# My 65gal Reef



## kay-bee (Dec 6, 2006)

Here's an over view of my 65gal Reef Tank:










*Established*: 2006 (no sump, no chiller, no heater)

*Filtration*:
- Live Rock (lost track, but about 70lbs of live rock, fiji 'dry rock', & 'reef-saver' rock)
- Deep Sand Bed (3"-4" depth)
- Octopus BH-800S (hang-on-back type) protein skimmer (powered by Sicce PSK2500 pump), rated for 130gal tank
- Dual Phosban Reactors. Reactor-1 utilizes pelletized granular ferric oxide (GFO). The outflow of Reactor 1 feeds into Reactor-2 which utilizes high grade carbon.
- Filstar XP2 Rena Canister filter configured for mechanical (100 & 50 micron filter pads) and chemical filtration (chemipure); microfiltration pads cleaned weekly).

*Circulation*: Koralia 3 (850gph) and a Koralia Evolution 1050 (1050gph): 1900gph; additional circulation provided by the XP2 canister (+250gph).

*Typical Water Parameters*: 
Temperature: 76-78F
Salinity: 1.027
ph: 8.4-8.5
Calcium: 420ppm
Alkalinity: 8-11dkH
Nitrate: Undetectable
Phosphate: Undetectable

*Fish*:
2x Azure Damsels
1x Royal Gramma

*Clean Up Crew*:
About a half-dozen blue hermit crabs
Two nassarius snails
1x maroon serpent sea star
1x Emerald Crab

*Corals*:
Various SPS, LPS and soft corals.

*Lighting*:
Aquactinics TX5 fixture (with individual lamp reflectors); T5HO bulb configuration with the following T5HO bulbs (from front to back):

Bulb 1. ATI Blue Plus (450nm)
Bulb 2. IceCap Twilight (460nm)
Bulb 3. GE Daylight (6500K)
Bulb 4. ATI Blue Plus (450nm)
Bulb 5. ATI Purple Plus

Photo-period: 1pm-10:40pm

Some pics:


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

Now I'm glad I'm upgrading my tank equipment...

Nice kay-bee. Really nice.


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## 1Sik1500 (Jul 18, 2011)

Very nice. Picture quality is good too. what camera are you using?


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## Fishy Freak (Jun 1, 2011)

Lovley tank, it's beautiful!


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## Danio king (Feb 25, 2011)

makes me want to start a SW tank! but i don't have the money for it....


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## kay-bee (Dec 6, 2006)

Thanks!

I forgot to mention the wattage of the T5HO bulbs over this tank. They're 39-watt bulbs (for a total of 195-watts).



1Sik1500 said:


> what camera are you using?


I took these photo's with a NIKON COOLPIX S1 (5.1 megapixels). I wish I had a better camera to capture moving fish, though.


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## elitesrock (May 4, 2011)

Wow, when I'm done with my 65 gallon Cichlid Tank I might try something like this.


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## kay-bee (Dec 6, 2006)

Minor changes since July:

LIGHTING
I replaced the IceCap Twilight (460nm) bulb and rearranged the T5HO bulb configuration so now it is: (from front to back)

Bulb 1. ATI Blue Plus (450nm)
Bulb 2. ATI Purple Plus
Bulb 3. GE Daylight (6500K)
Bulb 4. ATI Blue Plus (450nm)
Bulb 5. ATI Blue Plus (450nm)

In about 6 months I plan on replacing the ATI Purple Plus with a Giesemann Pure Actinic bulb (which I had previously been using). 

SALT
I haven't been able to acquire the salt mix I predominently use (Oceanic) for quite some time. Whenever that happens I use Reef Crystals as an alternative however this time I'm going to try Seachem's Reef Salt.

LIFE
One of my hermit crabs is now occupying one of my nassarius snail shells so now only one remains. I'm not sure if it died and the hermit crab scavenged it or if it killed it. I've had these two particular nassarius snails for a number of years now. The hermits were introduced this year.

The emerald crab has been MIA for quite some time and is presumed lost.

I've rearranged some LPS coral positions.

I've had the fish for over 5 years now and they were probably several years old when I purchased them. I wonder how long damsels and gramma's live.

CHEMICALS
Not really a change but I didn't mention them previously. 
I use three chemical additives in this tank.

1. Baking soda (sodium *bi*carbonate) to increase alkalinity/replace carbonates. I typically add 2 teaspoons of baking soda 2-3 times a week.

2. 'Baked' baking soda (sodium carbonate) to maintain/increase pH.
I add about a teaspoon (in two half-tsp increments on consecutive days) when required (which is about once or twice a month)

3. I replenish calcium with calcium chloride. I usually add about 4 teaspoons once or twice a week whencalcium drops to or under 400ppm, starting a few weeks after a water change (calcium starts off high and then drops over time as the corals uptake it). Speaking of water changes, I do very large water changes (~45-50%) about every two months. I'm using BulkReefSupply's powdered calcium chloride. Prior to that I used Seachem's liquid Reef Complete (which contains calcium chloride, magnesium chloride and strontium chloride).


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

Absolutely beautiful.


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## Murloc (Jul 26, 2012)

I like the color of your Zoo's and Mushrooms. Very nice tank. And also thank you for posting the details of everything, that is helpful to know. 

I have been seeing a lot of really cool colored zoanthids lately. I remember not too long ago it seemed like there were not very many colors to choose from. Now I walk into some places and they have frags of every color imaginable. And some of the clams that have been coming in are just explosive! You can do so much more with salt water then 5 years ago, especially with the light upgrades and more LEDS being used... It makes me want to put up a reef again really bad haha


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## Murloc (Jul 26, 2012)

Also, I would love to see more up close pics of your soft corals... Not sure if you have any hard corals in there I can't tell in the wide shot view. I could never get good under water pic in my salt tanks, and i'm not sure why.

Damsel Fish usually only live to be about 4-5 years old. After my Damsel fish died, I got a Blue Tang... Named him Wu-Tang haha. He did a good job of keeping my tank clean.


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## kay-bee (Dec 6, 2006)

Thanks for the comments! My system is nearly 6 years old now.



Murloc said:


> Also, I would love to see more up close pics of your soft corals...


Blue Snow Flake polyps (Sarcothelia edmondsoni)









Pulsating Xenia









Toadstool leather (there's also a neon green one in the tank, pic previously posted)









Clove polyps/Clavularia











Murloc said:


> Not sure if you have any hard corals in there...


I'm assuming you mean SPS/small-polyp, stoney corals (many of the corals I have are stoney corals but are of the LPS/large-polyp, stoney variety), and are some are pictured in my first posts of this thread.

I currently have three SPS corals (encrusting hydnophora, monitopora capricornis and pocillipora), here's a picture of the latter: (it has encrusted onto the glass, the current encrustment is about the area of a adult's palm):










System updates:

LIGHTING: 5x 39w T5HO bulbs
Bulb 1. ATI Blue Plus (450nm)
Bulb 2. ATI Coral Plus
Bulb 3. Giesemann Pure Actinic 
Bulb 4. GE Daylight (6500K)
Bulb 5. ATI Blue Plus (450nm)

I replaced my koralia powerheads with sicce voyager's. I had problems with the koralia's not starting back up after being turned off or they would re-start in reverse. I needed more reliable wavemaker powerheads. The koralia's have been placed in my african cichlid tanks.









I use a Neptune Aquacontroller (Apex Lite) which controls my powerheads, lights, cooling fan, auto top off, etc as well as monitor salinity, pH and temperature, etc.

SALT: Currently using BrightWell's NeoMarine salt mix.

CHEMICALS
1. Sodium carbonate: to maintain pH/replenish carbonates, I add 1.5 teaspoons to my auto-top off container three days a week.

2. I replenish calcium with BulkReefSupply's calcium chloride. I usually add about tablespoon once or twice a week if required.

3. I currently replenish magnesium with Seachem's Reef advantage magnesium.

LIFE: Soft/LPS/SPS corals; Earlier this year I had a massive anthelia (waving hand coral) meltdown. This soft coral, which I've had for over 5 years, was growing at near-weed like proportions throughout the tank. Only about a half-dozen polyps survived. Not sure what caused this.

I have the same three fish (since 2006) , serpent sea star and nassarius snail, an emerald crab and maybe a half-dozen hermit crabs. In less than 3 weeks I will have had my damsels for 6 years, and I'm guessing they were at least a year or so old at time of purchase which puts them at 7+ years old. They're showing no signs of slowing down.


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## Murloc (Jul 26, 2012)

kay-bee said:


> I have the same three fish (since 2006) , serpent sea star and nassarius snail, an emerald crab and maybe a half-dozen hermit crabs. In less than 3 weeks I will have had my damsels for 6 years, and I'm guessing they were at least a year or so old at time of purchase which puts them at 7+ years old. They're showing no signs of slowing down.


Dang! Well, I am sure that he is very happy and healthy, that would be cool to see how long he lives

Yes by "hard corals" I meant SPS corals and the like. they look great, your clove polyps look beautiful as well. I always have kept a piece of "Pulsating" Xenia in all my cages. I never get tired of watching them move, and even though they are common they are still one of my favorites hah. 

That is a shame about your Anthelia, I once had something similar happen. I had a nice group of Pink Anthelia ( Xenia Anthelia glauca ) that had a nice hold around my tank, and stayed for about a year and a half that way. In less then a week maybe 1/2 of it died. But that was my own fault. I was being lazy and not checking the parameters and my salinity went from 1.029 to 1.024- and the PH spiked up to well over 9. I still don't know what really caused it, but I was bummed. When you have a long time established tank, and something goes wrong which causes you to lose something you have grown for a long time it is really discouraging :/ That was the only thing that I lost, I also had massive display of Zoanthids ( I called the color watermelon because they were kind if a hybrid that grew in my tank ) that covered one side, and the entire back of my tank. I had about a square foot of them lol. They weathered everything. Close to the break down of that tank, I wasn't doing water changes, I wasn't adding salt or baking powder or anything, for well over 3 months! All I did was add RO when it got low. Yet those Zo's flourished to the very end


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## kay-bee (Dec 6, 2006)

The anthelia is sure to bounce back. It's already sprouting up in various places in the tank. 

Some years ago I removed nearly all of it from this tank (due to its invasivness), and from tissue fragments it rebounded in less than a year.

From my observations anthelia (which is also a xeniid) appeared to be hardier than xenia; I am not sure why the tons of pulsating xenia I have in the tank were completely unaffected by what ever caused the anthelia meltdown.

The anthelia in better days:
[yt]HiyBRgrR2t8[/yt]


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## Cory1990 (Jun 14, 2012)

Beautiful tank!! I love it. Hopefully my sw tanks will look this good one day!


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

Cory1990 said:


> Beautiful tank!! I love it. Hopefully my sw tanks will look this good one day!


I've been curious. I'd like to see your SW tanks


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## PuterChickFL (Feb 23, 2010)

this tank is beyond awesome!!


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