Surfzone
Well-Known Member
After a 2.5 year stay out of the hobby due to work in South Korea I'm now back in the game with a 60g marineland cube mixed reef. I was going to just not do a thred on my tank, but what's the fun in that. The majority of the build is done and by majority done I mean this tank has been running since March 1st and full of coral. I'll start with the equipment that I chose and then go into the live stock
The Equipment
LIGHTING
Lighting is a hybrid T5 LED combo of an Ecotech XR15 pro and an Aquatic Life hybrid fixture. This gives me a nice coverage of light over the 24 inch cube and allows me to place corals in an area without the worries of shadows, but provides those lower PAR areas for some less light demanding corals. While I do love my sticks I still have a soft spot for my LPS and softies. The photo period starts with the radion ramp up from 1200 to 1400. At 1400 the Tis kick on. The T5s kick off at 2200 and the radion ramp down until 0000 which starts the night cycle. The bulb combo I have for T5s is the ATI coral plus and ATI blue plus one of each in both fixtures.
FLOW
This one is simple. I have so much flow in this tank if it was on 100% I would blow flesh off of coral.
Flow is provided by 2 ecotech MP10s on the back glass and one MP40 on the right side. I have all 3 diled down in order to not blow sand all over and create a bare patch in the front and side. I start the day of flow with nutrient transport ramping up to 35% from 1100 to 1200 then a reef crest mode for most of the day ramping up and down from 25% to 50% within an hour with the MP10s on anti-sync with the MP40. The day ends with a nutrient transport from 2200 to 2300 decreasing power then a nice 20% tidal swell from 2300 to 0130 witch starts lagoon mode at 20%.
Filtration
I'm using a trigger systems ruby cube sump fuge. This thing leaves no room under the tank for much else. I have a Simplicity DC 240 skimmer. I had my doubts about this skimmer at first but after seeing how much of a work horse it is I'm sold on them. This skimmer pulls out black skimmate that is straight sludge, I mean pudding consistency junk. I have a CO2 scrubber on my skimmer intake as well. Before the scrubber I was sitting at a night time pH swing down to 7.5 and a high of 8.0. Now with the scrubber my night time lows are around 8.0 a highs from 8.2 to 8.3. My Fuge is currently lit by a kessil H80 for now. I haven't seen much growth out of my cheato and soon will be trying out a DIY reactor for the macro algae. I'll just use the Fuge for the extra live rock and grow frags down there. I hate the look of a frag rack in the display tank.
I'm running a dual reactor for GFO and carbon. I don't run carbon all the time just when I want to give the water an extra polish or need to pull some kind of contamination from the water. I'm also running a BRS bio pellet reactor and a UV sterilizer, all 3 are fed from my return pump a Cor 15. Yes I have an Apex on the tank. I use it to controls and put in fail safes in my tank. As far as the probes go I don't really trust them too much as far as being on the money but they do give me an idea of where the tank is. Let's tank salinity for example. I keep my tank at 35 ppt. My calibrated refractomoter says 35ppt two LFS refractometers read 35ppt but that probe reads 40 ppt. However, the pH probe has been spot on every time I double check with a test kit. I keep them clean weekly and calibrate monthly. I'm also running a two DOS units for bulk Ca Alk Mg and Acropower. I'm also using it for other equipment like the wxm and FMM for the MPs and ATK along with optical sinsors in the top off tank and leak detectors on the floor and in the stand.
Now the Fun stuff.
Live stock
This tank is mostly SPS with a few LPS mixed in and even fewer softies.
Inverts
Rose BTA
3 peppermint shrimp for aptasia (haven't touched a single one)
2 cleaner shrimp for general cleanup
3 large Nisarius snails also for clean up
3 emerald crabs cleared out all the hair algae and bubble algae but won't touch bryopsis and this green kelp like algae.
And one sand softer star.
Fish
My first fish was an orange spot goby pared with a pistol shrimp. These two are constantly moving sand around in their corner of the tank. Then I added a dimond sifter goby. Between the pistol shrimp and the goby and the sifter star. My sand bed is constantly turned over so much in fact that I hardly find any junk in it when I do a WC.
Next came a small female target Mandarin who has put on a ton of weight since I put her in the tank. Next came a much needed aptasia eating filefish... Also doesn't touch anything but frozen foods. Can I get something to eat these darn aptasia?
Lastly I have added a multi bared angel who so far has left my corals alone and would much rather eat frozen mysis and what ever small pods he comes across in the rocks. As of now I've been giving some thought to a small wrasse but haven't really committed to anything yet.
Full tank shot
A few frags and that strange algae that's kinda like kelp
Control panel
Where the tank gets dosed
Probes in the fuge
Return section
Skimmer section and reactors mind you I just cleaned that skimmer yesterday this pic was taken today.
So I'll be putting my mis-adventures on this thred. Fire away with questions if you have them
The Equipment
LIGHTING
Lighting is a hybrid T5 LED combo of an Ecotech XR15 pro and an Aquatic Life hybrid fixture. This gives me a nice coverage of light over the 24 inch cube and allows me to place corals in an area without the worries of shadows, but provides those lower PAR areas for some less light demanding corals. While I do love my sticks I still have a soft spot for my LPS and softies. The photo period starts with the radion ramp up from 1200 to 1400. At 1400 the Tis kick on. The T5s kick off at 2200 and the radion ramp down until 0000 which starts the night cycle. The bulb combo I have for T5s is the ATI coral plus and ATI blue plus one of each in both fixtures.
FLOW
This one is simple. I have so much flow in this tank if it was on 100% I would blow flesh off of coral.
Flow is provided by 2 ecotech MP10s on the back glass and one MP40 on the right side. I have all 3 diled down in order to not blow sand all over and create a bare patch in the front and side. I start the day of flow with nutrient transport ramping up to 35% from 1100 to 1200 then a reef crest mode for most of the day ramping up and down from 25% to 50% within an hour with the MP10s on anti-sync with the MP40. The day ends with a nutrient transport from 2200 to 2300 decreasing power then a nice 20% tidal swell from 2300 to 0130 witch starts lagoon mode at 20%.
Filtration
I'm using a trigger systems ruby cube sump fuge. This thing leaves no room under the tank for much else. I have a Simplicity DC 240 skimmer. I had my doubts about this skimmer at first but after seeing how much of a work horse it is I'm sold on them. This skimmer pulls out black skimmate that is straight sludge, I mean pudding consistency junk. I have a CO2 scrubber on my skimmer intake as well. Before the scrubber I was sitting at a night time pH swing down to 7.5 and a high of 8.0. Now with the scrubber my night time lows are around 8.0 a highs from 8.2 to 8.3. My Fuge is currently lit by a kessil H80 for now. I haven't seen much growth out of my cheato and soon will be trying out a DIY reactor for the macro algae. I'll just use the Fuge for the extra live rock and grow frags down there. I hate the look of a frag rack in the display tank.
I'm running a dual reactor for GFO and carbon. I don't run carbon all the time just when I want to give the water an extra polish or need to pull some kind of contamination from the water. I'm also running a BRS bio pellet reactor and a UV sterilizer, all 3 are fed from my return pump a Cor 15. Yes I have an Apex on the tank. I use it to controls and put in fail safes in my tank. As far as the probes go I don't really trust them too much as far as being on the money but they do give me an idea of where the tank is. Let's tank salinity for example. I keep my tank at 35 ppt. My calibrated refractomoter says 35ppt two LFS refractometers read 35ppt but that probe reads 40 ppt. However, the pH probe has been spot on every time I double check with a test kit. I keep them clean weekly and calibrate monthly. I'm also running a two DOS units for bulk Ca Alk Mg and Acropower. I'm also using it for other equipment like the wxm and FMM for the MPs and ATK along with optical sinsors in the top off tank and leak detectors on the floor and in the stand.
Now the Fun stuff.
Live stock
This tank is mostly SPS with a few LPS mixed in and even fewer softies.
Inverts
Rose BTA
3 peppermint shrimp for aptasia (haven't touched a single one)
2 cleaner shrimp for general cleanup
3 large Nisarius snails also for clean up
3 emerald crabs cleared out all the hair algae and bubble algae but won't touch bryopsis and this green kelp like algae.
And one sand softer star.
Fish
My first fish was an orange spot goby pared with a pistol shrimp. These two are constantly moving sand around in their corner of the tank. Then I added a dimond sifter goby. Between the pistol shrimp and the goby and the sifter star. My sand bed is constantly turned over so much in fact that I hardly find any junk in it when I do a WC.
Next came a small female target Mandarin who has put on a ton of weight since I put her in the tank. Next came a much needed aptasia eating filefish... Also doesn't touch anything but frozen foods. Can I get something to eat these darn aptasia?
Lastly I have added a multi bared angel who so far has left my corals alone and would much rather eat frozen mysis and what ever small pods he comes across in the rocks. As of now I've been giving some thought to a small wrasse but haven't really committed to anything yet.
Full tank shot
A few frags and that strange algae that's kinda like kelp
Control panel
Where the tank gets dosed
Probes in the fuge
Return section
Skimmer section and reactors mind you I just cleaned that skimmer yesterday this pic was taken today.
So I'll be putting my mis-adventures on this thred. Fire away with questions if you have them
