SDReef's 330G CDA Acropora Dominant Mixed Reef

[sdreef]

Some photos from today. All under daylights. I've started using a wider angle lens for many of the corals. The 100 mm macro is a little too tight on some of the corals. Fine for shooting polyps or small frags, but impossible to shoot a colony and hard to get a sense of the coral with that focal length.

Hawkins Echinata

BC Kermit Song Granulosa

RMF Jared's Bubble Yum

Malaysian tenuis, lost the colony, but frag survived. Colors aren't anything special, but by far my fuzziest tenuis.

A tenuis I picked up at Kung Fu Corals. Hard to capture the colors, but looks great in any lighting. Pops under blues

I thought I was going to lose this piece, but it survived and has recovered its color. A sapphire millie. Polyp extension was better, there was a ring of tissue at the base that had died and it wasn't encrusting down, so I recut and mounted it. It's healed down now, and polyp extension is improving again. Really would like to see this grow into a colony.

ASD Rainbow

Hung's Rainbow

My newest fish, yellow assessor. Not enough light to get a great photo. Really shy and hang out in the back mostly.

Potter's leopard wrasse

C. johnsoni

C. earlei

Pascalus anthias

Janns pipefish, by far the most difficult fish to photo. Out and about frequently, but hangs close to the rock work and the camera has a very difficult time focusing on him.

 

[squidarcher]

Just finished reading your whole thread, and I absolutely love your tank and fish selection. It’s everything I aspire to have for my own tank!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Some photos from today. All under daylights. I've started using a wider angle lens for many of the corals. The 100 mm macro is a little too tight on some of the corals. Fine for shooting polyps or small frags, but impossible to shoot a colony and hard to get a sense of the coral with that focal length.

Hawkins Echinata

BC Kermit Song Granulosa

RMF Jared's Bubble Yum

Malaysian tenuis, lost the colony, but frag survived. Colors aren't anything special, but by far my fuzziest tenuis.

A tenuis I picked up at Kung Fu Corals. Hard to capture the colors, but looks great in any lighting. Pops under blues

I thought I was going to lose this piece, but it survived and has recovered its color. A sapphire millie. Polyp extension was better, there was a ring of tissue at the base that had died and it wasn't encrusting down, so I recut and mounted it. It's healed down now, and polyp extension is improving again. Really would like to see this grow into a colony.

ASD Rainbow

Hung's Rainbow

My newest fish, yellow assessor. Not enough light to get a great photo. Really shy and hang out in the back mostly.

Potter's leopard wrasse

C. johnsoni

C. earlei

Pascalus anthias

Janns pipefish, by far the most difficult fish to photo. Out and about frequently, but hangs close to the rock work and the camera has a very difficult time focusing on him.

incredible photos as always! That pipefish is really neat too!

 

[sdreef]

Just finished reading your whole thread, and I absolutely love your tank and fish selection. It’s everything I aspire to have for my own tank!

Thanks, I appreciate that. I try to post about the issues that arise as well. I hope it was helpful.

incredible photos as always! That pipefish is really neat too!

Thanks! Captive bred, he lived in the refugium for the first 6 months or so until he had a little more size. Been in the display for over two years now. But I've found that the Janss and bluestripe pipefish are able to handle the flow in an sps system much better than would be expected.

 

[sdreef]

February FTS

 

[sdreef]

Hung's Rainbow (Under actinic XHO)

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Hung's Rainbow (Under actinic XHO)

amazing looking Acro!

 

[sdreef]

A few more shots under blues.

RRC Rainbow Splice

BC Cricket spine, came in light and small, coloring up and picking up the pace of growth

Sexy Coral's Orange Passion, a relatively recent addition after QT. Settled in quickly and appears ready to grow quickly.

Reefer's Cove Poison Envy

ASD Rainbow

RRC Jaw dropper. Looks nice, but it is small, and the slowest growing coral I own right now. It has a really nice combination of colors and a little vertical growth, but I'm ready to see it larger than a frag.

I need to re-shoot this with a wider angle. No name, but probably the nicest tenuis in the tank right now.

 

[sdreef]

Some daylight photos

CC Bahama Mama Millie

Copps 24K Millie

New addition, Icefire echinata

S.C.O.P

Gonzo's Cookie Monster

BC Rainbows Army

JF Homewrecker, recent addition

BC Cricket Spine

OG Purple Monster

RR Pink Floyd

FF Red Robin

Rainbow Loom

 

[IntrinsicReef]

December 2020

One Year

Two Years Old

Three years old

Since 2015, I've been keeping a 60 cube tank. I used dry rock and the system took some time to mature and eventually evolved into an acropora dominant mixed reef. I enjoy seeing larger colonies, but space was getting tight and with my wife's encouragement decided it was time for a larger system.

Here are the basics for the new set up.

Tank
Crystal Dynamics 84x34x27
Modular Marine External Overflow
1" Returns

Lighting
Halides, T5, and LED
Giesmann Spectra 72".
- 250 Watt Radiums x3 powered by IceCap Selectable Ballast running at 250 HQI
- Year 0-1 ATI Blue Plus x 4, Year 1-2 ATI blue plus x 3, purple plus x 1, Year 2-3 ATI B+ x 3, KZ Fiji Purple x 1
- Current T5s 3x ATI Blue Plus, 1x ATI coral plus
- Reef Brite XHO Blue 72" x 2
Photoperiod: Halides: 6 hrs, T5 10 hrs, LED 12 hrs

Sump
Geo 66x20x15
Drain | Mechanical Filtration | Skimmer | Dual Return | Refugium

Filtration
Dual Clarisea SK-5000
Skimmer: Bubble King Deluxe 200
Geo Media reactors x 2, RowaPhos changed every two weeks, ROX Carbon 2/3 cup x 1 week/ month

UV: Lifegard Promax 90 Watt (Offline January 2024)
Refugium: Lit by Reefbrite Lumilite Plantlyte 18", Added Tunze Eco Chic December 2022

Flow
MP40 x 2
MP60 x 4

Controller
- Neptune Apex

Chemistry
-Calcium Reactor: Deltec Twin Tech 1500 (Running TBD)
-Red Sea Dosing pump (Red Sea Foundation Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium)
-Avast K1 Kalk Stirrer (added August 2021, Offline September 2022)

Neptune Trident


Water
- Accounting for displacement approximately 260 gallons of water in system
- Salt: TM Pro, Changed to Aqua Forest Reef Salt September 2022

-Daily AWC with Neptune DOS, Volume 2021 10 L / day Increased to 20 L / day 2022 (2% / day).
- Mixing Station located in Garage
- ATO reservoir located in garage 90 feet from Tank
- ATO Tunze Osmolator with Spectrapure WXM Pump (Gen 7) located under tank by sump

I never did a build thread for my prior tank so I'll post some progression shots

2015

2016

2017

2019

2020

Is that a yellow arc-eye hawkfish?? Am I missing out? Is that a thing?

 

[IntrinsicReef]

Also, amazing pictures. I think you should change your name to UHDreef

 

[sdreef]

Is that a yellow arc-eye hawkfish?? Am I missing out? Is that a thing?

That's a Tahitian golden hawkfish, Paracirrhites xanthus. Was a great fish, I ultimately removed him as he was a little aggressive toward some of the new wrasse.

Also, amazing pictures. I think you should change your name to UHDreef

Thanks! It's a good way to keep an eye on the tank. I usually wake up before the family and have some time on the weekends to take some shots. I use a 100mm macro for a lot of the fish photos. I find it's a great portrait lense and adds some magnification. It's a challenge shooting fast moving wrasse with a 100mm lens at times, but that's part of the fun. For the coral shots, I've started to use a 24-105 mm lens with an extension tube to cut the focusing distance. I was using the 100mm macro, but it's too tight at times based on the setup of the tank.

 

[Mwatts12]

@sdreef

Just curious as to why you took your UV offline?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Some daylight photos

CC Bahama Mama Millie

Copps 24K Millie

New addition, Icefire echinata

S.C.O.P

Gonzo's Cookie Monster

BC Rainbows Army

JF Homewrecker, recent addition

BC Cricket Spine

OG Purple Monster

RR Pink Floyd

FF Red Robin

Rainbow Loom

Loving all of the frags!

 

[IntrinsicReef]

That's a Tahitian golden hawkfish, Paracirrhites xanthus. Was a great fish, I ultimately removed him as he was a little aggressive toward some of the new wrasse.




Thanks! It's a good way to keep an eye on the tank. I usually wake up before the family and have some time on the weekends to take some shots. I use a 100mm macro for a lot of the fish photos. I find it's a great portrait lense and adds some magnification. It's a challenge shooting fast moving wrasse with a 100mm lens at times, but that's part of the fun. For the coral shots, I've started to use a 24-105 mm lens with an extension tube to cut the focusing distance. I was using the 100mm macro, but it's too tight at times based on the setup of the tank.

Yes, I have seen Hawkfish be aggressive. Especially with inverts. I have stopped keeping them in reefs and I miss their behavior. It somewhat comical how they sink like little stones. I still keep a few in client's fish-only systems. I will keep my eye out for the Golden Hawk. That is a cool fish
Thanks for the data on how you shoot. I need to practice and learn more but it is time consuming.

 

[sdreef]

@sdreef

Just curious as to why you took your UV offline?

I have an atypical microbiome and part of it is affected by the UV sterilizer. I just questioned whether it was necessary. It's killing some bacterial families in the water, and I questioned if that was leading to the dominance of other perhaps less favorable families.

Also, I haven't been adding new fish and those that I do are generally QT'd so I decided to turn it off and see what happens. I have some before and after biome analyses I'll share in the future, but I haven't observed any difference with regards to the fish or any negative for the corals at this point after 2 months.

Loving all of the frags!

Thanks!

WWC Allstar (Under Actinic XHO)

Yes, I have seen Hawkfish be aggressive. Especially with inverts. I have stopped keeping them in reefs and I miss their behavior. It somewhat comical how they sink like little stones. I still keep a few in client's fish-only systems. I will keep my eye out for the Golden Hawk. That is a cool fish
Thanks for the data on how you shoot. I need to practice and learn more but it is time consuming.

I miss the hawkfish for his behavior too. I tried to add a small flame hawk, but the clownfish pair hunted him down and ultimately he succumbed to the stress. Was a little surprised the lengths of their aggression.

I tried adding a few geometric pygmy hawks. You can keep multiple as they're actually more closely related to anthias but behave and appear similar to hawkfish. When I dive, I love seeing the fish perched in the branches of the corals and I was envisioning replicating that in the system with the fish perched in the stags. It did not work out, and I would recommend those fish for a small or nano tank in the future.

 

[sdreef]

@SaltyT , new wrasse addition

P. attenuatus, small male is acclimating to the system well.

The hemitaeniatus is quite a bit larger and so far no compatibility issues

 

[Gumbies R Us]

P. attenuatus, new addition, small male is acclimating to the system well.

The hemitaeniatus is quite a bit larger and so far no compatibility issues

Awesome looking P. attenuatus!

 

[sdreef]

Awesome looking P. attenuatus!

Thanks, a diamond tail has been on my wish list for a long time. IME flashers are often timid in my system due the number of larger wrasse in the system, but this guy has been relatively bold and has acclimated to the system well.

Potter's leopard

 

[drawman]

Nice work getting that purple monster!