[lobsterboy]

Hi everyone I am new to Reef Builders but have read many posts all ready.

Here is a FTS of my reef.

[lobsterboy]

[SECRETREEF]

great looking tank! can you tell us more about it? filtration, flow, maintanence, anything at all would be great!

keep it up!

happy reefing!

[BLKBRDTA]

Welcome to Reef Builders John, glad to have you join us here!

Your tanks looks very clean and neat! Like Secret said, what kind of equipment are you using? Additives? Reactors? Lighting? So on and so forth..

One question though.. Where did all the Coraline go!? I see some on your intake and powerhead, but none on your front or back walls..? Do you keep it off purposely? Scrapper? Dosing?

[Tonis]

that first picture is an AMAZING picture. If it was bigger i'd make it my desktop background

[lobsterboy]

thanks for the comps.

Tank size:125gallon
sump: 33 gallon
return pump: Rainbow lifeguard quiet one 4000HH, rated at 980gph, actual 550gph
Tunze DOC 9005 skimmer
Vortex zeo reactor: 1.25 lb of zeolites changed every month, now leaving 10% of old zeolites mixed with fresh zeolites
Two little fishes phosban reactor used as a carbon reactor using, zeovit carbon, 1cup changed every 2 weeks.

Current:
x2 Tunze 6065 stream, 1717gph
x1 Tunze 6045 nano stream, 1189gph
x1 Vortech (very first generation, not wireless), 3000gph
x1 Vortech mp40, set on reef crest mode

Lighting: changed every 3months
Nova extreme PRO T5, 12 blubs
6, 39wt Fiji purple KZ
6, 39wt New Generations KZ

Chiller: JBJ arctica 1/4hp

5% water changed, every two weeks

Tank Parms:
temp: 78-80f
ca-410 450-dosing 7.1 tsp CA every morning
kh-6.0-8.5-dosing 6.1 tsp carbonate night with top up water
k+ 390-400
mg-1400

ZEO dosing schedule: all done at night after lights out

Everyday:
5 drop coral vitalizer
3 drop sponge power
2ml phols xtra
2 drop amino acid SPS
6 drop Stylo glow
0.4ml Zeostart, morning, 0.4ml at night

Every other day dosing:

5 drop zeobak
5 drop zeofood
10ml B-balance, monday and thursday
zeospur2 every 10-20 days, dosed with 5 drops Jodi komplex

Once a month
10ml Zeospur Macro elements

[lobsterboy]

Coral growth has been great in my reef.

sometimes too much, as when I clean the glass this can happen.



random shots, no actinc blubs used

[Tonis]

It almost seems like there's no back to your tank. However you do it is really cool, it's like it goes on forever :P

[lobsterboy]

Originally Posted by Tonis

It almost seems like there's no back to your tank. However you do it is really cool, it's like it goes on forever :P

yeah, the zeovit system has taken alot of my coralline algae away, as there are not much nutrients for the encrusting algae to grow. there are some on the powerheads and places where i can not reach with my scraper.
I clean the glass about once a week, with a scaper and then polish with a mag-float.

and there is no back ground on the tank, i was using a blue background, but i felt that it looked very contained, so i removed it, the back wall is white, so it maybe helping with reflecting the light to make it appear larger than it is.

thanks for looking.

[lobsterboy]

well, today i finally was able to take some pics of the tank.

I used the eshopps coral viewer for the top downs, and the pics are taken with a canon power shot, also no actincs.

I found that the colors are most intense since i stopped dosing zeospur.

also i have stopped dosing K+ for the time being.

I also started having to stack and move some colonies as its getting pretty full in there and finding that some corals are shading each other now and causing lack of flow.

here are so pics taken a few minutes ago.










pink stylo from the Red coral pre order, getting some color back













another Red Coral pre order SPS, looking like a rainbow

[elkman97462]

Your tank looks wonderful, I hope you keep posting here!

[lobsterboy]

hi, i have been busy with work, but had today to take some pictures, here they are. enjoy!


took these with the white balance on, lots of deep color.

[lobsterboy]

hello everyone here is an updated list of my tank specs.

Tank size:125gallon
sump: 33 gallon
return pump: Rainbow lifeguard quiet one 4000HH, rated at 980gph, actual 550gph
Tunze DOC 9005 skimmer
Vortex zeo reactor: 1.25 lb of zeolites changed every month, now leaving 10% of old zeolites mixed with fresh zeolites
Two little fishes phosban reactor, running zeovit carbon, 1cup changed every 2 weeks.

Current:
x2 Tunze 6065 steams, 1717gph
x1 tunze 1100 gph nano stream
x1 Vortech gen1, 3000gph <-- died last night, more on that in up coming post
x1 Vortech mp40 set on reef crest mode

Lighting: changed every 3months
Nova extreme PRO T5, 12 blubs
2, 39wt Corallight 10k
4, 39wt Fiji purple KZ
6, 39wt New Generations KZ

5% water changed, every two weeks

Tank Parms:
temp: 78-80f
ca-420-dosing 6.1 tsp CA morning
kh-6.5-7.5-dosing 12 tsp carbonate night with top up water
k+ 390-400
mg-1400

ZEO dosing schedule: all done at night after lights out

Everyday:
5 drop coral vitalizer
5 drop sponge power
2ml phols xtra
2 drop amino acid SPS
6 drop Stylo glow
0.3ml Zeostart twice daily (morning and evening)
1ml K-balance, very rare occassions.

Every other day dosing:

5 drop zeobak
5 drop zeofood
5ml B-balance twice weekly
zeospur2 every 21 days, dosed with 5 drops Jodi komplex
2 drop KZ iron done on saturday

Once a month
10ml Zeospur Macro elements

[lobsterboy]

so recently i had some set backs with my equipment. and live stock.
so i get up yesterday morning at 5am to head to work, i always take a peek at the tank before i leave, even with the lights off. and i see my yellow tang which i have had for 5years stuck to the side of the vortech lifeless.
RIP buddy.
pic from better times


while still feeling down, i was vonurable to all the new fish at Red Coral and came home with a fat purple tang, Kevin had 6 in stock and they were all eating like pigs and looked like it.
he was welcomed by my tomi tang, which soon left him alone. and yes thats a huge bubble algae growing out of the birdnest. :lol:



so already it wasnt the best start of the day, so after work, at 9pm
i decided to replace the two new 10k lamps that i got from Red Coral.



i then thought it would be a perfect time to clean the acrylic cover so i go to get the vinager, when i trip on the leg of the fixture and snap it back breaking the leg, i was flippin last night.
this is what got cracked.


i tried glueing it by clamping it down,



then buffing out the xtra glue, it was 2:30am when i finally got it back onto the fixture, what a sigh of relief i thought as i pushed it back to line it up when i hear *CRACK* it broke again, i set the fixture on the coffee table to deal with in the morning.
which i did, by going to a big box aquarium store and finding the last pair of replacment legs. this issue was solved.

but while waiting for the glue to harden post breaking the leg, the top of the tank was wide open, so i took the opp to take a top down pic.


naked tank



i also took the opp to clean my vortech, which needed a good cleaning.
i took some of the algae of it, and put it back in the tank, then it doesnt want to start, just giving spurts of on and off, so i take it out take the back plate off, and there was a black bump, i thought it was some kinda crazy sponge that liked to be spun around and around, then i tried to take it off, and what comes out is black oxidized iron (i am guessing) and it was eating away at the black of the disk. so the wet side is shot.




then i go to Red Coral in the late morning, and Kevin hooks me up with a replacement part, and i get it home and still doesnt work. i go back to red coral and Kevin tested different scenerios of the pump, long story short its shot. Kevin was awesome as he lent me the stores vortech until the new mp40 will arrive, which will be in a few weeks.
thanks Kevin. tank is up and running again

so it was a great day off today, i got to go the red coral 3 times in the last two days, and i got to spend sometime with the tank, as well a new fish.

good times.

[Scorpa]

SPS! Super sweet!

[Br14n55reef]

Wow super nice tank! Where did you buy your tank ... It's rimless I love that look! Very nice!

[lobsterboy]

thanks for the comps reefers

my tank is a hagen, I bought it used 5 years ago, previous it was a mixed tank mostly softies, then I moved and it became a FOWLR, and shortly after that it became an SPS reef.

its not trim less, i removed the front black trim to give it a more open look, my new tank will be trim less.

[lobsterboy]

so i recently did some work on the left hand side of my tank, the green stags were getting O.O.C. (out of control)

I donated the stags to a reefing friend that recently lost his massive colony of birdnest to help fill out his tank again. I did keep a few clipping for my self
I am sure in the near future, i will have to remove some more pieces as everything is very close together. I have gone through phases where i like one coral more than the other, but the one variety of SPS i love the most is the stylo, poccis.

when I do reaquascape there will be more of these clustering corals in my tank.

so here are some mixed pics.

after the colonies removed, very messy

[lobsterboy]

Happy New Year everyone.

some new top down pics. the first 3 are showing some coral warfare, there is an exposed branch on the blue stag, the tuburania going around the formossa, and the chalice lossing a battle to the M.confusa.

















setosa, getting encrusted of the plug.

[Weirze79]

well Very nice tank love the SPS a question what would the clown fish host on

[lobsterboy]

Originally Posted by Weirze79

well Very nice tank love the SPS a question what would the clown fish host on

thanks, the clowns do not have an anemone to host in, but they do cuddle up near the top left hand cornor of the tank near the power head.

[lobsterboy]

hey all. Here a full tank shot I took last night

[carym]

Very nice love the colors

[jimw369]

Lobsterboy! EXXXXCCCCEEELLLEEEENNNTTT T!!!

Is that an acro/staghorn on top of a cap? If the cap is a nice one Id move the Acro and let the cap show itself off.

Nice thread!

[spanko]

What a beautiful reef you have. A couple of question if I may.

You do a lot of dosing, is it all done manually or do you have any dosing pumps set up?

How often do you do any testing of chemical parameters?

With all of the coral and the close proximity to each other what types of warfare are you experiencing? Do you just let it go, or do you move\frag coral to minimize it?