Hi All,
Just posting an update to my 9 month old 30 gallon Hex Reef. While I've had my challenges and failures I think overall I have a successful, healthy reef thanks in part to the information obtained from this forum. Let me know what you think and I gladly take advice and constructive criticism!
Equipment:
-30 gallon hex (i now that's not ideal but it's all i have until i move)
-2.5 gallon CPR HOB refugium-2.5-3 inch DSB, live rock & rubble, chaeto, green mushrooms on larger rock. Using eggcrate I have sectioned off about 1/4 of the refuge near the intake where I have a bag of chemipure and a piece of phosphate pad (changed bi-weekly) that water passes through. My heater sits in it also. I have 3 PowerBrite LED lights on 24/7 and get some but not much macro growth. The fuge is FILLED with pods & HUGE amphipods along with brittle stars, & worms.
-150W clamp-on Viper MH light with 15k bulb (4mnths old) & run 8 hrs per day.
-2 more Powerbrite LED lights that sit on top of eggcrate on display tank for "lunar" cycle. Run for another 5 hours or so. Tanks gets about 6hrs of total darkness daily.
-Remora Skimmer that's been running for 6 months and still doesn't come close to filling up even after a month. What skimmate I do get is NASTY consistently. Water is crystal clear always and I have very little algae growth in the DT typically.
- (2) koralia nano's are buried in the rockwork to pull from behind the reef, (1) koralia 1 is creating flow across the sandbed (very small area), a MaxiJet 1200 is pointed at the surface for agitaion, and additional flow is created by the PS & HOB fuge.
-Everything is on GFI (& probe) outlets & the heater, led lights & one koralia nano are on a UPS.
The Rest:
-Not sure how much live rock I have...some is Fiji & I have a lot of coraline algae growth all over the tank.
-Probably 3inch+ sandbed.
-Livestock - YWG, Bar Goby, Oscellaris Clown, Pajama Cardinal, 2-3 blue-legged hermits, 6-7 sexy shrimp, nassarius snails, commensual crab of some kind, pepperming shrimp (unseen in 2 mnths), white sponge colonies, bristleworms, brittle stars..etc. I have a few easy to keep SPS but mostly LPS & Rics. Frogspawns, hammers, polyps, zoas, trumpet, candycane, monti, pagoda, duncans, & an acan to name a few. All listed have been with me at least 5 mnths and have done well though I have some concerns.
*My zoas with aqua-mags on the glass do well but some on the reef stay closed a lot and I've had 1-2 melt away.
*I'm starting to get some very small patches of green bubble algae. Had cyno once but quickly beat it. Otherwise my DT has very little algae.
-I dose with BRS's two-part but only have ever added CA to keep levels near 450. Have never heard of reliable ALK test that wasn't very expensive so I don't test for it or MAG. Advice on this appreciated. SG maintained at 1.025-1.026 using a refractometer.
-I feed oystereggs weekly, alternate between mysis & Spectrum Thera +A & algae wafers every other day.
Anyway I'll cut it there I guess. Below are pics & a recent video of my fuge (with a shot at the end of the DT) that are 2 days old. I have a blog I keep for myself & family if you were interested. It's at aquariablog.com-There are live webcams on my planted freshwater & 3 gal nano.
Thanks again to NanoReef for the great resource over the last year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lEel8s0HGA
Just posting an update to my 9 month old 30 gallon Hex Reef. While I've had my challenges and failures I think overall I have a successful, healthy reef thanks in part to the information obtained from this forum. Let me know what you think and I gladly take advice and constructive criticism!
Equipment:
-30 gallon hex (i now that's not ideal but it's all i have until i move)
-2.5 gallon CPR HOB refugium-2.5-3 inch DSB, live rock & rubble, chaeto, green mushrooms on larger rock. Using eggcrate I have sectioned off about 1/4 of the refuge near the intake where I have a bag of chemipure and a piece of phosphate pad (changed bi-weekly) that water passes through. My heater sits in it also. I have 3 PowerBrite LED lights on 24/7 and get some but not much macro growth. The fuge is FILLED with pods & HUGE amphipods along with brittle stars, & worms.
-150W clamp-on Viper MH light with 15k bulb (4mnths old) & run 8 hrs per day.
-2 more Powerbrite LED lights that sit on top of eggcrate on display tank for "lunar" cycle. Run for another 5 hours or so. Tanks gets about 6hrs of total darkness daily.
-Remora Skimmer that's been running for 6 months and still doesn't come close to filling up even after a month. What skimmate I do get is NASTY consistently. Water is crystal clear always and I have very little algae growth in the DT typically.
- (2) koralia nano's are buried in the rockwork to pull from behind the reef, (1) koralia 1 is creating flow across the sandbed (very small area), a MaxiJet 1200 is pointed at the surface for agitaion, and additional flow is created by the PS & HOB fuge.
-Everything is on GFI (& probe) outlets & the heater, led lights & one koralia nano are on a UPS.
The Rest:
-Not sure how much live rock I have...some is Fiji & I have a lot of coraline algae growth all over the tank.
-Probably 3inch+ sandbed.
-Livestock - YWG, Bar Goby, Oscellaris Clown, Pajama Cardinal, 2-3 blue-legged hermits, 6-7 sexy shrimp, nassarius snails, commensual crab of some kind, pepperming shrimp (unseen in 2 mnths), white sponge colonies, bristleworms, brittle stars..etc. I have a few easy to keep SPS but mostly LPS & Rics. Frogspawns, hammers, polyps, zoas, trumpet, candycane, monti, pagoda, duncans, & an acan to name a few. All listed have been with me at least 5 mnths and have done well though I have some concerns.
*My zoas with aqua-mags on the glass do well but some on the reef stay closed a lot and I've had 1-2 melt away.
*I'm starting to get some very small patches of green bubble algae. Had cyno once but quickly beat it. Otherwise my DT has very little algae.
-I dose with BRS's two-part but only have ever added CA to keep levels near 450. Have never heard of reliable ALK test that wasn't very expensive so I don't test for it or MAG. Advice on this appreciated. SG maintained at 1.025-1.026 using a refractometer.
-I feed oystereggs weekly, alternate between mysis & Spectrum Thera +A & algae wafers every other day.
Anyway I'll cut it there I guess. Below are pics & a recent video of my fuge (with a shot at the end of the DT) that are 2 days old. I have a blog I keep for myself & family if you were interested. It's at aquariablog.com-There are live webcams on my planted freshwater & 3 gal nano.
Thanks again to NanoReef for the great resource over the last year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lEel8s0HGA
