Absolutely incredible build(house too)! I realize this it "Reef Central" but that masterpiece is fitting a angel display! Corals are nice but if find myself stressing over them way more than beautiful angels & tangs. Nothing worse after a stressful day at work than coming home to some issue with the corals imho.
Matt
Thank you. I will be doing angels and then add other "corals" to complement the tank. Ive got some green star polyps in the tank that are doing great and my angel hasn't touched them. I understand they are fast growing, a bit of a pest and not a true coral but I like their look- like flowing grass so I plan on having a big rock covered with them.
Ill also be getting a blue face and these two fish will be my showcase fish. Ive got clowns, a couple of hippo tangs and some green chromis. My one and only angel is a baby emperor angel. Blue face coming this week. After that the plan is two juvenile nano tangs and then Ill be done for a while. Ill add more "coral" but frankly will have to be a bit of trial and error to see what doesnt get nipped by the angels. I also have a couple of cleaner shrimp who are very active and a couple of fire shrimp who are more reclusive and hide more. There are 4 emerald crabs who do a ton of clean up and algae control.
At first I was concerned about not being able to do corals and angels but to me, there are enough creatures like green star polyps that the true reefers don't consider coral but are still beautiful to me that I can have my cake and eat it too by having both.
Did they deliver salt water or Freshwater and then you added the salt? Curious
It was salt water. cost was about 450 bucks for 900 gallons and the process took about 30 minutes. super easy. Was the best way for me to get the tank filled and cycled.
What type of sand are you using?..I just ordered Tropical Eden Reeflakes and yours looks similar. Or Florida Crushed Coral?
I have florida crushed coral.
This week was a fun week for me and a milestone for my tank. Family and I took a 10 day trip out of town. I have to tell you I was super nervous about leaving the tank alone like that. I fully expected to come home to a flood or worse- an electrical fire. I know, Im freaking out but it was just nerve wracking to leave not be home in case something went wrong.
I had set up an Eheim auto feeder and set it to feed flakes, brine and mysis shrimp 4 times a day. It was probably a bit much but the feeder did one turn four times a day to ensure that everyone was fed properly.
The Reef Genesis was also set to change 6 gallons of water a day. My salt water mixing station as well as my RO/DI top of tanks were filled up and ready to do water changes and top offs. However I had to shut off my RO/DI top off tank because my pump was creating a siphon so I just did a big top off and calculated the amount of evaporation that would occur in 10 days and filled up my sump to accommodate. Worse case would have been if the siphon in the top off would have added 100 gallons and flooded or lowered the salinity too much. So I just shut that off completely. I will add an anti siphon value and then the top off will be fully operational. Im using the Genesis Storm for top offs and the Genesis Renew for the water changes.
My review on the Renew (thanks Slief for the suggestion) is absolutely phenomenal. Water changes are as simple as setting how much water you want to change, whether you want to do that daily, weekly or all at once. Push start and the system does the rest. Very well designed and highly recommended by me.
The Genesis Storm, I cant give a full review yet- as its not fully set up because of my siphon but it seems like a bit of overkill for me. Lots of float sensors, lots of fail safes- probably will make more sense once I can get it fully up and running. Right now, its in limbo. Ill do a more thorough review later.
With regards to the vacation, I came back home and everything was perfect. Other than the sump needing a top off from 10 days of evaporation and some algae on the glass, fish and shrimp were doing great. Everyone was out and about and swimming.
I came home, I did a 20 gallon water change with a push of a button on the Reef Genesis as I knew there was a ton of crap collected in the filter socks- I cleaned the filter socks- and ran the wash down on my skimmer.
The wash down on the skimmer is set up with a line into the collection cup and I simply flip a valve which puts pressurized water into the cup which drains into the drain. This makes maintenance very easy for the skimmer as I never really have to open it and clean it. I also have a wiper. I have not yet set up the Apex but once I do, both of these will be controlled by the Apex system. A solenoid valve on the water wash down and turn the wiper on once a day and skimmer maintenance is done and easy.
So all in all, the trip was a success, the tank is doing great and Im going to get a couple of pieces this morning to add to the tank. I still have some wire and cable clean up to do in the fish room and Ill post pictures after all that is done and the tank is a bit more stocked.
After a 20 year hiatus, Im really enjoying coming back to the hobby, the tank is doing great and because we took the time on the front end to get proper equipment and set up, Ive had minimal issues. Livestock is happy, healthy and eating well. No issues with algae or nitrates or any other problems. The almost 1000 gallon total volume certainly helps to keep things stable and gives me a lot of options to keep the tank stocked with stuff that normally would not work.
Happy holidays everyone- enjoy your Sunday and Ill do a big photo update after the new year.
