I started my full dive into the reef aquarium on 10/21/2017 a week after my wedding! Prior to it I had tested the water with a 10 gallon nano tank, and helping my father update his 10+ year FOWLR tank (still one of my most enjoyable experiences in this hobby but would take another thread on its own). As I am approaching a year for both my reef and marriage I have had many challenges and learned a lot!
My display tank is a 36 gallon Aqueon bow front tank, with a trigger 26 sump. The display is lit by a kessil A360W with controller and an AI prime HD. I started with a vortech mp10 for flow, but switched to an ice cap 1K gyre, and 2 sunsun JVP 110 power heads (I plan to upgrade the sunsun power heads to current USA eflux pumps in the next few months).
I started out with an Ice cap k2-50 protein skimmer which ran well but was finicky. The pump on the skimmer died after about 9 monthes. Coralvue did replace the pump, but the shipping took more time than I was comfortable going without a skimmer so I took the opportunity to upgrade to a reef octopus 150sss space safer skimmer. It has been absolutley amazing.
I run two media filters, a somatic UF-1 with Aquaforest zeo media, and a minimax media reactor with Xport biocubes . My return pump is a rossmont rider r3200 which has been reliable and absolutely silent.
I have tried to run a refugium but have had chaeto die on me 3 sepreate times (all from different vendors) so I have settled on a live rock rubble sump and bacteria driven system.
I have a 3 part dosing pump running the Aquaforest 123+ system. I also run Aquaforest reef salt, and some of the Aquaforest line of coral supplements.
I hope to have an SPS dominant system in the future. For now I have a Duncan coral, Lobo, 2 heads of Acan, and a few zoas from local vendors. A forest fire digitata, a blue/purple acro with green polyps, a milka stylo, and a jason fox Green light Hirsuta. All of my corals have seen better days sadly. While on vacation I lost my six line Wrasse causing a nutrient spike, then a cyano outbreak. When I almost had everything back under control is when the original skimmer pump died. A busy month later I am starting to get things back under control and see my corals bounce back.
For fish I currently have a tail spot blenny, a royal gramma, a maroon clownfish, and a longfin banded basslet. I hope/plan on adding a hawkfish (likely longnose) or potentially a perchlet in the future once things have re-settled. I also have a peppermint shrimp, and cleanup crew of various snails and hermit crabs.
I am doing my best to remain patient so my system can settle down before I add anything more. My goal is to not add any coral/fish until November of this year.
My display tank is a 36 gallon Aqueon bow front tank, with a trigger 26 sump. The display is lit by a kessil A360W with controller and an AI prime HD. I started with a vortech mp10 for flow, but switched to an ice cap 1K gyre, and 2 sunsun JVP 110 power heads (I plan to upgrade the sunsun power heads to current USA eflux pumps in the next few months).
I started out with an Ice cap k2-50 protein skimmer which ran well but was finicky. The pump on the skimmer died after about 9 monthes. Coralvue did replace the pump, but the shipping took more time than I was comfortable going without a skimmer so I took the opportunity to upgrade to a reef octopus 150sss space safer skimmer. It has been absolutley amazing.
I run two media filters, a somatic UF-1 with Aquaforest zeo media, and a minimax media reactor with Xport biocubes . My return pump is a rossmont rider r3200 which has been reliable and absolutely silent.
I have tried to run a refugium but have had chaeto die on me 3 sepreate times (all from different vendors) so I have settled on a live rock rubble sump and bacteria driven system.
I have a 3 part dosing pump running the Aquaforest 123+ system. I also run Aquaforest reef salt, and some of the Aquaforest line of coral supplements.
I hope to have an SPS dominant system in the future. For now I have a Duncan coral, Lobo, 2 heads of Acan, and a few zoas from local vendors. A forest fire digitata, a blue/purple acro with green polyps, a milka stylo, and a jason fox Green light Hirsuta. All of my corals have seen better days sadly. While on vacation I lost my six line Wrasse causing a nutrient spike, then a cyano outbreak. When I almost had everything back under control is when the original skimmer pump died. A busy month later I am starting to get things back under control and see my corals bounce back.
For fish I currently have a tail spot blenny, a royal gramma, a maroon clownfish, and a longfin banded basslet. I hope/plan on adding a hawkfish (likely longnose) or potentially a perchlet in the future once things have re-settled. I also have a peppermint shrimp, and cleanup crew of various snails and hermit crabs.
I am doing my best to remain patient so my system can settle down before I add anything more. My goal is to not add any coral/fish until November of this year.
