75g Reef from Istanbul/Turkey

[tyuksel]

Hello from Turkey, I have been a freshwater aquarist for 2 decades and have recently ventured into saltwater hobby. I ordered my tank and equipment in June after a lot of reading and researching. The tank has been up since end of June and is a work and education in progress. I hope to learn and get input from contributors around the world from this forum.
For now it's a mixed reef which I hope will become more sps dominated eventually.
Below you can find my equipment list and the pictures of the tank at various stages of setup and stocking.

Tank
Display Tank
Size: 90cm x 50cm x 55cm(h) ~ 230 lt 10mm glass.
Sump
Size: 80cm x 45cm x 45cm(h) 6mm glass.
30x45x27(h) skimmer and drain area ~ 36 lt
30x45x25(h) return
20x45x40(h) refugium - ~ 36 lt
ATO Tank
Size: 38cm x 5cm x 60cm (h) - ~ 9 lt

Lighting
Display
ATI Sunpower 6x39w T5 with
3 x Giesemann Actinic+
2 x Giesemann Aquablue+
1 x Korallenzucht Fiji Purple
Stand& Refugium lighting
2 x 18w linkable fluorescent units (refugium)
2 x 18w linkable fluorescent units (stand illumination)

The lights are 6400K very suitable for algea growth. I use the same unit for the stand but with diffuser to give a less disturbing light. I plan to add more light for refugium by adding an extra unit.

Rocks & Sand
~30kg of Coral Reef Aragonite live sand for DT (1") and refugium (3").
Korallenwelt ceramic rocks
9 kg of cured live rock to seed

Other Equipment
Protein Skimmer: Bubble Magus NAC-6
Return Pump: AquaBee 2000/1
Circulation: 2 x Tunze 6055 controlled by Tunze 7096 USB Controller
Heating: 100W & 50W Jager Heaters
Chiller: DIY Fans
ATO: Drip dosing with Balling Method KH Blend
R/O: ZATEK RO/DI

Test Equipment and Test Kits
Vertex Refractometer
HM TDS Meter
Hanna pHep 5 PH Meter
HANNA HI 713 "“ Phosphate
HANNA HI 755 "“ Marine Alkalinity
HANNA HI 758 "“ Marine Calcium
Elos Mg
Elos NO3
Tropic Marin Ca/Mg
Tropic Marin KH

Additives
Brightwell Aquatics Microbacter 7 (initial cycling)
Prodibio Biodigest (bi-weekly)
Hagen Active Carbon
Seachem Purigen
Reeflowers KH Blend
Reeflowers Ca Blend
Reeflowers Mg Blend
Reeflowers Ionic Balancer and Treace Elements
Reeflowers Nitrate Warrior

Current stock list
Fish
2x Premnas biaculeatus
1x Salarias fasciatus
3x Chromis viridis
1x Paracanthurus hepatus
1x Cryptocentrus cinctus
1x Stonogobiops nematodes
1x Nemateleotris decora
2x Gobiodon okinawae
Inverts
4x Lysmata amboinensis
2x Lysmata debelius
1x Lysmata wurdemanni
1x Calcinus elegans
5x Paguristes cadenati
6x Strombus alatus
6x Turbo fluctuosus
6x Nassarius arcularius
1x Bispira variegata
Corals
It's a mixed reef at the moment with LPS like Euphyllia species, Acans, Candycane.. Some softies like Ricordeas.. And some SPS like montiporas and birds nest"¦..

Pictures (Progress)
Below is the progress of how tank looks. I have made a major change since last shooting but haven't taken tanks pictures since then. I will update it as soon as I can.

2011/07/12
3 weeks after setup, cycling almost complete

2011/07/28
Cycling complete. Some livestock added"¦

2011/08/16
More livestock added..

2011/09/25

 

[tyuksel]

Macro Shots

 

[zaheda]

Nice to see such a beautiful tank from Turkey, well done man.

 

[tyuksel]

Thanks

Some information about the water parameters which i keep stable by balling method using Reeflowers (a local Turkish product) and bi weekly water changes (%15)

pH 8,09
sg 1025
KH 10,5
Ca 400 (TM Ca/Mg)
Mg 1300 (TM Ca/Mg)
NO3 < 5ppm
PO4 0,3 ppm

I had some issues with dinos after my PO4 dropped to 0 but it disappeared after dosing H2O2 for a week (1ml/gallon). The only problem i have at the moment is loss of coloration on open brain coral and the plate coral. They are a lighter shade of color compared to when i got them. I dont know the cause..

 

[doctorgori]

hello from the USA TO Turkey.....nice tank

 

[Sherrf1]

Love your tank. Great pictures.

 

[Fletchlives]

Agreed, those pics are very nice

 

[maroun.c]

Nice tank. Where in Turkey are you located ?

 

[Jvak]

great pictures! Thanks for sharing

 

[ultraxr]

very nice build. I love the simplicity of your system.

 

[Sk8r]

Guli guli---which is the limit of my Turkish, besides the ability to order two Coca-colas---but that is a very beautiful system. [welcome]

 

[tyuksel]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys,

@maroun.c , i live in Istanbul

 

[jplater]

just to be clear, not Constantinople, right?

 

[baja_driver]

nice setup looks very good

 

[tyuksel]

thanks, i am still learning..
anyone has inputs on why the brain coral asnd plate corals colors are getting lighter?

@jplatter, Constantine was a great leader of his time.. The city he found is still the jewel of the world but as the song goes, Its Istanbul not Constantinople

 

[tyuksel]

Here is the latest picture of the tank.. looks more like a frag tank at the moment..

 

[snow flake]

Nice tank and some good pics of the coral and fish!

 

[ocmikep]

Looks great now and will look even better after some more growth! Looking forward to some more progress shots in the future.

 

[tyuksel]

a minor update...

 

[tyuksel]

The SPS and the LPS in the tank grow out nicely. However i have an issue with the Zoas. They have lost their colors and faded to a lighter shade. I had a problem with high Mg for a week. I misdosed and it raised from 1360 to 1420 within a day. Can this have caused it?

You can find some pictures below and in my album

Anthias

Reinhard's goby

FTS