Hello, my name is Adam
I'm in Calgary, Canada and have had fresh water tanks my whole life. Most recently I've taken down a 180 gallon planted tank (moved to a house that couldn't take the weight) and set up my first discus tank.
Here's the set up:
90 gallon display tank
25 gallon refugium
750 watt metal halide system (2x250 watt halides, 250 watts actinic)
fluval Fx5 (canister I know, but I needed to try and use some of what I already had!)
2x Vortech MP10 pumps set to the reef crest mode
1 pump of indeterminate brand powering the return from the refugium that I calculated to about 650gph
The fx5 and the refugium are one separate water pipe systems with input and outputs being on opposite sides of the tank. With the vortechs on random, a great deal of water moves about this tank
I cycled for a week with 10 cocktail shrimp (what a smell!) then when NH4 and NO2 were zero I added 85 pounds of live rock that was pre-cured. After 4 more days there was no spike in ammonia so I added a neon dottyback and a purple and sailfin tang. The tangs are young and I know they will outgrow the tank, but luckily we are building a house right now that will have a 200 gallon tank built in to the wall - I just didn't want my first reef tank to be a monster like that! I was concerned about aggression between the tangs, but they had both been in their tank together at the LFS for 2 months with no problems (I went and checked them out almost daily) and I added them together. So far, other than a bit of chasing, they are getting along.
I've been a bit neurotic on water testing and since I started there has been no spike in any of the toxic stuff, with a pH of 8.2, alkalinity of 11.7-11.8, specific gravity of 1.025, temp that fluctuates between 24.5-25.5 over a 24 hour period and calcium around 550ppm (Calgary tap water is glacial run off with an outrageously high calcium level naturally).
a couple of days ago I added what appears to be a mated pair of cinnamon clown fish, and then proceeded to make what I think was my first mistake. yesterday I got impulsive and bought them a bubbletip anemone. It found a spot it liked, settled in and everything seemed fine until today when I turned down the water flow for feeding. It decided it didn't like it's spot anymore, let go of the rock and before I could catch it, it tumbled over itself on to a rock that has a nasty colony of aptasia that I haven't been able to remove. it was on them for all of 4 seconds but when I flipped it over, half of it's tentacles looked like they had been singed off with a lighter. I was looking right at it before it fell so I know it was nearly instant. I'm hoping it lives, but it won't re-attach to the rocks so I have it in a gentle corner with rocks it can climb on to if it chooses. If it dies, this will probably be my only foray into anemones for a good long while as I will feel awful about killing it. Hopefully those tentacles can grow back, the body and foot of the anemone itself appear undamaged.
Anyway, that's where I'm at. Hoping to learn lots from this place as I take my hobby to the next level
a good starting place for you would be a build thread here, show some photos and the members will join in
