AJ_TSin's 47g Shallow Rimless

[AJ_Tsin]

The 47g Shallow Reef:

Intro:
Hey everyone, thought I would migrate and start sharing over here at R2R. Plan is to document the (rebuild) of a 47g Shallow SPS dominated reef. Several years ago this setup was in its prime, nabbing a TOTM at N-R and some of my early video work was featured around the web on various blogs etc. Eventually I tore it down and sold all of the livestock. In December of 2013 I decided to jump back in and rebuild the system from the ground up to start over. Build is now just over 6 months into its new lifecycle and is coming along nicely. I have done my best to stock some of the rarest and nicest SPS I have been able to get my hands on from around southern Ontario/Canada, and I have had great success.

I have done this build before so the allure of just getting a reef up and running is not such a big deal anymore, instead I have opted to stick with only stocking frags and taking what will become a very slow approach to filling in a relatively minimal aquascape. This "Buy No Colonies" approach breathes a bit of life into the hobby for me as at this point rather then focusing on stocking corals and filling it in, I will focus on trimming and growing tiny frags out into "Bonsai" micro colonies. As the best reef keepers would know, patience is absolutely everything in this hobby and already this slow and steady slow burner has had some great success.

Anyways... enough preamble. I am thrilled, after several years with an empty glass box in my living room, to finally have a reef up and running again and I am glad to share and join what seems like a great community at Reef2Reef. Here are the details, feel free to ask questions, leave comments or just stop by.

Display

• 30" x 30" x 12" Starphire Glass Custom Shallow Rimless

Equipment

• System is drilled through floor into a basement cellar "fish room"
• Protien Skimmer: Vertex Omega 130
• 20g Acrylic Sump w/ 3 sections (Section 1: Filter Floss, Temp Probe, Carbon, Skimmer, Zeo Reactor, Section 2: Heater, ATO, Section 3: Live Rock, Return Pump
• Heater: 500w Titanium Submersible Heater
• Water Motion: 2x Eco-Tech Vortech MP10 (One on Wave mode, one on Reef Crest), Mag 9.5 Return Pump (7 ft. lift)
• Filter Media: 1.5 L Vertex ZEOvit Reactor w/ Korallen Zucht ZEOlite, Filter Floss, 250 ml GAC Carbon
• ATO: D.I.Y. auto top of using a gravity fed, float valve and 15g glass aquarium reservoir.

Lighting

8 x 24w ATI Powermodule T5

Bulb Array:

• ATI Blue +
• ATI Blue +
• ATI Blue +
• ATI Purple +
• ATI Coral +
• ATI Blue +
• ATI Blue +
• ATI Blue +

Parameters

• Salinity Level: 1.026
• Temp: 78
• pH: 8.2
• Calcium Level: 430
• Alkalinity: 7.5 dKh
• Magnesium: 1300
• Potassium: 390-400
• Ammonia: 0
• Nitrite Levels: 0
• Nitrate Levels: <0.0
• Phosphate: <0.00
• Sandbed Depth: 1 in. Carib Sea Seaflor Special Grade Aragonite
• Liverock: 40 lbs (Split between sump and display)
• Total System Water Volume: 60g

Livestock

FISH
2x ORA Black Ice Snowflake Clownfish


INVERTS
Golden Tahitian Maxima
Peppermint Shrimp
Emerald Crab
8 Astrea Snails
4 Trochus Snails
3 Nassarius Snails
2 Scarlet Leg Hermits
6 Blue Leg Hermits

SPS
Reef Raft Avengers
Reef Raft Blizzard
Reef Raft Kraken
Reef Raft Orange Passion
Reef Raft Pearlberry
Reef Raft Pretty in Pink
Reef Raft Strawberry Shortcake
Reef Raft Tierra del Fuego
Reef Raft Wolverine
ORA Bellina Acropora
ORA Orange Setosa
ORA Pearlberry
ORA Red Planet
Tyree Pink Lemonade
Tyree Red Dragon
BS Toxic Sarmentosa
BS Orange Yellow and Blue Secale
BS Teal and Pink Tip Secale
BS Tricolor Millepora
BS Yellow Tipped Blue Stag
Wicked Sunrise
Blue green Acropora Kimbeensis
Neon Green Acropora Aculeus
Teal Acropora Caroliniana
Green Tipped Acropora Prostrata
Acropora Desawii
Acropora Granulosa
Pink with Yellow tip Acropora
Blue Tipped A. Tenius
Teal Plana
Yellow/Green Plana
Pink Tip Millepora
Sunset Millepora
Red Millepora
Blue Palmers Millipora
Miyagi Tort
Oregon Tort
Tyree Seasons Greetings Monti Cap
Rainbow Montipora Tubuculosa
Forest Fire Digitata
Reef Raft Nauti Spiral Palawensis
Bali Purple Rim Undata
Ora German Blue Polyp Digi
Green Polyp Scroll

PALYS AND ZOAS
Tyree Space Monsters
Giant Paly
Yellow Micro Zoas
Monstropolis Zoa.
Purple Death Paly
Atl. Triple Reds
Magician Paly

MUSHROOMS
Yellow and Green Ricordia
Yellow and Blue Ricordia

Reef Raft Avengers

Reef Raft Pretty in Pink

BS Yellow and Orange Tipped Secale

Reef Raft Orange Passion

Tyree Red Dragon

Reef Raft Wolverine

Tyree Pink Lemonade




Dosing/Maintenance Schedule

Feeding

• NLS Pellets daily
• PE Mysis Rinsed and Soaked in Selcon 2-3x weekly

Daily

• 0.13 ml K-Z ZEOStart x 2 daily (total of 0.26 ml)
• 7ml Ca, 7ml Alk, 7 ml Mg (BRS Two Part)

Every other day

• 2 Drops of K-Z Sponge Power (alternating days with Bak)
• 1 Tsp Brightwell Potassion

Intermittent

• 3 Drops of K-Z CV 3x weekly
• 3 Drops of K-Z PIF 3x weekly
• 2 Drops of K-Z ZeoBak 2x weekly (Every other day for two weeks after ZeoLite Exchange)
• 2 ml K-Z Coral Snow 2x weekly[/*]
• 2 Drops of K-Z BioMate 2x weekly[/*]
• 2 Drops of K-Z Cyano Clean 1x weekly
• 2 Capful of Brightwell Strontion 1x weekly

Maintenance

• 10% water change weekly (Vacuum sand bed bi-weekly)
• Change Filter Floss weekly
• 250 ml of ESV Activated Carbon in media bag changed every 30 days
• 500 ml K-Z ZeoLite in Vertex Reactor running 60 g/h change 90% every 8 weeks
• Blast Rocks w/ Turkey Baster (Several times weekly)

​

 

[EW_Fish]

Wow very nice reef. Thanks for taking the time to list all the info

 

[spspirate]

Very nice reef and coral selection! Great job

 

[AJ_Tsin]

Wow very nice reef. Thanks for taking the time to list all the info

Very nice reef and coral selection! Great job

Thanks guys I am happy to share info. Thanks for following along.

Here are some other shots.

Wicked Sunrise

Big Show Tricolor Mille

Reef Raft Shortcake

A. Secale looking happy

Hairy Beast

Reef Raft Deepwater Kraken

Reef Raft Peacock

BS Toxic Sarmentosa

 

[Aquaph8]

Nice collection man, looking forward to watching them grow.

 

[AJ_Tsin]

Thanks, glad to have you subscribed.

 

[ifarmer]

very nice.
I really like rocks layout though.

 

[AJ_Tsin]

Thanks. The minimal rock work is nice with a big sandbed and open scape... really lets your eyes travel around the scape, but it also means less room for corals... I have already rammed this thing full of frags.

 

[YHSublime]

Nice stuff here! Look forward to it!

 

[AJ_Tsin]

Nice stuff here! Look forward to it!

Thanks.

Just got some K-Z Amino Acid HC in the mail as well as an upgrade to my very old 4 Stage RO-DI unit.

It is a Spectrapure MaxCap 90GPD-MF 5 Stage RO/DI Unit.

 

[AJ_Tsin]

JULY 2014 FTS

 

[AJ_Tsin]

Here is a closer look:

 

[Mans]

Nice reef tank

 

[FLipp]

how do you like the coral + bulb? have you ever tried an aquablu special?

 

[AJ_Tsin]

Nice reef tank

Thanks.

how do you like the coral + bulb? have you ever tried an aquablu special?

I actually had Aquablue prior and I like the Coral + much better. Less white and makes the corals fluoresce a bit more.

 

[Lidofishieboi]

Nice tank bro keep it up!

 

[AJ_Tsin]

Nice tank bro keep it up!

Cheers thanks.

 

[creefer]

I followed your previous tank on N-R. This is going to be quite nice as it grows in. I'm looking forward to it.

 

[AJ_Tsin]

I followed your previous tank on N-R. This is going to be quite nice as it grows in. I'm looking forward to it.

Awesome thanks for following. Glad someone remembers the old build. Although this one is already on its way to being a much better setup.

 

[AJ_Tsin]

Well went away for a few days, and came back today to everything in perfect order. Although I have decided I will 100% be upgrading the RKL to an Apex using and wirelessly monitoring this thing from now on I am sick of worrying about things going awry while I am away.