# 77g - LPS & Softie Reef



## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

Hello everyone!

I've been in the hobby for quite some time, and this forum for quite some time, and I've always been a planted tank enthusiast. Once I was finally able to master the planted tank (which took years) I converted to cichlids (Tanganyikans) - though I've always had a soft spot for marine. I've always been way too afraid (and financially not able to) keep saltwater.

But now, It's finally happened.

I've been keeping my marine tank for awhile now, and haven't posted pics - and my good friend (MonkE) told me to put a journal together, as I'm about to go through the new stages of the tank and would love to pick brains and get more involved with fellow marine hobbyists.

Current setup is:

77g custom acrylic (60x14x17)

Jabao WP40 Wavemaker
Three baffle sump w/refugium - LR and chaeto
Phosban 150 reactor using GFO & 9W UV
Marineland Pro 300 Skimmer
Digital Aquatics L3 Controller / SL1 w/PH, Temp, ORP
3 stage RO/DI water ATO

Lighting: Vertex Illumina 260 48" 70 A+/B/12% White

Levels:
Ca: 450
Salinity: 0.25
PH: 8.2
Mag: 1300
Phos: 0
NO3: 0

Dosing: 
Aquavitro Calcification
Aquavitro Ions
Kalkwasser
Phyto-Plus A
Reef Roids

Currently housing 90lbs of liverock (soon to be much less than that)

Fauna is:

1x Bicolor Angelfish
1x Scooter Blenny
1x Clarkii Clownfish
1x Tomato Clownfish
1x Fairy Wrasse
2x (pair) Banana Wrasse
1x Blackcap Damsel

Coral:

Purple-Tip Frogspawn
Pink-Tip Frogspawn
Hammer
GBBA
Galaxia
Purple Pocci
Pulsing Xenia
Super-red Poly
X-Men Poly
Blue Mushrooms
Candy Cane
Carpet 
Atomic green-orange Ricordia
Yuma Ricordia
Florida Ricordia
Dragon-Eye Zoa
Watermelon Zoa
Campfire Zoa
Rainbow Monti
Pink/Purple Favia
Bubble Anemone
Duncan
Green Basic Zoas
Green Star Polyp
Gregorian
Dendro
Gobstopper Zoa
Purple Acan
Yuma Ricordia
Green Clove Polyp

Inverts:

Snails
Fire Shrimp
Gorgon Brittle Star

Here's what it looks like today: 5/9/2013


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Looks like a good start to a beautiful reef tank.

Those look like some fish & corals from my friend Arash


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

Few more shots of the tank: 5/9/13


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

This weekend I build the sump, refugium, skimmer gets added, digital reefkeeper controller was purchased today, as well as a vertex illumina fixture!


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

SeaHorse_Fanatic said:


> Looks like a good start to a beautiful reef tank.
> 
> Those look like some fish & corals from my friend Arash


Some are indeed from Arash! I scooped them up on Tuesday from him, and thank you! It will look even better with the Vertex overtop this evening!


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

looks great man, now get that new light up there and get a video of the sunset/moonrise!


and I gave you the mag tester! what's this question mark crap? you read the instructions and said screw that didn't you? oh yeah i can see right through your question marks


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## JTang (Apr 21, 2010)

Wow tank looks great! Can't wait to see the new light! I have been thinking about upgrading to LED but it's just too tough to save up.... especially with the weekly Fragbox/Fragalot group buys! Lol


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

So far they are a real beauty. I haven't figured out the programming yet, but I have the wireless so I'm sitting here with a laptop configuring my lights - who would of thought you could do that? Pretty sweet if you ask me!

It's heavier than I had anticipated..

I went to hang it, and held both ends and slowly released it then BANG the bloody bracket ripped out of the wall and almost fell into the tank! I had to redo the wall bracket and reinforce it. I'm still super nervous about it, though! I can't put any hooks into the ceiling because the ceiling has concrete under the stucco, and the wall where the brackets are in has no studs! :|

Here's what it looks like with the new lights:


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

Oi. After hours of fiddling with the light programming, I finally have it to the proper dimming and moon lighting - it corresponds with the lunar cycle! It took me a long time to figure it out because when I sent the commands to the light, it wouldn't work, and figured out after 45 minutes that the time and date had reset itself somehow! 

Beautiful colors..


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## Tn23 (Apr 21, 2010)

wow nice setup, looks very "clean" how long has the tank been up and running?


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

Thank you. I would like it to be cleaner! And after this weekend, it probably won't look as good - or might look better, I guess it all depends. I will actually need to move the tank 1" away from the wall to fit an overflow in the back! That's going to be a pain..

Tank has been running a month now.


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## aQ.LED (Nov 13, 2012)

Try to not stir the sand


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

Updated: 5/12/13

Spent all day yesterday running around finding all the parts and pieces to put the sump together. I had some help from my good friend MonkE









Water needed to be removed as we needed to move the tank and stand forward by 1" to get the overflow in the back.









Curing water and testing the skimmer for leaks









Controller is attached to above the sump so we can start plugging things in and setting the controller for probes and fuge light









Now the fitting commences. Picked up odds and ends from Home Depot and Rogers Aquatics.









Put sump into position (and might I add - fits perfectly, within a 16th of an inch! It's a Aqueon Proflex 3 20g, it works pretty well.


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

Ran the line behind the tank, up and over to hide plumbing.









Valves added to both in and out for flow restriction which serves in handy, as the pump is too big and would pump water back into the tank faster than the overflow had time to drop the water down!









Installed the CPR overflow using a vacuum pump, which I prefer as it will break siphon if the water gets to a certain level - thus preventing the sump from overflowing in case of a power outage.









Constructed a deep sandbed refugium, added about 5lbs of liverock.









I forgot to pickup a fuge light, so I decided to cut a 10G tank hood light (which still had the bulbs) into two pieces. "Waterproofed" the one end and bang! Perfect fuge light, with hood.


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

neoh said:


> Updated: 5/12/13
> 
> Spent all day yesterday running around finding all the parts and pieces to put the sump together. I had some help from my good friend MonkE
> 
> View attachment 17004


just call me THUMBS UP SUMP MAN!


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

The system is ready for water. Once we let the water flow, we realized that we didn't make enough saltwater! So we had to wait another few hours until the sump could be filled all the way.









Finally got the water running through it. No leaks in the lines (whew) though when I went to check to see if it would work during a power outage, the sump would overflow. I finally figured out that the return line into the tank was too long and the overflow was too deep in the tank. I raised the overflow and inline and it broke siphon and the sump leveled out.









Here's a FTS, all plumbed and running well.


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

I decided that I needed to hide the sump and equipment.

The tank is sitting on a dresser I purchased from IKEA - it's the exact measurement as my tank, and the only stand I could find with the footprint. The three drawers on the left side of the dresser hold my aquarium related items and tools, and the right side holds my sump, controller, etc.

I used the drawer panels to make it look like there are drawers, but of course - it turns into a door. I'm planning on making it a little more esthetic - I'm going to IKEA to actually buy a whole new set of drawers and middle bracing so I can create a sound dampener.
















On the animal front, my carpet anemone is not doing too well. I'm planning on creating a DIY slow-drip system for auto-dosing kalkwasser and adding a phosban reactor with GFO for phosphate absorption.


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## spit.fire (Jan 3, 2011)

Have you been feading the carpet anemone ?


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

spit.fire said:


> Have you been feading the carpet anemone ?


If by fearing you mean feeding; I have been feeding it, yes.

If fearing is what you meant - no, I'm a lot bigger than he is with much more street cred.


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

$20 says the Anemone can take you


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

monkE said:


> $20 says the Anemone can take you


I'll add it to your tab, boatboy!


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

Picked up a few things today. a pH probe - which I found out later I need a bloody system lab 1 extension module for my digital aquatics controller to add the pH probe to it, as the current lite version I have doesn't have a bnc connector.

Added a Phosban 150 reactor using Rowa Phos for GFO. If anyone decides they want one of these - make sure you don't forget to put the gasket o-ring on the lid. Trust me -_-










I removed a filter sock from the first stage of the sump and added the powerhead to it, then it goes through the phosban reactor and empties into the refugium. I was considering adding a 9W UV to the outtake of the phosban reactor, but I figured I wouldn't need it.

On a happier note; my carpet anenome walked away and decided on a new spot in the tank, and man is he enjoying his new spot!










And with that, I leave you with a small tank shot:


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

the carpet looks great bud!!! nice job on the phosban, i have to grab one soon too


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## AquaAddict (Dec 4, 2010)

HI,

I noticed that you posted your No3 as "5" . How do you keep your tank so pristine with such a high nitrate level? Must be that Carpet Anenome won that $20.00 bet.

AquaAddict


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

Ah, you have jokes.

5ppm is pretty low. Though testing it yesterday evening I didn't have a reading, so it's close to if not, 0.


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

Update: 5/18/13

Moved some things around, and found that a 2" frag of yuma ricordia was attached to the underside of a piece of rock - along with an entire colony of green basic zoanthids! Fancy that. However; when I turn the rock around I cover up a 4" ricordia that is attached to the other side of the rock. I gave him a little tug to see if he would dislodge, but he's on there good - and I really don't want to cut him off, so he will forever be facing the backside of the tank.

No justice with this picture, of course:










Added a very nice duncan to the mix, which I'll take a picture of of once he opens up.

Spent a few hours hooking up the RODI system to the bottom of the sink. Not as difficult as I had figured it would be, just one stop to Home Depot! Currently filling up the buckets for a water change and backup water.


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## JTang (Apr 21, 2010)

neoh said:


> Ah, you have jokes.
> 
> 5ppm is pretty low. Though testing it yesterday evening I didn't have a reading, so it's close to if not, 0.


I will be really happy if I ever get the nitrate to 5. Mine has always been in the 15-20 range. LOL


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

I just did all the proper tests:

NO3: 0
Phosphate: 0
PH: 8.2
Salinity: 1.025
Calcium: 460
Temp: 28


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

Just a weekly update!

Added a few lovely frags from Fragbox.ca, looking forward to watching them grow out.

Also went shopping at J&L again. Walked out with another Phosban reactor for carbon, and a speedwave DC pump to replace my rio+ as I've heard good things about them, and after reviews I've had second thoughts about it, but unfortunately haven't figured out a good way to add it to my existing system.

Things are getting pretty crowded in the sump, I'll try to figure out a better plumbing scheme to keep things out of the sump.










I'm also looking to plum the reactors together something like this:










I picked up the wrong fittings from Home Depot today, so I'll have to make another trip out there tomorrow.

I also added a Jebao WP40 wavemaker to the mix. I'm still not sure if I like it or not. I had to put some floss in the overflow to keep it from making the slapping sound of water sloshing all day.

Here's the "command center."










Ca: 440
Mg: 1400
PH: 8.0
Temp: 27.5
Phosphates: 0
Nitrate: 0


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

Some new additions to the tank this week: Dendro, purple acan, yuma ricordea, gobstopper zoas, a small green clove polyp, and some unknown zoas.

Stopped by Loews today. Who would of thought they would be the Mecca of plumbing? Home Depot never has what I'm looking for it seems.

Plumbed the new return pump (speedwave), added two Phosban reactors chained with GFO and carbon.

Here's the speedwave. One of the great things about this is, I can control the water level in the sump with the controller. I have it at about 60% so my water level in my tank stays high, and the level in the sump stays where I want to. I had a lot of problems with the water level because I had to use the ball valves to restrict the flow and try and maintain a specific water level within the sump so my skimmer doesn't overflow - which is loud and obnoxious.










Also had second thoughts about the fuge light I had, so I picked up a cheap gooseneck clip on light and a 6500k daylight bulb. Should work well for chaeto growth in the fuge. The whole setup cost less than $20










I plumbed the reactors together. The powerhead is in the first overflow stage, then up and over into the carbon, then into the rowaphos and back over and down into the first stage again. Once I had everything in, I realized I forgot to put my skimmer back in. Once I put everything together, and started it up - no leaks, and everything ended up doing exactly what I wanted to! The skimmer fit like a glove.










Here is it all working together. A lot quieter now without the rio!


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

I added some new inhabitants last night










A large fox coral from J&L, some more CUC as my snails aren't keeping up anymore, and 'barney' the red sea star. I think he's pretty neat.

Here's my "acclimation station."










And another FTS.


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

Need more pictures

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk 2


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## aQ.LED (Nov 13, 2012)

U should really consider vertex color add on. Like purple and red can give u a bit more vibrant look


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

aQ.LED said:


> U should really consider vertex color add on. Like purple and red can give u a bit more vibrant look


I've considered it. I made the tank look "white" because my camera does not take very good photos in the blue spectrum's. However; I'll probably end up grabbing the red one within the next couple months.


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## Aquasteve (Jun 17, 2012)

Tank looks awesome. If you do end up getting that red strip can you post a before and after picture of it? I have no reds in my LED's curious how much of a difference it will make


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## aQ.LED (Nov 13, 2012)

it is more for the personal preference, but for vertex usually a good idea as the blue and white LED they are using are really lack of variety and that is the main reason they have option to add red and UV


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## scott tang (Jan 29, 2012)

are u notising you corals geting dimmer with just the white light ?


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

Aquasteve said:


> Tank looks awesome. If you do end up getting that red strip can you post a before and after picture of it? I have no reds in my LED's curious how much of a difference it will make


Thank you! I will surely do that.



aq.led said:


> it is more for the personal preference, but for vertex usually a good idea as the blue and white LED they are using are really lack of variety and that is the main reason they have option to add red and UV


It may be a lack of variety, but it still is pretty dazzling!



scott tang said:


> are u notising you corals geting dimmer with just the white light ?


I barely use white - I currently have it set to 6%. Are you asking me if I find discoloration in the corals while using the white, or am I noticing the difference in natural color?


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## scott tang (Jan 29, 2012)

no like are you finding there just geting dimer also is the light full spectrum ?


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

ryan think you could get a video of that wave-maker in action?!?


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## neoh (Apr 22, 2010)

scott tang said:


> no like are you finding there just geting dimer also is the light full spectrum ?


For the money I paid for it - it should be! Not sure what your getting at with full spectrum. It has white/blue/royal blue - really the only spectrum that corals need, the rest of the colors just make them look pretty. Well, the UV should of been included.

I just have stock for the lights, I'll get the modules soon enough.

Mike: I currently have it on 'else' mode. It variates the speed to imitate tide changes, so a video won't do you much good! But I can if you wish.


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