Smite's 66g Sps build

[Smite]

Tank:
66 gallon SCA display
DIY stand
SCA sump from their 50g setup

Flow:
mp4wqd x2
m1 vortech (feeds manifold + return)

Filtration:
40lbs live rock
40 lbs special grade reef sand
Turbo L4 ATS
Vecton v2 400 UV sterilizer
BRS mini carbon reactor
4" filter sock
For now, no skimmer

Lighting:
Radion G3 Pro x2

Misc:
Apex Gold Controls most everything
AA 10g ATO Reservoir
Tunze ATO system
Ground Probe
DIY screen top - First time doing this for a rimless tank. I made it recessed this time around which helps maintain that rimless look.
Water Mixing Station fed by BRS 150GPD RO/DI

Salt:
Instant Ocean

Dosing:
None yet; originally planed on using my CARX but couldn't fit that plus my ATO system under the tank (Gotta keep the wife happy!) so I'll be setting my BM doser back up when the time comes.

Cycle:
I started the cycle with Fritz Turbo Start bacteria and dosing Dr. Tim's ammonia. I've followed the fishless cycle guide found on Dr. Tim's site. It's taken about 8 days and I'm cycled.

 

[Bacon505]

Beautiful and clean setup there

 

[Smite]

Current livestock list:
Fish:
Yellow tang
Lubbock's fairy wrasse
Blue sided fairy wrasse
Melanurus wrasse
Bangai Cardinal
Photon clown pair
Starry Blenny
Fathead Anthias
Cherub Ange

Inverts:
RBTA
Turbo, Conch, Nassarius, Astrea and Nerite snals
Hermit crab mix of blue, red and halloween
Cleaner Shrimp
Pistol Shrimp

Coral is mostly SPS with a few zoanthids, jawbreaker mushroom and NPS-sun coral

A few pictures from today:

Current FTS:

Left side view

Right side view

Lubbock's/Melanurus top down

Bangai growing like crazy

I had a dino/diatom bloom shortly after adding the sps. It stripped the water of nutrients and paled a few acros out. Feeding heavy still didn't bring nutrients to a detectable level so I'm now dosing nitrates and holding it at 5ppm for now. I've noticed my pH is lower than my last system 7.7 at night 8 during the high mid day. I'm thinking about adding an air pump and stone to run near the return throughout the night to see if i can stabilize it a bit.

 

[goober]

Noticed you added a gyre power head. I am thinking about adding another mp10 or gyre to my tank. Do you like the addiditon of the gyre or would you do another mp10 if you had to do it again?

 

[Smite]

I'm a fan of the gyre but not the controller. I bought the ice cap controller to link and control the gyre from my apex and now if I had to choose one wave maker it would be the gyre . It offers a very useful flow that's hard to mimic.
I love the gyre/mp combo for heavy random indirect flow. Just know the gyre performance drops way off once it gets algae built up so you gotta stay on top of cleanings. They do supply a second set of impeller and guards so cleaning is easy.

I run long pulses on the gyre and reefcrest on my mp40s. I place the mp40s so they flow in the direction of the gyre's stream. That gives me super random flow and keeps things from settling.

 

[Smite]

Shrimp is bored and probably hungry with no fish in the system, decided to come check me out

TGC Acro is getting some color back. I was worried I may lose this one it got so pale but happy that it seems to be making a rebound. Stopped by the TGC shop today and saw thier colony, hopefully I can start pulling those purple / reds out of the tips!

WD looking a little more happy along with my TGC millepora showing some new encrusting colors.

Reef Pets Ultra Voilet is getting its blue polyps and a nice tint of turquoise to the base color

 

[Smite]

Just some progress. Things seem to be getting settled in and coloring up, starting to grow also.

TGC Acro piece

Blue millepora stopped it's STN and starting to polyp out more

Reef Pets Ultra Violet

Tenuis from TGC next to JF Flame. The flame has started to shoot out multiple nubs. Hopefully it starts taking off soon.

Weird piece getting more pronounced

I think of this as actinic table since no matter what lighting i shoot it under the camera captures it like a t5 actinic shot. More of a lime green in person

Pink lemonade; is still one of my favorite sps of all time

TGC tenuis coming back from close to bleached

I got this as ASD Rainbow but after placing it in multiple tanks that get great color it just didnt live up to it. Still like it, goldish yellow with bright green and pink coralite. I'm going to frag a piece and throw it right up top to see if anything else comes out of it.

WD - its super happy in this spot but its hard to capture since its right up under a LED puck and I usually shade it trying to get a top down

This one came out cool with the shading from my hand. Highlighted the piece nice with a ray of light.

Fish list that survived QT:
Yellow Tang
Bangaii Cardinal
Pair of Clowns
Starry Blenny

My Cherub Angel made it as well but started to go after SPS right when put back in the tank. So I trapped him and passed him on to a fellow reefer that doesn't keep sticks.

I'm on the hunt for a pintail wrasse and a cleaner goby, possibly a long nose hawkfish as well.

 

[Smite]

Tank was looking good half way through the water change today so I grabbed a few top downs. These are from mid morning when my lights are at their whitest point. Really helps with getting clean pictures for me. Also using Flickr to upload this time since I heard it maintains the quality better. Upload was nice and quick!

Full Top Down
4.29.18 topdown by matthew schueneman, on Flickr

Right Side, Top Rock
4.19.18 topdownrightside by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
Close up of WD
4.18.19 WD4LSDpty by matthew schueneman, on Flickr

Vivid Rainbow Delight next to a hot pink millepora from RRUSA. I may move the millepora lower. You can see it would get some neon green to it with lower light.
4.29.18 VRD by matthew schueneman, on Flickr

Vivid Candlelight in its new place. Hopefully it tables out
4.29.18 VividCandlelight by matthew schueneman, on Flickr

Reef Pet's Ultra Violet next to Tanzanite Terror
4.29.18 ultraviolet by matthew schueneman, on Flickr

TGC Tenuis gaining some pink hues as promised. I really love the base green color on this piece, so bright.
4.29.18 TGCTenuis by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
Another TGC piece getting real nice
4.29.18 TGCstag by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
TGC Millepora
4.29.18 TGCMilllepora by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
SC Orange Passion regaining some color and polyp extension
4.29.18 SCOP by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
one of my favorite millepora; growing quick
4.29.18 rbmillepora by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
Battle Coral Therman Rainbow
4.29.18
In need of some berghia nudibranch or this will be a doomsday for me (ASD Doomsday acro). A new favorite in my tank
[url=https://flic.kr/p/23UCRZA]4.29.18 ASDdoomsday by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
what the heck acro. Trying it mid level in the tank, may raise it up. Love the name
4.28.19 what the heck by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
Strange piece doing some wierd stuff. This side looks good but the back side/top is sometimes black. Not sure if its morphing or not. Looks happy and no flesh missing.
4.28.19 topdownleft by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
JF Flame is a quick grower and saturated with color.
4.28.19 JFflame by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
And a cool tenuis i got from fly5150 a few years ago.
4.28.19 5150tenuis by matthew schueneman, on Flickr

Battling some bryopsis in the display unfortunately. Also aiptasia are really starting to become a PITA. I was keeping them back with aiptasia-X but I'm thinking i need to try something else. Open to input.

I lost ANOTHER pin tail in QT during a prazipro treatment. Not sure what happened. The cleaner wrasse, ruby headed goby and flasher wrasse all look great and should be in the tank shortly. Looking forward to that cleaner wrasse being in there, so much character. Nails the glass begging for food when I go in the garage. Eating flakes and pellets too.[/url]

 

[Leslie88]

From my experience, Aptasia X doesn’t really do much. Joes Juice is the best, I actually know Joe. Used to work with him when he first created the stuff in our LFS for store use. I’ve cleaned out many horrible aptaisa infestations with Joes Juice.

 

[Zazzy]

What camera and lens are you shooting with

 

[Smite]

What camera and lens are you shooting with

Nikon D80; Nikkor 18-55 with a cheapo screw on altura wide angle/macro lens I got off Amazon

From my experience, Aptasia X doesn’t really do much. Joes Juice is the best, I actually know Joe. Used to work with him when he first created the stuff in our LFS for store use. I’ve cleaned out many horrible aptaisa infestations with Joes Juice.

Thank you, I'll check that out first I'd prefer to take care of it with something that won't perish once the problem is solved

 

[bubbaque]

Beautiful tank! That hot pink Millie look stunning.

 

[Smite]

Beautiful tank! That hot pink Millie look stunning.

Thank you! If you're referring to the RRUSA millepora I bought that when I first got into sps 4-5 years ago. Luckily I gave some pieces to reef buddies and was able to get a piece back when this tank was ready.

 

[Smite]

Rough last few months for my system
Got stuck working out of town M-F
Got a major GHA outbreak
Found eggs and AFEW in my tank
Battled heat wave here in SoCal. Tank hit 84F while i was cleaning my chiller. Forgot to set temp higher and brought my temp down to normal 78 in a little over an hour. I think this event is what has really stressed some pieces in my tank.

That stress I think was enough to help the afew take a few pieces out possibly. I've been dosing Flatwrom Stop religiously with good results decent results. I need to pull some pieces and dip again/check for eggs but from what I've seen looks alright. I'll be doing a reef flux treatment for my GHA once a few stressed pieces recover more...or just die off. Many pieces still have color though so I'm happy.


But some are still doing great! So here are a few pictures of those:

WD
8.2.18wd by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
Birdsnest
8.2.18birdsnest by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
SC OP
8.2.18OP by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
Green Slimer
8.2.18gs by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
Pink Lemonade
8.2.18pl by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
Reef Pets Ultra Violet
8.2.18rpuv by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
TGC Acro
8.2.18TGCacro by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
Current favorite top down area to view. WT-F, JF Flame, and some real nice no namers
8.2.18WTF by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
Fly5150 tenuis
8.2.185150tenuis by matthew schueneman, on Flickr

My tenuis up top bleached on me. Hoping they will make a comeback here soon. L>R : Vivids 4 loco; TGC serendipity; Vivids orangecrush. Used to contrast one another now they all look the same, white, bah!
8.2.18tenuisshot by matthew schueneman, on Flickr

 

[bubbaque]

Corals look super hairy!

 

[normski619]

Great tank setup! What model Gyre are you using?

 

[Smite]

Corals look super hairy!

Thanks!

Great tank setup! What model Gyre are you using?

Thank you. Tore it down due to AFEW but all the pieces are going strong in a frag tank for treatment now.
Gyre Xf-150. Whatever the first gen name was.