55 gallon reef build + 20gallon macroalgae aquarium

[thoeffe]

This is going to be where I will post about my 55 gallon reef and my 20 gallon high macroalgae aquarium and when and if I ever get a frag tank/rubbermaid stock tank and larger aquarium for macros.
I will be logging the parameters in this google sheets.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12NwI0rChIsiH1PugdHpnuIz19OeN6WTEkzl4KSfPHhc/edit?usp=sharing
Equipment:


1.(An ancient 55 gallon aquarium) it might even be as old as me if not older? It was passed down to me from my father. He mainly had freshwater, huge angels and plecos. I can barely remember it being setup I was so young. He had it as a saltwater tank for a very short time. He shut it down and when I was about 11 I wanted to set it up and got into freshwater for several years when I was 16 I had freshwater angels breeding(Ill post pictures of them). Around the same time I started the saltwater aquarium that is still running as the 20 gallon macroalgae aquarium. I'm now 24 to give a timeline.

2. (The 20 gallon) started as a reef I had zoas, palys, kenya tree, and xenia. A firefish and two clownfish. I fragged a few zoas and got some of the water squirted in my eye, it was bloodshot. Had no clue about palytoxins. I did a search online after it had happened and thought "crap well looks like I'm skipping school tomorrow and will be going to the doctors." I told him what happened pretty sure he thought I was nuts. But he gave me something and it cleared up. Lesson learned... Anyways, The junk t5 light crapped out on me lasted about a year and a half. So I threw the freshwater light hood that came with the tank on it and said forget it with the corals and just raised my two clowns and macro algae.

3. Two Mars aqua black box leds purchased for about $188.00
4. Old HOB filter from my freshwater days. (I really miss the simplicity of freshwater, so much easier to maintain)
5. CoralBox qp-9 (Thankful that Logan from reefbreeders put up with me. Great customer service.) Note to anyone neededing a wavemaker for their 55 gallon the qp16 is too large and the qp5 is too small.
6. Reef octopus classic 90 HOB skimmer. (Works great have had it running for 3 days now. Was hesitant to get it wanted to go skimmer free and use macro for nutrient export.)

7. Eheim jager heater

Livestock:
Inverts: Decorator crab, cleaner shrimp, 2 emerald crabs, snails, a few Micro brittle star hitchhikers.

Fish: Clownfish pair, Diamond sand sifting goby, Yellow Clown Goby.

Coral:
Softies: Yellow polys, Xenia, Kenya trees, Zoas (small blue hornet frags, radioactive dragon eye zoas, unknown other varieties), Palys (Nuclear greens and two other unknown varieties), Toadstools.
LPS: HammerCoral, Green candy cane, Blue candy cane, Duncan (fat tentacle and pointy tentacle varieties)
SPS: Birdsnest

Progression of the 55 gallon week by week with pictures.

The 20 gallon macro tank.
1. Ditched the freshwater hood and bought a cree bulb from homedepot idk if its going to grow much but its led cost $10 and is more energy efficient. It seems brighter and it lights the entire tank whereas a single tube bulb is inefficient and only throws a bit of light because light only enters through the back rectangular strip of the hood.

2. Current Macro algae: a small bit of chaeto, caulerpa lentillafera, caulerpa serrulata, caulerpa prolifera, caulerpa unidentified?

3. Animals: Snails, whites sponges, Brittle star, two peppermint shrimp (moved the clown into the 55 gallon with my new black/orange half bar clown because one of my old clowns that I got when I was 16 had died.


More to come tomorrow. How do people usually do these threads do they just keep editing the original post or add new posts to it?

 

[NY_Caveman]

This is going to be where I will post about my 55 gallon reef and my 20 gallon high macroalgae aquarium and when and if I ever get a frag tank/rubbermaid stock tank and larger aquarium for macros.
I will be logging the parameters in this google sheets.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12NwI0rChIsiH1PugdHpnuIz19OeN6WTEkzl4KSfPHhc/edit?usp=sharing
Equipment:


1.(An ancient 55 gallon aquarium) it might even be as old as me if not older? It was passed down to me from my father. He mainly had freshwater, huge angels and plecos. I can barely remember it being setup I was so young. He had it as a saltwater tank for a very short time. He shut it down and when I was about 11 I wanted to set it up and got into freshwater for several years when I was 16 I had freshwater angels breeding(Ill post pictures of them). Around the same time I started the saltwater aquarium that is still running as the 20 gallon macroalgae aquarium. I'm now 24 to give a timeline.

2. (The 20 gallon) started as a reef I had zoas, palys, kenya tree, and xenia. A firefish and two clownfish. I fragged a few zoas and got some of the water squirted in my eye, it was bloodshot. Had no clue about palytoxins. I did a search online after it had happened and thought "crap well looks like I'm skipping school tomorrow and will be going to the doctors." I told him what happened pretty sure he thought I was nuts. But he gave me something and it cleared up. Lesson learned... Anyways, The junk t5 light crapped out on me lasted about a year and a half. So I threw the freshwater light hood that came with the tank on it and said forget it with the corals and just raised my two clowns and macro algae.

3. Two Mars aqua black box leds purchased for about $188.00
4. Old HOB filter from my freshwater days. (I really miss the simplicity of freshwater, so much easier to maintain)
5. CoralBox qp-9 (Thankful that Logan from reefbreeders put up with me. Great customer service.) Note to anyone neededing a wavemaker for their 55 gallon the qp16 is too large and the qp5 is too small.
6. Reef octopus classic 90 HOB skimmer. (Works great have had it running for 3 days now. Was hesitant to get it wanted to go skimmer free and use macro for nutrient export.)

7. Eheim jager heater

Livestock:
Inverts: Decorator crab, cleaner shrimp, 2 emerald crabs, snails, a few Micro brittle star hitchhikers.

Fish: Clownfish pair, Diamond sand sifting goby, Yellow Clown Goby.

Coral:
Softies: Yellow polys, Xenia, Kenya trees, Zoas (small blue hornet frags, radioactive dragon eye zoas, unknown other varieties), Palys (Nuclear greens and two other unknown varieties), Toadstools.
LPS: HammerCoral, Green candy cane, Blue candy cane, Duncan (fat tentacle and pointy tentacle varieties)
SPS: Birdsnest

Progression of the 55 gallon week by week with pictures.

The 20 gallon macro tank.
1. Ditched the freshwater hood and bought a cree bulb from homedepot idk if its going to grow much but its led cost $10 and is more energy efficient. It seems brighter and it lights the entire tank whereas a single tube bulb is inefficient and only throws a bit of light because light only enters through the back rectangular strip of the hood.

2. Current Macro algae: a small bit of chaeto, caulerpa lentillafera, caulerpa serrulata, caulerpa prolifera, caulerpa unidentified?

3. Animals: Snails, whites sponges, Brittle star, two peppermint shrimp (moved the clown into the 55 gallon with my new black/orange half bar clown because one of my old clowns that I got when I was 16 had died.


More to come tomorrow. How do people usually do these threads do they just keep editing the original post or add new posts to it?

Welcome! Tanks look great. My main tank in the 90s was a standard 55. Another 55 gallon older than you

People generally add new posts to their thread to continue their story and show progress. I find it very helpful to myself to use my build thread as a reference for dates and images. I am constantly going back to old posts.

As a thread gets large, folks will often go back and edit their first post to be a kind of welcome page. Yours tells a good story as is I think. Mine got so large I created a table of contents to help me find stuff (see my thread link below in my signature - you may have to turn your device sideways to see signatures).