[fishguy23]

After being in the hobby for 2 months and learning the "hard way" that there was no chance of catching up to the rest of you experienced reefers, I decided to STOP forcing the issue and let nature take it's course. For 2 months I have fiddled w/ a 29 gallon, 20 gallon, 15 gallon, 50 gallon, 10 gallon, and 30 gallon, and hours of aquascaping, time & money, seeking perfection....that I never got! After frusting times, I have finally settled on a 40 breeder & a 26 bow that are plumbed together into one sump filtration. I decided to stock the tank and just let it be and realized in this hobby that there are no shortcuts and the money you invest will never be returned! But who cares, right...just as long as you can sit back and enjoy your corals & fish! I have to thank NyreefNoobe, jlaudio, stchris, robert0419, nycitaliano, HOF and Customking for answering all of my annoying questions!!!
I wish I would have started this thread when I started 2 mos ago, you would have been very entertained and see how "OBSESSED & NEUROTIC" I was, not that its great now but you should have seen it 2 months ago! lol

Well back to the tanks:

The 40 breeder is illuminated by a single 150 watt HQI MH and 4x96 watt Actinic PC's and the 26 gallon is running off a Sundial 4 bulb T5/VHO's, no chiller, luckily for me my vent from the central air is directly above the tanks, and the temp never goes above 80 degrees, both tanks are tee'd off into the drain of my sump, using two seperate returns to bring the water back into each tank respectively and utilzing a Coralife 225 which I hope to upgrade soon!

Livestock 40 gallon (Overstocked) Yellow Tang, Pseudchromis, Six Line Wrasse, Pair of Clarkis, one host in a LTA the other my crocea clam, Another clakii, Algae Blenny, Strawbery Crab, Xenias, Cloves, Polyps, Shrooms, Gonipora, croce clam, acros, monti cap, Pipe organ, BTA, sunflower coral, yellow polyps, tube, kenya tree, button polyps, wesophellya, froggies, rics and about 50lbs of LR & 20 nassarius snails and 10 red legged hermit crabs, plus a Copperband for Aipstasia Ive been battling, he's been picking at it, but wont be able to keep him much longer due to size, but he def did the job!

Livestock 26 gallon: 2 Striped Damsels, Blue devil damsel, 2 chromis, 2 Tomatoe Clowns, Lopez Tang, zoas, shrooms, button polyps, xenias, Kenya tree, Spaghetti Finger Leather, 30 lbs of LR, algae blenny, cleaner shrimp, acorpora, frogspawn, & 10 Nassarius snails

	MH Metal Halide Lighting, typically used for high intensity light demanding corals such as SPS. Bulbs come in varieties of spectrums (7k, 10k,20k), and intensity (175W, 250W, 400W).

	PC Power Compact Lighting, typically used in lower light aquariums supporting soft corals, LPS, and fish. Their low cost and cooler operating temperatures are an excellent choice for beginner aquariums and smaller tanks.

[reefman]

the landscapin looks nice.

[NYreefNoob]

looking good so far, just keep the high light stuff towards the middle

[robert0419]

Kenny IT LOOK GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!
Rick is right keep the hight Light Corals at the top you will see a big change
But with that been said keep up the good work if not i will be there in a New York Min
loll and thanks for adding me in you long road of hell heheheehh
See you Next Week

Robert

[fishguy23]

Thanks for the comments guys, I'll make the adjustments, I was hoping the MH bulb would penetrate? lol

	MH Metal Halide Lighting, typically used for high intensity light demanding corals such as SPS. Bulbs come in varieties of spectrums (7k, 10k,20k), and intensity (175W, 250W, 400W).

[fishguy23]

I added some new corals, in the 40 I added a goni, a lg colt and some lps frags, and in the 26 I added some LR w/ shrooms & zoas dominating the rock, I'm hoping it will grow all over and am hoping it will spread and cover all the LR!!!

I also added a koralia 4, because the 2 Koralia 1's just weren;t cutting it, I had tons of dead spots, prob because the height of the tank, I have the koralia 4 up top facing down, so fish are not affected! I see a huge difference on clarity already, all the debris has come up!

I also re-plumbed w/ non kink hose and added a 29 gallon sump w/ a 7" filter sock to run both tanks, but realize i need a much bigger & better skimme...working on it!

Pls feel free to give suggestions & comments!

	LPS Large Polyped Stony corals – In the aquarium hobby this is a common division of the species of stony corals based upon the visual assessment of the size of the polyps. Corals in this category were among the first stony corals to be kept successfully in captivity and include many very beautiful species. Commonly kept Genera include Euphyllia (hammer/frogspawn coral), Favia (brain coral), Plerogyra (bubble coral), Lobophyllia (meat/tooth coral), and Caulastrea (candycane coral). LPS corals also include the popular solitary non-colonial stony corals such as Fungia (plate coral), Cynarina (button coral), Trachyphyllia (open brain coral), and Herpolitha (tongue coral). Like their SPS counterparts, LPS corals require good water quality, intense lighting of the appropriate spectrum, adequate water movement and regular supplementation of calcium.

[JLAudio]

Dude it looks amazing. I saw alot of your progression and im extremely impressed, I love the aquascape, fish coral placement etc. I got to stop by and see it in person and really appreciate all the hard work and dedication you put into it.

And dont worry about where its gonna be cause it looks great now, my only advice is STOP MESSING WITH IT! And thats from one psycho to another, that will make all the difference in the world, all your corals will open up and the lack of stress will keep them growing and your tank will look even more full without additions.

Only slight thing I would suggest is bring that one Koralia on the middle left up a bit. It might be functionally better there but you dont want to mess with the great view.

great job

[GrimReeferrr]

Looks Nice!

[boardryder]

Looks great. Hope those sps are doing better with that lighting.

	SPS Small Polyped Scleractinians - Sometimes known as Small Polyped Stony corals. These are hard corals that have extremely small polyps. They are typically on the difficult side and require Metal Halide lighting or dense Power Compact or T5 arrays. These corals are prized for their rareness and ability to be easily fragged into multiple colonies.

[fishguy23]

Suprisingly my goni's did better w/ more flow, I have read they do not respond well to direct flow so I had the Koralia 3 higer, and they would hardly open up, but since I moved it down where the flow is directing towards them, they appear to look happier!


And yes Boardryer the lights were def an upgrade, how those T5'S