Todd's 60 gallon reef
 

Alrighty, I started setting this up in November of 2010. After making the stand and installing the plumbing it was time to put in some water. The live rock was added in late November and was left to cycle for a month.

After the cycle was complete I set up a quarantine tank and added my first fish. I have been slowly adding to the tank ever since.

Here are a few pics of the tanks progress.

First few months: quite a bit of algae
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_0807.jpg

taken around April: a few corals and fish added
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_1256.jpg
taken in June: starting to get growth from SPS
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_1824.jpg

Here is a few pics of the livestock

http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_1706.jpg
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_1245.jpg] http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_1869.jpg
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_1809.jpg http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_1782.jpg

Haha, love this pic.

ya the blenny (Backster) NEEDS to be seen at all times lol

it's like he's trying to drop a photobomb on the clown goby :lol:

I may spend too much time on Facebook...i was fiercely looking for the "Like" button.
Awesome pic! Too cute!

Thanks for the comments, just about time for an update I think!

I like your aquascape, looks very natural! Looks like things are coming along nicely.

:laluot_18:

LOL me too
*LIKE*

It has been a while since my last update so well here it goes;

Back in December my poor Blenny went missing, and well I am sure that the shrimp made a lunch out of him. Went on a weekend ski trip and came back to everything status quo minus the blenny.

Since then I have added a few corals and chromis to add a little color to the tank.
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_4813.jpg
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_4840.jpg

I also have had a cyano/flat worm fight on my hand.

I have done regular water changes and the cyano is decreasing little by little.

The flat worms are a bit more concerning. I bought flat worm exit to try and rid the problem. I syphoned as many of the little buggars as i could. Then started adding the fwe. it started to work after about 10minutes. I then did a small water change to try and get rid of all of the dead flat worms. My wrasse was looking not so good after the treatment, to the point I thought I would have to pull him out. I did another water change and the wrasse started to move around and act more like himself.

http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_4837.jpg
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_4836.jpg

A week after the treatment there still is a large number of flat worms (a fraction of what there was though). I will try another dose this weekend.

Here are a few more tank pics

top down pic of an sps
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_4855.jpg

another top down (colors a bit off after the treatment)
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_4852.jpg

http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_4847.jpg

http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_4810.jpg

http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_4849.jpg

Update time!

Over the last month or so my T5 fixture has decided to slowly die. It was a 6 bulb fixture but I had two ballasts die on me. So instead of trying to fix the problem I decided to make my own LED setup.

I wanted a canopy as I have had three fish jump out and land on the carpet. i also wanted to be able to move the fixture easily so that I could reach in to clean and move stuff around.

My solution for this was to place the fixture on drawer rails, therefore allowing me to slide the light back and forth when ever I need.

Thanks to Modular LED here is the build.

http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMAG0320.jpg

unpacking the box!
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_7065.jpg

First of many different layout ideas
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_7066.jpg

after wiring and placing the lenses on
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMAG0326.jpg

the canopy
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMAG0322.jpg

The light pushed back for tank access
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMAG0331.jpg

Light pushed forward
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMAG0332.jpg

Light turned on for the first test Everything works!!
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMAG0333.jpg
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_7081.jpg

light in canopy
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMAG0340.jpg
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_7082.jpg

just the Blues
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_7098.jpg
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_7092.jpg

top down all on
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMAG0342.jpg

The corals had lost their colour because of the dying T5 fixture, but are slowly coming back.

I am very impressed with the LED's. I love that shimmer!

Tank looks great. However, I don’t think you have enough light over that tank to keep your sps happy. I did a quick count but I think I seen around 40 leds at probably 3 watts each. Over a tank that size I would have double that amount or added a couple of t5's with it in your canopy. Just a suggestion.

With the drivers I picked I do have the ability to add a bunch more, but with my tank being so narrow (13") i might not need much more.

I have the whites at 28% and the blues at 40% right now and will be going up a little bit as the corals adjust. With the whites even at 50% it seems very bright. So i doubt I will ever need to go above that.

Thanks for the input, i had the same concern when i started. Hopefully I wont need any more.

i have a 93 gallon cube thats only 30x30 so a small footprint. I have an ecotech radion which is 120w as well but with 5w crees and i have 4 t5's. in theory i have almost double the light over a simlar sized area. I have the radion going at full and i still want to add more light.

If you are getting good growth and color then i wouldnt worry about it. If you notice slow or no growth, or bad color i would add more leds or t5's. you basically only have 30watts over each foot of the tank.

I will definitely take that into consideration.

The corals have already started to get some different color. As they were washed out by the T5's and for a month I only had 2 bulbs working.

Time will tell

I am interested and how things turn out. I think you have a great set up and some nice corals in there.

Thank you, and your 50 gallon tank that you have/had was one of the inspirations when I was laying out mine. I Got a long way to go to get to a reef that impressive tho.

Thanks for the compliment. I definitely miss that tank. It took a few years to get it to that point and with one bad mistake the majority of it was gone. Keep posting updates as your corals respond to the LEDs I am interested on how the respond you your new lighting.

This is an over-due update. Been a bit of an adjustment switching to LED's. After my T5's started crapping out my corals were a little worse for ware. most had browned or gone completely white. I started the led's low and gradually increased the intensity.

I noticed that the colors were not doing any better so i did some water tests. All seemed ok, except I have been using cheap test kits. So I bought some Salifert kits and after I did a water change I realized I was very low in Alkalinity which I never really tested as with my older tests it was always the same. My tests were 5.7dkh Alk (used salifert now) , 550 in cal (normally keep this at 410-450) Mag was 1120. Nitrate was .2ppm i believe (still don't know if this is low or high) Phosphate was 0.

I have since lowered my lighting intensity and removed some of the lenses to spread the light a bit better. And gotten my params back to what they should be.

These are some pics of a coral I had that was not doing so good but seems to be coming around since the adjustments.

before
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7a7d6101.jpg

after
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...ps02cadb4d.jpg


This is one coral that I got last year and seems to be doing good

http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMG_2750.jpg
Now
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...ps971f0819.jpg
as you can see some corals are not doing as good. Although they do have polyps, so I wonder if I should still hold out hope.

And these are some fish pics

My Filamented Wrasse (Thanks Steve! Red Coral)
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...psf61f5e78.jpg http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...psedb7ec99.jpg

feeding time!
http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/...ps77310e2a.jpg

If your coral still has polyps its not dead and still has hope! Just a bit of TLC should bring it around. Or it might just die. Could go either way.

A few look like they will die, and a couple that may start to get better. Some have ok color but grow well. My monti plate is 5 or 6 times bigger than this time last year, had to break some off because it was blocking light for others