40 Breeder SPS Reef

Sparky312

Sparky312

Member
Hey guys!

I wanted to share where my tank is at now. Haven't posted anything on here since my introduction 6 months ago. Been going good since then so its time to put it out there!

The tank is now 10 months old and has settled in pretty well I think. I'm a brand new reefkeeper so of course I had a few bumps and losses along the way, but I figured that would happen as I learned. For that reason I never put anything expensive into this tank haha

I added a sump which of course is awesome and really decluttered the look. I improved my skimmer and added a media reactor too

Fish: Pair of Black/White clowns, firefish, and 1 blue/green chromis (started with 5 which was cool to watch, but only the strong survive)
Soft Corals: GSP, pompom xenia, green PE, Tyree neon green toadstool, some other palys, which started as 4 and are now 30-40
LPS: Torch and a Duncan coral
SPS: green birdsnest, purple stylophora, orange digitata, red monti cap, GARF Bonsai, unknown acro
Have a rainbow bubble tip anemone as well

Its all pretty basic stuff, but my goal with this tank from the beginning was to just learn the hobby and keep the reef healthy. So far so good, thanks for looking!
-BrianView attachment 12666
 
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Alright I'm gonna try to get a few more pictures up here too. All I've got is my phone camera so they aren't that spectacular...

Torch, toadstool, birdsnest
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The torch started out as 1 head and now has 4 (not sure why photo is sideways)
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This is probably the smallest coral in my tank but I'm pretty pleased with it. The bonsai was in bad shape when I got it, with some tissue damage and no polyps showing. I cut just the tip off and mounted it -- since then it has grown a bunch of new little nubs, started crusting on the plug, and its covered in new green polyps. Sweet!
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Trying to get all 4 fish in one shot -- not easy!
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An across the tank shot
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Here is the equipment I'm using right now

Lights are the AquaticLife 4-bulb T5 fixture I've always had, with ATI bulbs. I've tried different combinations but just switched a few days ago to 2actinic/2blue plus. I love the look

Flow is Jebao RW-8 and the WP-10. Usually run them both in wave mode but I change this up every so often and move them around some.

Eshopps overflow down to the sump which is a 3-chamber 10 gallon tank. Skimmer is Eshopps PSK75 (i think) which I got for $40 on CL. Works good
BRS Deluxe reactor -- I'm running it with both carbon and GFO
I have some cheato but its not doing too much -- the fuge is a work in progress I'd say. I want it for biodiversity don't really have nutrient problems at the moment.

I should have said this in the first post, but I've got a lot of this stuff both equipment and corals from people on this board. So thanks to all the guys that have sold me something! And thanks again for checking out my tank
 
Added JBJ ATO which I have been wanting to do for some time. I wanted to dose Kalkwasser instead of the 2-part I have been doing so we'll see how it goes. Starting with 5 teaspoons/5 gal bucket

EDIT 11/3: 5 teaspoons was too much I backed it down to 3 -- working well to maintain alk + cal
 
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It has been a little over a month since I put the ATO on which replaced dumping water in twice a day. Also put kalk in the water to replace manual dosing every so often which was kind of a pain. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!! best move I ever made for sure. Haven't had to dose anything since then or pour any more water. Should have started off with one of those

Just checked my levels:
kH 8-9
Calcium 460
Nitrate about 2-3
Salinety 1.027 its higher than normal I'll take it down to 1.026 tomorrow when I can get more RO water

Couple other changes: I got 4 more acro frags and I think its time to move this to a SPS tank. I took most of my soft corals out and setup an extra 10 gallon I had in my bedroom. I'm going to replace my actinic bulbs with coral plus and blue plus to get a little more PAR and I have an extra RW-8 if I need more flow. Also want to ditch the frag rack it looks dumb. Once I get the frags mounted and the rack out and some white light on I'll get some more pics up
 
I finally got my little project done last week -- took longer than I thought!

wanted to remove all the frag plugs from the tank and take out the frag rack. 2 of my acro frags had encrusted all on to the plug so those 2 stayed, all the rest glued straight to the rocks. It looks a lot better and more natural I think

Changed my bulb combo again to 4XBlue+ for more PAR

My new iPhone 6 comes today so I should be able to get some better pics tomorrow

About a month ago I stopped using filter socks altogether because it was a PITA to change them and I figured there were critters in the tank that would eat that stuff. Haven't really noticed any major change to water clarity so I'm happy with not using them for now. Makes my sump a little messier so cleaning it out will prob be the next project
 
Updated with some pics. I leave tomorrow to New York for 4 days and my tank will be in the hands of my dog sitter. Fingers crossed that everything (or even most of it) survives!!!
 
You'll be fine for 4 days! Enjoy your time in New York! It's those 2 week trips you gotta worry about

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
Spartanman22 said:
You'll be fine for 4 days! Enjoy your time in New York! It's those 2 week trips you gotta worry about

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Lol how about a 35 day trip, i left my tank running with no one even peeking at it :)


Sent from my iPhone
 
Yay everything survived my trip! haha

Right before I left I cleaned out my sump and pumps and skimmer -- but the needle wheel of my skimmer was broken :( probably why it wasn't skimming much. So I took the skimmer out and ordered a replacement part -- I hope it works and I won't have to buy a whole new pump. Tank has been running without a skimmer now for almost a week and it will be until the new part comes. So far seems fine -- a little algae -- gonna change out the GFO

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