Jump to content
SaltCritters.com
  • jedimasterben

    Christopher Marks

    Congratulations to community member jedimasterben and his 36 gallon nano reef for being selected for our August Reef Profile. Below is the aquarium profile jedimasterben has written for us sharing his experiences in the hobby and this aquarium's progress over the past year. See what he's been up to and share your comments and questions in jedimasterben's featured reef profile announcement or in the comments section below. Be sure to also check out his aquarium journal for more photos and information about this awesome reef tank.

     

    fts.jpg

     

    Hi everyone! Wasn’t expecting a message from our lord and savior Christopher Marks, but lo and behold, he has deemed my tank worthy of being featured for August! I don’t particularly think that it is quite to that point, but I trust his judgement more than mine!


    The system is a CoralVue AcquaSole 60, set up late July 2016, tank with white cabinet. I’m using an IceCap 15 sump, bringing total water volume to around 40 US gallons. Lighting is a Maxspect Ethereal running at full power for about 12 hours, and filtration is handled by a Coral Box D500 protein skimmer, a baggie of Seachem Purigen, and some ROX 0.8 activated carbon. Flow in the display is provided by a pair of Tunze 6055 that switch back and forth between 30 and 60% power, and the return pump is a Jecod DCS-5000. I have a 150w Cobalt Neotherm heater (not sure why, the thing never turns on), ATO is provided by an AutoAqua SmartATO, and system control and monitoring is done by a Neptune Apex.

     

    emblem.jpg

     

    chromis.jpgChromis viridis

     

    This system is my fourth reef aquarium, and by far has been the most hands off. After spending years and thousands of dollars buying/building the latest and greatest, chasing numbers, and discarding scores of dead fish, clams, and corals, I decided I needed a change - a leaky 40 gallon breeder sped up that decision. I had already been looking to get a different tank, but whenever it sprung a leak my plans were shelved and I had to find something much sooner. Luckily, my friends at Coralvue really came through for me and I was able to pick up this tank and stand immediately from Ricardo since it turns out he lives only a couple hours away and had one of the exact systems in his garage! They also had a couple of preproduction Maxspect Ethereals for me, which was fantastic timing, as well. For having to be a rush job from the start, the tank actually came together pretty smoothly, especially knowing how I usually do things - meticulously plan everything, only to scrap most of it because I’m impatient and lazy.

     

    tank.jpg

     

    liverock.jpg


    I ordered live rock from KP Aquatics (hands down the best live rock that can be purchased) and mortared it together with some of the rock I broke up from my 40. I have never had a cube aquarium before, so this rock scape took several hours to take shape, with constant spraying with saltwater to keep the rock as live as possible, and an overnight cure for the mortar. I added a bag of oolite sand, then topped it with a bag of Nature’s Ocean ‘gravel’ 2.5mm grain sand, put the rockwork in, moved some corals from the leaky 40, and boom.

     

    july2016.jpg


    Maintenance is done as little as possible. I feed the tank daily (though sometimes I forget, and sometimes I accidentally dump several times the intended amount of food in), usually a square inch or so of Larry’s Reef Frenzy, but I also feed lots of golden pearls and plenty of New Life Spectrum pellets.

     

    Pseudanthias.jpg

    Pseudanthias dispar

     

    overhead.jpg


    Beyond that, I really don’t touch the tank. I empty the skimmer cup when I remember (but usually only after it overflows and I have to let it run for a week without the cup to calm down), fill the ATO container when the return starts blowing bubbles, and usually will scrape the glass every couple of weeks when I get tired of not being able to see through it. I don’t usually do water changes, but when I do, they’re 30 gallons (that’s the size of my Brute garbage can I use for water mixing), and the tank looks something like this:

     

    waterchange.jpg


    The less I touch the tank, the better it seems to do, which is evident by the corals filling in over time.

     

    september2016.jpg

    09/20/2016

     

    january2017.jpg
    01/05/2017

     

    february2017.jpg

    02/25/2017

     

    I’ve had more than a few livestock troubles over the years, and this tank is no stranger to them. Most notably, I lost nearly all of my fish when my wife decided that our house being clean and not smelling like anything was a problem. Put some kind of foofoo air diffuser in the hallway next to the tank, the next day the tank had a thick film on the top and most of my fish were dead, the survivors dying off over the next few days. Starting restocking not too far after a 100% water change, and have had a few things disappear over time, but for the most part the fish have stayed the same since.

     

    Paracentropogon-zonatus.jpg
    Paracentropogon zonatus

     

    Macropharyngodon-meleagris.jpg
    Macropharyngodon meleagris

     

    Siganus-magnificus.jpg
    Siganus magnificus

     

    • Anthias dispar
    • Calloplesiops altivelis
    • Chromis viridis (5)
    • Macropharyngodon meleagris
    • Paracentropogon rubripinnis
    • Salarius ramosus
    • Siganus magnificus

     

    For invertebrates, I’ve always been partial to a wide array of creatures to make a diverse ecosystem. Snails, crabs (only a few of them, they have too much potential to misbehave to overstock), starfish, worms. My workhorses are astrea snails, trochus snails, and a large brittle star. Another half dozen types of snails fill in any gaps in their diets, the rocks are covered in fanworms (aka feather dusters), and copepods run the place when the leopard wrasse dives into the sand at night.

     

    hermit.jpg

    Calcinus elegans

     

    snail.jpg
    Astraea tecta

     

    • Astraea tecta
    • Cerithium altratum
    • Cerithium lutosum
    • Littorina ziczac
    • Nassarius vibex
    • Ophiocoma echinata
    • Siphonaria pectinata
    • Trochus sp.


    Corals are exclusively soft corals, corallimorphs, and octocorals. Leathers, gorgonians, mushrooms, zoanthids. Relatively low maintenance, extreme tolerance for allelopathy, and can generally tolerate extremely high light. Just so happens that soft corals are my favorite, so really it’s a win-win in this tank.

     

    Sarcophyton.jpg

    Sarcophyton sp.

     

    ricordea.jpg
    Ricordea florida

     

    Pinnogorgia-flava.jpg
    Pinnogorgia flava

     

    Sarcophyton-elegans.jpg
    Sarcophyton elegans

     

    Pterogorgia-citrina.jpg
    Pterogorgia citrina

     

    Corals

    • Capnella sp.
    • Isaurus tuberculatus
    • Lobophytum sp.
    • Nepthea sp.
    • Sarcophyton elegans
    • Sarcophyton sp.
    • Sinularia sp.
    • Palythoa grandiflora
    • Palythoa grandis
    • Palythoa mutuki
    • Palythoa sp. "singapura"
    • Zoanthus gigantus
    • Zoanthus sociatus
    • Zoanthus sansibaricus


    Corallimorphs

    • Discosoma sp.
    • Rhodactis sp.
    • Ricordea florida


    Octocorals

    • Antillogorgia bipinnata
    • Muricea elongata
    • Muriceopsis flavida
    • Pinnigorgia flava
    • Plexaura flexuosa
    • Pesudopterogorgia elisabethae
    • Pterogorgia citrina


    My trip down the rabbit hole of saltwater aquariums started with a free 55 gallon tank from an uncle and some rock I literally pulled out of my parents’ flower bed. It was awful, and being cheap cost me a bunch of money, but I learned a lot and was hooked.

     

    55gallon.jpg

    This tank setup was lightyears ahead of that one :lol:

     

    Salarias-ramosus.jpg
    Salarias ramosus
     

    Palythoa-mutuki.jpg

    Palythoa mutuki

     

    Chromis-viridis.jpg
    Chromis viridis


    I love this hobby, though it is one that it is easy to get burned out on, especially as you start having issues with algae or livestock deaths that you can’t explain. I’ve been to that point a couple of times now, but luckily for me it doesn’t take too much to keep me going, usually just a new coral or fish/invert. It’s also a decent amount of work to take down a tank, so laziness definitely comes in there, too! If you’re ever in doubt, just hang in there - and ALWAYS be a skeptic! There are many people out in the world that like to deceive, and this hobby is no exception. From manufacturers making wild claims about their products to people pushing ideas that not only make no sense but that they cannot back up with evidence.

     

    Briareum-asbestinum.jpg

    Briareum asbestinum

     

    Pseudanthias-dispar.jpg

    Pseudanthias dispar


    Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me through all my seemingly never ending problems! Kate Upton loves you, and so do I!

     

    kate.gif

    -jedimasterben

    • Like 20
    • Wow 3


      Report Aquarium



    User Feedback

    Recommended Comments



    Thank you everyone! :)

     

    On 8/8/2017 at 0:36 PM, xthunt said:

    Awesome! A newb like me can only dream. Are the dated pictures in the right order? Looks backwards cause it looks like the corals getting smaller. 

    They are correct - that's the problem with soft corals, they can expand to several times their size when fully open, and they're not likely to stay fully open all the time, especially when you want them to be for pictures! :)

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites




    Join the conversation

    You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

    Guest
    Add a comment...

    ×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

      Only 75 emoji are allowed.

    ×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

    ×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

    ×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...