InsaneClownFish
New member
Fantastic tanks folks. I'm a big fan. 
Soft Coral Dominated Tanks... Let's See 'em
- Thread starter reefnewbie54321
- Start date
firstlight10
New member
My soft coral dominated tank
My soft coral dominated tank
My tank isn't nearly as nice as some of the others in this thread and is still a work in progress. I would consider it soft coral dominated since the three largest corals are softies.
Tank is a 20L, primary lighting is T-5s, secondary (actinic) lighting is T8's, moonlighting is LEDs.
My soft coral dominated tank
My tank isn't nearly as nice as some of the others in this thread and is still a work in progress. I would consider it soft coral dominated since the three largest corals are softies.
Tank is a 20L, primary lighting is T-5s, secondary (actinic) lighting is T8's, moonlighting is LEDs.
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InsaneClownFish
New member
Firstfishlight- I really like your 20L.. do you regret using the black sand? I'm probably going that route for my Illuminata build.
Apercula- great softie reef! Is that a large neon green mushroom on the left side? I have a small one in my tank, but I've never seen one that large.
Apercula- great softie reef! Is that a large neon green mushroom on the left side? I have a small one in my tank, but I've never seen one that large.
Thanks, Im not sure which green you are looking at on the left. Directly below the shrimp is my green long tentacle anemone, above the anemone to the left is a patch of green star polyps. Above the shrimp is a couple of partially closed Amplexidiscus mushrooms, and above the shrimp to the right is a couple of green Rhodactus mushrooms from the rock to the far right by the koralia.
Unfortunately, between battling hair algae (visible on the powerheads in that pic, got much worse) and trying to adjust flow to make both anemones happy, I ended up losing the green LTA to a powerhead. So the tank doesnt look nearly as nice at the moment.
InsaneClownFish
New member
I feel a bit silly mistaking your LTA for a mushroom. 
Another glance at the picture cleared that up for me. Believe it or not, I have this decent sized, and very bizarre florescent green mushroom that looks identical to your old LTA when puffed up. Sorry to hear you lost it...bummer.
Here's a video from last night of my softie reef. Please check it out folks:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=17235228#post17235228
Another glance at the picture cleared that up for me. Believe it or not, I have this decent sized, and very bizarre florescent green mushroom that looks identical to your old LTA when puffed up. Sorry to hear you lost it...bummer.Here's a video from last night of my softie reef. Please check it out folks:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=17235228#post17235228
firstlight10
New member
InsaneClownFish- Thanks, I absolutely do not regret using the black sand for my tank. I chose to use 20 pounds of volcanic sand with 5 pounds of live sand underneath it. The main issue with it is due to being so fine I can't run any flow on the bottom half of the tank or else the sand gets blown around. I find the black sand makes the colors of the corals stand out especially under actinic lights. I am not familiar with the Illuminata systems but I think the black sand will work. If you have any questions please send me a PM and I'd be glad to help you
InsaneClownFish
New member
It's funny you mentioned how fine the black sand is. I was just talking with a local reefer on the phone and he mentioned the same thing. I'm not sure it will work for me since I'm planning on quite a bit of flow.
elegance coral
They call me EC
Bump!
Beautiful pic's everyone!
I'm setting up a 120 softy tank and need some inspiration. Lets see what you got.:beer:
Beautiful pic's everyone!
I'm setting up a 120 softy tank and need some inspiration. Lets see what you got.:beer:
ocfishaddicts
New member
125 soft coral reef tank... =)
125 soft coral reef tank... =)
hi... we luv our soft coral reef tank --- it looks so awesome with the moon lights at night. our pics don't do it justice (need to find out how people are taking such great pictures).
hopefully, these will give you some more options for your decision.
best of luck.
warm regards,
g
125 soft coral reef tank... =)
hi... we luv our soft coral reef tank --- it looks so awesome with the moon lights at night. our pics don't do it justice (need to find out how people are taking such great pictures).
hopefully, these will give you some more options for your decision.
best of luck.
warm regards,
g
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Hormigaquatica
Active member
ocfishaddicts- to be honest, that's not the style tank that I usually like, but yours looks awesome! very well done.
mrbncal
New member
Thought I'd post some shots:
QUOTE]
What kind of gorgonian is that on teh left side , nice tank btw
bahadirkargili
New member
hi ocfishaddicts, your livestock seems very healthy.would you please share details about your setup and tank parameters?
ocfishaddicts
New member
Hi Bahadirkargili, thanks for asking "“ I have taken the time and captured a lot of information - hopefully it is useful for someone"¦
We've been pretty stable with our new tank and definitely enjoying it while still learning... We originally had a 90 gallon reef bow front, but upgraded to a 125 gallon bow front and did ALOT of research before we set it up. I have taken the time to put more info here regarding tank setup and put at the bottom some lessons learned and considerations hopefully to help others that may be interested.
Requirements "“ This was going to be one "œdo it as right as possible upfront/one time!" and meet our constraints/requirements of a heavy traffic walk way with only 7" of wall (to include chiller space), NO additional bulk heads and minimal returns "“ Hubby VERY picky on everything to be minimal/hidden to the point of not wanting pipes even behind the tank, of course, I wanted a very heavily stocked reef AND lots of fish with the most efficient system to handle the a large bio load. great flow, energy efficient, reef shimmer lighting, and whatever cool things we could have, etc. "“ oh ya"¦. We have Champaign taste with beer budget"¦. =)
Water Parameters "“ Have a great tank maintenance guy taking care of this (yes, i know it would be better if we learned to do it, we tried "“ trust me, it's better for the marriage to have someone else/professional do it! LOL!!!)
We are still learning the perfect balance - but did learn not to add iron or iodine - have zoas closing up....
- Calcium: ~400 ppm
- Alkalinity: ~7.8 meq
- Magnesium: 1300 ppm
- Nitrate: 0 ppm
- Nitrite: 20 ppm
- Temperature: ~78° F
- pH: 8.2
- Phosphate: 0.1
Tank - 125 Gallon Bow Front Clear for Life acrylic tank - 60"x18"x30" custom overflow box (accommodate high volume flow) "“ the bow front was perfect to accommodate walk way and limitation of wall space --- the 5' size is perfect for area and the 30" is like a home theater LOL!!!
Lighting - 3 LED light units with 90 2 Watt light - white and blue moon lights "“Timers set for moon lights on from 2pm to 1am and white lights on from 3pm to 11pm
- Protein Skimmer - Vertex alpha 170 protein skimmer - G4 - 250 - 300 Gallons
- Custom Refugium Sump - 60 Gallon48"x11"x20" high w/ JRefugium alli power 24 watt compact light , magic mud and plants - black 3 sides and bottom, front clear, "“ 2 8" socks
- Pumps "“ 2 Mag Drive 18 Pumps to provide high volume flow without extra returns / power heads and also for pump backup redundancy (need to make sure overflow box can handle flow) "“ btw, the tank is fairly quiet for the volume going through it as it is enclosed, although does have tiny bubbles in the middle from the volume pulled through the overflow box "“ better than pipes/bulk heads in his opinion
- Plumbing - 2 holes in trapezoid overflow for 1 1/2" bulkheads, 2 return holes in overflow for 3/4" bulkheads "“ 4 returns with plumbing up through the overflow box and out each side of overflow box and across the top back corners.
- Heater - 500 watt titanium heater dual Ranco controller
- Timers "“ Reef keeper digital assistant
- Sand - 3" to 4" deep black sand bed
- Live Rock "“ approx 250+ pounds
- Cabinet - Custom Stand /Top cherry wood - click double doors, front hinged hood, LED light rack holders, extra sealant inside, cabinet lighting, etc. "“ matching chiller cabinet, etc.
- Mysis Shrimp
- Regular Shrimp "“ break in to small pieces (Dwarf Lion Fish daily and anemone every once in a while)
- Cyclop-eeze
- Formula One Pellets (small size)
- Formula Two Pellets (small size)
- Formula One Flake
- DT
- Coral Frenzy
- Kent Lugo's Solution (2 drops)
- "The Ultimate Coral Food" - black powder
- DT Kent Lugol's Solution
- Kent Marine - tech-cb calcium buffer A & B
- Kent Marine - strontium & molybdenum
- Kent Marine - tech-m magnesium supplement
- Coral Vital - "the reef life energizer"
- Reef Vital DNA - "enhanced reef life energizer"
- Flow "“ for us it was go as big as possible for reef without seeing any pipes (we even lowered the hood to cover the back corner pipes) "“ there was a lot of research and opinions in this"¦ opted for primary pump/plumbing vs. power heads. Wound-up doing two pumps for backup redundancy "“ had a custom overflow box to handle flow. The socks and enclosed tank helps for low volume of water, however there are tiny bubbles in the middle from the volume pulled through the overflow box "“ better than pipes/bulk heads in his opinion
- Electrical - We had a dedicated 50 amp circuit wired to ensure no popping circuits / or problems with the plugs "“ good idea right??? Well, when we starting setting up the tank and all the commotion of workers of taking down the old tank, electrician finishing the wiring, testing, keeping things alive and the new tank coming (btw, running back and forth to get misc items) --- we plugged only 1 surge suppressor in 1 of the 2 plugs in the wall"¦ we forgot to plug another separate surge suppresser into the other available plug "“ now we have the reef keeper controller (bought 2) and other suppressor not as efficiently setup as planning. UGH!!!!!
- Hood configuration "“ we bought our first tank and they did not mention anything about planning for a taller hood in case we wanted to upgrade our lighting from compacts, went to T5s and wanted Haldi. This one we got the cool front feed piano hinge setup and also have some cool shelf racks to slip in our LED light units. Ventilation is out the open back "“ planning on drilling more vent holes in the shelf racks, but haven't got to it yet.
- Cabinet lighting "“ would have liked to have the auto light on when opening the door, but wound-up using those simple "œPush Lights" "“ really is nice to be able to see in there when needed.
- Cabinet protection "“ we had extra coatings of sealant put inside the entire cabinet for protection - we use microfiber and a special shamie for cleaning along with acrylic care for the tank
- Cabinet room "“ we opted to get the largest custom sump we could fit in the limited internal space of the bow front footprint 4' x 11" x 20" --- saw some other sumps setup where you could also use as grow tanks with a separate lighting system"¦ thought that was so cool!
- Acrylic vs Glass "“ what a debate!!! Everyone has a preference. For use it really came down to acrylic as they only make 5' bow front as acrylic and a customer glass tank would have been triple the safety of size & theater height of 30". Hubby HATES the possibility of scratches and of course safety is a big item as we live in So Cal earthquake country and it's right by a high traffic hall area with people carrying and bumping things. So bottom line, we got the acrylic "“ we do not use magnets (use a filter cloth for inside by hand), have a professional tank maintenance and the phone number on speed dial for tank scratch repair in case of emergency (which is another story in itself!)
- Filtration System "“ we wanted to do everything we could to easily handle a large bio load with minimum work. We opted for the largest skimmer, miracle mud / plant refriguim (even though is it fairly small), deep sand bed and lots of large rock"¦ water changes / tank cleaning are done every two weeks.
- Rock Scaping "“ we stacked our rock before putting in the water which worked great. Should have glued /rock puttied them together to avoid an avalanche. We did have acrylic repair from a rock falling. The guy did a great job, but when he used his underwater sander it vibrated so much that the rock shifted as well. The results were ok, but we lost some of the cooler caves we did. Other considerations are to think buying rock with places to put coral and/or creating ledges for potential coral and light access. I saw some of the most amazing rock scaped tanks with large pieces standing up and significant caves, etc at Coral Oasis in Costa Mesa.
- Champaign Taste and Beer Budget "“ ok"¦ as you know this is an addicting hobby and whatever we do is full throttle. I have a hard time to justify the amount of money into a hobby, but learned some important lessons.
- Do your research and understand what you want now, but also what you might want later, i.e., you may only plan for fish and live rock only now, but you may wind up adding corals later "“ therefore, get a taller canopy for better lighting, biggest sump / filtration system, etc
- Buy the best equipment possible upfront "“ error on the side of bigger is better "“ don't skimp. --- sure, do competitive pricing, but get the best.
- Livestock "“ don't rush a new tank"¦ you will just be flushing $$$s you could have used for purchases. Make sure you understand compatibilities and hardiness! This will save you loads of $$$s and heart ache. The other item that really worked for me when preparing for our big tank was craigslist. I actually bought two complete tanks (one I just bought all contents and one the full 90 gallon setup) which was cheaper for live rock and corals and sold some of the fish. But also afforded us the flexibility of keeping the livestock during the entire tank moving / swapping of our old and new --- our new obviously required more rock and corals. Of course, this was fun for hands on approach and actually helped provide temporary holding tank setup flexibility and also a lot of the cleaning crews cheap. Other fun item is a local fish club. Our So Calif Reef Keeper club has been so much fun with raffles, give away and great deals on frag swapping / selling"¦
- Last item "“ have fun, be educated, and take pictures of your ever changing living art, and of course share...
Here are pics of our tanks - under the cabinet is messy, but you get the idea....
Warmest regards,
Gina & Si - OCFISHADDICTS
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