Another 55 gallon reef log....

[ratherbediving]

Alright, I am sure people are sick of these, but I want to post mine anyway

My tank started up in Feb. of this year. Previously this was a FW tank for 2 years.

The current list of equipment:

• 
  Clear for Life acrylic tank, drilled with 1 1/2" drain
  Custom acrylic sump
  ASM G2 Protein skimmer
  Quiet One 3000 return pump
  3 Maxijet 900s, 2 on a wavemaker
  4 x 54 watt Sunlight supply T-5 lighting
  200 watt visitherm heater

I also have a Seio 820, but it blew the sand around a bit too much when I hooked it up. waiting for a bit longer on that....

The sump has the return in the middle. So I have a T from the drain; most of the H20 goes into the skimmer compartment. A smaller, 3/4" line goes to the refugium. At this time, I have the ball valve all the way open on the line going to the refugium. Here is a shot from the back of the tank during leak testing:

This is a picture of the drain on the left, and the return on the right

One thing I learned is that when leak testing... you need to set up the skimmer and RUN IT.... when I was leak testing, the sump could hold all of the H20 when the power was off-- but I didn't have the skimmer running. However, when the skimmer was running, the level of water in the sump increases. I had a minor flood in my living room (well, just a few cups of water) when I had a short kill the power to the tank.

I had to redo the drain so there was no 90 degree elbow in the tank; that prevented less water from going in the tank, but was a bit louder. Oh well

 

[ratherbediving]

Another thing I learned... the sump was just BARELY able to fit in the G2 skimmer; I wanted as large a skimmer as possible, so if I upgrade to a larger tank (say a 100-120 gallon tank later) I won't necessarily have to spring for another skimmer. (I am also planning on using the T-5 to supplement some metal halides)

I didn't allow enough room for the plumbing as well... there is enough room, but BARELY and makes clening the skimmer a real PITA.

I set up the tank with 32 lbs of Figi from the LFS... I later added another 10 lbs. No real life on the rock.

Right side...

Left side....

After three weeks, I ordered 50 lbs of live rock from Floridaliverock.com (some more pictures to come).

Sorry I don't have a better picture, but this was the initial aquascaping:

12 days later... still not taking good photos yet, but things started to look a bit better with the rock....

 

[garagebrian]

Nice thread! Looks like you got some nice colors from the floridaliverock rock.

B.

 

[ratherbediving]

Thanks!

I purchased the following cleanup crew from a LFS:

4 Trochus
2 Mexican Turbos (huge!)
10 ceriths
1 emerald crab
5 scarlet hermits (1 died... killed by another hermit, I believe )
2 peppermint shrimp (I think one died)

Along with 3 urchins, some keyhole limpets and one astrea that hitchhiked, my cleanup crew is able to keep up with the algae. (Although the urchins are making my tank a bit less colorful. Pretty interesting, though.)

A couple weeks after that.. my levels looked pretty good:
Alk 7.4 dkh
CA 420
Po4 0.5 (a little high I guess)
NO3 2
Mg 1100

... so I got my first corals...

this rock had 3 different kinds of polyps, which I am hoping I can frag and move some to another locations, and some Green star polyps. The green star polyps in particular have really done well since then. I need to learn the art of fragging corals soon!

Also some green zoanthus. They have also started multiplying...

Finally, I got some green mushrooms, which I keep near the bottom of the tank.

 

[ratherbediving]

At this point, I realized that a lot of 'beginner' corals come with their own peices of live rock as all peices that I described did. This makes aquascaping a bit tough-- for one, I really already had enough rock... one thing about aquacultured rock, there is a lot of corals/ clams/ christmas tree worms etc etc which you DON'T want to have to mess with too much by burying under a pile of rocks. At least I don't, and it makes aquascaping tough. Also, a crab, or snail, or something would try to move EXACTLY where I wanted to put my the next rock. Here is a full tank shot from April 24, a little over 2 months old:

 

[ratherbediving]

Here is a more current full tank shot:

I've recently trimmed the Sargassum algae quite a bit recently; it grows very fast, and will grow back soon. I figure its a good nutrient export, and I actually enjoy it; although it takes up a lot of real estate that could be used for corals.

My only real problems have been high temps (reached 86 a few times) and some Green Star Polyps which are really taking over... will need to frag my button polyps this weekend if I want to save them. This is a picture from a month ago:

..since then the GSP has overgrown quite a few of the polyps near the top, and even grew onto an adjacent rock. It has probably quadrupled in size since I bought the rock several months ago...

 

[garagebrian]

Nice looking tank! I have some sargassum too, but it grows SLOW, it has taken 6 months to grow 3 inches, I wonder what your secret is?

GSP is very pretty, but it sure can outcompete everything. Your polyps are definitely losing that fight, good luck fragging them off to save them.

B.

 

[ratherbediving]

Nice looking tank! I have some sargassum too, but it grows SLOW, it has taken 6 months to grow 3 inches, I wonder what your secret is?

GSP is very pretty, but it sure can outcompete everything. Your polyps are definitely losing that fight, good luck fragging them off to save them.

B.

Hmm... I don't seem to get email updates from reefs.org when someone posts. ?!?!?

Thanks for the compliment!

My Sargassum grows really fast-- it just took off a few months ago. I trimmed it back quite a bit a month ago (the Frogspawn needed more room) and it looks like it needs another trim.

I am learning the hard way about GSP overgrowing everything. I have been anxious about fragging the polyps but I am going to have to this weekend if they have any chance at all of surviving. I am a little paranoid about the palytoxin (sp?), but I figure if I do the fragging outside the tank that should be okay.

 

[garagebrian]

Hmm... I don't seem to get email updates from reefs.org when someone posts. ?!?!?

I am learning the hard way about GSP overgrowing everything. I have been anxious about fragging the polyps but I am going to have to this weekend if they have any chance at all of surviving. I am a little paranoid about the palytoxin (sp?), but I figure if I do the fragging outside the tank that should be okay.

Yeah, I don't always get email updates either...it has only been happening recently.

I wouldn't worry too much about the toxin, but just be safe and do it outside of the tank, wear gloves and protective glasses. Oh yeah, keep your mouth SHUT! I luckily had my mouth closed when one of my zoas spit some water right on my lips. If my mouth had been open, yummy!

Brian