UNS 45C Reef Build -

[medilagus]

Hello Reef2Reef!
I have been in the hobby for about 10 years, enjoying mostly nano mixed reef and low-tech planted tanks. After being without a reef tank for about 1 year following a cross-country move, we decided to take the plunge and start a small mixed reef, trying for a more SPS-dominated tank than our previous builds for a little extra challenge. It took some time to put together all the equipment, but as of fall 2023 was filled with water.

Equipment:
- Tank: UNS 45C with Clearview Lids custom cover and Mame overflow, on a Waterbox white stand
- Lighting: Single AI Prime 16HD
- About 15 lbs dry rock and rubble
- About 25 lbs fiji pink sand
- Sicce synchra silent 1.5 return pump
- Reef diaper filter socks
- Aquamaxx WS-1 Skimmer
- Tunze Nano Osmolator ATO
- AI Nero 3 wavemaker
- Apex A3 with pH, temp monitoring, Trident and DOS for ASV 2-part
- IceCap ReefSump 15
- Tunze EcoChic Fuge Light

Fish/Inverts:
- Midas blenny
- Yasha goby and red pistol shrimp
- Porcelain crab
- Minimal snail cleanup crew
- 2 emerald crabs
- On the way: Upside down goby, starry goby, link's goby, and pavo damselfish (BIOTA)

Coral:
- Multiple zoanthids
- Various SPS including multiple montipora, seriatopora, acropora varieties
- Various LPS including green duncan, blastomussa, acan lord corals, hammer, and alveopora

Maintenance:
- Two-part dosing daily as directed by Apex Trident, monitored and adjusted as needed
- Weekly addition of magnesium as needed
- Weekly 5 gallon water change, sump/Mame overflow cleaning
- Fill ATO reservoir about twice weekly
- Change filter sock every 3 days
- Feed fish twice daily
- Reef roids every 3-4 days, live phytoplankton every 3-4 days, also add Brightwell Aquatics Reef Snow periodically

That's it! So far things have been going well. Despite adding the corals very early, i have only had 2 losses (zoanthid and little red ferrari acro), possibly related to initial fluctuations in alk. Since starting dosing and transitioning some of the sump into a refugium, pH has been very stable with minimal algae growth in the display. Still keeping a close eye on the system since it's so young. Thanks for looking!

 

[medilagus]

More photos:

 

[Guy25]

Love the setup! Nice photos too. I'm curious, how have you liked that Mame overflow? They seem pricey, and I'm on the fence with getting one. Siphon startup after outage? Any issues with alage/CUC getting stuck/caught in it? Is it as difficult to clean as it looks?

 

[medilagus]

Love the setup! Nice photos too. I'm curious, how have you liked that Mame overflow? They seem pricey, and I'm on the fence with getting one. Siphon startup after outage? Any issues with alage/CUC getting stuck/caught in it? Is it as difficult to clean as it looks?

Thanks! Love the Mame overflow. It does accumulate algae, but it is fairly easy to clean out with pipe brushes (just need to make sure you have the right size brushes). I clean it every week with each water change, and have done one deep clean with vinegar/water since starting the tank last September. I have never had difficulty restarting the siphon after a water change (i turn off the return pump with each change); it has always worked well. The only time it could not restart was after i disconnected the whole mechanism for a deep clean, since the water was removed from the tubing for cleaning (but I expected that).

What I did notice early on, was that the return pumps flow needs to be powerful enough to restart the siphon after being turned off, but not so powerful that it makes tons of noise. We got the silencer cap for it right away after setting it up, and now it’s whisper quiet and works great with the Sicce Syncra 1.5.

No issues with animals getting caught in it, or going into the sump yet thankfully!