Neptune Aquatics

Joe's Reef Journey

Last week I upgrade my 40 breeder to a 50g rimless (no overflow) tank, did not lose a single inhabitant :)
Used dr Tims's cycling bacteria to prevent mini cycling.

3 aquaclear 70 are replaced by Oase 600 canister filter with heater.
no sump or skimmer
Alk via kamoer x1
Top off via kamoer x1
Carbon + GFO in Aquaclear
1liter of eheim substrate in two aqua clear 70
Adding Mg powder when needed

Daily:
Manual dosing Ca
Feeding frozen food

Twice a week:
Test ALK

Weekly:
10-20% water change
Manual dosing trace element 5ml
Manual dosing Iodine 5ml
Manual dosing Vibrant Cleaner 5ml
Test Alk, CA, NO3, Mg
Feed Reefroid

Monthly:
Rinse coarse mechanical filter sponge
Rinse eheim substrate
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Took a picture tonight.

Parameters Oct 16th
Alk - 9 (API and Salifert)
Ca - 450 (API)
NO3 - 9 (Salifert)
PO4 - 0.04 (Hanna ULR)
Mg - 1600 (Salifert)
 
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Some more pictures to share the setup.
  • The tank is still sumpless
  • Two LED strips - 5 years old current orbit 50/50 and Reef Brite Pro Actinic.
  • Wavemaker - one small Hygger with 100% power.
  • Oase 600 canister filter with built in heater.
  • Thermometer with alarm function.
  • Water top off via Kamoer X1
  • ALK and CA via Kamoer X1 (B-ionic)
  • Mg- manual dosing
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  • Picture of the Oase Canister filter with a built-in heater. It also has easy to clean prefilter chamber.
  • Filter media: 20% prefilter 10% carbon and GFO 70% - anaerobic bacterial house by Eheim and Marinepure.
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  • Inside the cabinet
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  • The 5G auto top-off tank slides out very easily for refilling because it has 24 tiny plastic wheels.
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  • ALK, CA and TOPOFF spouts are hidden behind.
  • Lily pipe surface skimmer is being used.
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Very nice! I like the idea of sticking plastic wheels to the bottom of the top up. Where did you find them? What kind of coral is this red one at the bottom?

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I much prefer true percula over ocellaris due to its clear ring around the eye, more black between white bars, and lighter orange coloration.
The picture was taken with EOS RP + 100mm 2.8 Macro.
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Took some shots using EOS RP + 100mm 2,8 + 250 adapter

Og bounce is now 3-4" grown from a tiny baby.
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Space invader is by far the fastest-growing I ever had since 2005. I got around 7-8 inches from a tiny frag.
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Green tentacle toadstool, I never get bored of this one. Grown from a 1" frag
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classic eagle eye and radioactive zoas
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Shroooooom
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Red lobo
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Red shroom
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Mummy eye chalice one of many morphs
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pink boo__ies
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This jawbreaker is grown from 1/4" baby. This is by far the slowest growing coral.
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Ricordea Florida is always been one my favs
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Blue ric
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Close-up shot o the OOG bounce. The yellow color pops out of my tank even from a distance.
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Forgot the name, need to ask my son lol
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Lastly a top down view shot.
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Beautiful tank! I like to see tanks that show success without necessarily having to follow “the rules”, in this case no sump and no skimmer. Having relatively few fish decreases the pressure on waste export and supply of oxygen, which is nice.

I would guess that it would be less work to maintain with a sump and skimmer though :) This tank obviously gets a lot of TLC.

I can’t believe how big your bounce mushroom is. It looks like its going to split soon.
 
JVU said:
Beautiful tank! I like to see tanks that show success without necessarily having to follow “the rules”, in this case no sump and no skimmer. Having relatively few fish decreases the pressure on waste export and supply of oxygen, which is nice.

I would guess that it would be less work to maintain with a sump and skimmer though :) This tank obviously gets a lot of TLC.

I can’t believe how big your bounce mushroom is. It looks like its going to split soon.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the nice words! I had a reef tank with a sump for about 8 years and I agree that it is easier to maintain. With the canister filter (with built-in heater and quick release prefilter), replacing carbon and GFO is more of a hassle for sure, and also setting up in a way that it is easy to maintain weekly was a headache. On the other hand, I don’t need to have an overflow box at the back of the tank, which allows me to achieve a completely clear background. The aquascape and corals have a very nice 3d dimensional look with a white wall background. It also allowed me to buy a more affordable freshwater rimless tank (used). I have been tweaking the setup so much, but I feel that now it is getting closer to autopilot mode. :) Water surface agitation is done by the pumps and surface skimmer which is very efficient at gas ex-change (O2 & CO2).

Had that OG bounce for less than 3 years from a 0.5” frag. It is a centerpiece in my tank, hope it gets bigger without splitting. :)
 
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