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Coral Vue Hydros

Dpolt's 42 Gallon Caribbean and Pacific Islands Mixed Reef


dpoltsdsu

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Hello everybody, welcome to my new thread.  (New Caribbean and Pacific Island theme starts on page 4 on 4/6/18).

 

This aquarium will be the 4th reef that I have set up.  For this reef, my goal is to have an organized, beautiful, and stream-lined reef with top of the line equipment.  My plan for this reef is to have two separated rock structures. One structure will be primarily used to showcase a variety of Soft Corals, Large Polyp Stony Corals, Clams and Small Polyp Stony Coral from the Pacific Ocean while the other structure will be used to showcase livestock from the Caribbean. That structure will be be home to Gorgonians, Ricordea, and Rock Flower Anemone's. I will attempt to create the conditions that are best for each grouping of coral on each structure. Below is a run down of the equipment I will be running for the setup as well as the inhabitants that live in my reef!

 

Equipment

Tank- Cadlights Rimless Versa 42 Gallon with Starphire glass (30" x 18" x 18")

Sump- Cadlights Rimless 16 gallon (20" x 13" x 13")

Lighting- 2 Kessil A160E LED's with a Kessil Spectrum Controller

Aquarium Controller- ReefKeeper Lite

Protein Skimmer- Bubble Magus Curve 5

Water Circulation- 2 Vortech MP10's running on ReefCrest mode

Refugium Light- Kessil H80 Tuna Flora set to growth mode  

Supplementation- 4 part Triton Method Core Elements

Auto Top Off- Tunze Osmolator

 

 

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Sounds like a good plan!  One thing to be careful of though is the placement of those LPs vs SPS.  Im picturing kind of two [separate] column-like rock work structures going from the sand bed to probably 3-4 inches below the waterline (correct me if this isn't what you are picturing).  If you want my opinion, i think making one of the structures a little bit smaller in height would not only make it more appealing because of the dimensional offset, but provide a better foundation for the LPS rock work and a better foundation for the SPS rock work.  It would help to make the SPS one slightly taller because they require much more lighting and flow than LPS/softies/zoas/etc.  So being able to place them on a higher rock structure would be more beneficial.  The reason i say make the LPS one smaller is because they don't require such intense lighting and flow as the SPS would, therefore, a little further down in the tank is what they'll prefer.  Make sure that on that LPS structure that you don't place corals too high, and vice versa goes for the SPS structure, don't place SPS corals too low on it that they won't receive sufficient lighting and flow.

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29 minutes ago, Dreichler said:

Sounds like a good plan!  One thing to be careful of though is the placement of those LPs vs SPS.  Im picturing kind of two [separate] column-like rock work structures going from the sand bed to probably 3-4 inches below the waterline (correct me if this isn't what you are picturing).  If you want my opinion, i think making one of the structures a little bit smaller in height would not only make it more appealing because of the dimensional offset, but provide a better foundation for the LPS rock work and a better foundation for the SPS rock work.  It would help to make the SPS one slightly taller because they require much more lighting and flow than LPS/softies/zoas/etc.  So being able to place them on a higher rock structure would be more beneficial.  The reason i say make the LPS one smaller is because they don't require such intense lighting and flow as the SPS would, therefore, a little further down in the tank is what they'll prefer.  Make sure that on that LPS structure that you don't place corals too high, and vice versa goes for the SPS structure, don't place SPS corals too low on it that they won't receive sufficient lighting and flow.

I completely agree. The structure on the left will be the LPS and Soft Coral side and will be slightly lower and will get less flow than the other side. I will be runnning the Kessil on that side at a slightly lower intensity as well. Im going to add the corals that have proven to do well in higher lighting in my tanks to the top such as Cloves, Gorgonians, Briarium, Zoas, and Xenia. I then plan on adding my Wellso's, Lobos, Acans, Duncans, and Mushrooms to the lower part of the structure and the sand.

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6 hours ago, dpoltsdsu said:

I completely agree. The structure on the left will be the LPS and Soft Coral side and will be slightly lower and will get less flow than the other side. I will be runnning the Kessil on that side at a slightly lower intensity as well. Im going to add the corals that have proven to do well in higher lighting in my tanks to the top such as Cloves, Gorgonians, Briarium, Zoas, and Xenia. I then plan on adding my Wellso's, Lobos, Acans, Duncans, and Mushrooms to the lower part of the structure and the sand.

Sounds like a good plan!  For the SPS structure, what're you gonna have below the SPS?  Also, I would try to avoid Xenia unless you isolate them on their own island.  They WILL grow everywhere and fast.  

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11 hours ago, Dreichler said:

Sounds like a good plan!  For the SPS structure, what're you gonna have below the SPS?  Also, I would try to avoid Xenia unless you isolate them on their own island.  They WILL grow everywhere and fast.  

 

I will likely add lower light Montipora species to the lower reaches of the SPS side and maybe a Ricordia garden down there to give some color if the area is too dim for strictly SPS.

 

Xenia is already prolific on the rocks that will go on the Soft Coral side that I transferred from my other tank.  It grows like crazy but it doesn't sting so it does not bother me all that much.  I try to prune once a month or so to keep it in areas that I want.

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9 hours ago, dpoltsdsu said:

 

I will likely add lower light Montipora species to the lower reaches of the SPS side and maybe a Ricordia garden down there to give some color if the area is too dim for strictly SPS.

 

Xenia is already prolific on the rocks that will go on the Soft Coral side that I transferred from my other tank.  It grows like crazy but it doesn't sting so it does not bother me all that much.  I try to prune once a month or so to keep it in areas that I want.

Oh I see, I thought you were planning to buy Xenia to put on that side.  But seems like it's already under control.  Good job with the pruning because I know and I'm sure you know it can get outta control, which is why I advise people to stay away from it unless that's what they want.

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The tank is in position. Planning on transferring my livestock over to their new home today. I have them in buckets with small heaters and air pumps. 

 

I went with a black stand this time. I want the stand to match my black Kessils as well as my black Mp10's to give the setup a more uniform look.

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That's a nice looking tank! Can't wait to see how this will turn out.  Am I seeing that they're using the Mode name on this tank?  

 

I think you hit the nail on the head about white stand - without white equipments, it defeats the purpose of the white look. 

 

 

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Well after a very long day, the tank is up and running. I still have to organize the sump and the wiring, but I'm pretty pleased with the result. The Kessils provide the tank with a clean look and I like the aquascape quite a bit. Everything's suprisingly happy considering I moved all the livestock from buckets just hours ago! I completely replaced the sand as well. I did keep a couple cups of sand from the old tank to seed this current sandbed with any microfauna/bacteria that may have been in it. 

20171012_164129.png

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21 hours ago, micoastreefing said:

That's a nice looking tank! Can't wait to see how this will turn out.  Am I seeing that they're using the Mode name on this tank?  

 

I think you hit the nail on the head about white stand - without white equipments, it defeats the purpose of the white look. 

 

 

Thank you! 

 

Yes, the aquarium came with a mode sticker on the front. I didn't know Cadlights was affiliated with them. The build quality on the tank is fantastic. 

10 hours ago, Dreichler said:

Everything looks good!  Time to fill up those rocks!

Thank you I appreciate it! I definitely have some work to do filling up those rocks, but hey that's the fun part! 

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I have a large group of Green Hairy Mushroooms on the base of my SPS structure. I actually like the look of them quite a bit and my pair of clownfish live in and bury themselves between the different mushrooms all day. 

 

 

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Everything seems to be doing well so far! I am still organizing the sump and stand a bit but it's starting to look more organized. 

 

I added a small Yellow Coris Wrasse as a pest eater so I'm hoping it settles in well! 

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Now that everything seems to have settled in and my Alk is at 8, I have restarted my Triton dosing. I am running an oversized skimmer as well as a refugium so I should be good to go for the Triton system.

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I plan on purchasing some Gorgonians later in the week.  I think Gorgonians are some of the most underrated corals in the entire hobby.  I am going to try and get multiple different species of the Photosynthetic varieties that are native to shallow Caribbean reefs.  I think they will add a really interesting dynamic in the scape. I plan on adding as many as I can to the Soft Coral and LPS side, however, If I run out of space I will be forced to move one or two to the SPS section. Gorgonians typically like high flow and lighting so I'm assuming (hoping) they do well in this tank!

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Quick tip about gorgonians...  Stay away from the Blueberry Gorgonian...  I've heard of only one success story of keeping it more than a year.  For some reason they are just not big fans of aquariums.  

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11 hours ago, Dreichler said:

Quick tip about gorgonians...  Stay away from the Blueberry Gorgonian...  I've heard of only one success story of keeping it more than a year.  For some reason they are just not big fans of aquariums.  

Yep, staying far away from that species. I'm focusing on hardy photosynthetic gorgonians!

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My order of Gorgonians arrived this morning from KP Aquatics. I was very impressed with the packaging and the quality of coral that I received. I am on the west coast of the United States and we just do not see a big variety of Caribbean Gorgonians here so I am excited to add these to the reef.

 

I got 3 Gorgonian species from the Carribean. They are all photosynthetic.

 

Here are the species I purchased:

 

Purple Plume Gorgonian- Muriceopsis flavida

 

Yellow Sea Whip- Pterogorgia citrina

 

Knobby Sea Rod- Eunicea sp. 

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