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Matt's 20 Gallon


matth6761

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Most recent FTS: 04/03/2012

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Current Setup:

 

Established 03/05/10

 

Display: Petco 20 G tall, back painted black

Lighting: 24" WavePoint 4 Lamp T5 HO System w/ ATI Coral Plus x2, Blue Plus, and Pure actinic.

Circulation: VorTech MP10es

Heater: Aqueon Pro 100

Skimmer: Reef Octopus BH1000 HOB

Refugium: Modded AquaClear 110 with Chaeto

Livestock:

 

1 Ocellaris Clownfish

1 Blue/Green Reef Chromis

Clean up crew consisting of a few red & blue hermits, various snails, and a
ton
of stomatella snails

 

Coral:

Various zoanthids

Hammerhead coral (I think, correct me if it's something else)

Spotted mushroom rock

Red & green ricordeas

Orange & green Montipora capricornis

Acanthastrea lordhowensis

Favites spp.

Acropora sp.

Duncanopsammia axifuga

 

************

 



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FTS - 02/28/10

 

 



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My journey into reefing began in August of 2009 with the purchase of a Biocube 14.

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Day one.

The aquarium and live rock was purchased from my local LFS, 'The Deep,' in Redding, CA. I threw the bio-balls away and let it cycle for several weeks. Upon completion, I introduced my live stock and really haven't done much with the tank for the past several months.

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My first corals.

I've always thought that to have something unique & beautiful, you needed complicated and obscenely expensive equipment. Well after seeing how well my simple Biocube has been working and being inspired by masterbuilder, GobyInPeace, Karlo, plainrt, c est ma's displays, i've decided to move on up into a new 20 gallon tank. I've got a WavePoint T5 HO System, a SubCurrent Internal Wet/Dry Filter, and a couple of Koralias on order from Foster and Smith Aquatics which should be arriving this week.

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Here we go.

 

Any suggestions?

Edited by matth6761
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Welcome to the 20 High club. Can't wait to see the change over. What bulbs are you going to run in your t5 hood?

 

Any good 4-bulb configurations that SPS would do well under?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Made the move about a 2 weeks ago. So far, so good.

 

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The night of the big move.

 

Note the difference in brightness between the stock bioCube lighting vs. the Wave Point T5 HO fixture. I'm pretty happy with the stock Wave Point bulbs. They give off a crispy white light with just a hint of blue which make the colors of my corals just look stunning.

 

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15 minutes old.

 

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Letting everything settle.

 

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Zoas seem happy.

 

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Just took this today.

 

Everything seems healthy. I discovered some tiny clove polyps growing on a zoa frag that I bought a few weeks ago. I didn't want them taking over my tank, so I chipped off the bit of rock and superglued it to a piece of rubble. Figured it'd look cool when it matures.

 

I had decided to try the SubCurrent filter because I liked how simple it seemed, but after using it for two weeks, I've come to frickin hate it. The water had to be at the perfect level in order for it to do it's surface skimming thing and not suck a bunch of air, blowing a cloud of microbubbles back into the tank. I yanked it out today and replaced it with a Aqua Clear refugium that I built.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update!

 

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I'm trying something different with the scape. I've also decided to put the Subcurrent back in. I made some adjustments to the pump and it works a lot better. I still have to keep a very close eye on the water level though. Everything seems to be looking good.

 

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  • 1 month later...

May Update!

 

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I've done a lot of work on the tank over the past 2 months. I once again pulled the SubCurrent filter out and chucked it. It was far too noisy, underpowered, and a pain in the but to clean. I replaced it with a Foster & Smith power filter, in which I'm running some floss and a bag of carbon. It does a fantastic job surface skimming and it's nearly silent.

 

The corals are all looking super healthy and the SPS corals are responding very well under the T5s. I've seen almost a half of inch of growth since April 8th out of a pink monti cap frag bought from reefempire. All of my livestock is as happy as can be as well. My DIY Aquaclear refugium has been working very well and is teeming with critters. There is minimal algae growth in my tank and water parameters are all near zero.

 

I've also been doing a lot to simplify the look of the tank and make the whole setup look a lot sleeker. I rearranged the rockscape to hide the filter intakes and the heater. I also trained the wires for everything down the backs of the legs of the stand. I hate wires hanging from things, so I've done my best to hide them all, making the system look almost wireless.

 

PICS!

 

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Let me know what you think!

Edited by matth6761
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How do you like that stand is it sturdy?

 

It's actually very sturdy. It's safety bolted into the wall though in case of earthquakes or drunken stumbles.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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Just some goodies I got from Reefempire.com's eBay auctions.

 

Those guys are freakin awesome. I picked out and paid for these Sunday night. I got my UPS tracking number Monday morning. Had them in my tank by eleven A.M. Tuesday. Crazy quick, they are!

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

August Update:

 

Just got back from a week long vacation in San Diego. I visited the Birch Aquarium and totally dug the reef exhibits they had. Had a great time, untill I got back to find that the timer for my refugium light malfunctioned and let the light stay on 24/7 for the entire week. Enough light leaked into the tank to cause a huge green hair algae bloom. Everything was completely green. I siphoned all the algae on the sand out, did a few big water changes and completely dismantled the refugium and power-filter and gave them a good scrub down and rinsing. The clean-up crew is tackling the rest.

 

Have also noticed strange bleaching of all the coraline algae. I'm figuring it has something to do with the ATI aquablue specials that I installed, them being MUCH brighter than the stock Wavepoint bulbs. I'm already noticing a few new purple spots popping up here and there though. Figure it'll only be a matter of time before some other kind of coraline takes everything back over.

 

I've noticed the clowns hiding in a hole in the rocks. This is new behavior, which makes me wonder if and when they're going to mate and lay eggs.

 

Pictures!

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Hey I'm interested in the Foster and Smiths power filter you have. Do you think the surface skimmer part would be able to fit on a taam rio nano skimmer??? I'm interested in getting that part only and see if it would improve skimmate. BTW nice tank and imo I liked the first aquascape with the two islands, but its still looks great.

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Hey I'm interested in the Foster and Smiths power filter you have. Do you think the surface skimmer part would be able to fit on a taam rio nano skimmer??? I'm interested in getting that part only and see if it would improve skimmate. BTW nice tank and imo I liked the first aquascape with the two islands, but its still looks great.

 

Not sure if it would fit. But I can tell you that it will in fact improve your skimmate. My tank got remarkably healthier looking when I installed that thing. There's a lot to be said for a skimmed surface! :-)

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Have you tried hooking it up to your aquaclear already?

 

I thought about doing that, but the way the AC's built, it wouldn't really work without some serious dremmel work. I like having the extra power filter though because, while it's not much, it does add that much more to the volume of the tank, as well as adds to the flow in the tank. It's also is a handy spot to throw in a bag of carbon if I feel like it.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

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