72 Gallon Build 16 months

[Vanmo92]

I’ve been lurking on here without posting much for some time now, and having learned so much from everyone else’s tank, I’d say its time for me to share my own. This 72g Bowfront system has been set up for 1 year and 4 months now in its current location. Before this it was setup at my parents house for 8 years, it has the original sandbed and liverock. For those 8 years it was just FOWLR, until a little over a year ago I had no first hand experience with coral, over the last year I have learned an incredible amount! I am so lucky MACNA was local to me last year, as that was an incredible learning experience! There was a noticeable difference in the health and overall appearance of my tank pre and post MACNA. Ive also attended Reefstock and ReefEd, both of which were great learning experiences as well. Not to mention opportunities to get some great frags!

The water volume for my current system I estimate to be about 80 gallons. My sump/fuge hold about 10g, I also have a frag tank plumbed in which I think is about 13-15g.

For my sump I am using a rubbermaid bin from target that has been slightly modified with baffles, tube holders, etc. The sump has been on the system from the beginning and has been serving my needs for almost 9 years now.

I’ve had various light fixtures over the years but am currently settled on Radion xr30 pros. Observing the coloration of the corals I think this may be a bit to intense and I’m slowly tweaking the schedule to be better all the time. Overall though colors are not bad and the growth on most things has been outstanding!

Equipment list:
72g Bowfront Glass Tank
Lighting- 2x Radion xr30 pro’s G3
Frag tank lighting- Radion xr15 pro
Flow- 3x Vortech MP40w 2 on the display 1 on the frag tank (QD Drivers)
Ecotech Battery Backup for the Vortech pumps
Mag 9.5 Return Pump
ASM G3 Protein Skimmer w/ Sedra 5000 pump
Bubble Magus dosing pump for CA and ALK, dosing B-Ionic
Coralife UV Sterilizer
BRS Mini Reactor running mostly ROX .8 carbon with a small amount of GFO mixed
Auto top off Aquahub float switch using an Aqualifter pump and a 5 gallon bucket
Eheim-Jager 200 Watt Heater
Dual Temp Temp Alert thermometer
30W LED floodlamp (Lowes) growing chaeto over the fuge section
100GPD Melev’s Reef RO/DI Unit
Old iPhone 4S set up as a webcam using “AtHome” Video streaming app
Marine Depot Refractometer

Everything is plugged into 2 DJ power strips to allow me to turn equipment on/off easily and safely if I have wet hands.

I try to keep my maintenance schedule rock solid with very little deviation, tasks are as follows:
-Fish are fed 2-3 times per day frozen brine/mysis shrimp as well as formula 1&2 Flakes
-Glass is cleaned using a magfloat and razor blade once a week, sometimes twice
-Skimmer cup is emptied every other day
-Filter sponge on skimmer outflow cleaned once per week
-I run a mesh filter sock to catch large debris occasionally, usually around a water change, and that needs cleaning every other day.
-Carbon/GFO changed and reactor cleaned out every other week along w/ WC
-Top off container refilled twice a week
-Once a week sometimes twice test ALK and CA and adjust dosing pump if needed
-15g Water Change done with reef crystals salt every other week the old fashion way (syphons, lugging buckets, powerheads)
-Blow detritus off/out of live rock with a turkey baster every time im draining water out for a water change
-Once a week I send freshwater down the air intake on the skimmer to break up salt
-Test magnesium every 3 weeks or month, dose as needed
-Every other week refill 2 part dosing containers
-About every 2 months I take out all pumps and soak in muriatic acid solution
-Radion lights are taken down for dusting/cleaning every 2 months as well.
-Maybe twice a year I will completely remove and clean the skimmer body
-Trim Chaeto and clean up Refugium as necessary
Of course there are constantly miscellaneous tasks going on, mostly cleaning. Not a day goes by that I don't wipe salt creep off of something, clean out the overflow teeth, re-glue a coral that fell or move one thats getting to close to another, unbury a coral from the sand, kill an aiptasia...theres always SOMETHING to do!

Fish List:
6-line wrasse (Will have been with me 10 years in november)
Pair of Perc. Clowns (been with me about 9 years)
Pair of regularly spawning Bangaii Cardinals
Pair of PJ Cardinals
3 Blue Green Reef Chromis
3 Red Spot Glass Cardinals (was 6 till recently)
Coral Beauty Angel
Yellow Tang
Foxface
Neon Goby
Shark Nose Goby
3 Firefish
Royal Gramma

Inverts:
1 Cleaner Shrimp
~40 Nesariuss Snails
~30 Astrea Snails
~ 20 Blue Leg hermits
1 electric blue hermit
Countless Asterina starfish, who I suspect might eat zoas, sometimes, maybe
Endless featherduster tubeworms

 

[Vanmo92]

Some progression shots

3/23/2014


A little over a year ago (may 15, 2014)


1/20/2015


CURRENTLY:

Hollywood Stunner Chalice 7/30/2014

Today:

Tricolor 11/18/2014

Today:

Bird of paradise 11/18/14

Today:

Green Stylophora 11/18/14

Today:

Birdsnest 11/18/14

Today:

Millepora 12/3/14

Today:

Green slimer 12/3/14

Today:

Tortuosa 2/4/15

Today:

 

[Vanmo92]

3/4/2014


More Current shots





Coral List: (Im gunna try)
Pipe Organs
Sarcophyton- Toadstool leather
Various Zoas and Palys
Bird of Paradise Seriatapora
MBC “Durban Poison”
MBC “Alley Cat”
Cali Tortuosa
New Horizon Tenius
Red Montipora Capricornis
Green Montipora Capricornis
Red Montipora Digitata
Green Montipora Digitata
Montipora monasteriata
“Rainbow” Montipora
2 distinctly different color Pavona
2 Acropora Millepora
Blue/Green Acropora Tortuosa
2 red cyphastrea
Green Cyphastrea
Strawberry Shortcake Acro
Long tentacle Fungia Plate
No tentacle Fungia plate
Duncans
Acropora yongei- Green Slimer
Echinophyllia Hollywood Stunner Challice
2x Echinophyllia Challice - Unknown
Seriatopora Hystrix- Birdsnest
Blue/Purple Stylophora
Green Stylophora
Green Staghorn
Unknown tabling “Blueberry” Acro
Green Leptastrea
Caulastrea
“Krypotnite” Caulastrea
2x Red/Green Favia
Euphyllia- Hammer Coral
Purple Gorgonian
Green/Blue Ricordea Mushrooms
Pink/Green Ricordea Mushrooms
3 or 4 other types of misc mushrooms
Clove polyps
Green Star Polyps (Much to my regret)
Pulsing Xenia (Also regret)
Kenya trees- Nephthea
Gonzos “Smurfs tick” Acro
Bonsai Acro
8 unknown Acropora
Red Acanthastrea
Purple/Green Acanthastrea

I know I am forgetting some, but thats a mostly comprehensive list

I also have Tridacna clam that I was told is a hybrid of Maxima and Crocea, it has shown pretty good shell growth. I got it along with another same species clam which died for unknown reasons that was growing impressively well.

Im now at the point where Ive pretty much stopped buying livestock, my tank is full. I can't even imagine once things grow even more than they have. Im always thinking about getting a bigger tank, but it is the upstairs of a rental house so I probably couldnt go to much bigger. I fantasize about a tank without curved glass for photography reasons, but a top down box helped with that a lot. For financial reasons im stuck with what I have for the forseeable future though.

I also fantasize about having a real sump thats not a rubbermaid bin for so many reasons, but the bowfront stand won't fit anything else I can find without taking the tank down. The rubbermaid sump does work surprisingly well for having been running for 9 years although with the relatively new addition of the frag tank it gets pretty sketchy when the power goes out. Lowering the level the top off keeps the water at is on my list, but thats a heck of a project as I'll have to remove and re cut the baffles, among other things.

Parameters are usually quite stable:
Temp 78.5 (Up to 80.5 in the heat of the summer)
ALK 8.6dKH
CA 440
MAG 1400
Salinity 1.026 (Reef Crystals, Refractometer)
I haven't tested for anything else in 6 months or so, but I have many other test kits if I feel the need to. I've experimented with dosing amino acids but haven't stuck with it enough to have a noticeable effect.

Everything is doing great with very few exceptions, and the overall trend is always toward the better.

 

[Vanmo92]

I'll end this post with some full tank shots, I plan on updating the tanks progress here as often as I can!

 

[1+fragplease]

Nice
You must be doing something good because you have a sweet tank

 

[samba_dad]

I'm jealous. Your tank is gorgeous!!

 

[jsker]

Really Really Really nice setup, I started my 72 bowl front in February 15 and looking at your thank I need some more frags in about another month to add.

 

[Riddler05]

Your tank looks amazing and I'm envious of the growth you are seeing! I just started a new 75 gallon aquarium about a month ago (everything was moved from a 90 gallon which was a year old so there was not much of a cycle), but it is not nearly as pretty as yours. Hopefully now that my parameters seem to have stabilized I started to see some growth in the next couple of months.

 

[Vanmo92]

I really have found that when your tank gets stable is when things start doing well. I had many of these frags back when I was dosing manually and not much was happening but as soon as that was automated with a dosing pump everything took off.

 

[Vanmo92]

Tank is coming up on 18 months. Keeping the reef in tip top shape as I count down the days till MACNA!

 

[TerraCaelus]

Your tank is absolutely beautiful!

 

[Cristy17]

WOW! Your tank is absolutely GORGEOUS!!! I love the before and after shot. It really shows the growth of each coral and what potential the little plug size ones have. I can't wait for my tank to fill in like yours..this is definitely what I hope to achive one day! Thank you so much for taking the time not only to post beautiful pictures, but to write your maintance schedule out and give me a check list, so to speak. I wanted to ask you, can you be more specific on how you soak the pumps in muratic solution? I have never done that but would like to learn. I guess the whole idea if using an acid scares me but if it works, I am willing to try!!

 

[Vanmo92]

Depends on exactly what Im cleaning but what I normally do is fill a 5g bucket with about 2g of luke-medium warm tap water. After getting the pumps quickly with a toothbrush under the running tap just to get any large debris and algae off, I will put whatever pumps I have to clean in there and angle the output toward the side of the bucket so when I turn it on it doesnt turn into a fountain. I then plug the pump(s) in to let them circulate the water. Then I add I would guess somewhere between 1/2 a cup and a cup of muriatic acid to that. Be sure to do all this but especially that step in a well ventilated area. I just do it in my kitchen with the windows open and it seems fine but I know many do it outside. If you catch a wiff of the stuff you'll know immidiatly as it burns like crazy. Ill let the pumps run in there about 10-15 min or so, then take them over to the sink and take all the pieces apart and hit them all with a toothbrush, and calcuim or coraline algea comes right off at this point. Then put everything back together and you're done.
Have heard reports of muriatic being bad for soft rubber/plastic such as o-rings. I had an issue with one of my vortech wetsides after soaking it where the little plastic nut at the top wouldnt tighten, I really dont know if it was caused by acid or not but now when I do those I hold that part out of the water an just let the base soak as well as the external "cage", and havent had an issue since. The new quiet drive wet sides dont have this problem. Ive never had any problems with any other pumps or o-rings.
About once a year I will take my whole sump out from under the tank, rinse it out and then fill the actual sump with muriatic acid solution, this not only cleans the sump very well but also gives me room to run my skimmer in the acid, usually I only do the skimmer pump in the 5g bucket but every so often its good to get the actual skimmer body.
White vinegar will accomplish the same task as muriatic, but vinegar you probably need to let things soak overnight at least, muriatic works in minutes. Its less than $5 for a gallon of the stuff which should last like a year or more used in this way. I found mine at lowes, in the paint department if I remember right. Good luck!

 

[Vanmo92]

Time for a little update. I recently decided to take the leap to keeping anthias, something Ive always wanted to do. Im down to only one of the red spot glass cardinals left, so I thought now would be a good time, instead of just buying more of those. I ordered a female trio from divers den, along with a tail spot blenny and a maxima clam. They arrived a few days later and everything was going great. Well after 8 days one of the anthias went into hiding, and havent seen it since (thats been about 2 weeks since then). And at day 10 with no warning the maxima clam passed as well. It was seemingly fine one day, then the next. Gonner. I knew one of the anthias would turn into a male and beat up the one female, so I ordered another trio. Immidiatly upon putting the new 3 in one went and hid. The other 2 joined the existing 2 but one just hid, I could see it in the rocks with my flashlight, until the next morning when it was gone, and I havent seen it since. So that was rather upsetting but the good news is the 4 that arent hiding are doing very well, eating like crazy and starting to fatten up. 4 isnt the number I set out to get but Im very happy with the color and activity they add to the tank. I also picked up a starry blenny with the second trio and he seems to be doing great, lots of personality. As for the clam there are several possible causes Ive identified assuming it wasnt just doomed from the start. Possible a 1dkh alk swing that occured casued it, not enough flow possibly, not enough food possibly (it was in my frag tank with only 1 small fish), the frag tank is infested with flatworms and I need to do more research on their effects on clams, also so many bristol worms in that tank that were all over and under the clam even when it was seemingly doing "well", I also thought likely that anthias died and added some ammonia, which being a newcomer maybe the clam just simply couldnt take it. Either way I have more reaserch to do before getting another clam, ive had very mixed results with them.
Overall though the tank continues to do well and coral continues to grow. As it gets colder out we've stopped leaving a window cracked in the house and I noticed the first day the humidity in the house was 60% instead of 10% and the temp of my tank has climbed from 78 average to 81 average peaking at 82.5. I think as it gets even colder out this will resolve itself, but I always forget how dependent our tanks are on the room around them.
Heres a current full system and full tank shot.

 

[Cristy17]

Depends on exactly what Im cleaning but what I normally do is fill a 5g bucket with about 2g of luke-medium warm tap water. After getting the pumps quickly with a toothbrush under the running tap just to get any large debris and algae off, I will put whatever pumps I have to clean in there and angle the output toward the side of the bucket so when I turn it on it doesnt turn into a fountain. I then plug the pump(s) in to let them circulate the water. Then I add I would guess somewhere between 1/2 a cup and a cup of muriatic acid to that. Be sure to do all this but especially that step in a well ventilated area. I just do it in my kitchen with the windows open and it seems fine but I know many do it outside. If you catch a wiff of the stuff you'll know immidiatly as it burns like crazy. Ill let the pumps run in there about 10-15 min or so, then take them over to the sink and take all the pieces apart and hit them all with a toothbrush, and calcuim or coraline algea comes right off at this point. Then put everything back together and you're done.
Have heard reports of muriatic being bad for soft rubber/plastic such as o-rings. I had an issue with one of my vortech wetsides after soaking it where the little plastic nut at the top wouldnt tighten, I really dont know if it was caused by acid or not but now when I do those I hold that part out of the water an just let the base soak as well as the external "cage", and havent had an issue since. The new quiet drive wet sides dont have this problem. Ive never had any problems with any other pumps or o-rings.
About once a year I will take my whole sump out from under the tank, rinse it out and then fill the actual sump with muriatic acid solution, this not only cleans the sump very well but also gives me room to run my skimmer in the acid, usually I only do the skimmer pump in the 5g bucket but every so often its good to get the actual skimmer body.
White vinegar will accomplish the same task as muriatic, but vinegar you probably need to let things soak overnight at least, muriatic works in minutes. Its less than $5 for a gallon of the stuff which should last like a year or more used in this way. I found mine at lowes, in the paint department if I remember right. Good luck!

 

[Cristy17]

Vanmo92 thank you so much for the very detailed instructions! I can see you spent a lot of time writing out your methodical routine which is extremely helpful for me and other members! Thanks again!

 

[DecanoLA]

Awesome!

 

[Vanmo92]

Well its been about 6 months, a lot has happened in my tank. Shortly after my last update I had a partial crash or something that took out a few corals. Most notably the large hollywood stunner chalice took the biggest hit, I was able to frag of about 8-10 small pieces of it which are now doing well in the frag tank. The Birdsnest as well as the other seriatapora behind it slowly STN'd throughout the month of November till it was gone. I had several colonies die that have recently grown back better than ever, mostly montiporas. I still haven't narrowed down a cause for these deaths although I wonder if it was NO3/Po4 related, growth basically stopped. Before I was adding 85ml/day of Alk/Ca, once things went south to keep things stable I had to drop that to only 20ml. The first week of February of this year I tested nitrates at about 90 and phosphates at around .3. I had thought about vodka dosing for some time and decided to go for it, along with some lanthanum chloride for po4. By the end of February I noticed a huge difference in coloration, and I was increasing the dose amount every day and couldn't keep up with the growth all of a sudden. At this point Im dosing 75ml/day. I attended ReefStock in Denver at the end of February knowing I had some real estate available from the "crash" and seeing the improvement vodka had made I quickly found things to fill all the spots. Definitely become addicted to acros recently.
The only other thing annoying me right now is an invasion of Bryopsis in the frag tank. It completely matted over the egg crate in there (along with a few corals) and after much manual removal I decided to overhaul the whole tank, removing the egg crate and replacing it with brand new BRS base rock. I wasn't able to get all the bryopsis off the frags despite my best efforts with H2O2, so it is still growing in there. I'm currently trying to nuke it with Tech-M but my Mag level has been sustained over 2000ppm for weeks now with no results, they may be slowed down a little but not cured by any stretch. If anyone has a miracle cure for bryopsis I'd sure love to hear it haha.
Enough chitter chatter I'll let the pictures to the talking from here.

 

[Vanmo92]

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Sorry for the losses but it's still a beauty!