Chris' Reef

[Chris!]

My new system is a 48x18x18 (which before sand and rock held 52g of actual water), with custom white trim, and a metalic blue background.The tank is lit by DIY LED's, with flow being provided by a MP40, and a QuietOne 3000 return pump. I am running a 20g long for a sump, with Bubble Magus BM-180A skimmer and will be SPS dominated! Temp, and pH monitoring as well as tank control is done through a ReefAngel controller.

As far as the LEDs go, there are 2 panels with 24 leds each. The LEDs are all 3w Cree at a 1:1 ratio of Cool White to Royal Blue with a mix of 60 and 80 (or 90, cant remember right now) degree lenses. I grew SPS and had great color from them on my 180 (which had 3 panels) before my tank got pretty much wiped out by a faulty skimmer pump.... so I am not worried about them not being able to cut it.

I am currently dosing 25 mL vinegar twice daily, and 2.5 mL vodka on this system. I have been doing the vinegar since day 1, and added the vodka about a 2 weeks after.... but plan to eventually switch to biopellets.

My fish list currently consists of:

1x Potters Leopard Wrasse (F transitioning to M after my old Male jumped)

1x Meleagris Leopard Wrasse (F)

1x Ornate Leopard Wrasse (M)

1x Solorensis Wrasse Female (F)

2x Hooded Fairy Wrasse (was purchased as a M/F pair but the F decided to turn male)

1x Bartlett Anthias (M)

2x OCcy Clowns (M&F)

1x Flame Cardinal

1x Yellow Tang

FTS Late Dec. 2012:

FTS: Jan. 2013:

FTS. Mid Jan. 2013:

FTS Feb. 2013:

FTS Mid Feb. 2013:

FTS Mar. 2013:

FTS April 2013:

FTS May 2013:

FTS May 6, 2013:

FTS May 16, 2013:

Got tired of looking at the coraline covering the majority of the back glass..............

FTS May 24,2013:

Began dosing Microbe-Lift Special Blend

FTS May 30, 2013:

FTS July 9, 2013:

FTS August 11, 2013:

Quick FTS (sorry been kinda slackin lately, need to clean the back glass especially):

 

FTS Sept. 13, 2013:

 

 

FTS Oct. 8th, 2013:

 

My tank is primarily SPS.

 

 

Off the top of my head the currently named corals are:

TBG Solar Flare

HellBoy

RR Poison Ivy

Tyree Pink Lemonade

PC Rainbow

Tyree (pink/red/ orange whatever you wanna call it lol) Setosa

ORA PearlBerry

ORA Red Planet

ORA Joe the Coral

ORA Plum Crazy

ORA Miami Orchid

WWC Jaqulineae

SunnyX mille

CC40k Lokani

Sunset Mille

Green Slimer (supposedly has blue tips but I have yet to see them)

With a bunch of really nice unknown/unnamed pieces (and 2 digi's LOL) rounding out my total of ~45-50 different acro's. I have been pretty picky with most of these pieces and picked them for their growth and colors and placed them accordingly so that when it grows out it doesn't look like a giant unplanned cluster----!

[Jackal_Knight]

first

 

second, that tank is looking great. very clean build, when your sps are all grown out there you tanks gonna look badass. how you liking that reef angel controller?

[Chris!]

first

 

second, that tank is looking great. very clean build, when your sps are all grown out there you tanks gonna look badass. how you liking that reef angel controller?

 

Thank you

 

Thanks, that is definitely the plan. Although this tank was actually set up knowing that it will only be around (atleast in current location) for about a year or so so not to sure how grown out it will get. We are planning on moving about 1200 miles after our 2nd son is born in a few months, at which point depending on if we find something we want to buy or decide to just rent for a while will make the difference of running this tank for another year or so, or setting up something hopefully in the 250-500g range. I had a 180 for a few years that got pretty much wiped out a year ago this month and knowing we were planning a move in the future decided to scale back to something a little easier to move by myself lol I miss the size, but having moved it a couple times previously won't miss that at all.

 

All that said, this is my 1st tank with a blue background and I prefer it over the black backgrounds before.... This is my favorite tank so far in pretty much all aspects (other then size).

 

 

As far as the ReefAngel, I love it. It has been a great piece of equipment and I plan to buy another in the future with the future larger set up (for redundancy and running 2 different circuits yet keeping everything on a controller). It took a little bit to get used to the programming but once I figured it out and with the help of the guys on the RA forum it wasn't to difficult and I was able to get everything how I wanted it.

[AFellowReefer]

Welcome, and great tank!

[Chris!]

Welcome, and great tank!

 

Thank you

[RiddleEagle18]

Love these tank dimensions. Pretty sure this is gonna be my next tank size. Was it custom made?

[Chris!]

Love these tank dimensions. Pretty sure this is gonna be my next tank size. Was it custom made?

 

Yeah it is a nice size tank. I do miss the extra 6" front to back space I gave up more then the 2' length from my 180, but its not horrible. The tank is a standard tank, but I taped it all off and sprayed the black trim white for a cleaner look that would blend more with my home..... and I HATE that plain blah black plastic trim lol.

 

 

Stopped into Reef Paradise (my LFS) yesterday and grabbed two new aussie acros Today I finally got around to hooking my Reef Angel up to the comp (don't have the wifi module) and playing with my lights for a while. I have been wanting to change them up (have been running 100% for both whites and blues), so I dropped the whites down to 50% today to get a little more of a bluer look.

 

 

Still haven't messed with scraping the back glass to get rid of the ugly coraline but snapped a quick phone FTS anyway:

[Chris!]

Spent 4.5 hrs last night pulling my sump from the stand, scrubbing and cleaning the whole thing (minus scraping the coraline off), cleaning my return pump, and entire skimmer, putting it all back and doing a 15g water change! I have been battling some weird algae/bacterial mass blah crap lately. Not to sure what the cause is, but I am thinking either 1. I had a mishap with carbon a few months ago that sent tiny particles throughout the entire system and they are maxed out and causing problems, or 2. a bacterial imbalance. I have been dosing microbe special lift for a while and maybe I have been adding to much..... Anyways, cleaned out the sump which was the worst and hopefully on my way to kicking this issue. I will likely do a big cleaning in the display in a few days, including scraping off the coraline on the back glass that I have been putting off.

[Chris!]

Went through and sucked out a bunch of the crud (from what I am guessing to be some sort of bacterial imbalance) from the display while doing a 12g water change. Still quite a bit and still need to scrape the back glass but I will save that for another day as I plan to try to get even more of this stuff out soon.

[Solarflare8806]

you seem to have good cleaning practices this will really help you out in the long run! Good luck, the tank looks great! It'll look amazing when those frags start growing out tooo

[Jackal_Knight]

Sounds like fun, im not looking forward to cleaning my sump. But mine will easier since its only a 10 gallon.

 

Didn't notice u had a blue back ground, look really good im gonna have to try a blue back ground on my next tank.

 

How did you attach the rock to the glas

[Nano sapiens]

Coming along! Good maintenance is really important for the long haul.

[Chris!]

you seem to have good cleaning practices this will really help you out in the long run! Good luck, the tank looks great! It'll look amazing when those frags start growing out tooo

 

Thanks, I have been trying to keep up on the maintenance more with this system. I have been reefing now for about 4.5 yrs but all my other systems were either much larger and more forgiving or lower stocked and fed less so it wasn't as big of a deal. But with this tank I feed 2-4 times a day, have 11 fish and am trying to keep 99% acros so I try to stay on top of it a bit better

 

I do anywhere from an 8g to 20g water change weekly. Generally the more the skimmer seems to pull out in a week the more I change (as I feel there is likely more left behind/ put in to be taken out)..... but sometimes I just swap out the 8g and call it a week. Skimmer cup gets cleaned out atleast once or twice a week, and I wipe the glass every 2-4 days depending on build up. If I didn't have my controller, plumbing and mp40 controller all mounted to the back of the tank I would hit that with the mag float as well as that is the 1 big thing I slack on and hate the most (Coraline is not my friend) lol

 

Coming along! Good maintenance is really important for the long haul.

 

Thank you Good maintenance is almost as important as stability IMO.

 

Sounds like fun, im not looking forward to cleaning my sump. But mine will easier since its only a 10 gallon.

 

Didn't notice u had a blue back ground, look really good im gonna have to try a blue back ground on my next tank.

 

How did you attach the rock to the glas

 

Yeah I couldn't believe how bad it has gotten in just 9 months (My sump is only a 20 long BTW). It doesn't help that I grabbed the wrong pump and threw it on my carbon reactor a while ago and ground it up to dust and have had fine carbon particles floating everywhere for months that I am still trying to remove so that along with what I am thinking is a bacteria imbalance has had things off and messy for sure. Hopefully I will be getting it all back on track soon tho and get more color back with my acros as well as they haven't been the happiest since the carbon fiasco lol

 

Yeah I have always had black backgrounds on all my tanks in the past. I just wanted to try something different, saw a nice looking metallic blue sitting on the shelf and said why not..... Threw a coat of white behind the blue to keep it lighter and have been happy ever since. Honestly I don't think I will do another black background again. Despite what I have always heard, IMO in person the fish, and corals pretty much all seem to pop more, and the tank appears brighter and has a happier feel as well (instead of the dark gloomy feeling of a blacked out tank).

 

The "rock" on the right side panel of the tank is actually a piece from The Alternative Reef. It is one of their magnetic rocks. It is the solid rock, and not one of the ones you can get with frag plug holes (as I don't generally use frag plugs in my tank). One of these days I will decide on putting something on it, but I keep going back and forth on what to do with it...... I have considered moving it to the back wall and putting acros on it, or leaving it where it is (lower light) and putting chalices, acans, blastos or even zoas on it. The only thing I am certain of at this point with that piece is that I want it to be a dedicated piece for one type of coral only.

[mattclark82]

Thanks, I have been trying to keep up on the maintenance more with this system. I have been reefing now for about 4.5 yrs but all my other systems were either much larger and more forgiving or lower stocked and fed less so it wasn't as big of a deal. But with this tank I feed 2-4 times a day, have 11 fish and am trying to keep 99% acros so I try to stay on top of it a bit better

 

I do anywhere from an 8g to 20g water change weekly. Generally the more the skimmer seems to pull out in a week the more I change (as I feel there is likely more left behind/ put in to be taken out)..... but sometimes I just swap out the 8g and call it a week. Skimmer cup gets cleaned out atleast once or twice a week, and I wipe the glass every 2-4 days depending on build up. If I didn't have my controller, plumbing and mp40 controller all mounted to the back of the tank I would hit that with the mag float as well as that is the 1 big thing I slack on and hate the most (Coraline is not my friend) lol

 

 

Thank you Good maintenance is almost as important as stability IMO.

 

 

Yeah I couldn't believe how bad it has gotten in just 9 months (My sump is only a 20 long BTW). It doesn't help that I grabbed the wrong pump and threw it on my carbon reactor a while ago and ground it up to dust and have had fine carbon particles floating everywhere for months that I am still trying to remove so that along with what I am thinking is a bacteria imbalance has had things off and messy for sure. Hopefully I will be getting it all back on track soon tho and get more color back with my acros as well as they haven't been the happiest since the carbon fiasco lol

 

one day, I was thinking of taking an old canister filter, and building a "vac" attachment on the intake to vaccuum a sump. Just use a few coarse and one final fine filter. I too like a clean sump

[Chris!]

one day, I was thinking of taking an old canister filter, and building a "vac" attachment on the intake to vaccuum a sump. Just use a few coarse and one final fine filter. I too like a clean sump

 

I might have to keep an eye on the FS threads, sounds like a pretty good idea.

 

Part of my "normal" cleaning ritual is to take the MJ 1200 I keep running in the sump and manually move it all over the place to stir everything up atleast once a week. For the most part it has been fairly effective, but the carbon particles settled and seemed to basically solidify and wouldn't budge so I broke down and did a complete clean on the sump that I really wouldn't have otherwise done or likely even had to have done with everything else I normally do. I usually take my skimmer completely apart and clean that, and clean my return pump monthly as well.

[Chris!]

I forgot that I copy and pasted most of this from another forum. My fish list isn't up to date in the 1st post. I will change it there as well but figured I'd put it here in a new post as well.

 

1x Potters Leopard Wrasse (F transitioning to M after my old Male jumped)

1x Meleagris Leopard Wrasse (F)

1x Ornate Leopard Wrasse (M)

1x Solorensis Wrasse Female (F)

2x Hooded Fairy Wrasse (was purchased as a M/F pair but the F decided to turn male)

1x Bartlett Anthias (M)

2x OCcy Clowns (M&F)

1x Flame Cardinal

1x Yellow Tang

[Chris!]

Just got done doing another 12g water change. I also removed the "rock" from the far left wall and am giving it a good vinegar bath for the night. This weird bacteria or whatever it is has really taken off on that piece lately, I am thinking it is because it is a lower flow, low light area (which is where for the most part it seems to really thrive), although it doesn't really seem bothered by the high flow either......

[Chris!]

Knocked out another 12g water change tonight. Scraped the back glass finally, and cleaned the skimmer cup. Probably try to get a new pic or two tomorrow.

 

I have also quit dosing vodka, not sure if that or the recent increase in water changes is what is aiding in removing all the nasty bacteria crap or what, but I will likely continue to not use it for another week or two and see how things go and reevaluate its use at that point. I am still dosing vinegar.

[Chris!]

Snapped a phone pic tonight, pretty safe to say the camera isn't liking the switch to lower % white on the lights, as it seems to somehow be overcompensating.......

 

[Chris!]

Since beginning to dip with bayer I have had a decline in snail population (not sure if its related, I probably don't rinse enough tho so likely... but I have wrasses so they are a possibility too). Don't really like them much anyways and have heard mollys will eat algae so I have 5 blacks acclimating to SW now. I know they can be converted over so we will see how they do with my little bit of algae and hopefully they will take a liking to whatever this bacterial or whatever crap is that keeps popping up as well (my tang and one of the wrasses will eat it a little but not enough lol).

[Chris!]

####in awesome....... my tank is leaking from the bottom somewhere and everything is closed............. anyone around Flint,MI that has a spare tank I can borrow for a little while?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

[Jackal_Knight]

Oh man thats sucks bro. You gonna reseal the whole tank or just get a new one?

 

Any pics of the bacterial stuff ur talking about kept getting this weird slime in my sump that think was some kind of bacteria.

[Chris!]

Oh man thats sucks bro. You gonna reseal the whole tank or just get a new one?

 

Any pics of the bacterial stuff ur talking about kept getting this weird slime in my sump that think was some kind of bacteria.

 

New tank if I put another tank up here. We plan on moving 1200 miles in the nearish future so not sure I want to set up another tank right now to turn around and take it down and move it as its finally settling in ya know...... might set up like a 50 breeder and do a wrasse only or wrasse and few of my favorite acros and try to move it but I don't think I will try a full blown acro set up until after we move.

 

I never got any pics of the crap but it was always either a clear slime or a redish slime..... I might have been over doing the damn microbe special lift or who knows coulda been the vinegar or my wifes joy for cleaning and spraying "natural 409" just a few feet away from the tank lol

[Jackal_Knight]

sounds like a plan, IDK if i'd be bumb out or angry if my tank started leaking. just sounds shity been loving your tank sucks that this had to happen.

 

the stuff i had was clear slime too, showed up over night on my filter shocks would clog them every night! was starting to piss me off but it went away no idea what it was or what caused it but im happy its gone now. how long have you had yours for?

[Sunar357]

Sorry to hear about the tank, man, that sucks!

 

I sold off my last tank before I moved from MI to ILL as I didn't want to haul everything 7hrs...plus think of it this way...you can set up bigger and better once you move!