Ricky's 120 Gallon Mixed Reef

[Rickyrooz1]

Hi everyone, I wanted to share my 120 gallon reef tank. My name is Rick and I am 20 years old.

My 120 gallon mixed reef tank is 14 months old. I have over 180 lbs. of live rock from Fiji and Tonga and 80 lbs. of live sand. I have a 30 gallon DIY refugium with 20 lbs. of Miracle Mud and some Chaetomorpha macro algae. I use the AquaC EV-120 protein skimmer and Mag Drive 12 as my return pump. I also use one Koralia 4 and one Koralia 3 powerhead for added water movement. I have over 30 corals, 4 shrimp and 11 fish. I am using two 250 watt Phoenix 14K DE metal halides supplemented with four 65 watt actinic power compacts.

I had been using Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt mix for a year and recently switched over to Red Sea Pro Coral salt mix. I supplement with Kent Marine Magnesium, Salifert Strontium, ESV two-part calcium and alkalinity, Kent Marine Essential Elements, Tropic Marin Iodine and Tropic Marin ProTect. I just started Warner Marine Amino Acids, Warner Marine Potassium and the addition of Kalkwasser a few weeks ago. I run ROWA carbon (changed monthly) in a AquaC XP Plus reactor and run Warner Marine Phosar when necessary.

I feed two to three times a day (small amounts throughout the day) and rotate between frozen foods, flake food, cyclop-eeze and phytoplankton.



1. Gross water volume of your complete system (incl. sump etc.)? 150 gallons
2. Net water volume (incl. sump etc.)? 130 gallons including live rock and sand displacement.
3. Are you using a CaCO2 reactor or other technique? No
4. Are you using a PO4 reactor (how long, how long ago, etc.) Yes, AquaC XP Plus. I use Warner Marine Phosar. Replaced every month. I first added the reactor 4 months ago.
5. Are you using Ozone? No
6. Are you using UV? No
7. What skimmer are you using (type, rated water volume)? AquaC EV-120. Rated for 150 gallons.
8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels? P04 = 0.046ppm, N03 = 0.0ppm
9. What are your actual Ca, Alk and Mg levels? Ca = 440, Alk. = 8.0, Mg = 1370, Sr = 10.
10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.)? Refugium with 20 lbs. of Miracle Mud with Chaetomorpha Macroalgae and some pieces of live rock.
11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.)? Light is 14 months old, bulbs are 8 months old. Two 14K Phoenix DE MH's with a dual PFO magnetic ballast supplemented with four 65 watt actinic PC's.
12. What corals do you keep? SPS (Acropora and Montipora), LPS, Zoanthids, Mushroom, Soft coral.
13. Tissue color (light or dark)? Dark
14. How long has the tank been running? 14 months
15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system? For the coloration of corals.
16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.)? I supplement with Kent Marine Magnesium (added every three days), Salifert Strontium(added once a week), ESV two-part calcium and alkalinity(added every two days), Kent Marine Essential Elements(added every two weeks), Tropic Marin Iodine(added every two days) and Tropic Marin ProTect(added every two weeks). I just started Warner Marine Amino Acids(added twice a week), Warner Marine Potassium(added once a week) and the addition of Kalkwasser (added every week) a few weeks ago.
17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.) 180 lbs. varies between 12-14 months old. I added some more rock after I first set up the tank.
18. Any present problems. Lost a Flame Scallop and bleached/lost some tissue on the tips and bottom of my Acropora Austera. It only lost a little bit and stopped once I got the Alk. balanced. I was suprised it stopped. Any reasons why? I thought once the coral started to recede there was no stopping it? So far it looks like it is trying to recover. It has normal polyp extension and color.
19. Problem description (tissue loss tips, tissue loss base, diatom bloom, algae, etc.)? When the tank was only a few months old I had a battle with cyanobactera. I've fought two battles of RTN losing 5 acro's over a period of 14 months.
20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.)? Ca = Tropic marin, Mg = Salifert, Alk. = API, Phos = ROWA Merck, Strontium = Salifert, pH/TDS = Hanna Instruments, Ammonia,Nitrite,Nitrate = API.
21. Present dosing, amounts and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.)? Not using any yet.
22. Other water parameters and water stability (salinity, temp, etc.)? SG = 1.026, Temp. = 78-80 degrees
23. Which salt brand do you use? Did use Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt mix for a year and recently switched over to Red Sea Pro Coral salt mix.

[Rickyrooz1]

My fish stock list:
1 Purple Tang
1 Desjardini Sailfin
1 Spotted Kole Tang
1 Male McCosker's Wrasse
1 Female Bluestar Leopard Wrasse
1 Female Spotted Mandarin
4 Green Chromis
1 BiColor Chromis

Invert stock list:
1 Rose Bubble Tip Anemone
2 Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
1 Fire Shrimp
1 Peppermint Shrimp
1 Sand Sifting Star
1 Flame Scallop
Astraea Snails
Cerith Snails
Nassarius Snails
Bumble Bee Snails
Scarlet Reef Hermit Crabs
Dwarf Blue leg Hermit Crabs

[gsellers1245]

WHATS UP BUDDY?

[Rickyrooz1]

FTS


Male McCosker's Fairy Wrasse


Northwoods Tri-Color Acropora


ORA Roscoe's Acropora


Flame Scallop

[Rickyrooz1]

My Dad and I built our stand out of Maple and made a 30 gallon refugium.

Unfinished Stand


Refugium


AquaC EV-120 Protein Skimmer


100 GPD R/O Unit


Lighting fixture (Two 250 watt Phoenix 14K DE Metal Halide bulbs with dual PFO magnetic ballast, four 65 watt Actinic Power Compact bulbs)

[saltycreefer]

The tank looks great! The only suggestion I have would be to place the shrooms and the green star polyps down on the bottom. In time they will spread towards your acros and possibly kill them if you leave them where they are.

[saltycreefer]

Really nice setup.

[Rickyrooz1]

Elegance Coral


Spotted Mushrooms


Chili Coral
For awhile I thought the coral died because the polyps no longer extended at night but once I place it in the refugium it sprang back to life.

Red Blastomussa Wellsi


Branching Frogspawn

[Rickyrooz1]

Originally posted by saltycreefer
The tank looks great! The only suggestion I have would be to place the shrooms and the green star polyps down on the bottom. In time they will spread towards your acros and possibly kill them if you leave them where they are.

I already moved the GSP underneath my Toadstool. It is isolated from other live rock so it cannot grow anywhere other than the sand.

[Rickyrooz1]

Mesh netting to prevent the wrasses from escaping.




Old Rock Set-up Full Tank Shot


Old Rock Set-up Lunar Shot


August 5th 2007 FTS

[Rickyrooz1]

Desjardini Sailfin


Female Bluestar leopard Wrasse


Purple Tang


Spotted Mandarin


Bicolor Chromis


Spotted Kole Tang

Green Chromis

[Rickyrooz1]

Purple Turaki


Purple Lokani


Radioactive Green Birdsnest


ORA Blue Tortuosa


Purple Polyp Birdsnest


Pink Millepora


Green Starburst


Toadstool Leather

[Rickyrooz1]

Xenia


Rose Bubble Tip Anemone


Watermelon Zoanthids


Xenia


(Top Down) Blue Mushrooms


GSP

[Rickyrooz1]

Underside of the Sand sifting star


Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab


Emerald Crab


Astraea Snail


Amphipod

[Rickyrooz1]

Last post for the night.

Top reef shot


Left Side view


Right Side View


Netting
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/a...g/DSCF0002.jpg

[Rickyrooz1]

Originally posted by gsellers1245
WHATS UP BUDDY?

Hey Glenn,
Just showing off my tank. How are you?

[Ehaze]

SEXY *** TANK!!!! Where can i get mesh netting?

[Rickyrooz1]

Originally posted by Ehaze
SEXY *** TANK!!!! Where can i get mesh netting?

Lowe's

[KniLLifer]

Very Nice. Great Job!

How much 2-Part are you dosing in mL and how often. I have a 120 Gallon also, actually exacly the same Perfecto Tank from what it looks like and would like to compare as we have about the same amount of SPS.

Thanks,
Once again great looking Tank.
~Art~

[Rickyrooz1]

Originally posted by KniLLifer
Very Nice. Great Job!

How much 2-Part are you dosing in mL and how often. I have a 120 Gallon also, actually exacly the same Perfecto Tank from what it looks like and would like to compare as we have about the same amount of SPS.

Thanks,
Once again great looking Tank.
~Art~

I dose 60mL every two to three days. Make sure you don't add the Part 1 with Part 2. Space them 30 minutes apart.

[Rickyrooz1]

KniLLifer, you're right my tank is a Perfecto.

[jeweldamsel]

Nice tank. I like your leopard wrasse and purple tang.

[KniLLifer]

Wow, believe it or not I use 190 mL of each every day to keep my calcium at 400 and Alk up at 8 DHk. I use the DIY Recepie from twopartsolution.com and going through it like water. I do space it out a bit between the Alk and Calcium but its not 30 minutes. I dose Alk in the Sump and once all the precipitation is gone I dose the Calcium part in the display in a high flow area. I'm thinking about getting a Calcium reactor becasue the dosing is getting too much.

From what it looks like we have about the same amount of SPS, you may even have more. I'm just amazed how little you dose.

Thanks for your qucik responce and your input.

~Art~

[otiso777]

Great looking tank! Do you feed the chili?

[bkoz]

Awsome tank!!! Looks like if the power went out your sump would overflow??