Marcus' Reef - 80 Gallon Mixed Reef

[ReefNerd]

Hey Marcus, looks like you've nailed this reefing thing! Tank looks great. I got an orange tip milli from Exotic Aquaculture down your way maybe two months back. Is that one in your last pic from the same lineage?

Thanks!

The milli I got is a cutting from a wild colony that came into Reef Galleria Aquarium and Cafe in South Melbourne, so hard to say if its the same one that Exotic Aquaculture got.

 

[willfly4food]

Hey Marcus

I am thinking about buying a K90. Have you been happy with your tank? Have you thought of doing a YouTube tank review now that you have had the tank for a while? I really enjoy your channel on YouTube keep up the awesome work!

 

[ReefNerd]

Hey Marcus

I am thinking about buying a K90. Have you been happy with your tank? Have you thought of doing a YouTube tank review now that you have had the tank for a while? I really enjoy your channel on YouTube keep up the awesome work!

I am very happy with the K90 and strongly recommend it.

Doing a full review of it is definitely on my 'to-do' list for the future.

 

[Wiskey]

This is a fantastic thread! It's late now and I need to catch some sleep, but I'll be checking out your youtube tomorrow as well. Excellent tank!!!

Whiskey

 

[ReefNerd]

Woo! 601 subs! This YouTube thing is super fun!

Thanks to everyone who supports the channel and watches my videos. I really appreciate the community enthusiasm! Onward we go! Let’s get the Australian Reef Scene on the map and build this world class community!

Today’s video is timely for me as I am on my honeymoon and we take a look at how to prepare your tank for vacation!
Subscribe for more Reef Nerd content!

 

[Coral Frenzy]

Beautiful reef and thank you for sharing!

 

[FranklinDattein]

I am building a new tank and I keep coming back to yours for inspiration. The aquascape and the cabinet are spot and very tidy.
I love the synergy between colours and species in your scape, almost everything matches perfectly. If you allow me a bit of constructive criticism, the only thing that looks out of place is the Dragon Soul Favia.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I love your aquascape!

 

[ReefNerd]

November 2019 Update

Sorry I missed out updates for September and October. But everything continues to do great! SPS is growing super well! No significant losses and a few additions!

This last 2 months I have
- not really changed anything with regard to dosing or equipment, just letting the KHLab and Kore7th do their thing in full auto mode.
- I did increase my auto water change from 1.5% to 3% per day temporarily as my ICP test results showed higher levels of chromium and barium than desirable. Most of my trace elements were slightly depleted so the extra water change should help with that a bit too


My parameters have been pretty stable averaging:

Alkalinity 7.5 - 8.0 with a 7.8 dkh target as set on the KHLab
Calcium 430 ppm
Nitrate 3.0 ppm/L
Phosphate 0.04 ppm
Magnesium 1260 ppm

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

November 2019 Update

Sorry I missed out updates for September and October. But everything continues to do great! SPS is growing super well! No significant losses and a few additions!

This last 2 months I have
- not really changed anything with regard to dosing or equipment, just letting the KHLab and Kore7th do their thing in full auto mode.
- I did increase my auto water change from 1.5% to 3% per day temporarily as my ICP test results showed higher levels of chromium and barium than desirable. Most of my trace elements were slightly depleted so the extra water change should help with that a bit too


My parameters have been pretty stable averaging:

Alkalinity 7.5 - 8.0 with a 7.8 dkh target as set on the KHLab
Calcium 430 ppm
Nitrate 3.0 ppm/L
Phosphate 0.04 ppm
Magnesium 1260 ppm

Looking great!! Awesome colonies!!

 

[Colin_1122]

Your tank is great man! What kind of algae is that growing on the sand? I love it!

 

[ReefNerd]

Your tank is great man! What kind of algae is that growing on the sand? I love it!

Are you refering to the green grass like coral visible near the bottom left on my full tank shot? If so thats Green Star Polyp.

 

[ReefNerd]

Hey All!

Time for another update of my tank! This is to cover December 2019 and Janurary 2020.

I have made some big changes over this period, and everything continues to do great! SPS is growing super well! No significant losses and a few additions!

This last 2 months I have
- added a calcium reactor! The Pacific Sun AC-Nano. I made a full video on it which I will post below. I have been gradually turning it up and turning my two part dosage down as we make the switch over to primarily run off the reactor.
- I added some new SPS frags which are doing really well near where the dragon soul favia was. I have moved the favia down to the back bottom left of the tank where its long sweepers can sting anything
- I added an awesome new scolly
- My second clam went walk about for a while but has settled in a new location just behind where it was near the sun coral under the bridge
- Replaced the screen on my Rain2 ATS which set the tanks nutrient levels back a bit higher while the new screen matures



My parameters have moved a bit with higher nutrients following the swap of the algae turf scrubber screen averaging:

Alkalinity 8.0dkh
Calcium 405 ppm
Nitrate 8.0 ppm/L
Phosphate 0.1 ppm
Magnesium 1330 ppm

FTS December 2019

New Scolly

Dragon Soul favia has a new home where it cant hurt any neighbors

New frags on top of the bridge

SPS is growing quick!

 

[ReefNerd]

Hey All!

Time for another update of my tank! This is to cover Feburary and March 2020.

I have tried not to make too many changes over this period, and everything continues to do great! SPS is growing super well! No significant losses and a few additions!

This last 2 months I have
- Calcium reactor - The Pacific Sun AC-Nano. Is now set to 1000ml per hour flow rate, despite this, I still dose 1.5L of Kalk per day and ~30ml of 2part per day. So the transition continues, it will prbably need to get to about 1500ml per hour before its accounting for 100% of my dosing.
- I used a fine scooper rack thing to sift and clean the sandbed in the back right corner of the tank, it was filthy and I pulled out heaps of snail shells and bits of gunk. I only did a small area as I dont want to disrupt too much at once.
- Replacing the screen on my Rain2 ATS which set the tanks nutrient levels back a bit higher while the new screen matures, I am still battling this and the new screen is mostly growing very dark slime algae at still, I am cleaning it twice a week. I am temporarily carbon dosing the Reef Anabolics NRS product to try and bring the levels down a bit. But if that hasn't worked by the end of March I will need to do something a bit more aggressive.


My parameters have moved a bit with higher nutrients following the swap of the algae turf scrubber screen averaging:

Alkalinity 8.0dkh
Calcium 405 ppm
Nitrate 10.0 ppm/L
Phosphate 0.1 ppm
Magnesium 1330 ppm

Full Tank shot for March 2020

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

WOW how's this amazing reef doing? This is our Reef Of The Day today!

 

[DiefsReef]

WOW how's this amazing reef doing? This is our Reef Of The Day today!

Wow is right, ReefNerds got it going on. This is a beutiful tank! Great choice for Reef of the day!

 

[Joelgama]

Very good thread . I am learning a lot from your tank build. Keep it up

 

[SamsReef]

Very neat aquascape and amazing colors. Keep up with whatever you are doing.

Sam

 

[jeffrey750750]

Dream tank for sure

 

[iprayforwaves]

What a lovely tank! I love the progression shots!

One question, I see you have an algae scrubber but in the pics of your sump I can't really tell where it is installed. Can you post some pics of your algae scrubber setup?

I used to run an algae scrubber in a stock tank sump years ago when I grew coral in a Botanicare tray-based frag system, but curious on how you are fitting it in your under-tank sump. Currently we have a 200 gallon display with a large sump and I would like to implement an algae scrubber in lieu of the refugium the sump currently has.