Montipora Tank 4ft 326L

[CountDigi]

BUILD:
- Tank; Aquaone Reefsys 326
- Lights; x2 Ai Hydra 26HD, x1 Ai Hydra 52HD
- Skimmer; Readsea Reefer 300
- Kaltwasser rector; Two Little Fisheies Phosban reactor 550 modified into a Kalk reactor
- Wavemaker's; x1 Jebao SCP 70
- Return Pump; unknown ******** aquaone pump that does the job.
- Mechanical filter; Clarisea 5000 gen2
- UV; Jebao 40 Watt.

Tank has been up and running since 19 January 2025. Transferred 50% of the live rock from an old tank. The rest was dry rock.

IDEA; is to have a long-term beginner friendly sps dominant tank. So, I have decided to focus on montipora. Will post photos below.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

sounds great!

 

[CountDigi]

Date: 21 December 2024
The idea for the aquascape.
After many months watching fresh water aquascaping i started to understand the difference between a box stuffed with corals and a design inspired by a biotope.

I then move on to creating the image with dry rock. Setting up the equipment, and building the diy light rail.

Tank got wet 19 January 2025 with the help of a friend to transfer water, sand, fish and coral into the new tank. All done in one day. The old tank was given away for free to a fellow reefer.

16 July 2025. Tanks looking great. Had recently added an Ai Hydra 52HD in the middle of the light rail (bumped slightly to the left over the sps). And managed to remove all but one of the nems onto their own space and away from my sps vision.

Around late July early August 2025, i had a cyano outbreak and dosed chemiclean! nitrates dropped to 2ppm. Within 3 days i had dinoflagellate replace the cyano. Specifically prorocentrum.
I have beat it before; 2 years ago in my old tank. So, i know there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I am dosing silicate 2ml twice per day to induce a diatom bloom, and dosing aquaforest life source mud twice a week. Nitrate dosing to get numbers back up to between 5ppm and 10ppm. Additionally UV sweeping the sand bed.
Last time I had dinos it took me months to beat it, this time i am confident it can be done much quicker.

Stay tuned for an update when the dino is gone. Corals are all still happy and seeing alot of new growth from the digitatas.

 

[CountDigi]

Update: 4 September 2025

Dinos seems to be defeated with a combination of UV sweeping, dosing AF life source, dosing silicates, fixing the nutrient imbalance, and added 23 new clean up crew.

Diatoms seem to have taken over now

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Update: 4 September 2025

Dinos seems to be defeated with a combination of UV sweeping, dosing AF life source, dosing silicates, fixing the nutrient imbalance, and added 23 new clean up crew.

Diatoms seem to have taken over now

Glad to see you are beating dinos!

 

[strich]

I love the big curved structure on the right! I'd not have thought it to work but it certainly does.

 

[CountDigi]

Glad to see you are beating dinos!

Thanks, reefing is a rollercoaster haha. I have beat different types of dinos multiple times in the past, feel like a hobby expert at it now. Never panic anymore, because there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

Note; for those fighting prorocentrum dinoflagellates. The addition of UV sweeping and AF life source are the only new additions to my tool kit this time around. Last time, it took over 6 months dosing silicates (and i think the dinos just burned out) to beat them. This time, it took less than 1 month.
However, I will still have to do weekly microscope slides to keep an eye on things, and continue a lesser regiment of UV sweeping and dosing for the next few months.

 

[CountDigi]

I love the big curved structure on the right! I'd not have thought it to work but it certainly does.

Thank you. I was also worried when I was building it. It turned out great, and is very solid. Built with smaller rocks glued together with a combination of super glue, regular beach sand, and tissue. Learned the tissue trick from freshwater aquascaping competition tanks, during my research stage.