After filling the tank and checking that everything was running right, the tank was then left on full circulation, with a heater and all 4 closed loops going, but filled with just RO water for 6 weeks, to flush out and cure the fake live rock. (note the tank was at this time not flowing to the sump system) during this period, the total volume of the tank was changed approximately 4 times to make sure that as much salt as possible was dissolved out of the rock, and pH was monitored as an indicator that the lime had successfully dissolved out of the cement. During this period, it was noted that pH would climb quickly to around 12.2 at its peak, but even on the 4th and 5th weeks, although it remained allot more stable at 8.3, it was noted that there was still a 'slow' background climb, which is why a final flush with RO and a 6th week was deemed sensible. During this last week, the tank ran clear with no climb in pH beyond what would be considered a normal 0.01 rise and fall with fresh RO and no biological activity...in effect, the tank was sterile at this point.

After draining the tank again of this final batch of RO, and refilling with fresh again, it was time to salt the tank up to the required 1.025SG which was left to heat and mix for two days. Then it was time to add the sand layer (in this case Aragamax sugar fine, and Aragamax grand bahama around the rockwork to a depth of approximately 2" deep. This would form the basis of the in tank SSB (shallow sand Bed) to compliment the remote sand bed in the sump.

In this image you can see the tank full, with sand and rock structures in place. Initially the closed loop outlets stand out like a saw thumb, but these will blend in over time as they become grown over with coralline and have various corals and polyps growing over them as well. At this stage as well, the white sterile-ness of the aqua cape was a bit odd to say the least, but as you'll see in later images, this didn't last long.

With the tank Up to temperature and an equal salinity to the sump DSB, it was time to turn on the return pump and get water flowing through the entire system. This was a bit nerve wracking, seeing as the flow rates and volumes through the sump Durso's was still pretty much guesswork on my part. Luckily, everything worked as planned with a good flow from the overflows, through the sump assembly to the sequence 10,000 return pump.  controllable flow through the Rowaphos reactor running 1 kilo of Rowaphos, and a good portion of the main overflow, teed off to the AP702 Skimmer. Top-up was then arranged via an automatic solenoid assisted RO unit (to be covered later) and everything was running nice and smooth.  Overall figures are as follows.

Feeds from the return pump.

To tank -  6-7000lph

To the Rowaphos reactor and strait back to the sump - 1000lph

To the cryptic tank - 500lph

Head loss through friction and head height, approximately 2000lph

.............................................

Total overflow Flow through sump/DSB area - approximately 5-6000lph

Teed off from overflow to skimmer - 2000lph

Obviously at this stage, the system comprised pretty much of a sterile but salted main display tank, connected to a pre-seasoned and prepared DSB. Now although gradual bacterial seeding of the main system would happen quite easily, I decided that as I do with new DSB's, id give the main tank a good thorough seeding to kick start it all off. To do this I used two methods.

Method 1. Seeding with grunge.

To do this I bought 5 kilos of STM's live rock grunge which comprises of biologically highly active LR rubble and the silt from shipping. After turning 'off' the main return pump, but leaving on the main closed loops, this was then scattered and sprinkled throughout the tank. and left to circulate and settle out for a few hours. The main return pump was then switched back on, but the skimmer was shut down for the next 24 hours. This was done to stop the skimmer from skimming out, and larvae and bacteria etc that were in the rubble that may get swept around the system and skimmed out, if it had been left on. Doing it this way ensured that whatever came in the rubble, would have the best chance of settling out to colonise, rather than being removed. After 24 hours, everything was then left to run as normal. Including the lighting being set to normal photo periods.

A bag of STM grunge, in this case 5 kilo's. This was scattered throughout the main display area as a seed.

Method 2. Seeding with Coralline algae.

With allot of new systems, its quite common for the rock to go through a series of algal phases as the system settles down, the worst of which is usually hair algae or bryopsis. It is well known that problem algae has a far harder time attaching to coralline covered rock, compared to bare rock. One way to reduce the possibility of infestation, is to seed the tank with a boost of coralline spores in the hope of faster colonisation.

So with this in mind, I took a trip over to a fellow hobbyists system and we spent a while scraping coralline algae from the side walls of his tank and the heavy encrustations around his closed loop outlets. This was then brought home still in water and blended in a liquidiser until the algae had broken up into a milkshake of water and coralline algae. Much the same as the method above. Main circulation was left running, but the skimmer was turned off for 24 hours to let the algal spores settle out over the rockwork after pouring it into the main tank.

Coralline algae in the blender, going from hard chunks scraped from a viable source, to a milkshake of viable particles that can be thrown into the system to speed up coralline growth.

Over the course of this period, parameters were monitored to assess depletion of Alkalinity and Magnesium into the new sand substrates and rock which was expected. Initial drops over the first few weeks of running were along the lines of 1DkH per day, so it was essential to artificially boost the DkH by way of sodium bicarbonate during this period to keep things stable so that the introduced bacterial, and coralline algae seed, had the best chances of survival. Equally a weekly dose of magnesium sulphate and magnesium Chloride was required in a balanced ratio to keep magnesium levels up. After around 1 month, depletion had settled out to the degree no further dosing was required over and above that used biologically by the introduced coralline algae etc.

2 weeks later, and you can already see the change in the rockwork, as biological life erupts across its surface.

 Now that there is Initial biological growth on the rockwork. and some difference in colour between the sand and rock, you can clearly see the way the rockwork is designed to 'emerge' from the surrounding sand, rather than the traditional appearance of looking as though sitting above. The cloudiness that you can see, are bacterial blooms that occurred during the initial seeding of the tank. This was encouraged to speed up the process. after just a week, this cloudiness had disappeared.

During the course of filling the tank, Id also made a further batch of fake branch rock that would  form a few rubble piles in certain areas. The initial idea behind these areas is that they would give a more realistic representation of a natural reef, where broken coral branches are washed through wave action into the recesses of the reef and up against the bases of larger rock structures, thereby providing a more diverse and intricate environment for micro fauna and any small juvenile fish that would be added later. seeing as I'm a big fan of adding juvenile fish to my set ups with the aim of watching them grow to adult hood, I deemed that these areas would provide a more natural and sheltering environment where these fish could shelter and peck around safe from more aggressive tank mates that would otherwise dominate them too much.

These are images of the branch rock after initial casting, just prior to curing and finally adding to the tank..

Over the course of the next 4-6 weeks, the rockwork and sand went through rapid, but subtle algal phases, firstly a brown coating of diatoms which is pretty inevitable in all new  systems, which lasted just 7 days. Then a small outburst of Cyanobacteria on the sand as it became biologically active, yet again to be expected in my experience as the sand settles and develops the beginnings of stable bacterial aerobic and anaerobic zones. After just 4 weeks, these phases had passed and the system was ready for initial hardy stock. The system was run 100% as it would be normally. No reduction was made to the lighting, and chemistry was kept within normal ranges. The skimmer was running, kept clean and emptied every few days. The SSB started to show good activity in terms of worm trail within just a few weeks, so it was deemed appropriate that a small amount of food should be added every few days just to help this population along. just some small sinking pellet and a bit of frozen food just to boost things along. During this period as well, all parameters remained perfect. I put a large part of the ease of this maturing process, simply down to the pre matured DSB in the sump tower taking care of any spikes etc in ammonia or Nitrite as it did in my previous system.  Jumping forward for a second. As it is now (some 1 year later) , there has never been a discernable 'spike' in the biological parameters since the tank was set up. The system has consistently maintained levels of No3 below 0.1ppm on a Salifert test kit. (yes you read that right) and Po4 levels below 0.008ppm on a Deltec test kit, despite my usual habit of heavy feeding.

Continue to the next page for further updates on initial stocking.