JCM's 65g reef aquarium

JCM · Apr 5, 2021

35 pounds of live rock showed up a few days ago from Gulf Live Rock. Absolutely beautiful rock but shipping took 3 days and I've seen alot of die off. Ammonia is still sitting around .25. I also ordered 15 pounds from KP that should show up this week, it is being shipped overnight in water so hopefully no die off there.

I hung the light and bought 4 of the 6 bulbs, 3 ATI Blue Plus and 1 Aquablue special. Overall it's much too blue for my tastes, I think the last 2 bulbs will be another aquablue special and a GE 6500k.

I made a temporary skin for the stand to keep the kids out of the sump, its held on with rare earth magnets.

It all looks like a science experiment at this point, hopefully I'll have time to clean things up soon, finish the stand, hide wires, cable management, etc.

JCM · Apr 5, 2021

If anyone has experience getting a 6 bulb t5 fixture to a 10k-14k color temp, I'm open to recommendations. I'm thinking about adding 1 aquablue special and 1 6500k bulb to my current 3 blue+ and 1 aquablue special.

JCM · Apr 7, 2021

The 15 lbs of rock from KP Aquatics showed up today. Having it shipped in water was nice, lots of life and everything looks alive and well. Ive found 2 mithrax crabs, a pistol shrimp, an urchin, 5 or 6 porcelain looking crabs, worms, stars, etc. 20 lbs of dry rock from BRS should show up tomorrow and I can start aquascaping.

JCM · Apr 9, 2021

First go at an aquascape

taulgrl · Apr 16, 2021

JCM said:
First go at an aquascape

Looks great!

JCM · Apr 16, 2021

taulgrl said:
Looks great!

Thank you!

JCM · Apr 17, 2021

I haven't had time to do much. We added a small hammer coral and a tail spot blenny about a week ago, both look great so far. The rock is teeming with life

I did get a chance to hide the light cords, they are routed into the garage behind the tank.

rusgum · Apr 17, 2021

JCM said:
I haven't had time to do much. We added a small hammer coral and a tail spot blenny about a week ago, both look great so far. The rock is teeming with life

I did get a chance to hide the light cords, they are routed into the garage behind the tank.

The dog is good and helpful

JCM · Apr 22, 2021

Picked up a few new corals today. I like the color temp of my lights but I need to add an actinic bulb. The acans were very bright in the sellers tank.

happyhourhero · Apr 23, 2021

Looks great! Found you while researching gulf rock. You still happy with it?

JCM · Apr 23, 2021

happyhourhero said:
Looks great! Found you while researching gulf rock. You still happy with it?

Thanks!

Yes, I'm happy with the rock from both Gulf and Kp and happy I got rock from both. Increased diversity is always good in my opinion.

If I could do it again, I wouldn't want the Gulf rock to be in transit for 3 days without water. I'd pay extra for expedited shipping.

The KP rock is completely devoid of algae while the Gulf rock is covered in macro algae. I know it will get eaten when I add more herbivores so I don't mind. If that's important to you, pick accordingly.

JCM · Apr 27, 2021

Haven't added anything new but everything is looking good still.

KingTideCorals · Apr 27, 2021

Think the scape is looking good! I am a huge fan of the sea seeded rock, I snagged some from KP Aquatics and probably always will now!

Like how the light looks suspended above, gives it a clean look. Build is looking good and so is the thread! Enjoying this one!

JCM · Apr 27, 2021

ReeferBlaine said:
Think the scape is looking good! I am a huge fan of the sea seeded rock, I snagged some from KP Aquatics and probably always will now!

Like how the light looks suspended above, gives it a clean look. Build is looking good and so is the thread! Enjoying this one!

Thanks! I'm definitely happy with it so far. I should probably buy some test kits before adding much more livestock but I've been lazy.

I fully agree, I wouldn't start a tank without real live rock again.

JCM · Apr 27, 2021

I made a screen top today and installed an actinic bulb. I also cut down the Fiji cube overflow, I couldn't handle it sticking above the rim. I lost a 2 teeth in the process, but it worked pretty well. For the bulbs, from front to back I'm using

ATI aquablue special
ATI true actinic
ATI blue+
6500k
ATI blue+
ATI blue+

JCM · May 1, 2021

We've added a few new things. A lawnmower blenny, a cleaner shrimp, another acan and a birdsnest coral. I want to see how sps does before adding anything expensive. I'm hoping it turns pink, if not I'll remove it after I know it's thriving in the tank. Lots of cool macro algae growing. When I bought the blenny, I had the LFS test the water.

5 ppm nitrate and 0.02 phosphate.

taulgrl · May 3, 2021

JCM said:
We've added a few new things. A lawnmower blenny, a cleaner shrimp, another acan and a birdsnest coral. I want to see how sps does before adding anything expensive. I'm hoping it turns pink, if not I'll remove it after I know it's thriving in the tank. Lots of cool macro algae growing. When I bought the blenny, I had the LFS test the water.

5 ppm nitrate and 0.02 phosphate.

Your tank looks fantastic, I especially love all of your corals. your Rocks are literally teeming with life!

JCM · May 4, 2021

taulgrl said:
Your tank looks fantastic, I especially love all of your corals. your Rocks are literally teeming with life!

Thanks! I'm trying to be patient adding corals but it's not going so well. The rock is amazing, I'm glad yours is working out for you as well.

JCM · May 12, 2021

JCM · May 12, 2021

Going through a bit of an ugly stage at the moment, hopefully the diatoms in the sand disappear soon. Added a few new corals today, everything looks great except the birdsnest I added a few weeks ago. It has a bit of STN around the base, not progressing much but disappointing nonetheless.

The long spine urchin came on the KP rock. It was the size of a pencils eraser when we got it, it's at least tripled in size so far.