My 125g Mixed Reef Build Thread:https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/member-tanks/137575-~tjs-125g-~-building-reef~.html
I'm an 'Old Salt' getting my feet wet in SW around 1979 and into my first 'Reeftank' in March of 1982 after meeting Martin Moe Jr. at a conference. Was working at a LFS in the Seattle area as an Assistant Store Manager and had several hundred gallons of mostly FW Discus, S.A. Apistogramma species and Lake Tanganyika African Chiclids breeding them for a handful of LFS's at that time and was instantly mesmerized by this 'new' approach in Marine Aquarium keeping out of Germany and the UK. No more 'Dead Coral Skeleton' filled under-gravel driven systems but only water circulation around living Rock and Sand covered in Macro Algaes and Coral even. Did not take me long to start migrating all the FW tanks over to SW 'Berlin' setups. I have been active in the hobby ever since and only a relatively short amount of without one setup for one reason or another as life dictated.
I'm an 'Old Salt' getting my feet wet in SW around 1979 and into my first 'Reeftank' in March of 1982 after meeting Martin Moe Jr. at a conference. Was working at a LFS in the Seattle area as an Assistant Store Manager and had several hundred gallons of mostly FW Discus, S.A. Apistogramma species and Lake Tanganyika African Chiclids breeding them for a handful of LFS's at that time and was instantly mesmerized by this 'new' approach in Marine Aquarium keeping out of Germany and the UK. No more 'Dead Coral Skeleton' filled under-gravel driven systems but only water circulation around living Rock and Sand covered in Macro Algaes and Coral even. Did not take me long to start migrating all the FW tanks over to SW 'Berlin' setups. I have been active in the hobby ever since and only a relatively short amount of without one setup for one reason or another as life dictated.
My current system:
- 125g custom 3/4" acrylic tank with dimensions of 60"x24"x20" soon to be another custom 3/4" tank which I'll build just a bit taller at 30" and with external near coast-to-coast overflow.
- Stand: Custom Cherry, being a retired or ex cabinet/furniture maker and designer for many years I built my own custom cabinet with inset doors and removable end panels at either end to access a large sump/fuge and Skimmer maintenace.
- Sump/Refugium: Is an old RR 75g tank I modded into a 2-chamber setup with only 12"x18" mechanical chamber leaving a 36"x18" high-flow Refugium section stuffed with a variety of Macro Algae, extra LR and literally crawling with life of many forms. There is a small screened off section for where my external return pump draws from that serves as a cryptic zone which is full of Bio-Balls that have been covered in Sponges and Tunicates for many years. This gives my system an overall volume of 160 gallons.
- Skimmer: Is a SWC 200 Extreme which I also inject Ozone through air intake.
- Reactors: A single Phosban 150 Reactorbut will be adding a Kalk Stirrer with new ATO setup shortly.
- External Return Pump: Pan World 100PX-X rated at 1270gph directed through a 3/4" SeaSwirl with excess through a 1/2" Loc-line nozzle.
- Water Circulation: Consists of (2) Jebao RW-15's.
- Lighting: Custom DIY Broad Spectrum LED array.
- Dosing: SWC Master Doser X3 with 2-part plus Magnesium. Calcium = 2-cups Dow Flake/gal of RO/DI, Alk = Arm and Hammer Baking Soda @ 2-cups/gal and Magnesium = 5-cups BRS Mg Chloride + 3-cups BRS Mg Sulfate/gal.
- ATO: A simple 15g reservoir gravity fed through an Eshopps float valve in fuge section. Will be upgrading to a 25g+ reservoir ran through Kalk Stirrer by a JBJ ATO with Eheim Compact 1000 pump.
- RO/DI: Water General 5-stage 90 GPD hooked into waterline before my homes PRV to get 95psi.
- Heater: A single 250w Ebo Jagger and will be adding an additional 150 for redundancy.
- Controller: Apex Lite base with two EB-8's, Lab grade PH probe, Temp probe then added VDM for LED's, PM-1 for Lab grade ORP probe and Lunar Sim for active lunar cycle.
Water Circulation and Flow Summary: Along with my return of around 1000gph +- rolling the water column forward I have my RW-15's set up in a gyre flow pattern which In my years of experience feel the best for a rectangle box. The master pump is set at W1 and speed 6 with the slave unit in sync and speed 3.
Lighting Summary: 97x 3w emitters mostly Cree consisting of 3 bins each of CW and RB, 2 bins of Blue, Violet, Cyan, Green and Red. Custom welded Aluminum channel heastsink with emitters set in a 7-circuit East-to-West layout. Six front to back linear circuits that come on and Ramp-up in the morning and Ramp-down in the evening in sequence with the 7th circuit being all Cree XM-L 6500K for a 2-hour Noonday PAR blast. 1st circuit (East/right end) comes on at 7:45 am at 6% with a 30 minute ramp-up to 70% followed every 20 minutes by the next circuit. Then starting at 6:40 pm 1st circuit starts ramp-down from 70% to 6% and off at 7:10 followed every 20 minutes by next circuit until all off at 8:50 pm. Also have an active Lunar Cycle with attached Neptune Systems 5-LED Lunar Sim setup. Fish, Coral and Inverts respond very well and naturally to this cycle which was my intent.
Water Parameters (average or target) :
- Temp = 77-78* with Apex probe
- PH = 8.2 -> 8.4 with Apex probe
- Specific Gravity = 1.0255-026 with Milwaukee MR100ATC Refractometer
- ORP = 415-465 daily with Apex probe
- Amonnia = N/A rarely test as very mature system
- Nitrite = N/A rarely test with SeaChem kit as very mature system
- Nitrate = < 2.0 infrequently test with SeaChem kit
- Phosphate PO4 = <0.2 infrequently test with Red Sea kit
- Calcium = 450-490 with Red Sea Foundation Pro kit
- Alkalinity = 2.5 -3.0 meq with Red Sea Foundation Pro kit
- Magnesium = 1300-1600 (1350 target) with Red Sea Foundation Pro kit
- Iodine/Iodide = 0.05-6 mg/L infrequently test with SeaChem kit
- Strontium = ??? infrequently test with Salifert kit
Filtration and Water Quality summary and Objectives: I ultimately wanted to have a high bio-load Mixed Reef with as much natural/biological filtration as possible. My routine water change schedule has been a 30 gallon every 3-4 months until just recently with my dosing mix up, I do not endorse this WC for most for obvious reasons but has worked even better than anticipated. With a large Refugium, oversized Skimmer, GFO Reactor and running Ozone the nutrients are in very low readable levels so the large amount being produced by heavy feedings to large number of Fish are consumed almost immediately. IME, as long as everything is/stays in balance as for Fish-Coral-Macro Algae-CUC and having enough water volume this is an extremely stable system. The only real issues have been when I became to complacent and ignored the dosing unit.
Progression Photos:
My 125g just after first set up on 1/7/2012
June of 2012 at the six month mark
February of 2013 at just over a year
January of 2014 at just over two years
Tank Inhabitants / Livestock:
~ Fish ~
- Acanthurus blochii HawaiianRingtail Tang
- Acanthurus leucosternon Powder Blue Tang
- Naso lituratus Hawaiian Naso Tang
- Ctenochaetus strigosis Hawaiian Kole Tang
- Zebrasoma flavescens Hawaiian Yellow Tang
- Macropharynggodon ornatus Ornate Leopard Wrasse
- Cirrhilabrus solorensis Solar/Red Head Fairy Wrasse
- Cirrhilabrus cyanopleura or Cirrhilabrus aurantidorsdalis ??? Bluehead or Goldback Fairy Wrasse
- Halichoeres melanurus Melanurus Wrasse
- Pseudanthias bicolor Hawaiian Bicolor Anthias - (trio) 1-male & 2 female
- Pseudanthias dispar Dispar Anthias - female
- Centropyge loricula Flame Angel
- Ecsenius stigmatura Tailspot Blenny - pair
- Asterropteryx semipunctatus Hawaiian Halfspotted Goby
- Hazeus nephodes Hawaiian Cloudy Goby - pair
- Chrysiptera hemicyanea Kupang Damselle
- Pterapogon kauderni Banggai Cardinalfish - pair plus lone female
~ Inverts ~
- Lysmata amboinensisHawaiian Cleaner Shrimp
- Stenopus hispidusHawaiian Banded Coral Shrimp
- Cypraea caputserpentisHawaiian Snakehead Cowrie x4
- Cypraea helvolaHawaiian Honey Cowrie
- Calcinus seuratiHawaiian Seurat's Hermit Crab x 4+
- Calcinus laevimanusHawaiian Left-Handed Hermit Crab x 10+
- Calcinus c.f. elegans Hawaiian Elegant/Halloween Hermit Crab x3
- Pagurixus nomuraiHawaiian Nomura's Hermit Crab x2
- Holothuria floridanaYellow Sea Cucumber
- Astropecten polycanthus Sand Sifting Starfish
- Nassarius distortusTonga Snail
- Nassarius vibex
- Cerithiidae sp. Cerith Snails
- Engina spBumble Bee Snails
- Margarites pupillusMargarita Snails
- Astrea sp. Astrea/Turbo Snails
- Misc. Snails, limpits
~ Corals ~ SPS
- Acropora millepora
- A. caroliniana
- A. cerealis
- A. echinata
- A. formosa
- A. granulosa
- A. nobilis
- A. secale
- A. tortuosa
- A. valida
- A. verweyi
- A. youngei
- Cyphastrea decadia
- Montipora capricornis
- M. confusa
- M. danai
- M. digitata
- M. spongodes
- M. tuberculosa
- Psammocora contigua
- Leptoseris explanata
- Leptoseris papyracea
- Pavona cactus
- Pacillopora damicornis
- Seriatopora caliendrum
- Seriatopora hystrix
- Stylophora pistillatta
~ Corals ~ LPS
- Acanthastrea echinata
- Acanthastrea
- Colpophyllia natans
- Caulastrea curvata
- Caulastrea furcata
- Duncanopsammia axifuga
- Echinophyllia echinata
- Echinopora lamellosa
- Favia fragum
- Favia rotundata
- Goniastrea retiformis
- Hydnophora rigida
- Hydnophora triangularis
- Leptastrea pruinosa
- Lobophyllia corymbosa
- Mycedium elephantotus
- Platygyra senensis
~ Corals ~ Soft/Octocoral & Corallimorpharians
- Capnella sp.
- Discosoma sp.
- Heliopora coerulea
- Lobophytum pauciflorum
- Nephthea sp.
- Palythoa sp. many
- Plexaura sp.
- Protopalythoa grandis
- Pseudopterogorgia bipinnata
- Rhodactis inchoata
- Ricordea florida
- Ricordea yuma
- Sarcophyton elegans
- Sarcophyton glaucum
- Sinularia sp.
- Zoanthus sp. many
Fish and Coral Feeding: I am a proponent of 'Heavy in Heavy out' so typically feed Fish 3-4 times daily consisting of two feedings with 2-3 random frozen cubes (Hikari Mysis, Blood Worms, Spirulina+Brine Shrimp, Plankton) and 1-2 feedings with a mix of sinking pellet foods ( NLS Marine, Hikari Seaweed Extreme) equaling a Tablespoon +-.
Photos:
With three plus decades in this ever evolving hobby my biggest or best piece of advice would be to do your research before acting on any purchase either livestock or equipment and to take it slow and steady. Find a routine that works for you, and stick with it.
Cheers, Todd
I still love and research seahorses.
