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BleepBloop’s 73 Gallon

BleepBloopMunchMunch

Supporting Member
Hey everybody, thought it was time for me to get a tank journal started now that I’ve actually got something to show people.

I had a small saltwater tank about ten years ago that a friend and I took care of together but I ended up moving and he got the tank and I never got another. I have kept a few freshwater tanks but it wasn’t until recently I made the step back into saltwater. To make a long story short I got a call a couple months ago from a distance acquaintance saying they had a tank that needed a new home and I could have it as long as I came and got it right away. So I promptly got a friend and my van and went over that day.

It’s a Red Sea Reefer 350 and it was set up about 6 months before I got it with some sand, little bit of rock, a few ricordea, an anemone, a couple shrimp, yellow tang, blue throat trigger, queen angelfish, pair of clowns, and a damsel. I had to take everything with me and it still was completely filled. After a long evening I managed to get it set up and kept everything in a little spare tank I had until I had it filled and running. The transfer went over without too many problems but I let things settle down for a bit before I did anything.

Since then I have rearranged a lot, added some coarser substrate, a light, a few fish and coral.

Current equipment I am running (DT is 73 gal and sump is 18):

RSK-300 skimmer
Some chaeto with a cheapo amazon grow light
5 gallon ATO with kalkwasser
Filter sock
Media basket with some activated carbon and GFO
Aquatic titanium 300 watt heater
8 bulb t5 light with a mix of coral blue, purple plus and white bulbs.
3 powerheads (not exactly sure how strong or what brand, just came with the tank)

Current fish stock:
Yellow tang
Two clowns
Tomini tang
Orchid dottyback
Indigo dottyback
Red fire shrimp
Skunk cleaner shrimp
Rose tip bubble anenome
Mix of hermits, astrea snails, nassarius

For coral I’ve got a mix of softies, lps, and sps mainly stuff I have gotten from BAR members, with a couple purchased from LFS or given to me be a friend.

So it’s been running in my house since about April 1 and it’s been pretty smooth sailing so far, it’s a work in profess and I’ve been doing as much work as I can as work and the girlfriend have allowed for. I included some pics of the setup, as well as a few sections of my tank and will post updates on some of the coral I purchased from fellow BAR members. Apologies in advance if the pictures aren’t great my phone camera has been acting up or if this post should have been in a different format.

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Sump with ATO and skimmer that isn’t on because it was overflowing.

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Full tank shot, light fixture is hanging from ceiling from chains which I did myself so it is easy to move light up and down.

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Left side of tank, most of my sps is here, besides the power head in top left there is another circulation pump hiding behind the rocks in the middle left of the photo.

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Center, mainly zoas and the GSP, couple hammers

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Right side of tank

Anyways more to come as time moves along, thanks for checking it out!
 
Lucky you. Red Sea tanks are my favorite. The look of them is so nice and modern. Tank is looking good, keep grinding and the reefing gods will reward you. You shouldn’t have any problems growing coral with that 8 bulb T5 fixture. Those things can grow coral from your driveway.
 
Yes lucky indeed! Always had my eye out for those tanks, couldn’t resist when the opportunity came. And thanks on the lighting tip, they are incredibly bright indeed haha. Might move them up a bit as they are pretty close to the tank but they’ve been doing good so far.


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Updates:

A few minor setbacks, biggest one being ich I noticed on a couple fish, promptly took all the fish out (moving every rock and coral in the process to catch them) and set them up in a QT tank in copper. They’ve been in there about 5 weeks and all of them survived so I am happy about that but it gave me a good scare. I’ve kept my display with no live stock the whole time and plan to do so and wait at least 6 weeks since the fish have been out.

On the bright side the lack of fish and general demoralizing aspect of the disease kept my hands out of the tank for a while and all my coral has been growing! A couple pieces even made some nice comebacks after they had started to recede a bit.

Most of these have been gotten or purchased from BAR members with a few exceptions.

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I like how it has been encrusting onto the rock below.

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Big acan was receding when I first got it, wouldn’t say it’s been filling up the old spaces but it’s been open and seemingly doing well!

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One of my faves, sadly a little chunk as you can see came off due to me bashing it with a rock when trying to catch the fish, but it made a good recovery and has been growing a bit.

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Curious as to how this will keep growing once it’s completely covered the plate it came on.

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Really happy these two are doing well. A month ago I thought it was game over.

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This is how it looked mid June. Glad it made a comeback.

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The gonio and alveopora are probably my favorite LPS at this point.

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Zoas took a while to take off but now have been steadily showing new polyp growth.

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First acro I added about two weeks ago, photo taken today, nervous how this one will go but excited to have an acro.
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Anyways you get the picture, more coral I didn’t include or take pictures of, mainly a few more lps and softies that are doing well but aren’t as interesting as these.


Lastly I did find a single aptasia on one of the Zoa plugs, I carefully removed the whole thing, coral and plug and treated it in a separate container and then put it into its own QT tank to make sure nothing else comes out of it. So far haven’t found anything else in the display and hopefully it will stay that way.

All in all the ich and aptasia was a blow to the ego and motivation but I think it’s just part of the deal especially starting out. It was more than made up for by seeing coral grow and stay alive and I’m happy to be learning along the way. Thanks again to the forum and everyone that has sold or given me coral, fish and equipment and of course the great advice.


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Few updates on the tank, had a few fluctuations from the heat and a change in salt I was using that I think pissed off a couple coral for a bit. Tank didn’t get crazy hot but hot enough that some of the coral noticed, and of course the heat wave happened the few days I was out of town so I had to deal with it when I got back. Almost all of them have made a comeback, but what I did learn from this was that I may need to rethink kalkwasser in my ato since the heatwave and fans on my sump to battle the heat caused me to go through a lot of top off water, I reduced the amount of kalkwasser i was using to compensate a bit, but I think getting a doser is in my near future.

Some pics:
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Middle frag is first acro I put in the tank, it’s been encrusting mostly, hard to see from this angle
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I tried out a gyre a while ago, IceCap 3K, but even on the lowest setting it was way way too much flow, so I went back to what I was running before. Still looking to get something that makes a bit more randomized flow, I have a small jabeo wavemaker on the right side, but would like to replace a couple of the power heads I have on the left side. Waiting on a power supply from a doser and going to hopefully get that dialed in too. Only thing not working is my chaeto kept melting, I just chucked the rest of it and so far so good without it.
 
Ran into some minor bubble algae, first real algae "problem" I have had in a little while. So far just been removing manually, of I popped one of the bubbles doing so and I swear the next day there was twice as much. First started noticing it maybe a few weeks ago, month tops.
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