Frogman's 90 gallon no sump mixed reef

[Frogmanx82]

Hello, I'm Mike, otherwise known as Frogman

I set this tank up in August 2009 as an upgrade to a fish only 75 gallon.

I don't have any photos showing how bad the 75 had gotten, completely covered in red algae, only half the lights working, but here's what I started with in July before realizing the tank was so scratched up that it was never going to look good, so shortly after this photo, I drained the 75 and replaced it with a 90.

I have no space behind the tank.

The 90 was an even tighter fit

When I set up the 90, I refitted the fluval with 5 inches of sand in the bottom, cut big sections out of the center compartment to divert the flow. I just have a couple pieces of live rock in that compartment. There are hosts of mysid shrimp, isopods, and bristleworms living in the sand and center of the filter. The top section has biopellets a biodegradable carbon source for nitrate consuming bacteria and a thin section of sponge.

The returns to the tank are piped under the sand and come out in six underwater jets. If you look hard you can see 4 in the photo below.

Here is the 90 shortly after set up.

The candy cane has been the fastest grower.
Oct

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Here is the October 2009 shot. Kenya tree, xenia, finger leather, cabbage leather and the candy cane top right in the barnacle tree.

I drilled the collection cups for the Tunze nano skimmers to drain into gallon containers under the tank.

I also have R2 Extreme moonlights that work pretty well.

This was a mistake, don't buy them

So here I was in November

And December with frogspawn added and a change of background. Keeping the back clear of coraline looks better to me.

Found a ball anemone growing next to a pink sponge.

Crabs and snails love the algae wafers.

Xenia takes some work to control. I'm cutting and using frag rocks to export it out of the tank. My LFS is giving me a $10 credit for every one he sells.

January full tank

The crocea clam has done well

So have the bangaii cardinals, the male has a mouth full of babies.

The little guys didn't make it too long though. All gone in two days.

Latest of the clam

Where I'm at today

Water parameters are salinity 1.025, calcium 440, mag 1380, alk 6-7 (I'm having to add baking soda) pH 8.4, Nitrate 0, phosphate 0.01, temp 78.5

 

[BigAl07]

GREAT looking tank

Hello and welcome to RS! Great to see another CAROLINIAN on the boards.

Are you a member of any local clubs?

 

[Frogmanx82]

So here is a long overdue update. All the fish are doing great even my 4 clowns. For those who say you can't have more than two, I think that may apply to wild caught, tank raised are definitely different. I got a mandarin a few weeks ago. It's still pretty shy but seems to be doing ok. I still have hundreds of bugs crawling on the glass. Cheatomorpha is growing out of the filter intake on the left.

The ricordia and green mushrooms have really grown and so has the acan and clam.

I'm not sure what to do about the macro algae. I'll need to control it, but I think it looks good.

I got medieval on the xenia and pulled the center rock out. I just about pulled it all off. One little piece left. I'm hoping I can contain it on the black coral stump.

The kenya tree has not been invasive at al and now seems to be in a bit of a funk.

Not sure if something is going on with the frogspawn as well. It seems a bit more withdrawn lately.

The montis are doing well, growing nicely.

The candy cane continues to do well and I picked up some smaller ones which you can see in the center tank shots.

You can see the ball anemone and the sponge are still around.

Todays water test, salinity 1.025, pH 8.2, calcium 400, mag 1275, kH 6 which I know is low, I added some baking soda. Nitrate 0, phosphate 0.01

 

[molsen187]

nice shots. the low kh could be why the kenya tree and frogspawn are sulkings.

 

[Eric]

The tanks looks great, welcome Back to RS!

 

[GrendelPrime]

welcome to RS and those are some nice tank pics

 

[Frogmanx82]

Thanks, one thing on the water is my summer temp stays around 84. Not sure if that could be a factor as well.Not sure I want to go the chiller route. I've read mixed opinions on the temperature, reefs can certainly get that warm.

The first thing would be to get the kH up to 8 or 9. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[landshark]

Frogmanz82 that is a great looking tank, I hope I can get mine looking good like that. Also those are some great pictures, what is your secrets? I cant wait for the next photo session.

 

[Frogmanx82]

I thought I would update the log. I had some issues this summer with steady high tank temps 85 to 86. Everything seemed fine except the frogspawn which started shedding, shrinking, and one of the heads turned white. You'll notice I was just starting to notice this in the post above. I have a glass top and I removed the front panes in late July. That helped temps right away and the tank seldom went above 80. The frogspawn responded well and you can't see any issues with it today.

That little sprig of xenia I missed ended up being 4 huge stalks and I took the rock out again. I think I have it pretty will confined to the black coral root which is easy to pull them from.

I got a new mandarin, really nice looking. Not sure what happened to the other one, it only lasted a couple weeks and disappeared. I have had this one only a week.

The hector's goby died. It looked like it just stopped eating. It was doing so well for a year, not sure what happened.

The crocea started moving on me and fell into the cabbage leather so I switched it with the finger leather. So far so good.

The zoas and mushrooms are really starting to spread, I may need to figure out what to do about them, but for now they look good.

I have aptasia and have seen one berghia nudibranch still running around from when I got six last winter. Not sure how many I have, but they aren't keeping up with the aptasia so probably just the one.

Everything else has done well, the cardinals breed every two months. I had a baby make it 3 months in the 10 gallon tank, but it never did adjust to frozen food much. I think it was just eating pods.

A summer of not changing the water regularly has left calcium low at 340, mag 1200, nitrates non detect, phosphate .01, pH 8.3, kH 7, SG 10.25

 

[Frogmanx82]

About time for another update. The full tank shot to start it out. The light is in dusk mode. 2x ATI blue plus and 1 fiji purple.

I picked up some different red algaes. These are doing the best.

The yellow watchman is doing pretty well

And the tailspot blenny is fun to watch.

Had a problem with the bangaiis. The female jumped all over the male and took his tail off before I could get her out. He had just let a mouthful of babies go. The female is now in the 10 gallon QT tank. I hope this tail will grow back. Its been about 2 weeks. They have been together over a year, I didn't see this coming. You can also see some of the other red algae I added.

Then there is the xenia. So far I have it pretty well confined. The glass is the best place to push it as its very easy to remove from the glass.

The open brain just gets bigger.

My four clowns still get along great, together for about 18 months. They are all hosting in the caulerpa prolifica.

So the macro algae is doing pretty well. I did have this happen several weeks ago.

I found out what going sexual looked like and pulled it out. I haven't seen any more of that going on. I'm definitely keeping an eye out.

The mandarin isn't pictured, but its doing fine. I haven't had any fish losses in a year and a half other than one purple firefish.

That's about it. Water parameters are ok. I had to get on some tech m to get the calcium and magnesium back to reasonable numbers, currently 380 on the calcium and 1290 on the mag. I'd like to get to 420 and 1350. I had a couple spots of hair algae but when I boosted the mag, they went away.

 

[Frogmanx82]

So now its two years since I started this tank and a good while since I updated.

Here's the tank. I still have the 4 clowns, I lost the male bangaii. He never really recovered from the beat down he got from the female after holding the eggs 3 weeks. The mandarin looks great, he doesn't eat anything I put in the tank, ever, and I've had him now about 9 months. The coco worm was a bust. Died after about 8 months. the yellow watchman and royal gramma are good additions. Still have the blood shrimp and brittle star. The crocea clam is good. The frogspawn seems a little contracted, but not as bad as it was a month ago when my alkalinity got low.

The big difference is the red algae that has taken off. I love this stuff. Grows like mad and doesn't anchor to anything or break off bits that get all over the tank. I think I'm going to get all the chaeto out of the tank. This stuff is so much cleaner.

I added this guy. He single handed cleaned up the aiptasia, didn't eat all my feather dusters, and seems a model citizen. I guess I got lucky. The algae he's on is a bit odd. Very fuzzy, attaches a bit but not too aggressive. Pods love to crawl through it.

More red algea

I've been able to keep the xenia under control. Now limited to the back glass and a couple small rocks I'm going to pull out and get some store credit. For all the hassle, its still an amazing softy. Click on it to see it in motion.



Good growth on the montis

Zoas are spreading

What is that green stalk poking out to the right of the acan?

Well thanks for looking. Appreciate any comments.

 

[mcentire1123]

Tank looks great!

 

[Richard 1]

I'm impressed. Very natural looking with the macro algae and mature coral colonies.

 

[saltlife305gio]

sooooo beautiful