates in that time. So here is one big one for the whole week together.

Got life rock for 60 liter aquarium

Friday in the evening I went to someone from the forums to pick up some life rock for the fragtank. I got 8 kilo with some nice rocks, most of them already have corals on them as well, couple of mushrooms, some polyps. They are in the fragtank now with the 15 watt light above it and 2 pumps. It is partially filled with water from the RSM250 now to have some bacteria...

The plans for a fragment and mixing aquarium have started. At this point the plans go out from using the 60 litre aquarium as the main aquarium on my desk.
From there water will overflow into a sump, which is placed on a small cabinet underneath the desk. There the whole filter process will take place. I have found one for sale for 20 euro’s on the internet, so I will probably get this one, together with the skimmer he has.
From the sump the water will also overflow into another tank/box. This will function as the mixing aquarium and as the collection bin. The idea is to have a tank/box...

The fragment tank has had some adjustments. I already added an Eheim Compact 300 pump for circulation, however this didn’t seem to be enough for the 60 liter aquarium to get the water flow really going. So yesterday I added an Eheim Compact 1000 pump, which should be sufficient for 150 to 1000 liters per hour. This time I even had to turn it down a little because it was blowing way to fast at full capacity.
Another problem the tank had was the temperature, it was far too cold. So I have bought a Sera Precision heater 75w which is suitable for 50 to 75 liters. And it did the job, because the...