55 gallon SPS reef tank- 5/31 Tear Down

So as many of you know, I maintained a 20 gallon nano aquarium for the better part of 2.5 years which was inhabited by many SPS species, along with LPS and soft coral.

I had many ups and downs with that tank. I suffered red bugs twice, had a pH issue from sheetrock falling in my tank, which wiped out half of my mini colonies and then battled outrageous bacteria blooms. Ibtoyed with reef breeders LEDs, halides, a rapid led setup, a rapid led setup w/ t-5s and, reef breeders again and settled on a 250 watt halide again.



2 years ago I bought a 55 gallon aquarium and built a very nice stand to support it. This stand and tank was stored in a room in my apartment. I was on the 3rd floor and didn't feel comfortable setting it up considering the weight it would total.



Several weeks ago my roommate and I decided that we would make a move to another unit in our complex after the smoke in our apartment became unbearable. Our down stairs neighbors smoked in their bathrooms and when the vented it, it went into my roommates bathroom, which was the master bath. With his room connecting to his bathroom, his room often smelled like a bar; he was forced to sleep in the living room.

Last weekend we made the move and during the move, I took the opportunity to setup the 55 gallon aquarium.

I lost 1 fish and 1 coral in the move. The coral was an acropora plans frag and the fish was a damsel.

The transfer was quick, taking roughly 24 hours. I added the sand from my 20 and no more than tha;. It's a thin sand bed. I added 6 pieces of dry rock to go along with the 4 pieces of live rock from my 20 gallon.



I decided to continue using metal halides. I bought two single ended retrofit kits that utilize two phoenix 14 bulbs. The reflectors are spider parabolic reflectors sold by luminarc and the ballasts are a galaxy adjustable and and a lumitek adjustable ballast.



Today I decided to add an actinic bulb that I will utilize 2 hours before and after my 8 hour halide light cycle.



I have roughly 65x turnover rate with my power heads. I have 2 1400 gph Koaralias to the left and right sides with a WP25 on the back pointing forward.

For filtration I utilize a skimmer rated at 100 gph, a UV bulb and a sock filter. I have chaeto in my sump but my light isn't hung underneath.

I run a calcium reactor and an ATO as well. I just recently purchased an RODI anticipating a lot more evaporation. I previously used store bought jugs of distilled or went to a friends place. This was too inconvienent, so I bought a 4-stage RODI.



For live stock I have a true perc., a six line wrasse, blue damsel, lyre tail anthias and a peppermint shrimp.

For coral, I have red and purple montipora cap, A. yongie, A. valida, A. vermiculata, A. millepora (sunset, rose, blue), A. prostrata, pink birdsnest, green birdsnest, ponape birdsnest, 3 favias, frogspawn, dozens of red and blue mushrooms, 3 pociliporas, candy cane, and various encrusting montipora. Many of these I have had for a few years.

I will add progression photos and updates periodically to this thread so others can enjoy in my experience with me.

 

Here are a few starter shots of a few of my coral.

 

I will also add some parameters for a baseline.

Salinity: 1.025
Calcium: 420
Alk: 3.1
Temp: 76-82
Mag: 1450

 

Looking good!

 

Hey that looks really really good. Interesting that you stayed with the MH, you know I love that choice. Your corals look very colorful and nice and healthy. Nice job on the move. Loosing one fish and a coral is frustrating but not a bad loss considering you made the move quick into a newly set up systems, good job.

 

Thanks. After toying with every lighting option under the sun, I decided that halides cannot be beaten. I'm not concerned about energy costs, its $0.25 more per day. I'm in the hobby to enjoy it and to me halides bring more enjoyment.

Most of the coral are looking pretty good. There are a few still a little pale or browned out.

 

What a great new start Kevin. And no more smoke to deal with - that will help with the tank time.

 

Matt, thanks for the compliment. Here is a pic of the sump, ATO and and calc reactor under the tank.

 

I have some story voltage in my tank. Using a multimeter to figure it out. I'll report back.

 

I measured 43 volts. I unplugged everything one by one and nothing dropped the voltage by more than 2-4 volts. However, turning off one strip dropped it to 29 volts. Turning off the other (with the first on) dropped it to 25 volts.

It seems like everything is adding up to 43 volts and not one thing in particular.

Could it be the power strips themselves?