Hey all,
I am going to be receiving my new tank on Tuesday of next week. I currently have a 55g mixed reef that I will be slowly breaking down and incorporating its livestock. However, I will be using new rock instead. I have been a lurker for a while and decided this was now the best opportunity to get out and actually create a build thread! Below is a breakdown of my current system:
- 55g display w/ Lifereef overflow, Bashea sump (24x 10x14), 5g ATO w/Kalk
- 60lbs rock, Eden Reef Flakes
- MP40QD, IceCap 3k
- Bubble Magus Curve 5
- Pax Bellum N18
- BRS Carbon Reactor
- BRS CO2 scrubber
- Avast Peristaltic ATO
- KH Gaurdian
- AWC through DOS (changes 15g/weekly)
- 2016 Neptune Apex
- 25w Pentair Aquatics UV Steralizer
- Finnex Heater
- Reefbreeders Photon V2 48”
- Sicce return pump
Macros:
- Red Gracilaria
Inverts:
- Dwarf Ceriths Snail
- Nassarius Snail
- Florida Ceriths Snails
- Nerite Snails
- Hermit Crabs
- Fire Shrimp
- Sexy Shrimp
- Randalli Shrimp
- Peppermint Shrimp
- Acro Crab
- Emerald Crab
- Chocolate chip Star (in sump)
- Rose Bubbletip Anemone
Corals:
- Green Star Polyp
- Red Plating Montipora
- Superman Montipora
- Orange Ricordea Yuma Mushroom
- Pulsing Xenia
- Cabbage leather x2
- Green Cabbage x3
- Lipton Tree
- Toadstool
- Sarcophyton
- Stereonephthya
- Rhodactis Hairy Mushrooms
- Purple Gorgonions x2
- Green Gorgonion
- Feather Gorgonion
- Hairy Sacrophytan
- Australian Warpaint Scoly
- Australian Acan x3
- Neon Green Hammer
- Green Goniopora
- Sour Apple Birdsnest
- Rainbow Pocillopora
- Purple Monster
- JF Homewrecker
- Purple Digi
- ORA Green Geko
- ORA Borealis
- JF Shocktart
- JF Foxflame
- ORA Red Planet
- ORA Hawkins Echinata
Fish:
- Bangai Cardinal x2
- Green Chromis
- Lyretail Anthias x2
- Yellow Watchman Goby
- Mandarin Goby
- Rubyhead Wrasse
- Yellow Tang
Tanks parameters are usually:
1.026
7.8-8.1 pH
~8.5 dKH
0.01-0.05 PO4
1-2 ppm NO3 (dose saltpeter daily)
I’ve had a lot of battles in this tank; GHA, dinos, brown hair algae, cyano, apitasia, ugh. Currently still battling brown hair algae or something like that even though my nutrients are low (not bottomed out).
This is a recent pic of my tank:
The 55g is 48x12x18, I believe. But I had bought a bigger stand so I would have more room. I want to keep the stand so that’s why I was looking at tanks that are 48x18x? I could only find a few and it came down to a 75g or 110 tall, hence why I choose the tank I did. I realize that maintenance will be annoying because it is tall but I do AWC’s and am planning on really good flow to keep detritus suspended so it can make its way into the sump. Also, it’ll help me keep my hands out of the tank more than I currently do! I am also planning on retrofitting T5’s in to the canopy on this one since I will have more room in width. I want to try out the LED/T5 hybrid setup that people seem to love!
I wanted to do a whole new rockscape so that’s why I am not going to use my current rock. I had bought it from my LFS when I first setup my current tank and did not know quite as much as I have learned over the course of these past years. It was the dense rock. The type that you can’t really break up and use like the macro reef rocks which can create some really nice scapes. I was never happy with my scape but ended up say to heck with it. This time, I want to use Stax to create a couple pedestals with shelf type overhangs (one that will kind of wrap around) and also plan on doing an expanding foam mixed with macro rock rubble and sand back wall to give it more texture and depth. I made a lot of mistakes with my first tank. Main one being that I didn’t plan on coral placement when creating my scape. Hoping to correct that issue with this one!
So I also plan on getting the below:
- Stax reef rock
- Shelf reef rock
- Macro rock rubble
- Great Stuff Foam (Pond version)
- Egg crates
- Eden Reef Flakes
- MP40QD? (what do you guys think, should I get another one?)
- Aqua forest Stone Affix
Now the big question....livestock!!
What do you think I should add to this tank? I really wanted a school of Anthias or chromis, what do you think? Maybe a couple ocellaris (I really like the mocha storms!)
Since I plan on eventually slowly transferring livestock to the new tank when it’s ready, I am trying to figure out how I should deal with the running 55g because the new tank will be sitting on the stand as soon as I can get it scaped and filled with water. I was thinking of just letting it sit on the floor in the basement with the heater, light, and power heads. And manually test the water and water changes. Does that sound ok?
Also, I was not really planning on curing the rock. I figured I will just let it cycle and that should take care of the curing process also. Thoughts on that?
Thanks for reading! That was a long post!! I love this community so I had to bite the bullet and finally create a build thread!!
I am going to be receiving my new tank on Tuesday of next week. I currently have a 55g mixed reef that I will be slowly breaking down and incorporating its livestock. However, I will be using new rock instead. I have been a lurker for a while and decided this was now the best opportunity to get out and actually create a build thread! Below is a breakdown of my current system:
- 55g display w/ Lifereef overflow, Bashea sump (24x 10x14), 5g ATO w/Kalk
- 60lbs rock, Eden Reef Flakes
- MP40QD, IceCap 3k
- Bubble Magus Curve 5
- Pax Bellum N18
- BRS Carbon Reactor
- BRS CO2 scrubber
- Avast Peristaltic ATO
- KH Gaurdian
- AWC through DOS (changes 15g/weekly)
- 2016 Neptune Apex
- 25w Pentair Aquatics UV Steralizer
- Finnex Heater
- Reefbreeders Photon V2 48”
- Sicce return pump
Macros:
- Red Gracilaria
Inverts:
- Dwarf Ceriths Snail
- Nassarius Snail
- Florida Ceriths Snails
- Nerite Snails
- Hermit Crabs
- Fire Shrimp
- Sexy Shrimp
- Randalli Shrimp
- Peppermint Shrimp
- Acro Crab
- Emerald Crab
- Chocolate chip Star (in sump)
- Rose Bubbletip Anemone
Corals:
- Green Star Polyp
- Red Plating Montipora
- Superman Montipora
- Orange Ricordea Yuma Mushroom
- Pulsing Xenia
- Cabbage leather x2
- Green Cabbage x3
- Lipton Tree
- Toadstool
- Sarcophyton
- Stereonephthya
- Rhodactis Hairy Mushrooms
- Purple Gorgonions x2
- Green Gorgonion
- Feather Gorgonion
- Hairy Sacrophytan
- Australian Warpaint Scoly
- Australian Acan x3
- Neon Green Hammer
- Green Goniopora
- Sour Apple Birdsnest
- Rainbow Pocillopora
- Purple Monster
- JF Homewrecker
- Purple Digi
- ORA Green Geko
- ORA Borealis
- JF Shocktart
- JF Foxflame
- ORA Red Planet
- ORA Hawkins Echinata
Fish:
- Bangai Cardinal x2
- Green Chromis
- Lyretail Anthias x2
- Yellow Watchman Goby
- Mandarin Goby
- Rubyhead Wrasse
- Yellow Tang
Tanks parameters are usually:
1.026
7.8-8.1 pH
~8.5 dKH
0.01-0.05 PO4
1-2 ppm NO3 (dose saltpeter daily)
I’ve had a lot of battles in this tank; GHA, dinos, brown hair algae, cyano, apitasia, ugh. Currently still battling brown hair algae or something like that even though my nutrients are low (not bottomed out).
This is a recent pic of my tank:
The 55g is 48x12x18, I believe. But I had bought a bigger stand so I would have more room. I want to keep the stand so that’s why I was looking at tanks that are 48x18x? I could only find a few and it came down to a 75g or 110 tall, hence why I choose the tank I did. I realize that maintenance will be annoying because it is tall but I do AWC’s and am planning on really good flow to keep detritus suspended so it can make its way into the sump. Also, it’ll help me keep my hands out of the tank more than I currently do! I am also planning on retrofitting T5’s in to the canopy on this one since I will have more room in width. I want to try out the LED/T5 hybrid setup that people seem to love!
I wanted to do a whole new rockscape so that’s why I am not going to use my current rock. I had bought it from my LFS when I first setup my current tank and did not know quite as much as I have learned over the course of these past years. It was the dense rock. The type that you can’t really break up and use like the macro reef rocks which can create some really nice scapes. I was never happy with my scape but ended up say to heck with it. This time, I want to use Stax to create a couple pedestals with shelf type overhangs (one that will kind of wrap around) and also plan on doing an expanding foam mixed with macro rock rubble and sand back wall to give it more texture and depth. I made a lot of mistakes with my first tank. Main one being that I didn’t plan on coral placement when creating my scape. Hoping to correct that issue with this one!
So I also plan on getting the below:
- Stax reef rock
- Shelf reef rock
- Macro rock rubble
- Great Stuff Foam (Pond version)
- Egg crates
- Eden Reef Flakes
- MP40QD? (what do you guys think, should I get another one?)
- Aqua forest Stone Affix
Now the big question....livestock!!
What do you think I should add to this tank? I really wanted a school of Anthias or chromis, what do you think? Maybe a couple ocellaris (I really like the mocha storms!)
Since I plan on eventually slowly transferring livestock to the new tank when it’s ready, I am trying to figure out how I should deal with the running 55g because the new tank will be sitting on the stand as soon as I can get it scaped and filled with water. I was thinking of just letting it sit on the floor in the basement with the heater, light, and power heads. And manually test the water and water changes. Does that sound ok?
Also, I was not really planning on curing the rock. I figured I will just let it cycle and that should take care of the curing process also. Thoughts on that?
Thanks for reading! That was a long post!! I love this community so I had to bite the bullet and finally create a build thread!!