Skimmerless 15-Gallon Mixed Reef

[Alexraptor]

Stuff grows like weeds!

And this is even with me slacking off for the past few months, due to various "life issues".

 

[Philip Chin]

Beautiful tank! How much are you dosing daily?

 

[bo0sted2g]

That Brain Coral rescue before and after photo is insane! Bravo! Just read through the whole journey and look forward to following along.

 

[Alexraptor]

Beautiful tank! How much are you dosing daily?

Right now I've been slacking off heavily, due to distractions irl, so i barely dose 18ml of AFR a day, which is on the low side, since i used to be dosing around 24-26ml daily, like clockwork.

 

[Jacked Reefer]

Gorgeous tank! I have my sights set on something similar. Do you think there has been anything paramount to success other than keeping it KISS?

 

[Alexraptor]

Gorgeous tank! I have my sights set on something similar. Do you think there has been anything paramount to success other than keeping it KISS?

Well, personally I absolutely swear by live rock and view it as a critical component! The more diversity in a system the better, as long as you avoid the nasties.

That said, even awful pests like fulgida worms have their upsides, as they do ensure the tank stays free of vermetid snails, so there's that. :grinning-face-with-sweat:

 

[Jacked Reefer]

Well, personally I absolutely swear by live rock and view it as a critical component! The more diversity in a system the better, as long as you avoid the nasties.

That said, even awful pests like fulgida worms have their upsides, as they do ensure the tank stays free of vermetid snails, so there's that. :grinning-face-with-sweat:

Love it! I was planning to order rock from TBS anyways, I've run a few tanks and the ones with real ocean rock or rock cycled for 5+ years are monumentally easier to care for, seems like the only option for a super low tech tank. Plus all the fun little goodies!

 

[Alexraptor]

A temporary ugly phase, so to speak.

The massive red and green monti cap colonies weren't maintainable here, in the long run. So i decided to pull them out and migrate them to their own tank.

Moved a couple of the rocks around and added another mature piece to the system, in order to fill the void. Populated it with a Tenuis frag, and a couple of branching montis, as well as a tiny bali slimer rescue-frag in a recess up top. All branching corals, which are much easier to maintain at size.

I've left the monti cap growth of the walls, but from here on out, I'm snapping any plates growing out, that reach any significant size.

 

[Alexraptor]

Looking a wee better. Ended up moving a couple of colonies over from one of my other tanks. The hydnophora had been unhappy and stinging the crap out of everything, in a high flow system. But got a nice little spot for it here where it's only immediate neighbors are star polyps and an anemone.

Red Monti is growing really nicely. It's hard to believe there's a rounded frag plug underneath, that had a salvaged frag that was so tiny it just fell into the mounting hole!

 

[Arkardios]

Just an awesome, healthy tank!
Love the shape, too! What are the dimensions on it?

 

[Alexraptor]

Just an awesome, healthy tank!
Love the shape, too! What are the dimensions on it?

Thanks!

It has about a 60x30x35cm footprint, with the two angled corners being about 13cm wide.

 

[Alexraptor]

Been very busy and honestly slacking off a lot more than i should, but this tank just keeps ticking, even during periods of inattention. Benign neglect?

Had to trim back the Euphyllia a bit, as it was starting to sting the acro in the corner. The hydnophora also got kicked out, due to it releasing too much nematocyst-laced slime in the tank. Place another Euphyllia branch there instead, but i'm probably going to have to remove it as it's succumbing to the star polyps instead.