Frefal's 58 Gallon Reef

**frefal13** · 08-23-2011, 03:02 AM

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!

**frefal13** · 08-23-2011, 10:10 PM

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

My two clowns together

The nicer of the Damsels

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.

**frefal13** · 08-23-2011, 10:12 PM

And Finally a FTS.

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** · 08-24-2011, 09:43 PM

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** · 08-24-2011, 11:21 PM

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

**frefal13** · 08-25-2011, 12:00 AM

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 Friday

. 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

**Cliff** · 08-25-2011, 01:32 AM

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** · 08-27-2011, 02:10 AM

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** · 08-27-2011, 02:21 AM

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!!

**frefal13** · 08-27-2011, 02:46 AM

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.