Pete polyp's 29 mixed reef

[Pete polyp]

I set this up in November of 2012. Nothing special really. No sump, no skimmer, and believe it or not I have a problem with low nutrients. No special equipment, just a jebao wp25, seio superflow 620, hob filter and a heater. It has a 4" dsb, and around 35lb of live rock. For lighting I'm using a 24" 6xt5 Ebay cheapo fixture with mostly ati bulbs.

 

[Pete polyp]

I forgot to add a picture

 

[revhtree]

Looks great! Got a bigger photo?

 

[Pete polyp]

I am not sure. These were taken with a cell, the first one is cropped and it may have downsized it. Is this any better?

Left side

Right side

 

[Pete polyp]

Bottom center

 

[Pete polyp]

A few pictures from this morning

 

[powers2001]

Subscribed.

 

[bigfoot86]

Sweet tank!

 

[Pete polyp]

Thanks guys

 

[c_healy]

Looking good!

 

[Pete polyp]

I added this little guy a few weeks ago in the hopes that he would pair with the randalls pistol shrimp in the tank that I haven't seen for 6 months. He's doing well, but has decided to hang out on the opposite side of the tank. Just my luck though.

Yesterday morning I added 8 acro frags, two of which I don't think will make it. They spent 24 hours in the frag rack, and I moved them to the rock. I'm really running out of room in this tank. I wish my builder would get my 40'a back to me so that I could start the cycle and get most of the sps moved asap.

 

[Pete polyp]

A few acro

 

[Pete polyp]

I thought this picture was cool

 

[Pete polyp]

For the first year this tank was very clean and never showed any nitrate at all. I did however have a slight bloom of gha, which I used phosphate sponge to take care of. Even though the algae disappeared shortly I kept an eye on phosphate with red sea pro phoshate test. It constantly read 0.08, so I kept using the phosphate sponge. This actually led to most of my sps to rtn and die. It was heart breaking for sure. I had 3 acro survive the crash, but they never really had much color. I moved the tank right at the 1 year mark and nitrates showed up a little (0.25-1 at the highest). when the nitrates appeared the remaining acro actually colored up very quickly (2 weeks). This was 2 months ago and even with increased feedings (8 times yesterday) the nitrate has fallen back to 0. The colors are still there, but I'm afraid they will soon be gone. I'm considering adding several more fish to try and dirty up the water some. I really don't think it would be the greatest idea to be trying to bring the nitrates up with feeding any more than I am now. My clownfish looks like its fixing to burst any moment now! To give you an idea of how much improvement in color and health of my acro I will show you the pictures
Before the move, it looked like this from the first day I received it

Nine days after the move

14 days after the move

20 days after the move

This was not the only one that showed improvement, just the only one with before pictures. The most drastic was one that was brown from day 1, and in the same time period turned an intense dark green! Not only has the color really transformed, but these frags that showed little to no growth for a full year exploded with growth!

 

[EW_Fish]

Very nice improvment in that amount of time. Great looking tank.

 

[totion]

Following. Love seeing 29 gallons.

 

[Pete polyp]

Thank you. I never really intended to have a low nutrient tank, it just worked out that way. The first year I fed the tank about 12 times a week or so. I have always fed rods complete reef and rods coral blend. Since the tank has once again become low nutrient I'm worried that the washed out colors and stunt the growth again. I would add another clown, but I'm concerned the pair will become aggressive. I guess I really need to start looking at adding more fish, one at a time, until I get the results I'm looking for. What would you like to see in this tank?

 

[Eienna]

It will help if you specifically feed the corals themselves.

So...do you run a skimmer?

 

[Pete polyp]

I target feed the acro. No skimmer, no sump.

 

[Pete polyp]

Do you think it would help if I didn't blast the rocks daily with a baster? It just gets caught in the hob filter. There's plenty of detritus in the sand under all the rocks. So I really don't know how I don't have any nitrate