My first reef turning 5, some pics!

SouthFla · 04/28/2020, 05:14 PM

As I’m coming up on my 5 year anniversary of my 125G mixed reef, I wanted to post a FTS and a few close-ups photos from today as a big “THANK YOU!” to RC. This forum was my entire introduction to reefing and a source for all of my learning, and I can’t state enough how the knowledge herein and the members support has benefited me and my tank over the years.

As this was my first mixed reef, I didn’t really try for any difficult or flashy SPS corals (and I’m only running 5 T5s in my hood), but instead I have just a mix of mostly easy keeping SPS and LPS and some gorgonians. But I’m still really proud of the tank, warts and all, and I think I’m most proud of my fish mates as they are all entering their 5th year of captivity. I completely credit the QT I learned at RC and the strict quarantining and TTM so strongly promoted here as the reason for their health.

Anyway, I hope this finds everyone healthy and safe, all my best, John.

Inhabitants:
Bicolor Angel
Coral Beauty
Kole Tang
Melanarus Wrasse
Flame Hawkfish
Toby Puffer
Trio of damsels
Royal Gramma (started w/3 babies, after 3+ years two disappeared

)

In the beginning:

Today:

hegeh · 04/28/2020, 05:16 PM

Beautiful! Well done mate.

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lionfish300 · 04/28/2020, 06:18 PM

Congrat well done

Tastee · 04/29/2020, 02:11 AM

Beautiful!

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mapleredta · 04/29/2020, 09:25 AM

Dosing anything?

SouthFla · 04/29/2020, 09:59 AM

Thanks folks :-)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mapleredta

Dosing anything?

Apex runs an Alk and Ca doser 24/7 alternating every 1/2 hour. Right now my amounts are about 200ml/day for each. I also manually dose Mg if/when needed to keep at 1300's.

907 · 04/29/2020, 10:04 AM

Very impressive indeed!

tailgamerllc · 04/29/2020, 10:20 AM

Approximately how long after setting up the tank did you have to start dosing? My tank is at year 1 and corals have been added over the course of the last 3 months. Im trying to anticipate when the demand for more of the trace elements will increase to the point i will have to dose?

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SouthFla · 04/29/2020, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tailgamerllc

Approximately how long after setting up the tank did you have to start dosing? My tank is at year 1 and corals have been added over the course of the last 3 months. I'm trying to anticipate when the demand for more of the trace elements will increase to the point i will have to dose?

Once I had a few corals in the tank, I started using Kalkwasser in my ATO to stabilize Alk and Ca, and ran that way for about a year or so. But it became too difficult to maintain steady levels of Alk/Ca because the dosing was dependent upon the evaporation rate and input of makeup water from the ATO. So about 2 years in I switch to separately dosing Alk and Ca using two small BRS dosers connected to gallon jugs and controlled by the Apex-WAAAAY easier and considerably more stable and less messy!

Just keep monitoring your Alk and Ca; once water changes can't maintain steady levels, they you can try Kalk in your ATO and/or dosers. If I had to do it again I would have gone straight to dosers and skipped the Kalk.

The "big boys" skip all of that and go right to Ca Reactors, but that's out of my league...

Sugar Magnolia · 04/29/2020, 12:08 PM

Absolutely stunning!

tailgamerllc · 04/29/2020, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SouthFla

Once I had a few corals in the tank, I started using Kalkwasser in my ATO to stabilize Alk and Ca, and ran that way for about a year or so. But it became too difficult to maintain steady levels of Alk/Ca because the dosing was dependent upon the evaporation rate and input of makeup water from the ATO. So about 2 years in I switch to separately dosing Alk and Ca using two small BRS dosers connected to gallon jugs and controlled by the Apex-WAAAAY easier and considerably more stable and less messy!

Just keep monitoring your Alk and Ca; once water changes can't maintain steady levels, they you can try Kalk in your ATO and/or dosers. If I had to do it again I would have gone straight to dosers and skipped the Kalk.

The "big boys" skip all of that and go right to Ca Reactors, but that's out of my league...

Thanks. I gave a dosing pump but i haven't had a need to use it yet. I will stat monitoring my Alk an CA on a more frequent basis.

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tailgamerllc · 04/29/2020, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tailgamerllc

Thanks. I gave a dosing pump but i haven't had a need to use it yet. I will stat monitoring my Alk an CA on a more frequent basis.

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That is a beautiful tank. I hope my tank will look like yours in a few years

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Galantra · 04/29/2020, 03:50 PM

Looks amazing you got a lot of great growth

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04/28/2020, 05:14 PM	#1
SouthFla Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Miami, Florida USA Posts: 256	My first reef turning 5, some pics! As I’m coming up on my 5 year anniversary of my 125G mixed reef, I wanted to post a FTS and a few close-ups photos from today as a big “THANK YOU!” to RC. This forum was my entire introduction to reefing and a source for all of my learning, and I can’t state enough how the knowledge herein and the members support has benefited me and my tank over the years. As this was my first mixed reef, I didn’t really try for any difficult or flashy SPS corals (and I’m only running 5 T5s in my hood), but instead I have just a mix of mostly easy keeping SPS and LPS and some gorgonians. But I’m still really proud of the tank, warts and all, and I think I’m most proud of my fish mates as they are all entering their 5th year of captivity. I completely credit the QT I learned at RC and the strict quarantining and TTM so strongly promoted here as the reason for their health. Anyway, I hope this finds everyone healthy and safe, all my best, John. Inhabitants: Bicolor Angel Coral Beauty Kole Tang Melanarus Wrasse Flame Hawkfish Toby Puffer Trio of damsels Royal Gramma (started w/3 babies, after 3+ years two disappeared ) In the beginning: Today: __________________ 125g mixed reef, Apex controlled, 30g sump, RO 150sss skimmer, Eheim 1262 return, NextReef MR1 reactor w/Rox C, (2) EcoDrift 8.0 1K-2K GPH, (2) Jebao PP8 1K-2K GPH, (5) 80W ATI T5s Current Tank Info: 125G reef, Alk ~8.1, Ca 410, Mg 1350, 1.025SG Last edited by SouthFla; 04/28/2020 at 05:20 PM.

04/29/2020, 12:08 PM	#10
Sugar Magnolia Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Northern VA Posts: 17,691	Absolutely stunning! __________________ Adrienne The only thing to fear is fear itself....and spiders.

04/29/2020, 03:50 PM	#13
Galantra Giving my All Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 456	Looks amazing you got a lot of great growth Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro __________________ Ritch Current Tank Info: Working on a couple of things

04/28/2020, 05:16 PM	#2
hegeh Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 223	Beautiful! Well done mate. Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

04/28/2020, 06:18 PM	#3
lionfish300 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Las Cruces, New Mexico Posts: 795	Congrat well done

04/29/2020, 02:11 AM	#4
Tastee Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2017 Location: Sydney Australia Posts: 277	Beautiful! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

04/29/2020, 09:25 AM	#5
mapleredta Reef addict Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Cochran, Georgia Posts: 387	Dosing anything?

04/29/2020, 10:04 AM	#7
907 Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2019 Posts: 11	Very impressive indeed!

04/29/2020, 10:20 AM	#8
tailgamerllc Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2019 Posts: 20	Approximately how long after setting up the tank did you have to start dosing? My tank is at year 1 and corals have been added over the course of the last 3 months. Im trying to anticipate when the demand for more of the trace elements will increase to the point i will have to dose? Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk