Setup


15 October 2001

Cleaned tank which was previously used for keeping frogs. This involved removing plants and sand.

18 October 2001

Had tank drilled by David Molenoux
Bought 6mm glass for weir
Built weir

20 October 2001

Tested weir and found two small leaks
Fixed Leaks

23 October 2001

Tested weir again and this time there were no leaks.

27 October 2001

Put sand in tank.
Mixture of 65 kg of pool dust and 35 kg of size #00 marble chips.
Depth around 12cm for 2/3 of tank.

28 October 2001

Added 9L of water from 50G Reef 2, and 75L from 6' FOWLR.

3 November 2001

Added rest of sand - 50kg of pool dust and 25kg of #00

4 November 2001

Added 75L of water from 6' FOWLR.

21 November 2001

Moved 8kg of Live Rock from Frag tank.

24 November 2001

Added 20L of water from 40G FOWLR.

25 November 2001

Added 30L of water from 60G FOWLR.

1 December 2001

Collected some live sand from 3 locations around Sydney Harbour:
High Tide 1.8m at 9:11am AEDT

    10:07am: Manly Wharf 1.4m - Sand was very black and organic, some smell of H2S
    10:56am: Clontaff 2.6m - Sand was very clean, may not have much life.
    11:25am: Balmoral Beach 2.4m - Sand was collected from within a seagrass (Zostera sp. and Halophila sp.) bed. Sand was quite fine and had a small amount of organic matter.
Added 75L of water from 6' FOWLR and 25L of fresh seawater.

13 December 2001

Added 75L of fresh seawater.

14 December 2001

Collected live sand from Camp Cove in Sydney Harbour.  Sand was collected on a night dive from seagrass beds.

15 December 2001

Added 20L of water from 40G FOWLR.

16 December 2001

Added 70L of water from 6' FOWLR.

22 December 2001

Collected more live sand from Balmoral Beach.
Added 30L of water from 60G FOWLR and 15L of fresh seawater.

23 December 2001

Added 20L of fresh seawater.

19 January 2002

Added 16kg of live rock.
Turned on the sump return.

2 February 2002

Added 45kg of live rock.

8 February 2002

Added DB ReefTech PS-10SX skimmer.

2 March 2002

First water change (75L).

9 March 2002

Upgraded lighting with IceCap 660 ballast:

    Previous lighting was all normal output magnetic ballasts:
      2 x 18W & 2 x 36W "Daylight";
      1 x 18W & 1 x 36W "10000K";
      2 x 20W Actinic
    Upgraded lighting is:
      Normal output ballasts with:
        2 x 18W "Daylight";
        2 x 18W "10000K"
        2 x 20W Actinic
      IceCap 600 with
        3 x 36W "Daylight"
        1 x 36W "10000K"
    Intensity measured with PAR meter in 4 select places before the upgrade was at least double after the upgrade.

10 March 2002

First two fish added to the tank: blue tang (Paracanthurus hepatus) and blue-spotted wrasse (Anampses caeruleopuctatus).

Photographs

Collected sand on top of crushed marble. This and the following photographs was of the sand collected on 2nd December 2001.
 

Burrows in sand. These burrows appeared within 20 minutes after adding the sand.  Most burrows housed small polychaetes.
 

Burrows in sand. The scale on the left shows minor divisions of 1 mm.
 

Polychaete in burrow in sand.