A reef in Humboldt

[Reef-roach]

Greetings Reef2Reef! I've drooled over many of your tanks on this forum for a while now, and I really wish I'd have started a build thread. I thought I would share my tank with you now, in the mindset of better late than never. I started this tank after a five year reef sebaticol, due to many life changes. I wish I had pictures of aquariums I had from 2000-2008, but I never could take an aquarium photo to save my life. What few, substandard pictures I had are now long gone. I quit my job in 2012 to go back to school, and I currently work part-time at a LFS. That said, funds began to run low during the build process. Many thanks to the friends that helped me with equipment and frag donations to eget me started up again!
This current tank is two 120's (4x2x2): one is the reef, the other is divided in half, a 60 cube with a peacock mantis and a deep sand bed, the other half a sump hidden behind a cabinet door. I dremmelled a 2" drain on the back wall of the reef and made an internal coast to coast overflow. Assembled a miro 8x80 watt t5 retro in the canopy, running a Reef Dynamics INS250, a one-sided vertical ~22x10 algae scrubber, BRS two part through dosing pumps, and ~1-1/2 cups BRS ROX carbon passively in the sump. Tank's been running about 16 months. A buddy with a nice camera and some skills offered to swing by and take some pics soon. If that materializes I will post them here.

Thanks for checking it out,
Josh

 

[mike007]

Tank looks great thanks for sharing.

 

[Tahoe61]

Welcome.

Very nice looking tank, you sure seem to be making it work, sps are obviously doing great.

 

[Reef-roach]

Thanks for the kind words, guys! A few corals are starting to grow in nicely, but it still looks like frag city to me. Had a couple mishaps in the beginning dialing in the doser and alk burned everything. Things have been coloring nicely and putting on size since I've gotten it dialed in. Here's a quick photo of the entire length with the sump cabinet door open. Algae scrubber is behind the black acrylic box.

 

[Scoly]

Looking great! Do you ever come to redding?

 

[Reef-roach]

I never do, but there's a shop over there I'd like to check out. I got a frag from a guy who purchased it at the deep. I called and talked to mike there, emailed him a crappy iPhone pic and he identified it as blue porites. I'd love to see his shop. You ever make it to the coast?

 

[Reef-roach]

Couple of cell shots before I go to bed. I can't capture the colors my eyes see in a picture, but it's the best I've got.

 

[Reef-roach]

Whoops! Upsidedown red dragon. Hopefully this one loads right side up. What a rookie! Loading somepics upsidedown and some twice!

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

Looking good! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Reef-roach]

Thanks Krista. Just waiting for everything to grow in.

 

[Reef-roach]

 

[Reef-roach]

 

[Reef-roach]

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Reef2Reef!

 

[Reef-roach]

Finally got a half-way descent pic of the peacock mantis!

 

[revhtree]

Well done and looks great!

 

[Reef-roach]

Well done and looks great!

Thanks for the compliment, rev!

 

[Reef-roach]

Decided to redo the rock work since I had the morning off. Let me know what you think!

 

[Scoly]

That mantis shrimp is cool! How long have you had it?

 

[Reef-roach]

That mantis shrimp is cool! How long have you had it?

Thanks! Just over a year. He charges the cat through the glass. Do you ever come out to the coast?

 

[Reef-roach]

So I started dosing vinegar about 5 weeks ago, the algae scrubber was effectively pulling readable phosphates and nitrates, but I've been fighting brown wafer algae, to no avail. Rather than adding more light to the scrubber, I decided to utilize the extra channel on the dosing pump. I'm up to 26 mL a day of vinegar right now, and it looks like I'm getting some results. A couple of spots of wafer algae are peeling off the rock. The coralline, however, has been doing the same. Anyone else experience coralline flaking off when starting to carbon dose? All livestock looks as good or better so far. Only other thing that has changed in the past couple months is I traded some frags for another MP40 with a local club member, so I'm rocking three Mp40s these days. Any thoughts on the coralline?