Frefal's 58 Gallon Reef

[frefal13]

Ok so the tank I have has been set up for about 6 or so months now. I just have never gotten around to making a journal for it. So I figure since the tank is already up and running I might as well start with the details of the tank and the equipment. The tank is a 3 foot 58 gallon seaclear tank. I believe the dimensions are something like 36”(L)X18”(W)X20”(H). There is no sump on the set up but I do have a Rena XP2 running with some Seachem Phosguard, as well as Purigen. For flow I currently have one Koralia 750. The lighting is a 36” 156 Watt 4 bulb Odyssea fixture with 2 10,000k bulbs and 2 Actinic. There is currently no skimmer on the tank but I just ordered a Coralife 65 that will hopefully be here this week =). I also ordered a new Aqueon 500GPH powerhead to go with my current Koralia. I believe with the rena taken into consideration that will put me at about 24x turnover, and it will be even higher with the skimmer taken into consideration as well which I am happy with.

Ok so now its time for the fun part, Stocking! Right now I have 2 striped damsels, (one of which is an absolute terror, but I can’t say it wasn’t expected) 2 ocellaris clowns, and one tiger pistol shrimp in with about 50 pounds of live rock and 50 pounds of aragonite sand, which give me a 2.5” sand bed on average. For CUC I have; 3 Mexican turbo snails, 6 Tronchus snails, 6 Margarita snails, 5 Nassarius snails, and 5 Cerith snails, as well as a sand sifting star and a few hermit crabs. I know the title says “Reef” but as of right now I only have one coral. I recently got a green colony of Zoas, I don’t think one coral qualifies as a Reef but I’m gonna go with it =).

Now for my plans for the tank! I plan to make this tank into a nice softie and LPS reef. I don’t plan on having any SPS at all, I don’t think I have the light for them and I’m not sure if I will have the parameters for them. However I would love a bubble tip anemone for my clowns one day but that completely depends of the tank and how things end up working out. I plan to stick with just some soft corals for now and then work my way into adding some LPS to the tank, I think the lighting and flow in the tank are very suited for soft coral as well as LPS. If anyone disagrees please let me know. Future plans for fish are more difficult than the plans for coral. Future fish are all dependent on my one mean Damsel. Some of you may have read my post on my damsel and my unfortunate loss of the goby that was with my pistol shrimp. I don’t want to lose any more fish to this damsel. As much as a pain the damsels are I can’t say I don’t like them though. They certainly are great fish to watch swim. I love seeing them dart in and out of their rather large cave all day so unfortunately the stocking of the tank is going to be limited to something that can hopefully hold its own against the damsel until it loses interest, which it usually does. Next time I get a new fish I will most definitely have a backup plan incase it doesn’t work out.

I have recently been battling some cyno on my sand bed but I think it is just about gone. I don’t have any pictures of the tank now but I will get some and post them tomorrow so everyone can see the tank so far =) Thanks for reading!thumbs2:

[frefal13]

Ok so as promised here are a few pictures. Unfortunately there is a pretty bad glare from the windows behind me so I will try to get some better ones later tonight.
Heres one of my clown
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/125.jpg
My two clowns together
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/123.jpg
The nicer of the Damsels
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/124.jpg
And one of the better ones I could get of the Zoas, I have to mess with the settings they just arnt doing them justice right now.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/109.jpg

[frefal13]

And Finally a FTS.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/120.jpg

As you can see there is still a bit of a brown dusting on the sand that im working on getting rid of. Hopefully it will look better after I do a Water change later and siphon of the sand a bit. Thats all the pics I have for now but I will try to get some better ones when its dark out.

[hockeyhead019]

Nice tank! Yea the little brown dusting is enough to make me go crazy haha but it looks real good, nice pictures of the clowns!

[smaug]

How much light do you have for the zoas? Im thinking I want to try them first.Your tank is looking good.

[frefal13]

Thanks guys =) Hopefully tonight I can get some more pictures. I cleaned the sand up as much as i could with my 5 gallon water change.
@Smaug I have 156 watts of t5ho. Two 10000k bulbs and 2 acintic's. I personally hate the color of the 10000k's they are wicked yellow. I think in the future I will get a higher K bulb because it is my understanding that they penetrate deeper and my tank is 20", but only about 17-18 with the sand. I put the zoas up pretty high in the tank but I think I could probably put them a little lower too. So far I think they look great. They look much better in my tank then they did in the store.
My protein skimmer shipped today and it should be here either tomorrow or Fridaythumbs2: . I didn't think it was possible to be so excited about getting something that removes crud from water but oh well. After i get that hopefully i can look into getting some more coral:19:

[Cliff]

Good call at planning to get the higher K bulbs. From what I have read, when you have lower than 18000k, you run a risk of algae as most SW algae just loves lower K lighting. I would think that is accurate but I don't know for certain as I have only used 18000 to 22000 K bulbs in my tanks.

I love the clown fish picks

Certainly one of my favorite fish

Looks like your set-up is coming along nicely

[frefal13]

Thanks cliff =) I love my clowns they are so interesting to watch. I can't wait till i get something that they decide to host in. Where do you get your light bulbs and what brand do you use? I have been looking online but I really havn't found any t5's higher than 12000k which I thought was weird.
So unfortunately I never got around to taking any more pictures but my protein skimmer did come in the mail. Unfortunately I am having a very hard time setting it up, i cant get the bubbles to to stay at the correct level in the reaction chamber and it shoots out micobubbles into the tank like absolute crazy. It was so bad that I won't even leave it on, my damsels hid behind their rock for most of the day and my clowns were huddling together in the corner so I just shut it off. I think I would have stressed the poor things to death if I left the thing running. I don't know what I am going to do about it. I have a bit of an idea to add a small sump in my system just for the skimmer, and possibly some chaeto as well. If it comes to this I might as well make the best out of it. I am just trying to think of the best way to make it work for me. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Surfdog]

Lookin Good!! I really like those type of Damsels and am thinking of aquiring a few myself!
I have a question though? It looks to me as if you have a very thick base? I am probably wrong and it's just my view. But I am wondering if having a so much base sand will cause dead spots, as well as making it more difficult to keep clean? Keep up the good work!!

:22:

[frefal13]

Thanks =)
My sand bed is actually pretty thick, its about 2.5 inches. I didn't expect it to be so deep but I also couldn't really tell when it was dumping it in the tank since I couldn't see anything lol. I am not really sure if the sand bed is causing any problems. I never really thought about that, it does look cleaner behind the rocks where is is more shallow but I also don't know if thats just because there is less light. I hope its not the sand, my lovely pistol shrimp sure appreciates the deeper sand. I will have too look into that, thanks.
As for the damsels, I know you have some damsels already, I've read your journal, but mine sure are aggressive little demons lol. I don't really know if damsel aggressions varies by species but its just something to think about.

[Cliff]

Some skimmers can take up to 10 days to break in. I would not expect it to work corectly until the break-in period is over.

I forgot what brand of bulb I'm using right now. Once the lights are out, I'll pm it to you

[frefal13]

The booklet that the skimmer came with SAYS it should take no longer than 72 hours to break in. Based on that I would guess that 72 hours is the minimum break in period lol, but still I could not imagine running that in my tank for 3 days without killing my fish. My clowns were literally covered in bubbles and I have never seen them stay in one spot for such a long time. I don't really know what to do about it. I have a few ideas but I still have to think them over a little bit.

[Cliff]

Thanks cliff =) Where do you get your light bulbs and what brand do you use? I have been looking online but I really havn't found any t5's higher than 12000k which I thought was weird. Thanks!


I'm useing 3 bulbs of Korallen-Zucht supper blues (around 20000K), one Korallen-Zucht purple bulb, and two Korallen-zucht daylight (white) bulbs which are around 18000K of light. I reason why I'm using this brand is that IMO, it is the best brand my SW LFS carries.

I'm too much of a chicken to order bulbs on-line and have them shipped so I have never really looked into too many other options

[frefal13]

Thanks! I appreciate it I will see if I can find those

:22:

[frefal13]

Little bit of an update, I got some new additions Yesterday and Friday =). For Corals, we got a new Pom Pom Pulsing Xenia, and I must say the constant pulsing is memorizing =). I also got a nice mat of Daisy Polyp. My newest fish is a lovely dwarf flame angel. The angel and the damsel fought for a little while yesterday but now they are leaving each other alone, the flame angel claimed the area to the right of the tank and the damsels live in the main structure to the left. I hope everything remains relatively peaceful between them. I also got a nice skunk cleaner. He spent a good hour cleaning the flame angel after he was done fighting the damsel. Its awesome to watch him clean the fish! Such and amazing relationship. I took a short video of the cleaning yesterday so I will post that once I upload it to youtube.
And now for some Pictures!
Here is the new Xenia! In the video you can see it doing its pulsing thing!
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/059.jpg
Here is the Daisy Polyp
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/053.jpg
One of the cleaner
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/051.jpg
Another of the Daisy
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/052.jpg

[frefal13]

A better picture of the zoas than before
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/057.jpg
And ofcourse a FTS
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/055.jpg
And another FTS
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/054.jpg

I think everything is coming along well =). The battle with the cyno seems to be over as well, still just a light brown dusting on the sand bed which my new conch seems to be taking care of =). I couldnt get a shot of the flame angel, he is staying in his rock structure for now. I hope he comes out later. Thanks for looking!

[frefal13]

I finally got the video onto youtube. Its not the best quality because I had to use my cellphone but its what I had lol. Also please excuse the spot algae on the acrylic, I still havn't gotten around to removing it with an old credit card.
So here it is!
Jiv_iX6ItOY

[Cliff]

Cool video

Its amazing how the fish seam to just naturally go to the cleaner shrimp and let them do their thing.

I used to love watching that when I had some cleaner shrimp

[chrisfraser05]

Bud, thats awesome :)

Wonder if any of my fish other than my goby will ever let my cleaner do that?!?

[Surfdog]

Great video and the tank is looking great!!

[chrisfraser05]

forgot to ask....

you sorted out your skimmer yet?

[frefal13]

Thanks guys!
So far the flame angel is the only fish that has been cleaned by the shrimp. The clowns don't even go remotely close the shrimp and the bigger of the damsels kind of flashed his tail at the shrimp once. My guess would have to be the fact that my clowns are captive bred and the flame angel was wild. I have no idea if the damsels were tank raised or caught though.
I still haven't figured out the skimmer either=/. My main problem is the pump on it is absolutely huge and since my tank is acrylic is has very strange bracing. I really have no where to put it that is isnt in the way. The only real opening is where the canister spray bar is already located. I really have no idea what I am going to do with it. As of now it is just sitting on the counter while I try to figure it out. So far everything is going well without a skimmer though. I still have some planning to do lol.

[chrisfraser05]

I think you should sump it! lol

[frefal13]

That was one of the things that came to mind actually. I was thinking about just a small sump, say 10 gallons or so, for the skimmer, and possibly a small fuge. The only problem with that is the way the stand is set up in the tank. The tank sits on a platform held up by metals rods, which are supported by two cabinets on either side of the tank with a space in the middle where my canister filter currently sits. It is a pretty odd stand so it leaves very little room to work with. This is actually a link to a picture i found of it on google. http://images.hayneedle.com/mgen/digimarc.ms?img=master:MGP006.jpg&h=400&w=400. Any suggestions of ways to work with that are very welcome =)

[chrisfraser05]

how about the sump in the middle then the canister in one of the cabinets?

[frefal13]

I think the canister is too tall to go in one of the cabinets. I was thinking a small tank ontop of one of the cabinets and then I could just use the skimmer as an HOB onto that tank and try to do some sort of bubble trap to reduce the micro bubbles. I just haven't figured out what I would do for plumbing for it yet, or what I would do for a return.

[frefal13]

Bit of an update, everything that is currently in the tank is all doing very well. There has been noticeable growth on the xenia and the green zoas. 2 weeks ago we added a pretty good chunk of GSP, a Good sized zoa colony(atleast 100 heads), and another Daisy Polyp matt. Unfortunately I have not been able to take pictures of the new additions yet. Oops

Yesterday we made a very large order from cultivated reef which I found thanks to labnjab. I think we ordered like 8 corals. I think they were; a eagle eye zoa frag, a green toadstool leather, 3 different mushrooms(1 was included free), a blue/green clove polyp frag, a blue anthelia, and a green candy cane. I am really excited to get all of these.

So far the buying experience from them has been awesome, much better than any other online store. Greg, who I am assuming is the owner has been emailing me with updates. He was even nice enough to say that one of the corals was not the same exact color variation from the site and he offered a refund if I wasn't happy with the color. I just kind of assumed that anyone would just say the color difference were from different lighting and shipping stress lol. He was very honest. He also said he included an extra large frag of the candy cane and the free mushroom for any inconvenience from the color mix up.

I will probably have some iffy cellphone pics of the additions tomorrow with good pictures to follow maybe this weekend.

[smaug]

Im looking forward to seeing the pics! I just saw the vid of the cleaner shrimp,very cool. so far my pinkspot and blenny allow themselves to be cleaned,the goby looks like he is in heaven while its going on and actually begs the shrimp for attention like a puppy:hmm3grin2orange:

[frefal13]

The cleaner shrimp is such an awesome little guy, every time my hand is in the tank he jumps on it and just starts picking away. I started feeding him flake food out of my hand too which is very funn. So far no one else seems very interested in the cleaning services of the shrimp. One of the damsels tried to back up to him one day but the shrimp wasn't interested and I haven't seen the damsel try again since. The flame angel still gets cleaned, and I don't think the clowns have even looked at the shrimp since it has been in the tank, let alone go new him lol.

[frefal13]

I have not updated this in a long time! I just never have time to take pictures and I know no one wants updates without pictures haha. So things have changed a lot since my last pics, there are a lot of new corals. I apologize for the quality of the pictures, I didn't have my tripod and I really did not try at all, I just didn't have time. So they were pretty much shot with whatever camera settings were already up. Also please excuse the algae, it was the day before I did the water change =)

Here is a new torch coral
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/001-1.jpg

A new Coco Worm
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/006-1.jpg

Some Shrooms
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/008-1.jpg

Giant GSP
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/009.jpg

[frefal13]

And some FTS

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/003-1.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/greenday3312/002.jpg

You can see how the growth of the pom pom xenia has really exploded, it is huge now compared to what it used to be

[Cliff]

Nice torch coral. It looks like either a Australian gold tip or a green tip torch.

I also like your coco coral. I've always wanted to try one but I can't find a empty spot for it with the right flow

[frefal13]

Thanks cliff! I would have to guess it the Australia Gold Tipped because the tips are definitely more gold than green. I think everything in my tank is happy with the flow that they all get, which is probably more medium. The two powerheads pointing at each other and the canister return spraying at the intersection of the powerheads creates a really nice random flow too, it is very wave like and I think all my corals and my filter worms enjoy it.

[hockeyhead019]

lookin good! love the simple layout with a couple awesome corals! ur flame angel looks great too

[frefal13]

Thanks Hockeyhead! I love the flame angel, he is so active and hes always doing something, hes really fun to watch