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Old 03-22-2016, 01:14 AM
daelie daelie is offline
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Default Daelie's 3 Feet of Reef Tank

Never really posted too much here, but have had tanks for a long time and having upgraded back in december, and things also going decently well and stable for me, I thought I would at least start my first build thread on the site and hope to keep it updated regularly from this point.

Equipment List

Tank Dims: 36" x 21" x 20"

Skimmer: Vertex Omega 130

Lighting: Giesemann 8 Bulb 36w T5 with Kessil A360WE supplementation

Heaters: Eheim Jager 100W x 2

Flow: Jebao DC6000 Return & 2 x Ecotech mp10wQD & 1 x Ecotech mp40wQD

ATO: Gravity Fed Reservoir combined with a Tunze Osmolator

The tank itself took a very long time to level on the carpet in the room where we wanted it. Several fills and refills later it finally stayed true.

The first piece to unbox was the lights, which I originally ordered a 6 bulb setup during a sale, but it was mislabeled, and turned out to be an 8 bulb setup, so the store honored the same price, so I didn't complain in the end. Here's a few shots of the lights.



After getting the tank partially wet, I had all my corals/rock/fish from the previous tank divided between two 20 gallon tanks, so I ended up transferring all water/rock/corals from each tank over the course of a couple days, making sure it was a decently slow transition to not really cause a new cycle. Then began the aquascaping.

I started with a small island on the left that's mostly stayed the same this entire time



And then I decided for some shelves on the right side that are mainly going to be the make-up of a large zoanthid garden when everything grows in (hopefully).



To this :



After getting everything up and running, I was skimmerless for the better part of a month because my old tunze didn't really fit anywhere very well and I was torn between what would actually work well in the sump. In the end, I went with a used vertex that was a pretty good price, and it ended up taking up most of my sump space, but it started pulling out some really dark, awful smelling junk. I also repurposed some kessils I had lying around to supplement the t5 lighting and I mostly use them for some shimmer, and the dawn dusk lights on the tank. This FTS and sump shots were taken just after I got the skimmer.





These pictures were all taken roughly around the same time: Thumbnails are clickable



I began dosing a few of the zeovit additives as well a couple times of week to help nutrient levels and see a little better growth than I had in my 30L in the year and a bit prior. My doses were based on someone else's tank build on the zeovit forums that had a very similarly sized tank. My nutrients dropped fast, slightly bleaching a couple of my favias, but everything else responded really well to it and the favias are recovering at a slow pace.

The latest full tank shot is this one taken about a week ago:

[Image: ETcBHFth.jpg]

Last edited by daelie; 03-22-2016 at 01:28 AM.
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Old 03-22-2016, 01:35 AM
daelie daelie is offline
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Adding in the photos and the edit expired to add the last photo: So here is the latest FTS.



As well doing my weekly water change, I took a bunch of top down photos thinking that I would be finally setting up a build thread sometime this week: (Again all clickable for larger versions)

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Old 03-22-2016, 04:19 AM
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Skimmer Juice Skimmer Juice is offline
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nice zoa's , also running a t5/kessil combo best lighting I have had to date. That vertex skimmer smell is quit foul lol.
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Old 04-10-2016, 06:20 PM
daelie daelie is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Skimmer Juice View Post
nice zoa's , also running a t5/kessil combo best lighting I have had to date. That vertex skimmer smell is quit foul lol.
Thanks, I really like the T5 Kessil combo, it looks great with the shimmer and no shadows. The vertex is awful, I try shoving it in my girlfriend's face whenever I clean it, she's not amused haha.

Update:
Things have been growing quite well over the last little while, and I added a few new frags during a sale. I had a chance to snap a quick few photos the other night during a water change. Thinking of adding a sand sifting goby if I can get my hands on one in the next little while. A small bit of cyano has started appearing on the sand in some spots, so I've ramped up the flow a little bit more, and I vacuumed it out during the WC, hoping it doesn't return, and it's been a few days since I last saw it.

Some of the photos I uploaded (Always clickable thumbnails):

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Old 04-10-2016, 06:37 PM
albert_dao albert_dao is offline
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Great write-up. Really appreciated the well organized flow of this post
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Old 04-11-2016, 02:10 AM
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Matrixx is nice!

With those mounting legs how high off the tank is it?
Do you find there is a lot of light spill?

I want to light a tank with matrixx but it would be beside a dining table.
Do you think the light spill would be bothersome to guests sitting trying to enjoy a meal?

Thanks!

Great tank!
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Old 04-12-2016, 01:26 AM
daelie daelie is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by albert_dao View Post
Great write-up. Really appreciated the well organized flow of this post
Thanks, I find it helps to not have massive pictures that take forever to load. I find myself reading the forums a lot on mobile and thumbnails that can link to larger pictures are much easier to sift through in a long thread. Every now and then, if the picture I find is quite nice then I add it in larger.

Quote:
Originally Posted by smokinreefer View Post
Matrixx is nice!

With those mounting legs how high off the tank is it?
Do you find there is a lot of light spill?

I want to light a tank with matrixx but it would be beside a dining table.
Do you think the light spill would be bothersome to guests sitting trying to enjoy a meal?

Thanks!

Great tank!
With the mounting legs, the fixture sits about 4 inches or so off of the water level. I don't find there is a lot of light spill, but that could just be me. I have an 8 bulb combo too, so it does cover almost the entire tank. I ordered a 6 bulb and they sent me an 8 bulb for free, which turned out to be nice to have the extra 8 bulbs, but my aquarium width I think a 6 bulb would have been more suitable, oh well, later upgrades

I just snapped a photo in the room with the aquarium with just the t5's on and all the lights off. It's a cell phone pic, but really all I can say is I would give it a shot, they are an awesome fixture both performance and aesthetically. There's a bit on the floor and the wall but the floor especially will probably get overpowered by the dining room lights anyway. If the reef tank is nice enough, it'll be distracting no matter what fixture is on the tank


Last edited by daelie; 04-12-2016 at 01:29 AM.
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Old 04-18-2016, 01:46 PM
JoshL JoshL is offline
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That's is a beautiful tank. Very nice equipment. So much flow on this tank and a lot of light.

I was thinking about doing the same in regards to lighting on my tank, do you still get the shimmer from the kessils with the 8 bulb t5 running?


I love those Red Sea Reefer tanks. They have a great look to them.
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Old 04-18-2016, 11:04 PM
daelie daelie is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JoshL View Post
That's is a beautiful tank. Very nice equipment. So much flow on this tank and a lot of light.

I was thinking about doing the same in regards to lighting on my tank, do you still get the shimmer from the kessils with the 8 bulb t5 running?


I love those Red Sea Reefer tanks. They have a great look to them.
I never really thought I'd end up getting one of these tanks til I saw it in person. I would love a custom 300g but we live in a condo at the moment that won't really allow anything bigger.

I do still see the shimmer a good deal from the kessils with the t5's running. I also have the kessils coming on and hour before the t5's and they stay on an hour after the t5's turn off for a good amount there.
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Old 04-23-2016, 05:02 AM
daelie daelie is offline
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The cyano I mentioned in my last post actually got a decent hold shortly after and covered the sandbed. I did a water change and siphoned it all out and it hasn't really come back since. Other than that things are going well. My parameters have been staying quite solid and the favia that bleached during the transfer is finally getting some of its purple color back, very slowly but surely, I have it hiding slightly under a ledge on the left side of the tank. Here's a few pictures, still having trouble really showing how blue a few of the corals are, more practice with the camera and I'll figure it out.

New FTS:



Some half tank shots and a few macros







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