Starting over with a Tideline 47.5 gallon AIO

[Brody’s Reef]

Hey everyone! It’s finally time to get the new build thread going. If you want to check out my previous build thread it can be found here:

Build Thread - My reefing journey from 0 to an 80 gallon shallow reef

I moved to a new account to match my IG so I wanted to repost my build. So this thread is about a year late but I figured I should finally give it a shot. I’m almost a year into this hobby and my obsession hasn’t slowed a bit (just ask my fiancé). It all started with an Used Innovative Marine...

www.reef2reef.com

Long story short I spent about a year and a half building this 80 gallon shallow reef into what it was. I had plenty of ups and downs but all in all it was a very successfully mixed reef. However, early this year I found out I had to move and was unable to keep this tank. I decided to try and restart with something a bit smaller so it’s easier to maintain but hopefully just as stunning.

One of the main reasons I was able to start this build is do to my LFS. I lived in the St. Louis metro area and The Corner Reef was one of the best stores one could ask for. I was able to make a deal with the owner to trade in all of the fish, coral, and equipment (minus a couple things) for store credit towards the brand new Tideline 47.5 Gallon AIO system with the Planet Aquariums classic stand.

I was looking for a tank that was a bit smaller than what I had but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go as small as a 20-30 gallon because it would be a bit more restrictive for fish selections. Luckily my LFS is a dealer for Planet aquariums and they had one of the 47.5 gallon Tideline tanks.

Here is the current equipment setup:
light: 2 RedSea ReefLED 50s (left over from my old tank)
heater: Finnex 100w titanium
flow: stock return pump and AI Nero 5
ato: Tunze osmolator 3155 (left over from my old tank)
filtration: 2 mesh filter socks
sand: Fiji Pink
rock: dry Marco rock (the scape isn’t great right now I rushed it because I needed to get it cycling quickly)

I just moved into the new house and literally the first thing in the house was the new aquarium. I needed to hurry up and get it going before everything else because I new I needed to get the cycle going. The tank got wet about a week ago and I am cycling it with Fritz turbo start. I’ve used it on my previous tank and on this one I was a in a bit of a hurry to be able to add fish because I had my two black storm clownfish being held by the LFS. I’m planning on leaving the lights of for a month or so as of now. I know from experience that building a thriving ecosystem takes lots of time so I don’t plan on getting in a hurry with this one. I think for the first couple months I’m just going to keep the two clownfish and eventually add a cleanup crew. I’m not sure on exactly which direction I want the tank to go in terms of livestock so I’m going to take some time and think through what I might do in terms of both fish and coral.

That’s where I’m at for now thank you for stopping by! If you have any questions or comments please feel free to shoot them my way!

 

[TheWB]

Hey everyone! It’s finally time to get the new build thread going. If you want to check out my previous build thread it can be found here:

Build Thread - My reefing journey from 0 to an 80 gallon shallow reef

I moved to a new account to match my IG so I wanted to repost my build. So this thread is about a year late but I figured I should finally give it a shot. I’m almost a year into this hobby and my obsession hasn’t slowed a bit (just ask my fiancé). It all started with an Used Innovative Marine...

www.reef2reef.com

Long story short I spent about a year and a half building this 80 gallon shallow reef into what it was. I had plenty of ups and downs but all in all it was a very successfully mixed reef. However, early this year I found out I had to move and was unable to keep this tank. I decided to try and restart with something a bit smaller so it’s easier to maintain but hopefully just as stunning.

One of the main reasons I was able to start this build is do to my LFS. I lived in the St. Louis metro area and The Corner Reef was one of the best stores one could ask for. I was able to make a deal with the owner to trade in all of the fish, coral, and equipment (minus a couple things) for store credit towards the brand new Tideline 47.5 Gallon AIO system with the Planet Aquariums classic stand.

I was looking for a tank that was a bit smaller than what I had but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go as small as a 20-30 gallon because it would be a bit more restrictive for fish selections. Luckily my LFS is a dealer for Planet aquariums and they had one of the 47.5 gallon Tideline tanks.

Here is the current equipment setup:
light: 2 RedSea ReefLED 50s (left over from my old tank)
heater: Finnex 100w titanium
flow: stock return pump and AI Nero 5
ato: Tunze osmolator 3155 (left over from my old tank)
filtration: 2 mesh filter socks
sand: Fiji Pink
rock: dry Marco rock (the scape isn’t great right now I rushed it because I needed to get it cycling quickly)

I just moved into the new house and literally the first thing in the house was the new aquarium. I needed to hurry up and get it going before everything else because I new I needed to get the cycle going. The tank got wet about a week ago and I am cycling it with Fritz turbo start. I’ve used it on my previous tank and on this one I was a in a bit of a hurry to be able to add fish because I had my two black storm clownfish being held by the LFS. I’m planning on leaving the lights of for a month or so as of now. I know from experience that building a thriving ecosystem takes lots of time so I don’t plan on getting in a hurry with this one. I think for the first couple months I’m just going to keep the two clownfish and eventually add a cleanup crew. I’m not sure on exactly which direction I want the tank to go in terms of livestock so I’m going to take some time and think through what I might do in terms of both fish and coral.

That’s where I’m at for now thank you for stopping by! If you have any questions or comments please feel free to shoot them my way!

Looks great so far. Following along.

 

[ReeferBrah]

Hey! I'm looking at buying this tank. what do you think so far? I cant find many specs on it for the dimensions of the sump area and what could fit back there.

 

[Brody’s Reef]

Hey! I'm looking at buying this tank. what do you think so far? I cant find many specs on it for the dimensions of the sump area and what could fit back there.

I'm really loving the tank so far. Since it is a bigger AIO the rear chamber is much larger than I expected. Right now I haven't set up much in terms of filtration so I haven't tested out any skimmers or anything yet.

The filter sock chambers are roughly 5 1/2" x 3"
The return chamber is 9 1/2" x 3"
The other two chambers are 5 3/4" x 3"

So far the return pump has been great and it's dead silent. Also I like the built in random flow nozzle. I haven't had to add an extra powerhead yet. I plan to as I start adding more corals but for now it's plenty for LPS and softies. The one thing I'm expecting to not be fun is trying to clean that random flow nozzle when it gets covered in coralline algae.

 

[Brody’s Reef]

It’s been forever since I’ve posted an update here so here are a couple pictures.

Sorry I haven’t posted much I got really busy at the farm with harvest going so I’ve been just letting the tank chill and mature.

Let’s start with the not so good. My black storm clowns that I had in my previous tank were doing great for a few weeks then randomly died. Water tests came back fine so I took a close look at the tank And found that the used Nero 5 power head I had purchased has rust on the magnet inside of the tank. I pulled the power head out and did a couple water changes over the next couple weeks. After that I decided to pull the trigger on a royal gramma and it has been doing great ever since then.

After having the gramma for about 3 weeks I was comfortable putting some new fish and even corals in the tank.

Like I’ve said before I’m taking it really slow with this tank because 1. It’s my crazy busy time of year and 2. I’ve had multiple tanks before so I’m not as impatient as I used to be . So for starters I’ve added a Zoa frag, micromussa lord, and a frogspawn frag. Im using these as test corals so I can be sure that I can sustain and grow the types of corals I want to keep. I’ve also added another pair of clownfish because I can’t have a saltwater tank without a pair of clowns.

In the coming months as I add new equipment and corals I’ll do my best to keep this thread updated but I hope you enjoy!!!!

 

[MCLFLN]

It’s been forever since I’ve posted an update here so here are a couple pictures.

Sorry I haven’t posted much I got really busy at the farm with harvest going so I’ve been just letting the tank chill and mature.

Let’s start with the not so good. My black storm clowns that I had in my previous tank were doing great for a few weeks then randomly died. Water tests came back fine so I took a close look at the tank And found that the used Nero 5 power head I had purchased has rust on the magnet inside of the tank. I pulled the power head out and did a couple water changes over the next couple weeks. After that I decided to pull the trigger on a royal gramma and it has been doing great ever since then.

After having the gramma for about 3 weeks I was comfortable putting some new fish and even corals in the tank.

Like I’ve said before I’m taking it really slow with this tank because 1. It’s my crazy busy time of year and 2. I’ve had multiple tanks before so I’m not as impatient as I used to be . So for starters I’ve added a Zoa frag, micromussa lord, and a frogspawn frag. Im using these as test corals so I can be sure that I can sustain and grow the types of corals I want to keep. I’ve also added another pair of clownfish because I can’t have a saltwater tank without a pair of clowns.

In the coming months as I add new equipment and corals I’ll do my best to keep this thread updated but I hope you enjoy!!!!

How are things progressing? My daughter bought this same tank and set it up right before leaving for basic so I am now in charge till she gets back from that and training afterwards.

 

[Karl Sanders]

Any updates? How is the quality of the tank?

 

[Brody’s Reef]

Sorry for going MIA for so long but I finally have some updates.
Extremely long story short after my last update I got very busy with life, work, and the farm so I basically decided I was going to let the tank mature for a while. The plan was to keep up with water changes and maintenance but not adding much for livestock. Well shortly after my last post I got hit with dinos….

I’ve felt with dinos before no big deal right??? Just up my feeding and nutrients and all is well or at least so I thought…
I got the nutrient levels on track but I could still see the dinos every day and I was losing coral. My frogspawn shriveled and my forest fire digi was barely hanging on. The zoas weren’t opening for over a week so I knew I had to do something.

I got some advice from a good friend of mine who is a local fish store owner and he said to try adding some phyto in when I feed. So I did that for a couple weeks and I could tell it helped a little and the corals wanted to open more but I still couldn’t get passed the dinos. Finally I broke down and bought an 8 watt hang on UV sterilizer.

I don’t know why I was so hard headed and didn’t buy this thing months ago!! Within a couple days all the dinos were gone!!! Within a week all the corals were opening fully!

Now the tank is finally starting to settle and I feel comfortable adding more coral and fish. The current livestock is as follows:
2 clownfish
1 coral beauty
1 royal gramma
1 fang blenny (really cool fish)

assorted zoas
green torch
Monti cap
Forest fire digi (hopefully going to pull through)
A couple micromussa lords (acans)
orange mushroom

Now as for my thoughts on the tank:
BE CAREFUL SCRAPING THE GLASS!!!!
I cannot stress this enough. I’m sure it’s totally my fault for not paying close attention but the glass on this tank feels softer than most. I’ve already scratched it up pretty significantly with my flipper scrapper. The other thing to watch out for is the random flow nozzle really needs to be cleaned every once in a while. Which is no big deal normally but on this tank it is built into the back wall so in order to get it out you have to un-do the return plumbing.

Other than those 2 issues I really love this tank. It’s a great size and is perfect if you’re looking for a simple AIO aquarium.


Here are some pictures of the tank as it sits now.

As for future plans/updates right now I’ve got two battles going on since the war with dinos is over. Since increasing my nutrients and really seeing good growth I’ve seen some growth of pests as well. Right now I have a major bubble algae problem that I’m not sure how to deal with outside of attempting to siphon it up during water changes. The other issue is a couple aptasia have popped up but I can get those zapped no problem.

 

[Grumpyfish64]

I have a yellow striped fang blenny, and he is pretty cool. He always wants to know what you're doing. If you want to make yours more at home, get him a barnacle cluster. Mine made it his home right away.

Good luck with the bubble algae. I've had good luck with emerald crabs (I think I saw one in one of your photos), but your mileage may vary.

 

[JulieO]

Sorry for going MIA for so long but I finally have some updates.
Extremely long story short after my last update I got very busy with life, work, and the farm so I basically decided I was going to let the tank mature for a while. The plan was to keep up with water changes and maintenance but not adding much for livestock. Well shortly after my last post I got hit with dinos….

I’ve felt with dinos before no big deal right??? Just up my feeding and nutrients and all is well or at least so I thought…
I got the nutrient levels on track but I could still see the dinos every day and I was losing coral. My frogspawn shriveled and my forest fire digi was barely hanging on. The zoas weren’t opening for over a week so I knew I had to do something.

I got some advice from a good friend of mine who is a local fish store owner and he said to try adding some phyto in when I feed. So I did that for a couple weeks and I could tell it helped a little and the corals wanted to open more but I still couldn’t get passed the dinos. Finally I broke down and bought an 8 watt hang on UV sterilizer.

I don’t know why I was so hard headed and didn’t buy this thing months ago!! Within a couple days all the dinos were gone!!! Within a week all the corals were opening fully!

Now the tank is finally starting to settle and I feel comfortable adding more coral and fish. The current livestock is as follows:
2 clownfish
1 coral beauty
1 royal gramma
1 fang blenny (really cool fish)

assorted zoas
green torch
Monti cap
Forest fire digi (hopefully going to pull through)
A couple micromussa lords (acans)
orange mushroom

Now as for my thoughts on the tank:
BE CAREFUL SCRAPING THE GLASS!!!!
I cannot stress this enough. I’m sure it’s totally my fault for not paying close attention but the glass on this tank feels softer than most. I’ve already scratched it up pretty significantly with my flipper scrapper. The other thing to watch out for is the random flow nozzle really needs to be cleaned every once in a while. Which is no big deal normally but on this tank it is built into the back wall so in order to get it out you have to un-do the return plumbing.

Other than those 2 issues I really love this tank. It’s a great size and is perfect if you’re looking for a simple AIO aquarium.


Here are some pictures of the tank as it sits now.

As for future plans/updates right now I’ve got two battles going on since the war with dinos is over. Since increasing my nutrients and really seeing good growth I’ve seen some growth of pests as well. Right now I have a major bubble algae problem that I’m not sure how to deal with outside of attempting to siphon it up during water changes. The other issue is a couple aptasia have popped up but I can get those zapped no problem.

Your tank looks great! Any updates? I got one and am getting ready to start setting it up. I was wondering what are you running in the filter area? I am going from a 25 jbj nano to this tank. I can’t find much info out there so any advice is greatly appreciated. I have read your threads. Thank you!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Any updates on your tank?