55 Us Gallon Reef

[chrissaysyes]

Ok so this tank has been running for a while now.

Hardware:

=Glass 55g tank

=Fluval 205

=DIY acrylic Venturi skimmer run by 250gph maxijet

=Tunze Turbelle Nanostream 6025 660gph

=Aquaclear 30 174gph

=6x65w PC Lights, 6 LEDs ---4x blue LEDs, 2x white LEDs, 2x12000k daylight, 1x10000k daylight, and 3x460nm actinic

=random heater...not sure on the specs but it gets the job done.

=Between 40-50lbs live rock

=30lbs CaribSea live arganite substrate


Live Stock:

Inverts:
2x Nassarius Snails
30x Blue Legged Hermits
3x Scarlet Legged Hermits
1x Huge random hermit crab
1x Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
1x Spotted Porcelain Crab
1x Purple Condylactis Anemone

Corals:
=Red Mushroom Coral
=Marbled Mushroom Coral
=Sun Coral
=Yellow Leather Coral
=SEVERAL Zoanthids
=Green Ricordia
=Pink Tipped Euphyllia
=Evergreen Star Polyps
=Glove polyps


Problems:

-Ich. Currently the tank is infected with cryptocaryon irritans. I'm waiting out the life cycle before adding new fish...it's driving me insane Prior to the outbreak the livestock included: 6x Yellow tail damsels, 1x Four-stripe Damsel, 1x Yellow Tang, 1x Tomato Clown, 3x Yellow Clown Gobies, and 1x Falco Hawkfish. A great loss indeed.

-Algae. I've been battling Green Hair Algae, as well as Red Slime. The hair algae is beginning to thin out however Im still having patches of Red Slime algae from time to time. This is combated with weekly water changes and this week I will be adding PhosBan.


Future Plans:

Currently I am setting up a small 3 gallon sump. The intake for my canister filter will reside here, as well as the heater, and skimmer. The sump is nearly completed except for a few tiny plumbing bits. It consists of an acrylic overflow which is complete, leading down into the sump via 1" hose, then water is processed and sent back to the display tank via an Aquaclear 20. The sump also has a lighting fixture for possible future refugium action.

Distant Future plans:

Redoing the electrical work to make it more safe/fire resistant. I seem to be getting electrocuted more and more thanks to my lights and intend to correct this as soon as possible. I also plan on installing a small (24 gpd) RO/DI unit for water changes.

 

[chrissaysyes]

Photos!!!!

 

[ianhrfrd]

Photos!!!!

 

[ianhrfrd]

for the algae add more snals i have a 40g tank i have 35 snails that will help alot with the algae hope that will help

 

[chrissaysyes]

would you say nassarius or astrea? I actually purchased 40 nassarius snails but I havnt paid for them yet so I'm still waiting

 

[chrissaysyes]

Lots of work done today...

10% water change

Cleaned out the fluval and in the process I added:

Carbon, ferric oxide resin (fluval phosphate remover), and removed a tray of ceramic rings.

Also to the tank I added:

10x Nassarius
10x Astrea

THEN

Completed the sump.

I'll upload some pictures tomorrow but it works like this...

Water enters the 3 gallon sump via an acrylic overflow, water is returned to the tank via the intake hose from my fluval canister. The sump contains my HOB skimmer, as well as my heater. The hose coming from the display tank is covered by a black acrylic splash box I put together.

During all of this I cleaned the powerhead on the skimmer and it's soooo much more quiet now which is wonderful. I also noticed a tiny leak on one of the fittings of the skimmer. For now there is a small cup under the skimmer to catch the drips...not sure how Im going to go about fixing this. I really hate to disassemble the whole setup. Wondering if theres anyway I can fix this without taking the thing apart...some sort of puddy or sealant that I can apply to a wet surface.

 

[chrissaysyes]

picsss

 

[chrissaysyes]

Added a 20lb rock today from the mature LR/coral tank at my lfs. The scaping in my tank finally looks complete...I just need to rearrange things again but Im going to wait a bit. New stuff...

Stocking:
I'm getting close to the end of my quarantine period where I believe the crypto has died off and I may be able to add fish again soon. I'm finding it hard to decide what to stock the tank with. I was actually thinking of just going with a tank full of damsels but that's not very creative or challenging. I also thought of a reef wrasse tank. What I would absolutely LOVE is to have a trigger fish or two...I'm thinking a blue throat trigger and several damsels. The damsels would be hardy little accents to the tank and the corals and trigger would be my main pleasures.

Algae:
Ugh...no improvements. Added the phosphate remover, an upgraded my clean up crew...it's been a week or so and no real improvements are showing at all. Im still scraping and siphoning that mess out like crazy. I figured it was the phosphate content from my source water since Ive been having to use tap water rather than an RO/DI source but my other tanks are doing fine.

Corals:
-Fiji Leather that I've been nursing finally died...ugh

-Sun Coral is looking nice but only seems to open up at night...perhaps the overpopulation of pods in the tank due to lack of fish is providing a food supplement along with it's feeding of mysis shrimp every other/few days so the heads never fully open.

-Ricordea seems to be splitting...regardless of which it's finally getting huge, it must really like it's new placement

-Briareum finally spawning so much that I was able to get a frag for my bio cube

Hardware:
My protein skimmer is acting up so it's been disabled for the time being. Going to try and find the time to clean it and do some repairs in the next few days.


Future:
Going to try and pick up a phosphate reactor sometime soon and do all my media there. Eventually take the foam pad out of my fluval and fill it with LR rubble. Also considering replacing my current sump with a 10gal wet/dry filter my lfs has. Probably going to try adding a blue damsel next week. Havnt decided if I'm ready yet or not.

 

[chrissaysyes]

Ok soooo i broke the wait on waiting out the cryptocaryon irritan parasites to die off. After 5 weeks, I added my first fish! I'll post some pics tomorrow. It's a small domino damsel. First fish my girlfriend has found attractive in a long time (since I took down my old brackish puffer tank.) We even have a clownfish in the bedroom inhabiting the future seahorse tank but she thinks he's boring. I actually like this little guy, I meant for him to just be a little tester but I'll definitely let him stay in the tank if things work out. He's taken up residence in my Torch coral. Of all the clowns I've had, this little guy is the only one to ever live in any of my corals

I also added a huge chunk of chaeto to my sump and got the lights on the sump on a timer. Hoping this will help clear up the last of the red slime muck. I moved some tank stands around in this room today to make room for the new sump. The new sump is going to be much much nicer and plumbed much better. Hoping the new sump will mean the end of using the fluval canister. Also making plans to add a reactor to the sump for phosphate remover and carbon. Going to try and find a nice C/T reactor next week.

 

[chrissaysyes]

Well...my lack of patience has come back to haunt me

Little damsel is showing white spots. Only like two spots right now...luckily he's black so I saw it off the bat. Just treated the tank with kick-ich. Wish me luck.

 

[chrissaysyes]

new sump/fuge is complete. Still waiting for paint to cure before I clean it out and plumb it. Also gotta get my skimmer setup right for it.

 

[chrissaysyes]

 

[chrissaysyes]

 

[chrissaysyes]

 

[chrissaysyes]

Ok, today:

-Fresh RO top off

-Added 50x True Nassarius

-Painted the back of my tank Blue (finally)

-Treated with Kick Ich

PICS!!@#$

Full Room Shot:

All lights on:

Actinics on: