My 1st Reef Tank 54 g Corner Bow

[alittlephishy]

Here it is my first reef tank, It's a 54 Gallon corner bow I picked up uesd at CRA. I was talking to John and Henry about getting a Biocube 29 and one of them said they had a customer tank for sale. After some discussion and visual inspection by the better half we picked it up and things got started.

Here is my first FTS:


The first thing I needed to do was build a sump. The tank came with a 15 gal bowfront for a sump, but it didn't use the space very well. So I built a "L" shaped one with a refugium. It holds about 17 gallons and there is space for an ATO reservior that is coming soon.

Sump:

[RUGDOG]

Welcome....Looking great! I love the sump. It is always hard to work within a corner system. Nice job.

[Nitroq2]

Great Start keep us updated!

[H@rry]

Nice work on the sump!

[8BALL_99]

Looking good. I really like my Corner tank. You don't seem to see them very much.

Will

[alittlephishy]

Thanks!

I'm going to put some LR / LS on Thursday. I was thinking of getting some Chaeto for the Fuge, or would that be too early? More pictures soon.

Larry O

[alittlephishy]

I picked up 38 lbs of LR and 60 lbs LS yesterday at CRA. Lots of caves, nooks and crannies. As a bonus a piece of LR covered with some little hitch hikers. they look like little anemones, I've got to get them identified.

Second FTS:



Second sump picture:



Hitch Hiker??:

[6Speed]

Looks nice! I really like your sump. Do you build them often? The hitchhikers look like aiptasia, which you do not want!

[alittlephishy]

6Speed

This is my second sump, my first is in my 140g FW. Alot more thought went into this one. The aiptasia is going to be gone soon, it is on one small rock and I might make a acrylic pico just for giggles. Thanks !

Larry O

[mltmtascp]

What kind of glue did you use for your sump and where did you get it? We have been searching for acylic glue.
Nice tank!
Thanks, Monica

[alittlephishy]

Monica

I'm using Weldon 4 (thin) and Weldon 16 (think) I called Ridout Plastics you can find their contact info Here. I'm still learning and have a few more projects to go.

Here is my latest. My 2 Gallon Pico cube all in one. It is an experiment with a rock full of Aiptasia hitch hikers I pulled from my 54. I only plan on doing water changes with water from the 54 and it gets its light for that tank also. I want to see how resilient aiptasia really is.

2 Gallon Pico FTS:


2 Gallon Pico top down view:


2 Gallon Pico Critters:

[gatordoc]

looks good!

[stephish]

The pico is too cute!! how do you cut the acrylic?

The aiptasia will probably be fine in there, sadly it is pretty resilient. I've gotten lr that has been in a big tub with no light other than ambient room lighting and it had some healthy looking specimens on it.

[alittlephishy]

stephish

I use a table saw with a blade designed to cut non-ferous metal and plastic, it was a little spendy but makes a very smooth cut without chipping. I also use a router with a flush trim bit, it is the type with a ballbearing on it. It is great for cleaning up an edge or you can make pattern out of wood and use it to make the exact shape in acylic. If you want I can post a picture of the blades later.

Larry O

[6Speed]

Originally posted by stephish


I've gotten lr that has been in a big tub with no light other than ambient room lighting and it had some healthy looking specimens on it.

Yep, I left a rock with aiptasia on it in a QT tank that I left dormant for at least 6 months. The only thing I did for the tank was add top off water. There was no light on the tank, and I added no food. The aiptasia was still alive and going strong.

[alittlephishy]

Well here is the latest full tank shot. I did a little redecorating. I picked up another 15 lbs of Tonga Fusion live rock from CRA, They just got in a bunch of new live rock. The picture just doesn't do it justice, it is full of different coraline algae reds, oranges and pinks. That brings my total up to 55 pounds between my display and refugium. I also found some cool tiny hitch hikers.

Larry O


FTS #4



Tiny flower like tube critters about the size of a pencil lead:

[stephish]

I think your tube critters are vermetid snails? could be wrong but I have a bunch of them and that's what I was told they were.

[alittlephishy]

Here is the latest. My clean-up crew consisting of 27 Mini hermit crabs,8 Margarita snails, 4 Nassarius snails, and 2 Zebra turbo snails are doing a good job cleaning things up. I picked up a big ball of chaeto from CRA, Can you say pod city! It also had a bonus hitch hiker, its a green tipped zoanthid which I mounted to a chunk of rubble. All is going well, I'm waiting till after Christmas to add livestock. More pictures to come. Thanks for looking!

Larry O

FTS December 17th:



Refugium getting lively:



First Zoanthid:

[Tomoko Schum]

Are you sure it's really zoanthid? I may be wrong, but t looks more like a majano anemone to me...
Your tiny tube like critter looks like clove polyps to me.

Tomoko

[H@rry]

I don't know what that is in the shot glass but it doesn't look like a zoa to me!

[alittlephishy]

This is another view of the Critter to be Identified. the light is like 5500K and doesn't do much for the color.
It looks a frogspawn green under Actinics. It isn't opened up very well either. Thanks for the help!


???

[Tomoko Schum]

I don't think it's a frogspawn. I am pretty sure it's majano/tulip anemone. John's got a lot of green ones.

Tomoko

[alittlephishy]

Thanks Tomoko Schum! I always get the bad hitch hikers. I guess that why mom said don't pickup hitch hikers!! One day I'll get a good one.

[alittlephishy]

Well I finally got my first fish, It's an Atlantic Pygmy Angel. I also added some new coral. Here are a few pictures. I still need to get some of my Zoa frags.

My first fish:


Frog Spawn I couldn't resist:


I target feed the new Plate Coral, I couldn't help my self, It's mouth was open and I thought I heard it say feed me Seymour.

[mltmtascp]

Looking good! Take another full pic for us.