Mike Werner's 200 gal+ mixed reef done simple

mike werner · Aug 9, 2018

I finally decided it was time to do my first of three build threads.First let me say I stopped paying attention in class in 8th grade so my grammer and punctuation will show.You will probably see more pics than paragraphs for that reason and the fact that I hate typing and r2r's love pics.I'm not very good at pics but i'm going to try and learn through out this thread.
This tank was started around 2011.I had it built by Glass Cages on an impulse.It is a 5 footer with a single overflow in the corner.I had starfire glass put only in the front sense I couldn't find much info on it's value in viewing at the time.I'm still not sure if it's clearer than standard glass but I got it.
i'm an old school guy and not very tech savey so equipment is pretty basic.No apex for this guy. Most of it was purchased so long ago that I don't even remember some of the brands. It has a 40 gal. sump powered by a dart snapper external pump.It's plumed with gate valves that feed the 6 returns,Skims 162 external skimmer and a 50 watt sterilizer.I have the original 150 gyre and a tunze something or other pump pushing water at a constant flow.The lighting has changed several times over the years for different reasons I won't bore you with.Started with all t5's went to the now defunct company, build my led's then to vertex aquastik Illumina and most recently 5 marsaqua 165's.I really like the spread and color these lights produce and the corals grow well under them.
The substrate has changed over the years from crushed coral to white sand to finally a thin rubble bottom.i love the look of a rubble bottom sense it turns purple with the good algae.
The tank started out as a softy,zoa and a few lps system.I tried a few sticks but never kept an eye on the chemistry.Last year I decided to step it up and this thread is my adventure into hopefully an sps dominate tank.So far I have been very happy with the results.
Over the last few months I have been removing soft corals some lps and sps to make room for new corals.I started reaquascaping from left to right removing and adding corals as I go.Now the right side is bare and ready for some new sps frags.I can't wait for the fall frag swaps.
I have 20 or so sps frags and colonies that are growing very well under the marsaqua led's.i'm terrible with names of corals so you won't hear me rattling off fancy names that don't resemble the corals anyway.Most are wild caught frags that I have gotten that my coral club (cmas) imports and frags up a few times a year.They really do get some awesome acros and have a great survival rate in my system.As my photo skills get better I will try to show ya the fantastic colors I have gotten.I'm picky with color so I only go for the richest reds,blues,greens purples and colors of the rainbow.No browns or tans unless they turned that color after I added them.i've been lucky and that has only happened a few times only to recover after a month or so.
I started using aquaforest component 1-2-3 6 months ago and I must say it is amazing the results.I have seen corals with little previous color now are popping and the growth is amazing as well.
Like most I love colorfull fish and inverts so I only go for brightly colored stuff.My fish stock at this moment consists of the following.
black tang (I know not a bright colored fish)
regal angel
hippo tang
pair of flameback angels
pair of flame angels
5 lyretail anthias with a male leader
orchid dottyback
some chromis
tamron wrasse
yellow tail blue damsel (I just love that color blue)
Fish to be added soon.
gem tang
copper banded butterfly
mimic tang
wrasses yet to be determined.

Inverts include the usual cuc,5 skunk cleaner shrimp.pair of banded coral shrimp and a LARGE rbt that's decided to be camera shy tonight.
Now I'm going to attempt to take a few pics and post them for all to see.Thanks in advance for viewing and I promise i'll post better pics as this thread rolls along.Enjoy t and stay salty my friends.

Phelipe's Ocean · Aug 9, 2018

Sorry im at work right now so I cant read through it I will later but nice tank! It flows so well together from one side to the other. Your black tang is killer, not worried about it jumping? Ill be back after work[emoji16]

SPR1968 · Aug 9, 2018

Great looking tank Mike, very nice.

mike werner · Aug 9, 2018

Phelipe's Ocean said:
Sorry im at work right now so I cant read through it I will later but nice tank! It flows so well together from one side to the other. Your black tang is killer, not worried about it jumping? Ill be back after work[emoji16]

thanks,don't jinks me bro.He almost jumps out of the tank at the site of food.He has been around for about 6 years now and doesn't seem to be interested in the carpet.

NY_Caveman · Aug 9, 2018

Beautiful tank, Mike. The Black Tang shows up nice in the second picture. Would love to see more of him. Does he rule the tank?

mike werner · Aug 9, 2018

NY_Caveman said:
Beautiful tank, Mike. The Black Tang shows up nice in the second picture. Would love to see more of him. Does he rule the tank?

Like a North Korean leader but he is no jerk he just gets the respect he deserves from the rest of the gang.It his hard sometimes introducing new fish of any kind for a few days.
My son is a photographer so he's going to take some better pics of the tank this week.I'll be sure to post some of him when he does.
Thanks for all you do here at r2r.It's a pleasure conversing and getting insite from you on a daily basis.

NY_Caveman · Aug 9, 2018

Same to you.

hdsoftail1065 · Aug 9, 2018

That's really a nice looking tank Mike, you should be very proud of yourself! I can tell you put allot of time and effort into it. Beautiful!

Sarah24! · Aug 11, 2018

Hello

Hahaha I found it and I haven’t read but did see some pics and curious with all those lights, above the tank, curious if your into disco

. Now that I have found it (I’m so blind) yes I will definitely read this. I’d say follow along but I sadly don’t know how to do that yet. I know in pre school it was just the student in front of me (this is a little harder).

Cheers

Sarah24! · Aug 11, 2018

Hello,

First lol love the pics and the tank it’s simply gorgeous and it shows your true passion. It’s n I’d because it has the look of a natural reef which is so rare now a days. I love the idea of how your doing this (would warn though becareful how you remove some softies and lps, they can release toxins if they feel threatened). I’d also caution about the angels which I have to read up on (so my fault), but I thought only bellus angels were reef safe with sps.

It has always been taught well to me that is (probably because I am still super naive), the angels will eat the polps on sps corals and possibly lps corals. Have you experienced this with your tank at all (because I love angels but always said not reef safe which is why I have the female bellus).

Anyway on ward! Gosh to be bleedin honest we have the same concept. I’m as some may know, starting a 425 if I ever get time off from work. I was gonna tear down my 240 but sooo many people said I should keep it

yay. (Not going to change your course promise). But you said three build threads lol does this mean we get three of them

? Was curious how your moving the corals from point a and point b etc.

The other nice part of this is more newbies should read this as well. As you have clearly shown by your pics, you don’t need expensive lights are equipment to have a nice tank. I think if new people saw this maybe they would have some better luck perhaps.

It would be nice to know your secret on wild caught acros. Mine which 100% from my lfs have been with me for the whole bleedin time. Yet recently I was kinda well (dumb) and changed things in my tank ops. Now all of my farmed acros are still doing amazing, but all of my lfs acros three died in 9 hours after my salinity went from 1.25 to 1.031 (long story). After that was fixed The other wild ones also started to stn so I have to clip and replant. I’m curious as to how strong your running all your lights, the mars are pretty darn powerful lights. You definitely have no shadow effect which is amazing. You have a nice tank should be super proud and take lots more pics.

mike werner · Aug 11, 2018

Sarah24! said:
Hello,

First lol love the pics and the tank it’s simply gorgeous and it shows your true passion. It’s n I’d because it has the look of a natural reef which is so rare now a days. I love the idea of how your doing this (would warn though becareful how you remove some softies and lps, they can release toxins if they feel threatened). I’d also caution about the angels which I have to read up on (so my fault), but I thought only bellus angels were reef safe with sps.

It has always been taught well to me that is (probably because I am still super naive), the angels will eat the polps on sps corals and possibly lps corals. Have you experienced this with your tank at all (because I love angels but always said not reef safe which is why I have the female bellus).

Anyway on ward! Gosh to be bleedin honest we have the same concept. I’m as some may know, starting a 425 if I ever get time off from work. I was gonna tear down my 240 but sooo many people said I should keep it yay. (Not going to change your course promise). But you said three build threads lol does this mean we get three of them ? Was curious how your moving the corals from point a and point b etc.

The other nice part of this is more newbies should read this as well. As you have clearly shown by your pics, you don’t need expensive lights are equipment to have a nice tank. I think if new people saw this maybe they would have some better luck perhaps.

It would be nice to know your secret on wild caught acros. Mine which 100% from my lfs have been with me for the whole bleedin time. Yet recently I was kinda well (dumb) and changed things in my tank ops. Now all of my farmed acros are still doing amazing, but all of my lfs acros three died in 9 hours after my salinity went from 1.25 to 1.031 (long story). After that was fixed The other wild ones also started to stn so I have to clip and replant. I’m curious as to how strong your running all your lights, the mars are pretty darn powerful lights. You definitely have no shadow effect which is amazing. You have a nice tank should be super proud and take lots more pics.

Thanks sarah for the positive feedback.I've always kept a pair of flames and really have not had any problems.They have got to be one of my favorites as a kid.They do nip at sps but it seems more like a cleaning response than actually eating polyps.The pair of flame backs are model citizens.My acros are all growing very well so i'm not that worried.I also see a lot of amazing sps tanks on r2r with pigmy angels in them. I added the regal 6 months back and he/she only pics on a the last leather I have in the tank.Had it for 15 years and am having trouble parting with it.It's part of the reason i'm setting up a 28 cube this weekend.That's the next build thread.
I have always loved a tank full of live rock.To me it just looks more like a piece of the ocean.Do not get me wrong.I love these build threads with islands and such.I'm just set in my ways and prefer that look.
The softies were removed whole as colonies so not to aggravate them and toxify the tank.I have had to burn some patches of crapola off of some rocks to large to remove but had no problems with toxicity.They all get rehomed at the lfs for credit.
Our wild colonies come in a month before events so the initial die off happens before they are cut up.This probably is one of the major factors with the survival rate.
Those lights crush!New members on a budget should really consider using them.Lots of threads on here on mods. for them as well.I was not on a budget but know several reefers who have awesome reefs that use them so decided to give them a shot.At less than a $100 each why not.Like a lot of led's they are directional.That is why I have 5 on a 5 ft.tank,to get the spread you see.Par is about 400 at 6 inches below the surface and 200 or so 25 inches down.70% blue 20% full spectrumWe will see how they perform over time.So far they are growing corals VERY well.
Better pics will be coming soon!

DSC reef · Aug 11, 2018

Nice looking tank!

KJ · Aug 12, 2018

;Wideyed;Jawdrop Great job Mike very nice looking tank

jsker · Aug 12, 2018

Wow that is a fabulous tank Mike!!

OffTopic · Sep 12, 2018

Well this was a pleasant surprise! It is a beautiful looking tank, if you don't mind me asking how is looking, any major developments since the first post?

mike werner · Sep 22, 2018

Been trying to find time to do an update and we finished up crabbing early tonight so here I am.Not much new with the tank.Fish are fat and happy and all the corals are growing well.I did start feeding reef chili about a week ago.Not sure if I will notice a difference but i'm putting it in because I have it.
I did check a fish off the stocking list a few weeks back.Purchased a mimic lemon peel from LA.It was suppose to come in as a juvenile medium 2-2 3/4 inch. but arrived at about 4 inches.They they gave me half credit and a gift card for the rest so I can't complain to much.It's in Qt for the next couple of weeks.It ate from hour one and is getting fat before he has to compete with the rest of the gang.
Hopefully at the end of this post you will see a bunch of new "professional" pics.The problem is the "pro"my son is having problems loading all the pics of the tank.So if ya don't see them at the time of posting this I will get them up asap.Now on to update my other build thread.

NY_Caveman · Sep 22, 2018

Waiting for pictures

Chrisfish · Sep 22, 2018

Pictures Please!!!!

hdsoftail1065 · Sep 22, 2018

It's nice to see tanks out there that look this awesome without using all the "technology" to run it. I have been tossing around the need of an Apex, your tank shows me it isn't that important. Nice looking tank Mike!