Well, since I've had mine tank since April 2007, it's a bit late to start a build thread, so I'll start one here and update it as things change.
The beginning - 24 lbs. of live rock from Reef Science:
The rock was fully cured, and as a safeguard I added Bio-Spira live bacterial innoculant with each batch of rock, another 25 lbs. added within a week, and fish added about a week later. Using multiple test kits I've never had a measurable cycle since day one - no ammonia, no nitrites, just some nitrates. I attribute this to the fully cured rock, and the use of Bio-Spira.
Although fully cured, the rock had coralline on it, and a lot of life (good types) that were hitchhikers. This was taken a few hours after the first rock went in - zoas opening, several bright red mushrooms, and some green star polyps. I was amazed how much life was still on the rock and that I saw no die-off.
After the second 25 lbs. of rock, and after adding 2 clowns, 2 pajama cardinals, and a Diadema Pseudochromis. As I said, even after adding fish, no ammonia, no nitrates - I was a happy camper!
I suffered through a diatom stage for a couple weeks, but never had anything but a very minor amount of green hair algae. I have no grisly looking pictures of my rockwork covered in green hair, thank goodness!
The tank at about 2 months, after adding some corals:
I went though a lot of early mods on the RSM skimmer. This was one of the mesh mods on the skimmer pump impeller. None of these or other mods ever did much to improve RSM skimmer performance:
The tank at about 7 months. I replaced the RSM hood with a Current Outer Orbit Pro HQI/T5 fixture to open up the back section to different skimmers, and ATO, etc.
An older picture of the back of the tank with the raised hood off - I went with a Aqua C Remora HOB skimmer that performs great, and Tunze ATO sensors. The blue thing was a DIY mechanical filter I built. I'm now running a 3 tiered media basket (purchased from StevieT) to the right of the Remora. It's a bit tight back there now, but it all fits, and the media basket solved a lot of problems with media placement and mechanical filtration.
A few days output from the Remora. I doubt I got this much gunk out in months of running the stock skimmer! The stock skimmer works well for some, but the one I got was depositing all of the gunk in the upper skimmer body and neck of the skimmer cup, nothing much ever in the cup.
Jumping way ahead, this is pretty much the look I had till a few months ago:
My diadema dottyback - I've had it from the start and it's still one of my favorite fish. A bit aggressive but none of my fish have ever physically hurt one another - just occasional displays of dominance:
At about 9-10 months I had an outbreak of pesky Bryopsis algae that was starting to overgrow some of my corals. I tried pulling it out, but tough to remove & grew right back. I tried elevated magnesium levels but saw some negative effects on some of the polyps. Although the fish will eventually get too big for the tank, as a last resort I bought a small Foxface. The Bryopsis was gone in a week, and hasn't reappeared!
In April I bought a small 9g Aqua Medic tank and moved the top rock and corals from the RSM to furnish the 9g nano. This gave me a clean slate on top to get some new rock on top, move things around and try for a new look, and new coral types. The bare top back in April:
I'm now trying SPS, Acropora, Montipora, Pocillopora, and some new lps types (Blastomussa, Duncans, etc.). I'm begining to like the look of the tank again, and even now prefer it over the "old" look.
Under the 20000k HQI metal halide:
And under only the 420/460 actinics - I love the way the corals fluoresce and "pop out" under actinic lighting! A totally different appearance:
And here's a couple of other actinic close ups. I didn't realize it till looking through old Photobucket pics that my light green acropora has grown a good inch in about a month. The montiporas grow even faster. And my 3 week old green & blue Duncans are already putting out baby heads all around the stalks. Amazing how quickly some of these things grow, while others can be impossible to keep alive.
Pocillopora damicornis - another SPS type I'm having good luck with. But, these are semi-agressive so it may be a problem as it grows. I've tried to avoid aggressive corals in my latest setup, but I didn't read up on this one first - one of those impulse buys!
A Blastomussa wellsi I won on Ebay a week ago. One polyp so far, but that one polyp can expand to over 2" across:
Under actinics:
Under the metal halide:
I got tired of pink pictures from 16 months of coralline growth on the sides and back. This picture was with a 9 month old 20 k metal halide lamp:
Major Coralline Attack #1 - and new 14k metal halide bulb in - I couldn't get at the coralline on the left side of the gate with my 6 inch wide Aqua Medic Razor Scraper:
After yesterday's attack with the new razor scraper that's the width of a single edged blade. I broke a corner off 2 blades, but was able to retrieve them:
The gate is still covered, but to me it looks much better. Sorry all you coralline lovers, but I've learned to hate the stuff!
If you don't want a pink tank keep after it before it gets too thick. I've learned my lesson!
I then moved a large piece of rock with a nice green zoa colony to the right side (not visible), moved some things around on the substrate to get better flow and get rid of some cyano. Things were too cramped, plus I have a tendency to overfeed. Having my timers get messed up after a recent all night power outage resulted in my MH lamp being on for 12+ hours instead of 7 - I noticed that mid week. Put all these together and they promote cyano. Top left is a small magnetic frag rack.
My new frag of neon green Palau Nepthea - hard to photograph fluorescent green corals - too bright I guess. Liveaquaria wants $80 & shipping for this size frag. I got mine for only $19.
Some new Montipora digitata. The orange piece on the right broke off while mounting it, so I mounted it on the right side of a new purple digitata in the middle. In just a bit over a week there are new branch shoots popping up on both the orange and purple, Lower left is a German blue digitata only a few weeks old & doing great. Bottom middle is a superman monti that has doubled in size in 3 weeks - much prettier than the pictures show.
In the frag pack with the above new digitata I got a piece of nice green Monti cap - mounted it below my orange piece that is starting to form plates after only a few weeks. The orange Monti was only a square inch piece when I got it. Montipora grows fast!
Green & Orange digis about a month old and really growing!
The other two Montis in the frag pack were two encrusting types - I think the first is a M. danae type, with hard to see small, bright blue polyps, and no idea what the one in the second pic is. Pics are a bit fuzzy but I was in a rush to eat dinner at thde time.
I guess that's it for an update on where I'm at with my tank. Stay tuned.
The beginning - 24 lbs. of live rock from Reef Science:
The rock was fully cured, and as a safeguard I added Bio-Spira live bacterial innoculant with each batch of rock, another 25 lbs. added within a week, and fish added about a week later. Using multiple test kits I've never had a measurable cycle since day one - no ammonia, no nitrites, just some nitrates. I attribute this to the fully cured rock, and the use of Bio-Spira.
Although fully cured, the rock had coralline on it, and a lot of life (good types) that were hitchhikers. This was taken a few hours after the first rock went in - zoas opening, several bright red mushrooms, and some green star polyps. I was amazed how much life was still on the rock and that I saw no die-off.
After the second 25 lbs. of rock, and after adding 2 clowns, 2 pajama cardinals, and a Diadema Pseudochromis. As I said, even after adding fish, no ammonia, no nitrates - I was a happy camper!
I suffered through a diatom stage for a couple weeks, but never had anything but a very minor amount of green hair algae. I have no grisly looking pictures of my rockwork covered in green hair, thank goodness!
The tank at about 2 months, after adding some corals:
I went though a lot of early mods on the RSM skimmer. This was one of the mesh mods on the skimmer pump impeller. None of these or other mods ever did much to improve RSM skimmer performance:
The tank at about 7 months. I replaced the RSM hood with a Current Outer Orbit Pro HQI/T5 fixture to open up the back section to different skimmers, and ATO, etc.
An older picture of the back of the tank with the raised hood off - I went with a Aqua C Remora HOB skimmer that performs great, and Tunze ATO sensors. The blue thing was a DIY mechanical filter I built. I'm now running a 3 tiered media basket (purchased from StevieT) to the right of the Remora. It's a bit tight back there now, but it all fits, and the media basket solved a lot of problems with media placement and mechanical filtration.
A few days output from the Remora. I doubt I got this much gunk out in months of running the stock skimmer! The stock skimmer works well for some, but the one I got was depositing all of the gunk in the upper skimmer body and neck of the skimmer cup, nothing much ever in the cup.
Jumping way ahead, this is pretty much the look I had till a few months ago:
My diadema dottyback - I've had it from the start and it's still one of my favorite fish. A bit aggressive but none of my fish have ever physically hurt one another - just occasional displays of dominance:
At about 9-10 months I had an outbreak of pesky Bryopsis algae that was starting to overgrow some of my corals. I tried pulling it out, but tough to remove & grew right back. I tried elevated magnesium levels but saw some negative effects on some of the polyps. Although the fish will eventually get too big for the tank, as a last resort I bought a small Foxface. The Bryopsis was gone in a week, and hasn't reappeared!
In April I bought a small 9g Aqua Medic tank and moved the top rock and corals from the RSM to furnish the 9g nano. This gave me a clean slate on top to get some new rock on top, move things around and try for a new look, and new coral types. The bare top back in April:
I'm now trying SPS, Acropora, Montipora, Pocillopora, and some new lps types (Blastomussa, Duncans, etc.). I'm begining to like the look of the tank again, and even now prefer it over the "old" look.
Under the 20000k HQI metal halide:
And under only the 420/460 actinics - I love the way the corals fluoresce and "pop out" under actinic lighting! A totally different appearance:
And here's a couple of other actinic close ups. I didn't realize it till looking through old Photobucket pics that my light green acropora has grown a good inch in about a month. The montiporas grow even faster. And my 3 week old green & blue Duncans are already putting out baby heads all around the stalks. Amazing how quickly some of these things grow, while others can be impossible to keep alive.
Pocillopora damicornis - another SPS type I'm having good luck with. But, these are semi-agressive so it may be a problem as it grows. I've tried to avoid aggressive corals in my latest setup, but I didn't read up on this one first - one of those impulse buys!
A Blastomussa wellsi I won on Ebay a week ago. One polyp so far, but that one polyp can expand to over 2" across:
Under actinics:
Under the metal halide:
I got tired of pink pictures from 16 months of coralline growth on the sides and back. This picture was with a 9 month old 20 k metal halide lamp:
Major Coralline Attack #1 - and new 14k metal halide bulb in - I couldn't get at the coralline on the left side of the gate with my 6 inch wide Aqua Medic Razor Scraper:
After yesterday's attack with the new razor scraper that's the width of a single edged blade. I broke a corner off 2 blades, but was able to retrieve them:
The gate is still covered, but to me it looks much better. Sorry all you coralline lovers, but I've learned to hate the stuff!
If you don't want a pink tank keep after it before it gets too thick. I've learned my lesson!I then moved a large piece of rock with a nice green zoa colony to the right side (not visible), moved some things around on the substrate to get better flow and get rid of some cyano. Things were too cramped, plus I have a tendency to overfeed. Having my timers get messed up after a recent all night power outage resulted in my MH lamp being on for 12+ hours instead of 7 - I noticed that mid week. Put all these together and they promote cyano. Top left is a small magnetic frag rack.
My new frag of neon green Palau Nepthea - hard to photograph fluorescent green corals - too bright I guess. Liveaquaria wants $80 & shipping for this size frag. I got mine for only $19.
Some new Montipora digitata. The orange piece on the right broke off while mounting it, so I mounted it on the right side of a new purple digitata in the middle. In just a bit over a week there are new branch shoots popping up on both the orange and purple, Lower left is a German blue digitata only a few weeks old & doing great. Bottom middle is a superman monti that has doubled in size in 3 weeks - much prettier than the pictures show.
In the frag pack with the above new digitata I got a piece of nice green Monti cap - mounted it below my orange piece that is starting to form plates after only a few weeks. The orange Monti was only a square inch piece when I got it. Montipora grows fast!
Green & Orange digis about a month old and really growing!
The other two Montis in the frag pack were two encrusting types - I think the first is a M. danae type, with hard to see small, bright blue polyps, and no idea what the one in the second pic is. Pics are a bit fuzzy but I was in a rush to eat dinner at thde time.
I guess that's it for an update on where I'm at with my tank. Stay tuned.
