Good at Bad reefing

[Broughy]

Hi guys, my name is Shane. I'm not quite new at reefing, but I'm pretty good at having a crappy looking tank haha. Anyways, figured I would introduce myself and hopefully get more involved in the community and get my tank to a better spot.

My current system is a restarted version of the system I built in 2015 I think it was. It has been running for almost 3 years now but isn't very good... dealt with a bad aiptasia outbreak and kind of lost interest in maintenance since the spring, but I'm getting back into it.

Current tank is like I said originally built in 2015:
-120 gallon (4x2x2 feet) Miracles 3 wall starfire tank with built in coast to coast overflow
-40 gallon custom breeder sump with (now shutdown) refugium
-Reef octopus regal 150 INT I believe? (Update later)
-2x hydra 52 lights
-Jebao DCP 15000 return pump with manifold system to supply uv sterilizer and media reactor
-52 watt(?) UV sterilizer
-1st Gen Maxxspect Gyre 130 or 150 can't remember
-Custom built steel stand
-hydor ATO with Tom Aquatics lifter
-Bubble Magus doser (alk, cal, mag)
-lots of hair algae

Anyways, hoping I can get more involved and return my tank to a better condition, but I do plan on building on a new tank when I have my basement finished...

New tank I'm thinking will be:
-160 gallon 6x2x2 in wall front side starfire
-between 60 - 90 gallon sump I'm thinking
-neptune apex (or similar) controller with automatic water changing (need more automation for busy times in life)
-algae scrubber
-maybe calcium reactor?
-whatever new lights I decide when I get coral
-dedicated fish room with quarantine tanks for fish and coral (hopefully no more aptasia and other pests)

Attached is a recent pic of my tank (beware its ugly)

 

[Reefgrrl]

Hey Broughy, nice to meet you! I’ve been a member here for a few years but have not been very active and I’m hoping to change that - like you said, get more involved in the local reefkeeping community.

I wouldn’t call your tank ugly - a 20-minute session of manual algae removal every day will show you results before you know it. Once you start to pare back the wavy stuff, you can add a lawnmower blenny or maybe a tang or foxface, to do some grazing. In my experience it’s like removing wallpaper. Once you start you want to keep going. Apologies if you know this already and just haven’t had time, but I’ve found ppl underestimate the power of just manually tackling problem algae.

And I just had to reply when I saw you use a Hydor Smart Level with a Tom Aqualifter - I do too and most ppl think I’m nuts - if they’ve even heard of it - but it has never failed me. In fact right now I’m running a pair of them because I’m dealing with a large surface area in in the return section of my sump. Having two, with the sensors slightly offset from each other, gives the Toms time to fill without timing out.

I haven’t posted much info about my system and tanks here (yet) but it’s all documented on ReefGrrl, my YouTube channel. I’m not great with forums, can’t seem to figure out how to post photos, have tried and basically given up. But I do follow along with what’s happening.

Good luck with your Re-entry into the hobby!

 

[Broughy]

Thanks for the reply! Yeah the hydor is the only ATO I've had and I've never had an issue, the only issue I get is my aqua lifter will need to be taken apart and cleaned once a year or so as it'll eventually get gunked up or something and the water will trickle out and won't fill my return section fast enough before the alarm goes off, other than that its been great, though it would be nice to have a silence button if you know you have a high water level because the skimmer is on a 1 hour rest or something though.

 

[Pistol]

Hey Shane, long time no see, are you planning a full redo or are you going to clean and reuse the rock?

 

[Broughy]

Hey Shane, long time no see, are you planning a full redo or are you going to clean and reuse the rock?

Hey Calvin I'm kind of planning on going all new rock just for better shapes and such, but I haven't looked much yet. I'm not sure when I'll be doing the tank, the basement is unfinished right now so I'm not really planning on getting too into it until that is complete. Hopefully within a year or so.

 

[Pistol]

You should try physical removal of as much algae as possible and then treat with Vibrant to try to rid the hair algae

 

[Broughy]

Yeah I'm taking my time with it so I dont end up with a cyano outbreak or something, but it was a LOT worse than that about a month or so ago.