Soft Coral Dominated Tanks... Let's See 'em

[trinidiver]

WOW looks real good for 15 months. I like your placement of corals, it looks real natural. Your water is so clear for all the life I see, what are you using for filtration? Thanks for sharing.---Rick

Thanks, The DT tank (72" x 24"W x 30"H) drains into two 30gal tanks. The first tank just has my ASM-G3 skimmer and a small powerhead to keep all my sedement from settling. Water exits this tank via two 2" PVC pipes into the othe tank which just has 2 reactors. 1 with bio-pellets and the other with RowaPhos (both running 13mths now). It then goes over a baffle plate where the Mag18 pumps it into my chiller and then back into the DT. I also have my marine betta living in that same area. I do get a little bit of detrius and other sediment but the skimmer picks it up. I have no live rock or chaeto in my sump. My two MP40's keeps everything fully active. It always 50-70%. I do a 50gal water change every 3 wks as a rule with RODI water and RC salt.

Check out the tank back in Feb/Mar. You can see some of the growth the zoas and mushrooms has had over the mths. Even the gorgonian. This is viewed from my library.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c8L1ZXZDPM&feature=plcp

And this is the tank viewed from the front. In my living room.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNv4mLG9qqw

 

[007Bond]

Cool , the start up video and now. Its neat to see the growth from then to now really shows up. Do you have your MP-40's pulsing? I really like how you have your rock work also. I just noticed the bottle in the cave with the shrimp climbing on it. Cool touch. The whole tank looks so natural.---Rick

 

[kingfisherflesh]

What do your nitrates run at?

Do you find that there is a negative effect on soft corals with carbon dosing?

I have been doing it for a long time and now I am on the fence about whether or not to continue.

 

[trinidiver]

Cool , the start up video and now. Its neat to see the growth from then to now really shows up. Do you have your MP-40's pulsing? I really like how you have your rock work also. I just noticed the bottle in the cave with the shrimp climbing on it. Cool touch. The whole tank looks so natural.---Rick

Thanks Rick, I keep the pumps on EcoSmart Tidal Swell Mode 90% of the time. It also remains like that during the night. It depends on what i'm feeding i'll put them on feed mode (pellets). On normal mode i feed freeze dried mysis, plankton and krill. Sometimes i feed frozen mysis. When the food is carried all over the tank, my fish go in a feeding frenzy. On a daily basis i hand feed them. Acouple of my fish has gotten accustomed to me feeding them this way and they allow me to gently touch them. They get very docile and actually take the food from my fingers. The ones that eat from my fingers are the Sailfin tang, powder brown tang, solon wrasse, sometimes the yellow tang, 2 out of my 5 bartlet anthias and 1 of my 3 chromis.

 

[trinidiver]

What do your nitrates run at?

Do you find that there is a negative effect on soft corals with carbon dosing?

I have been doing it for a long time and now I am on the fence about whether or not to continue.

ammonia - 0
nitrates - undetectable
nitrites - undetectable
Cal - 420-460
Alk - 8.5 (when last i checked)
Temp - 78-80F
PH - 8.2
salinity - 1.026
Phosphates - undetectable

I have gotten fantastic growth over the last 15 mths. When i first bought the green polyp toadstool 13 mths ago, it was about 3" in dia, now its about 10-11" dia as yo saw in the vid,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCanZyCjmrs&feature=plcp

my frogspawn went from 2-3 heads to 21 heads. I have never target fed any of my corals. My outlet from both my reactors are after my skimmer and dumps directly to the return pump to the DT

 

[007Bond]

Thanks for all the input. I have files on all sorts of info from RC. I'm going to copy your feed info to my "food" file. That's so cool your fish let you touch them, they know the hand that feeds them. Do you ever collect anything for your tank yourself?

 

[trinidiver]

I have done it before, but here in the caribbean waters we're kinda limited. We do get like blasto's, gorgonians, tons of featherdusters, snails, zoas & doughnuts. Actually only a few of my zoas are from here. The rest was imported along with the other fish and corals. As you see i have a wide variety of corals in the tank, I actually have 4 types of gorgonians, over 25 different color zoas and over 15 different color mushrooms. Just a couple minuts ago i called my LFS and told him to keep 3 multi color rics that i dont have. (pinks, reds & oranges). We have only recently started to get Ausi corals more often. I like rare fish and corals.

 

[kingfisherflesh]

Very interesting you see such good growth. Whats the stocking and feeding like?

 

[biecacka]

Awesome looking tank!
Corey

 

[trinidiver]

Thanks guys............... i'm glad you enjoyed it.

Fish:
1 Sailfin tang
1 powder brown tang
1 yellow tang
1 hippo tang
5 bartlet anthias
5 pajama cardinals
3 blue green chromis
1 solon wrasse
1 algae blenny
1 yellow banded possum wrasse
1 geometric pygmy wrasse
1 purple firefish

Inverts:

12 mexican turbo snails
5 orange turbo snails
20 - 30 bumble bee snails
40 nasarius snails
3 fighting conch
4 skunk cleaner shrimp
5 peppermint shrimp
2 fire shrimp
1 serpant star

Corals:

zoas & paly's
mushrooms (regular, hairy & rics)
gorgonians (4 types)
acans
candy cane
blasto's
scollies
green polyp toadstool
devils hand
GSP (2 types)
kenya trees
white spaghetti leather (rasta leather)
frogspawn (neon green tentacles with purple tips)
frogspawn (purple tentacles with neon green tips)
Rock anemonies (8 - 5-8" dia)
pulsing xenias
green rasta leather (next 2 weeks)
spider gorgonian (next 2 weeks)
red finger gorgonian (next 2 weeks)


Once i'm home (i work in the offshore industry- I'm actually offshore right now ), i feed my fish about 10-15 times a day. My skimmer is always working overtime. My wife maintains the tank otherwise. There is about 250-300 of live rock. It was actually taken from the ocean (50-70ft) from around the island.

 

[007Bond]

Hi Trini, What happen to the coral on your left hand sand bed? It's orange/red with a green mouth, and looks like a plate coral. I don't see it in your other videos, maybe its a new guy,and just showed up. Sure is pretty! Thanks again for all your set up info.---Rick

 

[trinidiver]

Hi Trini, What happen to the coral on your left hand sand bed? It's orange/red with a green mouth, and looks like a plate coral. I don't see it in your other videos, maybe its a new guy,and just showed up. Sure is pretty! Thanks again for all your set up info.---Rick

Rick, is it the one in front of the bottle???

 

[007Bond]

Yes,... at about frame 2:45 in the video.

 

[trinidiver]

lol............actually thats my rock anemone. It was rather closed up at the time. If you check my album, you'll see it better. I have 8 of them. That one is actually about 6-7" dia. It really pops under my blue LED's

 

[007Bond]

I see,... I thought he was a new addition. I the orange/red coloration through me off. I didn't notice him in your other videos.

 

[007Bond]

Dp.

 

[Hormigaquatica]

Hormigaquatica, I love your tank. How do you keep all those leathers happy? Do you feed anything? Lights? Ever have problems with chemical warfare?

Thanks. Honestly, the tank is pretty low maintenance. I don't target feed any of the coral aside from a small Dendrophyllia that's hidden off in a corner. Otherwise, the corals only get leftover fish food. I don't think most soft corals need to be fed; the majority of foods that are commercially available are too large for non-NPS to take, and it doesn't seem to have a negative effect as far as I can tell.

Lighting is 4x250w Hamilton 20,000K halides with 4-54w actinic T5s that I occasionally run for a little more color.

There is a little bit of chemical warfare going on in there, but most of the animals seem to handle it well. There is a Sinularia that is particularly nasty, and has taken out a few yellow leathers over the years just by making brief contact (brief meaning no more than a few hours). I can't keep SPS in there, but I don't have any desire to, so no big deal. I do pretty good sized water changes regularly, and run carbon every few months just to polish the water, so that probably helps keep the allelotoxins in check.

 

[trinidiver]

Your tank is sooo pretty. I cant wait to have mine look like that!

Wow, i love the color.............can we see some more piccs of the mushrooms? I'm in the process of getting some rics and other mushrooms of varying color to add to my lower rocks and sandbed.

 

[jarrod13]

This is a panoramic shot off my iPhone, so it's not a bowfront it's a standard 90. The corals are on the right and it's mainly leathers, palys, few lps, shrooms, and one giant red rock anemone. Ill get better pictures of them with my real camera later. Most of my corals are t I the best of shape right now, I moved recently and they took it kind of hard. The left side is mostly macros and sponges, and my clam. Anyways here it is, ill try to get better pics and a video soon

 

[jarrod13]

Double post