I was asked to move this post from the Meet & greet...so here goes!
Hi there! This is my first post; I live in Missoula, MT and am a 30-year-old widow & the mother of two girls, ages 8 years & 18 months, a 9-year-old English Mastiff (180# female) an a 1-year-old 90g reef tank. My reef's specs are below...
Setup 05/20/06, Moved 02/05/07
Equipment Stats...
90 Gallon All-Glass Tank
2X-175w 10,000K Metal Halides, PFO Dual Ballast.
2X- 48" 40w True Actinic 03 Blues, Coralife 2-lamp Electronic Ballast.
RENA Flistar Xp3 Canister Filter with carbon and poly-floss only.
SeaClone 150 Skimmer…Despite all the bad things I have heard, this WORKS for me.
1x 400gph PowerHead
Sand/Rock...
3" 1/2 Sand - 1/2 SeaFlor Aragonite Substrate Bed (20# live sand added at setup)
90# Live Rock at setup, some added/removed later (current weight ?)
Fish...
Yellow Tang
Regal Tang
2x Ocellaris Clowns
2x Purple Firefish
Lawnmower Blenny
Yellow Chromis
Cleaner Wrasse
Inverts...
Rose Bubble Anemone (Both Ocellaris Clowns host here).
White Sebae Anemone
Long-Tentacle Anemone
Orange Cerianthus Tube Anemone
Tridacna Crocea Clam
Giant Green Metallic Rhodactis Mushroom
Green Mushroom Rock
Super-Red Mushroom Rock
1 Red & 2 Green Fungia Plate Corals
Tubastrea Coral
Green Open Brain Coral
Yellow Tree Coral
Flower Pot Coral
Small-Pipe CandyCane Coral
Green Anchor/ Hammer Coral
Orange Lettuce Sponge
Sea Pen (So-Called…what is this really?)
5x Feather Dusters
Blue Linckia Starfish
Purple Linckia Starfish
Orange Linckia Starfish
Green Brittle Starfish
2x Blood Shrimp
2x Cleaner Shrimp
2x Peppermint Shrimp
Coral Banded Shrimp
Long-Spined Black Sea Urchin
Purple Sea Urchin: Aquascaping-destroyer! I plan to return soon!
6x Emerald Crabs
Blue-leg hermit crabs & Astrea Snails out the Whazoo
Feeding & Maintainence...
LifeLine Frozen Foods: Herbivore Minced & Mysis Shrimp fed once daily.
DT’s Live Marine Phytoplankton fed M-W-F.
DT’s Frozen Oyster Eggs fed bi-weekly.
Live Caluerpa kept in a corner at all times.
R/O-D/I Water
Instant Ocean Salt, Salinity maintained between 1.020-1.022 (We’re High-Altitude)
Only very occasional water changes; maybe 20% every 6 weeks.
Ph Maintained at 8.3 with SeaChem Reef Buffer as needed.
Calcium Maintained with alternating doses of SeaChem Reef Calcium & CaribSea Purple-Up every few days.
SeaChem Reef Iodide, Reef Trace, Advantage Strontium, Advantage Magnesium dosed twice-weekly.
SeaChem Reef Builder added only very occasionally when alkalinity is edging on low.
I perform ridiculously religious weekly water tests for Ph, Calcium, Alkalinity, Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, Phosphates, Copper. With no sump, a very poor-quality skimmer, and this kind of bio-load, I am just waiting for something to go wrong…but it NEVER does! I am planning to turn this tank into a sump for the 155 BowFront I plan to set up soon, & I’m also prepared to upgrade the skimmer if it becomes necessary but see no reason to fix what’s working.
I will try to post photos...hope it works! Nice to meet everyone! ~Heather
