Sharing my 125 softie tank

[finding nemo]

I only keep softies and have 4 tanks of them. Here is my largest tank with some closeups of just some of what I have in there.
Hope you enjoy seeing them.

I do not use sumps or fuges but go with natural filtration in all of my tanks.
I do however run a hang on filter on them with a piece of filter material and bag of carbon and also a skimmer.
Lights are VHO on the tanks.

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/karenssaltwater/fulltankperfect1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/karenssaltwater/xeniamiddlepretty2.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/karenssaltwater/zoospretty2.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/karenssaltwater/3-19-06.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/karenssaltwater/brownpolps2.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/karenssaltwater/greenanemonspretty.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/karenssaltwater/newshroomcool1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/karenssaltwater/shroomsfuzzy4.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>
And some of my caulerpa that I keep in the tanks.
This is the right corner of the tank.

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/karenssaltwater/caulerparightsite5-19-06-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/karenssaltwater/shroomfuzzy2.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

More on the next post

 

[finding nemo]

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/karenssaltwater/shroomsblue.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/karenssaltwater/orangeric4.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/karenssaltwater/grass6.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/karenssaltwater/shroomred1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

And here is my 75 gallon softie tank.
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/karenssaltwater/2-11-2fulltank.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

 

[Cody Ray]

Thoughs are awsome pics! Really dig the macro-algae.

 

[finding nemo]

Thanks Chin. Glad you like them

 

[salt newbie01]

Your tanks are beautiful - I love the look of all the calerpa. Very natural looking -
You have great sucess and it is wonderful that you share it with everyone. Your site has so much usefull info on it. It has helped me a great deal.
Thank you for sharing

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Tanks look great! Very Dutch Style. Keep up the good work.

 

[tinyreef]

very nice! although i see some LPS in there.

how do you like those mini-seios?

do the suction cups give you any grief?

is there a hang-on/hook accessory option?

are they on intervals or 'on' all the time?

 

[reefnewbie54321]

This is one of my favorite tanks, it inspired me to incorporate macro algae in my display and also swayed me to do a softie dominated tank.

 

[Jon Evans]

do you have a sump for that tank? I have a sump/fuge, and I'm tempted to put some of my calurpa in my main tank now.

 

[finding nemo]

Hi all, will reply to your questions,
sieos, love the suction cups, I have never used them with the hang on thingys.
They are not on intervals. I have 4-620's and one of the smaller ones in the tank. All run full bore all day and night.
They all point into the long ends of the tank but one, the middle one points right to the front from the back.
Don't think I need it really as there is plenty of movement but I had it so tossed it in, the xenia love the wave action so guess it will stay.
The smaller of them I use for surface aggitation, it creates the ripple effect but not much more as doesnt have much push so to speak.

No sump or fuge on any of my tanks.
Having the natural ballance of things in a tank keeps it running smoothly.
I do water changes once a month, 10% about on each tank.
Yea ok, there are a few hard corals in there, not much to look at tho,
Thanks Newbie, I hope that my tanks inspire others to go Ah Natural with there tanks.
Softies don't need all the fancy junk that a lot of people think they have to have, they like semi yuck water, that keeps them happy.
Thanks for the compliments everyone.
I love to just toss things in there, no lining up or seeing how it looks first. (maybe thats a bad thing?)
The ocean gets slammed around pretty hard and tosses corals here and there and I want my tanks to look like I just had a storm.
Guess I got my wish ha?

 

[reefnewbie54321]

No skimming either?

I'm going skimmerless on my 120 but I am going to use a 20 gallon refugium with an ATScrubber 250 on top of it for surge action.

 

[finding nemo]

Yes I have skimmers on all of my tanks, that fishy poop has to go someplace besides the water

 

[Fat Surgeon]

Very nice Nemo. I also go natural on my 125, however, a refugium is going to go in in the next few weeks. Love it all! Thanks for sharing

 

[finding nemo]

Thanks so much Fat, but why not put the fuge in the tank?
It is where the pods and worms go to hide and breed and adds color to the tank also.
My mandrin loves to surf thru the caulerpa finding all sorts of things to eat .
Give it a try. It is easy to pull out if it gets to thick or overtakes something else.

 

[Jon Evans]

how do you put the calerpa in the tank? do you fasten it to rock or do you plant it in the sand? I have some calerpa in my fuge, and I want some in my display tank.

 

[finding nemo]

Just lay it behind the rock work , it will climb up the rock and attach itself, it also will grow along the sand if left undisturbed.

 

[Jon Evans]

I just pulled some out of my sump and stuck it behind my rocks. Thank you for the advice! I can see the pods and feather dusters attached to it from my sump.

 

[finding nemo]

Cool, they are great for the water, feather dusters are filter feeders and will help the water quality as well as spread around the tank looking purdy
Post a pic if you can of it in your tank.

 

[Fat Surgeon]

Hye Nemo,

The reason I cant put the fuge in the tank is cause the fuge wouldnt last long. Notice my name, Fat Surgeon? I'm not a Fat surgeon, thats one of the fish I have in my tank. A 12" Vlamingi tang, and he would decimate the caulerpa in a couple hours. So.... I am having the fuge tie into the system so the pods can cruise into the tank via gravity pull and not pump pull. My fuge is about 4 inches above the main tank line thus allowing me to have water returning to the tank with no pump
I also have plans for Semi-automation. If my camera was working, I would take some pictures(and draw out) of what everything looks and will look like. Whenever I snap photos(digital camera) my snapshots come out jagged. Weird I know. It's getting looked at sooner I'm buying a new one. Till then....

 

[reefnewbie54321]

Have you ever witnessed your tang eating Caulerpa??? Tangs tend to stay away from it unless they are hugry ... I'm assuming your tang is so fat becuase it is well feed. The tang would much rather feed on nori or tang heaven over Caulerpa.