MKLKT Reef Journal Mk.65/20

[MKLKT]

Hello all!

I'd like to think my tank deserves its own journal, so here it goes. I had previously gotten my learners lumps from a 20 gallon FOWLR tank a couple years ago and no longer have that setup (ex has it.) After being sans tank for a while I knew that I needed some salt again so I made a checklist of things I wanted in a setup (50-75 gal, drilled w/sump) and scoured craigslist for a few months waiting for the "one". (Wish I had known about Canreef back then! )

I eventually got what I was looking for last summer and it's been running and growing happily ever since.

I primarily have soft corals now (tried a few LPS and they did well until I think the leathers went to chemical war and killed them.) There is one Flowerpot coral which is the lone holdout.

I run 4x39w T5s with KZ bulbs (Coral, Coral II, Fiji Purple and Blue+) and the sump has a small macro farm with red bubble algea, chaeto and a few other macros (and two happy flame scallops) on a DSB.

I run the lights 12hrs/day and the skimmer on only at night. I have 2x TLF150 reactors which were purchased recently as I felt the media bags were a waste. They've got rowaPhos and nitrate sponge in them and I have a couple small bags of ChemiPure as well.

I DON'T do water changes, I do monitor all the levels and adjust dosing and top-off accordingly. Every 4 months or so I might refresh 10% of the water with new mix, but it doesn't feel necessary. I keep the salt content at 35ppm and 78F. (I think it comes out to about 1.026SG)

My tank is fairly aggressive but there is a decent pecking order for all the fish and I've never had any problems other than getting bit by the Dominos when my arm is in the tank.

The current fish lineup is as follows:
1x Foxface Rabbitfish
1x Starry/Snowflake Blenny
1x Lemon Peel Dwarf Angel
1x Scooter Blenny
1x Golden Head Sleeper Goby
2x True Perc Clowns
2x Domino Damsels
2x Four Stripe Damsels
2x Talbots Damsels
1x Blue/Green Chromis

Non-coral Inverts:
1x Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
1x Peppermint Shrimp
1x Kuekenthal's Peppermint Shrimp
3x Flame Scallops
3x Feather Dusters
1x Longspine Urchin
1x Rock Boring Urchin
1x Brittle Star
1x Spider Conch
2x Multicolour Linckia Sea Stars
Snails 30+: Cerith, Turbo, Strawberry Tophat, Bumblebee, Nassarius
Hermits ~15 variety

Corals include a variety of almost all softies except for pulsing xenia and zoa/palys as they get consumed by the animals in my tank. My favourite coral is probably the large green polyp toadstool.

I'll put a video up sometime soon, everyone who comes by loves how active the tank is, and it being a mixed reef there is always something hilarious going on. (Conch jumping around with Strawberry Tophats on its back, etc.)

(Taken with my phone so they're not amazing.)
Full Tank Shot:

Love this guy, he likes to host my toadstool now.

Lemon Peel!

Conch vs. Snail vs. Snail vs. Scooter

Residents hanging out...

Closer shot, you can see the different GSPs, leathers, etc.

New toadstool, love the white polyps.



That's all I can think of off the top of my head, if you want to know anything please ask and I shall tell!

[ensquire]

Nice pics, Love the Blennie

[Delphinus]

Good looking tank!

[MKLKT]

Some new shots!

Full-tank:


Invert-only meeting:


Conch helpin' a brother out:


Porcelain crab just hanging around:


3 Flame scallops and macro topped DSB:

[ensquire]

Thanks for the update, great pics. What camera are you using?

[MKLKT]

Just my phone actually, Samsung Focus. I need to get a new dedicated camera one of these days.

[MKLKT]

Fall update!

I've got two racks with a big mix of SPS frags growing on both sides, so far it's been very successful. Looking back at my first picture I can't believe how massive my centrepiece sinularia and toadstool got. I'll be fragging both of those very soon. I'm going to be re-scaping and tearing out almost all of the Anthelia to make space for other stuff, I'll leave a patch for the 2 hosting porcelain crabs. 4 of the damsels and the chromis are going to be given to a friend so I can focus more on SPS going forward, I'll probably add a small goby to replace them.

Hardware wise I switched over to powerchrome bulbs and in a bluer spectrum to see how it goes, I like it so far. Had a whole lot of fun when I accidentally pulled an overflow hose out of the sleeve and dumped a few gallons on the floor. Upgraded the skimmer to a CL125 and had a whole host of problems as the larger pump drained the baffle in the sump too quickly; I've since modified it to recirculate and it's running effectively again. I have a Bullet II but haven't decided if I want to use it on this tank.

Pictures:

Full tank, the sinularia and toadstool when viewed from above are about 1' in diameter each, they touch but get along fine.



Frag left:



Frag right:

[asylumdown]

that is one very well put together tank. It already looks great as a mature softie forest, it will be really cool to see how it evolves as an SPS tank.

[MKLKT]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

that is one very well put together tank. It already looks great as a mature softie forest, it will be really cool to see how it evolves as an SPS tank.

I'm excited for it. I looked at your tank build, and I'm really jealous haha. I'm going to be doing a project like that concurrently while building a suite in my house but that's a year or two away.

[lastlight]

I enjoyed your commentary and the tank looks to be doing really well. It does seem like you've been bitten by the sps bug good luck controlling that!

Love that blenny looks like a real character.