Updated: 03/23/2020
Hi Everyone. I put water in this tank in September of 2018 and added the first corals (successfully) in March of 2019. After having this tank running successfully for about a year now I have decided I should get a build thread going. It will be my goal to update this thread often (equipment, parameters, & maintenance will be added soon). I have taken lots of pictures over this past year and will try to create additional posts in order from the beginning steps through to the current setup. There have been lots of changes in the past year and a half. Current Pictures, Equipment, Additives, Husbandry, etc can be found below in this initial post. I will also include links at the bottom of this initial post to topics featuring different stages of the build, other topics related to what and why I use certain things, and my thoughts and approach to reefing as I get them posted.
Full Tank Shot (See further below for close-up shots of fish & coral)
Tank Goals & Thoughts
Coming Soon (Next Couple of Days)
Water Parameters
Dosing, Additives, Food, & Misc.
Maintenance Routine & Husbandry
Coming Soon (Next Couple of Days)
Equipment for the Display
Equipment for the Sump & Filtration
Equipment for Control, Automation & Monitoring
Test Kits
Equipment for Maintenance
Fish
Corals
Pictures
Left Side Shot - 3/3/2020
Middle Shot - 3/3/2020
Right Side Shot - 3/3/2020
Far Right/Frag Rack Shot - 3/3/2020
Top Down Left - 3/3/2020
Walt Disney - 3/3/2020
ORA Purple Stylophora - 3/3/2020
GARF Bonsai - 3/3/2020
Blue Tip Stag - 3/3/2020
Dragonfly - 3/3/2020
ATL Strawberry Fields - 3/3/2020
Tyree L.E. Pink Lemonade
Reef Raft Canada Pink Cadillac - 3/3/2020
Superman Tenuis - 3/3/2020
Cherry Corals Voodoo Majick - 3/3/2020
PC Rainbow - 3/3/2020
Old Blue Stag - 3/3/2020
Yellow Head Red Stag - 3/3/2020
Smitty's Guilded Stag, PC Rainbow, & RMF Red Devil Nasuta - 3/3/2020
WWC Heartbreaker - 3/3/2020
Purple Aculeus - 3/3/2020
Conveyor Belt of Fleshdunce - 3/3/2020
Rainbow Loom - 3/3/2020
Purple Tip Green Torch - 3/3/2020
Red Gonipora - 3/3/2020
Duncan - 3/3/2020
Vivid's Clown Car Acan - 3/3/2020
Schizopolis Sunset - 3/3/2020
Pink Zippers Palys, Blondies Zoas, & Midnight Suns Zoas - 3/3/2020
Excaliber - 3/3/2020
Pink Millipora - 3/3/2020
Hi Everyone. I put water in this tank in September of 2018 and added the first corals (successfully) in March of 2019. After having this tank running successfully for about a year now I have decided I should get a build thread going. It will be my goal to update this thread often (equipment, parameters, & maintenance will be added soon). I have taken lots of pictures over this past year and will try to create additional posts in order from the beginning steps through to the current setup. There have been lots of changes in the past year and a half. Current Pictures, Equipment, Additives, Husbandry, etc can be found below in this initial post. I will also include links at the bottom of this initial post to topics featuring different stages of the build, other topics related to what and why I use certain things, and my thoughts and approach to reefing as I get them posted.
Full Tank Shot (See further below for close-up shots of fish & coral)
Tank Goals & Thoughts
Coming Soon (Next Couple of Days)
Water Parameters
- Alkalinity: 7.5 - 8.0 dkh
- Calcium: 400 - 440 ppm
- Magnesium: 1380 - 1440 ppm
- Phosphates: 0.03 – 0.08 ppm
- Nitrates: 10 – 20 ppm
- Potassium: 400 ppm
- PH: 8.2 – 8.6
Dosing, Additives, Food, & Misc.
- Fauna Marin Balling Light System
- Calcium Mix
- Carbonate Mix
- Balling Trace 1 Metallic Color & Grow Effect
- Balling Trace 2 Metallic Metabolic Color Effect
- Balling Trace 3 Metallic Health Fluorescent Effect
- Magnesium: Red Sea Foundation C (Because it’s convenient) (Manually dosed as needed)
- Fauna Marin Zeo-Light System
- Zeo Light: Zeolite mixture for nutrient reduction
- Coral Balance: Water treatment
- Reef Vitality: Nutrient control and coral nutrition
- Color Elements Blue/Purple Complex
- Color Elements Green/Blue Complex
- Color Elements Red/Purple Complex
- Coral Food
- Benepets Benereef Reef Food
- Reef Chili Coral Food (Anthias also love it)
- Korallen-Zucht Pohl’s Coral Vitalizer
- Korallen-Zucht Sponge Power Concentrate
- Korallen-Zucht Amino Acid Concentrate
- Korallen-Zucht Acroglow
- Fish Food
- LRS Reef Frenzy
- Reef Nutrition TDO Chroma Boost Small Granule
- Hikari Seaweed Extreme
- Nutrient/Algae Control
- Underwater Creations Inc. Vibrant For Reef Aquariums
- Brightwell Phosphat-E (As needed)
- Misc.
- Potassium: Brightwell Aquatics Potassion (As needed)
- ATI Elements Supplements: Strontium, Vanadium, Manganese (As needed, determined by ATI ICP test kits)
- Salt: Tropic Marin Pro-Reef
- RODI: Bottled Distilled Water (Blizzard or Great Value brands only!)
Maintenance Routine & Husbandry
Coming Soon (Next Couple of Days)
Equipment for the Display
- Tank: Aquamaxx 22 L (35”x12”x12”)
- Stand: Traditions, Red Mahogony color (36”x12”x30”H)
- Lighting: (3) Kessil A360WE with homemade hanging bracket
- Lighting: Neptune Lunar Simulator LED String, 2-LED
- Flow: (2) Maxspect Gyre XF230 Pumps (Only using one propeller cage per pump)
- Flow: (2) Vivid Random Flow Generators on the returns, ½” Loc-Line
- Rock: Custom insert by West Mariculture (28”x8”x5”H)
- Sand: CaribSea Special Grade
- Overflow: Eshopps Eclipse S
Equipment for the Sump & Filtration
- Sump: Bashsea, custom designed by me to fit the stand (35”x10”x15”H)
- Filter Cup: Red Sea 4” Filter Media Cup
- Filter Media: Blue Ribbons Polyester Filter Floss
- Filter Media: Boyd’s Chemi-Pure Blue (5.5 oz)
- Skimmer: Eshopps S-120
- Skimmer Stand: Icecap Small Skimmer Stand (7”x6”)
- CO2 Scrubber: Bulk Reef Supply Universal CO2 Scrubber
- Reactor: Skimz ZAR-127 Automatic Zeolith Reactor
- Heater: (3) Cobalt Neo-Therm 75W Heaters
- Biological: Marine Pure 1.5” Spheres (1 gal box)
- Return: (2) Reef Octopus Varios 4 Pumps
- Dosing Line Holder: Printed Reefing Solutions 4 Line Holder (EuroBrace)
- Light: LED Light mounted for illumination during maintenance
Equipment for Control, Automation & Monitoring
- Controller: Neptune Systems Apex
- Neptune Systems Apex Modules & Sensors:
- FMK Flow Monitoring Kit (for monitoring drains & return lines)
- 1” Flow Sensor
- Lunar Simulation Module
- VDM Module (for controlling the return pumps & gyres)
- Break Out Box (Future projects such as emergency shutdown button, light settings toggle switch, & sump door switches for lights etc.)
- LDK (for monitoring leaks on the right & left sides of the tank)
- LD-2 Leak Probe (resting on top of skimmer lid to monitor for skimmer overflows)
- AFS (for feeding the fish while I’m away)
- (3) OS-1 Optical Sensors (for sump full, tank full, and ATO reservoir low alarms)
- Additional EB832 Energy Bar
- ATO: Neptune Systems ATK
- ATO Reservoir: Advanced Acrylics ATO111, custom sized (4”x12”x18”H)
- Doser: Neptune Systems DOS & DDR
- (2) Icecap Gyre Interface Modules
- (2) Icecap Battery Backups
Test Kits
- Alkalinity
- Hanna Instruments HI772 (Primary)
- Tropic Marin Basic KH Test Kit (Backup)
- Calcium
- Red Sea Calcium Pro
- Magnesium
- Red Sea Magnesium Pro
- Nitrate
- Red Sea Nitrate Pro (Primary)
- Nyos Nitrate (Backup)
- Phosphate
- Hanna Instruments HI736 (Primary)
- Red Sea Phosphate Pro (Backup)
- Potassium
- Salifert Potassium Reef Test
- PH
- Neptune Apex PH Probe (Primary)
- Salifert PH (Backup Low-Range)
- API High Range PH (Backup High Range)
- Salinity
- Neptune Apex Salinity Probe (Primary, yes it works)
- Hanna Instruments HI98319 Marine Salinity Tester (Primary)
- Milwaukee MA887 Digital Seawater Refractometer (Backup)
- Bulk Reef Supply Refractometer (Backup)
- Temp
- Neptune Apex Temp Probe (Primary)
- Hanna Instruments HI98509 Checktemp Digital Thermometer (Backup)
- Iodine
- Salifert Iodine (Primary)
- Red Sea Iodine Pro (Backup)
- ICP Mail Order Kits
- ATI (Primary)
- Triton (Backup)
- Coral Vue ICP-Analysis (Backup)
Equipment for Maintenance
- Coming Soon (Next Couple of Days)
Fish
- Small Yellow Tang
- Naked Clown
- Black Cap Basslet
- Sunset Anthia
- (2) Blue Green Chromis
- African Cleaner Wrasse
- Hector Goby
Corals
- Coming Soon (Next Couple of Days)
Pictures
Left Side Shot - 3/3/2020
Middle Shot - 3/3/2020
Right Side Shot - 3/3/2020
Far Right/Frag Rack Shot - 3/3/2020
Top Down Left - 3/3/2020
Walt Disney - 3/3/2020
ORA Purple Stylophora - 3/3/2020
GARF Bonsai - 3/3/2020
Blue Tip Stag - 3/3/2020
Dragonfly - 3/3/2020
ATL Strawberry Fields - 3/3/2020
Tyree L.E. Pink Lemonade
Reef Raft Canada Pink Cadillac - 3/3/2020
Superman Tenuis - 3/3/2020
Cherry Corals Voodoo Majick - 3/3/2020
PC Rainbow - 3/3/2020
Old Blue Stag - 3/3/2020
Yellow Head Red Stag - 3/3/2020
Smitty's Guilded Stag, PC Rainbow, & RMF Red Devil Nasuta - 3/3/2020
WWC Heartbreaker - 3/3/2020
Purple Aculeus - 3/3/2020
Conveyor Belt of Fleshdunce - 3/3/2020
Rainbow Loom - 3/3/2020
Purple Tip Green Torch - 3/3/2020
Red Gonipora - 3/3/2020
Duncan - 3/3/2020
Vivid's Clown Car Acan - 3/3/2020
Schizopolis Sunset - 3/3/2020
Pink Zippers Palys, Blondies Zoas, & Midnight Suns Zoas - 3/3/2020
Excaliber - 3/3/2020
Pink Millipora - 3/3/2020
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