EquiReefs 50gal Reef

[EquiReef]

Hey guys, I am new to the forum so thought I would post some info about my tank. I am also new to the saltwater world but have had freshwater planted tanks my whole life and still run a 50gal fresh in my office.

I set my tank up in December 2013 and it is safe to say the obsession just keeps growing, much to my husbands displeasure.

Equipment run down:

50gal Fluval rimless tank
2x Marineland LED reef lights(2610 lumens each)
Saline hang on skimmer
Eheim Pro 3E (350) Canister filter
3x Koralia PHs ( 1500, 3200 & 4400)
Deep sand bed (argonite)
Hydor external inline heater
Eheim surface skimmer
45lbs live rock
15lbs dry rock

Coral:

two Toadstool leathers (Purchased as one large toadstool with a small one coming off the base. After a month the small one broke off and is now independent)

one Ritteri Anemone (sold to me by the LFS as a great starter nem. Should have done my research before hand)

one red Chile sponge

two Elegance corals

one plate coral

one Gonipora

One pearl bubble coral

three zoa frags, one with a purple mushroom attached to it

Livestock:

One Mandarin Dragonette (my pride and joy)- Bought him against my better judgement but he did not look well at the lfs so I figured at least I would put the effort into feeding him, where as the lfs clearly was not. I cultured pods for him (from Canada Corals, thanks guys!) for about two months (until my mother house sat while we were away and overfed them causing the culture to die off), he has doubled in size since we bought him.

Two OC Clowns who dont leave their nem. Ever. They were exhibiting spawning behavior until the nem decided to relocate to the other side of the tank

Two Electric Flame Scallops

12(??) blue leg hermits and red leg hermits

Various snails

Two Emerald crabs

One seahare (had two, the one elegance coral kill the second one )

I want to add more fish, but have held off as I want to make sure I get a fish that will NOT eat my mandys pods. I also want something colorful and that can live with other fish without issue.

I have always wanted a reef tank but never expected to be this obsessed with it.

[matti2uude]

Very nice tank! Where did you get the red sponge from?

[EquiReef]

Thanks, its a work in progress. I got the sponge from the Big Als in Whitby. It has been very hard to make it happy. My urchin always knocks it off the rock work at night.

[ahhui]

Careful with your anemone, my previous anemone "walk" into the powerhead and kill itself. Need to find a way to cover up the powerhead. Especially for a such nice, expensive anemone. ^^

[EquiReef]

Ya I have had to move the tank around to accommodate his escapades a few times now. He put one arm into a power head one day but all was fine. I just keep a close eye on him and keep moving the powerheads around. He also sat his fat butt on top of my small toadstool while I was away and stung it quite a bit. It came back fine thankfully.

I was thinking about putting something over the powerheads but wasnt sure what to use. Any ideas? I am really hoping he splits, I bought him and he was only about 6" across, once I got him home and he was happy he expanded to about 1 foot across.

[reefwars]

your chili coral is non photosynthetic coral and needs to be fed or it will perish , when happy should have bright white polyps and high polyp density.

these corals do not fair well with any noticable phosphate levels or film algae takes them over but if phosphate levels are low then they can handle bright light but prefer low to no light at all

mine prefer high flow

good luck its a advance coral for sure and not great for new tanks because of its feeding habits and low nutrient requirements

[EquiReef]

Update on my tank:

Red chile got scrubbed a few times and fed cyclo, phytofeast and marine snow twice a day since. It's starting to put some polyps out.


Bought a few new corals off kijiji the other day- sun coral, hammer, frogspawn, torch, open brain, long tentacle plate and a few mushrooms. Feel free to give me any tips you might have or any incorrect IDs. The only one that hasn't fed is the open brain.


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[pgtanks]

i can't select individual picture but in your first post there are two pictures of anemones one on the sandbed and one on the glass. are these the same anemone?

[EquiReef]

I'm not sure which you're talking about, I only have the one anemone (ritteri) on the glass. I have a Goniopora on the sand bed(also pink) and a green elegance.


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[denny_C]

looking good


so youll need to keep the chili clean , it needs to be clean in order to get a feeding response, once it feeds often enough its polyps will stay out all day and night

alot of your corals are photosynthetic so i wouldnt bother feeding them as pollution takes a couple of months to notice the declining effects and they dont need to be fed , most of the requirements are met thorugh photosynthesis and particulate in the water column.

your suncoral though is NPS like the chili , the suncoral needs meat and needs it daily(best reults)

glad to see the chili is coming back for you i told you it would work ive had to do the same i bet a thousand times lol


cheers


denny aka (reefwars)