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Dawn's 36g reef


vlangel

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I tore down a 90g softie reef in Dec 2012 and consolidated to an Aqueon 36g bowfront with a 10g fuge. I wanted to move toward LPS corals so I bought an Aquatic Life T5 fixture. Funds were limited so I kept the HOB overflow box, 9.5 mag return pump, koralia powerhead, prizm pro HOB skimmer, 3/4hp chiller, turbo twist UV, sump strip light and heater. I also kept some LR, LS, smaller fish, calerpa and some corals. I wanted this tank to have a cleaner more open look from my prior tank. I painted the back of the tank black. Also I only chose 3 large pc of LR with just a few small pieces to accessorize for the aquascape. It turned out the way I hoped.

Currently my livestock include a tomato clown, (that I raised from a mated pair of clowns I had), a pair of lyretail anthias, a purple firefish, and a tailspot blenny. The inverts are a cleaner shrimp, 2 peppermint shrimp, various CUC, a serpent star and a large hermit crab. The corals include a blue crocea clam, green pink tipped hammer, green frogspawn, various mushrooms, various acans, a welso brain, a favia, some paly s, some cabbage leathers and GSP.

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Nice tank, thanks for posting it. I shall be the first follower. :)

 

Do you have any videos showing the flow on that frogspawn. I can keep torches and hammers but the frogspawn hate me, I think it's flow related.

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I don't have video and not sure how to take any. This particular frogspawn has always done very well up high near the surface. It gets less flow than the other side of the tank but the overflow is right there so it gets tickled a little as the water goes into the overflow. My tank is also high in phosphates, (off the chart the last time I tested)and I know that is usually bad from an algea point of view but it seems my corals and clam like that. I have never had a problem with algea so I never sought to deal with the phosphates.

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Mark, I checked out your tanks! They are very nice. Ah you hate bowfronts! Yours looks good to me. I know they are pretty high, the DSB in mine takes up some of that height. How high are the 46's? I thought your frogspawn looked good in the bowfront.

I love the 40B too. I thought your color looked pretty good but I've never had the color that some folks have. I added a deep blue LED strip, (just this past weekend) to my tank trying to bring out more color.

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Yes, its been a very stable tank. I was afraid when I down sized that it would be harder to maintain my parameters. I faithfully do a 4 gallon\week WC and I am sure that has contributed to the stability.

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This looks really good, nice job! So it's been up for a year?

 

I checked out your tanks BTW. Very nice. You were wondering if tap water contributed to your algea? Not all tap water is equal but I have never used RO\DI and have been ok even though our tap is very high in phosphates. I'm guessing the LPS and clam are utilizing it. Probably SPS wouldn't fare as well in my tank although I've been curious about trying a green bird's nest.

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I checked out your tanks BTW. Very nice. You were wondering if tap water contributed to your algea? Not all tap water is equal but I have never used RO\DI and have been ok even though our tap is very high in phosphates. I'm guessing the LPS and clam are utilizing it. Probably SPS wouldn't fare as well in my tank although I've been curious about trying a green bird's nest.

 

I use RODI in my 40 breeder. Just use tap for my pico which is more of an experiment tank anyway. I'll probably add some chaeto and purigen and see if that helps with the algae... if not, then I'll start using RODI. Honestly though, it's not too bad for a newish tank on tap... I have a feeling that it'll balance out in a couple of months. That's a really nice frogspawn, did you start with a big colony or did you grow it from a frag?

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Mark, I checked out your tanks! They are very nice. Ah you hate bowfronts! Yours looks good to me. I know they are pretty high, the DSB in mine takes up some of that height. How high are the 46's? I thought your frogspawn looked good in the bowfront.

I love the 40B too. I thought your color looked pretty good but I've never had the color that some folks have. I added a deep blue LED strip, (just this past weekend) to my tank trying to bring out more color.

Ah, the wall frogspawn on the left side? I always forget about that bastard. He tries to kill everything he can touch, including 2 branching frogspawn frags. So of course it does well. :)

 

I lowered the flow in my 20 and my little frogspawn is doing much better. I have a lot of flow in my 40 and even the 46, so I think it's hrd for me to slow it down enough for some of the more sensitive lagoon corals.

 

The 46 bowfront is 22 inches high, just deep enough for me to get my entire arm wet if I need to reach the bottom. It's a sharp looking tank, no doubt, but hard to keep the front glass clean due to the bow.

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So today at 1:00pm I am expecting 5-8 ladies for a bible study, right? I walk in the living room and a strange noise is coming from the aquarium. As I get closer to my horror I can hear water running on the floor! At first glance the DT looks full. I open the doors of the cabinet and all looks fine there. The tubing from the ATO system was in place. Then I realize the noise is coming from the reservoir of the ATO. Turns out the tubing came off the aqualifter going to the sump but the sump kept calling for more water. Uhggg!!! At least it was FW and when I did my WC this week I didn't fill up the reservoir, (which is a 5 gallon bucket) so it wasn't near as bad as it could be. Compared to fish tank disasters I guess I got off easy! LOL

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Between a fan and the furnace running so much the carpet was completely dry this morning. I was looking over everything wondering if I could come up with a way to prevent such an occurrence from repeating itself? I guess I could duct tape the tubing to the aqualifter but that seems like such a mickey mouse way to do it. Any other ideas, anyone?

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What little plumbing I have (all hang on back equipment) is a complete mess. :) I use dosing pumps and a timer for topoff, adjusting timings as needed. I have the auto topoff line connected to an acrylic block designed to anchor the lines to the side of the aquarium.

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Yes, I have the end of the line into the sump anchored as well. Believe it or not I actually had anticipated that line potentially falling out of the sump. Its the other end at the aqualifter pump that came off. I could probably cement or glue it on to the aqualifter. Mark, do you use timers to run your dosing pumps? I ask because my son dosed his 120g tank that way. Unfortunately one time the timer got bumped and dosed much longer than it was suppose to. His pH, alk, and calcium were through the roof. He did immediate WCs but all his SPS bleached. A few came back but most didn't. A rose BTA divided like 3x s from the trauma. His LPS and softies all made it. Any how it makes me cautious about trusting timers when dosing.

 

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On my 40 I have a dosing pump with timers built in, but I use one of the pump to add topooff 5 minutes every 2 hours to roughtly match evaporation. I mix Seachem Reef Builder with the topoff to keep Alk stable, I dose calcium by hand at the moment.

 

On my 46 I use a timer mechnical timer that can do 15 minute intervals witha dosing pump found on ebay, married to a power supply and adjustable rate control. I add topoff for 15 minutes once a day.

 

I have glass lids on all tanks so evaporation is slow.

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I absolutely love feather duster worms but I have never been able to keep them long term. Has anyone had success keeping them for over a year or two? With the clam and feeding phyto, rotifer and cyclopese I thought they should be alright but I'm guessing I'm missing a key element for their nutrition???? I did better with the coco worm that Fuzz top now inhabits, it lived probably 1 and half years or 2.

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I bought a cleaner shrimp a week ago. It seemed like a good idea but he is so intently going after Fuzz top that now the blenny doesn't want to come out of his coco worm tube. Fuzz top is a fairly recent purchase and he was scratching a little but now I'm afraid the shrimp is doing more harm than good. This morning I moved the coco worm tube to a new location away from the shrimp so Fuzz top can come out. Hopefully I'm not stressing him even more!!!!

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You might want to start a thread with these questions so folks will see it and hopefully some more will follow. NR moves fast, easy to miss posts and updates. :)

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You might want to start a thread with these questions so folks will see it and hopefully some more will follow. NR moves fast, easy to miss posts and updates. :)

You are right. I am kind of new to this whole forum thing so I am sure I am not always utilizing it as effectively as I could.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Wow, its been awhile since I posted. I acquired a few new fish and corals since then. I thought I'd lost a yasha high fin goby to my giant red serpent starfish so I sold the serpent star. Then I bought a sleeper goby and a royal gramma. A day or so after the purchase the royal gramma disappeared which was discouraging. At least the acans and torch I bought were thriving. Well, this morning I spotted the royal gramma in the first chamber of my sump. Tonight as I emptied the rubble rock out to get the gramma guess who else I found? The goby! They are in a baby net now until I can put some foam in the overflow so my adrenaline junky fish don't repeat their trip!

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I decided I didn't like any macro in the DT. I put it in there for some color but decided it cluttered the tank so its all back in the sump. Now that I found my yasha goby I think I'd like to try a pistol shrimp.

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The yasha goby and royal gramma settled in well. To make sure they were getting enough to eat I am feeding twice a day which has started a diatom bloom on my sand.. Nothing some extra WCs can't remedy and when the new fish seem really comfortable I'll cut back the food to normal.

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Still fighting the diatomous algae but I think the new guys have adjusted well so plan to back off a bit on the food. Hopefully the tank will regulate itself. If not more WCs. I have a pistol shrimp, algae eating sea cucumber and cheato coming on Friday. They may help too. The shrimp will probably stir the sand up at least in one area, the cucumber will feed on the diatoms, (hopefully) and the cheato will take up excess nutrients. In theory this should all work.

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  • 1 month later...

I decided that it is past time to update my thread. I did get the pistol shrimp, sea cucumber and cheato. The pistol shrimp came with a curly que anemone and it paired with the nem rather than my goby. The sea cucumber reminds me of a sloth. Its stays for days in one spot leisurely grazing and then it will disappear for a week at a time in the rock work.

I have begun a trial sample of a new product called nualgi. The premise of this product is it is micro elements making them more usable to the aquarium fauna, and that out competes nuisance algaes. I did not have much of an algae problem but I am definitely seeing more polyp extension. I've been using it for 5 weeks, dose just once a week. Check it out at nualgi.com.

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