Our 29gal reef (pic intense)

AquaKnight

Active member
I think now that the tank is pretty much the way we want it/can have it, it's more then time to share it. Our goal has always been to have the closest representation of a "mixed" reef. Sort of a collage of actual reefs versus say like a strictly SPS dominate tank (though ours is pretty LPS heavy ;)).

The tank started out on Oct. 06 as a freebie. Not knowing anything other then we (my roommates and myself) wanted a saltwater tank. We bought the essentials, a Skilter 250, a Rio powerhead, live sand, and salt. Again, not knowing anything, we filled the tank with water from our refrigerator, thinking it would be the best since it has a filter in it. A buddy offered his live rock, that was cooking in a Brute for about 2 months so we snatched that up, about 30lbs. We brushed the hair algae off and dumped the rock in tank and waited for it to clear and added the 130 watt Current USA PC fixture. Two days later we make a trip to a LFS and come home with three damsels, one blue, one yellowtail and a domino, after advise from the LFS that "yea, some people add them even 24hrs. after setting a tank up." The blue unfortunately didn't make day 2. The yellowtail is still the one in the pictures and the domino has been banished to the sump because he is rather aggressive.

The first month or two was interesting. We learned that you don't top off saltwater with saltwater. We added a fungia and favia that lasted about 4 hrs. When we figured out the reason, our salinity was sky high. None of the meters went high enough to read it, well over 1.040. At that point, we had already added our star attraction, the yellow tang. Again, a "it's will be fine in your tank" by a LFS tyoe deal. So basically from then, we've tried to research everything as much as possible and I think I have got my head wrapped around this hobby.

From that point till now, it's been a work in progress. I've added different corals and pieces. The sump was added in Jan. 07, a bigger Rio powerhead etc. We had great success so far till very recently when we lost our Mandarin and bubble tip anemone on a 2 week vacation while our friend fed the fishes. The bubble was sucked in by the intake and found too late, he still was alive and had not killed the entire tank off, but the violence was too much. I'm still unsure why the mandy died, I know the tank is still young, but he wasn't skinny, though he was the biggest mandarin I've seen, close to a solid 4"+, so maybe old age. We had him for about a month. The lastest additions have the been the brain and sun coral.

Future plans include MH lighting, I really want a clam and nice SPS to round the package out.

Specs:

Fish
1 Yellow Tang
1 True Percula Clown
1 Oceanllaris Clown
1 Yellowtail damsel
1 Domino damsel (in sump)

Inverts
1 Skunk Cleaner shrimp
1 Peppermint shrimp
1 Sand Sifting Star
1 Fighting Conch
1 Feather Duster
Bunch of snails, turbo, astrea, nassarius, cerith, stombella
Scarlet/Zebra hermit crabs

Corals
Super Red Mushrooms
3 Ricordias
Discosoma Sp. Mushroom
Purple Sea Whip
Yellow Gorgonian
Red Tree Sponge
Green Zoas rock
Brown polyps
Star Polyps (I though they were green)
A bit of Red Sea Xenia ;)
Montipora Cap. and Dig.
Trumpet Coral
Purple/Green Favia (it was "rescued" about 3 weeks ago from 'Pet World')
Frogspawn
Some weird type of Euphyllia (Euphyllia yaeyamaensis I believe)
Orange Sun Coral
Long Tentacle Plate
Lobophyllia Brain Coral(I think?)

Probably over 60lbs of Live Rock in the tank, the center rock is over 15lbs and there's 2, 17 and 19 pound boulders in there two. A good another 20lbs in the back of refugium with a bunch of rubble rock.

3 different types of Caulerpa in the fuge, plus live sheet algae and some Xenia frags.

Equipment:
29gal (30"x12"X16") main tank
Hurricane 600gph overflow box
40gal breeder as sump (about 30gals used, 15 for the fuge)
130 watt PC fixture for main tank, 1 10000k main bulb and 1 420/460 actinics bulb
5300k 23watt Fluorescent fuge light
Mag 9.5 for sump return and fuge feed
Rio 180 powerhead in main tank
Rio 160 in fuge
Skilter 250 running Poly filter pad, and media bags of Purigen and Carbon
4.5" dia. Skimmer running with GenX 1400, that's been meshwheel modded, adding Gate Valve as we speak.

And finally pics!:rollface: :smokin:

FTS
FTS.jpg



Top Left
topleft.jpg



Left side
backleft.jpg



Morpharians rock ;)
shrooms.jpg
 
Brain and Gorgonian
braingorg.jpg



Center
offcentered.jpg



Sun coral
suncoral.jpg



Clowns hosting the LT plate
clownhosting.jpg



Right side
rightside.jpg



Montipora Cap. It's encrusting the rock, the digitata is just a small frag, my Cybershot can't get a good pic...
monticap.jpg



Down tank profile
oceanicview.jpg
 
yellow tang in a 29? I wouldn't take any advice from that LFS ever again. Also, JMO, but you should move that tang to a bigger tank. Even if it was bad advice, still not too fair for the fish. my 2 cents Nice tank though. I am setting up a 29 right not and can't wait to get it going.
 
Jason, yea, we definitely know he should be in a bigger tank, its just hard considering giving him away. Also, we definitely are planning for a bigger tank soon.

Fishes, we primarily go to Aquaria Studios because its right around the corner from our house, but we still like to make it to all of the locals, SITC, Fishy Business, Fish Bowl (I forget the new name), Ocean Blue, etc. They all have something pretty unique to each one. I'm probably gonna head over to the 4 or so in Cocoa later this week as well.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10090022#post10090022 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jasontkd
yellow tang in a 29? I wouldn't take any advice from that LFS ever again. Also, JMO, but you should move that tang to a bigger tank. Even if it was bad advice, still not too fair for the fish. my 2 cents Nice tank though. I am setting up a 29 right not and can't wait to get it going.


Didn't see that coming....... Beautiful tank... Great Job
 
Nice tank. I'm so jealous of your coralline algae on your background. I can't seem to grow them. What is your water change schedule? And how do you keep the calcium level stable with all those LPS?
 
Jim, I do a 7gal change every 2 weeks or so. I think everything is doing well because I use Marin Tropic pro reef salt, which has a bunch of nice additives in it. Then I dose 2-part Aqua Philic in between water changes. Though I haven't alk. in a while (always a bit too high).

Thanks for everyone's comments! :)
 
Yes I agree with Jasondkd, the tang needs a new bigger home, other than that, the tank is awesome. The refurgium looks really nice too, do have inhabitants in the fuge.
 
My LFS tried to sell me a hippo tang after i told him i have a 29G.. Never returned to that store again..
 
I have a question for you. In the first picture, i noticed there is a little bit of sunlight getting into the tank. One corner of my tank gets light like that as well. Have you noticed any difference from that? By saying this I mean, algae, better coral growth, etc...

Nice tank, BTW. I like your choice of corals, it gives a good range of colors. :)
 
tap, I have 2 hermits in there and a couple snails throughout the sump. I can get the snails to stay in the equipment side, the return, and the fuge, but for whatever reason, they high-tail it out of the bubble trap and it's usually pretty dirty, in like the pic :o


fish, yea, the tank is in the corner of the t.v. room right to the edge of a glass sliding door. We try and keep the blinds closed as much as possible. Usually if they're left open, all we get is a good bit of green algae on the glass. I'm sure if we let the tank adjust to the natural light, it would be beneficial, but everything is doing well and I don't risk a serious algae bloom or anything.
 
Yea, I always get a little bit of brown algae where the sun hits it. I was just curious if you put a coral there to get the natural light or something :confused: ...
 
That's a really nice tank! How long did it take for you to spread out your xenia frags like that? That looks like a very slimy stinky job.

I know yellow tangs need more space, but I love how they give tanks so much color.
 
aznlmpulse, it's been pretty easy actually. I bought a 2 stalk frag from Reefwreck, that was on that half oyster shell, and I would just move that shell onto a diff. part of the rock, and the Xenia would split itself and attach to the rock. Then I'd just move the shell to a new part.

Now it pretty much is doing the "filling in" part itself, and I just have to frag it occasionally when it starts growing on the star polys or too near the frogspawn. PS, yea, its hard to bet the true yellow of the YT. Everyone that sees the tank is def. struck by him.
 
Very nice tank I really like it. What is that coral at the top left next to the red mushrooms? Some type of LPS?
 
how long have you had the red tree sponge? I have been considering putting one in my tank but was afraid of the "difficult level" of it, although Im thinking the level is due to not letting it touch any air... any info would be greatly appreciated
 
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