45 Gallon Shallow Reef Build

[CBonito]

thanks for sharing, I also ordered a tank from Advanced Acrylcis, waiting for it the delivery. To convenience myself to go with acrylics I decide to go bottomless, all my other glass tanks has sand and it's a pain to clean even with the glass.

Good luck with the new tank. I'm happy with mine. I'm glad I went with all the bullnosed and polished edges. It makes all the difference. They do a pretty good job.

 

[CBonito]

I added my first corals. I got an orange tip torch, a green frogspawn (or what I think is one) and a pink/green lobophyllia. We'll see how they do, they were all expensive. They're a little ticked because I just put them right into the tank, but they'll be fine.

I got a diamond goby too so I have something that goes through my sand. My midas blenny is upset, but I don't care what he thinks because he's an idiot.

Soon as they open up, I'll take some pics. This is where the fun begins.

 

[Patx]

Diamond goby... i can't do a tank whitout one !
Always white sand !

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

I added my first corals. I got an orange tip torch, a green frogspawn (or what I think is one) and a pink/green lobophyllia. We'll see how they do, they were all expensive. They're a little ticked because I just put them right into the tank, but they'll be fine.

I got a diamond goby too so I have something that goes through my sand. My midas blenny is upset, but I don't care what he thinks because he's an idiot.

Soon as they open up, I'll take some pics. This is where the fun begins.

Can't wait to see to the new additions!

Diamond goby... i can't do a tank whitout one !
Always white sand !

I have had really good luck with bullet goby's too! My only complaint is they are a little reckless with the sand they sift and buried some of my corals on the sand bed once in a while. But they kept the sand spotless!

 

[CBonito]

Diamond goby... i can't do a tank whitout one !
Always white sand !

That's what I'm hoping for. Things are a little tense in my tank since my flame hawk doesn't seem to like the "invader", but he'll get over it. The diamond goby is nice and healthy and is chilling out in his own corner now. Overnight he'll settle in fine.

My new corals seem to be ok. They're slowly starting to open up. The lobophyllia has looked great since I put it in the tank. The Orange torch is more open than the frogspawn, but they are both coming out. Both are nice 8-10 head pieces I got for 200 each.

The diamond goby is really the only bottom feeding fish, so other than the occasional darting around crap, they should all be fine.

 

[CBonito]

Can't wait to see to the new additions!

I have had really good luck with bullet goby's too! My only complaint is they are a little reckless with the sand they sift and buried some of my corals on the sand bed once in a while. But they kept the sand spotless!

At first I was a little reserved to add a goby, but I know I wont regret it I have enough room for him and the blenny to be cool. I'm sure they'll eventually be cool.

 

[CBonito]

I ordered more corals.

I've decided everything will be organized in my tank into groups of similar/same species so one guy doesnt lay sweepers all over another guy etc...I've had some issues like that in the past from mixing everything up. Hydnophora, and stuff like that can be a SOB and I do plan to own a green hydno because I like them.

I just ordered 6 different kinds of zooanthids which I will grow into a little garden in one spot. All nicely colored ones. Rastas, marleys, mandarins, blue hornets, fruit loops...stuff like that. I love seeing gardens of zooanthids with stark contrast between types.

And I got 4 SPS frags. Acropora Efflourensis (I have always wanted one and I am so excited) Green Slimer (because every tank needs one) a forest fire Monti, and a flower petal cap. This gives me some nice colors to work with. I am going to mount the forest fire and flower petal closer together so they contrast and the same for the slimer and efflo.

I'm pretty sure there is more than enough current in my tank to keep SPS happy, but we'll find out. It's not like I made a huge sacrifice. We're just going to buy a batch of things each time, see how they do, and go from there.

There is also a local guy here on this site I am going to speak with about some other things because he's got nice stuff.

The corals I brought home last night are doing nicely, though I may move my frogspawn into a lower flow zone to see if it opens more. I'll just have to sit and watch to see what makes each one happy.

I need to find some florida ricordea in orange and blue because I want them in another spot. I also like how they absorb nutrients and when they grow I can give them out to people.

Anyway, that's that. Stay tuned.

 

[CBonito]

Diamond goby... i can't do a tank whitout one !
Always white sand !

He didnt make it. He opted for the floor. I found goby jerky the next morning.
I'll have to get another one. My LFS down the road has a bunch of them.

Shame as I really liked him. But I will get another one.

 

[CBonito]

So this coming Wednesday, I have a bunch of zoos coming. I wasn't going to mess with them at all, but one vendor had a lot of the varieties I would have gotten so I did. I have 6 types of those coming. And I have 2 montis coming including a rose petal and a forest fire and then I have a green slimer stag and an acro. efflourensis which is one I have always wanted but was prohibitively expensive back in the day so there's that.

I am also in process of purchasing some more acros, so next week I should have some semblance of a reef tank instead of a rock collection. The 2 euphyllia and lobophyllia I have now are doing awesome and I plan to add more of them to create a nice garden of them.

I am looking for one of those thick green stags with the red tips...I forget what it's called. I also want some kind of purple or blue stag as the stags will likely be what draws the eye in at least in my tank.

More to come....

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

I ordered more corals.

I've decided everything will be organized in my tank into groups of similar/same species so one guy doesnt lay sweepers all over another guy etc...I've had some issues like that in the past from mixing everything up. Hydnophora, and stuff like that can be a SOB and I do plan to own a green hydno because I like them.

I just ordered 6 different kinds of zooanthids which I will grow into a little garden in one spot. All nicely colored ones. Rastas, marleys, mandarins, blue hornets, fruit loops...stuff like that. I love seeing gardens of zooanthids with stark contrast between types.

And I got 4 SPS frags. Acropora Efflourensis (I have always wanted one and I am so excited) Green Slimer (because every tank needs one) a forest fire Monti, and a flower petal cap. This gives me some nice colors to work with. I am going to mount the forest fire and flower petal closer together so they contrast and the same for the slimer and efflo.

I'm pretty sure there is more than enough current in my tank to keep SPS happy, but we'll find out. It's not like I made a huge sacrifice. We're just going to buy a batch of things each time, see how they do, and go from there.

There is also a local guy here on this site I am going to speak with about some other things because he's got nice stuff.

The corals I brought home last night are doing nicely, though I may move my frogspawn into a lower flow zone to see if it opens more. I'll just have to sit and watch to see what makes each one happy.

I need to find some florida ricordea in orange and blue because I want them in another spot. I also like how they absorb nutrients and when they grow I can give them out to people.

Anyway, that's that. Stay tuned.

That coral list pretty much looks like my bucket list! I am addicted to Zoas! Where did you order from this time?

He didnt make it. He opted for the floor. I found goby jerky the next morning.
I'll have to get another one. My LFS down the road has a bunch of them.

Shame as I really liked him. But I will get another one.

Maybe a screen top is in your future?

So this coming Wednesday, I have a bunch of zoos coming. I wasn't going to mess with them at all, but one vendor had a lot of the varieties I would have gotten so I did. I have 6 types of those coming. And I have 2 montis coming including a rose petal and a forest fire and then I have a green slimer stag and an acro. efflourensis which is one I have always wanted but was prohibitively expensive back in the day so there's that.

I am also in process of purchasing some more acros, so next week I should have some semblance of a reef tank instead of a rock collection. The 2 euphyllia and lobophyllia I have now are doing awesome and I plan to add more of them to create a nice garden of them.

I am looking for one of those thick green stags with the red tips...I forget what it's called. I also want some kind of purple or blue stag as the stags will likely be what draws the eye in at least in my tank.

More to come....

Things are escalating quickly!

 

[CBonito]

That coral list pretty much looks like my bucket list! I am addicted to Zoas! Where did you order from this time?

Maybe a screen top is in your future?


Things are escalating quickly!

I ordered the zoas and 4 frags from a place called "Reef Stable" who is a vendor here. I would have had everything already except for the fact that we opted to wait until next week when this weather warms up.

I have a jumpguard, but I hate it.
I love seeing the open top of the tank and the jumpguard just ruins it for me.
I'm thinking once I have more corals and hiding spots, the suicides will be minimized.
Plus he didnt really have much time to pick a happy spot and settle in, so I'm guessing it was a wrong place/wrong time kind of deal.

 

[CBonito]

I was cleaning my "glass" and noticed the first spots of coralline algae, so that doesn't suck.
Always a good sign.

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

We need a current FTS!

 

[Patx]

We need a current FTS!

Yup !

 

[CBonito]

We need a current FTS!

I'll post one when I get everything in on wednesday. I am making a deal with another gentlemen for some awesome colonies. So my rock pile probably wont be recognizable.

Lights are out now. Maybe I'll post one tomorrow of what I have now. It's just three corals, but they're nice.

 

[CBonito]

I have these 5 acro colonies coming wednesday too with another shipment...from a gentleman on here.
Pretty nice stuff huh?

So I will have 9 varieties of SPS and 6 varieties of zoonathids arriving on wednesday.
And then we'll get some FT shots as promised.

I remember when you could order nice aquacultured colonies from ORA back in the day...are they even a thing anymore?

 

[CBonito]

Diamond Goby has been replaced with another. This time with jumpguard on the tank...even though I hate it. There were already a few epic jumps. I guess we'll let him settle in and see what happens. My melanurus is investigating him in his own sneaky way, but not being aggressive and the flame hawk is naturally just a big D...we'll see what happens. Nothing out of the midas blenny yet other than he just lost his burrow. lol

I am also treating the tank with chemiclean for cyano as I am starting to see it. Might as well nip it in the bud now before I'm peeling it up in matts and grimacing at it covering expensive acros. My water is getting low-nutrient now with skimmer and refugium, so it was bound to happen. The skimmer is freaking out like it has rabies, so I took off the cup, and I am making up some water for a change. Soon as I see this stuff gone maybe later tomorrow, I'll change some water and we'll go from there. Other than that, the water parameters all look great and the three corals I got last monday are great.

Onward...

 

[CBonito]

My corals MAY be shipping today. Apparently UPS is incapable of honoring their committments if there is weather, so Hopefully my two shipments will arrive tomorrow. I spoke with both sellers about this who are really cool people by the way and I don't want a box with 5 nice acro colonies dying when they start their delay crap.

It gives me another day, to go through everything and make sure my tank is ready to accommodate everything I have coming. LOL

yesterday, I did major maintenance. I cleaned the sand for the first time since setup, blew out all the rocks and moved them to better suit acro colonies, cleaned the sump, adjusted the flow, moved my 3 corals I have now to the middle of the tank where the flow is lower, found my second diamond goby I thought was dead (he's totally fine) and did a water change. I am going to change some more water today since this is my first time changing it at all and might not happen again for a while. This red sea salt seems to have the proper "ionicals" I need to maintain a decent base ph/alk.

Cyano bloom has been defeated with chemi-whateveryoucallit...I followed the directions and it's a goner.
The skimmer is no longer freaking out either...that was bothering me. But no negative effects on anything.

Immediately my ORP rose like 50 points and is holding, so that's pretty bomb. A lot of crap came out. I blew off the rocks every couple hours too in order to re-suspend everything, then clean the filter socks every 2 hours to get it all out of there. So all those crap by-products of a new tank are out of there.

I started using red sea coral pro salt this time. It seems like good stuff. It dissolves like super fast. I started my tank up on a 10 year old bucket of Aqua Vitro Salinity (albeit, a good batch of it!), so needless to say, I had to switch to something else anyway. I don't think they even make that anymore. My salt is vintage salt man. LOL I can probably sell little baggies of it for 50 bucks a piece on ebay. Build it and they will come!

Really excited to be at the point of adding corals. It's been a while, but I kept myself occupied just learning about my system and how it all functions in practice (and not theory) which is good because learning that on the fly with live things is usually not very rewarding and a lot more expensive.

I am getting a lot faster coralline growth now and the water conditions are like dead nuts. I'm either the dumb luckiest guy alive, or I'm doing a pretty good job. Either way, man I'm smooth. lol I think SPS are going to do really good in here.

I know going in now, that the more I add, the better the tank is going to do. I just have to keep doing what I've been doing, and figure out a way to keep up with calcium/alk from a testing/automation standpoint.

I have to place an order for some coral foods now too man! I forgot.
What are you guys feeding your SPS/LPS?

 

[CBonito]

I received one shipment this morning from Reef Stable. with a few SPS frags, I think 3 acros, 2 montis and like 6 zoo frags. They've been in there for a few hours now and I see polyp extension with my mini flashlight, so that's good. No evidence of stress, recession or sliming. Not even the green slimer. I cant even tell ya what they look like yet since I just put them straight into the tank like I've always done. I see some zoos sort of trying to peek out as well, so we're off to a good start. I'd think the zoos may just need some light and they'll come right out. We'll see! I just gave the tank a nice shot of phytoplankton while the lights are off because it's just what you do.

Nothing arrived dead or stressed. I really liked the way they were packed too. They were in tiny heat sealed bags with a few granules of carbon in each to absorb any crap and just a little bit of water. Enough to keep them covered. Granted, I've been out of the game for a long time so I dont know what people are doing these days. But it works. There were two heat packs right inside the lid of the box and the bagLETS were isolated from those with paper. A swell job indeed. I mean, it probably took some time to do that. A couple of the SPS frags that were freebies are pretty small, and usually something small doesnt ship well. Nope, everything alive.

And speaking of phytoplankton, I have a half gallon of that and half gallon of pods coming next week from Dinkins who is a vendor on here. That's enough pods for like double my system. LOL Never heard of them before, but decided to give them a try, and if good, they are reasonable enough where I'll just "subscribe" and get a new bottle every month. I intend to keep the pod populations high in here because let the fish feed themselves. The more the fish can feed themselves, the less garbage I am introducing to the tank.

I tried taking pics the other day of what I already have, but they come out terrible because of all the blue.
My existing lobophyllia, orange tip torch and green something spawn are doing freaking awesome. Yesterday, they were all epended better than I've ever seen. Way better than they were when I bought them. I'm going to go rescue more today if I have time because I want an entire euphyllia garden section and they have a lot of them.

When you guys take pics of your tanks, what the heck are you doing? Because unless I take a video with my phone, the pictures SUCK! I'm not looking to become some photography stud or anything, but tips on better pictures are welcome anytime. Filters? Do they have them for cell phones? Which ones?

I will try again later, and produce the same crappy results.

 

[JoJosReef]

I received one shipment this morning from Reef Stable. with a few SPS frags, I think 3 acros, 2 montis and like 6 zoo frags. They've been in there for a few hours now and I see polyp extension with my mini flashlight, so that's good. No evidence of stress, recession or sliming. Not even the green slimer. I cant even tell ya what they look like yet since I just put them straight into the tank like I've always done. I see some zoos sort of trying to peek out as well, so we're off to a good start. I'd think the zoos may just need some light and they'll come right out. We'll see! I just gave the tank a nice shot of phytoplankton while the lights are off because it's just what you do.

Nothing arrived dead or stressed. I really liked the way they were packed too. They were in tiny heat sealed bags with a few granules of carbon in each to absorb any crap and just a little bit of water. Enough to keep them covered. Granted, I've been out of the game for a long time so I dont know what people are doing these days. But it works. There were two heat packs right inside the lid of the box and the bagLETS were isolated from those with paper. A swell job indeed. I mean, it probably took some time to do that. A couple of the SPS frags that were freebies are pretty small, and usually something small doesnt ship well. Nope, everything alive.

And speaking of phytoplankton, I have a half gallon of that and half gallon of pods coming next week from Dinkins who is a vendor on here. That's enough pods for like double my system. LOL Never heard of them before, but decided to give them a try, and if good, they are reasonable enough where I'll just "subscribe" and get a new bottle every month. I intend to keep the pod populations high in here because let the fish feed themselves. The more the fish can feed themselves, the less garbage I am introducing to the tank.

I tried taking pics the other day of what I already have, but they come out terrible because of all the blue.
My existing lobophyllia, orange tip torch and green something spawn are doing freaking awesome. Yesterday, they were all epended better than I've ever seen. Way better than they were when I bought them. I'm going to go rescue more today if I have time because I want an entire euphyllia garden section and they have a lot of them.

When you guys take pics of your tanks, what the heck are you doing? Because unless I take a video with my phone, the pictures SUCK! I'm not looking to become some photography stud or anything, but tips on better pictures are welcome anytime. Filters? Do they have them for cell phones? Which ones?

I will try again later, and produce the same crappy results.

Amazon product

Works great and gets rid of the windex look.