My *new* 125G reef tank

[ddao1977]

I started this hobby a while back when i used to live in the US. Now that i have moved back to the home land, I wanted to rebuild another tank.
This thread is to keep a journal of my tank and what i have gotten. Last august, I move from a 80g to 125g tank.

Here are some pictures of what the tank looked like back in november'13.


In dec'13, I felt like the metal stand was strong enough as I could "shake" the tank and see it waltz with me. I didn't want 100 gallons of water filling up the living room.
So, I decided to change it and use siporex.

Now, this is what the tank looks like



I also redid the sump.




Here is my equipment list
- Bubble Magus Hero 180 with an aqua bee pump
- 2x Jebao WP-40 running on W1/S1 both
- 2x 300W heaters hiding in the sump at 24°C or 75°F
- 8x 80W T5 bulbs (still need to get the correct lighting) (2x ATI Actinic 80 Watts 25000K / 3x ATI Coral Plus 80 watts 17500K° / 1x BLAU 80 Watts Pink color / 2x 10000K°)

light schedule
2 actinic from 12pm-10pm,
2 coral plus, from 1pm-21pm,
1 coral plus + 1 pink from 1:30pm-8:30pm,
2x 10000 K° from 2pm-8pm

as of feb. 10'14, my water parameter are
- CA 420ppm
- kH 9°
- Mg 1400ppm
- Phosphate: 0.02
- Nitrate (havent measured)

 

[ddao1977]

These are the first inhabitants of the tank. I bought them back in march'12 and they were little babies about 3/4in long back then.



They are much bigger now and have just started to mate.
However, the bugger haven't hosted anything i have thrown at them (sarcophyton or entacmea quadricolor)

 

[ddao1977]

SPS

Here is my first SPS bought in July 2013 (left) and the shot of the right was taken couple days ago.
* Montipora Digita *



Back in august'13, a friend of mine gave me a piece of his Galaxea (left one on the right picture is what it has become)



The caulestrea (I havent counted how many more heads I've gotten)

Heliopora coerulea (I have 2, one is my friends I keep until he makes more room in his tank)



My first acropora bought in nov'13 and now



Seriatopora Hystrix from nov'13 until now has developed some branches


p>
My Euphyllia's





My pink stylophora back then, and now ...





And these are the latest



Acropora Cerealis



Acropora Tenuis (it came with its symbiotic crab)

 

[ddao1977]

Soft Corals

Here are some of the soft corals I keep


This one has put up some weight. From mai on the left side, to august in the middle, and today on the right. I think the pink bulb is making it look that color.





I got a BTA to that splitted with 2 months I got it. It hasn't splitted again since. I'm actually very jealous of those who keep RBTA. Mine of brownish color. They have since then, moved up the tank and i had to move some of my acroporas out of the way... silly BTA's

My ricordia's. These were so pretty when i bought them.... it lost its stunny greenish color.





my disco rock



Another set of ricordia

 

[eric b 125]

Looks good! You did a great job photo-journaling. Your sump and cabinet space look well organized, too (something I'm struggling with on my current build plans).

 

[ddao1977]

Thanks Eric. I wasted lots of paper trying to figure out what i wanted to do.
I even had a prototype where the water would have a circular path but i wouldn't be good as far as as maintenance.
this one is simple and standard from what I've seen and will allow me to stack live rock rubbles in the back and more equipment.

I just bought a phosphoban reactor. I'd like to get a better control of my nitrate and phosphate in the tank.

 

[ecooper]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric B 125 http:///t/397135/my-new-125g-reef-tank#post_3538733
Looks good! You did a great job photo-journaling. Your sump and cabinet space look well organized, too (something I'm struggling with on my current build plans).
+1 Nice!

 

[eric b 125]

Quote:
Originally Posted by ddao1977 http:///t/397135/my-new-125g-reef-tank#post_3538882
Thanks Eric. I wasted lots of paper trying to figure out what i wanted to do.
I even had a prototype where the water would have a circular path but i wouldn't be good as far as as maintenance.
this one is simple and standard from what I've seen and will allow me to stack live rock rubbles in the back and more equipment.

I just bought a phosphoban reactor. I'd like to get a better control of my nitrate and phosphate in the tank.

I think I might try a gyre in my next tank since it will be "cubish".

What is your nitrate reading? It doesn't look like you have any signs of high nitrate or phosphate- you're getting decent polyp extension from your SPS and no nuisance algae in the DT (even your sump is pretty clean). Be careful adding the Phosban reactor; you don't want to strip the phosphate out too quickly.

 

[ddao1977]

I haven't bought myself a nitrate test (i do have the other) ...

haahah don't ask why I do need to get one.

my lfs is actually really good and tested it to. I had 10ish nitrates and 0.02 phosphate readings. but i'm feeding a lot those poor starving fish ...

I just realized i didn't say what was living with the tank:

- blue hippo tang
- 2 ocellaris (mating) but not going in the entacmea's
- 5 blue chromis
- 2 mandarin (female and male) which are pretty cool to watch as they are roaming around together
- 3 purple fire fish

- 5/6 nassarius
- 2 sand sifting starfish
- 1 serpent star fish
- 1 linkia
- 1 ursin
- 1 mythrax


The growth of my corals are good according to the lfs. what worries me the most is the growth of bryopsis algae and green bubble algae. They just started to show up and grow like weed. Hence the mythrax. I want a naso lituratus ... love the shape and color of the fish; though from what i read 6 foot long tank 125 gallon will become small fast.

adding a phosban reactor is to prevent phosphate to go to high from the frozen food but also to lower my nitrates.

 

[eric b 125]

You might want to consider a biopellet reactor, or setting up a phosban reactor to run biopellets