My 57G Illuminata

[Arron209]

Hey everyone, been kinda a long time lurker on these forums but i thought I'd share my tank's progress. I had setup the tank in 2012 but tore it down last year. Just Started it back up this past December. It's going to be mainly a SPS dominated system.

Anyways here are the specs:

Main
Tank: 36"x18"x21" Oceanic Rimless Illuminata
Stand: 34" tall a local pet store had built for me

Filtration
20 gallon sump that I made myself
SWC Xtreme 160 cone skimmer
TLF phosban reactor for GFO
GAC in media bag

Water Movement
Eheim Compact+ 3000 as return pump
2x VorTech MP40w ES

Lighting
ATI Sunpower 6x39w

Dosing
2x BRS 1.1mL/min dosers dosing brs 2 part alk and cal
Mag is dosed manually

Everything is controlled with a Reefkeeper Lite

Here are some progress pics from before it was taken down:

And here it is today:

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

Very nice! Thank you for sharing! :)

 

[kschweer]

Great looking tank! Can't wait to see more pictures.

 

[Arron209]

Here's a few pics from my iphone while the blue+ bulbs were on.

 

[Arron209]

Rearranged some frags and decided to take a quick picture.

 

[rboutin111]

Looking good. I'm in the process of setting up the same rank, different company. Keep up the good work.

 

[Humblefish]

Nice tank! Always loved the 57 gal.

 

[Arron209]

Quick update, everything seems to be doing good so far. Colors are a little pale for my liking, maybe because the bioload is pretty small. I might add a few more fish slowly and raise the nutrients up a little bit.

Also here's a FTS borebottom + frags = ugly tank lol

 

[Arron209]

Got some more sps and also some fish. Everything is looking happier now that i have a few more fish.

 

[Arron209]

Tested my calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium this morning. Haven't tested calcium in a couple weeks. I check alk every two days and magnesium every month. Number came back 420ppm a little lower than the 450ish I've been keeping it and alkalinity was at 7.8dKH, also lower than usual. I increased the dosing a little to bring these back up. Ive added a few sps frags in the last week so I'm thinking the tank is consuming more. Magnesium is at 1320, I might bump it up a little bit also.

I've been keeping my parameters at:
450ppm cal
8-8.5dKH alk
1350ppm mag

What do you guys think as far as keeping sps goes?

 

[SPS_]

Looks good to me. As long as you keep your parameters stable you will be fine.

 

[revhtree]

Looking great!

 

[Arron209]

Thanks guys. I'm just trying to keep all the parameters as stable as possible and trying to be patient with everything.

 

[SloppyJ]

Whats up with the removal of the sand?

 

[Arron209]

Whats up with the removal of the sand?

Wanted to have a lot more flow and you can't with sand. It helps me keep my tank cleaner and my sps love the extra flow.

Barebottom FTW!

 

[Arron209]

Quick update:

 

[SPS_]

This will look sick when it fills in

 

[revhtree]

Nice!