blaten's 50g Simple Reef

[blaten]

I enjoy following other member's reef tanks in this forum so I thought I would share one of mine as well. This setup definitely does not come recommended as I am currently not running a filter and have not for most of the 8 months it has been up and running. I tried a remora HOB for a couple of weeks, which pulled some stuff in the beginning, but then ran dry for two weeks so I took it off. The tank doesn't really grow much algae at all so I am not too worried about nutrients. I do weekly 5g water changes to help.

The only system specs are:
Flow: Two small Koralia's (which I remove and scrub monthly)
Lighting: Old/Undimmable 200w Evolution + 2 48" 24 watt Ecoxotic Stunner LED 445nm Blue that I use as moonlights at night.
Tank: 48L x 18T x 13W (50g I believe) Standard Petco type tank. I bought it used.
Heater: No idea

Tank Inhabitants:
2 Blue Chromis
1 Ocellaris clown (7 years old)
Numerous red and blue legged hermit crabs and many different snails. I love my clean up crew. They are always working and keeping my frag plugs clean.

I took these pictures yesterday and today with my Iphone. Somehow, the Iphone is so much better at accounting for the blue in the LEDs and showing how the tank actually looks than my nice point and shoot. Unfortunately, the quality is not nearly as nice as DSLRs and still leaves some photos looking saturated slightly blue. My digital point and shoot takes great macro photos but cannot take a good tank shot at all. It looks like I have blue water.

Here are some photos.

FTS

Here is the middle right side of my tank

Middle of the tank

Here is my zoa garden which has been filling in nicely for the past couple of months. Each frag started with one or two polyps.

More zoas

A couple of shots of one of the five frag racks in this tank.

Random coral pictures

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the photos. I will probably take some macros at some point as well.

 

[revsgirl]

Wow! Your reef is stunning!! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Wesley42079]

Nice setup. I especially love the zoa garden.

I'll be following along to see the tanks progression.

Keep up the good job.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Sweet tank! Love the eye candy!

 

[blaten]

Thanks for the kind words guys!

 

[jonnye46]

:wink: wow so colorful i love it!!!

 

[blaten]

Thanks Jonnye, it has been fun watching it come together. Im hoping the coral will fill in most of the "dead" spots in the next 6-8 months.

 

[phil121]

No mechanical filtration at all? Do you feed or dose anything? It's an amazing looking tank.

 

[blaten]

Thanks Phil! I forgot about my dosing/feeding regimen.

And to confirm, there is no mechanical filter of any kind. I have a small bioload and am just consistent and diligent in maintaining my simple schedule with the tank. Corals love continuity in my experience.

I dose the ESV B-ionic 2 part for Calc/Alk a few ML of each daily. And I add some brightwell's magnesium-p when I do my weekly waterchanges. For my 5g water changes I use instant ocean reef crystals. I add the magnesium because most of the bags I tested in the past came in a bit low for mag.

Other than that, I feed about 30 small pellets to my ocellaris clown and two blue chromis daily. Sometimes I will feed extra to my hermits and occasionally I will feed my favias directly.

Also, thanks for asking!

 

[blaten]

Here are some of my favorite macros I had taken a while ago and some more recently.

This is my vivid's enchino which I lost a year or so ago to a copperband butterfly. It used to be my favorite piece that I owned, it was just so bright and colorful.

WOW palys

Some no-name zoa that is one of the brightest in my tank. This and the Utter Chaos get the most compliments from non reef people.

Utter Chaos (these polyps are pretty big and take forever to grow unfortunately)

Neon Green Nepthia

JF Neon Green Leptosaris

My favorite Favia, the PPE

I believe this is a royal blue tenius (correct me if I am wrong), anyways it rivals the LE Matrix as the bluest acro in my tank.

I hope you enjoy the photos!

 

[blaten]

A couple quick shots

I just took some quick photos I thought I would share.

These are some Blue hornets, my clementines, Red Hornet and Yodas that I am growing out.

Left side top down tank shot

 

[ritter6788]

Beautiful! Nice collection of corals.

 

[slugwall]

Wow! What a sick tank... Absolutely beautiful!

 

[blaten]

Beautiful! Nice collection of corals.

Wow! What a sick tank... Absolutely beautiful!

Thanks Ritter and Slugwall!! I am happy you like the tank. That is always nice to hear.

 

[Saltwatertaylor]

I love the colors in your tank!

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

Beautiful tank! Thanks for sharing!!

 

[blaten]

I love the colors in your tank!

Beautiful tank! Thanks for sharing!!

Thanks Guys!!

 

[Wesley42079]

Any chance you can bless us reefers with updated shots of your tank?

We were all spoiled with your first batch of photos and would like to see some more.

 

[zoareef]

Very nice looking tank Michael great pics too any updates?

 

[Mr. D]

Beautiful tank. I enjoy the fact your reef has no special equipment of doing regiments. Just wcs and the mag/alk additives.

Do you have a sump with an ATO? I may have missed that.

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