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It might look like I know what I'm doing to the new reefers but I don't really. I'm just winging it. 90 Gal., Aqua Medics Ocean Light (2x 150W HQI's and 2x Metal Halides, fan, etc.), few power heads, wet/dry, skimmer, moonlight led strip light. One thing I learned the past few weeks is be careful buying $800 light systems that are from other countries. Aqua Medics is German and I just had a capacitor blow up and it was really hard to get the parts. In the end the company was nice about selling me the parts and I fixed it myself.
I'm a big LPS and Soft Coral fan. I don't feel confident yet to mess with SPS.. plus they're really expensive. I just want something easy to take care of, looks great, not overly expensive, and colorful. I try to put as many diff. colors in my tank as I can. I get a lot of my corals from Sharkey's Reef online. I find some locally here in Central Florida too. For example.. bottom left is a thick balled tree. It's purple with tan polys all over it. All I could find out was this is an encrustation. I've never seen anything like it. Looks like a 2-3" thick gorgonia with big balls on the tips.
Got my 3rd yellow colony poly rock in the front middle so I can find out who keeps eating them. I think I have some crabs that have gone mad.
Looks like my yellow figi leather is about ready to split.
Got one of the new "pink marble" starfish from Sharkey's. Really nice color. I've never kept a star alive for more than 6-12 months though. Right above the pink stark in the sand is a very expen$ive coral I bought and I'm not sure how much longer it'll last. Seems a sand-sifter goby I once had burried the ends of it so much it has withered away from the edges of it's skeleton and I don't know if it'll come back or slowly die.
Keeping on the left side of the tank at the top is one of many torch/frog spawns I've had. I'm trying a new position much higher than usual. There is adequate wattage for this tank but I think it's too deep for some corals to be put on the bottom. I've also not been successful with wellsophyllia's, lobo's, etc. that I usually keep in the sand too.
I'm still waiting for coralline algae to take over all the rock. Some people say it grows like fungus for them but I've never had such luck. I wish I could find some other colors to transplant in here too like orange/red.
Going to the right-side image a nice big clam, sponge, red coco-worm, colt. I plan to move the colt straight up and wedge in the rocks. Below the red shrooms is a odd shaped fan and shaving brush grass. Mixed around here and there are ricordia I find and some hairy shrooms. Mixed in at the top of the tank in all that xenia climbing up the glass is a pink cucumber. He's been up there for a year without releasing any toxins and I'm not sure what to do about the xenia's. I had a Sea Apple once and for about 6 months and then all of a sudden it started looking bad. While I debated whether or not to bother it, get it upset so it would release toxins, it ended up doing it anyway and paralyzed a few fish. All my lessons are learned the hard way.. and the corals and fish pay. Hurts me in the pocket though. I actually get really upset when something dies. I've had a fish and a star that I tried to slowly acclimate, introduce with the lights out, etc. and forgot about them the next day. Really made me upset that I killed the animals and it was my fault.
Anybody have questions fire away. The rest of what's in there is featherdusters, couple scallops, zooanthids, tubeworm (bottom middle but hasn't opened up in a week?), green star mat.
Fish: maroon clown, few green chromis, purple dotyback, royal gamma, flame hawkfish (killed my skunk shrimp I think?), couple camel shrimp, blood red shrimp. I got the clown for like $10 bucks. He was all eaten up and left for dead in a little container with crabs on the back wall at the fish store. He's been around for a couple of years now looking good. I've had bad luck with angels and tangs. I'll give them live brine, turn the lights out, put in good amounts of seaweed, etc. Last one I tried (flaming angel) set a record for being dead the next day in 12-24 hours. That was fast!! If I get through the initial period they'll get stressed out real easy like when my lights broke. By the way.. they were broke for 2 weeks and I didn't lose any corals. I'll remember that for the next hurricane. Don't need to waste $10,000 on a gas powered generator to power my house. If I lose power for a week again I'll just use the generator to keep the pumps and things going and turn on the lights sometimes. Need to keep the refrigerator going too. Anway, not much luck with Tangs either. They get stressed out very easy too. Bring ICH to the tank which can kill other fish. I really love those Pacific Blue Tangs. One of these days I'll figure it out. The only other thing I wanna do now is get a couple neon gobies. The other bad thing about angels/tangs is you have to give them a good diet of seaweed too.
Right now I have maintenance down really low. Feed the fish every other day, live brine treats sometimes, put in 10 drops of Phyto-Feast at the same time. This stuff is good. It's cheap, easy to work with, and one bottle last months. I just got some Coral Frenzy but it's already more work. You have to add it a few times a week and mix up the powder with water. It's got many diff. size particles in it which is good. I think a bottle is similar in costs but wouldn't last as long.. maybe 1-2 months. I really like just squirting PPheast in. It's so easy.
My two powerheads in the top left need to be fixed and straightened up. The clips just don't hold them. One of them is making a popping noise too. I want to try these new maganetic holders for powerheads. Anybody else try those?? The only other thing I can say about ease is I miss watching the sand-sifting goby do his thing but I tell you it's a lot less work for me fixing everything he messed up digging holes everywhere. I really hate putting my arms in there all the time to fix stuff.
