37g Euphyllia Garden

[Dendrobates]

Hey guys,

I've been lurking on here for a few months, and decided it's finally time to post some details of my mini reef and the process to which it came to life. I first added water on March 13, 2014, so it's just a bit over 4 months old at this point. I'd love any and all feedback on a few issues I'm having, and that's a main reason why I've chosen to make a thread over here, it seems a bit more active than other boards. I'm living in an apartment while I finish up my Bachelor's and decided on a smaller display with a larger sump in hopes of upgrading the display after I move and using the same filtration.

37 gallon AGA Display (30" x 12.5" x 23") Black silicone
29 gallon AGA Sump (30" x 12.5"x 18")
SCA - 301 protein skimmer
Tunze 3155 ATO
BRS carbon reactor
TLF GFO reactor
Evergrow "165W" Full spectrum LED box
MP10w
Eshopps filter sock
150w heater

Controller in the future at some point, for piece of mind on my heater. Now on to some pictures!

Plasti dipped the back of the tank black, and went about swapping the center brace for a centrally mounted light friendly version. Used 3 x nylon bolts and nuts on each side as well as epoxy to solidify the two. Attached the arcylic beaneth the plastic to maintain original shape and dimensions.





Started work on the stand (which is still incomplete to this day). I'm a taller guy, so it's 40" tall and plenty of room for a supply shelf.



Kilz/white 3 coats, siliconed seams




Rocks first, and this may be where my first mistake took place. I purchased the rocks from a local guy that buys broken down set ups. It was dry so I made sure to bleach the rocks with some powerheads for a few days and dechlorinate them. I weighed the options and skipped the muratic acid bath, as I wasn't sure how to do this in my apartment complex without startling some neighbors. I'm now dealing with some organic matter leaching out of the rocks and growing some nasty algae and contributing to my phosphate levels. Next time right?



Sand added, and this picture shows the MP10w and the MP20, which turned out to be way too much flow without them being able to communicate with each other. MP20 was traded for coral later on.

 

[Dendrobates]

Now on to some sump construction pictures, finally settled on a 29 gallon with dreams of a larger display in the future.

Left to right: ATO reservoir, skimmer/filter sock, return, refugium



Mounted a PAR 20 refugium light about the sump to grow some Chaetomorpha and culture microfauna



The display is not drilled, som I used a U tube style overflow (so far so good, but next tank will be drilled for the piece of mind)



Template for a few controllers





Sump is starting to come together, a future improvement will be a taller baffle for the refugium to increase it's total volume

 

[Dendrobates]

Got some water in the display, made a new mess everyday during this stage.



Live rock to start seeding the dry rock and dry sand. Hitchiker leather coral as a guinea pig.



Hofer gurgle buster in the overflow



Breaking in the skimmer



Carbon reactor insert



First diatom bloom, added a live rock chunk to the display to spread some microfauna and bacteria a bit faster.



Working sump, with the "floating" carbon reactor



Macroalgae added to the refugium. Chaetomorpha, Caulerpa 'grape', and a Codium sp. I've ditched the grape Caulerpa in fear of it appearing in the display.



Hung the LED from the ceiling

 

[Davesgt]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[Dendrobates]

At this point, I began the addition of livestock and will post some representative pictures of the pieces.

Onyx percula pair and some softies added at first. GSP, bam bam Zoanthids, gold maul Palythoa. Also started with a few Euphyllia, scuba steve bicolor frogspawn, aussi splatter hammer, green/pink frogspawn.







Euphyllia parancora



RBTA for the clowns, this guy was a nightmare. I should have added it first to avoid it wandering around my coral. He stayed put for about 4 weeks, then decided to go an adventure. Luckily I was able to move all of the coral out of his way before there were any casualties, but itwas a stressful time in the mini reef.





"final" resting spot




Added some LPS frags to the mix.Acanthastrea lordhowensis, Blastomussa wellsi, Ducanopsammia axifuga, maxima clam



Seafoam Euphyllia parancora



Couple Euphyllia paradivisa

 

[Dendrobates]

Bubblegum chalice



Dragon Soul Favia (or Goniastrea?)



Tricolor Favites



Bam bam Zoas



Captain america Palythoa, and eagle eye Zoanthids



RBTA final spot...?



Hitchhiker was an ORA green polyp leather



Acanthastrea lordhowensis grouping and start of my "lawn"



Top down of some Euphyllias



Aussie splatter E. parancora, RBTA



ORA micronesian E. parancora adjusting to the LEDs



My hair algae/fuzz algae starting to come out a bit more, and a nice pink/green Ricordea yuma



We've got a local guy that's an SPS guru, and after 4 months, I finally caved to his persuasion.

Bonsai Acropora



Red planet Acropora



Montipora setosa and some detail of my fuzz. Hanna checker showed 0.07 ppm phosphate before I added the GFO reactor, so I can only assume it's lower now.



Got this little bleached guy as an Utter Chaos Playthoa, thoughts?

 

[ingtar_shinowa]

Great looking tank!

 

[noobofthereef]

Really awesome!

 

[Dendrobates]

Thanks for the compliments, guys! I'm starting to see some growth in the sps frags and have gained a bit of confidence in my system. The fuzz is slowly disappearing thanks to some trochus snails and an army of stomatellas. I'll add some more pictures on Thursday.

 

[Dendrobates]

My fuzz algae is nearly gone and the rocks are getting a darker coating of algae. I can see purple coralline starting to spread a bit more and has a few patches instead of random small spots. It's really exciting seeing a reef mature and being able to look back on my previous pictures to see growth and change.


This is the best area to show my algae bloom, in the previous pictures, it's a small forest, here it is today, and a small amount of Montipora setosa growth.





Here's a full tank shot showing most of the SPS mounted and a few new additions:


Torch coral (Euphyllia glabrescens) Purple with green tips
Sun coral (Tubastrea coccinea)
Black sun coral (Tubastrea micrantha)


And I believe for my final two pieces, I will be adding an ORA red Goniopora and a pink Stylophora in the following weeks. That should roundoff this tank while I search for an upgrade!

 

[Dendrobates]

And the full tank shot

 

[Jimbo662]

I love that rock work. And from what I see in the newest tank shot your anemone has found it's 2nd "final resting spot". :bigsmile:

 

[Dendrobates]

Thanks, I've always been a fan of appreciating the rock work before any coral are added. How could you go wrong at that point? The anemone is the biggest pain in the ads I've dealt with in this build. Constantly moving and threatening my coral. I've warned it a few times that I was close to revoking it, but it looks too nice! One of my biggest excuses for a tank upgrade, more anemone stomping ground!

 

[Jimbo662]

I debated putting one in my current tank...my last tank was 175g...I was sitting in the living room one afternoon and noticed something odd in the tank and realized the stupid thing and just let go and was flying around the tank. Luckily I'd already put the foam covers over the vortechs cause it went tentacle first into. just had to turn it off and shake it out of the foam.

 

[Reeferdude56]

Wow what a beautiful tank, but I think that you SPS frags are going to get best up once your hammers start growing.

 

[Dendrobates]

Another excuse for a tank upgrade, I suppose? I've only got 3 of the sps frags mounted with epoxy, the others are just resting because of the anemone`s constant onslaught. Nabbed a small pink Stylophora frag today to start growing out and found some ORA red goniopora frags at a local shop, they have a sale next week, so I'll have to be patient. My only fear of upgrading is not getting the perfect aquascape and having two full systems running rather than joining this one into a larger set up. Found a 105 (36"long x 24" wide x 28" tall) that reminds me of a much larger version of this reef...

 

[Dendrobates]

A fw pictures from last night's target feedings.

Tubastrea coccinea


Acanthastrea lordhowensis


Palythoa 'utter chaos' I believe. Gaining more color every day and has a new polyp

 

[Dixie_reefer]

Wow, beautiful tank!!! Love the scape!

 

[Dendrobates]

Thanks, I'm really enjoying placing coral onto it, but really want to drop it into a larger vessel. 75 gallon would give me some room to make another island on the opposite side.

 

[Dendrobates]

Snapped a few pictures on the day that my reef turned 5 months. It's really starting to fill out and I've slowly seen coralline replacing the nuisance algae.


Duncanopsammia axifuga



Ricordea yuma, this one has a taste for chalices. Expanded at night and killed my OG bubblegum chalice and about half of my rescue pink chalice.



Freshly fragged pink Stylophora



My non Euphyllia LPS garden with a few Acanthastrea lordhowensis, Blastomussa wellsi, and Favites pentagona



This guy has grown quite the base since I've gotten it, but I haven't seen any other growth indicators... until I looked on the backside that faces up to the light. Acropora 'bonsai'