Electrokate
Well-known member
Hi,
I have 2 tanks for the showcase though one is pretty primitive and I probably will aggravate some people with my unorthodox methods. I had a debacle with my last "big" tank, a 93.5 gallon acrylic job that looked and acted like a coffin. When I had it with that I swapped with Tony near me (tony2005) for his reef ready 55. He did a great job with the tank, really souped it up, then had to sell out due to too many hours of work and not enough to relax. Here was it's final glory in his hands:
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14596
I hope he gets back into the hobby because he really did take great care of his critters. Perfectionists are needed but perfectionists are probably the most likely to quit right? I don't know if he was one but his tank was gorgeous.
So after the tank was taken down I split things up by compatibility and space. I decided coral and anemones are not ok together and that the gorgonian deserved halides since the 10K XM bulbs made it grow almost an inch a month. Wanted to put the clam in there as well but I got a potters angel which proved a nipper so it's still in the 55, where it gets PC and sunlight. The clam has been under PC for almost a year now and has extreme mantle extension to compensate but continues to grow. I moved it to the sunniest spot, it seems to be doing well but I'd sell it in a heartbeat to a better home. Or swap it for a return pump so I can put a sump on this tank.
The 50 is outfitted with a CPR skimmer, small HOT filter for runninng carbon, a seio and a maxijet 1200. Lighting is metal halide with 2 96 watt actinics that are not always on due to heat issues. I don't have a hood, that just never did get built... so the reflector and bulbs hang from a board above the tank. The result is much better temperature stability though on hot days it still gets pretty out of control, and on cool days the heaters can't seem to keep up for some reason.
Coral are the gorgonian, 3 RBTA's, a green plating monti frag, some xenia elongata, yellow polyps, star polyps, zoanthid frags, mushrooms, people eaters, discosoma neglecta and kenya tree corals. I intended it for RBTA propagation but since the RBTA's went on hiatus for a while I put a bunch of the frags I want to sell in there. Fishwise, this is the part I get beat up for... pair oscellaris, powder brown tang, potters angel, royal gramma. That's a lot for an underfiltered tank. There are also 2 cleaner shrimp and 8 or so hermits, a turbo snail, 4 or 5 astreas, a margarita or two, and a small aquacultured conch. I don't like to overstock snails and hermits, I think they just starve or kill eachother that way. The tank has tested zero on phosphates and nitrates every time and barely registered a blip of ammonia/nitrite during cycling. It has a small amount of black sand in the bottom, wanted a whole bed of it but the detritus really shows on that stuff plus the seio just makes a mess of it. So I siphon that out bit by bit during water changes. I have a sump for it but no pump, and it is not drilled. That is one of the long term projects. Since it's stable and all I am not in a big hurry. We might be moving anyways.
Susie's (tangee) husband built a great little stand for it and Marty (finn) helped as well plus gave me the seio with one of his awesome magnet mounts. I am happy with this tank, especially now that the clowns are getting "in the mood for love". The powder brown is an amazing fish, if you want one be sure to get the white face one not the one with a couple white spots on it's face. It's MAC/net caught which likely helped. I mostly buy from my friend's store in Portland where everything is MAC or CB and he would gladly order another if someone wants one.
I am doing some halide comparisons on the tank so will put photos of those up later. Here is my first try at using photobucket.
It's not the prettiest tank ever, was really meant to be for propagating RBTA's but like I said I kind of got out of control
Thanks to Marty as well for telling me how to get big pictures on this forum!
I have 2 tanks for the showcase though one is pretty primitive and I probably will aggravate some people with my unorthodox methods. I had a debacle with my last "big" tank, a 93.5 gallon acrylic job that looked and acted like a coffin. When I had it with that I swapped with Tony near me (tony2005) for his reef ready 55. He did a great job with the tank, really souped it up, then had to sell out due to too many hours of work and not enough to relax. Here was it's final glory in his hands:
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14596
I hope he gets back into the hobby because he really did take great care of his critters. Perfectionists are needed but perfectionists are probably the most likely to quit right? I don't know if he was one but his tank was gorgeous.
So after the tank was taken down I split things up by compatibility and space. I decided coral and anemones are not ok together and that the gorgonian deserved halides since the 10K XM bulbs made it grow almost an inch a month. Wanted to put the clam in there as well but I got a potters angel which proved a nipper so it's still in the 55, where it gets PC and sunlight. The clam has been under PC for almost a year now and has extreme mantle extension to compensate but continues to grow. I moved it to the sunniest spot, it seems to be doing well but I'd sell it in a heartbeat to a better home. Or swap it for a return pump so I can put a sump on this tank.
The 50 is outfitted with a CPR skimmer, small HOT filter for runninng carbon, a seio and a maxijet 1200. Lighting is metal halide with 2 96 watt actinics that are not always on due to heat issues. I don't have a hood, that just never did get built... so the reflector and bulbs hang from a board above the tank. The result is much better temperature stability though on hot days it still gets pretty out of control, and on cool days the heaters can't seem to keep up for some reason.
Coral are the gorgonian, 3 RBTA's, a green plating monti frag, some xenia elongata, yellow polyps, star polyps, zoanthid frags, mushrooms, people eaters, discosoma neglecta and kenya tree corals. I intended it for RBTA propagation but since the RBTA's went on hiatus for a while I put a bunch of the frags I want to sell in there. Fishwise, this is the part I get beat up for... pair oscellaris, powder brown tang, potters angel, royal gramma. That's a lot for an underfiltered tank. There are also 2 cleaner shrimp and 8 or so hermits, a turbo snail, 4 or 5 astreas, a margarita or two, and a small aquacultured conch. I don't like to overstock snails and hermits, I think they just starve or kill eachother that way. The tank has tested zero on phosphates and nitrates every time and barely registered a blip of ammonia/nitrite during cycling. It has a small amount of black sand in the bottom, wanted a whole bed of it but the detritus really shows on that stuff plus the seio just makes a mess of it. So I siphon that out bit by bit during water changes. I have a sump for it but no pump, and it is not drilled. That is one of the long term projects. Since it's stable and all I am not in a big hurry. We might be moving anyways.
Susie's (tangee) husband built a great little stand for it and Marty (finn) helped as well plus gave me the seio with one of his awesome magnet mounts. I am happy with this tank, especially now that the clowns are getting "in the mood for love". The powder brown is an amazing fish, if you want one be sure to get the white face one not the one with a couple white spots on it's face. It's MAC/net caught which likely helped. I mostly buy from my friend's store in Portland where everything is MAC or CB and he would gladly order another if someone wants one.
I am doing some halide comparisons on the tank so will put photos of those up later. Here is my first try at using photobucket.
It's not the prettiest tank ever, was really meant to be for propagating RBTA's but like I said I kind of got out of control
Thanks to Marty as well for telling me how to get big pictures on this forum!
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