MoparMike97's 125 Softie Tank

MoparMike97

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Figured it was time I made a thread to track the progress of my 125... It has a ways to go haha

This tank has been running for 3 years now, my original plan was a mixed reef with mostly softies and euphyllia but I ended up going with an anemone dominant display with a few random softies mixed in. I've always loved anemones, particularly magnifica, so I thought it would be cool to have a display focused on them specifically, however, I found that there were some issues. Mainly, quick growth and several deciding to split that quickly caused overcrowding issues, anemones wandering the tank in search of real estate is no bueno. I believe having several different species in the same tank didn't help with this either, if I were to attempt it again, I think a species only tank would be far more successful long term. Eventually it got to the point where I was moving anemones every couple days to prevent them from walking into each other, rearranging rocks and moving powerheads, just trying to keep everything happy, I enjoy working on my tank, but this got old quick. I eventually got sick of it and sold most of them off in May, except the mertensii and red haddoni (which then proceeded to walk into a powerhead and lost over half of its oral disc, it's still alive and recovering in my nano). The tank was pretty much empty at that point, aside from the fish and a few softies that survived the anemone onslaught.

I'll openly admit, I lost interest in the tank after that, so it was pretty much on autopilot for almost 6 months. Didn't do anything other than fill the top off, feed the fish, occasionally dose 2 part and empty the skimmer. It turned into an algae filled mess, but all the remaining coral and fish did just fine. I was looking at it a few weeks ago and decided it was about time to do something with the tank. Did a big water change and some minor re-scaping, and decided I'm going to go with a softie dominant display with tridacna clams and a few other inverts.

I'm still fighting some algae and a few patches of aptasia but overall it's looking way better.

-Tank and Equipment-

The tank itself is an old school Marineland 125 I picked up a while back off Craigslist. Ended up buying a premade stand from Petco for it since the 2x4 and plywood stand it came with looked like crap.

I've always been a K.I.S.S type reefer, having all sorts of controllers and gadgets has absolutely no appeal to me, so I'm about as low tech as you can get nowadays with new-ish equipment. Below is the sum total of equipment I'm running on this tank:

x3 Viparspectra 165W LED Fixtures
x2 AI Nero 5
Bubble Magus Curve 7 Protein Skimmer
No name return pump from Amazon
300w Eheim Heater
JBJ Auto Top-Off
Old homemade acrylic sump

The return pump is the only thing that will likely be upgraded at some point in the future, the controllable ones seem like a good idea.

-Current fish stock-

Zebrasoma xanthurum
Genicanthus watanabei (Female)
Xanthichthys auromarginatus (Male)
Paracirrhites nisus
x3 Amphiprion ocellaris (WC)


-Coral and Inverts-

Stichodactyla mertensii
Stichodactyla haddoni (red)

OG Milka Stylophora
Birds of Paradise Stylophora
Rainbow Pocillopora
Slimeball Anacropora
Forest Fire Digitata
German Blue Digitata
Red Capricornis
Red Setosa
Teal Staghorn Acro
GARF Bonsai Acro

Space Invader Pectinia

AC White Polyp Toadstool
AC Green Cap Fat Polyp Toadstool
AC Snowflake Toadstool
AC Green Fibre Light Toadstool
AC Flat Crown Toadstool
Biota Mountain Dew Toadstool
TCN Weeping Willow Toadstool
TSA Long Polyp Toadstool
TSA Green Long Polyp Toadstool
TSA Short Tentacle Toadstool
TSA Japanese Green Toadstool
TSA Neon Polyp Toadstool
TSA Glowworm Toadstool
ORA Neon Sinularia
ORA Kenya Tree
ORA Vargas Cespitularia
Tyree Green Polyp Toadstool
Japanese Neon Green WW Toadstool
Neon Green Cabbage Leather
Pink Pulsing Sinularia
Green Polyp Sinularia
Various unnamed mushrooms and zoas


I'll try and keep this post updated when I get new additions.

And a few pics from today. I really need to get one of the orange lens covers for my phone, but I did my best haha.

FTS
PXL_20231124_205306839~2.jpg

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I did do a good bit of Black Friday shopping, so I'll have some new additions coming to fill some of the open spots haha

Thanks for looking!
 
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MoparMike97

MoparMike97

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Nice! Good job with the camera too. Is the blue clam a maxima? I keep a maxima and derasa in my 180g
Thank you, the pictures turned out better than I expected haha.

Yes, that is a maxima. My LFS got a few from the batch of Red Sea maximas that Biota brought in and I had to snag one. I'll definitely be adding more Tridacnas in the future.

Great tank, and pictures.
Thanks! Certainly a work in progress but it'll get there eventually haha
 
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Received a few new additions this afternoon, 3 large Tahitian maxima clams!

Probably my favorite of the 3, in person this one is very dark purple/black with an electric blue stripe around the edge of the mantle
PXL_20231129_222230802~2.jpg

Next is a purple and gold, similar pattern to the above, gold rim and a few stripes near the center with a lot of purple.
PXL_20231129_222139740~2.jpg

And last is turquoise/green with black patterning. Absolutely beautiful.
PXL_20231129_222157524~2.jpg

The clam garden is coming together nicely! I did place an order with Pacific East Aquaculture as well, so I'll have a few more coming next week!
 
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A few more new additions to the tank!

Picked up these two at my LFS. Its been a while since I've seen ultra grade croceas so I figured I'd snag them. They're maybe 1-1.25" across

PXL_20231208_201200737~2.jpg


From Pacific East Aquaculture, a Blue-green squamosa. Very curious to see how this one looks as it grows out

PXL_20231208_134035632~2.jpg


I also got an order of toadstool leathers from Top Shelf Aquatics, they're still getting settled in and aren't picture worthy yet. Also not pictured is a ORA derasa I got from a friend who was taking down their nano, kind of an interesting looking one with a chocolate brown mantle with a few blue/green spots. Should be nice!

Post water-change FTS

PXL_20231208_211359732.jpg


And on the equipment front, I decided to change up the lighting. I love the AI Primes but their capabilities are being pushed to the limit on a tank of this size. The biggest issue is spread, which is to be expected from a single tight cluster of LEDs. I get one 'hotspot' directly under each fixture with a dramatic intensity falloff as soon as you move a few inches to the side. They've been running at about 90% intensity on all channels except red and green, I got good growth on corals in the hotspot but stuff outside of that almost seemed to be stuck in stasis, not dying but not really growing either. Since I now have a significant population of light hungry clams, I figured something with more power and spread would be necessary. All 3 Primes running at full intensity, 55 watts each, would equal the output of just one of these:

PXL_20231208_211840511.jpg

PXL_20231208_211832921.jpg


I've been weighing my options for a few weeks now and frankly, I can't bring myself to spend $2000 on Hydras, Radions, etc. I'm sure they're great lights but man, the pricing is ridiculous IMO. I could care less about having Wifi/Bluetooth control and a bunch of gimmicky modes, give me a powerful light with basic timing control and I'm a happy man. After reading a ton of reviews these Viparspectra fixtures fit the bill and the budget. I was seriously considering halides or T5's but figured I'd try and stay in the 21st century haha.

I'll definitely post some updates once I get the new lights up and running, hopefully sometime over the weekend.
 
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Viparspectra's are up and running, first thoughts... These lights are awesome!

PXL_20231209_215114215.jpg


It is so nice to be able to setup the intensity and timers on the fixture with the turn of a knob. No firmware updates, no connectivity issues, no glitchy apps. It's simple, and it works. Love it.

The cooling fans are nearly silent, actually quieter than the Primes were! Although the cooling fans on the Primes are notorious for being super noisy haha. The included hanging kits also work as intended, nothing super fancy but it was nice that I didn't have to go out and buy them separately.

Spread and penetration are awesome, currently running them at 50% intensity on both channels and holy crap, these are bright! No more hotspots, and the increased light distribution is also evident in the huge reduction of shadowed areas under corals and overhangs. Also, basically no disco ball 'shimmer' at all. I know lots of people like that look but as someone who grew up using almost exclusively T5's, I've never been a fan.

For $135, these lights are a killer deal IMO. Guess we'll see how they hold up overtime but just looking at the overall quality of the fixture, I'm pretty confident these are going to last.

I'm very happy with the result!

PXL_20231209_215349495~2.jpg


PXL_20231209_215428459.jpg
 
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MoparMike97

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Just for fun, a comparison of the tank with AI Primes running at 90% on all channels (except red and green, 50%) versus Viparspectra's at 50% on both channels... Literally night and day haha

IMG_20231209_183503.jpg


And a few of the new toadstools from @TopShelfAquatics are starting to open up and look awesome!

TSA Glowworm, living up to it's name! (Taken under full daylight spectrum)
PXL_20231209_215136749~2.jpg

TSA Green Long-Polyp
PXL_20231209_215127128~2.jpg

TSA Green Japanese Deepwater, probably my favorite of the bunch. Love the minty green with fluffy white polyps.
PXL_20231209_215147849~2.jpg

Moved the other 3 yesterday, so they weren't pic worthy yet but I'm super happy with the health of these frags!
 

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