birdman1979
New member
My fascination with this hobby began during my childhood when my dad took be to what we called the "œclimbing rocks". He was going to school in Monterey and during his study breaks used to take me to the tidal pools to explore. I began the hobby, like most with a freshwater tank. By the time I was 13 or so (in the mid 90's) I had saved enough money through lawn mowing etc. to purchase a 55 gallon tank and set up my first salt water aquarium. It utilized a wet/dry filter with bioballs and the return pump was a hagen 802 power head. My skimmer was a HOB "œcounter current" powered by the return pump and a wooden block airstone. Inhabitants included a tomato clown, a dragon wrasse, and a dwarf lionfish.
The next step was a reef aquarium, and I had many over the years ranging in size from 15 gallons to 75 gallons.
My current aquarium is a 75 gallon with a 40 breeder sump. I've kept both LPS and SPS corals successfully but decided to make this aquarium a LPS focused reef dominated by Euphylia. Here's some of the equipment:
Lighting: TEK 6 bulb front to back:
B+
B+
P+
P+
Super Actinic
P+
Return: Eheim 1262
Flow: (2) Vortech MP40W ES I hardly turn these on"¦ used more when tank was SPS focused.
Skimmer: Bubbleking 180 mini
Reefkeeper elite controls BRS dosers for CA and ALK in addition to heater and light timer.
I had concentrated on SPS exclusively for years, so I seriously overdid lighting, flow and skimming for my LPS tank. I bleached several LPS when first setting up this tank. Since then I have scaled back on the lighting significantly. I no longer run more than four bulbs at once"¦ even that becomes too much so I swapped a B+ out for the Super actinic.
Because the BK is so efficient, I have a really hard time keeping any softies and even my LPS suffer from the ULN environment. Because of this I have increased my feedings tremendously"¦ LPS get target fed 5 cubes of Mysis/brine soaked in AA and multivitamin per week. Fish (Yellow tang, melenarus wrasse, clown, pigmy angel) are fed 2-4 times per day until they are stuffed.
I custom built the stand from solid oak. I swear this thing could hold up a bulldozer.
I've utilized a minimal amount of LR that is currently about 2 years in my custody. When setting up the LPS tank I gave it a good muriatic acid bath to release any built up crud"¦ took about 4 cycles to get clean rock. Now it's very porous.
Current parameters:
Alk: 10.5 "“ 12.5 dkh. It is very stable with the dosing pumps. Started at 10.5 and slowly increased to 12.5 since switching to RSCP salt. I've found this did little for growth as was advertised, so I'm slowly dropping it to NSW levels by reducing the amount of two part I add. Over a 6 week time frame I should be at NSW strength and will switch to regular RS salt.
CA 500
Mag 1450
Nitate is between 0 and 5ppm. Probably closer to 0.
Phosphate is between 0.008 and 0.000 as measured by D&D merc low range phosphate test.
I don't test anything else, b/c corals look great and I do water changes of 20% every week"¦ sometimes every two weeks depending on how the tank looks.
Inverts include:
Vietnam Crocea
Various Hammers and Frogspawn
Blastos
Duncans
Acans
Xenia (grows so slow)
Various montipora
Sunny D zoas (grow very slowly)
I've been adding extra AA and vitamin C to add additional nutrients for the softies but they still struggle. LPS are doing well. Here's an IPhone picture"¦ I'll try to get a better picture soon.
The next step was a reef aquarium, and I had many over the years ranging in size from 15 gallons to 75 gallons.
My current aquarium is a 75 gallon with a 40 breeder sump. I've kept both LPS and SPS corals successfully but decided to make this aquarium a LPS focused reef dominated by Euphylia. Here's some of the equipment:
Lighting: TEK 6 bulb front to back:
B+
B+
P+
P+
Super Actinic
P+
Return: Eheim 1262
Flow: (2) Vortech MP40W ES I hardly turn these on"¦ used more when tank was SPS focused.
Skimmer: Bubbleking 180 mini
Reefkeeper elite controls BRS dosers for CA and ALK in addition to heater and light timer.
I had concentrated on SPS exclusively for years, so I seriously overdid lighting, flow and skimming for my LPS tank. I bleached several LPS when first setting up this tank. Since then I have scaled back on the lighting significantly. I no longer run more than four bulbs at once"¦ even that becomes too much so I swapped a B+ out for the Super actinic.
Because the BK is so efficient, I have a really hard time keeping any softies and even my LPS suffer from the ULN environment. Because of this I have increased my feedings tremendously"¦ LPS get target fed 5 cubes of Mysis/brine soaked in AA and multivitamin per week. Fish (Yellow tang, melenarus wrasse, clown, pigmy angel) are fed 2-4 times per day until they are stuffed.
I custom built the stand from solid oak. I swear this thing could hold up a bulldozer.
I've utilized a minimal amount of LR that is currently about 2 years in my custody. When setting up the LPS tank I gave it a good muriatic acid bath to release any built up crud"¦ took about 4 cycles to get clean rock. Now it's very porous.
Current parameters:
Alk: 10.5 "“ 12.5 dkh. It is very stable with the dosing pumps. Started at 10.5 and slowly increased to 12.5 since switching to RSCP salt. I've found this did little for growth as was advertised, so I'm slowly dropping it to NSW levels by reducing the amount of two part I add. Over a 6 week time frame I should be at NSW strength and will switch to regular RS salt.
CA 500
Mag 1450
Nitate is between 0 and 5ppm. Probably closer to 0.
Phosphate is between 0.008 and 0.000 as measured by D&D merc low range phosphate test.
I don't test anything else, b/c corals look great and I do water changes of 20% every week"¦ sometimes every two weeks depending on how the tank looks.
Inverts include:
Vietnam Crocea
Various Hammers and Frogspawn
Blastos
Duncans
Acans
Xenia (grows so slow)
Various montipora
Sunny D zoas (grow very slowly)
I've been adding extra AA and vitamin C to add additional nutrients for the softies but they still struggle. LPS are doing well. Here's an IPhone picture"¦ I'll try to get a better picture soon.
