The Reef Central Corner Club Thread

[tahammo]

To answer Boret's question, I'm leaning more toward softies with a few LPS. I haven't tried SPS's due to my current tank size, my torch and BTA take up most of the tank.

And for Reefscape, the rocks in the tank are mostly the large ones. One weighed in just over 50 pounds, some will have to come out. I just needed to get the rock from my friend so he could finish with his dismantling. Hopefully this weekend I can figure something out. The shrooms were tag alongs and seem to be doing quite well. It is hard to see since its fuzz wasn't out but there is also a toadstoll(I think thats what he said it was) to the right and down alittle bit. One thing I wasn't planning for was feeding the tank already, hopefully i figure it out without losing them. With my 29 I feed sparingly, now i'm dealing with 4 or 5 times as much water.

My other problem is water temp. I had gotten 2 new Jager heaters(250W) and neither one of them worked worth a crap no matter what they were set on. I took the one out of my 29(15 years old) along with another spare but right now the water is only 73. The things seem to be tolerating it though.

Talk to everyone later, Thomas

[reefscape15]

I don't think you'd have to worry much about feeding mushrooms and a toadstool. Maybe just a tiny bit every week or so. I only feed about every 10 days or so, and i've got 4 fish and about 50 frags. My Angler eats every 10 days, and when i feed him i chop up some of his food into very small pieces and the rest of the tank get some. I also have 2 Dwarf Angel fish who've been making a meal out of all the Caulerpa that was taking over my tank. When that is gone tho, i'll probably feed a few times a week just for them, and then keep my Angler on the same schedual. Also, i wouldn't worry about temp until you start adding more frags or fish. My tank used to be at 74-76 almost always, and i could keep anything. Now it's usually 78-82 from adding a 250watt MH

[lotusstar]

Woohoo!!! Glad to see this thread, it will take awhile to go through all 18 pages. Let me introduce myself. I just recently purchased an established 92g corner. (established about 4 years). I spent about 10 years in the SW FO side of things, gave that up about 6 years ago though and now back in the game. Was planning a FOWLR tank and work my way into a reef as I get reacquainted with everything but couldn't pass up a great deal when I found one on an established reef.

As far as equipment I have an ATI bm 160 skimmer (which is kinda difficult to tweat properly). Also a 400w MH light. Over 100lbs of LR. As for fish, Coral beauty, maroon clown, perc clown, and blue tang, and see a few random snails marching around. My "sump" is just a cheap rubbermaid container from wal-mart. Was wondering if some people here have posted pics of their sumps with corner units since there isn't much room to play with?

He had a few corals set up in the tank but don't know if they are alive or not, the tank was pretty unkempt and very dirty, so going to take awhile to really get it pristine like I want it. I will post a couple pics and if anyone can chime in and help me identify things or let me know if it's even alive or dead? I'd greatly appreciate it.

[reefscape15]

Lotusstar - Hey! Glad to see that you've made it over here! From the pics it's kind of hard to tell what's what. I really don't have any guesses on the first pic. Pic #2 looks like a Favia being taken over by GSP. Pic #3 is some type of Leather on the right and what looks like another Soft Coral on the left. It kind of looks like all that purple is the base of GSP. And if it all grows back, you'll have one heck of a patch to deal with!

Awesome deal on getting an already set up tank! Looks like you've got a lot of work to do to get things cleaned up, but I think you'll love it when it's done. Please keep us posted on your progress

[reefscape15]

I forgot to mention that there is about 35 more pages before the split! If you click on the link @the top of the first page it will take you to the thread prior to the split. There is some very great info on those pages as well, and I think that Misled's tank build is on there. He's got a very impressive setup, and i think almost everything on his tank was DIY!

[lotusstar]

ha, 35 pages before the split. Awesome, maybe the corner club should have it's own corner of RC to click and come straight here. Thanks for the info reefscape but you lost me on this...?

It kind of looks like all that purple is the base of GSP. And if it all grows back, you'll have one heck of a patch to deal with!

I'm just going to say, HUH? And I've been working all week at cleaning so far, it will take a whole lot longer but I'm very committed so will post more pics when I get it fully clean and how I want it.
Thanks!

[Misled]

Originally posted by reefscape15
I think that Misled's tank build is on there. He's got a very impressive setup, and i think almost everything on his tank was DIY!

[Misled]

Originally posted by lotusstar
It kind of looks like all that purple is the base of GSP. And if it all grows back, you'll have one heck of a patch to deal with!

I agree they look like GSP. It looks like there's quite a bit in other places but you'll just have to wait and see what comes up. You can google green star polyps and see what they are. They tend to outgrow everything and will overgrow some corals.

I agree the one's a leather. Is it yellow in color. Looks like it could be a Fugi yellow. If not a toadstool of some kind. The one to the left looks like a Pagoda.

[Ocean Mang]

I redecorated and thought I would share a new pic. I have recently decided to make this tank primarily SPS. I created a lot of space in the water column above the rocks for the sps growth.

[boca rat]

Folks, word of advice - COVER YOUR OVERFLOW!!!!!

After 6 carefree months with a 54g corner, 3 (YES THREE) fish decided to make a leap for freedom at the same time. Yep, you guessed it, over the overflow. And the drain was cemented by previous owner, as was return, so no flushing them out...

So, large 6 line wrasse, yellow tail damsel and clown all gloomily swimming around.

Cue 90 minutes of cursing, along with my lovely wife who managed to get two o the three out - I'd already gotten the clown out pretty quick.

For future reference we used a wet dry vacuum to get most of the water out, then slid some filter media between the pipes and overflow wall so they couldn't hide. Then much fiddling with two different nets. All this up a ladder reaching over at full stretch. We were 10 minutes from waiting until tomorrow, draining half the tank and sliding it away from the wall.

Grrrr.

First thing tomorrow, make a cover of mesh or similar.

Anyone have any photos of a similar tank mod? I have a 100g and that is tough to get fish out of it's overflow, but this was WAY worse.

Lord knows how you would get to a 90g corner overflow....

HTH

[reefscape15]

Very nice Ocean Mang! I too just redecorated a bit. Here's some pics:

These pics are all off my phone, so i'm not sure they'll be as great as a real camera.

Pretty much I just cleared off my sandbed to make room for some future clams. I put most of my frags up on the rockwork instead of just having them piled up on a patch of rubble



This is the top of my rockwork


Right side of my tank


Watermelon, Blue Carrabean, Green Button and Armor of God (far left background) Zoas, Orange Plate, and one massive Shroom!

[Ocean Mang]

Wow Reefscape you have a lot of coral in there! Looks great, can't wait to see the clams.

[lotusstar]

Hey gang, I have a lighting question. I have a 400w MH light hanging from a canopy over my tank. However that is the only light I have and don't want to run that all day long. I was hoping to maybe get some moon lights or something so I can still see into the tank even after the MH is off for the day. What my question is though is does anyone know a way to get some other lights without interfering with the MH light? I don't want to cast shadows in the tank, or burn anything up because of the heat bearing down from the MH. Is there maybe maybe perimeter lights that would go around the top edge of the tank? I tried browsing a couple sites but couldn't find anything. What do you guys use? suggest? deal with lights?
Oh yeah, 1 other thing I was considering was putting mirror on the back 2 walls of my tank. I did this for my FO tank years ago and it looked great, made the tank look huge when it was only 55g. Now I'm wondering how would mirrors reflecting light back into the tank affect corals? Good thing? Bad thing? Has anyone tried this?

[reefscape15]

There's a ton of different T-5, T-12VHO, Power Compact, and LED retrofit kits that you could use to suppliment your MH. T-5 lights are probably the most common now, and there are some retrofit kits that are pretty affordable. As for the mirror idea, i've seen it in freshwater also, but never on a reef. Interesting idea, and i'd kind of like to see a tank set up with this.

Ocean mang - There are lots of small frags in there. I wanted to have a lot of different things, all growing into each other, and have almost no LR visible. I have 2 LFS right near me that are always willing to take frags for store credit, and now that i've found RC, i may be able to help others out as well. As far as the clams, I first need to upgrade my skimmer and get a Wrasse to rid some flatworms i've had. Also, there is a small snail that i've heard can be a bother to clams, and the wrasses are feeders of these too. Anyway, there is an Aussie Acan package at a store in Buffalo, NY that i've been wanting, so i'll probably get them first, then do the clams. I really can't stand waiting, and the whole reason that i got a corner bow, and rockscaped my tank this way, was to have a nice bed of 5 or 6 clams on the bottom. I also did black sand and black background in hopes of someday finding a Black and White Zebra Maxima clam.

I have some more pics of some stuff in my tank as well, and i'll work on getting them on soon!

[reefscape15]

Red Colony Worm Rock, Watermelon Zoas, and Orange Plate


Purple and Green Favia i've had forever!


Pink Palys


New Pink/Green Trumpet


More to come!

[Superstretch18]

I keep forgetting about this thread...

About a month ago, I moved to a new apartment and decided that I might as well upgrade my 29 gallon to something with more potential. Got a RR 54 corner used from someone local, with a second stand to use as a canopy. That's also when I joined RC...

Here's a pic before anything was installed:


You can see the backbone of my filtration behind the tank; my Marine Technical Concepts skimmer. It's a 4 foot air-driven unit that I'm not even sure if they make anymore. I've had that skimmer for close to 8 years and it has never failed me. It's the one piece of equipment that will follow me until it physically breaks. *knock on wood*

Obviously space in the stand for a sump is an issue, so the biggest sump that I could muster was a 16 gallon tank. I didn't want to mess with installing baffles, so I just put a 2 1/2 gallon tank inside the 16 to give any microbubbles a chance to rise before the return. Both the skimmer and the drain from the tank empty into the 2 1/2 gallon and I have to say, it's doing a pretty good job of eliminating bubbles in the display (so long as the return pump is more than an inch or so from the little tank. Here's a down and dirty shot from when it was getting set-up:



Lighting consists of 65 watts of power compacts that I transferred over from my old 29 gallon, as well as a 400 watt metal halide that I purchased with the new tank. Because it's such a drastic increase in intensity, I'm still gradually increasing the hours that the halide is running, so that all of the inhabitants can properly adjust. I'm up to about three hours now, with about seven hours of PC. The goal is about 6 hours of MH with an hour sunrise running only the PC's and an hour sunset.



I have to say, this is the first corner tank that I've ever owned and it is one of the most enjoyable that I've ever aquascaped. It's a nice change from the previous 29 gallon or the 55 gallon before that, which I always thought was way too narrow. Everything said and done, here's the first full tank shot that I took of the tank after aquascaping and adding all of the livestock from the original tank. I'm being ambitious and left a lot of height to allow for SPS growth.



You may notice the huge aiptasia immediately below the clown's tail, that's since been taken care of by my peppermint shrimp. You'll also notice a bit of cyano on the left side of the tank. That's also been taken care of; it pretty much withered away after pumping up the skimmer and adding a koralia 3 for additional flow. The last thing that you probably notice is the yellow plastic tunicates. That was an addition that my ex insisted on when we first set-up the 29 gallon. Unfortunately, it's since become part of the live rock, when a ruffly coraline algae grew over the base and an old monti capricornis grew on top of it. The only way to get it off now would be to literally crack open the rock, which I'm unwilling to do. I'll probably attach a millipora frag to it and see if I can completely overgrow it.

It looks so sparse now, but I've been slowly adding more specimens to help fill in:

Frogspawn


Rainbow Acan and xenia peeking from behind the rock


New cap trio (orange, tyree purple rim and idaho grape)


I'm amazed at how fast those caps are growing. Two weeks and you can already see where they are starting to spread (this photo was taken immediately after they were added to the tank, to chronicle their growth). Also note the green polyps in the left of that last shot. In my 29, those were brown and there was zero space between polyps. Since putting under the halide, the tentacles have shrunk down to about a quarter of their original size and they are now teal with a green mouth and speckling. Awesome! They are busily working to fill in the empty space...

Next comes some more montis and acros, a clam and whatever else catches my eye...

Anyway, it's a work in progress right now, but I just thought I'd share...

[scottallert]

Originally posted by reefscape15



New Pink/Green Trumpet


More to come! [/B]

that is not a trumpet it is a blastomussa, a nice one too.

[boret]

Originally posted by tahammo
To answer Boret's question, I'm leaning more toward softies with a few LPS. I haven't tried SPS's due to my current tank size, my torch and BTA take up most of the tank.
.....
.....

My other problem is water temp. I had gotten 2 new Jager heaters(250W) and neither one of them worked worth a crap no matter what they were set on. I took the one out of my 29(15 years old) along with another spare but right now the water is only 73. The things seem to be tolerating it though.

Talk to everyone later, Thomas

Based on what yo want to grow in your tank I think you have enough light. I was concerned that you might not have enough for SPS and more light hungry corals, but I think you are fine.

As far as temperature.... man you are lucky. My biggest problem is keeping the temp down. If my house A/C fails the temperature easily raises to 82-83 and that is with 2 fans blowing air in the sump and cool air being channeled inside of the canopy and hot air exhausted with 2 fans. I finally gave up and I am purchasing a Chiller... for peace of mind.

I am surprise that your temperature stays that low. You could have a faulty heater (or both could be faulty) but I am guessing that it has more to do with where you have the temp set in the heaters. I have several heaters and none of them have an accurate temp selector. In order to get to 78 I have to put the heater at 82. So maybe that's what is happening to you.

I gave up long time ago with timers, manually checking temps and relying on the heaters thermostats to control temp. I bought an AquaController III and I couldn't be happier. Neptune Systems just came out with a new model, the Apex, so in the following months you will find great deals in used ACIII. In my opinion it is one of the best investments for the tank.

Mine controls everything and I rely on it for Temp control, pH monitoring, light cycles, etc... By far, the best is to forget about temperature. The controller turns on heaters when needed (I have 2 for back up) and fans when it gets hot, and it will turn lights off if it gets too hot. And I can see everything on my iPhone or online, as well as controlling Calcium effluent pH , etc... or get notify by email with alerts. LOL I sound like a salesman!!!

[boret]

Originally posted by lotusstar
Hey gang, I have a lighting question. I have a 400w MH light hanging from a canopy over my tank. However that is the only light I have and don't want to run that all day long. I was hoping to maybe get some moon lights or something so I can still see into the tank even after the MH is off for the day. What my question is though is does anyone know a way to get some other lights without interfering with the MH light? I don't want to cast shadows in the tank, or burn anything up because of the heat bearing down from the MH. Is there maybe maybe perimeter lights that would go around the top edge of the tank? I tried browsing a couple sites but couldn't find anything. What do you guys use? suggest? deal with lights?
Oh yeah, 1 other thing I was considering was putting mirror on the back 2 walls of my tank. I did this for my FO tank years ago and it looked great, made the tank look huge when it was only 55g. Now I'm wondering how would mirrors reflecting light back into the tank affect corals? Good thing? Bad thing? Has anyone tried this?

I have 1 20K Radium 400W MH, 2 24' VHOs and 3 moonlights.



I am very happy with the setup, but with the close canopy it does get hot. Adding a chiller soon. I love that fact that I don't get any light flooding from the tank into the room.

What I might change is adding a 3rd VHO and I will lower the current VHOs a few inches. I dont have any shadows being cast on the tank.
Of course, with the MH on I get the highest par dead center and in goes lower as you move to the sides. So I try to put all the corals that need more light towards the center.

The Moonlights I took from a light fixture that someone was throwing away. I scavenged the LEDs and the transformer. The hole in the right is an aluminum tube that brings cooler air into the canopy. Only runs when the MHs are on. You can also see that I have a temp probe (one of those cheap digital ones) to see the temp inside of the canopy.

Right now I am running this photo period:

11:30am VHOs ON
14:30pm MH ON
20:30pm MH OFF
22:00pm VHOs OFF

Moonlights ON all the time... but I want to change that.

I am shortening the time the MHs are ON because I've been reading in RC that some people have better growth and coloration with shorter light periods.

So that's 10hrs 30 mins of VHOs
6 hrs of MH

[boret]

Originally posted by reefscape15
Red Colony Worm Rock, Watermelon Zoas, and Orange Plate

Purple and Green Favia i've had forever!

Pink Palys

New Pink/Green Trumpet

More to come!

Reefscape15, you have a great collection of corals!!! It is looking great.
How much do you supplement? Or do you rely only on adding trace elements with water changes?
What is your feeding regimen?

Again, looking great man!!

B.

[Ocean Mang]

Boret, What spectrum are your VHOs?

[boret]

Superstretch18,

How high is your canopy? I recently borrowed a PAR meter from my local club and you would be amaze and the amount of light you lose in just a few inches. I also recommend that you change your reflector. I am very pleased with the lumenarc mini that I am using. I originally had it all the way up inside the canopy, now I lowered so it is about 8 inches from the water. I am getting great growth.

[boret]

Originally posted by Ocean Mang
Boret, What spectrum are your VHOs?

UV Lighting Super Actinic 75W - 24" VHO Bulbs

100% actinic blue spectrum.
With the internal reflector I dont need to add extra hardware. I am running them with a 7 WorkHorse ballast.

[Michael]

nice to see this threads still alive and kicking, reefscape the tank is looking amazing, it shuts the rectangular tank owners up who slate our corners thats for sure.

[reefscape15]

Thank you everyone! And thanks for the proper ID on that blasto. I wasn't sure, but it looked so much like my old green Trumpet coral that I just assumed it was the same.

Boret - This may come as a shock, but I almost never supliment, and only feed the fish every 10-14 days. I'm running an undersized skimmer, so i'm very hesitant to put anything in the tank that I don't have to. I have a 2.5gal fuge with about 5" of sand. Between that and the 100+lbs of LR in the tank, i thing the buffering is naturally taken care of, and PH stays stable. The only thing I ever add is Purple UP maybe 2 or 3 times a month, Trace Elements every 2 weeks or so, and Iodide once a month. I use Kent Chlorine/Chloramine/Ammonia remover with the new water for water changes. Every morning I add about 20-30oz. of fresh water thats left over from my and my wifes water glasses at night. I dump them through the fuge, so i'm sure that doing that flushes some stuff out of the fuge to help keep the tank fed. Thats about it. I only do a water change about every 3 weeks. New skimmer is on the way soon, and Acan frag pack and lots of clams. I'd like to add a few more montis and acros, then i'll probably just let everything grow.

BTW I have a Wartskin Angler that I feed either frozen krill or live ghost shrimp every 10 days or so. I always take some krill and mash it up a lot in hopes that it feeds the coral. I also soak the food in the Seachem coral vitamin suppliment before feeding. Here's a shot of my little buddy, "Squirt"


Michael - Thanks! It's nice to see you back around here. I've been missing you and Jesse lately, but i've tried to keep the ball rolling. I always keep my eyes out for new corner tank owners, and i think i've refered 3 or 4 here! YAY!!! I'll keep the pics coming. I took a TON of them on my phone