Sudz 60 gallon Reef

[SudzFD]

Time for a new build thread! About 6 months ago I upgraded my 36 g bowfront that was basically fish only with live rock and nems into a new 60 gallon tank.

The tank is a Clear for Life Acrylic tank. I reused my heater and Jebao wave maker from the first tank. I also brought over all my live rock while adding a few more pieces.

I decided to use the Aquamaxx Hf-M hang in back skimmer and filter combo. The skimmer is great and then water passes through mechanical and bio filtration and goes into a final chamber which I setup as a mini Refugium with Chaeto. I have a submersible light in there 24/7. I also setup my dosing tubes to inject into there.



I have two Smatfarm LED lights I am using and also A Fluval aquasky for moonlight ambiance for a few hours after the SmatFarm shuts down. Fish are fed by a WiFi iLONDA feeder when I’m not supplementing with frozen foods. I have a four zone Jebao dosing pump and I am dosing B-ionic calcium and Alkalinity. I also am dosing my RO water as an ATO.

Stocking:

I have a blue and yellow damsel, two Oscellaris clowns, one of which turned black! $18 for a designer clown yes! I have a cleaner wrasse and a pink and yellow pseudochromis.

inverts, I have cleanup crew of various snails and hermits, a sand sifting star, and a cleaner and peppermint shrimp and a pincushion urchin

I have three bubble tip anemones, a condylactus.

I also have as far as corals,

a montipora Frag, a green mushroom, a branching hammer, a frogspawn, and an i to spawn. I have a large zoa colony, and a carnation coral as well as a small toadstool. I also have a large Acan Colony and a maxima clam.

so far tank is running well and fish are great and corals seem active when I feed them reef roids and are soaking up the light from the SmatFarms.

I’ve been in the hobby off and on for 20 years and feel it’s finally coming together. Hope you enjoy the pics and setup and let me know if you have any questions or feedback.

 

[blaxsun]

Corals are looking good!

 

[SudzFD]

Hey guys,

I thought it might be time for an update to my build thread. This is my 60g reef tank that I set up over 2 years ago. Two years later and things are going well. All equipment is running well and just routine maintenance issues. I setup my AQUAMAXX HFM HOB filter to have a Refugium in back I grow Cheeto and pods back there and it seems to do really well.

My branching hammer has grown from 1 head to about 15 heads.

My montipora has grown from half dollar size to about 10” across.

One mushroom has grown to 6.

I continue to dose Bionic part A and B and use my dosing pump as an ATO.

My fish are all doing well. One of the clownfish is hosting a bubble top but the other two prefer the corner of the tank

Small blue Hippo tang has been in for about 9 months and doing great. Bi color pseudochromis is doing great and I lost my cleaner wrasse early on and went with a clown wrasse as a replacement. All fish are doing really well.

Now for some of the struggles.

The fan stopped working on one of my lights but Smatfarm replaced it for free for me. The new light and the other original one have been great.

My bubble tips went from 3 to about 25. They completely took over and when I was busy and not paying attention the bubble tips killed a lot of my Acans. I spent a considerable amount of time removing most of the bubble tips and selling them to my LFS and some other local hobbyists. I now have about 7 but may decrease the population more.

With the cleared out space I placed an octospawn a death spiral monti and some glove polyps so those are the newest additions.

I’ve realized over the last two years that sometimes less can be more. Less fussing with the tank meant more stability overall, but to a point since I let the bubble tips get out of control.

Posting some pics below for you guys.

 

[SudzFD]

A few photos with an aquarium camera app. This is more how they look in person under white lights. They all seem to be doing well and my Acans are bouncing back after being rescued from being overtaken by BTA’s.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Your tank looks great!

 

[SudzFD]

Your tank looks great!

Thank you, it’s been a long time to finally feel like I have a good setup going. My system is minimalist but successful and I think there’s maybe something to that. I might have to start a thread one day to more detail how I have it working and exact day to day details. Maybe could be helpful for those looking to break in to the reef tank.

At the end of the day, a mature tank makes everything easier and patience is so necessary when trying to keep these reefs.