EASY MODE 50 Gallon Reef Tank! Vibrant Corals with SIMPLE Methods!

What's going on, reefers? Blaine here. We are continuing on with our tank tour series. I'm sitting here with Jared. If you guys have not met Jared before, Jared works over in the retail side of TopShelf Aquatics. I'll let him get into what he kind of does at TSA here in a little bit, but today we're going to be checking out his tank. I think this is going to be a really fun episode where we get to dive into one of the tanks of one of the workers at TopShelf Aquatics. So Jared, let's get right into it. How did you start out at TopShelf Aquatics? How did you get into reefing in general? Um, just like everybody, I mean, I started Freshwater and it get got a little boring after a while and I was like, "Okay, let's take that next step." Um, when I was living at home, I was shopping at TopShelf and then eventually moved to the Orlando area for school and figured I need a job. So, why not go to TopShelf and I came in, left for a job, so pretty cool. And then here we have this guy. Pretty awesome that you can kind of tie in, you know, a hobby and then make it a job as well, right? Kind of like what I've been able to do, too. Let's talk about the tank. What's the size of the tank? What is the system itself? This a Innovative Marine 50. I think they're Were they the Nuvo 50? The Nuvo Fusion. Yeah. Lagoons. Uh yeah. I mean, just a Novo 50. I mean, super low tech, easy to go. Like I said, I'm I'm in school, so I'm not trying to spend all my free time messing with my fish tank. I just wanted something I can set up, you know, do not bare minimum, but the bare minimum and still be able to enjoy it and not stress about it. So, for the tank itself, a mixed reef, was that ultimately the goal? Uh, yeah. I mean, you could call it a mixed reef, I guess. I really The only SPS is those two Monty caps, which were new additions, but originally it was just LPS and softies. Like I said, low maintenance. Just really wanted to be able to sit and enjoy the tank and not have to stress about it too much. But, uh, yeah, mixed reef. I mean, as you can see, we got the Monty's there and a bunch of LPS and softies along the top. So, yeah, kind of created some gardens, too, right? kind of putting things into sections, right? You got like your torch hammer, frog spawn garden over here, the bubble corals, the torches up top, and was that kind of the goal? Did you want to kind of create some gardens? I love the zoa garden up top, too. Yeah, I mean, gardens have always been, in my opinion, I just think they look nicer. I just like keeping it all the OCD in me is like keep all the like species together and, you know, it just looks nicer to me. It looks more uniform and I'm a very uh picky guy when it comes to placement for everything. So that yeah was the ultimate goal. Funny you say OCD. I feel like a lot of reef keepers have that kind of mentality, right? I feel like we're really into kind of nitpicking our own systems in our tanks. Let's talk about the fish. I love the fish selection you went with. Nice and simple. Kept it easy. Let's talk about what fish you chose. Uh so I've got the two I believe they're premium onyx Picasso clowns. Uh I've had those for four or five months now. I kind of did the clown fish roulette for a while trying to find some I really liked. Um, I've got the two spot bristle tooth, four talbot damsels, a little cryptic six line. You might be able to see him sneak out every once in a while. A royal groma in here somewhere. And then a skunk cleaner shrimp, which I actually just added this past week. Nice. So, the clown fish roulette. Let's talk a little bit about that process. Yeah, I mean, you know, you get into the hobby, you have fish for a long time, and you just want to find a way to switch it up a little bit without, you know, completely destroying and rebuilding a system from the ground up. So, you know, swapping fish, that's one of the benefits of working at TopShelf is I can kind of bring my fish in, know they're going to be fine, and take something new home to to experience. How old is the tank now at this point? Uh, I want to say like just around 2 years or coming up on 2 years. Um, it's gone through a lot of reconstruction. You know, like I said, catching fish out to bring them out. You know, can't really get that escape exactly how it was before. So, this is ultimate ultimately what we've ended up with and this is how it's going to stay. I think sometimes people feel that fish are pretty easy at times, right? The hard things are the corals. I think in the back of my mind, I always feel fish are almost the hardest part of this hobby. You mentioned to me that you ran into velvet at one point. Let's talk about that. how you got through that process and how we're now back here with the group of fish we have today. Yeah, I brought in some fish, you know, straight from the wholesaler and, you know, didn't quarantine or anything. Always quarantine your fish. It's just something that I choose not to do. I just don't have the space to set up a flop and drop method. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I think it was a pair of like wild clowns or something I brought in and just my entire tank broke out with velvet. lost all of my fish except for I believe that Royal Grom was the only survivor and let it sit. I think it was like 60 days or 90 days, whatever the the time frame is. That was a long time ago. But yeah, you know, you're just sitting with an empty tank. You have no movement, you know, trying to keep your your corals alive cuz you don't have any fish in there to to feed. So, I'm feeding my bener reef or everything throughout trying to, you know, keep everything happy. Then eventually, you know, we built it up to this stock list now from basically ground zero pretty much. Right. And that when did that happen? Was that about a year or so ago or now at this point or where we at now in the time frame? I'd say about a year ago roughly. Um yeah, it was just it was an empty tank for a good 2 3 months and it killed me. But you know, it's better to wait. Like I said, patience instead of bring something in that you're just going to put into an environment where it's not going to succeed. Absolutely. I think, you know, going through that process of running the fallow period can be really brutal on people, right? I know for me when I went through a nick outbreak at one of my older systems, I think that 90 days, and I'm going to let everyone know, too, that 90-day period almost isn't enough. You should probably do an extra week on top of it. Do 100 days. It sounds crazy, right? 100 days of not having any fish. Your corals, like you said, you got to make sure you're getting in there, feeding them all the things that they need to maintain it, but it's for the best, right? If you want to have a healthy system just like this, healthy group of fish overall in the end, you got to take the time to let it run and re, you know, be kind of empty at that time. But that's a really good time for you to start really focusing in on the the corals and all the things and allowing those to grow in. Now, I'm going to say too, be careful adding in anything else too, right? Whether it be new corals, new snails, these things can live on, you know, the coral skeletons, things like that. So, you got to make sure you kind of pinpoint that before you start adding in anything new. We talked a little bit about it off camera. I think that's something that I think I really want to bring to this video and bring to the attention of everybody watching at home. You're making it simple, right? Like trying to make reefing easy. I think a lot of the time people watching at home, people getting ready to make that leap, right? That freshwater, saltwater leap, it's kind of scary, right? It's everyone thinks it's going to be super hard. Let's talk a little bit about the lowmaintenance aspect of the system. I want you to kind of be raw and truthful with it, too, right? cuz everybody at home wants to hear cuz looking at the tank, right? The tank is beautiful. Let's talk a little bit about that easy maintenance and easy way of keeping this reef. Yeah. I mean, honestly, the only maintenance I do is I do a 5gallon water change like once a week, sometimes once every two weeks if the water tests out. Okay. I test my water like once a week. Like I was showing you guys earlier. I don't know if you'll be able to see it, but underneath all I have is an auto top off. I mean, there's no other equipment down here. I've got my Nero 5 that I've had for ever since my first tank. Uh, I've got a Synchra SDC 3.0 in the back and then the three AI primes and a little CJ for the Voyagers, I believe. Yeah, for flow, I mean, like I said, super low maintenance. It's really not anything I stress about. Like I also need the dosing. I just kind of eyeball it. I'm like, "Ah, these are a little low. Let me just dump some in a cup, throw it in the tank, and see what happens." What are What are you uh what are you dosing exactly? What product is it that you're dosing? Uh, I use the Red Sea Foundations, the Alkalinity and the Mag. does seem to, you know, drop a lot faster with all the euphilia. I try to keep my mag around like 15,600. I keep it really high. Um, and then the alkalinity, of course, I keep around like 8 8.5 somewhere in that range. I don't chase parameters, you know. I feel like a lot of people in this hobby do and kind of leads to their downfall. But yeah, I mean, I just kind of eyeball it and let the corals tell me what they need. For the most part, for sure. Obviously at the farm, right, we have that range of numbers we're kind of shooting for, but ultimately we're not trying to chase after the numbers. We're chasing after stability, right? Same kind of example here, right? You're chasing after that stability for the lighting. What's the schedule for the lights you have going? Uh, so it's technically a 12-h hour cycle. I do a 3-hour ramp up, 6 hours of like that full spectrum, and then a 3-hour ramp down. Uh, those three AI primes, they run at like 85% of the blues and then I like to see my fish. So, I run like 10 or 15% on the whites at at full spectrum. But yeah, I mean, other than that, you know, the reds and greens are like 5%, the purples and UV, violets, all that stuff are like really low, like 10 15%. Let's talk a little bit more about the corals, though. I want to get into the corals. How did you decide a lot of them? Like, when did you start thinking, okay, it's time to start transitioning away from the soft corals. I want to start getting into the torches, you know, trying out some of these bubble corals up front. How did you kind of work your progress into getting to that? Yeah, I mean, I've always I feel like a lot of people in the hobby have a strong attraction to the euphilia, right? A lot of flow. You get a lot of color varieties with a lot of them. And like we were talking about earlier, working at TopShelf, you see stuff and you're like, "Okay, yeah, I I want that for my tank." So, it was kind of just like a I didn't have like a master plan. It was just I saw stuff I liked. I put it where I felt like it would do best in the tank and I just kind of went from there with it. Um, a lot of these corals were rescues, you know, our invert system, we have our little discount section that we do that green bubble coral when I bought it was like this big around and dying and I was like, let me see if I can save it, you know, and now look at it. I mean, it's flourishing. It's awesome. Yeah, it looks great. I that one of the perks, right, of working at TopShelf Aquatics, and I'll say the same thing for myself at home. I get to use, you know, and go into the farm, check out all the amazing stock that we have. Something I noticed right in the front of the tank. It was actually the first thing I noticed. A lot of people are going to bring their eyes to the GSP. I'm actually looking at that yellow ball sponge. When did you put the sponge in? I know a lot of people are going to be curious. I love sponges. Super cool. A very natural way of adding in things to a tank. Yeah. Um, it just came in on a a shipment one day and I was like, that's pretty cool. Like, it's small. all I could fit in here without it, you know, overcrowding the tank or taking up too much real estate for coral. I was like, "Yeah, let me just see what happens." So, I threw it in there and I mean, it it's done really well. It's a really cool piece. You don't see it in a lot of tanks, I feel like. So, it was just something different I could kind of add to make my tank a little different, you know. And you were saying too that you don't dose any phytolankton directly for it or do any excessive feeding. It's pretty much just getting what'sever in the water column, right? Yeah. I mean, for the most part, the only feedings I do obviously are going to be like frozen micis or brine to the fish and then every once in a while you like bener to target feed some of the LPS, but other than that, I mean, it's really just water changes and let the fish take care of the nutrients for the most part. Cleanup crew, let's talk about your cleanup crew now. What did you decide on for cleanup crew? I see a wide variety in the tank, whether it be the shrimp, the crabs, the snails. Let's talk about all the different cleanup crew you have here in the system. Yeah, I've got a lot of, like you said, a variety of stuff. I've got probably like 10 of the tiger conchs. Um, scarlet hermits were the first hermits I added. I just bigger crab. You know, you get the blue legs. You don't really see them as often. I've got blue legs in there. I've got red legs in there. Trocus snails. A bunch of naria snails in here kind of spread throughout. Obviously, you can't really see them cuz they're all in the sand, but yeah, I mean that it's basically whatever I feel like the tank needs, I just kind of grab and throw in there and see what happens. I think you kind of hit it right on the nail, too, because having a wide variety of cleanup crew is super important. The other thing, too, having a sand bed, right? You have to work on having a sand bed. It's kind of a chore really in reality, right? You have to make sure you maintain it, keeping it clean. And just for the fact that it's just a 50-gallon tank, you've got 10 conchs in there. tank at home. I feel like I need to go back to Top Shelf today and pick up more during maintenance. Or you just letting the cleanup crew do the work. I mean, every water change I'm siphoning sand. You know, there's mixed opinions on whether you should touch the sand bed or not. But for me, like to try to keep it as clean as possible, I'm constantly siphoning the entirety of my sand bed every water change. So, just for me, I mean, some people say don't touch it. I've had great success with cleaning it out every time I do a water change. Anyone that's trying to set up a tank like this, right, the simplicity of it all, did it take time, right, to get to this point? I'm sure maybe that first year was maybe a little bit more difficult. Can you talk about maybe some of the trials, tribulations you went through to get to this point? Cuz it's a beautiful tank. You've done a great job. Two years of work, right? But I'm sure there was some things you had to go through down the road to get to this point. Yeah, I dealt with insane amounts of hair algae for a good like two months. Like probably the first 6 months I had the system running. Uh that was a lot of manual removal, siphoning it, you know, keeping your parameters low, trying to not bottom out nutrients, but get them to a level to where, you know, that algae is just not going to grow all over everything. That was the main one. Um I mean, honestly, no. I mean, other than like, you know, the occasional rogue fish that you have to catch out like I was telling you earlier. I mean, this scape is nowhere near what it looked like when I first set the tank up. Um, but this is, you know, what it's come to after trying to catch fish out, trying to rebuild that scape to a decent amount. You know, still giving yourself enough, you know, real estate for corals. But yeah, I mean, other than just the hair algae, that was the main thing, but it was definitely a a work in progress and took a while. The scape, did you start out with dry rock? Was this all originally dry rock when you got it rolling? Yeah, this was all Marco rock. Um, yeah, it was just what was cheapest at the time whenever I was buying my tank and I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on rocks. So, I was like, "Hey, the cheaper the better for me." So, that's what we did. I taped off a little section, scaped for like a week, probably coming back. You know, I don't really like that adjusting stuff from there. And ultimately, it's a lot different than how it did look originally, but, you know, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. You've definitely hit right on the 2/3 rule that I usually try to preach for people a lot, right? Because people tend to forget that the rocks aren't the things that are growing. It's actually the corals. So, you want to leave some space for the corals to fill in and really start to grow out. I know I ask a lot of people, the grass is always greener, right? A lot of people will see this tank and think, man, this is an amazing system. What is there that you would even want to change? For you, I'm sure you look at it every single day. There might that be that one little spot where you're like, man, I wish I changed that. Honestly, not really anything like off the top of my head, you know? I wish I had maybe like a little Nero 3 instead of the the CJ Voyager. Not that it's a bad product or anything. I love it, but it's just, you know, it's a big chunky pump and, you know, it just be nice to have something a little more low profile. Um, originally, you know, I upgraded the the return pump on that from the u the Mighty Jet the Mighty Jet pump. I mean, that was really the only thing off the top of my head that I can think of other than, you know, maybe wanting to put like a Radeon on here instead of three AI primes, you know, to look a little cleaner. But again, that just goes back to the the OCD look of, you know, just want it to look as clean as possible. You know, it's a centerpiece in your living room, so you don't want it to look clunky or messy or anything. Other than that, I mean, I'm I'm very happy with all the equipment that I have. The Tanzi atto, I believe it's the 3152 Nano, which I don't think they make anymore. They have a different different one now. But I've been very happy with that. I mean, that was probably the my best investment into this tank. I mean, not having to manually top off my my system, you know, every couple days. Out of all your corals, all your fish, let's pick a couple of your favorites that you really like in this tank. Oh, that's a tough one. It's like picking your favorite kid, right? I know you don't got kids. I don't even have kids. I know you don't got kids, but it's like picking your favorite kid. Yeah, I mean, I love torches. They are a newer addition to the tank. Like, these are the most recent pieces I've put in. But, I mean, my favorites have to be the bubble corals, or at least the green bubble coral. The the pearls a little more recent. Um, and I love Duncan. I mean, there's a huge Duncan colony back here that kind of gets overshadowed by the the two bubbles up front, but I love Duncan. That was my first coral I ever bought, and they just grow great. I mean, they're super easy to care for, and you get a really nice piece. You talked about parameters a little bit earlier. You said a little bit about your alkalinity, the mag. Do you have a range of what you're looking for for the other parameters, your phosphates, nitrates, anything like that? I just try to keep phosphates around like 0.1. Um, nitrates vary kind of 5 to 10 range. I mean, other than that, I don't I don't chase anything. I mean, it's a very, like I said, lowmaintenance system. Like, I don't want to come home and have to water test all the time and stress about my tank. I want to be able to sit down and enjoy it. I love hearing that, too, because once again, we did a lot of talking off camera, but it's this idea of sometimes the tanks we've shown here on the page are really big, extravagant. They've got all the bells and whistles, right? I mean, Richard's tank that had a whole hydros room, right? There's all these systems that have all these single bells and whistles to make them run, and you're keeping it super simple. You're doing just what everybody's ultimate goal is, right? Is having a reef tank in your home, but you're doing it easy. And I think that's a good testament for anyone at home that's watching that's thinking about maybe setting up a reef tank, but they're trying to figure out whether or not they can do it. This is a really good example of how you can set up a simple tank in your home and it can be easy and pretty low maintenance as well too. Talking about only doing maintenance about once a week or every once every two weeks, right? Absolutely. I ask every single person when I come into their home. Once again, thank you so much for letting me stop in. I like to ask them if you could give a piece of advice for anyone getting into the reef aquarium scene. Obviously, you're given advice a lot at the top shelf retail store, right? So, what's one piece of advice you would give to anyone that's getting ready to get into reef keeping? Uh I think the main advice that I sometimes struggle to even follow myself is you know everybody says it patience. I mean it's very easy to see these tanks that are very mature systems that you know people strive for and want to get that as soon as possible but it's it's just not the case in this hobby. I mean you you get in or you get out what you put in. And sometimes that means you know uh I can't buy a fish today. I shouldn't buy a coral. I need to go buy chemicals or something to fix my water before I add anything else to the system. So, just be patient. Yeah. Sometimes we don't get the joy of buying a piece of coral or getting a new fish. Just like you said, every single time you walk into a fish store, sometimes you're just going for more salt. Sometimes you're going for a new refratoter. Well, once again, Jared, I want to say thanks so much, man, for letting me jump in and check out this tank. I want to hear down in the comments below your guys's favorite part of Jared's tank. If you guys have once again hung out all the way till the end, I want to say thank you very much. Be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell notification so you don't miss out on any future uploads. [Music]