Hey everyone
Been in the hobby for awhile, and have had a few tanks and have learned a few lessons along the way. Lately things have been going well but have been wanting to reach out for some critique.
I have smaller reef tank fully stocked with all kinds of corals. It's been set up for a few years now, and I aquascaped it with dry rock. All the corals that I have are either frags or started off as frags. A lot of them are water-welded or glued to the aquascape, but also have a lot of random frags kind of scattered about that I am not sure what to do with as of yet (I'm going to make a separate topic about needing input on coral placement next).
Anyway, let me give ya the lowdown. Here's what I've got going on:
26 Gallon Bowfront
LPS and Softy mixed reef
-Age: 2 years
-Aquascaped with dry rock
-1/2"-3/4" aragonite sandbed
Lighting:
Reefbreeders Value LED
-Channel 1: 13 4500K neutral whites, 6 480nm blue, 6 420nm violet, and 2 660nm deep reds, set to 25% capacity
-Channel 2: 28 450nm royal blues, set to 75% capacity
14 5/8" from top of the tank
Filtration:
-AquaC Remora hang-on-back Protein Skimmer w/ Maxi-jet 1200 Pump
-CPR Aquatics hang-on-back refugium w/ Maxi-Jet 1200 Pump
(As far as the refugium goes, I am not using it to grow macro algae, I just have it because I like having it there for a little extra water volume and using it as more of a quarantine area as needed, storing the heater there, etc)
Additional Equipment:
Two Hydor Blowers, a smaller one and larger one (I don't know RPMs off hand)
They are positioned one in the top left corner facing right and one in the right center facing left (pictures down below). so they're kind of facing eachother.
Inhabitants:
LPS Corals:
-Duncan
-Trumpet
-Candy Cane
-Acan (2)
-Hammer
-Blastomussa
-Goniastrea
Soft Corals:
-Green Button Polyps (Palys, two large colonies)
-Bright Green Mushroom corals
-A small colony of blue polyps (not sure if they're palys or zoas)
-Two frags of misc Zoanthids
-4 misc mushroom frags
-Devil's hand coral
-Toadstool Coral
-Rock Flower anemone
Fish:
-Yellow Banded Possum Wrasse
-Pajama Cardinal
Clean up crew:
-Blood-red fire shrimp
-5 hermit crabs
-3 porcelain crabs
-5 turbo snails
-10+ cerith snails
-an enormous bristleworm
And a partridge in a pear tree. So it's pretty stocked at the moment.
Regular Upkeep:
-Weekly PWCs and regular daily top offs and feedings.
-I feed mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, spirulina, cyclopeeze, zooplankton, phytoplankton, oyster eggs, NLS pellets
-No supplements
Problems I am having:
-Too many crustaceans. Should I get rid of a few of them?
Goals:
-I would like to upgrade my filtration and get a cleaner look. The hang-on back protein skimmer I have had since 2007. I want to add water volume.
-I want to get a lot of the loose frags glued to the aquascape
-Get these corals growing and thriving!
(I'm going to make a separate thread asking more specific advice on each of these)
Alright, so that's about it in a nutshell. Please tell me if there is anything I am doing wrong. I could use the input! I am not on here often but am planning on getting on more so I can learn, looking forward to sharing more experiences! Pictures of my tank below, thanks!
Been in the hobby for awhile, and have had a few tanks and have learned a few lessons along the way. Lately things have been going well but have been wanting to reach out for some critique.
I have smaller reef tank fully stocked with all kinds of corals. It's been set up for a few years now, and I aquascaped it with dry rock. All the corals that I have are either frags or started off as frags. A lot of them are water-welded or glued to the aquascape, but also have a lot of random frags kind of scattered about that I am not sure what to do with as of yet (I'm going to make a separate topic about needing input on coral placement next).
Anyway, let me give ya the lowdown. Here's what I've got going on:
26 Gallon Bowfront
LPS and Softy mixed reef
-Age: 2 years
-Aquascaped with dry rock
-1/2"-3/4" aragonite sandbed
Lighting:
Reefbreeders Value LED
-Channel 1: 13 4500K neutral whites, 6 480nm blue, 6 420nm violet, and 2 660nm deep reds, set to 25% capacity
-Channel 2: 28 450nm royal blues, set to 75% capacity
14 5/8" from top of the tank
Filtration:
-AquaC Remora hang-on-back Protein Skimmer w/ Maxi-jet 1200 Pump
-CPR Aquatics hang-on-back refugium w/ Maxi-Jet 1200 Pump
(As far as the refugium goes, I am not using it to grow macro algae, I just have it because I like having it there for a little extra water volume and using it as more of a quarantine area as needed, storing the heater there, etc)
Additional Equipment:
Two Hydor Blowers, a smaller one and larger one (I don't know RPMs off hand)
They are positioned one in the top left corner facing right and one in the right center facing left (pictures down below). so they're kind of facing eachother.
Inhabitants:
LPS Corals:
-Duncan
-Trumpet
-Candy Cane
-Acan (2)
-Hammer
-Blastomussa
-Goniastrea
Soft Corals:
-Green Button Polyps (Palys, two large colonies)
-Bright Green Mushroom corals
-A small colony of blue polyps (not sure if they're palys or zoas)
-Two frags of misc Zoanthids
-4 misc mushroom frags
-Devil's hand coral
-Toadstool Coral
-Rock Flower anemone
Fish:
-Yellow Banded Possum Wrasse
-Pajama Cardinal
Clean up crew:
-Blood-red fire shrimp
-5 hermit crabs
-3 porcelain crabs
-5 turbo snails
-10+ cerith snails
-an enormous bristleworm
And a partridge in a pear tree. So it's pretty stocked at the moment.
Regular Upkeep:
-Weekly PWCs and regular daily top offs and feedings.
-I feed mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, spirulina, cyclopeeze, zooplankton, phytoplankton, oyster eggs, NLS pellets
-No supplements
Problems I am having:
-Too many crustaceans. Should I get rid of a few of them?
Goals:
-I would like to upgrade my filtration and get a cleaner look. The hang-on back protein skimmer I have had since 2007. I want to add water volume.
-I want to get a lot of the loose frags glued to the aquascape
-Get these corals growing and thriving!
(I'm going to make a separate thread asking more specific advice on each of these)
Alright, so that's about it in a nutshell. Please tell me if there is anything I am doing wrong. I could use the input! I am not on here often but am planning on getting on more so I can learn, looking forward to sharing more experiences! Pictures of my tank below, thanks!
