Hey Reef2Reef!
I'm in the process of establishing an 80 gallon reef in my home office, and looking forward to sharing, discussing and learning a thing or two with the community here. There have been many inspiring and thought-provoking build threads on the forums that have helped shape my own plans, and I'm excited to contribute my own!
Background
This is my third reef build. I'll spare you the lengthy origin story, but I started about 20 years ago in college with a 29 gallon fowlr that piece-by-piece progressed into a respectable softie display. Adding that first mushroom coral was such a cool moment, I'm sure many of you can relate . From there, a lighting upgrade (65w power compact fluorescent retro fit!) marked the start of a long and rewarding journey into reefkeeping.
My last build was a (planned) 500 gallon display with a sump and frag/prop system in the basement about 7 years ago. I started with the fish room, okay fish-corner-of-my-basement:
Sadly, I ended up taking an opportunity professionally that moved my family across the country before the display went up and our lifestyle since then has precluded another tank until now. My wife and I just purchased a home in central Oregon where we plan on staying until the kids finish high school with gives me plenty of time to establish a mature reef system.
Overview/Plans
My ultimate goal with this system is a full mixed reef that provides a stable habitat for a nice range of soft corals and SPS. That that end, I'll be taking it slow and first creating a solid foundation of micro flora and fauna, inverts, sponges and detrivores. My theory being that starting by building a trophic pyramid from the bottom up will promote diversity and, therefore, stability as the tank matures. I've seen too many people throw "hardy" sticks into a freshly cycled tank with dry rock and watch them dwindle. As a guiding principle, I want this system to be as natural as practical, replicating a natural reef environment in every way possible. Having various organisms thriving in every niche of the ecosystem will be a cornerstone of this approach. This means it will likely be letting the system mature for 9-12 months before I consider adding SPS or any more delicate organisms.
A few guiding principles I'll be following:
It'll be fun to see how this theory holds up the first time things don't go according to plan!
Lastly, as the system matures, I'm going to experiment with plankton culture and dosing. This has always been an interest for me, and I think it's potentially a big missing piece of many closed reef environments. There have been some very interesting and encouraging results here on the forums from @sixty_reefer, among others, and I'm going to take a stab at it.
Okay, that's it for the theory. Here comes the build!
I'm in the process of establishing an 80 gallon reef in my home office, and looking forward to sharing, discussing and learning a thing or two with the community here. There have been many inspiring and thought-provoking build threads on the forums that have helped shape my own plans, and I'm excited to contribute my own!
Background
This is my third reef build. I'll spare you the lengthy origin story, but I started about 20 years ago in college with a 29 gallon fowlr that piece-by-piece progressed into a respectable softie display. Adding that first mushroom coral was such a cool moment, I'm sure many of you can relate . From there, a lighting upgrade (65w power compact fluorescent retro fit!) marked the start of a long and rewarding journey into reefkeeping.
My last build was a (planned) 500 gallon display with a sump and frag/prop system in the basement about 7 years ago. I started with the fish room, okay fish-corner-of-my-basement:
Sadly, I ended up taking an opportunity professionally that moved my family across the country before the display went up and our lifestyle since then has precluded another tank until now. My wife and I just purchased a home in central Oregon where we plan on staying until the kids finish high school with gives me plenty of time to establish a mature reef system.
Overview/Plans
My ultimate goal with this system is a full mixed reef that provides a stable habitat for a nice range of soft corals and SPS. That that end, I'll be taking it slow and first creating a solid foundation of micro flora and fauna, inverts, sponges and detrivores. My theory being that starting by building a trophic pyramid from the bottom up will promote diversity and, therefore, stability as the tank matures. I've seen too many people throw "hardy" sticks into a freshly cycled tank with dry rock and watch them dwindle. As a guiding principle, I want this system to be as natural as practical, replicating a natural reef environment in every way possible. Having various organisms thriving in every niche of the ecosystem will be a cornerstone of this approach. This means it will likely be letting the system mature for 9-12 months before I consider adding SPS or any more delicate organisms.
A few guiding principles I'll be following:
- Aim to replicate or simulate a natural reef. (8-4-8-4 lighting cycles are intriguing for promoting growth, but I'll be keeping it granola.)
- Promote and maintain biodiversity. Ideally, everything living in my reef can reproduce and maintain its population naturally. Realistically, I'll likely need to supplement some of the basics like a cleanup crew. I'm aiming for lower populations of more diverse cleaners vs. high populations of only one or two types. Pods will be a workhorse of the CUC.
- No proprietary supplements or additives and no black boxes. If I don't know what's in it, can't test for it or don't understand the scientific basis for what it does it's not going in my reef.
- Mechanical filtration only sporadically. I'll be aiming for a healthy population of plankton and micro/meso organisms in the water column.
- Only keep animals that can be sustainably aquacultured or maricultured. I'm not asserting that wild collection doesn't have a place in a sustainable industry, but I'd like to avoid supporting it directly for now. Frankly, I like being able to demonstrate that a natural reef habitat can be perpetuated in captivity with zero impact on wild reefs. Our hobby is continually facing restrictions and regulations that, in my opinion, don't always come from sound science. As conscientious reefers, we owe it to the hobby and industry at large to visibly and vocally promote sustainability. Okay, that's it for the soapbox!
It'll be fun to see how this theory holds up the first time things don't go according to plan!
Lastly, as the system matures, I'm going to experiment with plankton culture and dosing. This has always been an interest for me, and I think it's potentially a big missing piece of many closed reef environments. There have been some very interesting and encouraging results here on the forums from @sixty_reefer, among others, and I'm going to take a stab at it.
Okay, that's it for the theory. Here comes the build!