BatmanGefle
Community Member
Hi. My name is Martin and I live in Gävle, Sweden. I´ve decided to start a thread about my 150 gallon mixed reef here as well, since the saltwater-arena in Sweden is quite small (but with very, very nice and helpful people!). More people means more ideas and more input and inspiration!
Me? 42 yo, married w/ 16 yo daughter and 1,5 yo son. Working at the railroad with no intention to quit!
The tank? 150 gallon with about 20 gallon sump and 10 gallon refugium. I count this as my first real reeftank (had one 35G FOWLR about 15 years ago which was a mistake getting in the first place, and a 20G that I got two years ago, and I hold that tank responsible for starting this addiction)!
I only had the 20G for a few months before I realized that I needed (yes, needed) a bigger tank. So in spring 2016 I started to buy parts here and there to build a bigger one. And august 1st 2016 it was finished cycling!
My initial thought when building it was to have lionfish. The worlds most beautiful fish! But...when I got a few corals I found out that corals are much, much more interesting that I first thought! And having a messy lionfish (and likely some other carnivores like a moray eel) with sps..? Well, I felt that that was more than I could handle so I simply put the lionfishes on hold for now (I will have a tank with lions sometime, but it´s not this tank).
So now I have a mixed reef that´s slowly getting bigger and better!
Obviously much have happened since the start, but I can´t tell you everything or we´ll be here until next week...so the most dramatic events in short; got a HUGE cyano outbreak immediately after cycling. Brought it to it´s knees with hydrogen peroxide and have never seen it since! Got aiptasia that almost got out of hand since a few tries with Aiptasia-X failed and caused them to spread like wildfire! Peppermint shrimp (added a total seventeen of them) was as helpful as a band-aid on ebola! So I got a filefish... He´s cute and all, but totally clueless about what to do with aiptasia! So as a last resort I got a Copperband butterfly. And he knew what to do! I´ve had him about three weeks now and there are not many aiptasia left! Well done, old chap!
Fishwise I currently I have four Pseudanthias squamipinnis, one Paracanthurus hepatus, one Zebrasoma desjardinii, one Siganus magnifica, one Ctenochaetus tominiensis, one Acreichthys tomentosus and one Chelmon rostratus (I´m more comfortable with the latin names than the english names....sorry).
Also one cleaner shrimp, a bunch of pm-shrimp and a Blue Tuxedo Urchin. A handful of hermits and a ****-ton of snails! Asterina and bristleworms as well but they´re welcome in my tank (although I think some of the asterina may be eating my zoas...but, even after more than six months, I have no clear evidence of their guilt)!
As for corals I´m trying to have a "balance" so to speak between softies, lps and sps. Diversity! I want a chaotic reef and not one of those neatly compartmentalized reefs with one sort of coral here and another one up there... If I could (since I´ve got tangs and a rabbitfish) I would love to have macro algae in the display tank. But I do put some Chaeto/Caulerpa from the fuge into the DT a few times a week as a snack for them...and they love it!
It´s a bit of a struggle sometimes (especially since I´m quite new at this game) to place the corals. I´ve learned the hard way which corals can be placed together many times now... But I have actually lost more softies than lps or sps. One would think that it would be the other way around, but not for me. Sps I can keep alive but not softies!
Since I´m new at this I´m trying new things every now and then to see what happens... Of course **** happens once in a while, but on the whole I´m starting to find a way of reefkeeping that I´m comfortable with now. And I´m leaning more and more towards a....I´m not sure what to call it..? Hollistic reefkeeping? Sounds pretentious af, but I suppose that´s the best way to describe it.
I´ve stopped testing completley, except for KH. Every now and then I send in a Tritontest, but at home I only check KH (so I can adjust the dosingpump if necessary (Tritons Balling which works very well for me)).
I had a close call with zero PO4/NO3 when I tried NoPox (which btw had my Mo-levels skyrocketing to 6x NSW-levels!) and after seeing a video with Richard Ross from MACNA 2017 I simply said "-F**k it!" and threw out my GFO and started to feed the fishes as much as they wanted. And I feed them A LOT! Frozen (cyclops, marine mix, microplancton, krill, rotifers), nori, Massticks, Vitalis Grazer, some pellets... As many different kinds of food as possible!
I know my phosphate-level (but not my nitrate-level as I have do dilute my samples and I´m to lazy for that as it gives a not-so-exact measurement) and it´s nowhere (NOWHERE) near recommended level...but my corals have never looked better (no, they are not brown, not even the acros (if anything they´re pale!). To be fair, I don´t have the most difficult acros, but all across the board...softies, lps and sps...looks better now when I don´t care about readings.
And I don´t use any kind of filtersock either (the fuge and my skimmer, a BK Double Cone 200, takes away enough) because I started to think about the particles in the water as food for various creatures and I don´t want to remove that. I´m quite sure my sponges thanks me for that as they are growing like crazy!
This is starting to feel like too long now, so I will just round this up with a couple of pictures. and a YT-movie. I´m a navvy, not a photographer, so you´ll have to take them for what they are!
//Martin
Me? 42 yo, married w/ 16 yo daughter and 1,5 yo son. Working at the railroad with no intention to quit!
The tank? 150 gallon with about 20 gallon sump and 10 gallon refugium. I count this as my first real reeftank (had one 35G FOWLR about 15 years ago which was a mistake getting in the first place, and a 20G that I got two years ago, and I hold that tank responsible for starting this addiction)!
I only had the 20G for a few months before I realized that I needed (yes, needed) a bigger tank. So in spring 2016 I started to buy parts here and there to build a bigger one. And august 1st 2016 it was finished cycling!My initial thought when building it was to have lionfish. The worlds most beautiful fish! But...when I got a few corals I found out that corals are much, much more interesting that I first thought! And having a messy lionfish (and likely some other carnivores like a moray eel) with sps..? Well, I felt that that was more than I could handle so I simply put the lionfishes on hold for now (I will have a tank with lions sometime, but it´s not this tank).
So now I have a mixed reef that´s slowly getting bigger and better!
Obviously much have happened since the start, but I can´t tell you everything or we´ll be here until next week...so the most dramatic events in short; got a HUGE cyano outbreak immediately after cycling. Brought it to it´s knees with hydrogen peroxide and have never seen it since! Got aiptasia that almost got out of hand since a few tries with Aiptasia-X failed and caused them to spread like wildfire! Peppermint shrimp (added a total seventeen of them) was as helpful as a band-aid on ebola! So I got a filefish... He´s cute and all, but totally clueless about what to do with aiptasia! So as a last resort I got a Copperband butterfly. And he knew what to do! I´ve had him about three weeks now and there are not many aiptasia left! Well done, old chap!
Fishwise I currently I have four Pseudanthias squamipinnis, one Paracanthurus hepatus, one Zebrasoma desjardinii, one Siganus magnifica, one Ctenochaetus tominiensis, one Acreichthys tomentosus and one Chelmon rostratus (I´m more comfortable with the latin names than the english names....sorry).
Also one cleaner shrimp, a bunch of pm-shrimp and a Blue Tuxedo Urchin. A handful of hermits and a ****-ton of snails! Asterina and bristleworms as well but they´re welcome in my tank (although I think some of the asterina may be eating my zoas...but, even after more than six months, I have no clear evidence of their guilt)!
As for corals I´m trying to have a "balance" so to speak between softies, lps and sps. Diversity! I want a chaotic reef and not one of those neatly compartmentalized reefs with one sort of coral here and another one up there... If I could (since I´ve got tangs and a rabbitfish) I would love to have macro algae in the display tank. But I do put some Chaeto/Caulerpa from the fuge into the DT a few times a week as a snack for them...and they love it!
It´s a bit of a struggle sometimes (especially since I´m quite new at this game) to place the corals. I´ve learned the hard way which corals can be placed together many times now... But I have actually lost more softies than lps or sps. One would think that it would be the other way around, but not for me. Sps I can keep alive but not softies!
Since I´m new at this I´m trying new things every now and then to see what happens... Of course **** happens once in a while, but on the whole I´m starting to find a way of reefkeeping that I´m comfortable with now. And I´m leaning more and more towards a....I´m not sure what to call it..? Hollistic reefkeeping? Sounds pretentious af, but I suppose that´s the best way to describe it.
I´ve stopped testing completley, except for KH. Every now and then I send in a Tritontest, but at home I only check KH (so I can adjust the dosingpump if necessary (Tritons Balling which works very well for me)).
I had a close call with zero PO4/NO3 when I tried NoPox (which btw had my Mo-levels skyrocketing to 6x NSW-levels!) and after seeing a video with Richard Ross from MACNA 2017 I simply said "-F**k it!" and threw out my GFO and started to feed the fishes as much as they wanted. And I feed them A LOT! Frozen (cyclops, marine mix, microplancton, krill, rotifers), nori, Massticks, Vitalis Grazer, some pellets... As many different kinds of food as possible!
I know my phosphate-level (but not my nitrate-level as I have do dilute my samples and I´m to lazy for that as it gives a not-so-exact measurement) and it´s nowhere (NOWHERE) near recommended level...but my corals have never looked better (no, they are not brown, not even the acros (if anything they´re pale!). To be fair, I don´t have the most difficult acros, but all across the board...softies, lps and sps...looks better now when I don´t care about readings.
And I don´t use any kind of filtersock either (the fuge and my skimmer, a BK Double Cone 200, takes away enough) because I started to think about the particles in the water as food for various creatures and I don´t want to remove that. I´m quite sure my sponges thanks me for that as they are growing like crazy!
This is starting to feel like too long now, so I will just round this up with a couple of pictures. and a YT-movie. I´m a navvy, not a photographer, so you´ll have to take them for what they are!
//Martin
