reeftice 50 gallon tank

[reeftice]

After lurking for quite some time on the forums, I have decided to open a build thread here as well.

I'm Thijs, a Dutch reefer, living in Groningen, The Netherlands (thats 2 hours North of Amsterdam). I'm slowly progressing towards larger tanks, having started out 2.5 years ago with a small 15 gallon tank, then upgrading to a 30 gallon tank, and now having moved on to a 50 gallon tank. I'm sure once my wallet has grown some body again, I will upgrade a bit at some time

I am currently running an Eheim Proxima Reef 175 liter (46 gallon display tank, some 4-6 gallon in the sump). I use the following equipment:
- ATI sunpower 6x24W (3x B+, 2x AB+, 1x Actinic, I change them about every 7-8 months)
- Aqua Medic Evo 1000 Skimmer
- Tunze 6040 & Sicce nano 2000 for flow (thats 4000 + 2000 l/h)
- Wifi Doser

I dose EZ-DSR, which contains four components: KH-Buffer (Natrium Carbonate), Ca-buffer (Calcium Chloride + Strontium), Trace (Magnesium + Iodine and many others) and a Carbon source (Vinegar + Sugar + Iron chelate). With these, I try to keep my parameters stable at KH: 8, Ca: 440, NO3: 3, PO4: 0.06.

The tank has been running now for about 1 year after upgrading from the 30 gallon. Two months ago we moved house, so the current aquascape is now up for about 8 weeks. I'm again seeing some growth, and am generally very happy about how everything is panning out.

Upcoming plans are to get some more acros, and allow the current acros to grow out. Also, I'm making a DIY temp-ph sensor (arduino), and am looking forward to monitoring the pH of the tank. Also, I would like to add a Tridacna squamosa to the tank (already have a maxima that is doing really well).

Some pictures (I will post some better quality overview pictures later)

 

[ScottR]

Looks great! Welcome to R2R, the friendliest reefing community on earth.

 

[LiveWire]

Welcome to the Reef!! Very nice system! In the pictures I noticed that you don't seem to have many fish in this system.

 

[reeftice]

Looks great! Welcome to R2R, the friendliest reefing community on earth.

Thank you!

Welcome to the Reef!! Very nice system! In the pictures I noticed that you don't seem to have many fish in this system.

That is true - I like corals much more than fish. Also, I try to avoid any wildcaught fish if I can - I prefer to leave those in the ocean. My current inhabitants are:

2x A. ocellaris (tankbred)
2x P. fridmani (tankbred)
1x P. kauderni (tankbred)
1x Elacatinus oceanops (tankbred)
1x Synchiropus picturatus (LSD, WC, brought in to fight flatworms)
1x Salarias ramosus (bought from fellow reefer)
1x Yellow Watchman Goby (a goby-pistolshrimp pair was a must-have for my wife)

Apart from the fish, I have one cleaner shrimp, a pistolshrimp and a sally-lightfoot crab. (and some snails etc).

 

[Tiger Brown]

That tank is chock-full of goodies! Beautiful. Welcome to the community.

 

[reeftice]

List of corals and associated (probably incomplete):

Acropora tumida
Acropora hyacinthus
Acropora frogskin
Acropora humilis
Acropora echinata
Acropora sp. blue (?)
Acanthastrea
Alveopora sp.
Many different Zoanthus (LOTR, Eagle Eye, Lord of War etc)
Seriatopora caliendrum
Seriatopora hystrix (birdsnest)
Caulastrea
Cyphastrea
Duncan
Echinopora lamellosa
Fungia
Goniopora (red + green)
Heliopora coerulea (this one I'm particularly proud of, very hard to get)
Hydnophora
Montipora digitata
Montipora hirsuta
Montipora capricornis
Pavona maldiviensis ("sp gold")
Pavona decussata
Sarcophyton toadstools (3 different variants)
Stylophora "blue"
Stylophora "multicolor"
Pocillopora sp.
Ricordea florida orange
Tridacna maxima
Xenia sp.

 

[reeftice]

And some higher quality pictures:

I love this Lobophytum:

And some pictures of the inhabitants (they are much harder to photograph, so I often only do the corals)

 

[reeftice]

Did I already mention that I love shooting macro photos?

I use an Olympus TG-3 Diving camera, in macro setting. The advantage being that I can make the photographs up close: underwater.

Enjoy!

 

[reeftice]

The tank is thriving. I have just this week set up an auto-feeder (Oase FishGuard), and will be monitoring Nitrates and Fosfates the upcoming Month, before heading off on holiday next month. I'm currently using Bassleer M, but this seems a bit small, might consider using other granulate food.

So far, the Oase FishGuard looks awesome, with a rim-mount, and a travo to connect it to a power socket (you can supply it with batteries as a backup). I have used battery-based auto-feeders before (Eheim etc), but such batteries sometimes tend to run out before you return from holidays... I'd rather rely on the power grid! (which here in the Netherlands hasn't failed in quite some time now).

Also, I have bought some 'rescue corals' - off-color acros due to bad lighting in the shop. Curious to see how they will turn out in time.

The FishGuard:

Off-color-coral:

And some eye-candy:

 

[reeftice]

I have added a chiller for the summer, and the corals are looking better than ever!
Next week I'll be away on holidays, and a skeleton crew will maintain the tank, fingers crossed!

 

[reeftice]

Long time no post here I noticed! The tank survived three weeks of holidays quite admirably, partially due to the cooler.

Everything is coasting now, I added some new pieces from Joes Korallenfarm (came by on the way back from holiday).

Enjoy some pictures!

 

[reeftice]

Stuff is still going strong. Had some elevated PO4, so I've opted to add some rowaphos. Let's see how that helps.

Pics or it didn't happen!