Hi everyone! I have been lurking around nano-reef for a long time now. I started my saltwater hobby with a 29 gallon tank. I enjoyed that tank! However, I then met my future wife and other things took priority. Well, I am back into the hobby with a new tank. It's nothing spectacular, but I think it is definitely a work in progress. I don't have the ability to buy every single piece of top end equipment that I would like too.

Tank Specs

60 gallon AGA w/overflow

2 power sweep powerheads

Aqua C Remora Protein Skimmer

20 long glass refugium

2 x 96 watt actinic

1 x 250 watt MH

Future improvements

Bigger in-sump protein skimmer

I would like to build my own acrylic sump. I would like to go to a 40 gallon sump.

Upgrade the powerheads.

NOTES

The stand and hood were built by me. I purposely made the stand larger than normal so that I can expand beneath.

do you have pics? you may want something other then the powersweeps for flow... i have one in and they suck

A couple of new changes! Some new corals. I also recently purchased a Hydor Koralia Powerhead 3. I am very pleased with its performance so far. I will be adding a new one by sometime next week. I also added a top off drip system. I am dosing Kalkwasser to top off the tank.

So it has been a long time since I posted.

A few changes of been made to the tank:

1. Aquascaping I like the two Island look.

2. I built my own recirculating skimmer.

3. Added Mangroves to my ref because i like them!

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Several months ago I decided to build my own recirculating skimmer. Here are several pics. I am very pleased with its performance thus far. Of course I have been thiClick to view attachmentnking about tweaking my design when I have some time.


The Mangroves have grown all the way past the light. I am struggling with a solution for this issue.
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The skimmer does a good job pulling out junk. I would like a little bit wider body on the skimmer itself.
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What fish do you have?

Good question

Fish in the tank are the following:

2 clown gobies
2 False Percula
1 Blue Tang "eventually I will need to move him to a bigger tank. No problem there"
1 flame angel

nice stocking list.

I have decided recently to upgrade my lighting system. I would like to go for 500 watts of MH lighting. That means adding another 250 watt MH to my system.

I believe with the depth of my aquarium it won't be overkill.

Does anyone else have an opinion or a suggestion?

Well I changed my mind. Decided not to get the lighting upgrade quite yet. Maybe in the future. I have done some adjustments to the refugium. I installed a drain on the skimmer. The mangroves started to grow to large. I thought they were suppose to be slow growing!! I had to install a third light that is higher so the mangroves are no longer touching the light bulb. Here are a few pictures that I took tonight.
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Maybe I missed it or I'm just a newb (both probably true), but what are you using for a return pump? Nice set-up overall, by the way!

A quiet one 4000. I have heard that a lot of people have had issues with these pumps starting back up after a power outage. I just went through a major power outage and it started right back up when the lights came back on. Thanks for the comments!

So there has been some changes to my fish tank since I last posted.

1. I made a frag rack to grow out certain corals. I made it out of scrap acrylic from my local plastic shop. I enclosed the rack itself so that fish do not attempt to take food from some of the lps that I am feeding. I am not worried about flow because i do not plan on growing sps on this particular frag rack.
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2. I made a power panel out of the American DJ power stations. I riped off the side panel of my stand cut a hole in the panel and put modeling around the power panels. I do need to finish the trim with some wood putty and clear coat.
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3. I bought a couple zoa frags.
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looking nice, any more detailed pics of your DIY skimmer?

disaster999 -

I will get some shots posted of my skimmer as soon as possible. I love DIY skimmers. But be warned it gets addictive. I am always finding myself planning for the next skimmer build.

It is going to be very hard for me to get really detailed pics of my DIY skimmer. However I have put together a ghetto riffic diagram for you to view. A couple things to keep in mind:

1. A Sebra 5000 needlewheel is way to powerful for this skimmer. I have to reduce the airsupply to the skimmer by 75% in order to get a good think skimmate. I intentionally did this so that I could one day upgrade.

2. Buy a tap kit at harborfreight for the joints between PVC.

3. I don't care about acrylic bodies. PVC is so much cheaper. But if I had to do it over again I would have bought a wider body.

The skimmer has been in operation for over 8 months. IT is still working like a champ! I hope this helps.

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Looks good J. I imagine you've saved a ton of $ with your DIY projects. You've put together a pretty nice setup.

Thanks Shadowrider! Once you start down the DIY path its hard to go back. If you don't count the tools that I have purchased then yes I have saved a lot of money. The tools however are used on other projects, so I don't think you could really count them.

I spent about $150.00 on the skimmer. The most expensive part was the Sedra 5000. Like I stated before that was a lot of overkill. This pump would work just fine

http://www.hydrosreef.com/ge24lphpunew.html

great tank! i love the changes u made from the first aquascape! its starting to like a little slice of the sea! great idea with the power panel! good luck!

Thanks Jerzsky - Always a work in progress!

One of my best friends lives next door and he has a reef tank as well. It always helps to have a buddy in the hobby. He took reef keeping to another level with DIY rock.

Can you tell what he casted the rock with? This rock is now covered in Corals.
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So, I recently purchased a sun coral. Wow, what a neat coral. I thought I would post some pics.
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I redid some of the aquascape in my tank today. I wanted a large tower in the tank to reach closer to the surface of the tank. I used white pvc pipe as the central tower. I then used pvc pipe and attached shorter pieces with notches onto the rocks themselves. Keep in mind with this formation some pvc is going to be exposed. This is ok with me since coraline and hopefully other corals with begin to encrust over the pipe itself. So for now I have excepted that my tank is going to look a little bit off. Sometimes in this hobby you have do something major that might be a little destructive for the long term.

The goods to get the job done.
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The pvc that I used to attach the rocks to the tower.
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The tower itself. I cut the top to be jagged, so once it is encrusted it will look a little bit more natural.
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The somewhat finished product.
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Wow, the new scape looks MUCH better

Thank you sir! I think it looks a little bit more dramatic. I am excited for when it grows in.

I thought I would update the progress of my tower. I am starting to get some good growth.

The Ricordea are continuing to split. I will need to place this rock better to show off the growth.

My goby is chillaxing on some coral.


The FTS. I am struggling with some algae growth from nutrients released in the water when I installed the tower on the right. Patience is always the key.

Nice tank. You should trade the hippo tang in for a smaller tang, a halfdollar size Tomini tang would be cool.

still looking greta! did you read the article on libe scaping? thats what he did with his tank and it was awesome as so will yours be! how are those pair of clown gobys getting along? did u introduce them at the same time??

J-Bass - Your absolutely right my hippo is going to have to go soon. His name is Sammy and I love him. I think I will give him to someone with a larger tank in the future or upgrade myself.

Jerzsky - Thanks for the kind words! My inspiration came from Marine Fish and Reef 2008 annual. The article was titled What is "Live-Framing"? By Gregory Sykes. Great article. If I had to do my tank over again I would have structured everything with pvc pipe and watched it grow.

The clown gobies were put into the tank at the same time. They chase each other but they are always around one another. I have had them for about 8 months now without a problem.

I totally disagree with this statement. Maybe trade it for a smaller hippo tang. How big is it? Looks HUGE! Very healthy looking tank too. Great job. At least some of us can create awesome reefscapes!

What did you use to attach the frags vertically on your tower? I've tried the 2-part putty and found that it doesn't stick very well.

jjohnson3 - My Hippo is around the north side of 6 ins I would guess. I will give him up to a good home soon. As for the replacement. I think I might go with something a little bit different. (ie - Not a tang.) Maybe a wrasse of some sort.

kdogg1000 - I will show you some more pictures of the tower today. There is more things that I have attached on the tower. I have been using superglue to attach directly to the pvc. The superglue seems to bond well with pvc. I use the gorilla glue super glue which seems to work nicely, plus that gorilla super glue comes in good sized bottles.

http://www.azpartsmaster.com/Products/Gori...am__D15253.aspx


So several things have been done since I last posted.

1. I redid the hood of my tank. It is smaller and better looking. I will post pictures tonight.

2. I bought some GSP for the tower. It is already starting to spread.

3. I like the tower so much on the right side. I have been pondering doing another one on the left. However, I had a large explosion of nutrients in the water after i did the first one because I disturbed the sand bed so much, it makes me second guess to do it again.

4. I made a large water storage container for my ro/di unit.

Pictures to come soon!

My new water storage for my RO/DI unit. I use a bulkhead for the drain.



I love this frag. It is has grown a lot since I got it. It looks like it is melting over the rock. Rough picture but you get the idea.



I bought some Xenia. I love this particular kind. Red Sea. Almost completely white.




I am starting to get some growth on the tower itself. You can see where I added some GSP. I hope that it will help take up some of the tower. I will tame the growth with regular fragging.

So many things have been happening!!

1. I upgraded my lights.

I went with a 400 watt single end with a spider reflector 14 k bulb.

2. I built a new skimmer.

it has 6 in body. It is about 24 ins high maybe a little higher. It features a bubble plate.


Pictures to come!

everything looks really great, MORE PICTURES!!!!

I have had some issues with my tank as of late and I must say it sucked.

I noticed that there was some red slime in my tank. ( Mostly due to over feeing and a heavy bioload) It was starting to encroach on some of my corals. I decided that action had to be taken. I added red slime remover to my aquarium. I shut of my skimmer and carbon filter, I also added an air pump to the sump to keep oxygen up. When I woke up the next morning I had lost my Blue Tang, Mandarin Dragon , and Phesdo Chromas. I was very upset. However, I decided that it was time to make improvements to the tank with some Christmas gifts that I got.

1. I built a new skimmer out of ABS pipe. 6 in diameter. It is very similar to a Euro-reef RS-135 in dimensions. The pump is a Sedra 5000, again similar to the RS-135. However, there is one major difference. I added a bubble plate to the skimmer. I LOVE this skimmer I couldn't be more pleased and I believe my corals are benefiting from the skimmer and sadly the reduced bioload/feedings.

2. I upgraded my lighting! CoralVue 400watt Complete Retro Kit. I selected the 14k bulb. I am extremely pleased with it and now I am selling my old lighting.

http://phishybusiness.com/store/product_in...products_id=426


Here are some pictures of my new additions and some fun shots.

Today I got a new sps frag. It seems to be enjoying the new lighting setup.

I got my frag from

http://www.reefsystems.com/

It is a coral farm we have here in Columbus, Ohio. They sell some nice quality coral.

They called this particular piece a Bali Blue Tipped.

Today I had the day off from work. I decided to re aquascape the left side of my tank. I used the same method as before. I wanted to have more of a platform for future sps purchases. Over all I am pleased. I can't wait for everything to grow in!

i really like it! good job with the new scaping

Thank you for the kind words! I will be much more happy once everything begins to fill in!

SPS has been the name of the game for me lately. Since I upgraded my lighting I have been getting great growth and I have been able to keep some great looking pieces of coral.

I am not very careful to watch my calcium and alk very closely.

I am please with the how the tank is growing in since I reaquascaped everything. Nutrients in the water have gone down.



I love the blue polyps on this cap. It has started to grow in my tank. I can't believe I got this one for $15.00



This coral I got for $10.00. It is a little bit of a rehab project. Notice the damage on the left side. I loved the corals so I had to take the risk.



I have no idea what this is. But it has blue tips and yellow polyps. The rest of the coral is completely white??



By far my favorite corals in the tank. I love the purple digitata.

Awesome Rock Work. I just started a similar tank. A 36''19''24'' 65 gallon. Ima have to borrow your rock work method.

Thanks 805fish! IF i had to do it over again, I would take a couple pieces of rock and crush it up and cement it to the pvc pipe. That way i wouldn't have to wait for the coraline and other polyps to grow on it.

So, I am thinking about getting a controller in the future. Does anyone think that is overkill? Ok, I think it might be a little overkill.

Great pics... I love the aquascaping!

I decided to add two new fish! I love them both.
Both from the wrasse family.


Flasher Wrasse


Bluesided Wrasse

Also , I wanted to tell everyone that I am starting to get some great growth out of my tank! Very exciting.

Here is a picture for reference. The red lines are approx. in the same location in both shots.

Cool additions! Looks like your tank is coming along very well, what all fish do you have in there?

Thanks SiLkk

Right now I have

2 False Perculas
1 Flame Angel
1 yellow clown gobies ( I had two but one got banished to the ref. for eating coral polyps.)
1 Blue sided Wrasse
1 Flasher Wrasse.

I am done buying fish for now.

Just wanted to give an update on my tank. Everything is growing! The new lights really did the trick! I also added a coral beauty angel to the tank. I know that having two pygmy angels sometimes can cause problems, however they same to be doing fine.

Still growing!

This coral has changed colors to a yellow. It seems to be growing well.

Starting to plate.

This purple digitata is growing like a weed. I have not had it very long, but it seems to be responding well. You can see the same picture in previous posts.

I wish this blue tipped Bali would grow faster! It as grown but not fast enough for me.

I bought this coral at Jacks. It didn't look like much, but it has started growing very quickly. Any ideas on what it is?

I bought this coral at jacks as well. It looked like a brown stick. It since has turned an orange red and has started to grow and encrust very quickly.

Of course I have to show the FTS shot.

Great tank! I love the DIY Skimmer!

My poor tank!!! It has not gotten a lot of love from me lately. I started graduate school at night and going to work during the day, which leaves very little time for the tank. Also, I might add there is a baby on the way. I just thought I might update everyone on a few pics.

PLEASE EXCUSE THE MESS!


I need to get in here with an exacto blade and start cutting some GSP DOWN!

These mangroves won't stop growing. They are past my belly button, I am about 5 '10. I had to clip the light higher in the back so that they could continue to grow out of the ref.

Look at the earlier posts....This coral has become my pride and joy. I would say past softball size now.