Today (July 2022)
Dec 2021
Jan 2021
July 2020
Dec 2019
First post: July 10, 2022
I’ve been in the reefing hobby for about 15 years. After a couple years off following a move, I got back into it with this 75 gallon in Dec 2019.
Coral:
With a couple toddlers, the most important thing was to have easy to care for inhabitants, which are primarily favia, frogspawn, Zoas, and Montipora. I prefer a handful of really large colonies to a hundred tiny frags
Other Inverts:
-Blood Red fire shrimp
- Rock anem
Fish:
- 2X Classic osc clowns
- Royal Gramma
- 2X Green Chromis
- Kole Tang
- Coral Beauty
Fish QT: All fish get a strict QT with tank transfer method, velvet (36 hr transfer) protocol plus prazi. Firm believer in this, I haven’t lost a single fish once added to display. Had two losses when using cupramine prior to discovering TTM.
Started with dry rock and bare bottom (never again)
Equipment
Standard 75 gallon with sump
DIY Reef-Pi (ph monitor and temp control only)
Lighting
4xT5HOs (2X ATI blue plus, coral plus, purple plus bulbs)
DIY LED array, approx 100 watts, for shimmer and dusk dawn affects
Return Pump: Orlushy 9000 DC pump (cheap but effective)
Flow: An old Koralia and Jebao 0W40, no issues
Battery backup: DIY system with car battery attached to USB pump, provides flow for 7 days (hurricane area), automatically turns on when power cut
Skimmer: Reef octopus 110ext- recirculating, really easy to dial in and stable.
Media: BRS mini reactor with BRS high capacity GFO as needed and Rox carbon a few days every couple months
Salt: Reef crystals (since 2006). I buy in the 50 gallon bags, which I feel has better consistency than scraping the bottom of the bucket. I briefly switched to Instant Ocean and it caused a serious brown out.
Dosing: All for reef (the powder version) dosed by hand once a day
Params:
I only check params every few months or as needed. Most of the coral is growing at a nuisance, and all of the coral is growing at some rate. I check phosphate and alk every 2 months or so, mainly because I have chronically high phosphates. I can tell when alk gets low based on the shape of the PH curve
Phosphate: .15 - .50 PPM, not going to hide it, coral is happy and no algae (thanks kole tang)
Alk: 7.5-8.5
Calcium/ Mag/ Nitrate: No idea, I used to check regularly but haven’t checked in over a year, results were never noteworthy
Ph and Temp (from reef-pi)
LFS: World Wide Corals, I live in Central FL and stop by there every time we take kids to one of the theme parks, almost 100% of the coral is from them, mainly buy on eBay and pick up locally
Maintenance: 10 gallons every 2-3 weeks. Clean equipment every few months.
Challenges that have been overcome:
Hard first 18 months, didn’t realize how hard dry rock / bare bottom would be. Had all sorts of various slimes, bubble algae, and bryopsis (fixed with fluconazole), unhappy/ dying corals. Also got a Seneye par meter and found out I was frying everything with 600-800 par, definitely not something I would skip on in the future.
Reef-pi averted catastrophe about a year ago by alerting me of nearly overflowing tank when my overflow box lost siphon (aqua lifter pump seal went bad, have since gotten a better overflow with Utube).
Things I’m working on:
-Getting rid of red mushrooms, they are really aggressive.
-Building a house, tank move or upgrade coming in 6 months or so
Dec 2021
Jan 2021
July 2020
Dec 2019
First post: July 10, 2022
I’ve been in the reefing hobby for about 15 years. After a couple years off following a move, I got back into it with this 75 gallon in Dec 2019.
Coral:
With a couple toddlers, the most important thing was to have easy to care for inhabitants, which are primarily favia, frogspawn, Zoas, and Montipora. I prefer a handful of really large colonies to a hundred tiny frags
Other Inverts:
-Blood Red fire shrimp
- Rock anem
Fish:
- 2X Classic osc clowns
- Royal Gramma
- 2X Green Chromis
- Kole Tang
- Coral Beauty
Fish QT: All fish get a strict QT with tank transfer method, velvet (36 hr transfer) protocol plus prazi. Firm believer in this, I haven’t lost a single fish once added to display. Had two losses when using cupramine prior to discovering TTM.
Started with dry rock and bare bottom (never again)
Equipment
Standard 75 gallon with sump
DIY Reef-Pi (ph monitor and temp control only)
Lighting
4xT5HOs (2X ATI blue plus, coral plus, purple plus bulbs)
DIY LED array, approx 100 watts, for shimmer and dusk dawn affects
Return Pump: Orlushy 9000 DC pump (cheap but effective)
Flow: An old Koralia and Jebao 0W40, no issues
Battery backup: DIY system with car battery attached to USB pump, provides flow for 7 days (hurricane area), automatically turns on when power cut
Skimmer: Reef octopus 110ext- recirculating, really easy to dial in and stable.
Media: BRS mini reactor with BRS high capacity GFO as needed and Rox carbon a few days every couple months
Salt: Reef crystals (since 2006). I buy in the 50 gallon bags, which I feel has better consistency than scraping the bottom of the bucket. I briefly switched to Instant Ocean and it caused a serious brown out.
Dosing: All for reef (the powder version) dosed by hand once a day
Params:
I only check params every few months or as needed. Most of the coral is growing at a nuisance, and all of the coral is growing at some rate. I check phosphate and alk every 2 months or so, mainly because I have chronically high phosphates. I can tell when alk gets low based on the shape of the PH curve
Phosphate: .15 - .50 PPM, not going to hide it, coral is happy and no algae (thanks kole tang)
Alk: 7.5-8.5
Calcium/ Mag/ Nitrate: No idea, I used to check regularly but haven’t checked in over a year, results were never noteworthy
Ph and Temp (from reef-pi)
LFS: World Wide Corals, I live in Central FL and stop by there every time we take kids to one of the theme parks, almost 100% of the coral is from them, mainly buy on eBay and pick up locally
Maintenance: 10 gallons every 2-3 weeks. Clean equipment every few months.
Challenges that have been overcome:
Hard first 18 months, didn’t realize how hard dry rock / bare bottom would be. Had all sorts of various slimes, bubble algae, and bryopsis (fixed with fluconazole), unhappy/ dying corals. Also got a Seneye par meter and found out I was frying everything with 600-800 par, definitely not something I would skip on in the future.
Reef-pi averted catastrophe about a year ago by alerting me of nearly overflowing tank when my overflow box lost siphon (aqua lifter pump seal went bad, have since gotten a better overflow with Utube).
Things I’m working on:
-Getting rid of red mushrooms, they are really aggressive.
-Building a house, tank move or upgrade coming in 6 months or so
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