xDetroitMetalx Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 February 3rd, 2013Tank Specs29 Gallon Standard SizeWater FlowHydor Koralia NanoEcoTech MP10esFiltrationEshopps HOB Refugium w/ RIO 600Eshopps PSK-75H SkimmerLighting2 Blue/White Panorama Pro GenII2 Magenta Stunner2 Blue Stunner 2 Ultra Violet Stunner*All mounted in a ghetto DIY PVC stand hanger thingyLive StockFishPair of Ocellaris ClownsTwin Spot BlennyBlue Dot Watchman GobyPygmy Cherub AngelfishFirefish GobyInvertsBlue Leg HermitsGreen/Blue Rock Flower AnemoneRed on red Rock Flower Anemone Red/Yellow disc/purple center/green mouth Rock Flower Anemone Porcelain CrabTiger Pistol ShrimpMantis Shrimp that lives in the HOB Refuge Turbo SnailBasic CUC stuff from Reef CleanersCoralsSPSGreen Encrusting Coral Superman Monti Green with Orange Mouth MontiLPSPink Frog SpawnDuncan CoralGreen Candy CaneGreen Plate Coral Lobo of some sortSoftiesGreen Star PolypsGreen MushroomsPurple MushroomGreen Stripe MushroomBlue RicordeaEagle Eye ZoasBam BamsGreen Zoas Rasta Zoas Link to comment
xDetroitMetalx Posted December 17, 2012 Author Share Posted December 17, 2012 The Story I believe my first endeavor taking on a marine reef tank was early summer 2010. I have successfully built multiple freshwater set ups before and my last freshwater venture was a very nice African Cichlid tank. I enjoyed collecting Aulonocara, and spent many years doing so. Sadly, I decided to part out the set up and sell the live stock as I was graduating college. I didn't find it feasible to move such a large tank across the state along with all my other belongings. Shortly afterwards I got the saltwater bug by something most people dread keeping. I was browsing YouTube videos and discovered the Mantis Shrimp... Wow, cool! I began to research them and became fascinated with them. Extremely cool animals. I built a little 7 gallon "Book Shelf" aquarium that you can buy at PetCo very cheaply. I stocked it with live rock, sand, a power head, and two HOB filters to act as a small refuge. Soon I had a little Wennerae Mantis Shrimp! During the time of this set up I was experimenting with the Mantis in addition to the tanks ability to support life. Before I converted it I placed in a Firefish Goby in addition to my Cherub Pygmy Angel. I still have these fish today (don't worry, I upgrade and move them to a larger tank quickly). As stated I upgraded by reusing an old 20 gallon tall I had. I converted the 20 into a salt tank while leaving the Mantis in his own little 7 gallon. At this time I believe I began collecting some corals and bought a couple more fish. Surprisingly I didn't kill anything yet at this time! Inside of a year I picked up my current 29 gallon set up which was on sale. I later found the HOB Refuge which greatly helped my water quality in such a small tank. Once I got everything stable I have been slowly collecting ever since. At this point in my reef keeping I was very careful in future fish and coral selections thanks to this site and others like it. Unfortunately, my first mantis died, some how his home collapsed and trapped him with me unawares. I later found his corpse when I carefully began to search for him. I was devastated, so I bought another one and have been keeping him in the HOB Refuge. I have had the current mantis back there for a little over 2 years now. I ended up moving the tank once after college, luckily it wasn't that difficult. The only fatalities I've had with this tank have been fish jumping out at it's current location. For whatever reason it has always been during the full moon. The tank is under skylights and I have been wondering if the fish see the moon in the middle of the night and jump out? Anyway, I solved the problem by covering the top with great care. Since I've added the tight cover there haven't been any more fatalities. I moved for a year and during that time my father took care of this 29 gallon tank. He did an outstanding job, especially for not really knowing what to do besides what I told him over the phone. If you remember, I first posted on this site when I was building up a very species / coral specific 14 gallon Biocube. It was my greatest aquarium achievement at the time. The 14 Bio was exploding with life such as copepods and coraline algae within a 4-5 month time frame. The only fish were a pair of Yasha Gobies and their shrimp and the only corals were very nice zoas. The tank was almost on cruise control. The only thing I had to do was top off the water as I rarely had to feed the fish as they had a bountiful choice of pods. Sadly, the new "life" in Oregon didn't work out. My fiancee and I decided to move back to Michigan. There was no way to bring the tank or it's inhabitants with us so I had to sell the whole set up for nearly nothing. Luckily it has a good home and the tank is still doing well! So this brings us to the current setting of my story. I am in control of the 29 gallon again and have recently purchased some new corals while upgrading tank lighting. There are a few more things I would like to add equipment wise as well as expanding the coral selection with a lot more rarer corals. Unfortunately, because this is really my first marine tank it's not as well planned as I would like it to be, however, I believe I can make it work! Link to comment
xDetroitMetalx Posted December 17, 2012 Author Share Posted December 17, 2012 Equipment / DIYThe new light system I guess I can call DIY? I'm happy with the Ecoxotic LED Stunners and Pros at the moment. I ordered from Ecoxotic directly and received their newest renditions of their Pros... I'm not sure if they upgraded their stunners as well. I'm hoping to add some UV Stunners to the system here soon. My goal is to run the UV/Actinic for an hour or two early in the morning then combine the Pros/Magenta for a daylight cycle and then run the UV/Actinic for an hour later before bed. The LEDs stay extremely cool thanks to the original cooling fans inside the light housing. I scraped this idea as it was casting a huge shadow in the back wall of the tank which wasn't appealing and made coral placement a pain. The current stage of mounting my lighting as of February 2013 consist of some great ingenuity with small pockets combined with PVC Pipe, "egg" crate, butt ton of zip ties, some insulation with reflective foil to create a top. This actually works extremely well and allows versatility in the lighting positions and overall coverage... However, It aesthetically looks like crap! Link to comment
xDetroitMetalx Posted December 17, 2012 Author Share Posted December 17, 2012 Full Tank Shots February 3rd, 2013 December 14th, 2012September 5th, 2012 Link to comment
xDetroitMetalx Posted December 17, 2012 Author Share Posted December 17, 2012 Fish Twin Spot Blenny Cherub Pygmy Angel Wants some kisses Clowns Blue Dot Watchmen Wathcmen watching out for Tiger Pistol Shrimp aka Dozer Firefish Goby Link to comment
xDetroitMetalx Posted December 17, 2012 Author Share Posted December 17, 2012 Corals / InvertsLED Actinic LightingGreen/Blue Rock Nem and Red Rock Nem and DuncanZoas look fantastic with the stunnersGreen Candy Canes brighter than everTripping on Shrooms Eating more shrooms! Red Rock Nem showing offBlue/Green Rock Nem getting settledCrab wants a hug? EcoExotic Day Light ShotsRight side of the tank is very... Tentacle-ishly...Center of tank has many various shrooms.The left side is my zoa "garden"... It needs work! Link to comment
xDetroitMetalx Posted December 17, 2012 Author Share Posted December 17, 2012 The Frag Rack Superman Monti and Rasta Zoas growing nicely! Nothing extremely exciting... It's all doing well though. Rasta Zoas under Blue and UV stunners. Old Compact Fluorescent LightingGreen Frogspawn I sold, began as a single head and I sold it at 9 headsStar Polyps exploding in my tankGreen ShroomsRandom ShroomsBamBam ZoaDuncan ColonyRed Rock Nem Link to comment
xDetroitMetalx Posted December 17, 2012 Author Share Posted December 17, 2012 The Couple That Refuses to Sleep Together The male fluffing his duncan pillow. Finally some good nights rest away from the misses. The misses waving goodnight in the frogspawn. The frogspawn and duncan are nearly side by side... It's almost like a couple sharing a room with twin beds. Link to comment
Spirofucci Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 Cool pics!!! Love all the fish and those rock nems!!! Link to comment
xDetroitMetalx Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 Finally got some updates, enjoy. Cliff Notes:- I changed the lighting set up by adding UV Stunners and making a super ghetto lighting frame and cover. - I bought more things! - Reef Cleaner CUC - Another Rock Nem - Porcelain Crab - Rastas off a member on this sight - Two types of encrusting Montis - A new pump for the HOB Fuge - New GOOD timers... Finding good timers are hard to find! - More photos, because, you need them. Link to comment
tennis20 Posted July 18, 2013 Share Posted July 18, 2013 Great 'scape. How many pounds of LR did you use in the display Link to comment
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