Jeff's 30L AIO mixed reef build

[Hammerheadz]

50 low boy, how’s your set up? What equipment you have running on it? I want to get 2 of them. One for frags of course and the other for my Neolamprologus Similis or Simis shell dwellers. I love this little fresh water fish. They all have spunkyness to them.

I just posted a gear list on my Frag tank thread...

Jeff's 50G Low-Boy

 

[Hammerheadz]

25 days old today... Finished the RedSea Pro Reef Mature kit last week. Now continuing to dose daily with Bacter7.

 

[Daniel92481]

Don’t get too discouraged about others responding to your thread. View it as a way to keep a journal for your own references. Your tank looks great! Excited to see more!

 

[MONTANTK]

Awesome looking build! Can’t wait to watch it as it develops

 

[Hammerheadz]

Don’t get too discouraged about others responding to your thread. View it as a way to keep a journal for your own references. Your tank looks great! Excited to see more!

Ya it took me a minute to figure out the shift in where the conversations are happening these days. Reef2Reef is still the go to but much of the conversation has shifted to the social media pages.

 

[Hammerheadz]

I added a bunch of coral from the frag system into the tank this week. I lost a single head of Toxic Frammer but everything else took the transfer well.

 

[Hammerheadz]

A few shots of the tank corals a couple days in...

 

[Daniel92481]

Awesome! I know those clove polyps look insane in person!

 

[Hammerheadz]

Tank update shot from a couple weeks ago... Everything is filling in nice.

 

[uscggirl]

Such a beautiful reef! I’ve been back and forth between AIO and sump, 30 or 60, but I need to make a decision. I think your build thread has put me back in the 30L AIO frame of mind. For awhile I had leaned towards 60, thinking I could expand my fish selection. But with such an amazing display of corals, who needs more fish? Yours is absolutely gorgeous!! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Hammerheadz]

Such a beautiful reef! I’ve been back and forth between AIO and sump, 30 or 60, but I need to make a decision. I think your build thread has put me back in the 30L AIO frame of mind. For awhile I had leaned towards 60, thinking I could expand my fish selection. But with such an amazing display of corals, who needs more fish? Yours is absolutely gorgeous!! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks! I love the classic tank sizes, ie. 40b, 60 cube and the 120, but this go around I wanted a boutique sort of tank that would go great in my living room without overpowering the living room. The 30L AIO is a great tank for that and sits really well on a wide variety of furniture comfortably. I do like fish but at the end of the day there is not much difference in fish that can go in a tank from 30-90 gallons until you hit that a120+ range so I was fine with the 30L fish opportunities and for me it's all about the coral. You can put a surprising amount of coral in a tank like this as long as you don't crowd it out with too much rock. Keep the rock minimalist and put a couple of marine pure blocks in the media chambers for filtration and it will far outperform a big stack of live-rock anyways.

 

[uscggirl]

Thanks for the great insights! I’m new to reef keeping, as a former freshwater person, so all the build threads and personal insights on why people chose what they did has been great. Hope to see more photos of your fabulous tank soon!

 

[Mjl714]

The reef is looking great, really nice selection of mixed reef corals.

 

[jazzfisher]

Just found your build. Looks beautiful! I have a 30L too and love it. The size is great and everyone always thinks it’s way bigger in photos.

 

[Hooz]

Very nice build! I also have an LPS/softie 30L and am loving it. I'm still trying to get flow dialed-in for my setup, but I'm getting there!

 

[TatorTaco]

@Hammerheadz I adore your tank and have similar goals as you. My favorite part is the over-sized stand the tank sits on, and how that allowed more space to accommodate an electronics board. Would you mind sharing where you got that stand? I'd really like to order the same one.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Tank update shot from a couple weeks ago... Everything is filling in nice.

Looks awesome!

 

[PTXReef]

Looking to get a IM 30L soon, love the build! Any update pics?

 

[Hammerheadz]

Just found your build. Looks beautiful! I have a 30L too and love it. The size is great and everyone always thinks it’s way bigger in photos.

Exactly... I have some much bigger tanks but this guy is perfect for my comfy living room and is just a great size to scape and do a beautiful layout of corals.

 

[Hammerheadz]

Very nice build! I also have an LPS/softie 30L and am loving it. I'm still trying to get flow dialed-in for my setup, but I'm getting there!

Ya I stuck with the single pump it comes with and put 2 MP10's on it but they are way dialed back.