Thought I could edit my original post to save space -_-.
Anyways, the tank is 125G with 40g Breeder sump in the closet behind it. Most of the tank is custom done with a coast to coast overflow, and external overflow box to save space on the inside of the tank. Whole project took about 6 months to build and put together. Tank took about a week to cycle, but I'm chalking that up to the macro algae doing what it was made to do.
Lighting x4 MarsAqua 165W LEDS 50% power white, 75% power Blues, run for about 12 hours a day.
Rio pump 1900GPH
Coralife Pro Skimmer
The sump is just 2 6500k Lowes grow bulbs that are on opposite time the tank, to help with CO2 and PH balancing during night.
The whole setup is actually reallllly basic, no calc reactor, I do run carbon from time to time using a dual reaction.
I dose a "special" mix of fertilizer, contains lots of macro and micro ferts. I've been experimenting with Iron/Potassium. I've noticed leather corals seem to love potassium for some reason, they expand much more after regular dosing. The entire mix contains, nitrate, iron, calcium, potassium, phosphates. I dose 300ml of this concoction 3 days a week. Basically taking everything I was experimenting with on fresh water that worked, and applying it to macro algae. However this time around I will NOT be using injected CO2, it is too much of a risk for little reward. Old freshwater planted tanks I ran had major failures when needle valves on CO2 tanks would push open and expel an entire 5 months of CO2 into a tank in half an hour.
Current live stock:
2 Snowflake Clowns
2 RBTAs
1 Green Spotted Mandarin
1 Starry Blenny "Favorite fish"
1 BA Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
1 Yellow Flanked Wrasse
2 Solar Wrasse male/female
2 Damsels
Misc corals, will list later. Xenia, GSP, Sunny D's, Rainbow Zoas, nothing crazy fancy.
Some pictures below
. Will update as I see changes, growth recording, recommendations, etc. I'd really like more people to get into the untouched macro algae side of reefing, right now even with my purposeful dosing of phosphates and nitrates, I am still getting decent growth on some SPS. I'll try to answer any questions, but I have a very "chef" approach to my tank, splash of this, pinch of that, watch the results, looks good, do it again, kind of thing.
Sump Setup
Went with a center return and outer refugium style setup. I wanted the return water from the tank to be skimmed and "stewed" in the sump at the same time. I also need left over organics to flow into the refugium to feed the Caulerpa.
Example of 1 week Growth of mermaid fan.
