50 Gallon Soft Coral Tank

[Funkateer_2]

Enjoy!

The tank is 36x18x18 with a low iron front panel. It uses and Elos Planet II with 2x 150w Radium 20k halides and 4 x 39w T5 bulbs. I have KZ Revolution S skimmer and a Zeolite filter for filtration. Vertex Libra Doser for elements, and 1/2 HP chiller keeping the tank at 72-74 Degrees for the subtropical Japanese Fish.

Obligatory 'Under the Hood' pic.

Here is the fish list...

- Burgess Butterfly
- Flame Angel Pair (spawning every dusk... I have a few ideas to isolate them into a new tank for some experiments...)
- Percula Clown Pair (Spawns every few weeks)
- Sixline Wrasse Pair (No visible spawning but they never leave each other's side)
- Radiant Wrasse
- Peppermint Hog
- Leopard Wrasse
- Japanese Plesiops (plesiops oxycephalus) (attempted to pair this fish, but the female disappeared)
- Japanese Girdled Goby (Istigobius ornatus)

I plan to add a few more butterflies to the mix. I introduced a Heniochus chrysostomus after a lengthy QT. It ate great but just randomly passed away out of the blue. Pretty common for the species.

 

[Funkateer_2]

The pictures didn't work and it won't let me go back an edit...

 

[Funkateer_2]

It won't let me go back and edit the tread. Looks like the pictures didn't work

 

[Dino]

You'll need to upload your pictures to a different photo host. Then you should be good to go. We had to block that site due to the manner in which they use and recycle URLs - pictures of an adult nature kept appearing on here.

 

[Funkateer_2]

Hopefully the pictures work now...

 

[Funkateer_2]

 

[Funkateer_2]

I absolutely love this thing

 

[BigCountry74]

Your coral looks very well kept. Good job!

 

[cloak]

Very nice!

What is that yellow & pink coral in the second picture above? Lamnalia? Has this been relatively easy to keep or somewhat temperamental?

 

[Funkateer_2]

Very nice!

What is that yellow & pink coral in the second picture above? Lamnalia? Has this been relatively easy to keep or somewhat temperamental?

Yes its a Lemnalia. It seems to need strong flow to help it inflate properly.

The tank used to be SPS dominated but a sudden drop in PO4 (I used GFO with the zeolite, dropped nutrients too quick) caused rapid tissue death, so I removed them before they were all lost. I decided to do something different with the tank. Less reef safe fish and fast growing softies.

Here it was back about 9 months ago

 

[Funkateer_2]

A little update.... Tank is doing really well.

Lights off but you can see how it sits in the room.

 

[Mcgeezer]

Looking good...don't see too many softy dominant tanks.

 

[Daniel62]

Great Tank, softies are wonderful

 

[joshky]

Very cool tank! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Funkateer_2]

Some photo updates... Everything is going well.

 

[Devaji108]

yessss....I love a well keep sofite tank! doing one right now And all these pics keep poping up ...haha great job sir!!
can you give us tank info. feeding schedule lighting etc.

 

[Funkateer_2]

yessss....I love a well keep sofite tank! doing one right now And all these pics keep poping up ...haha great job sir!!
can you give us tank info. feeding schedule lighting etc.

I feed live phytoplankton, selco, mysis, LRS food, KZ Coral Vitalizer, and KZ sponge power usually everyday. I skip feedings as time dictates. I mix it all together and leave the skimmer off usually for the next 12 hours.

I add the following for upkeep.

- Tropic Marin Balling Additives A,B,C fed on a Vertex Libra Dosing Pump
- KZ Zeostart .2mL daily, 500mL of Zeolite stones in a reactor. The tank is on the Zeovit System and has been for over 3 years.
- Coral Snow and Zeobak usually 3 times a week.
- I change 10-15 gallons once or twice a month with natural sea water.

The T5's (3 x ATI Blue+ and 1x ATI Coral +) are on for 10 hours a day and the halides (Radium 20k) are on for about 3 hours a day.

 

[visualscapes]

Very cool tank. I'd love to get a Burgess butterfly, but I enjoy my LPS too much.

 

[Funkateer_2]

Very cool tank. I'd love to get a Burgess butterfly, but I enjoy my LPS too much.

The poor man's Declivis, and really poor man's Tink.

I will say this, in a small tank (50 gallons) with just one daily feeding, he has been nothing but a model citizen, not one polyp nipped. The flame angels are coral death dealers and really are the reason I stopped keeping SPS corals.

If you can get your hands on a healthy specimen i'd definitely gamble with one in any reef tank.

 

[Funkateer_2]

Milky post water change/coral snow picture

I should reeeeeally scrape this coraline

My water change assistant

The Goby