My first try at reefing :)

A

abhishek@1985

New member
Hi friends,
With all your help and a few friends here in my country , I have been able to establish a stable system (atleast for the time being) in my first attemt at saltwater tanks..

Here goes the specs :-

Tank :- 24 in x 15 inch(W) x 12 inch (H)
Sump :- 24 in x 12 inch(W) x 12 inch (H)
Lights :- 70 W BLV Ushio 10000K and 36 W actinic pll (DIY fixture)
Circulation :- Sicce Syncra 2000 ltrs/hr return pump and Sunsun 3000 ltr per hour powerhead (Its a chinese but doing its job) 3000 ltrs per hour
Filteration :- Reef Octopus NW-110 and refugium with cheato and ofcourse vodka :wildone:
Liverocks came free from an experienced reefer .. Can't thank him much for cured free live rocks of 15 kg
Chiller :- Hailea 300 A

Coral :- 1 Tubastrea.
1 brown zoanthid
1 Discosoma sp.
1 Tubanaria Paltata
1 Cyphastrea
1 GSP
1 green mushroom

Fish :- 1 clown and 1 yellow watchman goby...

Pics to follow :-

The tank :)

DSC01639.jpg


Tubastrea

DSC01614.jpg


Brown Zoanthid

DSC01621.jpg


Discosoma

DSC01632.jpg


Cyphastrea (I dont know much , just a wild guess) and GSP

DSC01635.jpg


10 % water change done every week ....

Future plans :-

Want to go into sps as everyone does.. But cant decide whether to go for 4x24 W T5 HO DIY fixture or 150 W metal halide...

Plaese do criticise so that I can improve for 1 day I also wanna see the tank atleast half good looking like all other tanks here... :)
 
It is an excellent first attempt. While I do keep SPS mainly, I love LPS, NPS and softie tanks. A lot of people jump into SPS too quickly and eventually end up with dead corals and parameter issues. Keep doing what your doing and down the road I am sure you will successful transition to SPS.
 
Well I can't explain how happy I am to hear some good words from you. Well my parameters are well within the range and thus was thinking on moving to sps in a couple of months...

As for the lights , I really like the shimmer of the metal halides but the colour combo available in T5 s are immense..However, good T5s are unavailable here in India ...so was thinking of MH

Will be great if you can pour some light onto the ID of the coral I think to be Cyphastrea...
 
Abhi, it is a turbanaria sp., and neat first attempt.

And dont forget to dust off the dirt (either manually or using more flow in the system) settled on the LR to enable corraline growth.. otherwise soon it will be algae all over it...

you need more light i suppose.... 150W with some T5 Supplements will do the trick, but do watch out for the heat generated by MH's...
 
Aha PK..thanks a lot for the info..
Can't thank you much for the lovely live rocks..

Well 150 W MH and T5 supplements will be really hot..I was feeling of goinf=g with 4 - 6 ATI tubes in a DIYed fixture..Won't 4-6 ATI tubes do the trick?


Yeah do need to have to introduce more random flow in the tank if I do intend to go for sps ever..
 
You don't need a 150 watt MH and T5 supplementation, especially for what corals you have now. I am growing SPS well and have 96 watts of T5HO in a 28 gallon. What you have now, for lighting, will probably do the trick, especially since you have only 12 inches of water.

How often are you feeding your sun coral?
 
I think the light is perfectly fine for what you have now. If you decide to start keeping SPS, I would keep them near the top and directly under the light. If you want to keep them other places, I would consider upgrading the lights.

Great start!
 
If I were to do an upgrade, I would skip directly to LEDS since they are adjustable. Great looking tank and good luck. You newbies have it so easy now. When myself and many others on here started, we would have had to wait months to add corals.
 
Thanks Maverick,Jason and theshocker for the great replies...

Well I donot intend to grow sps everywhere in my tank..Just a little bit of it..
So have come up with a small plan :-

Option1 :- Two ATI Blue plus on either end of the mh --- So 2 T5 and 1 70 W mh.
Option 2 :- 4Four ATI tubes -- 2 Blueplus , 1 Aquablue special and 1 GE 6500 K bulb..

Let me know which sounds better..

@Maverick , I wish I could move to LEDs..but the cost is right now too high for me..
 
@TheShocker
I feed my sun coral everyday atleast twice with cyclopzee and frozen brine shrimp through target feeding..

@Maverick,
It was all the hard work that you guys did in the past ..So it has become easy for newbies like us...
 
i like ur tank ur doing good
all this new crap is makeing my head swim
am just now setting a tank back up after 17 years a way from reef tanks
 
I would stick with the MH since you already have it and just go with 2 T5. The blue+ are great bulbs and put out a ton of par. Just make sure you go with high quality reflectors and a great ballast and those 2 T5 will do great with the MH
 
Well I found them not that tough to keep..
I feed them regularly once with frozen cyclopzee and once with brine shrimps frozen and taget fed... They seem happy and are open almost everytime I see them..
 
As I am planning to try a few sps, I have made a 4x24 W T5 HO fixture with individual reflectors and osram ballast and 4 CPU coolong fans for the 4 T5s .However, confused with the bulb combo . The bulbs I have at hand are :-

Option 1 :-

ATI Blueplus.
Osram/Philips/GE 6500 K.
ATI Blueplus.
Osram/Philips/GE 6500 K.

Option 2 :-
ATI Blueplus.
Osram/Philips/GE 6500 K.
True Actinic
ATI Blueplus.


Let me know which will be better for my sps....
 
Things have changed a lot..

Right now I am fighting an algae breakout and execss bacteria due to carbon dosing.. Have a few sps..

The birdsnest is not doing well as I have wrongly placed it under high lights..

Have moved it today down.. Anyways here's the recent FTS before moving the birdsnest..

Photo0024.jpg
 
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