pics of my 29 gallon mixed reef

[myzislow]

I took some new shots today and figured I'd share some. The tank is a standard 29, with a sunpod 150w HQI with phoenix 14k. My not so great quality camera makes it appear more blue then it really is. Any comments, questions, and suggestions welcome.


side shot


top down


another top down, this one is coloring up nice and growing great!


middle


upper middle

[myzislow]

my original duncan colony


ricordea


blastos, acans, and tubs blue zoos


aussie acans


miscellaneous corals


clown and his brain


FTS

hope you enjoyed

[Bernie21]

Very nice JOB!!! keep it up!!

[ckprax]

WOW very nice! I love all of the colors. how long has this tank been running?

[nanoDude]

VERY NICE! I really like the pile-o-rics. Good color choices on everything.

[myzislow]

Thanks a lot for the kind words you guys!

ckpraz, this tank has been established now for about 3.5- 4years now. It started as a simple FOWLR and then the inevitable transition to a full blown reef took place about a ~1.5 years ago.

Here are some REALLY old shots of when it was first set up and from when it started changing into a reef:




Im glad i got the GSP out before it really took over. What a chore that was! The hammer also got waay to big and I had to remove him as well.

[reef3r]

That's cool. Do you still have the flame hawks?

[nattarbox]

Looks like the 150 watt Sunpod is working out well for you. I am setting up a 29 gallon as well and trying to decide between the 150 and 200 watt options.

[ellio]

What equipment are you running, ie; hot filter, power heads etc?

[ShootMe]

Very Very nice. I love the ricordea garden you have there.

[Justinandkrista]

Do you use a chiller? Do you have a sump or fuge on it? How much water evaporates from the MH. Anyways tank looks awsome i have thought about buying a mh fixture for mine but dont want to buy a chiller if i need it, or deal with a ton of water evaporation.

[myzislow]

reef3r-No, sadly the flame hawk jumped out of the tank :-(

nattarbox- Yes, I love the sunpod! I initially had a current 130w PC setup(shown in the before pics), and upgrading to HQI was one of the, if not the best upgrades I've made to the tank. For me, 150w is more then enough. I did not want to have to deal with the extra heat from the 250w bulb, as I don't run a chiller on this tank.

ellio- Sure no problem, here is a quick break down of equipment.
Emperor 400 HOB modded refugium. W/18w PC light.-400 Gal./hr.
Hydor korilia 2-600 Gal./hr.
Hydor korilia nano-265 Gal./hr.
Tunzee nano stream 6025-645 Gal./hr.
CPR bak pak 2r W/Rio 600~50 Gal./hr.

total=1,960 Gal./hr. Turnover rate=67.5x

150w ebo jager heater hidden in Bak Pak skimmer

I does B-ionic 2 part everyday usually. If I skip a day it doesn't hurt.
My levels are:
dkh: 8.5-9 via lamotte test kit
Ca: 420 via API test kit
Mg: 1350 via Salifert test kit

Fish(pretty maxed out, tho I'm tempted to add 1 more small 1 :-)):
african flameback pygmy
small lawmower blenny
cellaris clown
velvet fairy wrasse
pink pseudochromis of some sort.

1 fire shrimp and 6 nassarius snails.

Any more questions or comments don't hesitate to ask.

[myzislow]

Originally posted by Justinandkrista
Do you use a chiller? Do you have a sump or fuge on it? How much water evaporates from the MH. Anyways tank looks awsome i have thought about buying a mh fixture for mine but dont want to buy a chiller if i need it, or deal with a ton of water evaporation.

Nope, no chiller on this tank. Honestly the evaporation isn't that bad. I also run an open tank so that doesn't help. I top off every morning and if I had to guess it's maybe a 1/2 a gallon or so each morning. No sump at the moment, but I have modified my emperor 400 HOB filter into a fuge to hold macro and it seems to be working excellent.

Thanks for the props on my tank.

[CHARLIE AGUILAR]

I like all the ric in the corner keep it up!

[3fins]

dude nice tank. I hope mine turns out like yours,
-James

[Tremolo]

Tank looks great! How do you like the phoenix 14k? i have a 29 gallon mixed reef to with the same fixture and its about time to swap out the stock light. Not sure what i want to go with. What bulbs have you tried and how was the color and coral growth?

[RedSoxReefer]

Sick Rics dude!!!

[myzislow]

Originally posted by Tremolo
Tank looks great! How do you like the phoenix 14k? i have a 29 gallon mixed reef to with the same fixture and its about time to swap out the stock light. Not sure what i want to go with. What bulbs have you tried and how was the color and coral growth?

Thanks! I really like the phoenix 14k!! I've had the stock current sunpaq 14k, xm-15k, reeflux 12k and now the phoenix 14k. I ran the stock 14k for around 8 months. I really liked the stock color, but the growth wasn't the best. The xm-15k was ok as far as bulb color, but there was something I didn't like about it. The coral colors looked a little washed out under it, plus I've read that it doesn't have the best PAR, so I ended up opting to sell it to my friend(which he broke lol). The reeflux 12k was terrible looking IMO, probably the worst out of all the bulbs I've tried. It may look ok with actinic supplementation, but without it was far too white for me, and the colors didn't pop at all. I took that out after about 2 weeks, I just couldn't stand it.

After some more research I decided on the phoenix 14k. I've been running it a little over a month now an it is an awesome bulb. The color is great, kinda on the bluer side, but not too blue IMO. It looks a lot like the stock 14k, but much crisper. The corals definitely pop under this bulb. I cant really comment on growth yet, but the corals do seem to be responding well. My sunset monti has started to puddle out nicely, something it hadn't started doing until the phoenix. Overall I really like the phoenix, and will more then likely be purchasing another one when the time comes.

[Tremolo]

cool thanks for the info. I find it really hard to pic bulbs because it seems like a waste of money if you dont like the look and get bad coral growth. i think i will order the phoenix.

[Jester]

I love the pheonix bulb too... I went from a XM 15k to the pheonix 14k and the difference is amazing... my corals have colored up great and the growth has doubled...