Fully Aquacultured 150g Reef

[Reef AquaCult]

Hello I’ve decided to make my new 150g planet aquarium have only aquacultured specimens. After a recent trip to the Great Barrier Reef and having a Fox face die in quarantine, I’ve decided to do this. Fish will have to be captive bred. To me, getting frags from local hobbyists is considered aquacultured. I don’t want anything that was collected directly from the ocean. I’m really looking forward to supporting our hobby in an environmentally sustainable way. This first video shows my current setup. Currently have a little GHA because my Nyos test kit was reading low nitrates and I was dosing some! Hope to get that fixed soon.


Initial rock cycled March 18 2019
Lights off x 3 months

150 gallon reef ready Planet Aquarium 60”x24”x24”
Bean animal overflow
Bare bottom with ABS sheet on bottom
Amazon Dry Rock
40 gallon breeder sump
15 gallon Refugium with Relassy grow led
Bubble Magus Filter Roll
Jebao DCT12000 Return Pump
2 x Jebao SOW-20 wavemakers
1 Gyre
Lighting 5x Roleadro Black Box WiFi LED
No skimmer
Manifold - currently empty

Apex EL
Dos for auto water change 1.5 gal/day
BRS doser for Ato reservoir fill
ATK V2 ato system

Quarantine 6 weeks fish
20g high AIO fish - medicated as needed

Quarantine 6 weeks coral
20g High AIO

Livestock
1 black male ocellaris about 5 years old
1 orange female fancy ocellaris 5 years old
1 ORA orchid dottyback
1 ORA 2 bar rabbitfish

Corals
Obtained from local hobbyist Todd
Purple Acro
Green Acro
Unnamed Milli
Stunner Chalice
Monti Spongodes
Green Slimer Acro
Purple Stylophora

Obtained from local hobbyist Ruben
1 RBTA (split)
1 Duncan coral


Please join me!

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Following along!

 

[Reef AquaCult]

My ORA 2 bar rabbitfish purchased from LIveaquaria made it through quarantine and into display tank. My ocellaris breeding pair was picking on him because they protect their eggs so I decided to take the clowns out temporarily and put them in one of my 20g QTs.

The fish came in good condition without any evidence of disease. It took him about 1 week to settle in but now goes to town on hair algae. I do have a hair algae outbreak that I’m battling right now. I’m planning to get a couple ORA tuxedo urchins for CUC and also one for the refugium to eat the hair algae in it.

The rabbitfish is fun to watch, he follows around my orchid dottyback for some reason. Like a fox face, the rabbitfish can within seconds completely change colors and camouflage itself.

If you’re looking for a Fox face or other herbivore I would recommend looking into this fish as an aquacultured alternative. Cheers!

 

[Reef AquaCult]

A video of my saltwater mixing station. Found these by searching “poly tanks” on google,found a supplier in my area. Recommend plumbing with Banjo polypropylene bulkheads, much stronger and better than typical ABS bulkheads. The true union ball valves make installation of plumbing a breeze due to the threads making easy assembly. These are both 90 gallon heavy duty poly tanks.

 

[Reef AquaCult]

My Biota Yellow Tang is doing awesome in quarantine. Almost doubled in size in about 3 weeks, very energetic and healthy. No meds in QT tank. Fish is by himself. Feeding sea lettuce, red ogo, he loves any pellets including hikari seaweed extreme, new life spectrum, obviously enjoys frozen, gets a little jumpy when I approach tank but is very active and doing great. I would highly recommend supporting Biota and the Rising Tide Conservation by purchasing a captive bred yellow tang. This was purchased on LiveAquaria. I still have yet to see them in any LFS which is annoying. I’m willing to spend extra for captive bred specimens and I hope other hobbyists would be as well. I can’t wait for them to get some more blue tangs on the market and other tangs in the future. This is my favorite fish so far, I might get another one we’ll see. Hope to move him to display after a few more weeks in QT.

This fish was born in a fish tank and has never seen the ocean, it shipped very well and was swimming around immediately after getting him out of the bag. Also small and easy to transport. If you do get one, definitely have a QT tank setup because they come very small about the size of a half dollar coin maybe slightly larger. This one has grown fast and will be ready for display tank soon.

 

[Reef AquaCult]

Latest Posts on Build.

After I stopped dosing nitrates my Fuge brought them from 6 to 0 in less than a week! Now running nitrates 0 and phosphates 0 - GHA appears to be dying.

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