The journey of my 55 reef

SeahorseKeeper · Jun 22, 2012

Since I'm fairly new here, I figured I would start a thread that shows the progress of my 55 reef. It is kinda fitting that I am doing this today since the tank is officially 2 years old today.

Here is the tank one week after I set it up (I used rock from an existing system and a bacteria supplement to help get it started):

SeahorseKeeper · Jun 22, 2012

This pic is about a year into keeping the tank.

Yup, that is correct that is a hippo in my 55. I rescued this hippo from a certain death. It had ich and HLLE. It was very bad. I rescued it from a LFS and was able to get it healthy. Once it was clear from ich, I put it in my reef. I found it an excellent home earlier this year.

In this pic, you can see my ugly background, but at that time I thought it was different. I got fed up with my tank this year and made some much needed upgrades.

SeahorseKeeper · Jun 22, 2012

Here are some present day pics:

Steelerfan747 · Jun 22, 2012

Very nice set up. Keep up the good work

SeahorseKeeper · Jun 22, 2012

I have to get some better pics this weekend.

Here is my current system info:
Equipment:
55 gallons
Fluval 305 filter
Deltec MCE 600
150 Jager heater
X2 MP10's
X2 Maxspect Mazarra P-Series

Livestock:

Lemon peel
X2 Ocellaris clowns
Starry blenny
Evil bicolor dottyback
Sebae anemone
Various CUC members

Corals:
Elegance
Frogspawn
Torch
Bubble
Anthellia
Rics
Sun coral
Various zoas
Various shrooms
Favia

k2parkstar · Jun 22, 2012

Looks great! Congrats on the tang rescue. It's sad to see some LFS treatment of fish. Good on your for the rescue, and even better for finding a good home after its recovery.

BarbH · Jun 22, 2012

Nice setup and congrats in two years in. Look forward to seeing more pictures of your setup

Sent from my SCH-R720 using Tapatalk 2

SeahorseKeeper · Jun 22, 2012

Thanks everyone!

Now, I just need to get my seahorse tank thread going. That tank is still a work in progress.

revsgirl · Jun 22, 2012

Nice reef!! Thanks for sharing!!

Loki · Jun 23, 2012

Nice stuff! That's awesome that you saved the tang! Kudos for that!

SeahorseKeeper · Jun 23, 2012

I have never been satisfied with my rock work. I think that may have changed today.

Here are present day pics of my tank:

uall8up · Jun 23, 2012

very nice!!!

Pappy · Jun 23, 2012

Love the rock work!!!! Those are cool lights too I was looking at those b4. Have you tried raising higher or changing optics to reduce spotlighting affect? I had an issue with my green LEDs and pulled the optics off and it fixed it!

Steelerfan747 · Jun 23, 2012

SeahorseKeeper said:
Thanks everyone!

Now, I just need to get my seahorse tank thread going. That tank is still a work in progress.

Sounds really nice. I would really like to see a thread and some pics of that one

SeahorseKeeper · Jun 23, 2012

Pappy said:
Love the rock work!!!! Those are cool lights too I was looking at those b4. Have you tried raising higher or changing optics to reduce spotlighting affect? I had an issue with my green LEDs and pulled the optics off and it fixed it!

I have played with the optics a bit and the current lay out is what makes my anemone and elegance happy. I need to order another fixture. Hopefully, that will be done soon. I just have to save up the $$ for it, but I need an RO/DI unit first.

SeahorseKeeper · Jun 23, 2012

Steelerfan747 said:
Sounds really nice. I would really like to see a thread and some pics of that one

I will get that one started tonight. I will go through the whole build process.

SeahorseKeeper · Sep 14, 2012

Wow!!! Been awhile since I updated this. Right now I am having a little bit of a battle with some cyano most likely due to some flow issues.

Tomorrow, I am going to be doing a good cleaning and adjusting the aquascape to optimize flow. I will post pics once it's done.

SeahorseKeeper · Sep 15, 2012

Woohoo!!! I finished my maintenance. It only took me all day. There were some issues along the way. I decided to take another stab at playing with the optics on the LED's and I think that worked out great!!!

Here are some pics: