OneReef's 120g DreamReef
- Thread starter OneReef
- Start date
OneReef
Reef Guru
Yes, Christmas to myself....ha. I hope they grow fast. I had a Miami Hurricane a couple of years ago that I bought about 1"x1" and had 2 eyes. Within less than a year, it was the size of a saucer and had about 80 eyes. I sold it at that point for about $400.
OneReef
Reef Guru
I replaced my ATO (water topoff) container with a smaller one to make room for my calcium reactor. My previous ATO container was a kitchen trashcan, and it was nice because it was large and I only had to refill it once every two weeks. But I had to get something smaller so that I would have room in my stand for my calcium reactor. I want to have a steady calcium source since I have many SPS pieces now, and am striving for stability. The new container is an airtight pet food tub, FDA food approved, so I figure it is good for water. 
The old tub was 11.5 gallons, and the new one is 5.5 gallons.
New container in place:
Old one next to it for size comparison:
The old tub was 11.5 gallons, and the new one is 5.5 gallons.New container in place:
Old one next to it for size comparison:
OneReef
Reef Guru
Ahhh, you are right. Sounds like a good Sunday afternoon project for me. I have big black zip ties. Should be perfect.
OneReef
Reef Guru
Frag Tank:
I thought I was going to sell all of my zoanthids out of my display tank, but instead, I decided to build a frag tank, and keep them, and some other things to grow out for the swap next year and to sell online.
The tank is a Marineland Cube (18"x18"x18").
Here it is mixing my saltwater:
The light is a CoralVue SolarMax LED light that I found on sale for $149. It has a ratio of 2:1 blue to white LED's. It has individual screws on the side of it to increase your whites or your blues to the desired par and color. I took some PAR measurements that I will post on here, and it is putting down some nice PAR for an inexpensive light. I really like it! SolarMax makes a 2:1 White:Blue ratio that is around 10K-12K, but I got the version of blue:white that is more 14K-20K:
Here is the light over the cube, the legs are adjustable to get it from 3" to 12" off the water:
My circulation pump is a Ecotech Vortech MP10. During the Black Friday sales, I picked up another MP40 for my main tank, so I was able to put the MP10 on this tank.
I am starting to like making my own little acrylic accessories. I made a little stand for my coral plugs for the frag tank.
Right now in the tank are a bunch of zoanthid frags, an acan, some chalices, and a little live rock, one snail, and a blood shrimp.
More pictures and info to come.
I thought I was going to sell all of my zoanthids out of my display tank, but instead, I decided to build a frag tank, and keep them, and some other things to grow out for the swap next year and to sell online.
The tank is a Marineland Cube (18"x18"x18").
Here it is mixing my saltwater:
The light is a CoralVue SolarMax LED light that I found on sale for $149. It has a ratio of 2:1 blue to white LED's. It has individual screws on the side of it to increase your whites or your blues to the desired par and color. I took some PAR measurements that I will post on here, and it is putting down some nice PAR for an inexpensive light. I really like it! SolarMax makes a 2:1 White:Blue ratio that is around 10K-12K, but I got the version of blue:white that is more 14K-20K:
Here is the light over the cube, the legs are adjustable to get it from 3" to 12" off the water:
My circulation pump is a Ecotech Vortech MP10. During the Black Friday sales, I picked up another MP40 for my main tank, so I was able to put the MP10 on this tank.
I am starting to like making my own little acrylic accessories. I made a little stand for my coral plugs for the frag tank.
Right now in the tank are a bunch of zoanthid frags, an acan, some chalices, and a little live rock, one snail, and a blood shrimp.
More pictures and info to come.
Last edited:
OneReef
Reef Guru
Here are the PAR measurements for the frag tank with the SolarMax LED light system, taken with an Apogee PAR meter.
3" under the LED:
1" above the water line, about 8" under the LED:
1" under the water:
Midway down the tank (about 9" under water):
Bottom of tank at the coral frags: (I can move coral higher on eggcrate stand to get more PAR if needed)
3" under the LED:
1" above the water line, about 8" under the LED:
1" under the water:
Midway down the tank (about 9" under water):
Bottom of tank at the coral frags: (I can move coral higher on eggcrate stand to get more PAR if needed)
OneReef
Reef Guru
I finally decided to hook up my calcium reactor last week. I didn't need it the first few months, but now that I have a good lot of stony based corals, I want to keep my levels stable. My ReefKeeper is set to turn on the solonoid on the regulator between 6.5-6.8 pH. I am using Tropic Eden calcium media. It supposedly has an additive or some kind of calcium rock that helps the alk and pH not to drop, which the C02 tends to want to do normally. Working great so far.
I've also added a few more coral to my tank. A pink/orange hammer, some duncans, and another blue tort. I had planned to make this tank all SPS, but it is beginning to look like a mixed reef, lol. I think that in the end it will be about 75% SPS and 25% other, I was shooting for more like 90/10%. But there are just some pretty coral that I see occasionally that are hard to pass up, even if it is an LPS or softy. I hope to get some new pictures posted soon.
I've also added a few more coral to my tank. A pink/orange hammer, some duncans, and another blue tort. I had planned to make this tank all SPS, but it is beginning to look like a mixed reef, lol. I think that in the end it will be about 75% SPS and 25% other, I was shooting for more like 90/10%. But there are just some pretty coral that I see occasionally that are hard to pass up, even if it is an LPS or softy. I hope to get some new pictures posted soon.
OneReef
Reef Guru
Interesting thing about the SPS ORA Red Planet coral. I have always heard that if you keep it in lower light, it keeps more of the nice green color in the base. Having acquired 3 frags of it due to some good deals that I came across, I was able to put some at different locations in my tank to see the differences. Its true, the one that I have at the bottom of my tank getting the least light is the one that has the deepest green in the base. The other two that are mid-level or higher, the green is a light pale color. If they were at the top of the tank, I would assume they would lose all of their green and just be all pink/red. So that experiment has shown me that yes, Red Planets do like to be at the bottom if you want to keep and nice green along with your red.
OneReef
Reef Guru
Backgrounds:
I have had the shadowbox ocean background on my tank since the beginning several months ago. I got bored over the holidays and decided to see what it would look like if my background were all black like all of my previous tanks. I took the shadowbox off the tank, painted the back of it solid black, and flipped it around and put it back on. I thought I would leave it with a black background for a few months till I got tired of it and then change back to the shadowbox background on the opposite side of the box. The black looked ok, and I left it like that for two days. One good thing about the black background is that it tended to make colors of the coral and fish stand out more. I then decided that I did not like the black as much and flipped it around again to have my shadowbox ocean background. I found with it on the back again, it looked more light and open. The black background made it look smaller and more closed. I preferred the old look, so I left it the way it was. Here are some pictures, but they never look as good in pictures as it does in real life:
No background at all, blank wall:
Black background:
Current Shadowbox Ocean background:
I have had the shadowbox ocean background on my tank since the beginning several months ago. I got bored over the holidays and decided to see what it would look like if my background were all black like all of my previous tanks. I took the shadowbox off the tank, painted the back of it solid black, and flipped it around and put it back on. I thought I would leave it with a black background for a few months till I got tired of it and then change back to the shadowbox background on the opposite side of the box. The black looked ok, and I left it like that for two days. One good thing about the black background is that it tended to make colors of the coral and fish stand out more. I then decided that I did not like the black as much and flipped it around again to have my shadowbox ocean background. I found with it on the back again, it looked more light and open. The black background made it look smaller and more closed. I preferred the old look, so I left it the way it was. Here are some pictures, but they never look as good in pictures as it does in real life:
No background at all, blank wall:
Black background:
Current Shadowbox Ocean background:
dolphinman213
florida guru
i sorta like the shadow box a tad better, because the light from the led strips make it look like the sun or upper white lighting in the ocean--but thats my .02
