This Tank has Angelfish and SPS! 225 SPS Dominated Reef Tank!

What's going on, reefers? We are back with my favorite series. We're here to check out another tank. We're here in the local Florida, [music] Central Florida area. I'm here with JT. JT, thank you man so much for letting us come by. I am stoked to talk about a system that actually is near and dear to Topshelf. We've seen this tank before in our retail store, but let's just jump into it. What's the size of the tank we have here? So, this is a uh 225galon display. [music] It's uh six feet by 30 inches deep, 24 inches tall. Made by Derek at Ocean Life and Aquariums, none other than Shout out Derek. He always does insane [music] work. The sum space down below, too. What if you had to guess total water volume, where are we sitting at at this point? Um, well, [music] it's a Bash C signature 60. So, I I I'll probably estimate it like 4550 [music] gallons. Nice. Okay. So, we're getting up there almost to the threshold of around 300 gallons. We ended up having a tank before we moved into this new big system. [music] It was an upgrade. What has been the best thing getting into this newer system for you? Honestly, in this whole transition into a new system, it's it's been the best thing and it's been the hardest thing was I [music] used pre-manufactured tanks. Um I've been in cades, I've been in Red Seas. Uh so the plumbing was pre-done. So with [music] this, it's kind of a trial by fire with plumbing. I had some like hangover the back overflows with an African cichlid tank when I was a when I was a teenager, but nothing quite like this. So, it was kind of learning the ins and outs, brainstorming with some other reefers and figuring it out. Yeah, it's funny. Reef keepers, we become chemists, plumbers, all these things, husbandry keepers of all these animals. We're like, you know, jack of all trades when it comes to the things we [music] do. Now, for the system itself, it seems like we're heavy on the SPS side. We're definitely favoring the SPS. There's some mixture of other corals in between. What's made you lean into the SPS as you've gotten into reefing? Uh the the challenge honestly I enjoy challenging myself and challenging limits and SPS when I got into it is the hardest thing to do or at least that's what was said. I know some people may think torches are the hardest with how finicky they can be. Orgonis are the hardest with how they can be. I don't know. I like the colors. I like the uh the way they grow, the different growth patterns with them that you can't really get with anything else. You were talking about it too off camera. The scape is in a way where it kind of slams down. It gives you kind of a a mirror of a a a hillside or the [music] beach side coming into from the reef. Was that kind of a plan for all the SPS2 to give them give them a little bit more room to get growing up top? Yeah. So, I wanted it to kind of I wanted to look natural but not like a wall of rocks. And I wasn't really trying to go the NSA type aquacape, but I I wanted it to I wanted you to be able to look at it and see different angles of it and see little nooks and crannies here and there. So, I tried to get this sloping pattern and make it kind of like a spur off of a main reef structure kind of like you see a spur on a mountain [music] or whatever that race size. So, that's kind of what I was going for with that. But, um I think it's working out well. I forgot to ask too, you mentioned you had the cyclic tanks with the hang on the back filter. How long have you actually been in saltwater though? Reef keeping [music] in general. So I jumped into the saltwater hobby in 2018 with a Red Sea E260. Gotcha. Okay. So been around the hobby for a bit of time. Saw the craziness of co and then kind of rolled into here at this point. So getting into now the other corals in the tank. We've got some LPS too. We're flirting around with the Ghani garden. We've got the euphilia down at the bottom. We've also got an elegance coral as well. What has made you choose some of these LPS corals and kind of setting up these garden style? [music] So, I went with those because my wife likes the flowy corals, my my daughter likes the flowy corals, and it it if this keeps them invested in looking at it as much as I do, um then it turns in from like just my hobby in the corner of the house to something that the entire family can enjoy. For sure. The foreseeable future, we're definitely going to have to do a lot of trimming. So many different groups of SPS worked in between the rock work. [music] Is that something you're planning on in the future is doing a lot of bonsai work in here with all the different sticks you've got kind of starting to grow out? They've all kind of planted their foot now. They've got the encrusting going [music] now. We're going to start growing up. Is that kind of the plan to do a lot of kind of manual manicuring as we go through? Yeah, I'm going to try to keep them trimmed to some extent. I didn't want it to look manufactured. They've all they've all planted like you said and kind of grown their own thing like kind of off in that corner where the there's the frog skin and the the forest fire digi like to me that looks really natural with how they've kind of grown in and around each other. Um and I trim if I see branches touching but for the most part I leave them alone. Yeah, them the mess of a natural reef in my opinion is one of the best parts of this entire hobby is the natural look of things. Speaking of natural, we'll talk about some of the fish we have in here too. There's some fish that are just for pleasure and viewing. There's also a lot of working fish. And there's actually some fish in this tank [music] that we've seen in previous videos that are now living in this tank. We'll go over that here in a second. But let's talk about the group of fish you decided on. So, I love tanks. Um I I had to be given a limit to how many tanks I could have and that again was imposed by by my wife. But like focused on the different subspecies like the the Timinian here is obviously the worker. He's [music] always picking the scope is same. And then the big one that we have to mention is the Achilles who is also just as much as a worker as the other ones, but he he takes some breaks to to let everyone know that he's the boss, even us standing outside this tank. He he'll come by and probably flash us like, "Hey, here I am." So, he's got a lot of personality that one. And then we've got a nice selection of rases, too. I see something that you typically don't see. And you said it off camera. You kind of like to push the limit, right? kind of push where reefing can head, the direction you can go. There's some fish that really caught my eye, but I'll let you talk us through. We've got a couple angel fish in the tank. SPS and angelf fish don't typically coexist, but we're going for it here in this tank. We're going for it. I've always wanted the regal just because of their their color and they're iconic in my opinion. Um, but I wanted to play the safe route, so I got a captive bred one. Maybe he's less likely to pick. And then the emperor, that was kind of a uh impulse [music] buy thanks to thanks to my daughter. She loved that thing. And with how I've had success with some of the other risky fish and feeding and just all the different types of food that I put in this tank, I figured, you know, I could at least give it a shot. Um, so that was the reason for that. He's starting to transition now to his [music] adult colors, so I'm excited to see that. He's got a lot of uh personality, too. So, it is funny to watch him interact with the other with the other tank mates. one of the bigger fish too in the group and it's kind of funny. He's like almost the gentle giant here running around. The Achilles is one of the bigger fish but definitely the emperor's got some size to it. We also have the antheus where we're seeing one of the males transition too. You have multiple fish in here transitioning which is a beautiful thing to see. Something that happens over [music] the course of time. Some other risky fish too. Just recently added some butterfly fish in as well. So once again, kind of pushing the limit and I think that's a big testament to you with your reef tank and what you're able to do is all these different varieties of fish. Any other fish you hope you can kind of work into the tank at this point or are you pretty happy with your livestock? I'm pretty happy with what I've got. I would like to probably get a couple more pyramid butterflies just so there's a group of them just because they're so striking. But as far as everything else, I mean I've got talbot damsels in here, the liailtheas, there's the six line rases that you were talking about off camera. I think I'm pretty set on this the selection I've got. Something like you said, the strikingness of the pyramids and the Achilles. I think it's that white and that stark black coloring against the vibrancy of the corals is just totally out of this world. What are we feeding the fish? What are they actively getting fed? So, they are getting fed um easy reefs pellet food. Um they have their their DKI version for the fish. I also got the LPS pellets in there. And then I'm feeding Modern Reef pellet food as well. Also throw some froze in there occasionally. Mastic and nori. [music] Gotcha. I see that you're utilizing the auto feeder too. Yes. How frequently is that going off throughout the day? Um every I think I've upped it from every 2 hours to every hour. Wow. Uh just for like a 5-second cycle to keep the antheus fat. Yeah. I [music] think that's something people tend to forget is that a lot of these fish that are, you know, constantly burning all that energy, they need to be fed a lot. way more than any other fish and it's showing how well these antheists are doing here. Talk me through cleanup crew. What is helping keep this system nice and clean? Uh I've got a lot of conscious, got a lot of snails. There's some hermit crabs intermix. There's some serpent stars that are up underneath the rocks right now. Seeing them come out at night is pretty interesting. It's honestly pretty basic in terms of cleanup crew. I probably need to plus up what I got. But uh there's some cucumbers in here as well, which I think are doing a pretty good job. Honestly, I don't really have to do much to the sand. One of those questions that's goes [music] back and forth on all the forums in the Facebook groups at TopShelf Aquatics is sand or bare bottom, right? A lot of people will want to go with sand, want to go bare bottom. We've got sand and it seems like a little bit thicker grade of a sand. Talk it out with me. Why sand? And what did we choose with for sandwise? [music] This tank, as you can see in some spots, has a black ABS bottom. It would have been very easy to do bear bottom, but like I said earlier about mixing some things in that my family likes. I know that my wife likes the sand, but I think it makes the color the colors of the corals and the fish pop a little more than just having a stark black bottom. We already have the black on the backside. And then to kind of do this, I mixed in special grade with Florida crushed coral. Forgot to ask too, the big clam we've got also. How long have you had that clam and how how you been keeping that thing so happy? I got that from a buddy of mine. I think he's been in my care for about two years now. Um he had to he was local, but he had to move up to um either Virginia or West Virginia. And he was like, "Hey man, keep this thing healthy for me, please." So um I don't really do anything I don't target feed anything for that specifically. Just keep it happy with the light. [music] Um and it's it's kind of adapted that spot and it'll shift around, but it it likes it likes the flow in that particular section. Let's start talking about the pieces of equipment. Kind of what's underneath the hood to really make this tank function. We did mention that we do have the auto feeder, the Avast auto feeder up top. What are some of the other pieces of equipment? Starting [music] from the top, working our way down. We'll kind of start with the lights. So, with the lights, we have the uh the ATI Stratton [music] G2 Pros. These are the 204 panels, so the largest ones they make. So, running two of those. No other supplemental light. And these things have been phenomenal for me. really good spread, really good color in my opinion. They shift from more white heavy to to blue towards the end of the day. So, no problems there. The ocean sea waves have been amazing pieces of equipment for getting flow in the corners and everything of this, which they're turning the uh Panta ECM42s that I got. And they [music] make the special brackets like you could put the octopulse up there if you want. You could put Nero up there if you want. So, these things have been incredible. Yeah, it's something we've talked about in previous videos, too. I feel like as the tank develops, like you have to [music] adjust your flow. The flow can't stay the same because the corals are growing, things are adjusting and the flow is getting pushed in different directions. Very unique. You know, there's a couple the orca just came out. Very similar kind of idea. There's also the sea swirls that do similar things, but these are very unique. I haven't gotten the opportunity to see these running actively on a tank, but very nice. Uh you obviously getting great flow everywhere with the growth that you have from all your corals. Yep. [music] Now working down into the sump space. We've got all kinds of goodies down there. There's a lot going on down there. Kind of walk [music] us through what the process is down there. What's the functionability of all that stuff? The functionability is what what kind of works for me. You know, how I've tried to figure out this system. Like I said, this was the first time I've had to plum everything on my own. So it could it probably be a little cleaner? Absolutely. But uh we learn by doing. So, I've got a bath sea sump underneath. Um, that's been phenomenal. Everything's going into or the two main drains are going into a roller mat, the Red Sea uh [music] 1200. And as that's going through, goes to the next chamber that has the uh Reef Octopus 200 Elite Ent skimmer that has just been an absolute powerhouse, which I just moved that from the old system over to this and it's still just knocking it out. I have the Reef Oto CO2 scrubber. it's recirculating in that as well. I don't particularly chase pH, but I know that there's a benefit to it. Um, and if I see it start to trend downwards, I change the media out. Um, I've got a frag section in the next chamber over with just an illumagic pixel light. Uh, there's cheap power head. Uh, just enough to trim some stuff off here and and, uh, put them down put them down below to kind of bank or, um, trade or whatever the case is. And then I'm running a um CJ SDC Synchron 9.0. I probably need to opt for something a little bigger cuz I am using a manifold and it's it's kind of struggled to get the turnover that I want and run the manifold at the same time. Um because one, you know, flowheavy piece of equipment is the bash biospace reactor that I got along with the sump and that thing is uh I think it's really effective to be honest with you. my nitrates. It's easier to feed this tank heavier because the nutrients are where I want them all the time. And I I think that is a testament to how well that is working with how it's moving water through that media and building up that that biological population. Uh and then there's also a UV sterilizer on this as well. Um on my old system, I was running ozone, but uh like we said off camera, I switched over to the modern reef um reef keeping system, which is a four-part. There's two alkalinity components, a calcium and a magnesium component. It's all dosed in proportion. And with that, there's a pallet pop that is dosed in the morning, which I'm not sure exactly what everything is, but the pallet pop kind of looks more like an AB, like a red CAB+, but there's also some carbon dosing um substance in that as well from what I understand. And then they have the complete reef food that's dosed just before lights out when all the corals start to to switch from photosynthesis to to prey capture. And one thing that they recommend along with this system is no carbon [music] use and no ozone use. So I am running carbon now because I'm doing a treatment for tin cuz I noticed tin was getting a little high on an ICP. Kind of dealing with that issue. Um but after I take it offline tomorrow, it'll go back to not running any carbon in the system and I'm able to keep it pretty pretty clean and clear without that which is pretty cool. Gotcha. Said you just did an ICP. What are the typical ranges for your basic parameters that you're ultimately trying to shoot for, especially with this modern reef system? [music] What are they trying to get to and what are you trying to get to? So, I use their salt. So, I just try to keep it as close to their salt as possible, which their salt mixes alk between 7.2 and 8. With the tin, I've kind of dealt with some alk [music] creeping up a little bit cuz the consumption's kind of gone down. The highest I like to go is 85. [music] The calcium on this I've seen between 380 and 440. uh magnesium between 1250 and 1400. Gotcha. And then pH, I know you said it's not something you're actually chasing. What's your if you did have a goal pH number, what's kind of the range for you here in the high the high that I've seen in this system um is 8.25 to 8.3. Gotcha. Gross. You said you have a UV sterilizer down there. Is that something you're running 24/7 only sometimes during the day? And why are we running the UV sterilizer? No, I'm running it 24/7. Uh, I think it's their 57 watt Aqua UV. I I'm doing that spe like it helps with, you know, obviously water clarity, but I'm doing that because of just caring for the fish, being responsible for the fish. We can do what what we need to to quarantine, but the moment you bring in a a rock or a coral that hasn't been through that process, you're exposing you're exposing your livestock to it. So it's also a form of uh mitigation and kind of keeping you especially keeping the Achilles with how prized that is keeping him ickree and healthy uh is is very important for sure. And you have also the blue streak cleaner ass actively in there working on them as well. So UV, blue streak cleaner, all that on top. Good husbandry. That's what can kind of lead to having an Achilles that has success, right? Hydros controllers [music] down below. A couple different Hydros units. Seems like the Hydros collective, that's what you've gone with here. How are [music] you liking the Hydro system? I love it. Um I've used them. I actually switched over to Hydros before I switched tanks. Um super easy to set up. Uh it's everything that I need. Um, I'm able to, you know, obviously look at it from anywhere, make adjustments as necessary, but there's an X10 in there that's controlling a dose. There's a Blenny in there that's controlling dose there. I mean, there's a launch, there's the XP8, uh, an X3. So, I mean, I'm pretty heavily invested in the Hydros ecosystem at this point, but they've been great. The Coral View support's been great to me. Um, so I'll just keep using it's been reliable. Yeah. For me, I think the biggest part is the fact each one's its own brain. I really do like that one of them has a slip up. You have the backup with the other pieces of equipment that you've mentioned. And you've got a couple of them down there. So, at least if something goes haywire, they can ultimately send you a notification. And I will say, shout out to Hydros cuz when I get notifications, they blow my phone up. It's like non-stop. I can't stop getting them. Absolutely. Well, and the Audible, too. Oh my gosh, the Audible too is crazy. It's extremely loud. I know the leak detector rope they tested that reef paloo and it like scares people half the time. Yeah, I've I've definitely uh woken up in the middle of the night because that thing's going [music] off like what's going on? And the little the little point leak sensor, you know, got a little bit of something on it and it's like okay well crisis averted, right? Crisis averted. But better you having that kind of, you know, notification rather than something going haywire. A lot of new school reefing methods, but also some old school reefing methods. Something I'm seeing more frequently is the biopellets, the, you know, the reactor with the pellets in there to try and kind of help with that, you know, those nitrate levels. You have a lot going in and you have a lot heavy going out, right? So, it seems as though that's working pretty well in your favor. Any other kind of old school methods or new school methods you think attributes to kind of the success of this system so far? Well, like I said, I start I got started in 2018, so I'm not sure that uh I have a bunch of old school methods. Um I think the one that I can kind of draw on it the most is like leave stuff alone, just let the system run. Like it it kind of runs itself. I just do the maintenance on it and clean the glass and, you know, just just let it go. But with the more um modern like scientific approach with like the the modern reef RKS and what what they're doing over at Euro Euro Corals and just [music] trusting in that and it's it's obviously doing its thing. It's worked out great for me. You said maintenance scraping the glass. Outside of that, what are you doing for maintenance wise? Water changes automatic it may be or what is the maintenance schedule here at the system? So I do auto water changes. [music] I think I'm I'm pulling out and dripping continuously like 5 milliliters a minute. So, it roughly comes out to about 10 10% a week, I believe, if my math is right. Um, I got lost on the way to college and enlisted in the military. So, for for y'all watching this, don't hate me if my math isn't correct. So, water changes are taken care of. I mean, honestly, it's just it's maintaining the equipment. It's making sure the pumps are working the way they should, checking calibration on the Hydros and Aqua [music] Wiz, and just verifying that equipment is functioning the way it needs to. Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, making sure that everything's functioning as it should be is something people tend to forget. You get so complacent on the idea that all this equipment is good for you and is going to be making sure that your tank is running pick and span, but not all the time. You need to kind of [music] sometimes lean into that. Yep. This system here, you had a system before. We've got the new one now. If you could change anything from the old system or this system, what would that be? If you could change anything with this tech here, I don't I mean, aside from, like I said, maybe more expert level plumbing or something, uh, I don't think there's anything in here that I would change cuz I got to build this one up from from the start and pick everything that I wanted and bring over the equipment that I wanted from the old system. So, this tank has been been phenomenal. It's quiet. There's there's plenty of space. There's plenty of room. I'm able to keep just about all the fish that I want to. So, I I don't I don't know that I would change a whole lot with this. In this system, I don't see barely if any algae, right? We talked a little bit about some cyano on the sand, but algaewise, there is no algae in the tank. Do you think that has to do with the heavy mechanical filtration you have, or do you think it's also a testament to your cleanup crew and your fish as well? I I think it's a mixture of everything. I think having having the tangs um and really all of their temperaments are we're going to go to work. Um there's there's really no layabouts in the tang gang that I have. They're all I mean the Achilles is picking right now. You know, the Tamini is [music] probably scraping off stuff more than he's swimming. Um so they're definitely helping out there. The uh I I don't think I mentioned the urchins that I have there. They're putting in work as well. Having a good I think having a good balance of utilitarian [music] fish, having a good cleanup crew, and getting in there and scraping stuff when you need to. Right. I did I did prep this for you guys here too as well. So, I mean, there is of course a little bit of prep, but I'm sure inside the tank itself, they're they're doing the majority of the work. For sure. For sure. I can't can't take credit of that. It's him flashing. I'm going to let them know that we're here. Even though you've only been in the hobby since 2018, I'd say you've got the reason for people to listen to you right here in front of us with this system. If you could give a piece of advice to anyone getting into the hobby, whether it be a brand new reef keeper or someone who's been around the space for a while, what would that piece of advice be? I'm going to beat the dead horse. I'm going to say consistency and um trust the process. Let things go through its course. You know, when you're starting up and you're going through the ugly phase, just let it work. As long as you're doing what you need to do, what's been recommended to you, it's going to it's going to pan out. It's going to work out. And the patience is important. Well, JT, I want to say thank you for having us over. This has been awesome. A beautiful system. Cool to see a system that was hanging out at the retail store for a little bit of time and now finally getting it to see it come to fruition is amazing. And you've absolutely smashed it on this one. If you guys have any questions for JT about his system, feel free to drop them down in the comments below. And if you guys want to see more of this tank, I usually tell you guys to rewind, watch it again. But you can also head over to his Instagram page, Hardy Reef. Might be an underscore somewhere in between. party_ree reef. Check out his Instagram page. You guys can see more of this tank and as it develops. But if you guys have any other questions, drop them down in the comments. If you guys have tuned in till the end though, I want to say thank you so much. Be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell notification so you guys don't miss out on any future uploads. [music]