50G Reef Tank with Natural ocean water, sand and rocks

[ecybers777]

I used to have 55G reef tank in Toronto, Canada and then moved to sunny Sydney, Australia. I always wanted to setup a reef tank using natural ocean water, sand and rocks and finally, have a chance to do it.
I recently bought used Reef Octopus Lux classic 90 and other equipment necessary for the reef tank set-up. Time to start the journal and share it with the world!

My initial set-up:
• 50G/180L 35’’ glass tank with overflow;
• Solid wood cabinet
• Acrylic sump (~25G/100L)
• Maxspect Razor R420R 160w 16000k LED Light
• Tunze 2400l/h Silence return water Pump
• Reef Octopus Classic 150-INT protein skimmer
• Tunze Nanostream 6040 Wavemaker
• 8G/30L tank with Tunze Osmolator nano for auto water top-up
• Micom LED Heater
• Eheum PowerLED Light for refugium
• DIY X2 PC fans with temperature controller for cooling

Time to hit the beach and get water!

[garrettp36]

Very cool idea. One thing to note in your sump area, your power strip is way too close to the water. If your skinner goes crazy, you can bet the farm water will splash onto it.


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[Akrupar]

Cool idea, interested to see how it turns out

[ecybers777]

Ok, week 2 of the setup. Finally, got most of the water. Took 6 trips to the local beach - Curl Curl. All parameters are perfect. Also, added dividers for the refugium and CaribSea Arag-alive aragonite sand to start the cycling process.
Tank is a bit cloudy now:


Also changed the power strip to have individual switches for all sockets and piping for the return pipe to get a better fit.



We are traveling north to Queensland for Easter. Hopefully, can get some nice sand and live rocks for the display tank from there.

[ecybers777]

The sand is in, got it from one of the hundreds beaches on the way to Queensland. It was around 30kg. Unfortunately, there were no live rocks, as I haven’t got North enough to reach reefs. Also, added some cabbage algae as macro algae to the refugium and some lose live rock.

Checked all the params and everything looks good, except PH, which is only 7.8. Alkalinity is also slightly lower, so added 10g of baking soda.

[ecybers777]

Added about 10kg /20 pounds of live rock. Moved purple and green colonies of mushrooms and green star polyps from nano tank. Everything is opening nicely and I’m happy with the progress.

Magnesium was on the low side for some reason (1200), so I started to add 5:3 mix of magnesium chloride with magnesium sulphate. It already raised to 1250, targeting 1300. Calcium was also a bit low at 350, will start raising it once magnesium is good. All other Parma’s are fine.

[ecybers777]

There are a lot of changes in last couple of weeks. The aquascape is pretty much done. Got some new corals: galaxy, leather, orange plate and green monti. Also moved my clownfish and blue damsel. Added 2 more fishes: 6-line wrasse and royal dottyback. I know they are quite aggressive, but so far all 4 fish are getting along well. Have a bit of the cyno outbreak on the sand, I haven’t changed any water since the start of the tank and I suspect my Ro/Di filters need to be replaced (had them for 3 years without replacement).

All the params are good (nitrate at 2.5), except magnesium is low again. So started to supplement it.

[ecybers777]

This is from beginning of June. RO/DI filters were changed, TDS is back to 0 now. I had to start dosing 6g of baked baking soda and 40g of Calcium Chloride every 2 weeks to maintain PH, Alkanity and Calcium. Nitrates are down to 1. Everything seems healthy.

[Systemwizardinc]

nice looking tank

[Njdevils1220]

Curious how this turns out using natural water