Josh's 55g Reef Journal

[joshinjosh]

Overview

The plan here is to make this my last setup in a looong time. The goal is to make this reef pretty much as stable and low maitainance as possibly because I'm be off to college in the fall. The tank is going basically be an mixed bb reef consisting of mostly zoanthids, sps (hopefully) and many small fishes. And the journey begin.....​

Equipment List

Tank/Stand

-SeaClear 55g Acrylic Black Aquarium 48"x13"x18"​

-Aquatic Fundamentals Black Stand​

Filtration

-15g All Glass Tanks for Sump​

-Schuran Jetskim 150​

Lighting

-Giesemann 230 2x150W HQI 2x54w T5 Hood​

Water Movement

-Tunze 6060​

-Maxijets​

-Mag-Drive 7 Return Pump​

Misc. Items

-150w Visi-Therm Stealth Heater​

-200w Ebo Jager Heater​

-Reefkeeper Digital Controller​

-Aqua-Safe Systems 100gpd RO/DI​

-MLA Caclium Reactor 150​

8.11.2006 Full Tank Shot

 

[DonW]

If the skimmer is not recirculating, skip the external collector. If the air line plugs up the skimmer overflows. They dont shut down like a beckett.

Don

 

[joshinjosh]

If the skimmer is not recirculating, skip the external collector. If the air line plugs up the skimmer overflows. They dont shut down like a beckett.

Don

thanks for the advice, i guess i'll be ditching the external collector

josh

 

[joshinjosh]

Fish/Computer Room

here is where the tank will be going, in my fish/computer room, sorry for the crazy mess, i blame it on school and work plus i'm very lazy. current have the 10g and 20l setup to hold a few corals and a couple of fishes. i'll post some more pictures later, got to go study for finals

 

[Mauisreef]

Looking good:exclaim:
Fish rooms are are dakine.

Maui

 

[Krish]

Good luck on the setup Josh...You have a very nice plan to go by

 

[joshinjosh]

thanks for your complements, i hope everything turns out alright

 

[joshinjosh]

RO/DI Installation

probably the most regretful thing i did was to sell off my ro/di unit. i thought i could get away with just buying water from the lfs espcially since i only have a 55 gallon tank, but after two water changes or so on my 20l it got to be too much of a hassle. another problem and reason i sold my ro unit was that i couldn't find a good location to install it, i was using a garden hose and that gets pretty messy. so... after some research and asking a few people on rf, i found the solution for an easy to install/use adapter for under the sink installation. took forever to find the piece but the adapter was called the angle stop adapter valve, which costed me $12 + shipping online. anyways, the ro/di unit is 100gpd from aqua-safe systems, here are some pictures of my setup

angle stop adapter valve with a simple John Guess connection and valve

the compete setup under my bathroom sink

second water test

if youre wondering about the first water test, here is what happened

 

[Mauisreef]

Sweet little set up.
Good thing you didnt have the tp under there during the first test. :lol:

Maui

 

[joshinjosh]

Lighting Setup

ok, i was contemplating having either t5s of halides, and came to the conclusion that neither was really better alone, so i decided to get the best of both worlds. had my light fixture sitting on the floor for the last two months, the fixture is a 48" giesemann w/electronaic ballasts, 150w hqi with 2x54w t5s. i'm using the bulbs that the fixture came with which i believe are 150w 12000k giesemanns and 54w giesemanns actinic +. the electronic ballasts are sooo quite compared to magnetic, the electronic ballast are basically silent unlike the tennis court lighting buzzzz of them magnetic ballast. i finally installed the fixture today. hopefully it's secure enough, that thing was at least 30lbs :/. okay here are some pictures

initial halide test

initial t5 test

finally hanging

hanging kit part

electronic ballasts

 

[chrisdaphish]

looks sweet!

 

[joshinjosh]

Sweet little set up.
Good thing you didnt have the tp under there during the first test. :lol:

Maui

haha, yea, the tp is under the other sink . those john guest pieces are so dang tricky, you think they are connected but there's always one that is loose

 

[Krish]

That's a really nice fixture Josh! I looked at those the other day and wondered if anyone had one!

 

[PickledFish]

I dig the light fixture, I looked into that brand but decieded to go retro. I just couldn't drop that kinda cash! Keep up the good work, can't wait to see it set-up

 

[joshinjosh]

thanks krish and pickledfish, yeah, these lights are awesome, very well made compared to other fixtures i've owned, i got a good deal on them too, it's worth every penny

 

[joshinjosh]

Live Rock

IMO the one of the most important part of aesthetics in a reef tank is the aquascaping. no matter how nice one's corals are or how clean someone's tank is, the aquascaping is what truly sets tanks apart it is arguably the most overlooked part of the hobby. in my case, aquascaping will probably be the most difficult part of my project especially because i've only got 12" in depth to work with (only if i had a 75g ). so the plan is to buy more live rock than can fit in the tank, in result i can have way more options with aquascaping. to my convinience i found a local reefer parting out his system and i purchased around 180lbs of premium fiji live rock. currently, i've got all of it sitting in a 55g acrylic tank i got for free from chris (handegard), thanks a lot btw. here are some pics and tank specs

Live Rock Storage Tank
-55g Seaclear Acrylic Tank
-Instant Ocean + Tropic Marine Salt Mix
-Reef Complete (dose a capfull every 3 days or so)
-Maxijet 1200
-Zoomed Powersweep (broken, does not sweep)
-NO flouresent lighting
-no heater, house is freakin steaming during day

fts

purple coraline

pink coraline (?)

orange coraline (?)

angled

 

[Krish]

That's a lot of rock! You should be able to aquascape really nice with all those different pieces to choose from

 

[joshinjosh]

That's a lot of rock! You should be able to aquascape really nice with all those different pieces to choose from

yup! i hope so. it'll be easy for me this time around because of no sand .

 

[joshinjosh]

TDS Meter

i was just wondering the tds reading on my ro/di unit so i went out and bought a tds meter at the lfs, it is almost a must when it comes to owning a ro/di unit. the meter just basically hooked onto the 1/4" water pipe, john guest is a genius, it's so simple and easy.

TDS Reading

Water In: 23ppm
Water Out: 0ppm

 

[Krish]

That's a very neat little unit! I need to invest in an ro/di unit one of these days. I buy my water locally from a water plant every week, but I'm getting tired of lifting 20 gals of water every week (10 gals for water change and 10 for top offs)