one year old 125 gallon

[reefinmike]

i started off two years ago at the age of 15 with my first sw tank, my little 29 gallon i started out a reef. i then bought a 125 wide in august 2005. march 2006 that tank decided to bust at 4:30 in the morning. sustaining only two losses(a MIA scooter blenny and colt coral) i managed to save everything and get a new 125 reef ready up and running in my room by mid april. i made the stand and canopy. it is lit by 2x250w hamilton 14k and one 400w xm 15k bulb along with two uri actinic VHO bulbs. i have a 100g rubbermaid sump on the other side with some rock, a damsel, and my asm g4x skimmer. i also have a 30g refug hooked into the sump. return pump is a pcx-40 with two penductors on the returns... nothing else for flow and everything is keeping its color and growing like crazy. this tank is ment to be a stony coral tank only as it is nutrient free(says aquarium pharm. test kit) and lit brightly but a few mushrooms, xenia and anthelia remain in the tank. my expierence with this tank has been nothing less than perfect as i have never had an algae problem, aptasia, flatworms, etc... the sand always stays perfect white. the past couple weeks i am finally satisfied with my tank(of course i just dropped $600 of coral and clams in it the past month) the best thing about the tank is how easy it is to take care of. clean the glass every three days, every once in a while throw a handful of calcium pellets in, and flip a couple switches to do a 25% wc every other week.

as far as fish go, i have:

1 sailfin tang
1 scooter blenny
1 dusky jawfish
1 twinspot hogfish
1 six-line wrasse
1 firefish
3 chromis
2 bar gobies
2 scissor tail gobies
3 blue gudgeon gobies

inverts:

2 squamosa clams
2 crocea clams
skunk cleaner shrimp
two turbo snails
100+ hermits

corals
a little bit of everything stony

 

[reefinmike]

 

[Ciarán]

Gorgeous lobophyllias there. Great tank - congrats, looks fantastic

 

[theop]

It's very blue!

Seriously, it's very impressive and a tank to be proud of.

 

[reefinmike]

thanks, i love the red lobo, it was my first coral and is super fleshy. i just recently got the green and the greyish/purple lobo up top. waiting for them to fully acclimate.

 

[mg426]

Nice job !!! Plenty of Rock nicely done.

 

[reefinmike]

its not nearly as blue in person but i do like my tanks a little more on the blue side, brings out the CoLoR

 

[Zoos]

Great tank, I love seeing the younger people involved and doing nice jobs, I had my first reef at the age of 13 and haven't sopped since!

 

[GregM779]

lookin good, is that large piece a digitata?

 

[reefinmike]

yes, it started out as this

a year ago and i break pieces off it pretty much weekly.

 

[yoboyjdizz]

Looking really good! How is that skimmer working out for you?

 

[reefinmike]

the skimmer works excellent!!

 

[reefinmike]

broke down today and bought two new thing, a huge squamosa clam and a very nice orange crush acan colony... only $200 out the door(with work discount)

 

[Cody Ray]

Very nice I live the digitata!

 

[moobar]

Looks very good, can't wait to see what it will look like at 2 years

 

[Mr31415]

It is just the white balance that is off due to the Actinic lights.

reefinmike - I hope you do not mind, but I have adjusted the white balance on one picture just to show the people that you do not live in a blue world If this bothers you I'll remove it ASAP.

 

[reefinmike]

thanks, the pic above closely resembels what my tank actually looks like... its just my camera... it worked well on the pic of the clam and acan as far as real color goes...

ChinChek787: the digitata looks bad in that pic. it is usually much more fuzzy and that pic is about a month old, so its about 1" bigger now... lol