Shookmr
Community Member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2025
- Messages
- 32
- Reaction score
- 68
- Location
- california
- What state or country do you live in
- California
My tank is hitting 1 year old in 4 days, so I thought I would share the journey. Just ordered a Waterbox Infinia Reef 150.4 and will be moving everything over once it gets here.
For the tank itself, this is an aqua top 21.6. I had to modify the back compartment in the return pump section with a strip of acrylic to maintain a constant water level in the rest of this tank. I quickly noticed after putting everything together that this was not a really good design for a reef tank. The price was good, and I was going to make it work. I removed the sponges that came with it and went with a small bubble magus protein skimmer, and the other compartments filled with rock rubble. That’s all for filtration. I also removed the glass lid and made a screen top.
For lighting, I went with Noopsyche K7 V3. Beananimal made an extremely helpful tool to set up the light. I made an AB+ profile and slowly ramped it up over a few months. It now runs at 75% and has been that way for over 6 months. I’m a big fan of not messing with stuff.
The rock had already been cycling in a bucket for close to a month while I waited for the light and protein skimmer to come in. I found a store that had a bin full of nice used Fiji rock, but it was bone dry and had been for some time. I got about 11lbs of it, got a 7.5lb bag of dry rock, and bought one medium-sized live rock that was in a pet store's tank. The sand is the Carib Sea live oolite sand.
I have consistently done weekly water changes of 10% every Friday and test all parameters before the water changes. My Parameters stay pretty consistent.
Temp 78 maintained by eheim heater paired with an Inkbird.
Ph 8
Alk 8
Calcium 450
I am dosing kalk through Ato
Mag 1300 not sure how accurate test is.
Nitrate 10-20
Phos .1
I make my own food consisting of many different fresh seafoods and algae blended up. I don’t feed pellets or flakes.
I was going for a mixed reef this time. I’ve never really tried SPS, so I wanted to give that a shot this time. Wasn’t really sure about the flow as I was only using 4 small power heads. I eventually upgraded them to two of the 18 watt hygger gyres. I find them quiet, easy to maintain, and very easy to get the flow just right. I have them set to random at 75% and synced up, and have very good flow throughout the tank.
I played around with separate hammer and torch gardens, but ended up not liking the look. I wanted the corals to be more random with different colors throughout.
Fast forward to a year later, and this is what I’m working with.
Thanks for looking!
For the tank itself, this is an aqua top 21.6. I had to modify the back compartment in the return pump section with a strip of acrylic to maintain a constant water level in the rest of this tank. I quickly noticed after putting everything together that this was not a really good design for a reef tank. The price was good, and I was going to make it work. I removed the sponges that came with it and went with a small bubble magus protein skimmer, and the other compartments filled with rock rubble. That’s all for filtration. I also removed the glass lid and made a screen top.
For lighting, I went with Noopsyche K7 V3. Beananimal made an extremely helpful tool to set up the light. I made an AB+ profile and slowly ramped it up over a few months. It now runs at 75% and has been that way for over 6 months. I’m a big fan of not messing with stuff.
The rock had already been cycling in a bucket for close to a month while I waited for the light and protein skimmer to come in. I found a store that had a bin full of nice used Fiji rock, but it was bone dry and had been for some time. I got about 11lbs of it, got a 7.5lb bag of dry rock, and bought one medium-sized live rock that was in a pet store's tank. The sand is the Carib Sea live oolite sand.
I have consistently done weekly water changes of 10% every Friday and test all parameters before the water changes. My Parameters stay pretty consistent.
Temp 78 maintained by eheim heater paired with an Inkbird.
Ph 8
Alk 8
Calcium 450
I am dosing kalk through Ato
Mag 1300 not sure how accurate test is.
Nitrate 10-20
Phos .1
I make my own food consisting of many different fresh seafoods and algae blended up. I don’t feed pellets or flakes.
I was going for a mixed reef this time. I’ve never really tried SPS, so I wanted to give that a shot this time. Wasn’t really sure about the flow as I was only using 4 small power heads. I eventually upgraded them to two of the 18 watt hygger gyres. I find them quiet, easy to maintain, and very easy to get the flow just right. I have them set to random at 75% and synced up, and have very good flow throughout the tank.
I played around with separate hammer and torch gardens, but ended up not liking the look. I wanted the corals to be more random with different colors throughout.
Fast forward to a year later, and this is what I’m working with.
Thanks for looking!
Last edited:
That, and basic filter floss.
