Here’s a bunch of pics that I took the other day and a quick rundown of the system:
1.) 90 gallon RR tank
2.) Eshopps RS200 sump with refugium
3.) Mag3 return
4.) Finnex 300 watt titanium heater
5.) Reef Octopus Classic 150SSS sump save skimmer
6.) WP-25 wavemaker in the display for movement
7.) Reef Radiance DM-155e LED lighting
8.) 5.5 gallon ATO tank with DIY ATO
There is 75lbs of Marco Rock in the display and a very small amount of LR in the sump. The sump houses my peppermint shrimp as well as 3 different types of macro algae and the lighting cycle starts 1 hour before and 1 hour after the display’s lights are on.The main idea to having the peppermints in the sump is they will clean and eat pretty much anything that makes it’s way in there, and as they take turns carrying eggs, they feed the tank at the same time. The sump has approx. 20 lbs of fine sand and crushed coral and the display holds about 50 or 60 lbs of fins sand and a limited amount of crushed coral.
The tank is still very young and all of the corals were in my cube.
My planned fish list:
1.) 2 ocellaris (in QT right now)
2.) Royal gramma (in QT)
3.) Lawnmower Blenny (in QT)
4.) Yasha Goby (in QT)
5.) 4 - 5 Longspine Cardinals
6.) Yellow Candy Hog
7.) 1 tang - which I can’t decide on which one, but I’m leaning toward a small Purple Tang.
This system will be a SPS dominant mixed reef. Over the years, I’ve done all kinds of dedicated reef tanks and I find that I enjoy pretty much all corals, so like most, I plan on keeping a wide variety of them. I’m also a big fan of motile inverts and things that are out of the ordinary. I like keeping hermits as opposed to snails, but I do keep a lot of different things. I have 2 different types of stars, a pistol shrimp, cucumbers, conchs, etc. To me - the weird little inverts are what makes a reef - a reef. Diversity is what I am for.
Anyway - here are some additional pics other than what I’ve put in my other thread. Hope you all enjoy.
Thanks B - There’s another one right behind it that’s a blue / purple color. Picked them up from Dr. Mac, they’re A. Spathulata (Aussie Millipora), and from the time I’ve gotten them, they’re pretty quick growers.
After reading up on them, they like very high light and flow and if they’re happy, they will reward you with awesome color variations.
Thanks A - I hope so! When they went up on Dr. Mac’s site, I couldn’t help myself, I had to have them. Hopefully once they start taking off, I can spread the wealth.
I wish. If we had the room, I would have kept the 210 I had when we moved here. That’s ok though, I don’t think we’re going to be living in this house for a long time, maybe till our youngest is out of school. You know the saying, new house, new tank. Lol
Here’s a couple of growth shots of my birdsnest. I just walked past the tank a few minutes ago and have always been very pleased with this piece.
The first pic (it’s also shown above) was taken July 12th, the second pic was taken July 30th and this last pic was taken today just a few minutes ago.
In addition to the growth, the color is what I’m most pleased about. I’m running full spectrum LED black boxes and haven’t messed with the color or intensity since I added the gorgonians at around July 9th (I think that’s when I got my gorg order in)
That is some nice growth on that bird nest. How about that acro behind it? is it growing too? from the pics, everything looks the same except for the birdnest.
Haha - thanks Ken. Coralline is the bane of my reefkeeping - LOL. If it would just stay on the rock, I would be soooo much happier with it. I actually need to get in there with a scraper now, but I hate putting my hands in the tank unless I absolutely have to. That and the fact I’m lazy doesn’t help either.
I think I finally found a food combination that the corals really like (other than typical nutrients, fish poop, etc.) I know the gorgonians like it, they all visibly eat it, including the yellow finger gorgonian.
All I do is take a decent pinch of formula 1 flake and an equal size pinch of spectrum pellets and grind them together on a paper plate with a spoon to a super fine powder, then I add a small squirt of oyster feast and mix. Then I mix it all with tank water and add it slowly to the intake of the return pump and let it broadcast. Stays in suspension for a long time and the feeding response is great.
I’ve used the easy blade magnet attachment in the past, it works pretty good.
The issue I have is reaching the back and the side, the tank sits in a corner where the one side is up against the wall and I can only reach half of the back.
I did end up getting a razor with a 24" handle and scraped it last night as a matter of fact. Looks great now, all clean all the way around.
When my coraline gets really heavy on the glass or acrylic, i use a SS cookie spatual, from the dollar store. Which i hone to a fine, smooth edge, with my sharpening stone. its short and sweet, and has a nice wooden handle, for grip.
[quote=“kaptken, post:19, topic:7325”]
When my coraline gets really heavy on the glass or acrylic, i use a SS cookie spatual, from the dollar store. Which i hone to a fine, smooth edge, with my sharpening stone. its short and sweet, and has a nice wooden handle, for grip. [/quote]
You would MacGyver something like that hahaha.
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