Dan's 95G Mixed Reef

[Dan Reef]

Hello!

I'm a brazilian reefer and recently moved to a new and bigger home. I'm finally able to have a bigger tank! My time available is short with work and kids but I'll do my best to put as much detail as possible about the tank and the journey in this thread.

I wanted to create a tank with minimalism in mind. I didn't want to have a black background which makes everything more challenging, specially the overflow. There are some drawbacks with the option I chose however I'm satisfied with the result so far. Hopefully it works on the longterm with no issues.

Equipment:
Tank - Custom made 95G tank - 48"x24"x20" clear glass
Stand - Custom made 55"x27"x36"
Sump - Custom made acrylic sump 30"x15"x15"
Lights - 4x Radion XR15 G5
Return - Neptune COR-15
Flow - 2x MP40W
Skimmer - UltraReef Akula 160
Heaters - none yet 2x Finnex 300W + Inkbird controller
Refugium Light - none yet Tunze Ecochic
Dosing - 2x Neptune DOS (1: Triton Flex 1 OM, 2: Triton Flex 2 OM, 3: Trace elements, 4: AquaForest Power Elixir Biolbase ULNS)
ATO - acrylic box positioned above the sump
Fleece Filter - Klir DI-4

Fish list:
3 x captive bred Anthias Squamipini
1 x Radiant Wrasse
1 x McCosker Wrasse (female?)
1 x Red Sea Purple Tang
2 x Percula Onix Clownfish
1 x Spotted Prawn Goby
1 z Green Mandarim captive breed
1 x Antena Goby
1 x White tail Kole Tang
1 x Randall Goby

Coral list:
Added on May 21st
- Tortuosa Oregon Blue
- All Star Acropora
- Tenuis Orange Passion
- Loripes Red
- Frog Eletric Green
- Elegance Coral

Added on May 25th
- Acropora Carduus Red Dragon
- Red Robin Staghorn
- Echinata Green
- Nana Purple Neon Polyps
- Tortuosa Turcoise
- Slime Ball Anacropora
- Pocillopora Green
- Seriatopora Caliendrum
- Tropicana Anacropora
- Subulata Purple

Added on July 25th
- "Frammer" Golden
- Acropora Sweet Cake
- Hammer Copper

Added on August 1st
- Acropora Chimera
- Acropora Table Red
- Acropora Horrida Bicolor
- Acropora Tenuis Cobalt Blue
- Goniopora Yellow Rainbow
- Goniopora Purple Rainbow

Added on August 11st
- Plexaura flexuosa gorgonian (need to confirm ID)

Added on August 29th
- Acropora sp. (light green.. need ID)
- hawaian feather
- Hammer Golden

Added on October 8th
- Goniopora Barbie Dream
- Goniopora Flaming Daisy
- Goniopora Pink Yellow

Added on October 31th
- Acropora CB Maleficent
- Acropora Pearberry
- Acropora afterparty

Added on November 23th
- Montipora Capricornis Red
- Montipora Velvet Red
- Stylophora Hot Pink
- Porites Yellow
- Subulata Purple
- Loripes Pink
- Acropora Shortcake Yellow Tips

Added on November 28th
- Ricordea Orange

Added on Dec. 27th
- Ricordea PMA Ultimate Orange
- Acanthastrea Red
- Acanthastrea Snake Skin

Dec/22

May 22nd 2023:

July 12nd 2023:

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following!! can't wait to see what your tank looks like when it's finished!!

 

[alonsooro]

Good luck with your new tank!
Since you have some reefing experience I hope you bring your dream tank to reality! Hoping the best for you!

 

[kevgib67]

Looks like your off to a great start. I look forward to watching your build progress.

 

[Dan Reef]

Some progress! Doing my best to keep everything organized.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Apex unite looks really organized!

 

[Dan Reef]

Ok! It's been sometime since I don't update.

I added water saltwater and started the tank on Dec. 22nd. Everything doing good so far. Lights were installed but will remain off for sometime. The sand had some diatoms but it's gone.


I moved the two 11 years old clowns I have and added some new fish. This is the current fish list:

2 percula clowns
1 small Tomini Tang
1 yellow coris
1 Carpenter Wrasse

The intention is to have mostly utilitarian fish. Any ideas on additional fishes? Maybe one more tang..

Now is time to perform a water change and send water for ICP analysis.

Currently I'm dosing:

- Triton Other Methods
- TM Bacto Balance
- Aquaforest Probio S
- daily pellets and flakes food

 

[Dan Reef]

New fish added!

1 Mimic Tang
2 Damsel Springeri
1 Forktail Blenny

Will update with pics soon.

It's time to turn on the lights and add some corals but I'll send the water for ICP test before to make sure everything is ok.

 

[nuxx]

Looking good so far

 

[Dan Reef]

Hello!

Those 2 are completing 13 years with me. I bought them when they were smaller than a finger nail!

I'm thinking in moving the Trident to another place and adding a kalkwasser reservoir to have a better pH control.

So the next plans are:

- adding a kalkwasser reservoir
- adding a CO2 scrubber
- adding another flasher wrasse to see encourage seeing them "flashing"
- adding one more Vortech MP40
- change the cabinet fan to a stronger one. The Noctua 800rpm is very silent but I don't think it's doing anything to control the temperature although it's not over 26.8C even in the hotter days
- adding corals! It's time!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Hello!

Those 2 are completing 13 years with me. I bought them when they were smaller than a finger nail!

I'm thinking in moving the Trident to another place and adding a kalkwasser reservoir to have a better pH control.

So the next plans are:

- adding a kalkwasser reservoir
- adding a CO2 scrubber
- adding another flasher wrasse to see encourage seeing them "flashing"
- adding one more Vortech MP40
- change the cabinet fan to a stronger one. The Noctua 800rpm is very silent but I don't think it's doing anything to control the temperature although it's not over 26.8C even in the hotter days
- adding corals! It's time!

The clowns look great!!! Can't wait to see the coral in the tank

 

[Dan Reef]

Hello!

Feels like home! The only coral I kept from the old tank was this elegance as it was home for the clowns.

I recently installed a CO2 scrubber. Increased the pH from 8.1 to 8.3

Also want to show this very useful tool to dose carbon (TM Bacto Balance). It’s from a Australian company. Not sure if they are in the market anymore.

The tank is doing good so far. I can see some coralline algae spots already!

 

[Dan Reef]

Bad news!

I travelled for 12 days and my wife took care of the tank. By the 7th day she called me saying the blenny died. After that, it was a nightmare... in a matter of 3 days, most of the fishes were dead, including the 10 years old clowns. We suspect it was oodinium from the last fish I added to the tank, a purple tang.

As soon as I arrived from a 10 hour flight, I took the 3 wrasses that were still alive to the LFS for treatment. Hopefully they live.

I learned in worst way about a necessity of a quarantine before adding any fish to the tank.. It really makes me think if I want to stay in the hobby..

 

[Dan Reef]

My daughter convince me to keep the tank. I'll do my best to avoid fish death again.. right now, I can't add any fish to the tank as it needs a fallow period of at least 60 days. I might add some corals as the tank now is very boring to watch with just one elegance coral! I still miss the clowns..

After installing the CO2 scrubber the pH went up to 8.6 during the day and 8.45 at night. Dosage of Triton Other methods were very high to maintain a alk of 7.0 so I removed the CO2 scrubber for now. There are thousands of coralline algae spots in the rocks however and pH is still fine, always above 8.1.

I also changed the Ultrareef Akula skimmer pump to the same pump version but DC. It's much more silent now.

There's a brown algae that covers the glass, sand and rocks and it's hard to go away.. it takes just 2 days to appear again in the glass after cleaning. This is the drawback of starting with dry rock. Hopefully it goes away soon.

 

[Dan Reef]

Hello reefers

It's been a while since I don't post. Not much happened until yesterday as tank is still on fallow period and I was traveling for work much so didn't have time to take care of the tank.

Yesterday I added some new frag corals:

- Tortuosa Oregon Blue (a. tortuosa)
- All Star Acropora (a. donei)
- Tenuis Orange Passion (a. tenuis)
- Loripes Red (a. loripes)
- Frog Eletric Green (Fimbriaphyllia paradivisa)

I'll update the thread with pics soon.

I decided to turn off the CO2 Scrubber as KH consumption was oddly too high. I might turn back on once I have more corals in the tank.

I prepared a new fish list and will add them slowly:

1 x Tomini Tang
1 x Mimic tang

1 x Mccoskeri flasher wrasse
1 x Yellowfin flasher wrasse
1 x Yellow coris
1 x Exquisite Wrasse

1 x Yellow watchman goby

2 x True percula

3 x Anthias Squamipini

2 x Yellowtail damselfish
3 x green chromis

 

[Dan Reef]

Some new pics with natural sunlight. Hopefully they grow fast and become beautiful colonies.

May 22nd FTS:

 

[Dan Reef]

Hello!

Added a few more corals:

Acropora Carduus Red Dragon
Red Robin Staghorn
Echinata Green
Nana Purple Neon Polyps
Tortuosa Turcoise
Slime Ball Anacropora
Pocillopora Green
Seriatopora Caliendrum
Tropicana Anacropora
Subulata Purple

Pics soon! So far everything steady. Can't wait to add fish!

 

[Stephen8169301]

What a cool build I really like how your tank looks with the hanging lights super clean

 

[Dan Reef]

Hello!

Finally added new fish. The list is currently:

3 x captive bred Anthias Squamipini
1 x Radiant Wrasse
1 x McCosker Wrasse
1 x Red Sea Purple Tang
1 x White tail Kole Tang

They are all eating well and doing well with the exception of one anthias that I believe is going thru a bacterial infection. It's eating and swimming normally though. Hopefully it will recover.

I don't think the tank is responding well to TP Bacto Balance. If I dose often, even though a very small dosage, the elegance starts to retract, corals gets more pale and the water gets cloudy due to bacterial bloom. I'll wait the tank to mature before adding any more carbon source.

Trident was working properly but suddenly started to fail. I contacted Neptune and they replaced the unit. During the time without the Trident the KH went down to 5.5! I'm slowly increasing to 7.5 again.

I added UV to combat the bacterial bloom and also reduce chances of fish infection.

Here's the July photo! I hope you guys enjoy.

 

[Stephen8169301]

gorgeous