a tiny reef in Brooklyn

[ereeef]

One year later - yea looks pretty sick


Previously kept a 3-gallon Marineland reef that ripped (see 'My first reef' thread) but obviously couldn't turn down a free upgrade. Thank you @nickscorals

A bit over a year into reef keeping, im still pretty green. Bought coral. Lost coral. Got new fish. Lost said fish. got better at keeping my reef.

This current tank iteration has taken a while to reign in, I feel its really only started stabilizing and coming together in the last couple months.

Good things really do come with time.

I'm performing 2.5ga weekly water changes, which gets the job done. My nitrates are sitting at 10.9ppm currently and alkalinity at 9.6 although nitrates had been hovering between 15-25ppm for a while. I've become more consistent with my water changes and I'm working on developing a lighter hand when feeding. I've got some new fluorescent macro algae and plenty of mature live rock and bio-media doing the heavy lifting.

Recent additions:
Can't be overstated how cool some of these ORA clownfish are. A "zombie" clownfish named Ruby is the latest in my reef. Very bold and high contrast OSHA orange. My girlfriend is sick of hearing me talk about this fish.

Also Mystery, the Banggai Cardinal. Cool dude, loves mysis at feeding time.

100x hype for aquashella NJ as I'll likely be aqcuiring some heater corals...
______________________________________________________________________________________
Nitrates: 10.9
Alkalinity 9.6

Current Gear and blah blah blah
Tank: Lifegard 10ga AIO
Light: Kessil A80 with intensity knob at 2:00 position
Return pump: Sicce micra plus 158gph running at 100%
Heater: Cobalt Neo-Therm 50watt
ATO: $50 Amazon ato with 2.5ga jug as resevoir
Protein Skimmer: Mame Skimmer 3 hooked up to Hygger airpump

 

[kevgib67]

Beautiful, well done!

 

[ereeef]

Beautiful, well done!

Thank you!

 

[nickscorals]

Looking absolutely cracked sir well done

 

[ereeef]

Looking absolutely cracked sir well done

Please bro, thanks to you

 

[oldschoolreefer26]

Super clean looking little system. Well done my friend, I dig it!

 

[ereeef]

Video of my skimmer in action. As you can tell by the color of the discharge hose that it's pulling plenty of gunk out. Seems to work well and the glass design is super sleek imo.

The skimmer now lives in the sump but im struggling with it overskimming now due to the change in water level. hoping to be able to fine tune it or I'll move back to the display area.

 

[Fish Fan]

GReat looking build; nice job!

 

[ereeef]

New critters from Aquashella!

Was awesome getting to meet so many reefers and hobbyists. Saw lots of amazing looking coral too.

Australian biscuit sea star from Oceanic Garden is looking great since dropping him in my reef. Dude sat himself right onto this massive pink sponge and has been grazing all morning. Definitely risking it for the biscuit but Gabe from Oceanic Garden provided a lot of insight into caring for these and I will be posting more updates on this echinoderm

Also picked up two massive GMK zoas Backwoods Reefs with a couple smaller ones forming below! They look very content today.

Lastly, I added a red/pink goniopora with light purple tips. Not sure of the variety, if anyone is tapped in and can ID lmk.

 

[ereeef]

My girlfriend named the biscuit Starfy. It seems quite content to graze around on tank time.

I am currently supplementing its diet by providing San Francisco Bay brand Angel & Butterfly diet as it contains real marine sponge.

Also looking into the feasibility of providing live rock rubble with encrusting sponges. If anyone in NYC has any available or any leads please let me know.

Have a nice week!