Inland Reef's Coastal Lagoon

inland_reef

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Lets talk about gorgonians...

They're an underappreciated coral that can be very beautiful if highlighted in the right way. About a year and a half ago, I started seeing them pop up in my local stores and I started collecting (more like hoarding) all of them, at least the photosynthetic ones. They looked great in my reef tanks under blue lights, but they just weren't really given the love they needed. Thus, the coastal lagoon was born!
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Tank and Equipment:

Tank: SR Aquaristik 42.2 Gallon tank (39" L x 16" W x 16" H)
Stand: SR Aquaristik GFRC concrete stand
Lighting: Twinstar 900sp (Full Spectrum Freshwater Planted Tank light) w/ 3rd party controller to have the sunrise/sunset function
Lighting Rack: Painted Steel Pipe attached to a plywood base that runs the length of the stand
Filtration: XP Aqua Flexi w/ filter floss & carbon and a Smart Micro ATO
Pumps: 2 MP10 with Shallow Shields
Heater: BRS 200w Titanium Heater with temp controller
Substrate/Rock: 40lbs Caribsea Fiji Pink sand and 10 lbs miracle mud / ~30lbs dry rock

Fish and Corals:

Fish: Tomini Tang, Orange Skunk Clowns (2), Yellow Coris Wrasse, Talbots Damsels (2)
Coral: Too many gorgonians to write (and I keep getting more haha), Long Tentacle Toadstools (2), Colt coral, and a Platygyra
Sponges & Tunicates: red finger, red ball, orange ball, possibly botryllus tunicate
Macroalgae: C. prolifera, C. paspaloides, Shaving brush, Mermaids fan, G. Hayi, Blue Hypnea, and well throw the red mangrove tree under here
Inverts: Conch, nassarius cerith, and trochus snails, hermits

Remy, from Bahama Llama Coral, made an awesome video on my tank. If you want to see more about what is in this tank, check it out!



And now to the fun part, PICTURES!!
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Rock Work before everything was added:
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inland_reef

inland_reef

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Decided to add some noodles to the tank since I have a deeper sandbed in the back for future plans of more mangroves and seagrass. We’ll see how they do. So far theyre eating like pigs and seem to have found their spots.
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I also added a wiring loom to organize the cables on the side of the tank. It looks a little more tidy not having all the wires bending every which direction.
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samnaz

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Ok everything about this is super cool. Absolutely love the concrete stand and industrial pipe light mount. Tank is beautiful too. The stand/tank manufacturer doesn’t sound familiar, is it available in the states? This is basically my dream tank, ha o_O

Nice sponge and tunicate. Tunicates in particular are my favorite, have you successfully kept them before?

Looking forward to updates. Lets see more pics!
 
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inland_reef

inland_reef

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Ok everything about this is super cool. Absolutely love the concrete stand and industrial pipe light mount. Tank is beautiful too. The stand/tank manufacturer doesn’t sound familiar, is it available in the states? This is basically my dream tank, ha o_O

Nice sponge and tunicate. Tunicates in particular are my favorite, have you successfully kept them before?

Looking forward to updates. Lets see more pics!

Appreciate the kind words. Yes the tank and stand are from a company in the United States. They’re located in the Chicagoland Suburbs. If you’re looking to get one, tell them Tyler sent you over. Scott is a great guy and he and his staff will help you get a dream setup just like this. This is my current dream setup. About a 1 1/2 years of planning.

Sponges I’ve kept before but tunicates I have not. From what I know about sponges is they love particulate food in the water column. So im
Dosing phytoplankton from @AlgaeBarn daily and my sponges are loving it. So far the tunicate seems to be happy too but only time will tell as they tend to be very hard to keep in the home aquarium.
 
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I love Gorgonians too, just have some trouble keeping algae off them haha

what kind of gorgonians do you have? Did you know that some gorgonians actually shed their skin to rid the stems of nuisance algae growing on them. Looks like it just got tp’d after a high school team won the state championship
 
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inland_reef

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moar pictures!

just got a sweet shipment of macro algae in for this tank! Some highlights, halimedia, red sargassum, sea grass and turtle grass. Still IDing some hitchhiker macros but enjoy the pictures!
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if you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw that I had kessils before I changed to the twinstar. I traded my last kessil I couldn’t sell into the lfs and walked out with this awesome T. crocea clam. It has been there for at least a month maybe two and I’ve drooled over it every time I walk in. Always wanted a clam for this setup and after seeing my one stag horn acro start to encrust and coralline algae start to pop up around the tank, I decided it was probably okay to walk home with one. Crocea only get to roughly 6” in the wild so a perfect clam for a smaller tank. Won’t have to worry about it out growing the glass box. (This is my second attempt at a clam. My first went royally wrong and the clam died fairly quickly. I was a novice and didn’t do my research ahead of time. I hope a little more experience under my belt will help me keep this one successfully.) I have removed all the hermits for now to allow the clam to settle in and as it is a rock borer, I have set it on a clam hammock rock. Seems to enjoy its spot so far. (Can you spot the blue hypnea growing on the side of the clam hammock?)
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what kind of gorgonians do you have? Did you know that some gorgonians actually shed their skin to rid the stems of nuisance algae growing on them. Looks like it just got tp’d after a high school team won the state championship
I have blade gorgs and those are the ones that shed, I have corky finger, purple frilly, and some type of white gorgonian that looks like the corky finger just angel white. I had a tan gorgonian and it died from algae growth, that was my first gorgonian. Also I saw the video on YouTube a while back, I love the style of the tank and it’s exactly what I’ve trying to go for! I love the natural beauty of reefs... not all those neon colors popping everywhere
 

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I have blade gorgs and those are the ones that shed, I have corky finger, purple frilly, and some type of white gorgonian that looks like the corky finger just angel white. I had a tan gorgonian and it died from algae growth, that was my first gorgonian. Also I saw the video on YouTube a while back, I love the style of the tank and it’s exactly what I’ve trying to go for! I love the natural beauty of reefs... not all those neon colors popping everywhere
Couldn’t agree more. I love tanks that look like a chunk of wild ocean reef.
 

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Very nice set up and creatures in there. I had a gorg tank for many years. Re-worked it when I had to move tanks (old one leaking). I love all the algae and sponge and tunicates and the little garden eels. Very amazing set up.
I love clams too. Good luck with your guy.
 
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inland_reef

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Very nice set up and creatures in there. I had a gorg tank for many years. Re-worked it when I had to move tanks (old one leaking). I love all the algae and sponge and tunicates and the little garden eels. Very amazing set up.
I love clams too. Good luck with your guy.

thank you! You have any old photos of your gorgonian tank or current ones if it’s still running? Would love to see them. And yes the eels are awesome so I’m hoping I have success with them long term. I have one that is literally fearless. Doesn’t care what fishare around. He’s eating if he wants to eat
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

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