SEAF
Member
I joined this forum in early January, but never really introduced myself. I went to a reefer's meeting, and posted about a dying coral (Echinophyllia - It is recovering well). So, maybe I should say, "hi" and tell you who I am.
In July 2009, I had a heart attack and six-way bypass surgery. Deciding I couldn't go back to my job, on September 15, just a couple of months later, I decided to make a business of a hobby abandoned years ago for lack of time. That day, I had two small aquariums. I now have more than 45 of them set up in my home with nearly that many more for sale or awaiting my repairs. I work at this, 12-16 hours a day, six days a week. It takes nearly two hours each day just to feed my over 400 population of fish and aquatic critters. I raise and sell fish, repair and resell aquariums, and sell full-spectrum lighting products that work great for aquariums and plants.
Just under a year ago, I got my first reef tank. It's a 20-long reef tank with a 20-long sump. The sump was built with one purpose in mind... I wanted a Mandarin and knew my tank was too small to support his feeding habits. I needed an external refugium to have a continuous supply of pods for him.
Since those early days, almost a year ago; when I first set up my reef tank with a single Hermit Crab, a Nassarius Snail, and 25 pounds of live rock; it has evolved into a very overcrowded system. The only thing that keeps it from crashing is a 20-25% weekly water change. I spend so much time looking at it, that I can tell right away when something is not right, just by looking at my corals. I was doing 10% water changes every two weeks and started having serious green hair algae problems. When I upped the amount and frequency of the water changes, the green hair algae nearly vanished in just a few days.
Okay, I know you are wondering what all I have in this seriously overcrowded tank. Are you ready for this? (I know I am going to get scolded by some of you veteran reefers, but here goes!)
Pair of Ocellaris Clowns
Pair of Orbiculate Cardinals
Royal Gramma
Mandarin Dragonet (aka Goby)
Green Clown Goby
Blue Chromis
Peppermint Shrimp
Frogspawn Anemone
Several Pulsing Xenias
Colony of Green Button Polyps
Colony of Green Star Polyps
Colony of Purple Star Polyps
Kenya Tree
Large and small colonies of Orange and White Zoanthids
One Pink and White Zoanthid
Three Red and White Mushrooms
Three Green Mushrooms
Four Purple Mushrooms
30+ Green Stripe Mushrooms
Nassarius Snail
Cowrie Snail
Three Turbo Snails
Seven Astrea Snails
Several Limpet Snails
9-10 Hermit Crabs (lost count)
Several Small Clams
Hundreds of Rock and Sand Critters; Brittle Stars, Tube Worms, Feather Dusters, Pods (thousands), Sponges
Then in the sump are a pair of Perculas, a Pistol Shrimp and a Blue Chromis, with 8-10 more Hermits, a couple of small snails and thousands more pods. My Echinophyllia is there also (didn't have any place to put it in low light in the main tank)
I never have to worry about over-feeding with my extensive cleanup crew.
Now the pics: (You'll have to forgive the cheap camera pics - The system pic is two seperate pics pasted together because I couldn't get back far enough to get it all in one picture)
In July 2009, I had a heart attack and six-way bypass surgery. Deciding I couldn't go back to my job, on September 15, just a couple of months later, I decided to make a business of a hobby abandoned years ago for lack of time. That day, I had two small aquariums. I now have more than 45 of them set up in my home with nearly that many more for sale or awaiting my repairs. I work at this, 12-16 hours a day, six days a week. It takes nearly two hours each day just to feed my over 400 population of fish and aquatic critters. I raise and sell fish, repair and resell aquariums, and sell full-spectrum lighting products that work great for aquariums and plants.
Just under a year ago, I got my first reef tank. It's a 20-long reef tank with a 20-long sump. The sump was built with one purpose in mind... I wanted a Mandarin and knew my tank was too small to support his feeding habits. I needed an external refugium to have a continuous supply of pods for him.
Since those early days, almost a year ago; when I first set up my reef tank with a single Hermit Crab, a Nassarius Snail, and 25 pounds of live rock; it has evolved into a very overcrowded system. The only thing that keeps it from crashing is a 20-25% weekly water change. I spend so much time looking at it, that I can tell right away when something is not right, just by looking at my corals. I was doing 10% water changes every two weeks and started having serious green hair algae problems. When I upped the amount and frequency of the water changes, the green hair algae nearly vanished in just a few days.
Okay, I know you are wondering what all I have in this seriously overcrowded tank. Are you ready for this? (I know I am going to get scolded by some of you veteran reefers, but here goes!)
Pair of Ocellaris Clowns
Pair of Orbiculate Cardinals
Royal Gramma
Mandarin Dragonet (aka Goby)
Green Clown Goby
Blue Chromis
Peppermint Shrimp
Frogspawn Anemone
Several Pulsing Xenias
Colony of Green Button Polyps
Colony of Green Star Polyps
Colony of Purple Star Polyps
Kenya Tree
Large and small colonies of Orange and White Zoanthids
One Pink and White Zoanthid
Three Red and White Mushrooms
Three Green Mushrooms
Four Purple Mushrooms
30+ Green Stripe Mushrooms
Nassarius Snail
Cowrie Snail
Three Turbo Snails
Seven Astrea Snails
Several Limpet Snails
9-10 Hermit Crabs (lost count)
Several Small Clams
Hundreds of Rock and Sand Critters; Brittle Stars, Tube Worms, Feather Dusters, Pods (thousands), Sponges
Then in the sump are a pair of Perculas, a Pistol Shrimp and a Blue Chromis, with 8-10 more Hermits, a couple of small snails and thousands more pods. My Echinophyllia is there also (didn't have any place to put it in low light in the main tank)
I never have to worry about over-feeding with my extensive cleanup crew.
Now the pics: (You'll have to forgive the cheap camera pics - The system pic is two seperate pics pasted together because I couldn't get back far enough to get it all in one picture)
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Sorry to hear about your heart attack, but glad to see you survived it! Thanks for posting up the pictures! If it takes you 2 hours just to feed all your tanks, I couldn't imagine asking you to take pictures of them all! 
