Dennys 65 Reef!!!

ReefFreak@ · Nov 13, 2014

Hello everyone I'm new here and love it! i just wanted to share with you my fairly new reef and get some feedback. So to start things off, its a 65 gallon glass display drilled with 2 1 inch drain overflow from gl*******s.com which drains into a plan old 20 gallon with a diy baffle.

Equipment
- superreef 1000int reef octopus skimmer
- hamilton 2x175w metal halide with 4 actinics and moon lights
- mp40
- autotopoff.com top off
- Brs dual reactor Gfo and Carbon powered by a mag3
- mag 9.5 for return
- gl*******s.com overflow
- filter sock
- 45 pounds of fiji live rock give or take and a little real reef rock rubble

Fish
- Yellow tang
- astera snail
- nassarius snail

Corals
- frogspawn
- gsp
- red people eater palys
- unknown leather coral

ReefFreak@ · Nov 13, 2014

Heres some more photos

Sump-looks little messy from picture but I've seen worse haha

more shots

finally where the corals came from my 2.5 pico

fishroomlady · Nov 13, 2014

I think your tank looks really nice! I might add a couple more pieces of rock but it's the type of look that you like that matters.

Welcome to the forum! I have a 65 gallon as well

ReefFreak@ · Nov 13, 2014

well thank you! i can't describe how awesome it feels to have someone enjoyed the hard work put into it. Haha your right there should be a little more rock in there but i really like that open look it has and the way my tang just glides through the caves. Could i see your 65 by chance?

TJ's Reef · Nov 13, 2014

Sweet setup and WELCOME to R2R. Nothing wrong with a little swimmin room, Corals will fill in before you know it.... I have very little room left for all my fish in a 125g so already planning the upgrade for my Winter project.

Cheers, Todd

ReefFreak@ · Nov 13, 2014

Thank you for the welcome Tj, haha you got that right always need a little swimming room.Any coral recommendations? Also do you have any experience with mccoskers flasher wrasse? I think they will be my next fish purchase but being a 65 i have to know for sure what fish i want.

TJ's Reef · Nov 13, 2014

McCoskers or most any of the Flasher Wrasses or even Fairy Wrasses would be great fish for your tank but MUST have fully covered tank. They will even find a way to jump out of heater holes in acrylic tanks... unfortunately my first experience with them years ago. I have 5 Wrasses and 5 Tangs and 4 Anthias plus others in my Reeftank.... not a light bio-load system.... lol

Cheers, Todd

ReefFreak@ · Nov 13, 2014

Already on top of that, i forgot to mention i but the screen top with bars 1/4 clear mesh so know worrys with them carpet surfing. With your wrasses do you keep them in a harem with say 1 male and some females, all males or random wrasse species.

TJ's Reef · Nov 13, 2014

ReefFreak@ said:
Already on top of that, i forgot to mention i but the screen top with bars 1/4 clear mesh so know worrys with them carpet surfing. With your wrasses do you keep them in a harem with say 1 male and some females, all males or random wrasse species.

Random.... I did intend to have a harem of Solar Wrasses but ended up with two male Goldback instead of female Solar's. So as of now I have the male Solar along with two mentioned Goldback's (which just recently started having territorial issues with one becoming a Super male), male Ornate Leopard and Melanurus Wrasse that all get along fine. With the Anthias I have one male and three females staying in school/shoal form. When I break down system to upgrade will reduce around 5-6 fish and possibly add a female Vermiculate Leopard Wrasse ???

Cheers, Todd

ReefFreak@ · Nov 13, 2014

im guessing you really like your wrasses? How do you like your anthias? I always thought they were pretty but heard there hard to keep and need lots of room.

palindrom5 · Nov 13, 2014

ah, here's you thread lol. how old is this 65gal?

ReefFreak@ · Nov 13, 2014

Was it hard to find? The start up was 10/3/2014 with 45 pounds of fiji live rock some real reef rock rubble from my pico. i didn't add the coral until the beginning of november and as you can see doing great!

palindrom5 · Nov 13, 2014

very nice especially for 40 days or so. are the parameters stable? may I ask why you chose mh lighting?

ReefFreak@ · Nov 13, 2014

parameters are stable I'm using reef crystals and dosing nothing as of right now.

calcium-440ppm
magnesium-1170 little low
alkalinity-12dkh according to hannah
nitrate-0
phosphate is reading 0ppm but before go was installed they were around 60ppb according to hannah
salinity- fluctuates from 1.025 and 1.026 because my skimmer is on the wet side and I'm still trying to get down adding saltwater to compensate
Temperate-79.3-79.8f

Metal halides was choosing from 2 factors.

1. i like knowing i can keep anything and not have to worry about under lighting,that helps because I'm on the fence between sps dominate or a mixed reef(temperate is not a problem i hold steady at 79.3-79.8f)

2.Price. On my previous tank i had a jbj unibody 54 watt led which ran me around $450 usd. I got my hamiliton for 600 or 700 rather than 1000 something for 2 ecotechs. And with there being so many color options for diy led i woulda been lost.

palindrom5 · Nov 13, 2014

I know that mh are the tried and true so definitely an easier decision for the reliability of them, I just worry about the heat and the wattage is insane. The confusion of LED is why I had to spend my left arm for Kessil because I wanted that tested and true result also, and the china leds and diys are too hard to figure out /dial in. I skim wetter also as it seems it is the only way coralife will get anything accomplished.

ReefFreak@ · Nov 14, 2014

Now a days leds are really good for strong lighting but like you said the more reliable ones are so expensive when you can get the same results with metal halides. My electric bill isn't really crazy but I was nervous opening it up for the first month in had my halides. And for heat I definitely would not recommend halides for smaller tanks and I have mine raised about 8inches above the tank which helps with heat disapation