In the pursuit of a reef in my living room.

[nevolved]

Hey everyone, I've been a lurker here for quite a while; I figured it was time to post something in return.

This tank has been up and running for about 3 months now, the specs are as follows:
65 Gallon
2 x 150watt Metal Halide (Sunpod 36")
2 Koralia 2 (650 gph)
AquaC Ev120 Skimmer (with a Mag 5)(with a washed daily filter sock for bubbles)
20 gallon sump (yes with bio balls currently =(, and a washed daily filter sock)(Rio pump with 550 gph return)
(The return is hooked to a UPS, which if my math is correct will run for about 12 hours if the power goes out.)
2LF PhosBan reactor
RO/DI unit hooked to a JBJ ATO

250Watt heater
50 pounds sand
80 pounds of live rock
about 150 snails including nerites, nessarius, limpets, etc
5 chitons
5 hermits (blue legged)
2 peppermint shrimp
1 tomato clown
1 banggai cardinal

a few corals, hard and soft (the hard corals I would actually like identified if you could =(, I thought that they were millepora and digitata)


Maintenance:
10 gallon weekly change
Carbon I change every 2 weeks
Phosban will be once a month
I dose twice daily B-Ionic 2 part
I run the Halides 9 hours a day
right now stats are:
0 amon/nit/nitra/phos
ph = 8.35
sg = 1.25
alk = 13
calc = 410
temp = 76 at night and 79 during the day (no top on)

I'm sure I will think of many things that I forgot to post later on. Please let me know what you think, what I should improve, and where I stand.

Have a great day,
Nathan

(Pictures will be posted as soon as I can figure it out, they are in my album right now.

[nevolved]

[Hop]

Looks like a good start!

[nevolved]

It's hard to see from the pictures, but one ph is in the back left corner, and the other is in the front right corner. The pump return comps in at an angle from the back left towards the front right of the tank. Is there a way that I can improve this flow? I've read that PH should be faced towards each-other; however, the koralias twist the water and don't send jets.


Also, I really want to get a fish that will help with algae (starting to see some hair). I think that a tang might have problems with the flow being too strong (or am I wrong about that?). Also I'm concerned that 65g is not big enough for a tang or foxface type. I have also considered a LMB, but read that they can munch on polyps. If anyone could suggest something, please let me know.

Thanks,
Nathan

[Mizer67]

Tangs don't mind flow, but a 65 is probably too small for a tang (unless there is one I don't know about). They like lots of room to roam.
Beware the Tang Police!
Lawnmower Blennies are frequently recommended but may starve to death once the tank is cleaned up. I haven't personally heard of anyone having a problem with them munching coral.
Many will recommend getting rid of the bioballs. They compete against the LR for nitrite even though the LR is more efficent at complete denitrification. BioBalls tend to become nirtrate factories over time. I would yank out a hand full every tiem you clean the tank.
Looks like a good start.
Good luck and welcome to TRT!

[Loverotties]

Looking good!

[hng]

Tank looks good. If it were me, I would hook one of the Koralias to the UPS instead of the return pump - the Koralia uses much less energy (last much longer) and will provide way more water motion in the display tank than the Rio. A tang is probably not a good long term choice for that size of tank. What type of algae are you trying to get rid of?

[b16drag]

Try some emerald crabs for your algae problems. They did a good job taking care of bubble algae and some hair algae in my tank. But again it really depends on how bad your algae problem is...

[nevolved]

Thanks guys for all the great responses.

Hmm yeah Koralia probably would work better then, I think they are only a couple of watts each.

I'm trying to get rid of a couple spots of bubble algae, and hair algae.

Yeah, tang probably is too big.

So the live rock that I have will be enough to not have anything in the sump?

Thanks again guys,
Nathan

[Jnicho]

I think you have plenty of LR...I probably have less than 100 lbs in my 125 and it is doing fine (I like to aquascape with a few smaller mountains and keep some open areas)...The rule for many years was 1.5-2 lbs per gallon, but I think most agree now that it's not necessary to have that much especially if it's nice porous rock.

[nevolved]

Ahh, cool (about the LR). Actually, I didn't state it in my initial post, but the live rock has a very large amount of surface area. It's hard to see from the pictures, but all the LR is suspended over the sand. I built a PVC frame (with hundreds and hundreds of holes to allow water to move through), which all the LR sits on.

I need to take a picture of a crab that I just discovered in the tank. It is about an inch from side to side, has red eyes, and is greyish/blue. I have a cup with some mysis shrimp in the bottom(in pantyhose to keep it together) leaning up against the hole he lives in, set as a trap to hopefully get him out of there.

Thanks again for all the great info everyone.
Nathan