AquaKnight
Active member
I think now that the tank is pretty much the way we want it/can have it, it's more then time to share it. Our goal has always been to have the closest representation of a "mixed" reef. Sort of a collage of actual reefs versus say like a strictly SPS dominate tank (though ours is pretty LPS heavy 
).
The tank started out on Oct. 06 as a freebie. Not knowing anything other then we (my roommates and myself) wanted a saltwater tank. We bought the essentials, a Skilter 250, a Rio powerhead, live sand, and salt. Again, not knowing anything, we filled the tank with water from our refrigerator, thinking it would be the best since it has a filter in it. A buddy offered his live rock, that was cooking in a Brute for about 2 months so we snatched that up, about 30lbs. We brushed the hair algae off and dumped the rock in tank and waited for it to clear and added the 130 watt Current USA PC fixture. Two days later we make a trip to a LFS and come home with three damsels, one blue, one yellowtail and a domino, after advise from the LFS that "yea, some people add them even 24hrs. after setting a tank up." The blue unfortunately didn't make day 2. The yellowtail is still the one in the pictures and the domino has been banished to the sump because he is rather aggressive.
The first month or two was interesting. We learned that you don't top off saltwater with saltwater. We added a fungia and favia that lasted about 4 hrs. When we figured out the reason, our salinity was sky high. None of the meters went high enough to read it, well over 1.040. At that point, we had already added our star attraction, the yellow tang. Again, a "it's will be fine in your tank" by a LFS tyoe deal. So basically from then, we've tried to research everything as much as possible and I think I have got my head wrapped around this hobby.
From that point till now, it's been a work in progress. I've added different corals and pieces. The sump was added in Jan. 07, a bigger Rio powerhead etc. We had great success so far till very recently when we lost our Mandarin and bubble tip anemone on a 2 week vacation while our friend fed the fishes. The bubble was sucked in by the intake and found too late, he still was alive and had not killed the entire tank off, but the violence was too much. I'm still unsure why the mandy died, I know the tank is still young, but he wasn't skinny, though he was the biggest mandarin I've seen, close to a solid 4"+, so maybe old age. We had him for about a month. The lastest additions have the been the brain and sun coral.
Future plans include MH lighting, I really want a clam and nice SPS to round the package out.
Specs:
Fish
1 Yellow Tang
1 True Percula Clown
1 Oceanllaris Clown
1 Yellowtail damsel
1 Domino damsel (in sump)
Inverts
1 Skunk Cleaner shrimp
1 Peppermint shrimp
1 Sand Sifting Star
1 Fighting Conch
1 Feather Duster
Bunch of snails, turbo, astrea, nassarius, cerith, stombella
Scarlet/Zebra hermit crabs
Corals
Super Red Mushrooms
3 Ricordias
Discosoma Sp. Mushroom
Purple Sea Whip
Yellow Gorgonian
Red Tree Sponge
Green Zoas rock
Brown polyps
Star Polyps (I though they were green)
A bit of Red Sea Xenia
Montipora Cap. and Dig.
Trumpet Coral
Purple/Green Favia (it was "rescued" about 3 weeks ago from 'Pet World')
Frogspawn
Some weird type of Euphyllia (Euphyllia yaeyamaensis I believe)
Orange Sun Coral
Long Tentacle Plate
Lobophyllia Brain Coral(I think?)
Probably over 60lbs of Live Rock in the tank, the center rock is over 15lbs and there's 2, 17 and 19 pound boulders in there two. A good another 20lbs in the back of refugium with a bunch of rubble rock.
3 different types of Caulerpa in the fuge, plus live sheet algae and some Xenia frags.
Equipment:
29gal (30"x12"X16") main tank
Hurricane 600gph overflow box
40gal breeder as sump (about 30gals used, 15 for the fuge)
130 watt PC fixture for main tank, 1 10000k main bulb and 1 420/460 actinics bulb
5300k 23watt Fluorescent fuge light
Mag 9.5 for sump return and fuge feed
Rio 180 powerhead in main tank
Rio 160 in fuge
Skilter 250 running Poly filter pad, and media bags of Purigen and Carbon
4.5" dia. Skimmer running with GenX 1400, that's been meshwheel modded, adding Gate Valve as we speak.
And finally pics!:rollface: :smokin:
FTS
Top Left
Left side
Morpharians rock
). The tank started out on Oct. 06 as a freebie. Not knowing anything other then we (my roommates and myself) wanted a saltwater tank. We bought the essentials, a Skilter 250, a Rio powerhead, live sand, and salt. Again, not knowing anything, we filled the tank with water from our refrigerator, thinking it would be the best since it has a filter in it. A buddy offered his live rock, that was cooking in a Brute for about 2 months so we snatched that up, about 30lbs. We brushed the hair algae off and dumped the rock in tank and waited for it to clear and added the 130 watt Current USA PC fixture. Two days later we make a trip to a LFS and come home with three damsels, one blue, one yellowtail and a domino, after advise from the LFS that "yea, some people add them even 24hrs. after setting a tank up." The blue unfortunately didn't make day 2. The yellowtail is still the one in the pictures and the domino has been banished to the sump because he is rather aggressive.
The first month or two was interesting. We learned that you don't top off saltwater with saltwater. We added a fungia and favia that lasted about 4 hrs. When we figured out the reason, our salinity was sky high. None of the meters went high enough to read it, well over 1.040. At that point, we had already added our star attraction, the yellow tang. Again, a "it's will be fine in your tank" by a LFS tyoe deal. So basically from then, we've tried to research everything as much as possible and I think I have got my head wrapped around this hobby.
From that point till now, it's been a work in progress. I've added different corals and pieces. The sump was added in Jan. 07, a bigger Rio powerhead etc. We had great success so far till very recently when we lost our Mandarin and bubble tip anemone on a 2 week vacation while our friend fed the fishes. The bubble was sucked in by the intake and found too late, he still was alive and had not killed the entire tank off, but the violence was too much. I'm still unsure why the mandy died, I know the tank is still young, but he wasn't skinny, though he was the biggest mandarin I've seen, close to a solid 4"+, so maybe old age. We had him for about a month. The lastest additions have the been the brain and sun coral.
Future plans include MH lighting, I really want a clam and nice SPS to round the package out.
Specs:
Fish
1 Yellow Tang
1 True Percula Clown
1 Oceanllaris Clown
1 Yellowtail damsel
1 Domino damsel (in sump)
Inverts
1 Skunk Cleaner shrimp
1 Peppermint shrimp
1 Sand Sifting Star
1 Fighting Conch
1 Feather Duster
Bunch of snails, turbo, astrea, nassarius, cerith, stombella
Scarlet/Zebra hermit crabs
Corals
Super Red Mushrooms
3 Ricordias
Discosoma Sp. Mushroom
Purple Sea Whip
Yellow Gorgonian
Red Tree Sponge
Green Zoas rock
Brown polyps
Star Polyps (I though they were green)
A bit of Red Sea Xenia
Montipora Cap. and Dig.
Trumpet Coral
Purple/Green Favia (it was "rescued" about 3 weeks ago from 'Pet World')
Frogspawn
Some weird type of Euphyllia (Euphyllia yaeyamaensis I believe)
Orange Sun Coral
Long Tentacle Plate
Lobophyllia Brain Coral(I think?)
Probably over 60lbs of Live Rock in the tank, the center rock is over 15lbs and there's 2, 17 and 19 pound boulders in there two. A good another 20lbs in the back of refugium with a bunch of rubble rock.
3 different types of Caulerpa in the fuge, plus live sheet algae and some Xenia frags.
Equipment:
29gal (30"x12"X16") main tank
Hurricane 600gph overflow box
40gal breeder as sump (about 30gals used, 15 for the fuge)
130 watt PC fixture for main tank, 1 10000k main bulb and 1 420/460 actinics bulb
5300k 23watt Fluorescent fuge light
Mag 9.5 for sump return and fuge feed
Rio 180 powerhead in main tank
Rio 160 in fuge
Skilter 250 running Poly filter pad, and media bags of Purigen and Carbon
4.5" dia. Skimmer running with GenX 1400, that's been meshwheel modded, adding Gate Valve as we speak.
And finally pics!:rollface: :smokin:
FTS
Top Left
Left side
Morpharians rock
...
