Jump to content
Coral Vue Hydros

Matt's first reef tank!


mattman72

Recommended Posts

I became interested in reef tanks sometime back in November when i stumbled upon this website, the tank of the month category to be specific. Seeing those beautiful tanks inspired me to take the plunge into salt water tanks. Before then i kept a freshwater tank with the perspective that salt water tanks were way to complicated and high maintenance for me. Three months into the hobby I would now say that my old views were ridiculous and the only real difference is you have to be careful about water evaporation.

Here is my tank 3 months old now! It's still a work in progress of course.

Front tank shot:

IMG_4979_zps60a04657.jpg

 

Left tank shot:

IMG_4956_zps3a74af5a.jpg

 

Right tank shot:

IMG_4975_zpsec9b712a.jpg

 

Where the tank lives:

IMG_5014_zpse6ef9f5d.jpg

 

Tank on Day 1:

IMG_4588_zps0d2094c0.jpg

 

Equipment:

Tank - Coralife Biocube 14 gallons

Lighting - stock pc 1 x 10,000k daylight, 1 x true attinic blue, lunar blue LED bar, plus an add on cool white LED bar

Circulation - return pump 180gph and 1 x koralia nano circulation pump 240gph

Filtration - stock filter floss with activated carbon, wet/dry bioballs, a sponge before the return pump to block large debris, and 10 lbs of live rock

Temperature control - 50 watt aqueon heater currently but here in Texas I think I might need a chiller for the summer

 

Maintenance:

Daily - Manual top off of evaporated water and inspection of all live stock.

Every other day - Feed the fish and clean the glass with a mag float.

Weekly - Spot feed the corals, crabs, and shrimp. 20-40% water change/sand vacuum.

Monthly - Change carbon/filter floss and clean out sponge.

Every 3 months - Clean the circulation and return pumps and clean the bioballs of any built up debris.

 

Livestock:

Fish:

 

2 Ocellaris clownfish

 

Invertebrates:

1 Peppermint shrimp (his name is Harry Potter)

1 Emerald crab

1 Scarlet legged hermit crab

2 Blue legged hermit crabs ( hitchhikers)

1 Tube worm or feather duster thing (hitchhiker)

4 Nassarius snails

4 Florida cerith snails

5 Small nerite snails

20 dwarf cerith snails (reefcleaner.org is the best place to order snails!)

10 stomatella snails (not really sure how many they hitchhiked in and breed all the time)

I know i have too big of a cleaner crew but when my tank was done cycling I got excited lol..

 

Corals:

1 frogspawn (1 head)

1 Duncan coral (4 heads)

1 Moonpie polyp (2 heads)

1 Blue Florida Ricordea mushroom (2 heads)

1 Red mystery mushroom

1 Blue/green mystery mushroom

3 Colonies of mystery zoanthids

1 Colony of Eagle Eye zoanthids (7 heads)

1 Colony of Incredible Hulk zoanthids (7 heads)

I need more corals i know..

 

Here are some more pictures!

 

Duncan coral:

IMG_5017_zps2d8319a3.jpg

 

Frogspawn:

IMG_4903_zps6e49ccb0.jpg

 

IMG_4947_zps36f052d5.jpg

 

Mystery Zoanthid Colony:

IMG_4944_zps557ef25b.jpg

 

Mystery Red Mushroom:

IMG_4923_zpsd14702a1.jpg

 

Mystery Tube Worm Thing:

IMG_4813_zps299774da.jpg

 

Blue Florida Ricordea:

IMG_4985_zpsa8a94f62.jpg

 

Trying to get the Ricordea to stick to rubble (successful finally)

IMG_4834_zps9ba5cb19.jpg

 

Moon Pie Polyp: (when I google moon pie polyp nothing comes up anyone know what this actually is?)

IMG_4972_zpsadada06a.jpg

 

Peppermint Shrimp:

IMG_4952_zps16b52106.jpg

 

Emerald Crab:

IMG_4677_zps3b604b47.jpg

 

Scarlet Hermit Crab:

IMG_4671_zps68349c2a.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment

Welcome! The tank is looking great so far! I really like the rock scape, especially that arch on the left side. Makes it interesting from all sides. :)

Link to comment
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

Update:

Have added a torch coral and a few mushrooms. Added a yellow watchman gobbie, named Ronaid. Added an additional media bag of carbon + phosgaurd. Got a new peppermint shrimp cause mine has been MIA for like 40 days now </3. Not what happened to him. I figure he molted and something with the water quality killed him, then he was eaten by the rest of my critters... Some pics:

 

Ronaid lurkin like he does:

http://s41.photobucket.com/user/mattman72/media/IMG_5065_zps4b6c4981.jpg.html'>IMG_5065_zps4b6c4981.jpg

 

Martha hosting her torch:

http://s41.photobucket.com/user/mattman72/media/IMG_5106_zps16fc3eb1.jpg.html'>IMG_5106_zps16fc3eb1.jpg

 

Full tank shot:

http://s41.photobucket.com/user/mattman72/media/IMG_5088_zpsc3db91b3.jpg.html'>IMG_5088_zpsc3db91b3.jpg

 

Mushroom:

http://s41.photobucket.com/user/mattman72/media/IMG_5074_zps1d070ac2.jpg.html'>IMG_5074_zps1d070ac2.jpg

 

Growing new heads :)

http://s41.photobucket.com/user/mattman72/media/IMG_5071_zps60005d10.jpg.html'>IMG_5071_zps60005d10.jpg

 

Martha and Ronaid hanging out:

IMG_5181_zpsb2b15bae.jpg

 

Top down full tank shot:

http://s41.photobucket.com/user/mattman72/media/IMG_5194_zpsf4551d31.jpg.html'>IMG_5194_zpsf4551d31.jpg

 

Right side tank shot:

http://s41.photobucket.com/user/mattman72/media/IMG_5186_zps8a1908bb.jpg.html'>IMG_5186_zps8a1908bb.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
  • 6 years later...
  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/26/2021 at 9:17 PM, Christopher Marks said:

Welcome back @mattman72! What do you have planned for the reboot?

Hi! I was planning on making a more detailed post for my new tank. I have been cycling dry rock running the tank with 1 50/50 light on for 8 hours a day. Bought the setup on craigslist and came with one of those after market media baskets. So far i am cycling rubble rock in the bottom chamber of basket, middle empty, and filter floss on top chamber... not really sure what to put in the basket or how effective it is lol. The water seems to not drip over it as well as i think its intended to. 
Anyway I am going to take more pictures and make a new tank profile post about it! Thanks for your interest. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
mattman72

What is the type of Torch listed in the pictures above from 2014? Having hard time finding similar torch coral now. 
Thanks in advance
-Matt

Link to comment

Join the conversation

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

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   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.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...