45 Gallon Shallow Reef Build

[CBonito]

Nice! My UV will be here tomorrow by noon. I ordered it with the "right freaking now" option. LOL
I think it will eliminate a lot of bull I don't have room in my life for.

 

[CBonito]

I took this shot of my favorite millepora colony. It's under 420 PAR good polyp extension and it gets hit with a moderate and alternating flow. It's definitely in its happy place and the tips are starting to get neat colors and growth. The peak of my photoperiod contains more cyan, red and UV and over the past few days alone I am noticing changes. Teal in the growth areas, and that pretty pinkish red against the green base. Must be good because the coral seems pretty happy. I'm going to leave my lighting scheme as is for a few months and see how things go. My blue staghorn is another one that is looking beautiful with a ton of new branches and polyps that are now becoming blue to go along with.

This is why Millepora is one of my favorites. There are so many different kinds you can fill a tank with just them. They grow fast when they're happy and they can be hardy in a relative sense.
I love this multicolor stuff for sure and I was concerned about being able to keep the colors. But they seem to be improving. This used to sit a little lower, but I raised it a couple inches and that was all it wanted.

I should have my new acro colonies in the next day or two. There was a delay in something else I wanted so I'll pick them up when the rest arrives. There are some new tenuis and millepora in that batch. 6 new colonies coming which is really exciting. Some nice ones that I also hope I can keep the colors on. We'll find out.

 

[JoJosReef]

How's the dino situation? My nano reboot with a big new rock started up with some dinos. Dosed some diluted Fiji Mud and it is gone now. Might be coincidence. Probably some baby bristleworms soon, but I hate dinos more.

 

[CBonito]

How's the dino situation? My nano reboot with a big new rock started up with some dinos. Dosed some diluted Fiji Mud and it is gone now. Might be coincidence. Probably some baby bristleworms soon, but I hate dinos more.

It's not to the point where it's annoying corals, but I'm stopping it before it gets the chance. My UV will be here today and installed and I will just periodically blow it off stuff until it's all killed off. Right now, I can blow it off the rocks, but it comes right back because I'm not killing it. I HAVE TO KILL IT!!!!!

Fiji Mud? What's that?

 

[JoJosReef]

It's not to the point where it's annoying corals, but I'm stopping it before it gets the chance. My UV will be here today and installed and I will just periodically blow it off stuff until it's all killed off. Right now, I can blow it off the rocks, but it comes right back because I'm not killing it. I HAVE TO KILL IT!!!!!

Fiji Mud? What's that?

Used to buy the Walt Smith stuff but can't find it anymore. Now I'm using Aqua Forest Life Source which is also mud from Fiji mud flats but has some magnetic particles in it--they used to say it was metal filings alarmingly, but the company has come out saying it is some sort of basalt-based minerals in the mud, all natural, blah blah. Anyway, I take a quarter teaspoon of the stuff (it is wet in a tub) and mix it in tank water, put a huge magnet under it while stirring, and then slowly pour it out into the gyre flow while the magnet is still on.

Quick dose of biodiversity. I suspect some bristleworm eggs may be in it, though. Haven't tested. Nothing a Halichoeres wrasse couldn't solve, I think... Or six line if you're ballsy.

 

[CBonito]

Another thing I want to do is get some live rock. Like real live rock.

 

[dangit]

Can’t go wrong with a UV sterilizer. Hope it helps you beat the dinos, but if anything it will help protect your fish. So if it beats dinos you got yourself a win win…

Tank is looking awesome so far!

 

[HandsyLobster]

Alright, so I spent a heap of money on a new ATI Straton Pro LED 102. This thing better be good man, or there's gonna be some kung fu moves you wont believe.

It will light a 24"x28" area specifically strong enough for SPS. In my tank I'll have to actually turn it down a bit I'm sure. But it's an 18.5"x12.6" panel of 102 LEDs and there is more than enough PAR and good enough distribution from all angles to single-handedly solve my "problem" and replace my Kessils. I'll keep the kessils for backup and I should only need this one light. It's all aluminum and passively cooled which apparently works excellent, so no fans and dust to worry about. It's wifi controlled and has 7 light channels so it's like mega tweakable. Their suggested mounting height is 8-12 inches off the water which is perfect for my situation. I can get it 10" off the water.

I wanted to go with the orphek. I really did, but it's so big and heavy and such a PITA to figure out how to hang, the stupid tank brackets they sell suck so I would be on my own...ain't got no time for that! It's also more power than I need...this one is 165 watts, but very efficient and delivers an amazing amount of uniform light with good blending and diffusion. More than enough for my tank anyway. It's going to be hung from my kessil arms, since ATI like Orphek can't make brackets either.

I love how it starts with maybe 500 bucks and ends at 1500 bucks...for this thing that looks like an i-pad. Stay Tuned...

I have the ATI Straton Gen 1 and love it. Im Sure this is going to look great over your tank!

 

[CBonito]

I have the ATI Straton Gen 1 and love it. Im Sure this is going to look great over your tank!

Yeah, I am extremely impressed with this light. You have to be careful though because it's a lot more powerful than I imagined it would be and you NEED a PAR meter, especially in a shallow tank. I have a schedule set up that I am sticking with for a while and we'll see what happens. What I can say now is that the spread and coverage are great and my corals seem to be liking it. My millepora colonies are reacting to it very positively. I can't wait to see how things are in a few weeks.

 

[CBonito]

So I got my UV Sterilizer. What a cluster...I had to file a glass booger off the UV bulb so it would fit in the quartz sleeve which is QC at its finest, and now I have to get to the LFS to get some tubing because I screwed up and need 3/4" tubing. I'd hard plumb it, but given I have to reduce from 2 inches to 1/2" that's not happening.

So that's fine...now I have to go to the store...which means I'll probably buy more fish now too.

How annoying.

 

[HandsyLobster]

So I got my UV Sterilizer. What a cluster...I had to file a glass booger off the UV bulb so it would fit in the quartz sleeve which is QC at its finest, and now I have to get to the LFS to get some tubing because I screwed up and need 3/4" tubing. I'd hard plumb it, but given I have to reduce from 2 inches to 1/2" that's not happening.

So that's fine...now I have to go to the store...which means I'll probably buy more fish now too.

How annoying.

what re you running your Straton at % wise. Juts buy a new fish man you know you want one. YOLO

 

[CBonito]

what re you running your Straton at % wise. Juts buy a new fish man you know you want one. YOLO

I did buy some new fish. LOL I got 3 tricolor anthias. We'll see how they go. Looks like they're currently schooling with my chromis which is exactly what I want. I need schooling fish and lots of color.

On the Straton. my peak 5 hours are at 100 percent. But on the straton, that doesnt mean 100 percent per se, since you first build the color you would like out of the 6 channels, then you run that overall color at the percentage you want. So if I could guess, with my settings at "100 percent" the overall fixture is at 55-60 percent?
I draw about 96 watts at peak and this is 165 watts or something like that.

It can get much much brighter to the point where it's almost blinding.

This is where I am at right now...

 

[HandsyLobster]

I did buy some new fish. LOL I got 3 tricolor anthias. We'll see how they go. Looks like they're currently schooling with my chromis which is exactly what I want. I need schooling fish and lots of color.

On the Straton. my peak 5 hours are at 100 percent. But on the straton, that doesnt mean 100 percent per se, since you first build the color you would like out of the 6 channels, then you run that overall color at the percentage you want. So if I could guess, with my settings at "100 percent" the overall fixture is at 55-60 percent?
I draw about 96 watts at peak and this is 165 watts or something like that.

It can get much much brighter to the point where it's almost blinding.

This is where I am at right now...

Gotcha,

Imma need to mess with mine a little bit. Lemme see those new fish!

 

[CBonito]

Gotcha,

Imma need to mess with mine a little bit. Lemme see those new fish!

Nothing particularly exotic. Just some schooling fish. They all eat. I'll be feeding these guys about 2-3 times a day.
It'll be interesting to see if any of them turn into a male. Hopefully they do well. I've had pretty good luck so far. I had a goby go floor surfing on me, but I replaced him myself. I hate putting the lid on my tank. It defeats the purpose of a rimless which is to not have all this crap on top of it.

 

[HandsyLobster]

Nothing particularly exotic. Just some schooling fish. They all eat. I'll be feeding these guys about 2-3 times a day.
It'll be interesting to see if any of them turn into a male. Hopefully they do well. I've had pretty good luck so far. I had a goby go floor surfing on me, but I replaced him myself. I hate putting the lid on my tank. It defeats the purpose of a rimless which is to not have all this crap on top of it.

Fish look good. Im with you on the lid on the tank I hate it also but I rather not find my fish looking like jerky

 

[CBonito]

UV is running. What a PITA!!! I guess I could have run something a little smaller, but I didn't want to run something lame and underpowered, then have to do it over again. 27 watt for my system should be more than good enough. I didnt know where the hell to put it so I hung it off my refugium with a bracket hand crafted by yours truly (lol) and plumbed it off my manifold out back. No leaks and good to go. I have the sterilizer plugged into my Apex so I can turn it on or off whenever the need arises and the sterilizer returns water to the refugium which drains to my return compartment.

Now the strategy is to blow this stuff off the rocks into the water column at lights out every night, dose some peroxide @ 1ml per 10g maybe an hour after that and just let the UV work. It should get rid of this crap pretty quick that way. As always, we'll find out! lol

 

[CBonito]

Fish look good. Im with you on the lid on the tank I hate it also but I rather not find my fish looking like jerky

Right now, my lid protects the wall behind the tank from any fish jumping into it.

 

[mig.]

This is an amazing build!!

 

[CBonito]

This is an amazing build!!

Aww man...Thanks so much!!! I quit this hobby like 9 or 10 years ago reluctantly when I got divorced and I never thought I would be able to touch something like this because I couldn't afford to do it how I wanted. I couldnt afford to do it the right way. But a lot can happen to someone in 10 years and I can build anything I want now, but being someone who will always stay humble I wanted to build something more manageable and for it to have that whole "big tank vibe" with all the big tank goodies, but in a much smaller system. There is nothing worse than hearing someone else tell you do something right when you can't afford to do it right...it's terrible. But this is just one of those things I have to do now to make it right for me. So hearing someone call my build amazing really strikes a note. Thanks!

 

[CBonito]

So I've had the UV running all night and before lights out I blasted all the rocks to get the dinos suspended.
There appears to be a lot less of it in the tank today. I'm just going to leave things alone and repeat the same routine every night and see what happens. These are definitely the dinos that start to break off as the lights begin to dim to go into the water column. They make kind of strings with an air bubble and you eventually see them float off. I guess now it doesnt really matter when I blow them off the rocks. If they get suspended and get UV'd they're dead, so I guess I can do it anytime, but I don't want to annoy any of my acros or they slime out and make a mess.

I am noticing my euphyllia in particular are a lot happier. They were not extending as much over the past few days with the dinos bothering them. Not like if they were in bad health or something, but just noticeably not as extended per normal. They look good today. I'll just keep tracking progress.

One of my pink anthias has an injury on its side. I bet it was the flame hawk since he's a big D. Not sure what's up with that, but he is out and swimming around with the others. I am determined to keep this school of anthias, so I will buy more. In fact, I really want like 6 of them. The more of them the better.