My 65G Shallow Reef Tank

The aiptasia population in my aiptasia scrubber situated in the overflow box of my reef tank is declining slowly as I scrape them to feed my CBB. The short video below shows the CBB on action. Just listen to the crushing sound during decimation. It is rather therapeutic, isn't it? A fellow reefer on a different forum commented that "it sounds like a tazer"

 
Here is another short video. Shortly before recording it, the silver belly wrasse jumped out of the tank while I was uploading the previous video. I was impressed with the distance of its jump.

 
This is one amazing looking tank. I might have to reach out to you and spend a few more hundred to have you make an amazing tank for me. Loving the tank setup.
 
reefmutt said:
That's funny, it does sound like a tazer!
Click to expand...

Despite a taser like sound the CBB made while trying to munch the aiptasia, I think in the end, I have a sneaky suspicion that the file fish had the last laugh. I can clearly see the file swallowing something right at the end of the video.

:beer:
 
Just found this thread. It's all been said before but amazing tank.

If you don't mind, would you be able to provide your fish list as it is now? And if you had any difficulties you may have faced in your experience and how you handled it.

I think one of the biggest distinguishing traits of your tank is the fish load - which from what I've read, almost everyone would say "overstocked". But it's clearly working for you and while corals are beautiful, the fish really draw me to any reef tank and give it a spark of life.

Thanks!
 
AP7x said:
Just found this thread. It's all been said before but amazing tank.

If you don't mind, would you be able to provide your fish list as it is now? And if you had any difficulties you may have faced in your experience and how you handled it.

I think one of the biggest distinguishing traits of your tank is the fish load - which from what I've read, almost everyone would say "overstocked". But it's clearly working for you and while corals are beautiful, the fish really draw me to any reef tank and give it a spark of life.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Thank you for the compliment. I have only a small tank in which sps corals grow every fast. I prefer to carry out deforestation periodically to upgrading. As you mentioned, my tank is full of fish, which is part of my high energy reef strategy, i.e. high nutrient throughput. This has worked really well until recently. For the first time in my reef tank's seven-year history, my corals' growth has stalled and nutrients has never been higher even though their colours still seem plausible. I am not used to this sort of situation, but nevertheless I use these unique circumstances as a learning opportunity. That said, growth is coming back slowly as PO4 levels get closer to 0.1 mg/L. I must mention that I have started to use phosphate absorbers recently after not using any for at least three years.

I have 12 fish in my tank at present. Here is the current stocking list:

  1. yellow tang X 1
  2. evansi anthias X 2
  3. lyretail anthias X 1
  4. royal gramma X 1
  5. file fish X 1
  6. silver belly wrasse X 1
  7. Genicanthus lamarck X 1
  8. Genicanthis bellus X 1
  9. Gneicanthus watanabei X 1
  10. yellow longnose butterflyfish X 1
  11. copperband butterflyfish X 1

Evansi anthias are without doubt the best anthias I ever kept in terms of appearence and behaviour. They are very peaceful. But they were very challenging initially. Even though they appeared to feed in my dealer's tank, feeding them in my tank proved very difficult. I had to purchase special copepods called Ocean Prime Copepods 500-700 um. They are now eating pretty much every frozen food (but never flake) I offer except large pieces, such as large pieces of PE mysis or krill. During this interim period, I lost two of the four fish I originally purchased.

I bought my filefish, which is sps safe, to replace an old filefish that died a few years ago. After its death, aiptasia came back to main display. Initially, the new filefish did not touch any aiptasia, but I trained him by keeping it in my weir, which was full of aiptasia, for several weeks. Once I was convinced that it became an aiptasia terminator, I released it to the main tank. It is a very efficient hunter. I love this fish.

My Genicanthus angelfish are completely reef safe and they are joy to watch. G. bellus is at the bottom of the pecking order and G. lamarck is the boss. He used to be a she. It is a strong fish and chases G. watanabei ferociously from time to time. When I buy new Genicanthus fish, I tend to go for a small female (the smallest size I can get). This way, the chances of bullying is minimised.

In my opinion, lyretail anthias are one of the most aggressive ones. For this reason, I bought only one female. Sadly, she is becoming a male and as a result s/he has started to show aggression towards evansii anthias.

The newest addition is a yellow longnose butterflyfish. It is sps-safe. It does not even touch my only remaining giant feather duster worm. It is a joy to watch.

The most challenging fish of all is, without a doubt, the copperband butterflyfish. She is behind the nutrient spike in my tank. Before I bought her, I ensured that she was feeding on PE mysis in my dealer's tank. She is a large specimen and was collected somewhere in Australian waters. To date, she only eats PE mysis, clams and mussels and nothing else. She is not as agile as the other fish by which I mean she does not move fast and make rapid movements like my other fish do to compete for the food. This is highly annoying. To compensate her deficiency, I either feed the tank more than normal or spot feed her with a long pipet exclusively. Furthermore, when I feed clams and mussels, I freeze these shellfish first and then introduce to the tank. As the shellfish start to defrost their shell start to open slowly. This then gives both the yellow longnose and the copperband an opportunity to use their long snouts to their advantage to gorge on the food while others helplessly look on.

For your information, I feed my fish exclusively on frozen food three times a day. The amount of food I offer is equivalent to 4 cubes or very slightly more (due to PE mysis).

:beer:
 
Thanks for the update. I like your new additions. Your confetti looks the part just like mine when I got it.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
 
Wow thank you for the detailed response. I recently came back to the hobby and based on research, I'm on the high nutrient side as well. Your tank is especially of interest to me because we have a similar size system and I want to do SPS dominant with a higher fish load. My main fish are actually a pair of Watanabei Angelfish, and I'm on the lookout for a small female Bellus to add next - we share the appreciation for Genicanthus angels it seems; overall, your reef is definitely a model for my own and I can learn a lot from your experiences :)

12 fish seem to be on the lower end for you based on past years - earlier in this thread it seems you had up to 21 fish at one point.

Did you decide to reduce the fish count for any particular reason(s) or is it just how the current state of your reef is at? Did you find having upwards to 21 fish caused any notable issues based on your system size?

Thank you for your insights!
 
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AP7x said:
Wow thank you for the detailed response. I recently came back to the hobby and based on research, I'm on the high nutrient side as well. Your tank is especially of interest to me because we have a similar size system and I want to do SPS dominant with a higher fish load. My main fish are actually a pair of Watanabei Angelfish, and I'm on the lookout for a small female Bellus to add next - we share the appreciation for Genicanthus angels it seems; overall, your reef is definitely a model for my own and I can learn a lot from your experiences :)

12 fish seem to be on the lower end for you based on past years - earlier in this thread it seems you had up to 21 fish at one point.

Did you decide to reduce the fish count for any particular reason(s) or is it just how the current state of your reef is at? Did you find having upwards to 21 fish caused any notable issues based on your system size?

Thank you for your insights!
Click to expand...

I have had 13 fish most of the time since September 2015, but I increased the number of fish to 21 only last year after I purchased several different anthias (3 flavoguttatus, 4 evansi and 2 tuka). Sadly, I lost all the flavoguttaus and tukas as well as two of the evansi as I mentioned in my previous post. I could not get tukas eat even after feeding them with the smallest copepods. As for flavoguttus and evansi, they ate really well. So I was puzzled. In addition, all my resplendent anthias have died recently over a period of a few months. I bought them in September 2015. Again, they ate really well and they looked fat, but started to look rather "old" and tired. Could it be old age? I do not know?

Based on my experience, about 13 fish is the optimum number for my tank if I want to manage PO4 without any PO4 adsorbers. If I have over this number, some sort of PO4 adsorber becomes necessary.
 
Ah ok, I guess I was focusing more on the post-2015 info, including your Ultimate Reef TOTM article which included the resplendent anthias. I am sorry to hear about their loss as well as the others. It is especially disappointing when they are eating well and show no signs of distress.

It is interesting that the resplendent suddenly died in a similar time span after a few years of living well. However, from what I've been reading on forums, it seems anthias long term in captivity is a challenge (except maybe the hardiest of them like the lyretail). Even the 3+ years is a mark of success relative to most, and perhaps age was a factor for such a highly active species.

I'm still reading through this thread and finding new things to look into. I appreciate your time and I'll definitely be keeping up with this thread - the longevity and results of the tank are amazing, and the details you provide are more informative than most sources online or otherwise haha.

Looking forward to the updates in 2019!
 
AP7x said:
Ah ok, I guess I was focusing more on the post-2015 info, including your Ultimate Reef TOTM article which included the resplendent anthias. I am sorry to hear about their loss as well as the others. It is especially disappointing when they are eating well and show no signs of distress.

It is interesting that the resplendent suddenly died in a similar time span after a few years of living well. However, from what I've been reading on forums, it seems anthias long term in captivity is a challenge (except maybe the hardiest of them like the lyretail). Even the 3+ years is a mark of success relative to most, and perhaps age was a factor for such a highly active species.

I'm still reading through this thread and finding new things to look into. I appreciate your time and I'll definitely be keeping up with this thread - the longevity and results of the tank are amazing, and the details you provide are more informative than most sources online or otherwise haha.

Looking forward to the updates in 2019!
Click to expand...

Resplendents' death was not sudden like tukas, but it was more like gradual in that they ate less but nevertheless still eagerly a few weeks to a month before their death. Their stomach looked fairly emaciated. May be, internal parasites caused this as they always expelled white and long feaces from the moment they into entered my tank nearly four years ago.
 
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I did some water tests yesterday and today.

NO3: 25 ppm
PO4: 0.25 mg/L

KH: 6.55 dKH
Ca: 435 ppm
Mg: 1320 ppm

Alkalinity dropped 1 dKH over the past seven days. But this has nothing to do with growth. The strength of limewater in my kalkstirrer has weakened as the calcium hydroxide media needs replacing soon. The amount of additional two-part dosing is at its lowest level since I began to use kalkstirrer almost four years ago. This is a good indicator of how slow the coral growth is lately.

Bryopsis keep growing and I keep pruning them weekly. They are seriously testing my patience. There is also some cyanobacteria presence in isolated spots.

FM Ultra Phos is simply maintaining PO4 within a narrow range (typically 0.14-0.25 mg/L depending on how frequently I replace the media) as opposed to reducing it. I have decided to cut down food slightly and start to alternate Ultra Phos with Rowa Phos. I am starting my new strategy tomorrow.

NO3:pO4 ratio is 100:1. Coral colours look saturated and quite good I must admit.

I dose Bacto-Balance at its maximum recommended daily dose (i.e. 1 ml per 100L). I supplement it with A- Balance at its maximum daily recommended dose (i.e. 1 ml per 100L). I also dose Reef Actif at its maximum recommended dose (i.e. 2.5 ml per 250 L three times a week).

Finally, here are some random photos I took earlier this afternoon:

P1120712

P1120716

P1120725

P1120726

P1120731
 
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