# AJ Tsin's 47g Shallow Reef



## AJ_Tsin

Hi all, I have been out of the hobby for a few years and recently began to rebuild my once flourishing system. I have decided to make a build thread at GTAAquaria as my "Canadian" build thread as I already have a longstanding thread over at N-R. I dig this community and would like to contribute.

I plan on updating this regularly as things develop and rather than just showing off the build I hope to have an informative resource for anyone running a ZeoVit reef on a smaller scale.

Here are some details of what I am running so far three months in:

*CURRENT MARCH 2014 FTS:*









*Equipment (Mostly house in a basement sump drilled through floor)*

Dimensions: 30" x 30" x 12" Starphire Shallow Rimless
Protien Skimmer: Vertex Omega 130
20g Acrylic Sump w/ 3 sections (Section 1: Filter Floss, Temp Probe, Carbon, Skimmer, Zeo Reactor, Section 2: Heater, ATO, Section 3: Live Rock, Return Pump
Heater: 500w Titanium Submersible Heater
Water Motion: 2x Eco-Tech Vortech MP10 (One on Wave mode, one on Reef Crest), Mag 9.5 Return Pump (7 ft. lift)
Filter Media: 1.5 L Vertex ZEOvit Reactor w/ Korallen Zucht ZEOlite, Filter Floss, 250 ml ROX Carbon
ATO: D.I.Y. auto top of using a gravity fed, float valve and 15g glass aquarium reservoir.










*Lighting*

8 x 24w ATI Powermodule T5

Bulb Array:

ATI Blue +
ATI Blue +
ATI Blue +
K-Z Fiji Purple
ATI Aquablue Special
ATI Blue +
ATI Blue +
ATI Blue +










*Parameters*

Salinity Level: 1.025
Temp: 79
pH: 8.2
Calcium Level: 420 ppm
Alkalinity: 7.5 dKh
Magnesium: 1300 ppm
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite Levels: 0
Nitrate Levels: <0.0
Phosphate: <0.00
Sandbed Depth: 1 in. Carib Sea Seaflor Special Grade Aragonite
Liverock: 60 lbs (Split between sump and display) Cooked and Cured
Total System Water Volume: 60g










*Livestock*


Fish: 2x ORA Black Ice Snowflake Clownfish. 1x Red Sea Purple Tang

Inverts: Cleaner Shrimp, Peppermint Shrimp, Emerald Crab, 10 Astrea Snails, 6x Nassarius Snails 2 Scarlet Leg Hermits, 6 Blue Leg Hermits

Corals: Acropora, Millepora, Ricordia




























So as the system gets into a groove here is the current dosing regime. Some of the K-Z coral supplements have not been added yet and will not be until a couple weeks of growth and colour monitoring.

*Dosing/Maintenance Schedule*

Feeding

Polyp Labs Reef Roids mixed w/Selcon 1-2x weekly
NLS Pellets daily
PE Mysis Rinsed and Soaked in Selcon 2-3x weekly
Two Little Fishies Sea Veggies (Purple and Green) 1/2 sheet weekly
Daily

0.2 ml K-Z ZEOStart x 2 daily (total of 0.4 ml)
7ml Ca, 7ml Alk, 7 ml Mg (BRS Two Part)
Every other day


2 Drops of K-Z ZeoBak *(Daily for two weeks after ZeoLite Exchange)
2 Drops of K-Z Sponge Power (alternating days with Bak)
Intermittent


2 Drops of ZeoFood7 weekly
1 Tsp Brightwell Potassion 1x weekly
2 ml K-Z Coral Snow 1x weekly
2 Drops of K-Z BioMate 1x weekly
1 Capful of Brightwell Strontion 1x weekly
Maintenance

10% water change weekly (Vacuum sand bed bi-weekly)
Change Filter Floss weekly
250 ml of ESV Activated Carbon in media bag changed every 30 days
500 ml K-Z ZeoLite in Vertex Reactor running 60 g/h change 90% every 10 weeks
Blast Rocks w/ Turkey Baster (Several times weekly)



















Thanks for looking. Let me know if you have any questions. Just added a bunch of frags so I will update shortly.


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## ameekplec.

Good to see you here! I've always admired your tank over on the other site, as well as NR! Welcome to the community 

Looks like this is going to be another kickass tank. Are you going to be going full zeo eventually?


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## altcharacter

Stunning start to an amazing tank. Definitely tagging along for the ride and I can't wait to see what goes into your system


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## liz

I recognize that tank! 
Nice to see you still have it and welcome to GTA!


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## sig

that's when the size does not matter 
beautiful tank

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## AJ_Tsin

sig said:


> that's when the size does not matter
> beautiful tank


Agreed. I really could run any size tank in my house as I have a basement to work with for sump and filtration, however I am a big fan of well thought out Nano Reefs. Less can be more sometimes.



liz said:


> I recognize that tank!
> Nice to see you still have it and welcome to GTA!


Thanks Liz. Still holding water and crystal clear. I love the dimensions. This shallow reef started a whole wave of shallow tanks over at Nano-Reef a few years ago. Used to be a very unusual layout. Thanks for the welcome.



altcharacter said:


> Stunning start to an amazing tank. Definitely tagging along for the ride and I can't wait to see what goes into your system


Thanks for following along. I look forward to it.



ameekplec. said:


> Good to see you here! I've always admired your tank over on the other site, as well as NR! Welcome to the community
> 
> Looks like this is going to be another kickass tank. Are you going to be going full zeo eventually?


The system is running full Zeovit now. Haven't really started with the additional additives, however ZeoStart, ZeoBak, ZeoFood, and Coral Snow are dosed regularity as well as the use of a ZeoVit Reactor and ZeoLite. Several frags were just added so based on the colour progress over the next three weeks, Coral Vitalizer, Pohls Extra, and Potassium might be added to the mix. Thanks for the post.


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## deeznutz

Good to see you here! Hang on to your seats folks, this tank is going to rock!

Just saying...

-dan


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## AJ_Tsin

Just took a new March FTS to show off my 3 day old, albeit still brownish, corals...
*
MARCH 2014 FTS*









And so it begins...


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## lloydj

Another shallow reefer.. sweet tank and love the aquascape.

Lots of potential here for sure. Gonna follow along


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## AJ_Tsin

lloydj said:


> Another shallow reefer.. sweet tank and love the aquascape.
> 
> Lots of potential here for sure. Gonna follow along





deeznutz said:


> Good to see you here! Hang on to your seats folks, this tank is going to rock!
> 
> Just saying...
> 
> -dan


Thanks guys. Feels good starting back up. I took the reboot veryyyy slow this time around, mainly in soaking, cooking and curing rock, as well as soaking and rinsing sand. All sand and rock was testing 0.00 PO4 before even coming close to the display.

To do things right and slowly is paying off already, this is the cleanest system I have ever run.


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## kamal

I really like the dimensions of this


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## Sandeep

I absolutely love it!

I am a huge proponent of the zen of tank layouts, using negative and positive space to create your aquascape vs the typical jam packed undersea avalanche rock wall look.

That's a very interesting dimensioned tank, giving you the chance to really develop perspective between coral islands near to the viewer and far from the viewer, rather than all of them being in a relatively narrow plane of view.

Will be interesting to see how your tank develops over time.


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## AJ_Tsin

So as the system gets into a groove here is the current dosing regime. Some of the K-Z coral supplements have not been added yet and will not be until a couple weeks of growth and colour monitoring.

*Dosing/Maintenance Schedule*

Feeding

Polyp Labs Reef Roids mixed w/Selcon 1-2x weekly
NLS Pellets daily
PE Mysis Rinsed and Soaked in Selcon 2-3x weekly
Two Little Fishies Sea Veggies (Purple and Green) 1/2 sheet weekly
Daily

0.2 ml K-Z ZEOStart x 2 daily (total of 0.4 ml)
7ml Ca, 7ml Alk, 7 ml Mg (BRS Two Part)
Every other day


2 Drops of K-Z ZeoBak *(Daily for two weeks after ZeoLite Exchange)
2 Drops of K-Z Sponge Power (alternating days with Bak)
Intermittent


2 Drops of ZeoFood7 weekly
1 Tsp Brightwell Potassion 1x weekly
2 ml K-Z Coral Snow 1x weekly
2 Drops of K-Z BioMate 1x weekly
1 Capful of Brightwell Strontion 1x weekly
Maintenance

10% water change weekly (Vacuum sand bed bi-weekly)
Change Filter Floss weekly
250 ml of ESV Activated Carbon in media bag changed every 30 days
500 ml K-Z ZeoLite in Vertex Reactor running 60 g/h change 90% every 10 weeks
Blast Rocks w/ Turkey Baster (Several times weekly)


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## des

Considering how beautiful your tank looked before, this one will surely be a show stopper once growth matures. 

I'm not familiar with Zeo but now I have something to read about. I thought I had discipline but clearly it's nothing compared to this.


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## Flexin5

Very nice dimensions on the tank


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## 4pokguy

Love it!! What are the measurements on the tank? and where did u get it from? I'm looking for something similar.


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## AJ_Tsin

des said:


> Considering how beautiful your tank looked before, this one will surely be a show stopper once growth matures.
> 
> I'm not familiar with Zeo but now I have something to read about. I thought I had discipline but clearly it's nothing compared to this.


You are correct in assuming Zeovit needs a bit of discipline, however at the same time, I find it engaging that every day there is a little something to be done in the tank. I generally do it first thing in the morning at the same time I let my dog out into the backyard, so its already part of my daily routine.



Flexin5 said:


> Very nice dimensions on the tank





4pokguy said:


> Love it!! What are the measurements on the tank? and where did u get it from? I'm looking for something similar.


Thanks all. The dimensions are 30" x 30" x 12" I bought it second hand years ago. However I am fairly certain the glass came from Miracles Aquariums in Toronto and was custom built.


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## AJ_Tsin

Here are several pictures of the first few frags. I have ID'd most of them but some I am not sure of. If I got any wrong or people know either the species or nickname of any, an ID would be appreciated.

Blue green Acropora Tenius









Reef Raft Blizzard Acropora









Tyree Seasons Greetings Monti Cap









Not Sure ID Anyone?









Not Sure ID Anyone?









Yellow Ricordia









Pink Tip Green Polyp Millepora? Not sure if other Name Exists?









Rainbow Montipora Tuburculosa









Neon Green Acropora Aculeus









Green Polyp Turbinara (Scroll Coral)


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## Jiinx

Hi!
I love the dimensions of this tank, like Kamal mentioned. It creates more space for corals and fish to swim rather than having that height. 
I'm just wondering how you learned what works for your system? I.e. how do you know you're not overfeeding your system? And what different chemicals to put into your system (i.e. KZ) and if they're needed?

My acros and some hard corals don't do well in my tank and I often wonder why since I do water changes every week!

sarah


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## zoapaly

The monti cap with red polyps look beautiful  very nice set up as well


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## AJ_Tsin

Jiinx said:


> Hi!
> I love the dimensions of this tank, like Kamal mentioned. It creates more space for corals and fish to swim rather than having that height.
> I'm just wondering how you learned what works for your system? I.e. how do you know you're not overfeeding your system? And what different chemicals to put into your system (i.e. KZ) and if they're needed?
> 
> My acros and some hard corals don't do well in my tank and I often wonder why since I do water changes every week!
> 
> sarah


Thanks Sarah,

Although I follow most of the ZeoVit guide, which is a world of its own in terms of dosing and additives, most of the methodology also applies to general reefkeeping.

When adding anything to the system, especially something new, I do research on the possible outcomes and observe the effects very heavily to diagnose any of these symptoms wether positive or negative. Even if I don't have a problem I read about other hobbyists experiences on what can go right or wrong so I can catch things before they happen.

I also test heavily. Fish or corals generally react within a few days to a week. Films on the glass, algae, water clarity are all major identifiers, also coral colors change, brown up, or fade out, polyps retract or extend, growth speeds up or slows down etc. Once you get things stable and start to tweak the only real way to know what is working or not is to look at the corals as every system is different.

For basics: water quality and chemistry I test weekly and use calculators or basic formulas to gauge how much I need to add to reach a certain level, or how quickly the corals/system are consuming a certain trace element etc. This basic step alone (+ good lighting), combined with keeping Low Nitrate, Phosphate and Proper PH, Alk and Ca can keep most corals alive. Simple ways to do it is test water a few times a week at first to determine rates in which your trace elements are being depleted. Then read the labels or online to determine how much to add daily or weekly to keep everything stable. (Typically adding elements or anything in small regular doses is much better than once a week for a multitude of reasons, not limited to stability, more-so so you can track changes.)

The KZ additives and Zeovit Routine is more to manipulate colour, polyp extension and growth. Or tweak, if you want to call it that. I won't go into much here as they all do their own thing and really are meant to replace nutrients that the system is so effective at removing. Determining amounts of all of these basically starts with research and a base starting point. I generally go with 1/2 of the manufacturer's reccomendations and then increase or decrease accordingly. This is almost 100% observational as you just have to read through what to expect with each product and then watch for it. Key is starting slow and working up, and always remembering that everything takes a few days to make an impact.

*IMO (and almost any other successful reefer) the most important thing is controlling what goes in the system that can produce waste.* This starts with water. I only use RO/DI for SW and top up and I mix it/store it only in glass containers.

The sand and rock I used was stripped of all nutrients by soaking and rinsing, and a very tedious cooking process. This took time and patience but I know nothing is leaching.

For feeding I only feed as much as the fish can eat and I do it in spurts (don't just dump it all in). This ensures that everything is eaten and nothing is sucked down into the sump to decompose. This is where controllers and higher end pumps come in handy to turn on a feeding mode.

Lastly I absolutely never add livestock to fight a bio problem!!! The threads titled "help I have algae what can I add that eats ____" frustrate me beyond belief. This is just adding more waste producing living items to the system compounding your problems. I generally have a hard time keeping a CUC alive because of the lack of algae in my system&#8230; so it is possible to keep an aquarium without continually adding snails and crabs to clean up some mess...

The zeovit system helps with all of this and ZeoLite media certainly helps to remove ammonia and other nutrients before it becomes a problem, however extreme attention to detail, testing, and looking at maintenance as a hobby not a chore is what really makes a difference.

Hopefully this answers your question instead of raising a bunch of new ones.


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## Mikeylikes

Awesome tank. Definitely tagging along to see progression.

Interested in knowing how you went about cooking your rocks. Am about to do the same when weather gets warmer. thinking of doing an acid soak with muriatic acid to help speed up the processs in my garage. I also still need to water test my tank and sump that I built.


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## TypeZERO

damn love the shallow dimensions of the tank!


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## liz

AJ_Tsin said:


> Thanks all. The dimensions are 30" x 30" x 12" I bought it second hand years ago. However I am fairly certain the glass came from Miracles Aquariums in Toronto and was custom built.


It was my old tank and it was custom made by Miracles.


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## AJ_Tsin

TypeZERO said:


> damn love the shallow dimensions of the tank!


Thanks! Can't what to find some time to come check out some frags. Won't be able to this weekend. But sometime soon I will.



liz said:


> It was my old tank and it was custom made by Miracles.


Thanks for confirming Liz, I thought it was from Miracles but given I bought it from you like 4 or 5 years ago, I wasn't 100%. It is in good hands I assure you.



Mikeylikes said:


> Awesome tank. Definitely tagging along to see progression.
> 
> Interested in knowing how you went about cooking your rocks. Am about to do the same when weather gets warmer. thinking of doing an acid soak with muriatic acid to help speed up the processs in my garage. I also still need to water test my tank and sump that I built.












To cure and cook the dead rock I got from a friend, I first soaked in RO/DI with a powerhead, a GFO Rector and rocked 100% water changes for first several weeks. At each water change I would swish the rock shaking out all the loose debris.

Instead of using bleach or acid I chose this method as I don't really want anything but water and Zeovit additives going into my system. Not that the other methods are not safe, I just opted to stick to water.

PO4 dropped dramatically from 0.18 - 0.00 and went fairly quickly. From my experience, using the Rowaphos in RO/DI is very very effective, the DI water strips everything from the rock very quickly and the GFO sucks it up.

After consistent days of 0.02-0.00 PO4 when turning off reactor in RO/DI, I transferred all the rock to a spare 30g long tank, added SW, a Skimmer (optional), and a heater, put GFO back online from this point onward it was a standard cycle. I added a bit of food and waited for Ammonia to spike then drop to 0.00 and PO4 to stay at 0.00 without GFO.

There are some more detailed explanations out there, but this is the coles notes version and worked very well. I have 0.00 PO4 consistently in the system now and have not seen any algae whatsoever except a 1 day diatom bloom in week 1. It takes time but if you are in no rush and have the patience I highly recommend doing this.


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## AJ_Tsin

So things are looking a bit more "reef like." Here's a FTS and a few frags from Canada Corals. Some with names and some more IDs needed. The frags are a bit brown still, but are colouring up nicely.










Miyagi Tortuosa









ORA Bellina Acropora









ID Needed?









ORA Red Planet









Yellow Millepora


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## liz

Nice frags and the tank looks great too!


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## lloydj

Nice selection  love that tort !


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## thmh

Love the shallow tank style !! And your bulb combo is pretty awesome !


-Tony


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## AJ_Tsin

liz said:


> Nice frags and the tank looks great too!





lloydj said:


> Nice selection  love that tort !





thmh said:


> Love the shallow tank style !! And your bulb combo is pretty awesome !
> -Tony


Thank-you all.

Maybe you coral people at MadJelly can help me ID some of these frags? I am looking for species names and or nicknames if they have em...

#1









#2









#3









#4









#5


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## sooley19

Sps frags look amazing buddy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Thoreffex

You have some beauties


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## AJ_Tsin

sooley19 said:


> Sps frags look amazing buddy
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk





Thoreffex said:


> You have some beauties


Thanks guys. Any idea on IDing some of them? I haven't had any response anywhere on these last 5...


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## AJ_Tsin

Took a few shots with only the "Sunrise" lights on yesterday morning. These are not actinic but 2x ATI Blue + bulbs.


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## AJ_Tsin

Tried making a GIF of the system. The dynamic range on the sony Point and Shoot is not amazing for video so the colour is a bit washed out. I tried to get it as close as I could to the still images I have been posting.


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## kamal

Love it the gif looks cool

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk


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## AJ_Tsin

kamal said:


> Love it the gif looks cool
> 
> Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk


Thanks! Thought I'd try it out.


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## AJ_Tsin

*APRIL 2014 FTS*










So I have picked up pieces over past month from some local reefers, Canada Corals, Big Show Frags, and The Coral Reef Shop. Pleased with all of them. SPS frags are really colouring up and taking off. Here are a few.

Pink Tip Millepora









ID Anyone?









ORA Red Planet









Miyagi Tortuosa









Granulosa









Yellow Millepora









Teal Carolina









ORA Bellina









BS Toxic Sarmentosa









Tyree Red Dragon


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## lloydj

Wow some nicely selected peices. You gonna run out of room soon. Lol


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## AJ_Tsin

lloydj said:


> Wow some nicely selected peices. You gonna run out of room soon. Lol


Hah yea it isn't hard to fill up a shallow nano. I have tons of room on the sides and bases of the rock for Zoas and maybe some LPS. Gonna let these frags all grow out a bit before I add much more SPS. I plan on Trimming them and re mounting the tips to get better colony formations if needed and of course selling some frags in several months' time.


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## lloydj

I am also starting with some new frags and arranging the look a bit. I noticed in a picture of yours that your frags are pretty close together. Any concern of them clashing soon before they get to colony size or you just gonna trim and frag as they grow. I spaced mine out quite a bit apart then you if you wanna check out my latest pic additions on my thread.... maybe I will try and put them closer as I have a few on a frag rack ready to arrange on LR. and... trimming is a good thing lol

Thanks for your input

Cheers ! LLoyd


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## lloydj

BTW the second pic of greenish yellow frag acro I think I have the same one from gtareef he knew the name and just couldn't remember at the time of purchase. I will have to text him to see if he remembered.


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## AJ_Tsin

lloydj said:


> BTW the second pic of greenish yellow frag acro I think I have the same one from gtareef he knew the name and just couldn't remember at the time of purchase. I will have to text him to see if he remembered.


Yea let me know id love to know the name...



lloydj said:


> I noticed in a picture of yours that your frags are pretty close together. Any concern of them clashing soon before they get to colony size or you just gonna trim and frag as they grow.


I plan on trimming and fragging the colonies as they grow out. These trimmings will either be added to a frag tank or glued beside the frag they came from in an effort to get good colony spread etc etc.

I am aiming to have a very full look so the hope is that these frags will grow out into little mini colonies all over the rocks. It is likely going to be quite some time until they start to touch each other or anything like that so in the meantime I will just see how they grow and trim to adjust patterns accordingly.


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## AJ_Tsin

Here are a handful of shots from this evening some are of new frags others are about a month old...









Tyree Pink Lemonade









Golden Tahitian Maxima Clam









Yellow Micro Zoanthids









Reef Raft Strawberry Shortcake









Big Show Toxic Sarmentosa









Neon Green Acropora Aculeus









Yellow Millepora


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## rburns24

Very nice photos. They look very natural and true to form.


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## lloydj

Congrats, some really nice additions


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## AJ_Tsin

rburns24 said:


> Very nice photos. They look very natural and true to form.





lloydj said:


> Congrats, some really nice additions


Thanks guys, definitely happy with this build so far.


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## AJ_Tsin

I had someone on another forum ask for detail regarding the filtration. This is the fish room. Its an unfinished basement in a home that just turned 101 yrs old so theres not really anything I can do to make it clean. Its a cellar more than a basement.

Fairly messy with wires right now primarily because of the Ad Hoc Quarantine tank to the right (not pictured).









Tank on the right is fresh RO/DI for a gravity fed ATO. Tank on upper left is the sump. You can see greyish tubes coming down through the ceiling for the overflow. Tank on bottom left is just a mixing vessel for fresh salt water. I leave a maxi jet in here and at least 5 gallons of heated water ready at all times. If you look closely you can see black e-tape lines on this tank so I can quickly identify 5,10 and 15 gallon water levels making everything easier for salt mixing water changing etc. Water changes are easy as I just syphon out into buckets and pump fresh water from below with the maxi jet. Reef Keeper Light and powercenter as well as an array of power bars are mounted. I plan on swapping this out for an APEX and eliminating all of the power bars and cable tangles eventually.









I keep fresh water, additives supplies and tools all handy on these shelves. The upper right portion close to the sump will be used to hold a plumbed in frag tank soon.









Sump housing Vertex Omega 130 Skimmer, Vertex Zeolite Reactor, Titanium Heater, Live Rock, ATO and Return Pump. You can more clearly see the overflow and return lines in upper left. You can see the angled pipe on the vertex Zeo reactor, I couldn't fit the reactor in a separate chamber than the skimmer but I wanted to make sure the mulm and output makes it into the display to feed to corals so I angled the output line over the baffle and into the next chamber.
These steel shelves have begun to rust over time, they are not stainless, the structural integrity seems uncompromised but some day I will likely have to swap them up, I have ball valves and threaded junctions throughout the plumbing upstairs so to turn things off and swap things out will be easy.









Overflow line pours down through this tower, first filter floss sitting on egg crate, then a mesh bag of carbon.









Basic ATO reservoir. I keep a Koralia going to keep it oxygenated. You can see some airline tubing that holds a siphon. Because this is elevated above the sump I can just use a gravity fed top off, this seems a bit safer to me. The RODI line on the left is clipped onto the edge of the tank so I can just turn on the tap and refill it. (I keep ATO and water mixing water in glass tanks. I just think its the easiest to keep clean and won't leach anything.)









Hang on float valve for the ATO. Heater and ZeoVit reactor output can be seen in this chamber as well.

Let me know if you have any questions.


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## AJ_Tsin

Here are 3 shots of the individual rock structures and how the frags are laid out. It looks really ugly right now with all the plugs and whatnot but they are encrusting quickly and hopefully all that will be gone in a couple months.

Left Front









Right Front









Back Middle


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## KJSMSW

I love the rock work and the fish are absolutely beautiful.

Can't wait to see what this tank looks like after summer.


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## AJ_Tsin

KJSMSW said:


> I love the rock work and the fish are absolutely beautiful.
> 
> Can't wait to see what this tank looks like after summer.


Thanks! I can't either. I get excited over 0.25mm of encrusting on a frag plug at the moment.


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## AJ_Tsin

Been dosing Pohls Xtra for a week...... Dat Polyp extension.

The bottom right long one is about 1 inch long for scale.


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## rickcasa

Schwing!! Impressive extension.

Love your progress...following.


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## KJSMSW

Wow. That's some crazy PE!!

Very nice!

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk


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## AJ_Tsin

rickcasa said:


> Schwing!! Impressive extension.
> Love your progress...following.





KJSMSW said:


> Wow. That's some crazy PE!!
> Very nice!
> Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk


Thanks guys glad to have you following.

*MAY 2014 FTS*


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## AJ_Tsin

So I went to Reef Raft Canada yesterday and splurged on some rather high end frags... here they are.

They have settled in but only been in a day so colour is still rough... Here are a handful of shots of the new ones and some other ones colouring up. The Tierra is still very brown, but I assume it will colour up very nicely as the colony it came from was beautiful.









Reef Raft Pretty in Pink









Reef Raft Wolverine









Reef Raft Kraken









Reef Raft Orange Passion









Reef Raft Tierra del Fuego









Tyree Pink Lemonade









Wicked Sunrise









Reef Raft Pearlberry









Oregon Tortuosa


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## AJ_Tsin

Things are getting a bit more reeflike lately...
*


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## Marz

Very nice!


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## chronzz

Sweet setup


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## AJ_Tsin

Marz said:


> Very nice!





chronzz said:


> Sweet setup


Thanks guys.


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## lloydj

Very nice sticks from RR. Those are gonna be some amazing colonies once grown out.


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## AJ_Tsin

After going through some of my current stock a couple weeks ago with Jay at RR, (much of what I got from him and a few pieces from other shops or other hobbyists), we figured out that the Avengers frag I picked up a few months ago from another shop was a knockoff and not the real deal. He keeps track of who he sells to and as far as I know no one in Canada has a piece of the real Avengers that didn't die...

Long story short I convinced Jay to bring me in a piece from his farmer, and I picked it up today, it is a significantly nicer piece than the knockoff I have (which Jay also had, its an unnamed Indo Subulata). Its unfortunate another LFS sold me the fake Avengers piece without tracking the lineage or verifying that it was from Reef Raft, however I think it was their honest mistake as it was brown when I bought it and it did look similar, I also only paid 40$ for the original piece which is an insanely good price for a frag of Avengers.

Sooo today I picked up:
True Reef Raft Avengers
Reef Raft Peacock
Reef Raft CJ's Pinky

Here are some shots of the new pieces and a few other recent additions.









Reef Raft Avengers









Reef Raft Peacock









Reef Raft CJ's Pinky









Bali Purple Rim Undata









RR Orange Passion Slowly starting to encrust.









RR Tierra del Fuego. Definately coloring up, but the teal base is soo subtle its really hard to show in a photo. Looks really nice in person.









FAL Wolverine









BS Toxic Sarmentosa









The RR Nauti Spiral is starting to show some awesome greenish orange phosphorescence









ATL Triple Red Zoas


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## AJ_Tsin

Also while I am at it:

JUNE FTS(s)


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## nc208082

Very nice sticks and awesome looking setup, very clean.


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## aaronc

Nice tank diamensions. Awesome collection of corals!


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## AJ_Tsin

nc208082 said:


> Very nice sticks and awesome looking setup, very clean.





aaronc said:


> Nice tank diamensions. Awesome collection of corals!


Thanks guys. Things are still colouring up and growing each day. I am very pleased so far with the progress. I set out to make this build a slow and steady grower and hopefully eventually into a show reef of sorts.

The patient approach is paying off. I have never build a reef from basically 100% frags, but its a pretty fun way to do it as things take longer but at this stage daily encrusting and and extra polyp here or there is exciting. I am liking it 100% more than just buying a bunch of mediocre colonies and filling up the rock.

I would much rather spend a lot of $$ on a small piece of very high end coral and watch it grow.


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## Jaysan

wow!
Those red zoas are insane!


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## AJ_Tsin

I finally found some camera settings I am happy with while only shooting with the two Blue + bulbs in the sunrise mode of my ATI. These are not actinic but the blue + have a similar effect hence the dark blue and fluorescing corals.









RR Cj's Pinky









RR Avengers









RR Nauti Spiral









RR Peacock









RR Pretty in Pink









Tyree Pink Lemonade









Tyree Red Dragon









FAL Wolverine









RR Orange Passion









RR Wolverine


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## deeznutz

Quote
He keeps track of who he sells to and as far as I know no one in Canada has a piece of the real Avengers that didn't die…

Cough cough, not true I have the smallest frag you've ever seen lol.
I've been nursing this sucka for over a year. Hoping it shows vertical growth in the next year or so lol.

You got some really nice pieces. Never mind the cost of frags, but your ability to track down those pieces is very impressive.

Frags in the future are gonna look really nice in my tank 

I hope you let this tank really mature.

-dan


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## AJ_Tsin

deeznutz said:


> Quote
> He keeps track of who he sells to and as far as I know no one in Canada has a piece of the real Avengers that didn't die&#8230;
> 
> Cough cough, not true I have the smallest frag you've ever seen lol.
> I've been nursing this sucka for over a year. Hoping it shows vertical growth in the next year or so lol.
> 
> You got some really nice pieces. Never mind the cost of frags, but your ability to track down those pieces is very impressive.
> 
> Frags in the future are gonna look really nice in my tank
> 
> I hope you let this tank really mature.
> 
> -dan


Good to hear. I hope so. I plan to take this build very far. I re-started very slow and made sure everything cooked and cured for months etc etc. so the build is already very stable and clean.

I definitely keep my ear to the ground on some of these high end pieces and hope to be able to grow them all into larger colonies.

Thanks for the comments and appreciating the work I am putting in so far. I hope this build will outshine my last N-R TOTM by a lot and really grow into something I am proud of.


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## AJ_Tsin

*JULY 2014 FTS*


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## Marz

I love the look of your tank! I couldn't see based on the FTS, what fish do you have?


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## AJ_Tsin

Marz said:


> I love the look of your tank! I couldn't see based on the FTS, what fish do you have?


Thanks. Just two ORA Black Ice Clownfish.


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## AJ_Tsin

Here is a closer look:


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## verano

wow I really really like your tank.


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## AJ_Tsin

verano said:


> wow I really really like your tank.


Thanks. Glad to hear it.


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