Surfzone
Well-Known Member
About two months ago I started my long journey across the US. I drove from Sacramento, California to Charleston, South Carolina. In California I had a 60 gallon sps reef and a 30 gallon seahorse reef (3 H. erectus and an orange spot goby filled with gorgonian.) Now that I am out of the Air Force, and settled in to my new home in Charleston I decided to set up the 30 gallon as a start to what I hope to be a successful reef.
I'm planning the tank to be an Sps dominant tank with a few LPS. The tank is a marineland 27 cube drilled with an eshops nano sump. This brings total water volume to around 30 gallons. The drain line is hard pvc and the return is braided flex tubing. I decided to use a mix of equipment that I had in the 60 gallon reef and the seahorse reef.
Flow is by 2 ecotech mp10s and the return is a Vectra S1. The Vectra just fits is the return section with the sensors for the ATO( neptune systems ATK1 without the float switch). The input for top off water is on top of the drain. I may switch this later because when it fills the water level gets a little high. I do have an APEX on this system ( came from the old 60g reef) along with a trident. I got the Trident as I was leaving California in October. I was on their waiting list since April and after all my stuff was in the movers van I get a call saying that my Trident was in and if I still wanted it lol. I picked it up the next day and I had to ride with me in the car all the way to the east coast. So Anyway back to the equipment. My skimmer is a Reef Octopus Regal 150-S which may be a bit overkill for this tank. I may have to down grade it once I get serious about putting corals in the tank. I will be using a Geo's reef calcium reactor to dose calcium and alkalinity. The efluent line goes into the sumps drane section as well in order to off gas as much CO2 as possible. For now my lighting is provided by an ecotech radion XR 15 Pro with diffuser.
I used about 15 to 20 lbs of real reef rock and going bare bottom. I did a fishless cycle with Dr. Tim's one and only. I'll be adding pods ( tispe and A. Panaminsis) soon to go with the cleanup crew I added this week ( turbo and cerith snails 10 each)
As far as fish go I'm thinking:
Royal gramma
Flame angel ( Cook Islands I understand. have a less tendency to nip coral but Go after algae. Here's to hoping that that is true)
Orange spot Blenny
Pair of Bangii Cardinals
This list is subject to change as I may find other fish more suited to this tank or that shrink my fancy.
I may be trying out a few cheap tester corals this weekend to see how they react the system. And since I'm done dosing Dr. Tim's I may start a dosing regimen of Micro Bacter 7. My ammonia and nitrites are at 0 so I may try a fish this weekend rather than the corals. This tank has started the ugly phase of diatoms so I'm leaning on the fish rather than coral. I would like to find a lb or 2 of aged live rock to put in the tank just to seed more and different stranes of bacteria. There is a great discussion over in the SPS forum about leveraging bacteria for a successful tank with sps especially new tanks.
Here are a few pics this is before I filled it with water that is a 20 gallon tank next to is for top off water.
The Unicorn
sump
I'm planning the tank to be an Sps dominant tank with a few LPS. The tank is a marineland 27 cube drilled with an eshops nano sump. This brings total water volume to around 30 gallons. The drain line is hard pvc and the return is braided flex tubing. I decided to use a mix of equipment that I had in the 60 gallon reef and the seahorse reef.
Flow is by 2 ecotech mp10s and the return is a Vectra S1. The Vectra just fits is the return section with the sensors for the ATO( neptune systems ATK1 without the float switch). The input for top off water is on top of the drain. I may switch this later because when it fills the water level gets a little high. I do have an APEX on this system ( came from the old 60g reef) along with a trident. I got the Trident as I was leaving California in October. I was on their waiting list since April and after all my stuff was in the movers van I get a call saying that my Trident was in and if I still wanted it lol. I picked it up the next day and I had to ride with me in the car all the way to the east coast. So Anyway back to the equipment. My skimmer is a Reef Octopus Regal 150-S which may be a bit overkill for this tank. I may have to down grade it once I get serious about putting corals in the tank. I will be using a Geo's reef calcium reactor to dose calcium and alkalinity. The efluent line goes into the sumps drane section as well in order to off gas as much CO2 as possible. For now my lighting is provided by an ecotech radion XR 15 Pro with diffuser.
I used about 15 to 20 lbs of real reef rock and going bare bottom. I did a fishless cycle with Dr. Tim's one and only. I'll be adding pods ( tispe and A. Panaminsis) soon to go with the cleanup crew I added this week ( turbo and cerith snails 10 each)
As far as fish go I'm thinking:
Royal gramma
Flame angel ( Cook Islands I understand. have a less tendency to nip coral but Go after algae. Here's to hoping that that is true)
Orange spot Blenny
Pair of Bangii Cardinals
This list is subject to change as I may find other fish more suited to this tank or that shrink my fancy.
I may be trying out a few cheap tester corals this weekend to see how they react the system. And since I'm done dosing Dr. Tim's I may start a dosing regimen of Micro Bacter 7. My ammonia and nitrites are at 0 so I may try a fish this weekend rather than the corals. This tank has started the ugly phase of diatoms so I'm leaning on the fish rather than coral. I would like to find a lb or 2 of aged live rock to put in the tank just to seed more and different stranes of bacteria. There is a great discussion over in the SPS forum about leveraging bacteria for a successful tank with sps especially new tanks.
Here are a few pics this is before I filled it with water that is a 20 gallon tank next to is for top off water.
The Unicorn
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