Tideline 47g AIO

[fandaga]

Current FTS (Apr 2026) @ 25 months:

My Planet Aquarium Tideline 47 gallon AIO was started Feb 2024. This is my first reef tank. I also set up a 5g quarantine tank at the same time for fish. I purchased the stand with the tank and added shelving, and some wood for the back of the stand. I painted the interior white. I’ll post equipment pics later.

Equipment
Pump (upgrade): AI axis 90 running at minimum power. Also, I replaced Tideline’s crappy return with a MADD REEF dual head return adapter. Update (Jan 2026): The adapter kept coming off. I ordered a replacement and that only lasted a few months. Currently, I just remove it, which caused salt creep on the front of the tank initially. I fixed that by lowering the ATO sensor by 1 inch.
Lights: 2 Radion XR15 G6 pro. I added diffusers and shades from Printed Reef to cut down on light spillage.
Heater: Helio PTC dual 100W elements
Flow: 1 Vortech MP10. I originally purchased two but only have needed 1 so far since the return pump provides a lot of flow. Update (Jan 2026): To help with detritus removal, I added the second MP10 back on the left side of the tank running on opposite schedule to the other.
Controller: Neptune A3 Apex Pro + Trident ACM + Trident NP (added Jan 2026) + MXM module to control lights and pumps
Dosing Pump: Neptune DOS adding 10 mL AFR daily. Update (Jan 2026): I have the second DOS line adding soda ash (Na2CO3) in the evening. This has helped keep pH higher and the alk from 8-9 with AFR keeping Ca around 420 - 450. I also added a 2nd DOS for Phyto.
Skimmer: Tunze Comline DOC 9004
ATO: Neptune ATK pulling from Bashsea 10g reservoir, which is refilled bimonthly.
Media Tray (upgrade): from Kreative Reefer. I replaced both filter socks to use a media tray for GAC.
UV sterilizer: Innovative Marine 10W aquashield. I used this initially after fish introductions or when algae has been bad.
Cover: Kraken Reef
Rock: Caribsea Life Rock.
Sand: Caribsea Arag-alive. 1.5 bags for a deep sand bed.
Salt: Red Sea blue bucket. Salinity at 34-35 ppt.

Fish - Update (Jan 2026)
All fish currently except a Randalls goby are captive bred from Biota.
1. Randall’s Goby paired with Randall pistol shrimp.
2. Mated pair of Mandarins
3. Yellow-headed Jawfish. This fish’s head is actually grey unfortunately. Update (Mar 2026): Fish got into a fight with YWG / pistol shrimp and passed away the next day.
4. Mated pair of Banggai Cardinalfish. Update (Feb 2026): The male passed away. He never ate as well.
5. Mated pair of Snowflake Clownfish
6. Coral Beauty Angelfish
7. Yellow Watchman Goby (grey morph) paired with tiger pistol shrimp. I purchased the yellow one from Biota, but it arrived grey and never changed color.
8. Marine Betta
9. Yellow Tang. To be moved to larger tank (currently about 4”)
10. Blue Hippo Tang. To be moved to larger tank (currently about 4”)
11. Skilletfish.
12. Cleaner Wrasse.

CUC
Snails: 10-20 Astrea, 4 Nerite, 5-10 Cerith, 4 Nassarius
Urchins: 2 tuxedo, 2 pincushion
Hermits: 3 blue legged, 2 scarlet, 1 halloween
Shrimp: Randall’s pistol, Tiger pistol, cleaner shrimp (died), and fire shrimp (died), coral banded shrimp (replaced cleaner and fire shrimp that died).
1 Fighting conch (died)
1 sand-sifting starfish
1 tiger cucumber

The MVPs of the CUC are the urchins. The Astrea and Nassarius are next most useful.

Corals:
1. 7 torches (5 died from BJD and remaining 2 moved to another tank.
2. Green hammer
3. Frogspawn
4. 2 Duncans
5. Neon green toadstool leather
6. Biota red digi montipora
7. Biota Alien Hands Sinularia
8. Neon green birdsnest
9. Red monti cap
10. White pipe organ
11. Pink goniopora
12. Meteor storm cyphastrea
13. Palythoa grandis
14. Rainbow chalice
15. 8 zoanthids: Bob Marley, Rasta, Krakatoa, Utter Chaos, Pink Diamonds, orange Bam Bams, Eagle Eyes, and Stratosphere
16. Bleeding Apple Scoly. Coral beauty was bothering it, so moved to another tank.
17. Acros. Only a blueberry yum yum survived long term but lost color during Dino outbreak. I moved it to another tank.
18. Tequila Sunrise Mushroom. Ordered from Marine Farmers. Looks great so far.
19. Giant Bali Xenia. Added Apr 2026

Other inverts
1 Crocea clam, 1 BTA (died) and at least 1 Pom Pom crab

Initial setup (Feb 2024):

I had this odd alcove in my living room to put the tank. The blue light makes the outside look like I have a weird science experiment going on my house, but the light shades have helped quite a bit with that. Coincidentally, house plants next to the tank have grown pretty well.

1 month later (Mar 2024):

The tank took about 3 months to finish cycling even after using bottled bacteria, ammonia dosing, and fish food. In hindsight, I wish I used some live rock. The first fish added was a firefish. However, this fish passed a week after going from QT to DT. I tried again with another firefish and same issue. I still don’t really know why these fish died, as I was testing NH3, NO2, and NO3 everyday. No obvious signs of disease in QT or the DT.

4 months later (May 2024):

I added the UV sterilizer and introduced a Biota snowflake clown directly to the DT, which has survived. I then shortly added a mandarin, another small snowflake clown and Yellow tang in sequence from QT. The 1st clown, male mandarin, and tang, which my wife calls Wang, are still doing well. The 2nd clown introduced didn’t survive the 1st month and was replaced with another snowflake, and these two clowns have continued to do really well. Wang the tang is about 4” currently. I didn’t initially intend to add the most aggressive fish early, but i was grateful to get over fish losses. Wang is soon going to be getting a new home since he’s nearly outgrown this tank. I also added a BTA before corals hoping that it would find its happy spot. This worked pretty well for a while. However, the BTA recently decided to go for a walk, and I’m actually not quite sure where it went. I’ll likely be moving the nem once he re-emerges to a recently set up frag tank.

5 months later (Jun 2024):

My mandarin pair:


In June, I purchased a female mandarin from Biota. Oddly, my male turned out to be female and the female turned out to be male once they got a little older, and I could clearly see their dorsal fins. Luckily these fish have done well together. The male does frequently chase the female at night, but most often they’re swimming in unison like the above video. I guess these are mating events, but I haven’t seen any spawn.

11 months later (Jan 2025):

I purchased some more fish since my wife gave me a Biota gift card for Christmas. Most of the fish are pretty small at the moment. I had to increase feeding significantly and thus added a protein skimmer. Surprisingly, my NO3 and PO4 only spiked slightly to 10 and 0.05 respectively, and they’ve since dropped back down after a couple weeks. Several of these fish will be going to a frag tank that is being set up.

Scoly in the morning:

I picked up a scoly at reefapolooza NY in August. This is probably my favorite coral along with my torches.

12 months later (Feb 2025):

Below shows the tank currently. I’ll be filling in the back top rocks with some more SPS and left rock with more LPS. I’ll likely need to frag the right Duncan shortly, which has grown a lot.

Tank video (Feb 2025):


Tank video (Jan 2026):

 

[fandaga]

My water parameters are 34-35 ppt salinity, 400-450 cal, 8.5-9.5 alk, 1350-1400 Mg, 2-5 NO3, 0.01-0.05 PO4. I’ve been trying to get the nutrients a bit more stable, but they run low even with high feeding. Recently I started adding AF life source since I’ve had a few coral deaths (a couple torches, 1 monti, 1 acro), and my nem hasn’t looked good. I also do weekly 5% water changes and add phyto daily.

 

[parclife]

Looks amazing!!

 

[fandaga]

A review of the equipment:

Lights:. The Radion XR15s are really nice in the coverage but overall Par could be higher for acros/clam. Currently I’m getting about 200 par at the top of the tank rock work running AB+ at 90%. I’d like to supplement with an AI light bar but don’t want the extra light spill. The natural light from the window does help to keep my crocea and acro relatively happy. I’m not sure the par on sunny days but I intend to remeasure it soon.

Pump: The axis 90 has been pretty terrific even though I’ve seen a lot of negative reviews. It’s whisper quiet, very small, pumps more than enough, and hasn’t needed any maintenance so far. I do wish I had dual return lines for redundancy, but I’m keeping another pump on hand if I have a failure.

Heater: The Helios heater with dual elements is terrific and keeps the temp regulated between 75 and 76 flawlessly. I absolutely love this product and its redundancy. Also, the power and amp draw have been pretty good. The only downside is the expense, but the regulation is better than the inkbird I have on my QT.

UV sterilizer: The IM Aquashield 10W is pretty good, but the directions are poor. I couldn’t figure out the flow control initially to set to low flow for parasite control. I was running this via Apex control using EB832 on 12h cycle, and it definitely helped with the tank ugly stage. I also have used during new fish introductions to reduce possible parasites and try to limit bacterial infections. Currently I turned off since I’m adding AF life source and am performing microbiome testing via aquabiomics.

Neptune Apex: I absolutely love the overall control and piece of mind this system provides. Neptune did have to replace my Apex within the first month because I got a compatibility issue when adding another liquid level sensor. Their tech support was outstanding. I did run a LAN cable to my router to help prevent it from disconnecting and needing to be reset. This rarely occurs now.

Neptune Dos: I was originally planning to use for auto water changes, but this was way too loud. Unfortunately the quiet Dos 2.0 came out only a month after I bought this. I’m just using for adding daily 10 mL AFR at the moment. So far the accuracy has been spot on after checking once per month.

Neptune trident: I love the precision and accuracy so far. Cal and alk have been spot on versus Salifert and Hanna. I double check versus other tests every couple weeks. Mg testing also appears more reliable than the Salifert and Hanna. The only slight issues was my line clogged once after I let it go dry for a couple days due to reagents not being immediately replaced. I’m thinking of also buying the Trident NP but have been concerned with the reviews on the PO4 reliability.

Skimmer: The Tunze comline doc 9004 has been outstanding so far. The pH has increased noticeably from 7.8-8.2 up to 8.0-8.4, and this is running in the winter with windows closed. Aesthetically I also like that it doesn’t sit up too high in the back chamber. It also immediately was pulling a lot of skimmate. Edit: a couple issues are that this is a bit loud. I may just run at night, which hopefully could also help with pH swings. Another problem is that the skimmate does appear to bubble up through the holes at the top of the collection cup. I’m thinking of just sealing them off.

Vortech MP10: Really nice flow and control. I added a nem guard. My cat sometimes will accidentally knocks this down, so it needs to be secured on the outside. I’m just running reef crest ramp from 40 to 80% throughout the day.

Neptune ATK: I really like this ATO, its redundancy, and the control view Apex. I’m surprised by the negative reviews. So far it’s worked without any issues. The only downside is that the pump is a little loud.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

My Planet Aquarium Tideline 47 gallon AIO was started Feb 2024. This is my first reef tank. I also set up a 5g quarantine tank at the same time for fish. I purchased the stand with the tank and added shelving, and some wood for the back of the stand. I painted the interior white. I’ll post equipment pics later.

Equipment
Pump (upgrade): AI axis 90 running at 40% power. Also, I replaced Tideline’s crappy return with a MADD REEF dual head return adapter.
Lights: 2 Radion XR15 G6 pro. I added diffusers and shades from Printed Reef to cut down on light spillage.
Heater: Helio PTC dual 100W elements
Flow: 1 Vortech MP10. I originally purchased two but only have needed 1 so far since the return pump provides a lot of flow.
Controller: Neptune A3 Apex Pro + Trident tester + MXM module to control lights and pumps
Dosing Pump: Neptune DOS adding 10 mL AFR daily. I’m thinking of also adding NO3, PO4, and iodine since these are usually low.
Skimmer: Tunze Comline DOC 9004 (most recently added)
ATO: Neptune ATK pulling from Bashsea 20g reservoir, which is refilled bimonthly.
Media Tray (upgrade): from Kreative Reefer. I replaced one filter sock to use a media tray for GAC.
UV sterilizer: Innovative Marine 10W aquashield. I used this initially after fish introductions or when algae has been bad.
Cover: Kraken Reef
Rock: Caribsea Life Rock. I forget how much.
Sand: Caribsea Arag-alive. 1.5 bags for a deep sand bed.
Salt: Red Sea blue bucket. Salinity at 34-35 ppt.

Fish
All fish currently except a Randalls goby are captive bred from Biota. Most are pretty small at the moment but some will need to be re-homed or moved to another tank as they get larger. Long term for this tank are a mated pair of mandarins, pair of snowflake clowns, Banggai card, coral beauty, grey watchman goby, skilletfish, yellowheaded jawfish, and the Randall goby.

CUC
Snails: 10 Astrea, 4 Nerite, 4 Cerith, 4 Nassarius
2 tuxedo urchins
Hermits: 3 blue legged, 2 scarlet, 1 halloween
Shrimp: Randall’s pistol, Tiger pistol, cleaner shrimp, blood red fire shrimp. The pistol shrimp are paired to Randall and Watchman gobies.
1 Fighting conch

The MVPs of the CUC are the urchins and conch. The Astrea and Nassarius are next most useful.

Corals: 5 torches, 3 hammers, 1 frogspawn, 2 Duncans, 3 leathers, 5 Montis, 1 stylo, 2 acros, 3 gonis, 1 chalice, 1 scoly, 7 zoas, 2 palys, 1 cyphastrea, 1 pipe organ, 1 birdsnest, 1 candy cane

Other inverts
1 Crocea clam, 1 BTA, and at least 1 Pom Pom crab

Initial setup (Feb 2024):

I had this odd alcove in my living room to put the tank. The blue light makes the outside look like I have a weird science experiment going on my house, but the light shades have helped quite a bit with that. Coincidentally, house plants next to the tank have grown pretty well.

1 month later (Mar 2024):

The tank took about 3 months to finish cycling even after using bottled bacteria, ammonia dosing, and fish food. In hindsight, I wish I used some live rock. The first fish added was a firefish. However, this fish passed a week after going from QT to DT. I tried again with another firefish and same issue. I still don’t really know why these fish died, as I was testing NH3, NO2, and NO3 everyday. No obvious signs of disease in QT or the DT.

4 months later (May 2024):

I added the UV sterilizer and introduced a Biota snowflake clown directly to the DT, which has survived. I then shortly added a mandarin, another small snowflake clown and Yellow tang in sequence from QT. The 1st clown, male mandarin, and tang, which my wife calls Wang, are still doing well. The 2nd clown introduced didn’t survive the 1st month and was replaced with another snowflake, and these two clowns have continued to do really well. Wang the tang is about 4” currently. I didn’t initially intend to add the most aggressive fish early, but i was grateful to get over fish losses. Wang is soon going to be getting a new home since he’s nearly outgrown this tank. I also added a BTA before corals hoping that it would find its happy spot. This worked pretty well for a while. However, the BTA recently decided to go for a walk, and I’m actually not quite sure where it went. I’ll likely be moving the nem once he re-emerges to a recently set up frag tank.

5 months later (Jun 2024):

My mandarin pair:


In June, I purchased a female mandarin from Biota. Oddly, my male turned out to be female and the female turned out to be male once they got a little older, and I could clearly see their dorsal fins. Luckily these fish have done well together. The male does frequently chase the female at night, but most often they’re swimming in unison like the above video. I guess these are mating events, but I haven’t seen any spawn.

11 months later (Jan 2025):

I purchased some more fish since my wife gave me a Biota gift card for Christmas. Most of the fish are pretty small at the moment. I had to increase feeding significantly and thus added a protein skimmer. Surprisingly, my NO3 and PO4 only spiked slightly to 10 and 0.05 respectively, and they’ve since dropped back down after a couple weeks. Several of these fish will be going to a frag tank that is being set up.

Scoly in the morning:

I picked up a scoly at reefapolooza NY in August. This is probably my favorite coral along with my torches.

Current (Feb 2025):

Below shows the tank currently. I’ll be filling in the back top rocks with some more SPS and left rock with more LPS. I’ll likely need to frag the right Duncan shortly, which has grown a lot.

Tank video:

That Duncan has gotten huge in your tank! Thanks for sharing pictures of your tank as it has progressed over the years. I always love seeing a tank where it was at the start, vs now

 

[Besieged]

Man, and here I thought the spot I found for my tank in my office was perfect... the placement of yours is simply uh-mazing!

Tank is looking pretty great too, but I think you need a UV Sweeper to battle those dinos a little more promptly.

 

[fandaga]

Man, and here I thought the spot I found for my tank in my office was perfect... the placement of yours is simply uh-mazing!

Tank is looking pretty great too, but I think you need a UV Sweeper to battle those dinos a little more promptly.

Thanks! I can’t take credit for the location. That was all my wife’s idea. I think she wanted it originally in the basement but has been coming around with this hobby.

Yeah, dinos are a pain. Interesting product link. I might give it a try. Thanks!

 

[Besieged]

Thanks! I can’t take credit for the location. That was all my wife’s idea. I think she wanted it originally in the basement but has been coming around with this hobby.

Yeah, dinos are a pain. Interesting product link. I might give it a try. Thanks!

Admittedly, have not used myself. But, the feedback I've seen on it in other forums and communities was enough to make me bookmark it for the future.

 

[Bohemian Waxwing]

I didn’t realize the xr15 would only generate 200 par at the top.

Tank looks really nice though. Love the Mandarin video.

 

[fandaga]

I didn’t realize the xr15 would only generate 200 par at the top.

Tank looks really nice though. Love the Mandarin video.

Yeah, that’s at the top of my rock work. I think right below the tank water under the light that it was about 300 par. The diffuser also drops it by 10-20%, but it removes the shimmer. I run up to 90% power on the right side of the tank, and the fans are a little loud.

 

[fandaga]

I upgraded my lighting setup to have a rail for the xr15s running across the tank. Before it was just the arms, and the lights weren’t level. I think this looks much cleaner.

 

[fandaga]

Zoa growth update:

I bought this unnamed zoa last year in August at First Choice Aquatics in Flemington, NJ. It was 3 polyps initially. I thought it looked a bit like GMK:

Here it is today almost taking over the rock and starting to encroach on a Meteor Shower Cyphastrea:

 

[fandaga]

I added a Coral Banded Shrimp from Reefco, NJ yesterday. The shrimp is hiding underneath a Monti cap and Digi and about to swipe at the mandarin just above. I hope this isn’t the final home since it’s also at the exit of my watchman goby’s burrow.

 

[fandaga]

This Halloween hermit crab recently got a new shell and has been very busy in my tank.

 

[Awshifts]

Hello @fandaga Quick question for you.

Where did you place the Tunze Skimmer? I am in processes of picking up one for my sons tank (same exact tank). Looks like a tight fit in either of the chambers but was just curious since you already have experience.

 

[fandaga]

Hello @fandaga Quick question for you.

Where did you place the Tunze Skimmer? I am in processes of picking up one for my sons tank (same exact tank). Looks like a tight fit in either of the chambers but was just curious since you already have experience.

I have it sideways in the back center right chamber. It’s protruding less than an inch above the tank cover and hardly noticeable. The magnets holding it in place are between the baffles, but it doesn’t seem to impact the flow. The skimmer does a pretty good job pulling skimmate.

 

[Awshifts]

Thank you - appreciate the response.

 

[Jimbo662]

Great set up! I just purchased this tank to downsize from my current tank. Where did you put the sensor for the ATO?

 

[fandaga]

Great set up! I just purchased this tank to downsize from my current tank. Where did you put the sensor for the ATO?

Awesome, congrats!

Mine is in the back center compartment with return pump, heating elements, trident sampling line, and an air stone (temporary because I have covers on the tank due to house painting). I have the Neptune ATK, which has worked really well.

 

[fandaga]

Awesome, congrats!

Mine is in the back center compartment with return pump, heating elements, trident sampling line, and an air stone (temporary because I have covers on the tank due to house painting). I have the Neptune ATK, which has worked really well.