bigmikey80
New member
Hello everyone! I have been silently scouring this forum since May '12 and have started my own reef tank. I will do my best to describe and show it to you here. I would love some feedback and constructive advice if anyone has some to offer!
So it all started when a friend gave my wife her 55gal aquarium for free, it was a freshwater set up...but we knew we did not want a freshwater tank and my wife's brother is very into reefing and has been a great asset along our journey!
This build was started in early June of '12 so it has around 7 months of solid life, it has had it's nasty cycle and crazy blooms but things are really starting to stabilize and its quite wonderful now.
Specs:
55gal non drilled tank (on a proper stand)
hanging overflow box
Aqueon Proflex Model 2 Sump 17.4gal
Coralife Superskimmer 65g
Rio 8HF return pump
Eco-tech Vortech MP40W powerhead
Marineland 600 powerhead
Marineland 1200 powerhead (replaced by MP40)
Wavepoint 48" T5 HO fixture-2 daylight and 2 actinic
Wavepoint Blue LED moonlight
Dual timer powerstrip
Eheim 150W heater in sump
medium Magfloat glass cleaner
That pretty much sums up the mechanicals of this build for now.
Eco system:
roughly 58 gal of salt water (Tropic Marin salt used)
85 pounds of live rock
ball of Chaeto in sump
2" of miracle mud in sump
1.5 inches of sand bed
-All parameters are tested each Friday
-10% water change conducted every Sunday with new water tested prior to change
-Salinity tested every other day
-temp maintained 78-82 deg f
-Evap is around a gallon a day, replenished with RO in sump
So that is pretty much the low down on our reef. I know it isnt the most amazing thing since sliced bread but it has been a captivating and incredible learning adventure for us.
Now for the citizens of the ecosystem:
-please bear with me on the names as I am still learning what is what
Fish - fed frozen brine, nori, and flake in rotation
1 - Green chromis
1 - Red firefish goby
1 - Potter's Angel
Critters
1 - large tan emerald crab
10 - mexican turbo snails
3 - margarita snails
1 - astrea star snail
2 - brown blotch snails
tons of brittle stars
tons of the white small starfish
1 - longspine sea urchin
2 - peppermint shrimp
10 - hermit crabs
1 - Vietnam Cr. clam
1 - brown squamosa clam
Corals
1 - small hammercoral
1 - small frogspawn
1 - medium bright green frogspawn
3 - small colonies of candy cane coral
1 - medium bright green trumpet coral
1 - small toadstool leather coral
1 - small bali green slimer
1 - small red dragon
1 - small pacman
2 - small bonzai
1 - small brown pocillipora
1 - small green bottle brush
1 - small red closed brain
1 - small green closed brain
3 - different types of mushrooms (purple smooth, pink bumpy, red bumpy)
1 - large pink zoa colony
1 - large green zoa colony
1 - small paletta blue
1 - small hydanaphora
1 - small montipora digitata
That is pretty much everything I can think of right now. aside from whatever randomness is crawling around like copepods and bristleworms and whatnot. I will try to post up pictures in the correct stage timeline.
So it all started when a friend gave my wife her 55gal aquarium for free, it was a freshwater set up...but we knew we did not want a freshwater tank and my wife's brother is very into reefing and has been a great asset along our journey!
This build was started in early June of '12 so it has around 7 months of solid life, it has had it's nasty cycle and crazy blooms but things are really starting to stabilize and its quite wonderful now.
Specs:
55gal non drilled tank (on a proper stand)
hanging overflow box
Aqueon Proflex Model 2 Sump 17.4gal
Coralife Superskimmer 65g
Rio 8HF return pump
Eco-tech Vortech MP40W powerhead
Marineland 600 powerhead
Marineland 1200 powerhead (replaced by MP40)
Wavepoint 48" T5 HO fixture-2 daylight and 2 actinic
Wavepoint Blue LED moonlight
Dual timer powerstrip
Eheim 150W heater in sump
medium Magfloat glass cleaner
That pretty much sums up the mechanicals of this build for now.
Eco system:
roughly 58 gal of salt water (Tropic Marin salt used)
85 pounds of live rock
ball of Chaeto in sump
2" of miracle mud in sump
1.5 inches of sand bed
-All parameters are tested each Friday
-10% water change conducted every Sunday with new water tested prior to change
-Salinity tested every other day
-temp maintained 78-82 deg f
-Evap is around a gallon a day, replenished with RO in sump
So that is pretty much the low down on our reef. I know it isnt the most amazing thing since sliced bread but it has been a captivating and incredible learning adventure for us.
Now for the citizens of the ecosystem:
-please bear with me on the names as I am still learning what is what
Fish - fed frozen brine, nori, and flake in rotation
1 - Green chromis
1 - Red firefish goby
1 - Potter's Angel
Critters
1 - large tan emerald crab
10 - mexican turbo snails
3 - margarita snails
1 - astrea star snail
2 - brown blotch snails
tons of brittle stars
tons of the white small starfish
1 - longspine sea urchin
2 - peppermint shrimp
10 - hermit crabs
1 - Vietnam Cr. clam
1 - brown squamosa clam
Corals
1 - small hammercoral
1 - small frogspawn
1 - medium bright green frogspawn
3 - small colonies of candy cane coral
1 - medium bright green trumpet coral
1 - small toadstool leather coral
1 - small bali green slimer
1 - small red dragon
1 - small pacman
2 - small bonzai
1 - small brown pocillipora
1 - small green bottle brush
1 - small red closed brain
1 - small green closed brain
3 - different types of mushrooms (purple smooth, pink bumpy, red bumpy)
1 - large pink zoa colony
1 - large green zoa colony
1 - small paletta blue
1 - small hydanaphora
1 - small montipora digitata
That is pretty much everything I can think of right now. aside from whatever randomness is crawling around like copepods and bristleworms and whatnot. I will try to post up pictures in the correct stage timeline.
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