Beau's Oceanic 75 Half Moon Reef

[beau13]

Hi all! I've been reefing for about 8 years now with various successes. I finally was able to upgrade in the last six months to a 75 gallon Oceanic half-moon tank and have been updated things as I go! I've been following a lot of the tanks and threads on here for a long time and am looking forward to seeing how my reef develops!

I started this new reef in September of 2018.

Equipment
Display: Oceanic 75 Half Moon display tank with original stand and modified hood
Circulation: Vortech MP40 and Vortech MP10
Return pump: VARIOS-6 DC pump(1720 GPH)
Sump: Eshopps R-100
Skimmer: Reef Octopus Classic 110INT 4” internal
Heater:
ATO: Tunze ATO

Lighting
Lighting for this reef is two Ecotech Radion XR15W G4 Pros. Currently I'm running the at 50% and thinking about working my way up a little bit more but playing with things a bit. Total photo period is 13 hours with 7 hours at 50%. Low light in the morning (just so I can see them a bit before I go to work, and then a ramp down with color adjusted for viewing in the evening. I'm using the Coral Lab PHX14 program with the morning and evening modified. These are way more powerful than the XR30 Gen 1 I had!

Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium
Currently manually dosing all three of these and getting things stable. Looking at moving to kalkwasser eventually but still tuning things.

Parameters
Temp: 79
pH: 8.2
Specific gravity: 1.025
NO3: 0
Ca: 440
Alk: 8.5 DKH
Mg: 1350
PO4: 0.26 on the Hannah checker and dropping.

Water quality
Right now I'm using BRS Rox 0.8 and BRS GFO high capacity. I've used RowaPhos in past tanks but the BRS GFO seems to be working better.

Livestock
Assorted hermits and snails from Reef Cleaners
1 Cleaner shrimp
1 Midas blenny
2 Ocellaris clowns that spawn a couple times a year
5 Green chromes
1 Flame angel
1 Purple dottyback
1 Sixline wrasse
1 Yellow clown goby
2 Firefish

Corals
Pink Stylophora
Green stylophora
Orange Montipora
Purple Montipora
ORA Bird of paradise
ORA Red planet
Purple tipped acropora
Tierra del fuego acropora
Forest fire digitata
Pavona (lettuce) coral
Green spongodes
Green hyndophora
Frogspawn LPS
Orange acans
Yellow turbinaria scroll coral
Green star polyps
Bali green slime



Here's the beginning of my rock work. Half my rock is still in my 28 gallon nano at this point.

 

[SPR1968]

The tank looks great and I really like the aquascape design

And welcome to R2R as well it’s great to have you with us!

 

[beau13]

Getting things set up! I used a drip line plug from my flower beds to create an anti siphon air line in my return to keep it from draining back into the sump.

 

[beau13]

I've finally had a chance to get some of the photos uploaded from the last few months! The tank did really well for a few months but lately I've been having some phosphate and nitrate issues. More details on that once theses are up.

In my 28 gallon I had been buying RODI water but at this point I decided to upgraded with the BRS system and go for it! I used a 45 gallon bin from Home depot and I hook a hose up to it every week or two to keep it topped off.

Under the cabinet. I got the ATO for Christmas and with the heat in our house causing massive evaporation, this has been amazin

 

[beau13]

 

[beau13]

 

[beau13]

After that last picture things started going a bit crazy. A lot of my corals started dying back from the base up, growth on the green and pink bird nest slowed, my red planet browned as did my purple tipped acro in the middle. Photos to come. I started losing small colonies and finally bought a Hanna ULR phosphate checker. I've been doing this 8 years and usually would just watch my corals and keep up with all, calcium and magnesium but those were normal. The Hanna had my phosphates at 0.5! Nitrates had jumped to about 50. Nothing had died in the tank and I've spent the last four weeks getting them down with Rowaphos and water changes. I've started dosing vinegar as well per some of the threads from Randy Holmes-Farley and now I have phosphates down to .09 and nitrates down to about 25. Still higher than I want. The recession on my corals has stopped and some color is coming back. Any ideas why a healthy tank with 2/3rds of the rock and sand being about 8 years old would spike?

 

[NY_Caveman]

After that last picture things started going a bit crazy. A lot of my corals started dying back from the base up, growth on the green and pink bird nest slowed, my red planet browned as did my purple tipped acro in the middle. Photos to come. I started losing small colonies and finally bought a Hanna ULR phosphate checker. I've been doing this 8 years and usually would just watch my corals and keep up with all, calcium and magnesium but those were normal. The Hanna had my phosphates at 0.5! Nitrates had jumped to about 50. Nothing had died in the tank and I've spent the last four weeks getting them down with Rowaphos and water changes. I've started dosing vinegar as well per some of the threads from Randy Holmes-Farley and now I have phosphates down to .09 and nitrates down to about 25. Still higher than I want. The recession on my corals has stopped and some color is coming back. Any ideas why a healthy tank with 2/3rds of the rock and sand being about 8 years old would spike?

My first concern would be an old sand bed, but Nitrate and Phosphate would not be killing corals. Have you looked for pests? Bottom up deterioration is sometimes from pests.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Loving this tank nonetheless, BTW!

 

[beau13]

I have been looking for pests on any of the colonies that I can lift out of the tank and move. A lot of them have encrusted over the rock work so difficult to do. Most of it started after they browned out and has been very slow. On my red planet it has taken about two months for the entire base to recede and up into the branches a little bit. I figured with the phosphates that high it was stressing them out a lot. I’ll post some pictures this evening or tomorrow and would love to see what you think. I have a UFO grow light on the way with some Chaeto to start the fuge up. I’m trying to get things as stable as I can at this point.

 

[beau13]

I have been looking for pests on any of the colonies that I can lift out of the tank and move. A lot of them have encrusted over the rock work so difficult to do. Most of it started after they browned out and has been very slow. On my red planet it has taken about two months for the entire base to recede and up into the branches a little bit. I figured with the phosphates that high it was stressing them out a lot. I’ll post some pictures this evening or tomorrow and would love to see what you think. I have a UFO grow light on the way with some Chaeto to start the fuge up. I’m trying to get things as stable as I can at this point.

 

[beau13]

My purple tipped acro colony seems most affected and I was able to lift the whole colony out and examine it under bright lighting with a magnifying glass. No bugs. Got to keep looking at parameters I guess. I have the UFO grow light as of today for my fuge and should have Chaeto witching a couple days.

 

[ianryd]

Nice looking tank! I just got the Eshopps R-100, and was curious if you had a heater in yours (didn't notice one in the pics, and your heater designation in the OP was blank). All my heaters I own are too long for the skimmer section, so I'm looking for a recommendation.

 

[Christbearer2111]

Hi all! I've been reefing for about 8 years now with various successes. I finally was able to upgrade in the last six months to a 75 gallon Oceanic half-moon tank and have been updated things as I go! I've been following a lot of the tanks and threads on here for a long time and am looking forward to seeing how my reef develops!

I started this new reef in September of 2018.

Equipment
Display: Oceanic 75 Half Moon display tank with original stand and modified hood
Circulation: Vortech MP40 and Vortech MP10
Return pump: VARIOS-6 DC pump(1720 GPH)
Sump: Eshopps R-100
Skimmer: Reef Octopus Classic 110INT 4” internal
Heater:
ATO: Tunze ATO

Lighting
Lighting for this reef is two Ecotech Radion XR15W G4 Pros. Currently I'm running the at 50% and thinking about working my way up a little bit more but playing with things a bit. Total photo period is 13 hours with 7 hours at 50%. Low light in the morning (just so I can see them a bit before I go to work, and then a ramp down with color adjusted for viewing in the evening. I'm using the Coral Lab PHX14 program with the morning and evening modified. These are way more powerful than the XR30 Gen 1 I had!

Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium
Currently manually dosing all three of these and getting things stable. Looking at moving to kalkwasser eventually but still tuning things.

Parameters
Temp: 79
pH: 8.2
Specific gravity: 1.025
NO3: 0
Ca: 440
Alk: 8.5 DKH
Mg: 1350
PO4: 0.26 on the Hannah checker and dropping.

Water quality
Right now I'm using BRS Rox 0.8 and BRS GFO high capacity. I've used RowaPhos in past tanks but the BRS GFO seems to be working better.

Livestock
Assorted hermits and snails from Reef Cleaners
1 Cleaner shrimp
1 Midas blenny
2 Ocellaris clowns that spawn a couple times a year
5 Green chromes
1 Flame angel
1 Purple dottyback
1 Sixline wrasse
1 Yellow clown goby
2 Firefish

Corals
Pink Stylophora
Green stylophora
Orange Montipora
Purple Montipora
ORA Bird of paradise
ORA Red planet
Purple tipped acropora
Tierra del fuego acropora
Forest fire digitata
Pavona (lettuce) coral
Green spongodes
Green hyndophora
Frogspawn LPS
Orange acans
Yellow turbinaria scroll coral
Green star polyps
Bali green slime



Here's the beginning of my rock work. Half my rock is still in my 28 gallon nano at this point.

I have the same tank and I am struggling with my lighting and wanted to see what you would recommend.

 

[nano reef]

Someone is selling this tank locally, and thinking about getting it. She advertised it as 100 gallons but I could see by pics there is noway its that large and apparently she cant measure it! Her boyfriend advertised it a few days ago at 68 so I have no idea really but it is oceanic and looks exactly like this. I am hoping its 75 like yours since the overflow box looks like it might eat up some room. I wish it had one of those ghosts overflows or something but its to beautiful to not jump at over that! I am going to see it on friday. It has the same see through doors but I am hoping its tinted so as you cant see in, if not I will have to paint it to hide my gear.

I really love the unique halfmoon look, and it should have a magnifying effect on whats inside even. Have you noticed that on yours? ! One concern for me is the lighting reaching coral. I dont know if she has lights in it or not but if she dosnt I am probably going with hip agaro , aqua mars or something inexpensive as this tank is bare no sump and I just bought a 36 bowfront for fresh that someone sold real cheap full of rocks and wavemakers all kind of stuff so we are using rocks and gear but since it has a canister we will just make it into a freshwater. I have a small betta and another small reef in my kitchen. I cant say I wasnt forewarned on how addictive this is! lol I am quickly going through a lot of cash..lol and I only have 3 corals so far and 2 fish in my reef so lot more expenses coming up! I was going to wait but I had to snoop through the used listings in my area and found these 2 scores and the bowfront is only a year old, like brand new and stocked with stuff for 100.00 bucks, so I figured 45 lbs of rock alone was worth that!

I know by the looks of this it will be something I wont want to get rid of or upgrade! I made that mistake with my small kitchen one! Actually upgraded both of them..haha

Have you been happy with your tank? THis will be a first time large tank with a sump and protein skimmer type so I hope I am not biting off more than I can chew. I have a friend that used to be very much into saltwater so he has offered to help as much as he can. Your tank looks amazing and don't be shy of giving me any pointers on it! LOL