120 gallon reef

alexiowa

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I started off with a 55 gallon non reef ready to see if I would enjoy the hobby, that turned out to be a mistake.

Those first few months were fine, watching the natural process of the water cycle. I knew I had a lot to learn since it was my first tank since i was around six. I'd watch it all the time and got quality hang ons. Once I started to add some nicer fish and something more than softies I upgraded my lights from a 48 inch marine orbit strip to two mars aqua boxes. No need for t5, too expensive since i was still new to the hobby. I was about a year and three months in, dealing with hair algae and a slew of other oddities. The only thing that saved the livestock was my 50% water changes every week.

The thing that changed it all was when I was sealing my new cedar railing and came inside to hear the wave makers only slightly in the water. My hang on back carbon/gfo reactor blew a hose throwing water everywhere and i decided I was done with that tank.

I wish I'd have been more patient and found the perfect tank but I am still happy with my new 75 gallon mainland reef ready. That's not to say everything is perfect. I bought the wrong sand and have tiny bits still floating around unlike the fiji pink in my last tank. I guess the point of this whole story is to say start small, make sure you actually turn your canister filter back on after cleaning it, leave notes a child could understand about taking care of your tank and you'll be okay. I forgot a few of those along the way.

With the new tank 48X18X21 I already had my 2 jebao pp8 wave makers, a jebao dct8000 return pump, 2 mars aqua led boxes and a bank account that would slowly drift away. I bought the mainland 75 reef ready and stand at my lfs for a decent deal along with the wrong sand. Dad helped me bring it inside after I moved most of my live rock and all the livestock into a 40 breeder and got the 55 out of the way. It was tough using my new rr tank as a regular non drilled for a week and a half but I wanted to start this one off on a better note. I ordered my reef keeper lite with sl2, salinity probe, ph probe, sca 302 skimmer, plumbing parts and picked up a 20 long at petco. I got it all set up but then the tank looked far too lightly stocked. I know the tank is too small for a naso tang but it's far bigger than the 15 he was sharing at my lfs. When I buy my new house in two years he will move into a 150-200. Then a guy on Facebook is moving and needs to sell his rainbow bta's so I had to take one. Then I find a sweet coral sale online, whats another couple hundred bucks and that's where I am today. I love taking care of my tank even though it's been a source of much hair pulling. My friends don't understand it and my daughter thinks it's just plain weird but to me it's my new golf, difficult but rewarding.

current livestock
1 clownfish
1 yellow tang
1 naso tang
5 blue/green chromis
1 firefish
2 turbo snails
5 nasarius snails
and a couple crabs


I am going to have my son come over with his professional camera, all I have are iPhone 6 shots but I hope you enjoy. The colors are off but still good looking.

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KJ

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Nice looking tank.
 

bif24701

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Good job. Looks like you are starting off well. What's the next tank going to be?
 
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alexiowa

alexiowa

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The tank has been going alright. I cleaned my salinity probe after seeing it was saying 28 instead of 35. thank you vinegar and my dedicated aquarium toothbrush. The fish have been happy except for my clownfish when he gets put in his personal prison on occasion. You can only put up with so much of him biting your hand when adjusting corals. The rainbow stylo isn't doing great but I'm hoping it will come back, but the purple stylo is growing like a boss. Fragged about thirty of the "la laker" zoas and will sell them once I'm sure they are doing well on the discs. Also if you can give an actual name on the la laker zoas that would be great. They were sold to me as la lakers but they aren't purple and yellow. Beautiful but blue and green and look just like la lakers that were on tidal gardens. Enjoy the pics and hopefully I will have some new sps to show off soon.

love these acans and now that my new leather is doing well I need to figure out a permanent home for him
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these are the la lakers
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I had to zoom in too much to show the color on this guy. I'll take a shot from above soon
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alexiowa

alexiowa

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I bought four new corals and two t5 retrofit t5. I was getting the aquatic life t5 hybrid but the deal on the retrofit along with wanting and being able to build a canopy was too hard to pass up. I bought the coral plus and blue plus bulbs. I got a rush delivery so hopefully I will have them temporarily mounted until I build my canopy

no name monti spongodes
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cali tort
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orange digi
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blue tort that I will need to work with lightroom app to get a good picture of
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alexiowa

alexiowa

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I received my 48" t5 retrofit from brs and built a temporary stand for the lights. I'll build and paint a canopy this weekend to hold both of the lighting units.
 
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alexiowa

alexiowa

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tank photography seems much better with t5 lighting. I know that i just had one day with t5 but I can already tell that i am going to see some big changes from this move.

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alexiowa

alexiowa

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Canopy is built, yet I still need to mount the chinese boxes to the canopy. I don't like the look of the hanging kit since I used chain to mount the lights to the bolts in the ceiling. I have magnet mounts that keep the front panel on the canopy and they seem to be plenty strong as it takes a good bit of force to remove the panel. I mounted the lights in the sump, way better than the miner style head light I was using to look around. I've been hand dosing bfs 2 part since I received my 2 part with doser kit. Just waiting for a deal on another reef keeper pb4 so I can set up a dosing program. Kalkwasser was doing a fine job on my tank but I plan on adding some more sps just after the new year and I'd like my alkalinity around 9-10 vs. the 8 that it's consistently at. I added a marine pure block to the sump and am planning on adding baffles into my now open plan sump. I also built a cover for my overflow box. Pretty easy to do with a jig saw and some black spray paint I've used on the back of other tanks. Pics to come soon
 
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alexiowa

alexiowa

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Nice how did you make the overflow covers?

I bought a sheet of 1/4" acrylic at home depot, measured the overflow and added and 1/8th inch. From the square corner of the acrylic sheet I used a sharpie and my tape measure and made an radius from one side to the other at 8 1/8th inch. I used my jigsaw to cut the acrylic but the downside is that the heat from the blade kind of fused the material back together. It took one more pass and then I was able to snap it free. Once I trimmed up some burrs with a razor knife and sanded the cut radius until it was smooth. From there I just used the same black spray paint I had from painting the back of an older tank. Three coats later and now the only light getting in my overflow is from the side of the tank. I'm thinking about using dark window tint on the exterior of the tank where the overflow chamber is to hide the white pipes. I'll leave an area up top to make sure I can still see in and check my water level
 
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alexiowa

alexiowa

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Well I bit the bullet and finally bought a high quality light. I got the 48 8 bulb hoping that this will still work when I get a larger tank. I am very happy with the quality and look so far. I had eight bulbs in but I will probably use it a 6 bulb and have been playing around with bulb combos. I'm using 4 blue plus, a coral plus and an actinic bulb. I have a purple plus and blue plus in reserve. Kinda like the looks of it the way it is now. I also bought all of the rock and corals from a guy leaving the hobby. They are set up in a temp 20 gallon while I got my lighting figured out and I make sure there is nothing coming into my tank. Here are a couple shots I took tonight
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A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 72 38.1%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 63 33.3%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 13.2%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 28 14.8%
  • Other.

    Votes: 1 0.5%
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