Seth's 45 gallon adventure

[chefvittles]

Well, where to start. My tank has been up and running for about 2 years next month. I have made just about every mistake you can without fully crashing my tank. Its been a fun and expensive trial and error adventure. I started with a 20 gallon long with about 20 lb of live rock and t5 light. I knew nothing about ph, calcium, KH or salinity. Looking back knowing what I know now, I don't know how anything survived in there. I now have a 45 gallon 24x24 tank. Im running 175 watt 14,000 K metal halide, t5 and blue nocturnal viewing lights. I have a 75 gallon rated sump and refugium. So when I started out two years ago, I was running a can filter and t5 lights on my 20 gallon long tank. I thought that it looked really good. LOL Well, it was a good start. This is what the tank looked like before I changed over to my 45 gallon.

This is what my tank looks like now.

I have taken pictures every week of my tank to track growth. Ill be sharing pictures and everything I have learned in the process. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. I apologize for the picture quality, they were taken on my Iphone. Thanks, Seth

 

[chefvittles]

So when I upgrade from the 20 gallon to the 45, I decided to go bare bottom. I believe that its called the Berlin System. I have 4 water heads in my tank increasing water flow. I removed the glass lid from the tank, the metal halide were increasing the temp by 5 degrees.

This is what it looked like after I quickly got everything back into the tank. I figured that I could start aqua scaping later that week.

Doesn't look that great, but have to start some place. It was a lot of fun building up the 60 lb of live rock. At this time the tank has been up and running for 7 months. I started testing calcium and KH at this time. My calcium was off the charts at 550 and KH was at 7 Oops. That probably why I didnt have any coralline algae growth. My water levels are back in line running at Calcium of 420-450, KH of 11.2, salinity of 1.025 and nitrates +5 which im not too happy with. Im using Ohio city water which is really bad, looking at getting an RO unit for Christmas.

 

[chefvittles]

Ive been working on increasing my water flow and decreasing the dead spots in my tank. Now that I have my overflow box working correctly, I haven't flooded the floor in a long time. I had the worst time setting up the overflow box. Every time I turned on the return pump from the sump, I would overflow my main tank. Luckily I was home for each time. I couldn't keep the siphon going on the overflow box. Not enough water was being drained out of the main tank, and too much was being pumped back in. This is a recipe for disaster. Who knew that a simple aqua lifter pump could fix all my issues.

I added a lid on my overflow box to decrease the water sound. Works really well for being a $5.00 fix.

Its in need of a good cleaning. Whats cool about my tank is that you have a 360 view of the tank. Its not up against a wall, you can walk all around and view from all sides. Its great to crash on the couch and relax.

 

[ChrisOaty]

sweet man, cube's def. gunna be my next tank. I think i'mma drill the center of of it and have an internal overflow going up the middle. that way i can have all the cords/cables go down there too for a nice clean look.

 

[Uslanja]

Very Nice tank! We're tagging along, nice read!

 

[tnwillia]

Great tank!

 

[GrendelPrime]

nice upgrade and welcome

 

[chefvittles]

Its For the first 5 months I was running Power Compact. After doing more research I went to AquaticLife T5 HO light fixture with 420/460nm and 10,000K lamps. That was a huge improvement from the PC. Im now running 175 watt 14,000 K metal halide, 4 x 24in. t5 and 8 blue LED nocturnal viewing lights. I wish when I first started out that someone would have just told me what I needed. I really wish I knew about Reef Sanctuary.

So here are a few growth pictures of my Encrusting Green Montipora. This is over about 6 months.

I love the over the tank pictures, some really beautiful pics.

Ive been fragging from the upper right corner.

 

[Reefmack]

Thanks for starting a new tank thread, and giving a lot of background info. and pictures - nice setup!

 

[Uslanja]

Hi chefvittles! Some very nice growth! Your leather looks fantastic! Are you running carbon due to the leather? Is all of that monti growth from one frag? We really like that your tank is viewable 360. And your photos are very nice with tons of detail!

(Off topic but going by your handle; are you a chef?)

 

[Xenomorph25]

Great looking tank! I love the 360 viewing, wonderful idea.

That monti is amazing!

 

[chefvittles]

Hello everyone, thanks for looking at my tank. The only thing that I'm running is chemi-pure elite. Its helping me remove phosphates. I’m using Ohio city water that has a lot of unwanted extras in it. Besides that, a protein skimmer, refugium and a good light keep my tank looking healthy. All that green Monti growth is from a 1x1in. frag about 16 months ago. Yes Uslanja I'm a chef. I'm a personal chef for a family. Its the best job ever.

Back to my tank. Here are a few pictures of my refugium. It was a very last minute idea. I was looking at my sump and thought that I might be able to fit a small tank down into it. I added a 2.5 gallon tank next to my protein skimmer. I added 3lb of live rock, some random corals that were laying on the bottom of my tank not doing well. Im running out of space and had somewhat given up on them. I added JBJ Nano-Glo 4LED Magnetic Refugium Light. I have an unknown green algae thats growing pretty well. I also have a water power head in the tank mixing it up.

This is what the green monti look like last December.

 

[chefvittles]

One of the first corals that I had in my old tank was a candy cane coral with 3 heads. I killed it and brought it back to life, but only 2 heady came back.

After playing with lighting and water flow, the coral started looking better every day.

It's back to 3 heads

Now 5 heads.

Seven going on eight heads.

 

[Eric]

Beautiful nicely done!

 

[chefvittles]

It seems like my thread is starting to get long :LOL: . Why do other peoples threads have page 1-5 or something like that. How long do they go before a new page starts? Thanks.

 

[Reefmack]

I think the default is 15 posts per page. If that's correct then this should end up on page 2

edit - confirmed!

 

[chefvittles]

Thats funny that I was post 15

 

[Reefmack]

Thats funny that I was post 15

Yep - if you'd have waited for one more post it would have flipped the page LOL!

 

[chefvittles]

This is one of my favorite corals that I have in my tank. This picture is from the first week that I got him. I was running 10,000K T5 lighting.

After moving to my new tank and better lighting, this is what he looks like.

 

[chefvittles]

Some more before and after pictures of my branching montipora.This is over about 6 months.