Reef tank reloaded

reed.himes

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Started with an EVO which was great... after a month upgraded to a 75g. had it about 18 months and just upgraded to a 125. I have a 230 in the basement which will be my next bump. Learned a ton about keeping a reef tank. only had it stocked lightly. over the 18m, did lose all of the coral and some of the clean up crew, but no fish. i shouldn't have gotten the coral, I wasn't ready.

With the upgrade to the 125, thought I'd start a build thread as sort of a log. Hoping as i go people will offer advice. So I transferred all the stuff from the 75 to the 125. did add 40lbs of live sand. I did separate the 3 strip damsels and 2 azure damsels from the display tank. That leaves a clown fish, a purple back dottyback, and the clean up crew in the display tank. the damsel fish are currently in 2 of the sump tanks. They were always very aggressive but got worse as they aged.

Filtration wise, on top of the live rock and sand, have hang on the back filter. same one i used on the 75. I've added four 20g long under the 125 that will eventually be a sump. Yesterday I set up some temporary plumbing that cycles the water thru the 4 sump tanks and back to the display. That way i don't need to do anything extra for the damsel fish.

I bought 3 more fish and some algae a couple days ago, but they are in quarantine. I can already see worms in the algae.
125 initial setup.jpg
 

ReefRDY

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Looks good sucks you lost all of your corals, what kind of lights was you using?
 
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reed.himes

reed.himes

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Thanx... off to a good start... once I get some of the stuff perminantly in place, a carpenter friend of mine will pretty it up.

The light is from BeamsWorks... came with the 75, which i got used... i had some full spectrum LED shop lights I added to the 125 so the whole thing is covered. I need to address the lighting. I love DIY, so will need to do some research, but thinking I should be able to use LED strip lighting. I got a light meter this week, so will do some testing.

But I'm pretty sure the prob with the coral were water parameters.... i tend to overfeed.
 

ReefRDY

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I overfeed as well, fat fish looks beautiful. Maybe try something not so expensive like Ai brand, imo/exp diy costs almost the same as a quality purchase that works, but if you got it, go for it.
 
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reed.himes

reed.himes

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lol... i've found some stuff ending up more $$ trying the diy route... I have the parts left over from other projects, so it won't cost aything but time...

but i thought i read someplace that the cheaper lighting isn't very good for coral... even if it has the right spectrum, it lacks the necessary intensity... idk.... i guess that was another question i was going to research... but i'll add those brands to my research...
 

ReefRDY

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lol... i've found some stuff ending up more $$ trying the diy route... I have the parts left over from other projects, so it won't cost aything but time...

but i thought i read someplace that the cheaper lighting isn't very good for coral... even if it has the right spectrum, it lacks the necessary intensity... idk.... i guess that was another question i was going to research... but i'll add those brands to my research...
Good luck
 
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