45 Gallon Shallow Reef Build

[CBonito]

Amazon product ASIN B07ZJX6JT9
Works great and gets rid of the windex look.

Thanks! They'll be here tomorrow. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

Orphek. I didnt know they made filters.

 

[dangit]

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. :zany-face:

Can’t wait to see some updated pictures of the tank! Adding corals in is always a ton of fun…. Have you already placed them permanently or just letting them get settled in?

I bought an orange and yellow lenses that I can clip onto the back of my phone. I got it off Amazon for Like $30 and it works great. I mainly use the yellow filter as I personally like the look, but yea I had way too much blue in my pictures before I got it. Wont be as good as a most coral farm pictures but better than what a phone will do

 

[Matt2939]

Nice build thread. I am also a stickler for everything (not in the tank) looking good. I’m getting ready to get back into the hobby as well after years out. Keep up the good updates!

 

[Matt2939]

On another note, I just had to chuckle that under my name it says “new member”, but I checked my profile and I’ve been member since 2013… I guess first post in 10 years will do that haha

 

[CBonito]

Can’t wait to see some updated pictures of the tank! Adding corals in is always a ton of fun…. Have you already placed them permanently or just letting them get settled in?

I bought an orange and yellow lenses that I can clip onto the back of my phone. I got it off Amazon for Like $30 and it works great. I mainly use the yellow filter as I personally like the look, but yea I had way too much blue in my pictures before I got it. Wont be as good as a most coral farm pictures but better than what a phone will do

I basically have a fruit stand in the middle of my tank right now until I have a better picture of what will go where. lol I want to keep species together in groups. the upper real estate will go to acropora and montipora.

I ordered the orphek filters JoJo suggested and they will be here tomorrow.

I have 5 large acropora colonies coming tomorrow as well, but I might buy more when I get there. So I'm just making sure tonight that the acros I have now open up and stay happy. I have the lights low now and I'm going to turn them up slowly throughout the day to something I think will be a good initial level. I have one zoo frag not opening up at the moment, but I think more light might be the ticket. Sometimes they get annoyed and it takes them a while. I think they're all going to go on one rock to keep them from spreading. There is some red filamentous kind of algae on some of the zoo plugs and I am going to clean it off because some of the zoos are annoyed by it. Other than that we're looking golden. My forest fire monti and green slimer frag are looking good and soon as the lights come up more the walt disney and the free one that's like a tic tac should be fine too.

I have a lot of crap going on! lol

 

[CBonito]

Alright, so as promised I got the photo filters so I dont look like an idiot and I got even more corals today.

This is the first shot I took and man what a difference from my unfiltered Galaxy s21 ultra...point of sale. LOL
I'm going to play around more with my camera, but this is what I'm working with now.

I am buying more light...no doubt about it.

And if you want to buy some really nice Coral, check out user CCK_8814. He's got a lot of corals for sale and believe me when I say they are top notch stuff kept in closely monitored conditions under great lighting.
You're not going to buy something that looks like one thing, and then sucks when you get it home. His stuff is all the real deal, as you can see. I'll get some top downs later. The colors on these corals are really good and seeing the contrast in my tank now in person is amazing.

The tank is starting to look amazing and everything else is going my way without much of a fight at all. Life is good.

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

Alright, so as promised I got the photo filters so I dont look like an idiot and I got even more corals today.

This is the first shot I took and man what a difference from my unfiltered Galaxy s21 ultra...point of sale. LOL
I'm going to play around more with my camera, but this is what I'm working with now.

I am buying more light...no doubt about it.

And if you want to buy some really nice Coral, check out user CCK_8814. He's got a lot of corals for sale and believe me when I say they are top notch stuff kept in closely monitored conditions under great lighting.
You're not going to buy something that looks like one thing, and then sucks when you get it home. His stuff is all the real deal, as you can see. I'll get some top downs later. The colors on these corals are really good and seeing the contrast in my tank now in person is amazing.

The tank is starting to look amazing and everything else is going my way without much of a fight at all. Life is good.

Tank looks fantastic man! The colors are off the hook! The ophrek filter are legit. I have had them in my cart on Amazon forever...ever since I found out that is what inappropriatereefer uses to shoot his videos on youtube. Will definitely get them before I turn the lights on on my new build.

What light will you be buying?

 

[CBonito]

Tank looks fantastic man! The colors are off the hook! The ophrek filter are legit. I have had them in my cart on Amazon forever...ever since I found out that is what inappropriatereefer uses to shoot his videos on youtube. Will definitely get them before I turn the lights on on my new build.

What light will you be buying?

Money well spent on the filters man. No regrets! 40 bucks for your tank pics to not look like a bag of @*&%...I'll take it!

I'm not sure what light I'll buy. But the lights those corals were raised under are radion copies and they do it believe me. So I might get one of those. Beats dropping a grand on an xr30, but we'll see...

So I might just grab one of those. I was going to get a kessil a500x for the middle but something tells me that's too much.

The thing preventing me from doing it now, is that I need to find a way to mount whatever light to my kessil mounts because I am not putting any other mounts on the tank.

What's super cool is that I have been looking for an Acropora Yongeii in blue that's the tall frag in the front....I went to see this guy today and what did he have in his tank? Yup, and he bagged it up for me and thew it in. I'm extremely happy today.

I gotta get some putty so I can put these SPS frags up on rocks. So far they are keeping their colors too...even the 2 little nipple sized ones.

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

Money well spent on the filters man. No regrets! 40 bucks for your tank pics to not look like a bag of @*&%...I'll take it!

I'm not sure what light I'll buy. But the lights those corals were raised under are radion copies and they do it believe me. So I might get one of those. Beats dropping a grand on an xr30, but we'll see...

So I might just grab one of those. I was going to get a kessil a500x for the middle but something tells me that's too much.

The thing preventing me from doing it now, is that I need to find a way to mount whatever light to my kessil mounts because I am not putting any other mounts on the tank.

What's super cool is that I have been looking for an Acropora Yongeii in blue that's the tall frag in the front....I went to see this guy today and what did he have in his tank? Yup, and he bagged it up for me and thew it in. I'm extremely happy today.

I gotta get some putty so I can put these SPS frags up on rocks. So far they are keeping their colors too...even the 2 little nipple sized ones.

That's awesome! Always a good feeling when you can snag a bucket list coral!

What is this radion copy you speak of?

 

[CBonito]

That's awesome! Always a good feeling when you can snag a bucket list coral!

What is this radion copy you speak of?

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mst3f6E

I think the price is wrong on that one, but for under 300 bucks, it's of no consequence to me.
Thing is, My corals were grown under them and I've seen them in action...so there's that.
Pretty impressive copy if you ask me. And pretty impressive price.

I mean, if you spend 300 bucks on some holy grail coral or anemone and one of your fish starts devouring it before your eyes like it's cake...then get hurt.

 

[CBonito]

Anyway, we got Polyp extension going down in a big way already. I did not acclimate these. I put them straight into my tank. I guess, taking my time, doing everything right, and being patient is paying off. These are some shaggy fools.

The blue one and another one are Tenuis which are a bit different. But They like massive light bombardment and mega flow like millepora. The polyps just arent as large. But everything is doing beautiful. If there was a problem I would definitely see unhappiness by now.

From here on out I will be doing a water change every week and dosing All for Reef.

 

[CBonito]

Here it is with the 20k, 14k and polarized filter.

This is the most accurate reflection of reality in front of me. Minus the noise in the picture because disgracebook ruins everything. I'll have to pull the images directly off my phone to machine to make sure no middle man screws them up.

Does anyone else have red coralline? I'm starting to grow some purple, but the red is king right now. I think it's pretty cool.

Man, when those green and blue staghorns grow out, this is going to be epic and a lot of people are going to have frags forced upon them.

I'll get some macro shots later so you can really see some of these...you know since now I'm like a photography stud or something. lol

 

[CBonito]

 

[CBonito]

A vid! And it doesnt suck. You can see all the fish are doing ok. I have a melanurus wrasse, a diamond goby, a midas blenny, a flame hawk and 3 chromis. Still kind of boring from a fish perspective. Next fish will be schoolers or something that fills the mid-top water and then I'll chill on the fish and focus entirely on corals. The corals all look pretty darn good. All of the euphyllia came from the same LFS and they are now looking better than they did when they were there. The orange tip torch looked like crap and the octospawn was much more closed up. The hammer colony on the far right will look like crap for a couple days as I got that one yesterday from the same place. LOL

You can get an idea of the flow I have in there. I'm pretty satisfied for now with that. I have a little cyano. I need to feed MOAR. I've been feeding like once a day pellets and every other day, frozen. Then phyto for the corals. Fish are fine, but the nutrients are getting where I would like them to stay. If not, I have to run my skimmer on a timer or something. There is no carbon or GFO here and I really dont want it. Just a mud refugium out back and my skimmer. I just increased the bioload a bit now, so I'll revisit that in a week.

I have a half gallon of phyto and pods coming next week and something else...I forget.

I am so stoked I am able to convey what I am seeing here now instead of a bunch of blue digital noise. LOL
And vids are so much better anyway...

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mst3f6E

I think the price is wrong on that one, but for under 300 bucks, it's of no consequence to me.
Thing is, My corals were grown under them and I've seen them in action...so there's that.
Pretty impressive copy if you ask me. And pretty impressive price.

I mean, if you spend 300 bucks on some holy grail coral or anemone and one of your fish starts devouring it before your eyes like it's cake...then get hurt.

Interesting! They look just like G5's....and for an fraction of the price. I saw another suggested in Ali that was $188...if you do end up ordering, please post the link of exactly what you order!

Anyway, we got Polyp extension going down in a big way already. I did not acclimate these. I put them straight into my tank. I guess, taking my time, doing everything right, and being patient is paying off. These are some shaggy fools.

The blue one and another one are Tenuis which are a bit different. But They like massive light bombardment and mega flow like millepora. The polyps just arent as large. But everything is doing beautiful. If there was a problem I would definitely see unhappiness by now.

From here on out I will be doing a water change every week and dosing All for Reef.

Those filters are making a world of difference. Those are some of the fuzziest sticks I think I have seen. These are under A360X's with the narrow reflector, correct?

Here it is with the 20k, 14k and polarized filter.

This is the most accurate reflection of reality in front of me. Minus the noise in the picture because disgracebook ruins everything. I'll have to pull the images directly off my phone to machine to make sure no middle man screws them up.

Does anyone else have red coralline? I'm starting to grow some purple, but the red is king right now. I think it's pretty cool.

Man, when those green and blue staghorns grow out, this is going to be epic and a lot of people are going to have frags forced upon them.

I'll get some macro shots later so you can really see some of these...you know since now I'm like a photography stud or something. lol

That FTS is what my dreams are made of!

A vid! And it doesnt suck. You can see all the fish are doing ok. I have a melanurus wrasse, a diamond goby, a midas blenny, a flame hawk and 3 chromis. Still kind of boring from a fish perspective. Next fish will be schoolers or something that fills the mid-top water and then I'll chill on the fish and focus entirely on corals. The corals all look pretty darn good. All of the euphyllia came from the same LFS and they are now looking better than they did when they were there. The orange tip torch looked like crap and the octospawn was much more closed up. The hammer colony on the far right will look like crap for a couple days as I got that one yesterday from the same place. LOL

You can get an idea of the flow I have in there. I'm pretty satisfied for now with that. I have a little cyano. I need to feed MOAR. I've been feeding like once a day pellets and every other day, frozen. Then phyto for the corals. Fish are fine, but the nutrients are getting where I would like them to stay. If not, I have to run my skimmer on a timer or something. There is no carbon or GFO here and I really dont want it. Just a mud refugium out back and my skimmer. I just increased the bioload a bit now, so I'll revisit that in a week.

I have a half gallon of phyto and pods coming next week and something else...I forget.

I am so stoked I am able to convey what I am seeing here now instead of a bunch of blue digital noise. LOL
And vids are so much better anyway...

I'm still trying to wrap my head around this whole needing nutrients thing, and too low causing issues like cyano....I need to test my biocube. I installed a HOB refugium several months ago and haven't been able to figure out why I had an explosion of cyano in it...maybe I have driven the nutrients too low and I actually caused the outbreak. Maybe I need to take the fuge offline? I had just chalked it up to old tank syndrome...

 

[CBonito]

Interesting! They look just like G5's....and for an fraction of the price. I saw another suggested in Ali that was $188...if you do end up ordering, please post the link of exactly what you order!

Still deciding. :zany-face: I'm funny like that.

Those filters are making a world of difference. Those are some of the fuzziest sticks I think I have seen. These are under A360X's with the narrow reflector, correct?

Correct. There is a lot of chatter on lights, but they are one of the best.

That FTS is what my dreams are made of!


Oh same here! I'm blown away at how things look. I sat there for a while with that stupid video on loop when my lights went off just because I still don't believe I'm at this point. I mean just a few months ago, I was sitting next to a mountain of boxes and wondering if I would ever get the tank I wanted...now here we are. I'm totally stoked.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around this whole needing nutrients thing, and too low causing issues like cyano....I need to test my biocube. I installed a HOB refugium several months ago and haven't been able to figure out why I had an explosion of cyano in it...maybe I have driven the nutrients too low and I actually caused the outbreak. Maybe I need to take the fuge offline? I had just chalked it up to old tank syndrome...


Me too! And a lot of other people as well. It's a thing that can happen from seemingly so many things. It can happen from high nutrients too. I don't think anyone really knows the mechanics of it. We can only share the circumstances surrounding why we THINK it happened. But in my case. I get a little bit of it by the end of the photo period and then it's completely gone the next day, only to do the same thing. So I'm just going to let it ride and at this point attribute it to one of the many battles going on at the microbe level that this tank will experience over its evolution. I dont have any water flow issues with 2 nero3s at 100 percent and a nero 5 at 62 percent. You can see the water flow I have in the video...I am not one of these people who dumps a brick sized chunk of frozen food into the tank. I have a mud refugium AND a top of the line skimmer that is oversized for my system, 500+ GPH of total system flow, and I am starting to get a semblance of a bioload.

I have a HALF GALLON of Pods coming, and they eat like everything, so we'll see how they do with it once they get into the sand and whatnot.

OH!!! I just purchased a Parwise barely used new condition, so I can get some lighting answers. I want about 400-500 PAR on these millepora colonies as that is what they were getting where I got them. I got to physically see these tanks, so I want to see where I am now in my own, and then I'll determine what to do with lighting. I may just get a kessil a500x and put it between the two 360s on a bracket I make that connects all 3...if not, I'm going to grab one of those generic Radions and see how it does. It's not really a money thing at this point. It's more about what works best.

The nice thing about my tank and lighting is that I only have about 11 inches water depth, so a lot of the lights people believe to just generally not be good, is really untrue. A kessil a360x with narrow beam will produce plenty of PAR for SPS. Even on the bottom. Mine are only running in the 50ish percent zone.

Sorry to ramble so much, but I like to convey my thoughts on things and hopefully form some kind of logic. LOL

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

Was just watching a BRS video where they now recommend dosing new tanks with pods to help combat the uglies. I plan to order some pods once my tank is running. Where did you order a half gallon from? That must have cost a fortune!

 

[CBonito]

Was just watching a BRS video where they now recommend dosing new tanks with pods to help combat the uglies. I plan to order some pods once my tank is running. Where did you order a half gallon from? That must have cost a fortune!

Dinkins Aquatic Gardens. The have Copepods, Phytoplankton and I think they're going to be selling amphipods too. Just decided to give them a fair shake. And yes, it's good to stock the crap out of the tank with pods and feed the tank phytoplankton. The pods eat everything except what you don't want eaten and they're alive so they don't add nutrients and the fish eat them too. Same for the phyto. If you can keep the phytoplankton population up in the water, the corals will just keep consuming it which is not a bad thing.

I just got the tracking number for mine at 4:00 so they're on the way.

Corals are still looking phenomenal. Even better than yesterday.

And hopefully my Parwise shows up soon so I can give my lighting a lie detector test.

 

[CBonito]

 

[CBonito]

Caught an emerald crab (definitely an emerald) eating on my top right tenuis colony in the dark. He was strong. I forgot how strong those little devils are. But he was not not as strong as my stainless steel tweezers. He is no longer with us. I have a zero tolerance policy with things that eat my acros. I was wondering what all the odd melanurus behavior was about and how he was peeking into the corals. I thought he was scoping out polyps, but I never saw him touch a coral. He was stalking the crab through the tank I bet and going crazy. I wonder if that's the only one. The rest of the corals seem happy and are indeed empty. My tenuis wasn't extending its polyps, so my guess is that this crab came in hiding inside a colony, went loose in the tank and got busted by me! Getting a crab out of an acro colony is a PITA. Don't trust those things...they're little pieces of crap just like all their other ugly friends.

Now my tenuis can chill out and be happy. Man, I hate those things...ultimately my fault for not catching him from the getgo, but it's all good. I got him.:face-with-raised-eyebrow: