Susan's 65-Gallon Reef Tank

[Susan Lohrer]

This is my first foray into saltwater. I wanted a peaceful, colorful reef tank for the corner of my office.

I'm kind of fuzzy on the time line for the early stages, sorry about that.

In January 2012 I bought a 65-gallon tank, enough sand for a DSB, and some basic equipment. Seaclone skimmer, two powerheads, two heaters, and a HOB filter. Oh, and the one-bulb T8 that came with the tank.

I added the water and the sand in that order. Oops. It took days and days and days for the water to clear.

Cycled the tank with fish food.

Added a "live" rock from LFS. :hmm2:

When the weather warmed up and the creek started running out back, I mixed up a few batches of agrocrete rocks and stuck them in the creek.

For a sturdy base for my rock work, I cut pieces of PVC pipe in half lengthwise and used zip ties to fasten them underneath pieces of egg crate in an L shape and a round shape, the shapes I envisioned the final reef would be. Getting that into the sand created another sand storm. :hmm2:

After a couple of months the agrocrete was fully cured. I rearranged my rocks about a million times.

Once the diatom algae showed up, I added some cerith and nassarius snails. Nothing that can't right itself if it tips over.

Saw a nice, simple curved reef. Rearranged my rocks again.

At some point I added a few blue-legged hermit crabs. Not all of them lived. Not all of them had blue legs, either.

Quite a few months after I'd set up the tank, I added two baby black-and-white clowns (about 1.5" long). I kept them in a quarantine tank for six weeks first. I know I wanted colors, but the B&W clowns are just so cool. :fish2:

Planning, planning, planning . . .

Added more snails at some point. I don't have a lot, maybe 15 or 20 of each (cerith and nassarius).

Enjoyed discovering creatures that came with a live rock I got from a friend's tank. Tiny red feather duster worms, little purple tube worms. Even some tiny brittle stars, though I haven't seen them in a while. I found copepods in the tank, too. And some kind of long, skinny wormy thing that looks like a string of freshwater pearls and leaves tunnels in the sand against the glass. I hope this is a good worm, but I don't know. Oh, and the snail eggs are cool. They seem to show up mainly on the front panel of the tank. I scrape them off occasionally, but I feel guilty doing it.

At some point I got a 1-gallon refugium and put some chaeto in there and lit it on an opposite schedule to the tank. I'm not sure how much this helps regulate pH, since the water only drips into and out of the refugium. I've got rock bits in one section of it. If anything is living in there, I haven't seen it.

Got two fire shrimp. So colorful! One molted oddly and didn't make it. The other one lurks in his cave. Pretty, but I never get to see him. :hmm2:

Agonizing over fish choices, changing my mind about fish choices . . .

The live rock I got from my friend's tank is really purple. Now bits of coralline algae are growing on my agrocrete rocks. Cool!

One of the crabs came in a shell that has burgundy coralline algae on it. Really pretty stuff. The shell has a lump on it about 1/4" long. After the crab discarded the shell, I saw it lying in the sand, and the lump had opened. I don't know what it is, exactly, but it's a bivalve. Cool! I propped it up on a rock where I can see it better. I think it's growing.

I haven't gotten into using RO/DI water. I have a low level of phosphates in my water (the API test kit shows the barest suggestion of a color change, which I know can be misleading, especially if things in my tank are using up the phosphates), and (I'm assuming) silicates. And I probably was overfeeding. The diatom algae is lingering, and I got a lovely (ha!) crop of cyanobacteria.

I don't know if this contributed to the cyano outbreak, but about a week before it came, I noticed diatom algae growing on my chaeto in the refugium, and I swished it really well. A bunch of stuff went into the water. Might have been a mistake. If I do it again, I think I'll discard the water.

So. Lights out for three days, physically removed as much of the cyano as I could, rethought the water flow pattern, reduced feeding a little. After a few weeks, I have a hint of cyano, but it seems to be in check. Whew.

Second fish purchase: September 3, seven months after setting up the tank. I got a lawnmower blenny. He's in the QT tank, and if all goes well, he'll go to the DT the first week of November. I know I wanted colors, but the lawnmower blenny is just so cool. :inlove:

I have a jar of PhosBan, but I think I want to wait to use it. I'm afraid that if I eliminate phosphates and silicates from my DT, I'll be eliminating too much of the lawnmower blenny's food source. He's been eating algae in the QT tank, but he's not eating the algae/seaweed sheets as far as I can tell. He's only been in there two days, so I don't know him too well. (Ooh! I just saw him swimming. He's been a crafty little fellow, always in a different spot without letting me see him swim, until just now. Cool!)

If I magically learn how to take decent aquarium pictures, I'll post some. But don't hold your breath.

Future plans:

• endless research
• a colorful fish that will get along with my clowns and my blenny
• a diy LED light system
• Some colorful LPS corals
• a clam

 

[qwuintus]

Pictures will help.

Listing out the models of your equipment will help.

Cyano is probably happening because your pumps are not situated in the ideal locations and/or are too weak to push the needed flow.

A single t5 will not suffice. I'd get the diy LED system underway asap, but you may want to look into buying a pre-configured setup to save yourself the trouble. Not sure how much experience you have with diy and leds, but if you are optimistic then I'd say go for it!

Take your time with the LPS and clam. Be patient. I'd invest the money and the time in better test kits and dial in your tank first. The more work you do now, the easier it will be to maintain.

I like to think about this way. We are essentially taking a piece of the ocean and trying to maintain the same bio-diversity of our planets system in a small fish tank in our homes. Insanity! Do it slow. Mother nature took millions of years to balance out the planets water so we should do the same.

However, as an advanced species (and depending on your budget) we can artificially enhance and speed up the process to maintain a thriving eco-system in our homes because of all the fish-tech that has been implemented in the hobby. So again, take your time and try to invest in some quality products that will save you time spent tinkering with your tank so that you can spend your time enjoying and looking at all your beautiful hard work.

Happy reefing!

 

[Susan Lohrer]

Huh, I could have sworn I put this thread in the blog section.

Thanks for your comments, qwuintus. :thumbsup:

I'm nowhere near ready to add a clam or corals, so no worries there. I know my tank is in its infancy, and I keep myself well entertained just watching the creatures I already have. The LED project is going to come before anything that requires more light than one T8 gives, and I've been studying the DIY and lighting threads to make sure I know what I'm doing. My dh is going to be building it once I let him know what I need. He knows how do build electronic things. :dance:

I'm not sure which hob filter I have; it's there mainly so I can use carbon if I need to, and it disturbs the surface of the water a little more than if I didn't have one.

My two powerheads say Aqueon 950. I think my Seaclone skimmer is a 100, but it's way back behind the tank, so I can't see for sure (by the way, I cut down the center of the collection cup and put a nicer air valve on it). Not sure about the heaters, but there are two and each one was rated for at least a 65-gallon tank, just in case one fails. FWIW, the Seaclone keeps the nitrates at zero, so I've been happy with it. I do have a low bioload, though.

OK, here's a dreadful picture. You can see the shape of the rocks, and you can sort of see the powerheads in the back, one in each corner near the top.

 

[qwuintus]

Definitely get that led up so you can start calibrating it and making sure your parameters are tip top.

Nice start though. It's really fun starting from scratch. I miss that.

 

[suzmax]

Well even though you didn't post this in the blog section, I enjoyed reading it here. It was quite entertaining. I kept thinking, "I wonder what she's going to ask. Seems like she's got it under control." Not that I can answer anything since I'm a noob, but it was fun reading. Good luck to you!

 

[Susan Lohrer]

Some updates on the 65-gallon reef tank. Well, FOWLR at the moment, but working on it.

The clownfish and the blenny are doing well.

I have some kind of sponges now. Little fuzzy-looking white ones. Neat.

The cyanobacteria isn't trying very hard anymore. :dance:

Currently in my quarantine tank: a turbo snail, a Hawaiian feather duster, a pencil urchin (you can see my quest for colorful creatures keeps getting sidetracked), and a Springer's dottyback. Whee! a tiny bit of color! :lol:

On order with my LFS: a blue tuxedo urchin (ooh! color!) and another Springer's dottyback. I'll quarantine the first one until the second one is done being quarantined, and then introduce them at the same time. Yep, I have two quarantine tanks.

I've been driving myself batty trying to figure out the diy LED thing. DH was willing to build it, but he wanted me to tell him exactly what to build, and there lay the problem. Too many choices, too many datasheets. So instead of doing that, I looked around for a less expensive alternative to the AI Sol (which I sort of wanted to copy) and found some Amazon and Reef Central reviews of this:

TaoTronics TT-AL02​

The opinions in the RC discussions I read fit with my mindset, and I happened to have an Amazon gift certificate, so I ordered it this morning. It's supposed to get here by January 18. It's not dimmable, but dh offered to rejigger it so I can add timers to make the lights come on in stages. :love2:

The next hardware plans: after the dottybacks go into the DT, I'll turn one of the quarantine tanks into a sump.

I'm still working up the nerve to try LPS corals. One of my kids has some mushrooms that reproduced, so I'll start with them.

I never imagined how much pleasure I can get from my little piece of the ocean.

 

[maR1o]

great thread, I am also looking into a DIY led system but there are so many choices out there. I might just do the same and buy one.

 

[whiteshark]

I'd like to do a dyi led system myself but would definitely like someone to walk me through it.

Do let me know how you like your new light as I am considering the AI SOL as well but do t have 400$ sitting around at the moment.

 

[Susan Lohrer]

We finally got the LED hanging over the tank. It took a while to figure out a hanging system; we ended up using 1.5-inch ABS mounted to the back of the stand. When I say we, I really mean dh, who goes above and beyond for me on a regular basis. Right now the light is about 10 inches above the tank.

Effects so far: Some of the pink coralline that's up the highest (12 inches below the water surface) has tiny white spots now, but the red stuff (coralline, not cyano) looks fine. When just the blue lights are on, it glows.

The blue lights alone make the tank seem dark, but anything white or glowy really pops. The white lights alone look nice. When all the lights are on, the tank has a slight blue-purple cast to it. It's nice too, and the glowy things glow a little bit.

On to the glowy things: My daughter gave me a blue mushroom and a green one two days ago. They're sitting in a shady spot because their previous lighting was older T5s. The little green one is half an inch across. It's been dropped, manhandled, etc., but it's fully open. The blue light makes it glow bright yellow. The bigger blue mushroom, which wasn't mistreated, is just about fully open this morning. The blue light makes it glow bright green (not so much in the shade, but I put it in the light for a second to find out).

I like having the different colors of light. It's like having two completely different tanks.

 

[la1fan]

Great thread, Susan! Would love to see more pics =)

 

[Susan Lohrer]

Woo-hoo! I finally got my exposure and white balance figured out so the colors look really close to real life. The walls in my office really are purple and mauve with Barbie on them; it used to be my daughter's room, and I don't mind purple so I left it that way.

The mushrooms with the blue and white LEDs ( in a shady spot on the bottom of a 24-inch-deep tank, with the lights 10 or 12 inches above the water):

My Blenny:

And now for the LEDs (this is the 120W TaoTronics fixture).

White LEDs:

Blue and white LEDs:

Blue LEDs:

 

[Artimadours]

which fixture is this? the TaoTronics TT-AL01 or TaoTronics TT-AL02? we are trying to determine which one we like but can't seem to find enough good pictures of them over tanks.



TaoTronics TT-AL02

 

[la1fan]

Very nice job, Susan! I love the fish pictures on the wall to the left the tank. Your tank inhabitant's ancestors? lol

 

[ltfw ntsw]

looks very cool

 

[Susan Lohrer]

Thanks. I'll let dh know.

And yep, the fish on the wall is from my freshwater days.

which fixture is this? the TaoTronics TT-AL01 or TaoTronics TT-AL02? we are trying to determine which one we like but can't seem to find enough good pictures of them over tanks.



TaoTronics TT-AL02

It's the AL02. But I think the only difference is the color of the housing.

 

[whiteshark]

Are those glass tops I see on there? Is there a particular reason for them? I'd ditch them if possible. They will inhibit gas exchange and increase heat in the tank.

 

[Susan Lohrer]

Are those glass tops I see on there? Is there a particular reason for them? I'd ditch them if possible. They will inhibit gas exchange and increase heat in the tank.

The glass covers are keeping the fish inside of the tank and the bubbles from the HOB skimmer off the lights for now. I promise that when my 10g tank is finished its stint as a quarantine tank, the skimmer will go in there and I'll put egg crate over the DT.

 

[whiteshark]

The glass covers are keeping the fish inside of the tank and the bubbles from the HOB skimmer off the lights for now. I promise that when my 10g tank is finished its stint as a quarantine tank, the skimmer will go in there and I'll put egg crate over the DT.

Ah I see. FWIW, I made a quick, easy, DIY top with some window screen frame and BRS clear netting. I think it looks nicer than egg crate if your going for a nice, clean look:

From what I'm told it also allows more light to pass through. I'd imagine it does, but have yet to be able to test this.

 

[YamahaF934]

Looking good!

 

[qwuintus]

How's the tank going?

Is that a carbon bag just floating in tank? - I dig that!