Winterfell Reef - A 100 Gallon Journey

[dtum]

Winterfell Reef is at 9 months now. Just as it takes this long for a baby to develop, it took all this time for the tank to go from bare dry rock to what it is right now.

The tank is doing great and is slowly getting to the much needed stability. pH is quite solid, but recent alkalinity demands have dramatically increased. I've added a Kalkwasser reactor to my ATO and have made a number of improvements to the whole setup including a frag rack and a salt mixing station.

I've gone over some of the changes in this video. http://youtu.be/x9PgvTsDngg

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/x9PgvTsDngg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Dissy]

Awesome looking tank.. My only comment on your fish selections is that I think if you get a Mandarin Dragonet, it will have way too much competition for food... It really needs to be the only thing that picks at live rock and sand for its food..

 

[dtum]

Awesome looking tank.. My only comment on your fish selections is that I think if you get a Mandarin Dragonet, it will have way too much competition for food... It really needs to be the only thing that picks at live rock and sand for its food..

Thank you. I got a mandarin about a month ago and it was eating frozen food. The only competition to it is the wrasse and my mandarin is still super plump. I got quite a lot of live rock in my refugium and tons of pods in the tank.

 

[dtum]

Just updated my MP10 to wireless by installing an RF chip. The whole process took only 5 minutes, much easier than I expected. And now the powerhead can be controlled via Apex alongside with my other powerheads, neat!

 

[dtum]

Winterfell Reef's 1 year birthday is coming up real soon, overall I'm extremely pleased with the progress, although I've had my share of ups and downs, including a complete decimation of my fish stock, corals bleaching due to alk swings/kalk reactor problems.

I have added a new tank to the system - an 20 gallon external lagoon/refugium system that is hooked up to the main reef, thus increasing the total water volume of the system to about 140 gallons. Hopefully all that new macro algae will help out significantly with the nutrient export.

Now I'm just pruning and re-arranging my corals to achieve the look I'm going for, aiming to hit this 1 year mark with the peak in coral health and coloration. Here is an updated video at a 10.5 month mark, stay tuned.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/cRVy3PgSlUc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[myst]

2 Radion Pros over your sump and refugium? Must be nice lol. Here I am still trying to decide if the Pros are worth the price jump over the G2s just for my display...

Beautiful tank.

 

[dtum]

2 Radion Pros over your sump and refugium? Must be nice lol. Here I am still trying to decide if the Pros are worth the price jump over the G2s just for my display...

Beautiful tank.

I call them my frag tank and a mangrove lagoon. This makes is so much easier to justify using them.

What I'm really surprised about is that 2 Radion Pros provide enough coverage on my display tank.

 

[d2mini]

Looks fantastic for less than a year old.
Imagine another year!

 

[dtum]

Looks fantastic for less than a year old.
Imagine another year!

Yep, I keep imagining a MUCH larger reef :dance:

 

[d2mini]

lol, aren't we all.
But this one is just a baby. You have soooo much grow-out to do with those coral.
And then eventually you'll be fragging like mad and can save up for the next tank.

 

[dtum]

Here's an updated FTS

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dtumanov/10076769423/" title="DSC02578 by Dmitry Tumanov, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3787/10076769423_a74eb21d0f_b.jpg" width="1024" height="680" alt="DSC02578"></a>

 

[dtum]

Decided to increase the intensity of Radions:
From 50% to 60% in main tank
From 20% to 30% in frag tank
From 25% to 35% in mangrove refugium

Will wait a month until I'll re-evaluate my results.

<img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5518/10076669635_9e819cedc6_b.jpg" width="1024" height="680" alt="DSC02559">

 

[dtum]

For everyone who's been asking for more pictures, here are a few:

Latest FTS with refugium/frag area
<img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3810/10147664453_5fb72d77a7_b.jpg" width="1024" height="680" alt="DSC02585">

Frag area under actinics
<img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7371/10147611076_71cb3668a6_b.jpg" width="681" height="1024" alt="DSC02586">

And here is my salt mixing station in progress

<img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5348/10147533935_bfd1f4493b_b.jpg" width="680" height="1024" alt="DSC02587">

Just fragged my xenia, got another 8 frags out of it. This thing is truly a weed in coral's clothing.

 

[dtum]

And here's another video update. Winterfell Reef is now 1 year and 1 month old.

<iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Xv88YTuVc4s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[jimmy n]

So nice.

 

[Cujo]

Amazing... Thanks for sharing.

 

[d2mini]

Awesome!

It's going to be a shame to see this torn down and upgraded already.
I can only imagine how good it would look in another year!

 

[rorroreef]

Any updates on this beauty of a tank?

 

[dtum]

Any updates on this beauty of a tank?

Thank you. I've started a new build 3 months ago. Hope you will like it even more.

<iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/AXYI7unIe_U" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[ESJ]

Your new tank is beautiful!