Low Country Reef (80g rimless)

[Salsa777]

So this is my reef. I started with two pictures because we all know we love pictures on reefing forums. The first one is about 6 weeks ago and the bottoms one is from today. I learned a really cool new white balancing trick today and that explains the different coloration in the photos.

The tank is an 80 gallon deep blue professional reef ready rimless. I have a 48'' photon V2 over it running at around 2/3 power. blues are 75% and whites are at 35%, rest are pretty low. As you can hopefully see I have some acros and SPS along the higher areas of the tank, and I have a few LPS in the middle and some zoas in the lower areas. I do not plan on buying too many more LSP or soft corals only ones that really catch my eye. I want to mainly focus on SPS. I will add a stock list of my corals later. I built the stand myself and I would like to show some pictures of the process on this thread later on. tank has been wet since may, it has had livestock in it since mid june. the rock is all pukani. The tank that inspired my build is this one (Credit to Keith B. AKA reefbum)

I honestly can't remember where I found it so if someone knows the source please let me know I would love to give this reefer credit. I'm pretty sure it was somewhere on RC, on like a before and after thread or something similar, but this just seemed like such an incredible tank, and I wanted to draw inspiration from it. I loved the balance of colors and the depth. plus that setosa on the bottom right is amazing. I still need to acquire one of these

Well, thanks for checking my thread out I hope to add much more to it. My name is Aaron, and I live in the Charleston SC, area thus the name Low country.
(for people from other regions; the coastal areas in SC into Georgia are often called the low country, so much history, and beauty here, great place to visit.)

 

[jsker]

Very nice tank. I like the clean look of the rimless tank

 

[TMC1313]

So this is my reef. I started with two pictures because we all know we love pictures on reefing forums. The first one is about 6 weeks ago and the bottoms one is from today. I learned a really cool new white balancing trick today and that explains the different coloration in the photos.

The tank is an 80 gallon deep blue professional reef ready rimless. I have a 48'' photon V2 over it running at around 2/3 power. blues are 75% and whites are at 35%, rest are pretty low. As you can hopefully see I have some acros and SPS along the higher areas of the tank, and I have a few LPS in the middle and some zoas in the lower areas. I do not plan on buying too many more LSP or soft corals only ones that really catch my eye. I want to mainly focus on SPS. I will add a stock list of my corals later. I built the stand myself and I would like to show some pictures of the process on this thread later on. tank has been wet since may, it has had livestock in it since mid june. the rock is all pukani. The tank that inspired my build is this one

I honestly can't remember where I found it so if someone knows the source please let me know I would love to give this reefer credit. I'm pretty sure it was somewhere on RC, on like a before and after thread or something similar, but this just seemed like such an incredible tank, and I wanted to draw inspiration from it. I loved the balance of colors and the depth. plus that setosa on the bottom right is amazing. I still need to acquire one of these

Well, thanks for checking my thread out I hope to add much more to it. My name is Aaron, and I live in the Charleston SC, area thus the name Low country.
(for people from other regions; the coastal areas in SC into Georgia are often called the low country, so much history, and beauty here, great place to visit.)

Very nice start Aaron, look forward to seeing it fill in. That picture of the tank that inspired you is that of Keith B. AKA "reefbum". It was also one of my favorites that I got to see in person before he took it down. Here is a link to it. He also has started a new tank as of late with a live webcam.
http://reefbum.com/portfolio-items/macro-187/

 

[Salsa777]

Very nice tank. I like the clean look of the rimless tank

Thank you, that's what I am going for, clean look with depth, and nice color contrast.

Very nice start Aaron, look forward to seeing it fill in. That picture of the tank that inspired you is that of Keith B. AKA "reefbum". It was also one of my favorites that I got to see in person before he took it down. Here is a link to it. He also has started a new tank as of late with a live webcam.
http://reefbum.com/portfolio-items/macro-187/

Thank you, I felt a little bad posting it not knowing whose tank it was, but now I know. And thanks for the link to his new tank. I bet it was breathtaking in person. lucky you got to see it.

 

[Salsa777]

So as you can see in my avatar. I have a chevron tang, which was always one of my dream fish. I went to the shop to buy a yellow eyed kole tang, and I saw this little lady and I couldn't pass her up, I didn't care about the price tag I just had to take her home. ( I have no ideal the sex, but I like to think of it as a lady) I also have a melanurus wrasse, a lawnmower blenny, and a pair of fancy clowns. (I'm pretty sure that is what they were called)

the LMB hides most of the time I am taking pictures, and the clowns never stop swimming, which makes them tough to photo. I'll get them one day sooner of later though. It takes some patience try to photograph fish haha.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Looking good!

 

[Salsa777]

Looking good!

Thanks

 

[Salsa777]

My Coral stocklist so far.

Bird of paradise
Tyree red dragon
WWC yellow tips
ORA borealis
Bonsai
ORA red planet
ORA blue voodoo
Wild Aussie
(a friend gave me a small frag of this one when he got the colony in, hasn't showed much color yet a little purple showing up now, and it is encrusting well. The original colony has purple corallites, and a green base, with whitish polyps.)
AOA banshee
(this guy is showing some nice potential encrusting, and turning a nice green with dark red polyps)
JF jack o lantern lepto
This is a fast growing coral. and it passes the "across the room test well)
War Coral
2 cool torches
a few different zoas/palys
2 sm acans

As you can see I am mostly focusing on SPS, but I wanted some other stuff to fill in the some spaces and lower areas of the tank.

I have been eyeing some cool acro's lately, and i have been putting together a list of most wanted corals. On the top of the list is a bali green slimer. I know it's kind of a basic coral, but I had one way back in the day, it was my first acro, and I loved it. When I got back into reefing, I was told it is tough to find these days, but I am not giving up the search. Also, my dream coral in a colony of bubble bath unicorn from battlecorals. that thing looks incredible. I am really drawn to corals with fuzzy poly extension, and stag type corals. i dont have any millies yet, I really need to pick on up soon.

My Most Wanted List

1. Bubblebath Unicorn (BattleCorals)
2. Bali Green Slimer (ORA)
3. Jose Infamous rainbow
4. Hyperberry
5. Setosa (an A+ in the "across the room test")
6. Walt Disney
7. Shades of Fall
8. ASD rainbow millie

and the list goes on and on haha

Anyone have any experience/tips with any of the corals I have named on this post?
Well thanks for reading and following along.
one day soon i'll post a little timeline for the tank.

 

[Hammerheadz]

I love the tank dimensions. Looking forward to seeing this tank progress.

 

[Salsa777]

So I'm gonna do backwards today and give a little timeline with pictures of where everything started. and give some back story

I had a 125 gallon mixed reef at my parent's house in high school and college, worked at a pet shop, and spent all my money on corals, and equipment. Moved far away, and my mom took over the tank. Ten years after the tank was set up, she decided to break it down. Thus, I began plans to set up a re ef tank in my home, (bought my first home about a year ago). I moved across country bought a house, and was working a lot/ settling. during this time period I had a 75g with malawi cichlids. It was a sweet tank, but once I got settled into my new house, and work got a little more routine, I knew it was time to plunge into the reef tank.

I like to build stuff, so I decided against keeping the 75gal, which had been passed around my family for 10+yrs now, and picked out the 80g deep blue. I knew since I was ordering a odd sized tank, I sort of needed/wanted to build a stand. I found a thread on RC by a guy named rocket engineer, and flowed this blueprint. Heres some pictures

So this is the frame, important part of the stand. Since the stand is 32'' i was able to buy some wainscot from lowes to do in the finishing. I have a couple spots i need to touch up with paint, where I filled holes with wood putty

Once again thanks for reading and following along. My next post may be about curing my rock, and the thoughts behind my rock scaping.

 

[Salsa777]

Some footnotes

• It was in January and February, when I build the stand.
• See the drill bit in the picture with the glue, it's a countersink bit. I highly recommend using one of these. I can explain more if anyone is interested
• That is my 75g malawi cichlid tank in the fourth pictures, The blue fish is a moori aka blue dolphin, pretty amazing fish. I sold him and his two lovers to a good home.

 

[tj w]

Great job, I'll be following.

 

[Salsa777]

playing around with the camera. I have been shooting in RAW and adjusting the white balance. First pic is a tyree Red Dragon, second is my clown and tang, and third is a nice clear shot of one of my clowns I know the last picture is kinda weird, but I thought it looked kinda cool. you can see the a lot of frags in one image. as you may see i have been saving some prime real estate for future purchases. figure I have space for about 10 more acros before it looks cluttered

 

[Preme]

Any updates?

 

[Salsa777]

So, it's been forever since I have posted on here. the tank was doing great up until nov and december, when I started working too many hours and neglected some maintenance task, changing socks, water changes, and just general maintenance. My sps got really upset, and i lost a few, but I have since gotten back into a new routine, and things are recoing well. I bought a doser, and I think that helps a lot.

My wife's job is going to finish up this year in the fall, and we are going to be relocating to florida, the Tampa/St. Pete area. Dunedin, to be exact. So I have lost my incentive to buy any new corals knowing i will have to break down the tank in less than a year, but i will be rebuilding it when i get settled in in FL . (i'm sure I will still buy a couple more at least... )

Lessons I learned so far. I think it is a good ideal to wait until the tank is well stabilized until you put in any SPS. I learned that new live rock is going to mess with your ALK levels a little bit for some time. And that your light is probably not the problem.

When I say wait until your tank is stabilized, I am factoring in that you as a reefer are part of that equation just as much as the tank chemistry is. You have to factor what maintenance schedule works best for you, and your life, what kind of feeding habits do you have, and how well your flow/ rockscape/ filtration work in harmony.

Also, just because you have low nitrates for the first 3-6 months, that doesn't mean you have the perfect system that will have low nitrates forever. I can almost bet that somewhere in most systems there is a spot where detritus is building up and at some point it will need to be cleaned or syphoned, or even just blowin out with a turkey baster.

Ill try to post a pic or two soon,

P.S. any good reef shops in the Tampa Area? Gonna be hard to beat JoeKnowsReefs... Joey is the best.

 

[captc07]

was down there recently for my sister's wedding and like most reef junkies managed to visit a few stores while I was there. One that had a nice selection was Fish and other Ichthy Stuff in Oldsmar...worth checking out.