My mixed reef 50 gallon cube tank made by SCA.
Aquarium Profile and Equipment
- What type of saltwater aquarium is this?
- Mixed Reef
- Total Water Volume
- 50
- When did you start this tank?
- May 1, 2020
- What is your aquarium made of?
- Glass
- Aquarium Length (inches)
- 24
- Aquarium Width (inches)
- 24
- Aquarium Height (inches)
- 20
- Aquarium Overflow/Drain
- Internal Overflow
- Aquarium Sump
- YES
- Sump Water Volume
- 15
- Aquarium Stand
- Wood SCA stand came with tank.
- Aquarium Controller
- NO
- Protein Skimmer
- YES
- Protein Skimmer Make and Model
- Bubble Magus Z6
- Aquarium Reactors
- Carbon
- GFO
- Return Pump
- SICCE Syncra Silent 3.5
- What types of equipment are you using for water flow and circulation?
- Wavemaker
- Water Flow and Circulation Equipment List
- Ecotech MP10 and AI Nero 3
- Aquarium Lighting
- LED
- Lighting Equipment List
- Radion XR15 Pro and Reefbrite K15 XHO kit.
- Lighting PAR and Goals
- I get about 125 to about 200 in the center at the sand bed and 250 to about 300 across the top of my scape. I am running the Radion XR15 on the AB+ spectrum at 98% schedule intensity from 11am to 10pm. The reefbrite XHOs are on from 11:30am to 9:30pm with 30 minutes ramp up and down on either side and run at 100% throughout the day. I don't plan to go beyond that considering it's a mixed reef. My acros could grow a little quicker with more light but I don't want to burn any of my LPS and this seems to be a sweet spot where almost everybody in the tank is happy.
- Dosing Equipment
- Other
- Dosing Equipment Detail
- Kamoer X1 dosing pump dosing All For Reef
- Auto Top Off or ATO
- YES
- Aquarium Heating and Cooling
- I am using a heater or heaters
- Water Temperature
- 78
- Heating and Cooling Equipment Detail
- BRS Titanium heater on IM Helio temp controller.
Aquarium Water Chemistry and Parameters
- pH Level
- 8.15
- Specific Gravity
- 1.026
- Nitrate or NO3
- 5 ppm
- Phosphate or PO4
- 0.04
- Calcium
- 475
- Alkalinity
- 8.5
- Magnesium
- 1450
- Salt Brand
- Aquaforest Reef Salt
- Trace Element Dosing
- All For Reef through doser takes care of most of it. Potassium (Brightwell Aquatics Potassion-P), Iodine (Red Sea Iodine or Seahem's Reef Iodide), and BRS Magnesium in top off water when needed.
Aquarium Natural and Mechanical Filtration
- Substrate
- Sand
- Substrate Level
- Shallow
- Live Rock
- 40
- Live Rock Type
- CaribSea base rock
- Nutrient Export
- Refugium
- Macro Algae
- Protein Skimmer
- Filter Sock
- GFO
- Carbon
- Other Chemical
- Water Changes
- YES
- Water Change Details
- 5 gallons (10%) every two or three weeks.
- Nutrient Export Details
- I use the finest micron filter socks I can find which means I have to change them out daily but they also catch most of the waste moving around my system. I carbon dose 0.75ml of vodka daily into the aquarium and skim heavy to pull as much out as possible. The vodka and coral take care of most of my nitrates so running a bit of GFO helps take care of the rest of the phosphates. My chaeto algae in the refugeum is not growing all that great but it's mostly there as a back up and occasionally when I feed extra heavy it goes through periods of explosive growth. Otherwise, my nutrients stay pretty low and water changes are mostly done for anything my filtration doesn't get. I feed heavy and dose phyto and feed coral with no real worries.
Aquarium Tank Inhabitants (fish, coral, invert etc.)
- Fish List
- Blenny
- Clownfish
- Goby
- Surgeonfish Tang
- Wrasse
- Total Fish
- 6
- Coral List
- SPS Coral
- LPS Coral
- Zoanthids
- Mushroom Coral
- Total Corals
- 85
- Invert List
- Anemone
- Crabs
- Starfish
- Shrimp
- Snails
- Clams
- Urchin
- Other
- Livestock Detail
- Two ocellaris clownfish (Bill & Ted), one lawnmower blenny (Lemmy), a tomini tang (Wanda Bodine), a melenurus wrasse (Gomez), and a yellow watchman goby (Allan Moore) with his tiger pistol shrimp (Hellboy). Inverts also include a maxima clam, a rainbow bubbletip anemone, a skunk cleaner shrimp, a coral banded shrimp, a tuxedo urchin, a halloween urchin, a tiger conch, an emerald crab and a handful of snails and hermits along with an army of mini starfish and limpets living in the rocks.
- Livestock Quarantine
- No Quarantine
Aquarium Nutrition (fish, coral, invert etc. feeding)
- Fish Feeding Frequency
- Multiple Daily Feedings
- Coral Feeding Frequency
- A Few Times Weekly
- Fish and Coral Feeding
- Pellet
- Frozen
- Algae Strips
- Auto Feeder
- Trips Only
Additional Aquarium Information
- What do you think are the keys to your success in reefing?
- Treat the tank like an eco-system and not a collection of individual pets. Approach problems by trying to find a way to balance that ecosystem whether that mean introducing a predator for pests or feeding bacteria to outcompete nuisance algae. Addressing problems in a reef is more like balancing a scale than it is attacking it head on.
