WAMAS Tank of the Month
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It is an honor to be selected for TOTM. I enjoy reading through this forum every month. It’s a way for WAMAS members to share their journey with each other. Thank you for allowing me to showcase my tanks.
My name is Eric and I have been in the hobby for 9 years. Before this, I dipped my toes in the freshwater fish hobby for a couple years. However, I couldn’t resist all the fascinating creatures that could be kept in a saltwater tank. The transition was very quick, but this hobby has been quite an adventure. My current tank is a 120g peninsula-style tank tied in with a 30g breeder. The 120g has been running since July 2018. The current setup is an upgrade from a 90g I started in 2015. The setup was designed to fit a corner in my basement. The 30g was added because I wanted an anemone tank that was separated from the main mixed reef tank. The 120g is a standard 4ft tank. I hated how much space the corner overflow box took up in my previous 90g. This led me to buy a non-reef ready tank that I could drill and install a 16” Shadow Overflow box. The tank is currently in a transition phase. I recently sold off many coral colonies. A nutrient deficiency also resulted in the loss of many of my Acros. I built the stand and canopy based on the vision I had. However, I have made many mods to the stand and canopy to accommodate how I wanted to run the tank along the way. I also run an IM 25g lagoon fish-less QT that is run as a separate system. I also built the stand and light mount for this tank. I use an Apex controller on all the tanks. I know some people have everything fully integrated into their controller. I worry that it can be a single point of failure. I prefer that my equipment have independent controllers and use the Apex to monitor and safeguard the tank, and alert me to issues. This way if the controller were to fail I could plug everything into a power strip and/or timers to keep the tank running. I also have backup standalone ATO controllers for this purpose. The 120g has two Octo Pulse 4 on one side and a Maxspect Gyre XF330 on the other. The Octo pumps move a ton of water so I have these running in random mode at the lowest setting. The Gyre is on constant mode running @ 50%. This tank has a lot of random flow, but I have had to balance the flow rates because of the euphyllia in the tank. The 30g has two Jabeo PP-8 powerheads. The 120g is lit by two Ocean Revive LEDS with the blue channel running @ 70% and the white channel running @ 20%. It is also lit by two 54w T5s using an HO Miro-4 retrofit kit. I have gone through several T5 bulb combinations. The current T5s are both ATI Blue+. I think I will stay with this combo. Initially the T5s were only used to supplement the LEDS for several hours. However, the T5s really fill in the shadowing from the LEDs so I run them as a part of the main lighting. The 30g was previously lit by a Maxspect Razor until the blue channel died about a year ago. It is now lit by two AI Prime 16HDs. I really like both of these lights. The AI Prime schedule is an AB+ like schedule based on BRS recommendations for LPS tanks, but at a lower intensity. The 25g IM Lagoon invert QT is lit by one AI Hydra 26HD. The lighting schedule is an AB+ like schedule based on BRS recommendations for LPS tanks, but at a lower intensity. The tanks share a 40g sump. The sump runs a couple filter socks. I only use the mesh socks since they are easy to clean compared to felt. The skimmer is an AVAST CS1 Skimmer that I built from their kit. A large part of my filtration is my diy algae scrubber. The scrubber has allowed me to ditch the GFO I ran initially. It works so well that I have reduced the light cycle because it strips the tank of nutrients. Once a month I add 1 cup of Rox 0.8 carbon in a reactor to help filter the tank and deter chemical warfare if present in the mixed reef. I started the tank with dry rock only. I feel like it was part of the reason why it took so long for the tank to mature. The substrate is Tropic Eden Reefflakes. I went with the Reefflakes to help with maintenance. I vacuum the substrate every couple of months. It’s amazing how much detritus builds up if not removed. I believe in keeping things simple. I currently only add calcium chloride and soda ash to maintain calcium and alkalinity levels. These are both added automatically to the tank with a doser. I manually dose magnesium into newly mixed saltwater if I need to bring up the level with a water change. I experimented with adding amino acids and didn’t have a good experience. I ended up throwing the tank out of balance and am still trying to get everything back in sync. The 120g is a mixed reef. My favorite coral is a yellow octospawn that I grew into a very large colony from one tiny head. I have since fragged that colony for space, but still have a nice colony and smaller colonies in a couple tanks. There are only 5 fish in this tank, a yellow tang, powder blue tang, female Bellus angel (my favorite) and one Ignitus anthias. I have gone through several varieties of anthias, but my Bellus has bullied them to death. I plan to add a few additional fish in the near future, but needless to say I won’t be attempting any more Anthias. I also have a nice 4” clam that has grown from 1.5”. My 30g was neglected for a long time. I have since started a euphyllia garden in that tank and am really enjoying the direction it’s going. It also has a sea of anemones where my pair of clowns spawn regularly. In addition to those clowns I have a flame angelfish. I plan to add 1 more fish to this tank. The tank is also home to two cleaner shrimp. The IM 25g lagoon fishless QT is used to quarantine new inverts. To keep it interesting I’m building up a goniopora garden, and will try to keep at least one cool invert in there permanently at some point. I feed my tank once per day with frozen foods only. I alternate between mysis shrimp + PE calanus, enriched brine shrimp, and LRS fish frenzy. I also add a couple sheets of green and purple seaweed for the tangs and angelfish a few times a week. My experience in this hobby has had lots of ups and downs. While the ups have been rewarding, it’s the many downs that have forced me to learn patience and truly appreciate the intricacies that come with owning a small piece of the ocean in our homes. I began the tank with dry rock only. While this was an economical and pest-free way to start, it took a long time for the tank to mature and my acros to grow instead of withering away. Because I started the tank with dry rock the tank went through lots of ugly phases. The worst was dinoflagellates. I battled the dinos for many months and lost most of my corals. I take the blame for many of those losses. Instead of trying to understand why the dinos were thriving in my tank I simply read what others were doing and impatiently tried those methods. This caused lots of instability and coral stress and losses. I successfully won that battle once I actually took the time to ID the species and figure out that simply raising the nutrients in the tank would knock them back. Towards the end of last year the tank’s nutrients bottomed out. This led to the resurgence of the dinos. This time around I had the experience and patience to quickly knock them back. What worked for me was to stop doing water changes, skimming less, reducing the light cycle of my algae scrubber and feeding heavier. After this I then had a nutrient spike and dealt with a pretty bad case of cyanobacteria for a few months. I know I could have used an instant treatment, but I wanted to address it naturally in hopes of the tank rebalancing. As you can see in the pictures there are still a few small spots with cyano, but it is no longer a solid red mat. For anyone starting up a new tank I recommend going with mature live rock, or dry rock that is cycled for a long time while designing the tank. I cycled dry rock for 6 months for the 25g lagoon invert tank. This allowed that tank to skip much of the “ugly phases” that are common for a new tank. Another major challenge I went through was the loss of my fish. I, like many, simply purchased fish and added them to the tank. This worked for a while, but then came along one fish with velvet. In a matter of days I saw fish after fish go down. I had to scramble to set up a HT to treat the fish. Unfortunately, only one clown survived. This was very disheartening and I vowed to do my best to prevent this. I strongly believe in prophylactically treating and quarantining new additions. This makes the process of introducing stuff to the tank more tedious and slow, but at least I am trying my best to avoid another disaster. I now run a fishless invert tank and just set up my fish QT in preparation for new fish. Other challenges have been from equipment failures and me getting caught with my reefing pants down. I now have backups for my critical equipment. I feel fortunate to have this community to help in a pinch. I have been saved by some reefing buddies here on WAMAS on a couple of instances. I’m happy to do the same for others. I also have issues maintaining a higher pH since my tanks are in the basement. I ended up running an airline outside and plumbed into my skimmer for the main system. This raised the pH from 7.5-7.7 to 7.9-8.2. My 25g invert QT does not have access to the outside air so it still runs at a lower pH. Finally, it needlessly took me a long time to get my lighting right. An experienced reefer can make adjustments based on the corals. For anyone starting out I highly recommend borrowing the club’s PAR meter to set up your lighting and then leave it alone. My tank is currently a work in progress. I decided to take the tank in a different direction so I recently sold off many of the colonies that I grew from frags. The tank also went through a rough patch and I lost many Acros. A few corals in the tank are still in recovery, but things seem to be trending in the right direction. Now I have lots of “holes” to fill with new corals. I have also set up my fish QT and am planning to add several new fish in the near future. It is easy to have a love-hate relationship with this hobby. As you can see I have had my fair share of challenges. However, it is hard for me to think of life without a tank. I have learned to keep things simple and most importantly to remain patient. There is a lot of information that can be found online. A lot of that information is bad, so learn what works for your tank and stick with it. We should appreciate that WAMAS has many experienced members with a wealth of knowledge. |
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