Hello everyone!
After getting my reef to a point where it's coasting and mostly established, I tried to look back at my progress from the beginning and sadly realized i am terrible at documenting anything. So I want to start now and hopefully be able to look back at this thread in a few years to see just how far I've come. Of course, I also want to make this thread so that I can get help from everyone at Reef2Reef because there is a goldmine of knowledge here and it would be foolish to not tap into that.
I've been part of the aquarium hobby for around 12 years I think but it's only been 8 months since I dove into the saltwater side. Coming from a high tech planted tank set up, I figured I was up to the challenge of keeping a reef and honestly, reefing really is less work overall in comparison to planted freshwater as long as you get the right equipment and stay on top of testing.
My tank is a 150 gallon marineland deep dimension that has been reinforced and passed around our local reefing scene a few times. Let's just say its pretty well used at this point but as a broke college student, i'm not complaining. It measures 4ft wide by 2ft deep and 30 inches high. The height is a pain to work with and i'd definitely prefer no more than 24 inches high for a tank. Future upgrade is definitely on my mind but not for many years to come I'm sure.
I actually kept a previous reef tank before the 150 which i'll tag here. All livestock transferred over to this one as someone in the local scene wanted to trade his 150 for a 50 gallon. It was just too good of a deal to pass up. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sabdalis-50-gallon-lagoon.681993/
For tank equipment:
Lights - 48 inch aquaticlife T5 Hybrid with 2 hydra 26hd. 2 blue plus, 1 coral plus, 1 purple bulb
Wavemakers - 2 x Icecap Gyre 3k , 2 x sicce syncra powerheads
Return pump - Current USA Eflux 1900
Skimmer - Reef Octopus Classic 150ss (definitely undersized for my tank)
Ato - Tunze Osmolator
I am also running a 3 ft sump underneath with a 1 cubic foot section dedicated to a refugium for additional nutrient control. Chaeto grows like crazy in there which lets me run an undersized skimmer without much nutrient issues.
As this is a mixed reef, it's definitely packed with coral. I won't list the coral as i'm really bad with names but I have multiple different sps, lps, gonis, zoas, and shrooms in here and it's been fun trying to manage all of the various requirements for the tank.
My fish list is on the lighter side in my opinion for the tank. I have:
Midas blenny
2 Oscellaris Clowns
Tomini Tang
Sailfin Tang (will sell or upgrade as he gets bigger)
Diamond Goby
Melanurus Wrasse
Purple Firefish
Blue Damsel
Mandarin Goby
Coral Beauty Angelfish (he's picking at my acans
Here's a FTS
Here's one from the side view
And some more photos of the tank
I just looked back at the photos and realize they're pretty dim unfortunately. I promise they looked good on my phone where I took them haha. I'll raise the exposure on the next photos for future updates
After getting my reef to a point where it's coasting and mostly established, I tried to look back at my progress from the beginning and sadly realized i am terrible at documenting anything. So I want to start now and hopefully be able to look back at this thread in a few years to see just how far I've come. Of course, I also want to make this thread so that I can get help from everyone at Reef2Reef because there is a goldmine of knowledge here and it would be foolish to not tap into that.
I've been part of the aquarium hobby for around 12 years I think but it's only been 8 months since I dove into the saltwater side. Coming from a high tech planted tank set up, I figured I was up to the challenge of keeping a reef and honestly, reefing really is less work overall in comparison to planted freshwater as long as you get the right equipment and stay on top of testing.
My tank is a 150 gallon marineland deep dimension that has been reinforced and passed around our local reefing scene a few times. Let's just say its pretty well used at this point but as a broke college student, i'm not complaining. It measures 4ft wide by 2ft deep and 30 inches high. The height is a pain to work with and i'd definitely prefer no more than 24 inches high for a tank. Future upgrade is definitely on my mind but not for many years to come I'm sure.
I actually kept a previous reef tank before the 150 which i'll tag here. All livestock transferred over to this one as someone in the local scene wanted to trade his 150 for a 50 gallon. It was just too good of a deal to pass up. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sabdalis-50-gallon-lagoon.681993/
For tank equipment:
Lights - 48 inch aquaticlife T5 Hybrid with 2 hydra 26hd. 2 blue plus, 1 coral plus, 1 purple bulb
Wavemakers - 2 x Icecap Gyre 3k , 2 x sicce syncra powerheads
Return pump - Current USA Eflux 1900
Skimmer - Reef Octopus Classic 150ss (definitely undersized for my tank)
Ato - Tunze Osmolator
I am also running a 3 ft sump underneath with a 1 cubic foot section dedicated to a refugium for additional nutrient control. Chaeto grows like crazy in there which lets me run an undersized skimmer without much nutrient issues.
As this is a mixed reef, it's definitely packed with coral. I won't list the coral as i'm really bad with names but I have multiple different sps, lps, gonis, zoas, and shrooms in here and it's been fun trying to manage all of the various requirements for the tank.
My fish list is on the lighter side in my opinion for the tank. I have:
Midas blenny
2 Oscellaris Clowns
Tomini Tang
Sailfin Tang (will sell or upgrade as he gets bigger)
Diamond Goby
Melanurus Wrasse
Purple Firefish
Blue Damsel
Mandarin Goby
Coral Beauty Angelfish (he's picking at my acans
Here's a FTS
Here's one from the side view
And some more photos of the tank
I just looked back at the photos and realize they're pretty dim unfortunately. I promise they looked good on my phone where I took them haha. I'll raise the exposure on the next photos for future updates
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