Jump to content
Premium Aquatics Aquarium Supplies

Our little reef


hairoids

Recommended Posts

Howdy all,

 

I guess it is time I finally post our little reef. I joined NR just over a year ago and spent a few months lurking, learning, and reading as much as I could in the forums. Thanks to all the other BC14 owners who inspired and helped me with this tank.

 

Here are some details about our tank:

 

14 pounds live rock and 10 pounds live sand.

 

Lighting - Nanotuners 72 watt 3.24 upgrade kit with one 10k, actinic, and 50/50 bulb.

If you are thinking about getting the upgrade I highly suggest it. Was very easy to install even for someone who is construction challenged like myself.

 

Heater - 50 watt Finnex heater

Temp stays between 76.5 & 77.7 during the day

 

Chamber 1 - Rubble and heater

Chamber 2 - Rubble, chemipure, purigen, and filter floss

Chamber 3 - Rio Hyperflo 4 HF pump (have tried the MJ 1200 but prefer this instead).

I have opened up the slot between the 1st and 2nd chamber for better water flow.

 

Hydro Flow in one corner and have loc lined an outlet to the other corner to increas flow thru the tank.

 

I do a 1 gallon (10%) water change every week.

 

Livestock:

 

1 - Peppermint Shrimp (Pepi, my wife named him, not me!)

1 - Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (Ralphie)

1 - Emerald Crab ( Rob Jr. aka RJ, after a freind who had a problem with the other type of crabs in his younger days).

1 - Red Mithrax Crab

3 - Scarlet Hemits

2 - Dwarf Blue Legged Hermits

1 - Orange Turbo Snail

3 - Nass Snails

2 - Cerith Snails

1 - Cowry

 

Corals:

 

Torch, our newest addition.

Branching Hammer, started as 4 heads has now grown to 8 heads in 6 months

Candy Cane, has grown from 7 heads to 13 heads in 6 months

Trumpet

Various zoas

Star polyps

Xenia

Chaeto in back corner

 

Onto the Pics :D

 

Its humble beginning May 7, 2007, during the cycle:

post-25107-1200764689_thumb.jpg

 

November 2007, was very dirty. I was having a algae problem, have since cut the lighting time down to 10 hours which has solved the problem.

post-25107-1200764712_thumb.jpg

 

Full tank shot as of today 1/19/2008:

post-25107-1200774570_thumb.jpg

If you look in the upper right hand corner you will notice a Nimble Super Magnet Cleaner, if you don't have one get one they are GREAT!!! I threw out both of my mag floats after using it. It is more powerful so it cleans better and is only a 1/2 nch wide so it fits into all of those tight spots.

 

It sits in the corner of our family room:

post-25107-1200765419_thumb.jpg

 

Ralphie and Pepi

post-25107-1200764810_thumb.jpg

post-25107-1200764843_thumb.jpg

 

Corals:

post-25107-1200764935_thumb.jpg

post-25107-1200765000_thumb.jpg

post-25107-1200765057_thumb.jpg

post-25107-1200765090_thumb.jpg

post-25107-1200774607_thumb.jpg

post-25107-1200774677_thumb.jpg

 

If you look close you will see RJ under the zoa

post-25107-1200775858_thumb.jpg

 

Top down:

post-25107-1200765313_thumb.jpg

post-25107-1200765341_thumb.jpg

 

Thanks for taking the time to look at my tank. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. I will continue to update the thread as I progress.

Link to comment

Thanks for the compliments. It was really amazing to look at the 3 fts from the beginning to now. Both my wife and I did not realize how far it had come until we look at them in sequence

 

I actually order both sizes of the nimble, the smaller one has not even been opened yet due to the larger one being able to get to the tight places that the mag float would not reach

Link to comment
Thanks for the complimenmts. It was really amazing to look at the 3 fts from the beginning to now. Both my wife and I did not realize how far it had come until we look at them in sequence

 

I actually order both sizes of the nimble, the smaller one has not even been opened yet due to the larger one being able to get to the tight places that the mag float would not reach

What do you do for your tank in the way of daily supplements,feedings,cleanings and water changes? Seems like whatever you are doing is working to get your corals to grow.

Link to comment
What do you do for your tank in the way of daily supplements,feedings,cleanings and water changes? Seems like whatever you are doing is working to get your corals to grow.

 

 

I use two different bottles for topping off, one with calcium and one with buff, which are rotated when doing my weekly top offs.

 

I feed the tank mysis, phyto feast live, and coral frenzy on a rotating basis. The phyto feast is used two to three times a week the other two are once a week. I target feed the trumpet, hammer, torch, and candy cane mysis which I think contributes to how well they have grown and look.

 

Once a week water changes of a gallon, which is a 10% change. For cleaning I use the nimble on the front and side panels. I pull out the pump every four to six weeks to clean it and pull off the loc line every three weeks or so to clean it. I change the floss twice a week. The tank has a very low bio load due to no fish. Also thre is a big softball size piece of cheato in the left rear corner that covers the lower water intake.

 

Hope that helps.

Link to comment

thanks for the info...I just put a ball of chaeto in my second chamber as well...did you add a light to the chamber? If you did how did you do it and where did you get the parts? Thanks for the info.

Link to comment

If you look in the most recent full tank shot, you will see it sitting in front of the lower grate in the bottom right part of the picture. I do not have it in the second chamber.

 

It has gotten big again, time to prune it.

Link to comment
thanks for the info...I just put a ball of chaeto in my second chamber as well...did you add a light to the chamber? If you did how did you do it and where did you get the parts? Thanks for the info.

 

 

Do a search for biocubes and will you find some other tank threads that have done this. Lots of great examples of these nice little tanks on NR.

Link to comment
  • 1 year later...

Wow, did not realize it has been over a year since I have updated the tank thread. A lot of changes have happened, the branching hammer is gone because it had grown to about 30 heads (softball size) and was dominating the top of the tank. I traded it out for 4 heads of the same and $$. Have added some additional zoas (thanks Eric), the trumpet has grown to apprx 20 heads. Lost the peppermint shrimp, still have Ralphie, and have added 2 porcelain crabs (really cool to watch them filter the water as they eat). Have converted the center chamber into a fuge with StevieT's media rack (if you don't have one get one they are great!) and small halogen bulbs. Upgraded my pump to a Rio 6HF and love the extra flow it has created, the zoas look better then ever because of the extra flow I believe. No fish still just our inverts and corals.

 

FTS - 3/14/2009:

 

post-25107-1237142608_thumb.jpg

 

Upper Part of tank: Torch, Branching Hammer, Trumpet, ans Xenia.

 

post-25107-1237142770_thumb.jpg

 

Additional Pics:

 

post-25107-1237142889_thumb.jpg

 

post-25107-1237142994_thumb.jpg

 

post-25107-1237143034_thumb.jpg

 

post-25107-1237143094_thumb.jpg

 

post-25107-1237143158_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Very nice, that candy cane colony is solid and those orange bam bams are intense.

 

 

Thank you, I really do like the Bam-Bams, they add some nice colr to the tank.

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...