Great portal guys and girls, and glad to introduce myself to all the fellow reefers.
I am
Athol Phillips, and I reside in Centurion with my lovely wife
Shirley. I am a
Business Owner of a company called
iRender which specializes in providing Software Design Solutions to the Architectural and Interior Design market. This includes SketchUp, AutoCAD and the Artlantis Rendering application.
OUR JOURNEY THUS FAR
We previously ran a
Fresh Water (
bath water) tank for a few years until we relocated to a new home. We decide to take our set up with us to the new location because we have always wanted to switch to a marine tank. Well, eighteen months passed, and our old empty DT stood in our entrance hall catching moths and dust. In November last year, my good lady gave me an ultimatum, sell the whole DT, or go marine tomorrow. I took the plunge and we got cracking with all the new requirements.
At the time we started with the new marine set up, I was pleased to learn that
Dorrey Pets had just relocated their premises to
Centurion, which was great news for me. The service that I have received from both
Lanzo and
Dewald has been most professional. They also have the cleanest DT's that I have seen in any LFS so far.
We did not rush into the process, but rather adopted a slow and calculated step by step set up of the new environment, which has paid off hands down.
Early days - just added Salt Water and some Live Rock
Our DT is 1,800x800x600 - about 800 litres including the three compartment sump below. I have run a fair size DSP from start up, and also implemented a
Reef Octopus 160 Extreme In-Sump with Bubble Plate Skimmer which has performed well to date.
About a month ago, we were hit with our first
Cyno Bacteria outbreak. I dosed
Phosphate-E for 5 x days, and this seemed to help. I then added a
Seio 1500 Superflow Pump to increase the flow in the DT. This helped a lot to resolve the Cyno Bacteria problem.
Since day one, I have battled with high
Nitrate and high
Phosphate levels. Two weeks ago, I purchased a
Reef Octopus N/P Pellet Reactor 110 from
Dorrey Pets, and as with everything I do, I introduced this new unit slowly into the system, adding only 125 g of Bio Pellets per week. So far, the results look promising.
GO BIG OR GO HOME
Working in the IT environment, I enjoy marrying IT with my new hobby. So when I stumbled across the
Profilux III EX Controller, I had no choice but to raid the bank account and purchase the unit. Although I have only touched the surface as regards all the functionality this unit has to offer, I cannot wait to explore its full potential, i.e. Thunder storms, Automatic Water Change via Dosing Pumps etc.
SALT WATER PLANT
It only took me a few months to get tired of mopping up the kitchen floor due to the 25 litre drums of RO/DI water overflowing because I forgot to switch the unit off. The schlep of having to carry heavy drums of top up water to the DT became very tiresome, and I needed to find an easier solution. With some guidance from fellow reefer
Jean van Niekerk, I sourced all the components to build my own
250 litre Salt Water / 250 litre RO/DI Water Plant. Although I have automated the RO/DI top up to replace evaporated water using an
Optical Level Sensor connected to my
Profilux III EX unit, my next step will be to implement an automated daily
Water Change. I am still considering a few options for the Pumps, and part of the process may include
LiterMeter Pumps, but have not made a final call on this equipment yet.
LIVE STOCK, ROCK AND CORALS
To date, we have the following tank inhabitants:
View pics on Facebook
CORAL: -
x1 - Open Brain Coral (doing very well)
x1 - Doughnut Coral LPS (doing very well)
x2 - Bubble Coral (doing extremely well)
x1 - Kenya Tree (took a knock, but slowly recovering)
x3 - Pulsing Xenia (battling with them at the moment)
x1 - Zoanthid (but something has devoured this one)
x1 - Cluster of Mushrooms (doing well)
x1 - Clam (doing well)
x1 - Anemone Red Base (doing very well)
x1 - Tongue Slipper Coral (doing well)
x1 - Gorgonia (not doing great at all)
x1 - Plate Coral - (doing well)
x1 - Goniopora Flower Pot Coral
FISH: -
x2 - Captive Bred Ocelaris Clowns
x2 - Fire Fish
x1 - Sailfin Tang
x1 - Sufin
x2 - Cleaner Shrimp (one has subsequently gone to Fish Heaven)
x1 - Coral Beauty (also moved on to Fish Heaven)
x1 - Fox Face
x1 - Coral Banded Shrimp (Boxer Shrimp)
x5 - Banggai (but have since been reduced to a single mating pair)
x2 - Algae Eating Snails
x1 - Dendrophyllia Turret Coral (Returned to LFS)
ROCK: -
5.4 kg Fiji Rock
8 kg CaribSea South Sea Base Rock
Aragonite Sand Bed 2 inches thick
LESSONS LEARNT SO FAR
- Find yourself a professional LFS, and build a mutually beneficial and rewarding business relationship with them. This marine hobby is not for sissies, so be prepared to spend a lot of that hard earned cash on your new addiction. If you support your LFS, they are more likely to offer you a Customer Loyalty Discount, and believe me, every cent you can save helps. You will also be able to develop a "relationship of trust". I recently purchased a Dendrophyllia Turret Coral from an out of town LFS just because I liked its bright red colouring. I was told by the LFS salesman that it was a "low maintenance" coral, only to find out a week later after doing some research on the Internet, that this specimen was indeed a "high maintenance" coral requiring a lot of attention and patience. I was fortunate enough to return the said coral to the LFS for a Full Refund for which I was most grateful. Moral of the story: "Find a coral you fancy, and then research everything you possibly can about its care etc before you purchase it, even if you have to go back to the LFS a week later.
- Research, research, research.... everybody has a different opinion and solution to your current problem. I have found the Internet to be a great source of information for any topic relating to this hobby.
- Patience, and more patience... Take your time with every facet of your marine project... DO NOT RUSH INTO IT....
- Be prepared for losses... it comes with the territory...just make sure you learn from each loss so as not to repeat the same mistake again.
- Don't be afraid to ask questions... Even the gurus were once all Newby's
GETTING CREATIVE WITH PLATE CORAL
Purchased some Reef Glue and modified my Plate Coral to look like a thatched beach umbrella...
Well, that's our experience thus far...still have
so much to learn !!!
Time to get back to the business of earning a living so that I can afford my next expensive piece of kit for this new addiction of ours.
I look forward to interfacing with the Members of this Forum, and hope to learn a lot from you all.
Warmest regards
ATHOL PHILLIPS