d2mini's "Essential Focus" Mixed Reef Build

Your set up looks amazing. Top notch equipment thus far!
Your going to love the radions, especially with the Radion sps ab+ schedule :)
I use to use that schudele and recently switched back to it. Less blues, more whites. Plus the corals do grow with proper supplements. Will continue to tag along!
 
Not really. Someone has been holding a pair of Wyoming White clownfish that I'm hoping to put in this weekend.
I'll probably do a school of chromis again. A couple smaller tangs. Maybe another magnificent or scribbled rabbitfish, maybe a few Anthias... not really sure. I just play it by ear. I don't like making fish lists. Plus, I tend to look right past the fish an focus on my coral. I can go days before I realize somebody is missing and have no idea when I saw them last. lol


They are tough to keep alive. Per some tips from another member I'm going to try being more religious about dosing phyto this time and see how it goes.
From past experience, some stuff lasts longer than others. For me, the red sponges are the first to go. The orange and yellow ones last longer for me. I think they also do better in less light. But they need good flow and lots of food. Hard to do all that in our tanks.
I kind of see it as a way to have an instant reef with a bunch of color from the get-go, and as stuff slowly vanishes over the next year I'm slowly adding coral so it all kind of evens out.
But I'm trying to get better! :)


Yes.
Just depends what he has at the time but it's always like Christmas morning when you get those boxes home. ;)
I've always wanted to keep sponges but had the same problem. I've strayed away from them due to worries about it polluting the water which leads me to the question: how bad is a dead/dying sponge for the water in your tank and at what point do you pull it out?

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If branches of tree/finger sponges are dying you can clip off the dead parts like you would do with a piece of SPS.
Others like ball sponges just kinda keep getting smaller.
It has to look really bad for me to finally pull out of the tank.
 
I absolutely LOVED the yellow ball sponge and so did my kids. We called it SpongeBob RoundPants. LOL It finally deteriorated to the point I pulled it from the tank. I'd like to get a new one, but not sure where to get them from.


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The picture quality is amazing! It is obvious that you know what you are doing! I'm really looking forward to seeing your vision come alive. I have learnt so much from this and your previous threads. Not to mention the motivation I found to care beyond the content and try to make the rest of the tank look nice as well.

I do have to move away from a bow front though, it is useless when trying to take half way decent pictures...
 
Wow coming along nicely. I love the aquascaping.
Thank you. :)

The picture quality is amazing! It is obvious that you know what you are doing! I'm really looking forward to seeing your vision come alive. I have learnt so much from this and your previous threads. Not to mention the motivation I found to care beyond the content and try to make the rest of the tank look nice as well.

I do have to move away from a bow front though, it is useless when trying to take half way decent pictures...

Thanks! And yeah... bow fronts are tough. I started with a 46g bow.
 
I had just finished moving stuff around last night and took a few pics.

Here's a couple FTS.
The rocks look basically the same. I added a few more but it was mostly to fill a few holes, without changing the overall aquascape I had earlier.

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Looking down the center front

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Side view of some sponges and gorgonian

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Decorator Crab

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Yummy stuff

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Another gorgonian

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Orange Sponge

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Another Decorator Crab

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Spaghetti Worm and Urchin

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just read through all 27 pages at work. amazing tank and amazing eye for detail. I am moving to a new house in a couple months and am upgrading my tank to 200+ gal. I will have to get some TBS rock now for sure
 
Very nice and thanks for posting the new pictures, the tank looks great. The advantages of using Florida Liverock and having it shipped overnight is just amazing, with no new tank syndrome. I am still not sure why some still buy dead rock from other countries?
 
Sold!! I'm working on the wife to upgrade one of my tanks and will 100% go with TBS now. I wonder how many orders he gets each time you post a pic. Outstanding!!
 
just read through all 27 pages at work. amazing tank and amazing eye for detail. I am moving to a new house in a couple months and am upgrading my tank to 200+ gal. I will have to get some TBS rock now for sure
Do it!

Very nice and thanks for posting the new pictures, the tank looks great. The advantages of using Florida Liverock and having it shipped overnight is just amazing, with no new tank syndrome. I am still not sure why some still buy dead rock from other countries?
Beats me. :uhoh2:

Sold!! I'm working on the wife to upgrade one of my tanks and will 100% go with TBS now. I wonder how many orders he gets each time you post a pic. Outstanding!!
:D

That looks quite similar to a gorgonian that we have been keeping in captivity here for quite a few years. High flow and seems to do well with strong light.

Yep, all the gorgonians are photo synthetic so yes... high flow, high light is preferred.
 
Dennis I gotta say I'm about to order some tbs. oh. Tank looks amazing as always.
I'm thinking about replacing a bunch of my rock with some tbs rock. Mine are infested with aptasia. Think there would be any negative outcomes if I order a 20gal size package for my system? I'd replace about 40lbs of Rock.
 
Dennis I gotta say I'm about to order some tbs. oh. Tank looks amazing as always.
I'm thinking about replacing a bunch of my rock with some tbs rock. Mine are infested with aptasia. Think there would be any negative outcomes if I order a 20gal size package for my system? I'd replace about 40lbs of Rock.
No negatives (other than a nuisance crab or whatever).
Just make sure your remaining rock is aiptasia free.


I have that same urchin. He's a bulldozer!

LOL, yeah he may eventually have to go but he's fine for a while.
My favorite urchins are the black long spine because they don't disrupt anything.
Very gentle creatures.
 
LOL, yeah he may eventually have to go but he's fine for a while.
My favorite urchins are the black long spine because they don't disrupt anything.
Very gentle creatures.

I will say, though, that I've moved him from my DT to the fuge and back a few times due to having some loose stuff in the display and not wanting to secure it yet, and when he's in the tank any sign of any algae on rocks is GONE FAST. I had a turf algae outbreak recently and after adding an ATS and moving the urchin back to the display he removed it and the ATS kept it gone.
 
Dennis,

Is there a list somewhere of the diff gorgs etc that you just added? Ive never had them in my tanks in the past, but you have just convinced me that is the first thing I will add too :). I will be going mainly SPS, but those add a wonderful amount of beauty and movement that SPS wont. I need those too :)
 
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