My reef hit the 9 month mark within the last few days and I have started going a slightly different direction with it. I started a new job and my free time has been drastically reduced, but I'm atleast doing regular maintenance on the aquarium. Tired of the cluttered sand bed and seeing some awesome tanks with extremely pristine coral free sand beds made me want to try it with my own, with exceptions of course!
While my initial goal was a well balanced mixed reef, I really started to veer off towards the LPS corals and primarily Euphyllia and the like. I have some SPS and soft corals in the tank, but I've really tried to create a lagoon type of reef to better suit a particular species group of coral instead of getting some corals that do very well while others suffer in subpar niches. I think that's the direction our hobby should be moving, instead of the "one of everything" mentality, more of a biotope or "species" aquarium.
Working on an Acanthastrea lordhowensis garden with a few Micromussa thrown into the mix.
Going along with the garden theme, I started grouping my chalices, with a Favites and Goniastrea thrown in. Gel filter, because why not?
This is on of the exceptions to the naked sand bed, a green and maroon Trachyphyllia.
Also, if there are any Fungia experts out there to lend me some advice on this coral, I would appreciate it. I've had it for about 2 weeks now and it's not really changed in its condition. I've got it on the sandbed of a 24" tall aquarium and the radion is suspended 9" over the top of the aquarium. I've read that about 80% of a Fungia's well being depends on food and only 20% is dependant upon photosynthesizing light. I've started feeding chopped krill, real ocean eggs, reef crack, or marine pellets to the plate once every 3 days to see if I can coax an improvement. Any other advice? Normal parameters temp 79 F, nitrate 0ppm, phophate >.10ppm, Ca 460ppm, Alk 9.5 dKH, I haven't tested Magnesium, but I'm hoping it's replenished with weekly 10% H2O changes.
Fungia eating a chunk of krill
To avoid ending on a bad note, here's an overall picture after 10 tubes of gel super glue and most of the corals off the sand bed or up on the frag rack.
