reefmatenate
New member
first off i want to tell everyone on here thanks.. people like mr Farley who have inspired me to get better at this hobby and to take my time with proper husbandry and responsible reefing. in my ten years of being in this hobby. the only thing I've ever lost was a small yellow goniopora because of it being harassed by my clownfish. everything else has been studied for at least a week before its addition to my reef... my current setup is as follows. positive comments or questions are always welcome. and if anyone in the lafayette indiana area would like to do some trading or needs help with their reef setups I'm always willing to lend a hand...
current setup
75 gallon marineland tank
eshopps overflow
eshopps wet/dry with bioballs ( they do work despite research if u have proper high flow)
40 gallon breeder as a sump/refuge
equipment:
:[euroreef-rs80 skimmer]
also: [aquatic life 115 mini skimmer]. as a backup just incase i have a bioload increase when adding new creatures i kick this one on for a few days just to help stabilize.
:[ knopp calcium reactor] (picked this up for 50 bucks!) still dialing it in but man is it helping my corals take right off!!
:[aqua medic 1000 watt titanium heater]
: [ranco 1000 watt titanium heater with custom wired monitor] this was designed to help keep the water temp spot on to within a 1/100th of a degree and it works well
:[ Via aqua titanium heater] i know this is redundancy but this heater is a failsafe. I've had to many heater issues in the past with reliability so i keep this one wired to my emergency battery back up switched devices incase of a power outage or heater failure.
circulation is provided by the following
: [mag 12] for my sump return ran into a squid for random flow designed to switch every 1/35 seconds
: [aqueon 500] pumps two on either side for a total of 4 in the display tank. hooked into my red sea wave master pro along with the mag 12 the pumps push on one side of the tank then switch. creating an awesome perfect wave action. this i have found to be the best way to keep out dead spots throughout the tank. without ending with a swirly flow found in most reef setups.
:[penguin350 biofilter] i know these things are issue filled. but i run different phosphate control and granulated media for keeping down nitrates and such. its cleaned once or twice a week depending on needs. and has kept everything in check. also a great breeding place for pods.
all of the flow is centralized into my red sea wave master pro to create different wave cycles. i switch this system on its 4 different modes every day that way my flow is always changing. letting the corals grow dynamically and weird shapes evolve.
all of these electronics are tied to a drip loop and ran to dual belkin waterproof dual fused powerstrips and connected in my house to a dedicated to my tank electric box.:bounce1::bounce1::bounce1::bounce1:
some of the things i used to keep my tank running are as follows things we all shouldn't be without in order to keep a tank running well
"sybon refractometer" best on the market imho this thing is very accurate and easy to calibrate
HM TDS built in line meter showing 0.1 on the ol meter i change filters once a month. however my city water is of high enough quality to not use a RODI and for 3 years i didn't. i just wanted more gadgets lol
coralifes 4 stage RODI along with a home made pre filter that goes through six more stages of carbon to be 100% sure my water is perfect... i think this is why I've never had an algae outbreak or ever had an issue with any problems of stability. don't put into your tank what you think might cause issues in the future. and success will be yours!
i also use a custom switch box that is waterproof designed for large boats. I found this when i was back home in Clearwater Florida at a yacht store. these switches are amazing and can handle 30 amps a piece if you want each switch has its own fuse.
feeding....
every day i feed one cube of mysis. one live shrimp to my volitans lion fish and a small pinch of each of the biopellets to my reef fishes. i use a mixture of spectrums large, small medium and other flake/pellet foods for my fish and I've never ever had a fish disease or fish die on me (knock on wood)
every 3rd day is the big feeding day heres my recipe'
in one large dixie cup i mix
garlic extract
fish gumdrops which contain, bloodworms, mysis, a tang and veggie mixture for the surgeonfish, krill, silversides, oyster feast, mysis, clams, and a few other home made goodies a friend of mine in tampa makes and ships to me.
each item is fed through a turkey baster to each coral head individually with the pumps around 730 at night right before the dusk setting on my tank kicks in. all the pumps are disabled in the tank for 6 hours so the corals and fish can consume as much food as needed. and the corals slime can be expelled and retracted. which imho is the proper way corals use to get their colors. Ive also been experimenting with carbon dosing and even other color up your coral methods.... we shall see!!
fat happy fish= lots of poo= lots of happy reproducing corals and other lil hidden goodies
finally maintenance... yay... ? :uzi:
every day water is slowly dripped from the RODI into a holding tank and then slowly pushed through my calcium reactor and added drop by drop for a total of 1 gallon top off per day every day... every third day is a 3 gallon water change done with the new AQUAVITRO salt and other supplements. every single day around 7 at night i clean every sock and pre foam filters for the overflow and other media. a simple rinse in the sink. take it outside and wind dry it and then back in the tank... that keeps gunk from building up...
i also. get this "hand feed" my volitans lion fish. yep i know I've been stung once and am very very careful. i get his attention by dangling a piece of krill or life fish in front of him once he sees it. he swims to the surface. and gently will take it from my hands. by no means would i recommend this. the sting can be excruciatingly painful!
finally my fish list.please don't harass me on this. my fish are not at all stressed and if they get to big I always DONATE them back to a place in terre haute indiana that has a main display of over 1000 gallons for my fish. which he gives me store credit towards a smaller species of my choice. like i stated i research and have always had success with any species I've had with no stress or fighting amongst the tank mates
1 small volitans lion fish I've had him for 3 months
1 adult orange shoulder tang I've had for over a year now
mated pair of oscellaris clowns which breed quite regularly. but the other fish eat the eggs before i have had a chance to cultivate them... soon i hope
niger triggerfish. this dude is the calmest niger I've ever owned he's always hiding or relaxing and is very docile for his species. been in the tank for 3 months now and is such a pig when it comes to dinner time
adult lunar wrasse... of all my fish this dude is my favorite. he's probably the most anxious fish and swims so fast but most of the time he just relaxes on the bottom of the rock shelf waiting to be fed...and when i put my hand in the tank he follows my fingers everywhere hoping i'll turn up a bristle worm or something
baby sail fin tang... I've had this guy since december. he's a voracious algae eater and loves algae clips and fresh veggies when i add them once a month. he's a beautiful specimen and has a perfect sail
i have around 50 blue legs and around 60 assorted small snails and such. two cleaner shrimp also a horseshoe crab thats about 3 years old and still very small. i also have a blue pistol shrimp.. very rare that was collected in indonesia from a friend of mine there. along with most of my live rock. which is cultured stuff out there. and i have two diamond bar gobies that keep my sand gorgeous as well
finally my newest edition which will be getting his own 65 gallon sand bed tank is a bamboo shark egg.... for now he's still an egg id say he's around 2 weeks from hatching... i know these guys get pretty huge. and i plan on donating him to someone once he's to big or if he is even stressed a tiny bit. Ive raised 5 of these guys to be around a year old at the largest 1.5 feet they are very intelligent and i look forward to this being another gorgeous addition
current setup
75 gallon marineland tank
eshopps overflow
eshopps wet/dry with bioballs ( they do work despite research if u have proper high flow)
40 gallon breeder as a sump/refuge
equipment:
:[euroreef-rs80 skimmer]
also: [aquatic life 115 mini skimmer]. as a backup just incase i have a bioload increase when adding new creatures i kick this one on for a few days just to help stabilize.
:[ knopp calcium reactor] (picked this up for 50 bucks!) still dialing it in but man is it helping my corals take right off!!
:[aqua medic 1000 watt titanium heater]
: [ranco 1000 watt titanium heater with custom wired monitor] this was designed to help keep the water temp spot on to within a 1/100th of a degree and it works well
:[ Via aqua titanium heater] i know this is redundancy but this heater is a failsafe. I've had to many heater issues in the past with reliability so i keep this one wired to my emergency battery back up switched devices incase of a power outage or heater failure.
circulation is provided by the following
: [mag 12] for my sump return ran into a squid for random flow designed to switch every 1/35 seconds
: [aqueon 500] pumps two on either side for a total of 4 in the display tank. hooked into my red sea wave master pro along with the mag 12 the pumps push on one side of the tank then switch. creating an awesome perfect wave action. this i have found to be the best way to keep out dead spots throughout the tank. without ending with a swirly flow found in most reef setups.
:[penguin350 biofilter] i know these things are issue filled. but i run different phosphate control and granulated media for keeping down nitrates and such. its cleaned once or twice a week depending on needs. and has kept everything in check. also a great breeding place for pods.
all of the flow is centralized into my red sea wave master pro to create different wave cycles. i switch this system on its 4 different modes every day that way my flow is always changing. letting the corals grow dynamically and weird shapes evolve.
all of these electronics are tied to a drip loop and ran to dual belkin waterproof dual fused powerstrips and connected in my house to a dedicated to my tank electric box.:bounce1::bounce1::bounce1::bounce1:
some of the things i used to keep my tank running are as follows things we all shouldn't be without in order to keep a tank running well
"sybon refractometer" best on the market imho this thing is very accurate and easy to calibrate
HM TDS built in line meter showing 0.1 on the ol meter i change filters once a month. however my city water is of high enough quality to not use a RODI and for 3 years i didn't. i just wanted more gadgets lol
coralifes 4 stage RODI along with a home made pre filter that goes through six more stages of carbon to be 100% sure my water is perfect... i think this is why I've never had an algae outbreak or ever had an issue with any problems of stability. don't put into your tank what you think might cause issues in the future. and success will be yours!
i also use a custom switch box that is waterproof designed for large boats. I found this when i was back home in Clearwater Florida at a yacht store. these switches are amazing and can handle 30 amps a piece if you want each switch has its own fuse.
feeding....
every day i feed one cube of mysis. one live shrimp to my volitans lion fish and a small pinch of each of the biopellets to my reef fishes. i use a mixture of spectrums large, small medium and other flake/pellet foods for my fish and I've never ever had a fish disease or fish die on me (knock on wood)
every 3rd day is the big feeding day heres my recipe'
in one large dixie cup i mix
garlic extract
fish gumdrops which contain, bloodworms, mysis, a tang and veggie mixture for the surgeonfish, krill, silversides, oyster feast, mysis, clams, and a few other home made goodies a friend of mine in tampa makes and ships to me.
each item is fed through a turkey baster to each coral head individually with the pumps around 730 at night right before the dusk setting on my tank kicks in. all the pumps are disabled in the tank for 6 hours so the corals and fish can consume as much food as needed. and the corals slime can be expelled and retracted. which imho is the proper way corals use to get their colors. Ive also been experimenting with carbon dosing and even other color up your coral methods.... we shall see!!
fat happy fish= lots of poo= lots of happy reproducing corals and other lil hidden goodies
finally maintenance... yay... ? :uzi:
every day water is slowly dripped from the RODI into a holding tank and then slowly pushed through my calcium reactor and added drop by drop for a total of 1 gallon top off per day every day... every third day is a 3 gallon water change done with the new AQUAVITRO salt and other supplements. every single day around 7 at night i clean every sock and pre foam filters for the overflow and other media. a simple rinse in the sink. take it outside and wind dry it and then back in the tank... that keeps gunk from building up...
i also. get this "hand feed" my volitans lion fish. yep i know I've been stung once and am very very careful. i get his attention by dangling a piece of krill or life fish in front of him once he sees it. he swims to the surface. and gently will take it from my hands. by no means would i recommend this. the sting can be excruciatingly painful!
finally my fish list.please don't harass me on this. my fish are not at all stressed and if they get to big I always DONATE them back to a place in terre haute indiana that has a main display of over 1000 gallons for my fish. which he gives me store credit towards a smaller species of my choice. like i stated i research and have always had success with any species I've had with no stress or fighting amongst the tank mates
1 small volitans lion fish I've had him for 3 months
1 adult orange shoulder tang I've had for over a year now
mated pair of oscellaris clowns which breed quite regularly. but the other fish eat the eggs before i have had a chance to cultivate them... soon i hope
niger triggerfish. this dude is the calmest niger I've ever owned he's always hiding or relaxing and is very docile for his species. been in the tank for 3 months now and is such a pig when it comes to dinner time
adult lunar wrasse... of all my fish this dude is my favorite. he's probably the most anxious fish and swims so fast but most of the time he just relaxes on the bottom of the rock shelf waiting to be fed...and when i put my hand in the tank he follows my fingers everywhere hoping i'll turn up a bristle worm or something
baby sail fin tang... I've had this guy since december. he's a voracious algae eater and loves algae clips and fresh veggies when i add them once a month. he's a beautiful specimen and has a perfect sail
i have around 50 blue legs and around 60 assorted small snails and such. two cleaner shrimp also a horseshoe crab thats about 3 years old and still very small. i also have a blue pistol shrimp.. very rare that was collected in indonesia from a friend of mine there. along with most of my live rock. which is cultured stuff out there. and i have two diamond bar gobies that keep my sand gorgeous as well
finally my newest edition which will be getting his own 65 gallon sand bed tank is a bamboo shark egg.... for now he's still an egg id say he's around 2 weeks from hatching... i know these guys get pretty huge. and i plan on donating him to someone once he's to big or if he is even stressed a tiny bit. Ive raised 5 of these guys to be around a year old at the largest 1.5 feet they are very intelligent and i look forward to this being another gorgeous addition
