Electrokate

Yeah you definitely have the right attitude... paint the living room to match the tank.

anyone still have tulip anemones? They were everywhere a few years ago.

I have a 55 gallon tank like that. It is "The Rodney Dangerfield Memorial Aquarium for Corals that Can't Get No Respect". Need worlds ugliest ricordea? Star polyps? Purple cloves? Bluish grey toxic palythoa? Coral eating starfish? You should throw a few red and/or purple mushrooms in there too. In the sump I have a pest crab but I don't know if I can find him without touching the bristleworms, which I am now allergic to. I have a super ugly plating monti that is borderline pest. Grows well, is bright beige. For one week every other year it turns bright red. It's too big probably anyways. I might still have a red tabling acro frag with red bugs you could add too, someone gave it to me and it never made it out of quarantine. Then the quarantine tank broke so I tried to feed it to the filefish, they would not eat it. So I threw it in the 55, where of course it did really well. Red bugs and all.

"][/url] "][/url] Here is a current shot of the 55, which is lit by 2 bulbs. ATI Blue Plus and ATI Purple Plus. I gave the filefish to a breeder, which was really sad but I need to get a job and can't be here to feed them 5 times a day. Hopefully she will breed them. Funny how the xenia and tree corals seem more spread and open since they were moved out... think filefish will eat soft corals too. "][/url]

I think the RO unit is probably necessary in some places where people have bad wells or city water, gave the last one I had to a friend who had a well with over 80ppm nitrates and unbelievable phosphates in it. I think the prefilter is awesome though, it's disgustingly coated with brown sludge after only 200 gallons. 5 micron carbon block also great. Seriously could probably ditch the actual RO part and use the prefilters and Di to good effect, if i fill a 5 gallon bucket with tap water it's sort of a greenish tan color from all the tannins in Bull Run and who knows what all else, adding tannish greenish water to my reef kinda bothers me. But I think it's obviously not harming corals. I do accept a certain amount of algae in the tanks that others might not be able to live with. And I can't keep an Oregon Tort alive for more than a few days. Even when I did not know the city switched to chloramine I was doing 20% weekly water changes with chlorine neutralizer and no fish or coral were lost. I used the wrong neutralizer on tap water for a whole year at least.

6 bulbs, currently 2 ATI blue plus, 2 ATI purple plus, 1 GE 6500K and 1 ATI aquablue special. They are all pretty much expired so soon will be replaced, probably will do another blue plus instead of the aquablue special. These photos were top down or from the top and side shots using an underwater camera, the tops of the corals where the light hits are definitely more colorful than they look from the normal front view. I ran this tank with 4 bulbs for at least a year, and upgraded to 6 about half a year ago. Don't think it made much difference. I get a little better results with photos. Fixtures I use are from "indoor gardening" shops as I like their reflectors and bulb spacing better than most aquarium lights. Can't complain about the price either (: So yeah, I grew SPS in a 120 gallon tank with 4 T5HO bulbs, granted ATI bulbs with high par but that is not much light. I don't think the tridacnid clam is doing much growing but the corals grow right into eachother.

I put them on smugmug, don't like flickr and photobucket much anymore. My whole album lives here: http://electrokate.smugmug.com/Aquariums/120-Gallon-Reef-Tank/16969394_pW8JGw#!i=1283378090&k=mb4Hvkw

I was trying to put a photo of bryopsis on the glass of a quarantine tank I had. I quarantine everything. Rocks, snails, plants all of it. Never sorry I did either, only when I didn't. (: I have a blue tang that got sick after I did not quarantine a wrasse (which died within an hour of adding it). This blue tang has had what looks like ich for well over a year. Have to tear the tank down to get him out and treat him too. None of the other fish are sick though. Wish I had quarantined that wrasse, that's how I learned my lesson. "][/url]

hey how did you fix my post? (: Thanks! I am actually thinking of donating the RO unit back to the club, I keep flooding the floor and not convinced it's needed. But I might just bypass the RO part of it and give somebody the membrane, as I think the prefilter, 2 carbon blocks and DI resin are probably plenty of filtration. With our utilities pushing 300 a month I really need to not make them any worse unless it's necessary. think I figured out the pic thing... "][/url] "][/url] "][/url] "][/url] "][/url]

deleting post I can't get the pictures to show

I had a bad api alk kit in the last year. 2nd vote for Salifert. I switched all my kits to LaMotte and they are great for me but not so good for all users. Salifert is accurate enough and easier to use. Also watch out for super old kits, they do expire, and store them in a reasonable area. Not the garage where it gets super hot in summer and cold in winter. I have seen some batches of salt with weird levels of calcium over the years so you might want to have a bit of your newly made up water checked too. That particular brand once had a batch of high calcium salt a couple years ago. Back in I think 04 had a bucket of another brand new to the market where the calcium was around 800. No kidding. LFS I worked at had a special on it and a lot of unhappy customers, myself included. Kate

So who gets this next, I think I am done... I killed some of the anemones but others retreated into their holes and split, so am actually propagating them. I am now going to lift the rocks and pipette the water out of their holes, then fill the hole with RO water and see what happens. If that does not work I am going to fill the holes with superglue or putty. Time for the nuclear option. Also wondering what I owe for rent-pest free frags? (: Kate

So who ended up with your 90? Still kicking myself for not buying it. Love your tanks, all of them. I agree on plumbing, and hate snails unless they are a type that never gets big enough to plow over a frag. But still they get crusty growths on their shells like vermetid snails that they drag across the acrylic scratching it. Not even sure I need snails, they leave tracks in the algae. Thanks again for the anemone, it has not wandered a single time. Not in a year. Knock on wood... now that I said that it will likely do so tonight (: Kate

Used it on xenia at the base, it was slow going but I think I got it fully removed. No point doing the whole animal, it would take forever. This thing is way slower going than I thought it would be, majano's took at least 3 days of applications and may still regenerate. Small aiptasia appear dead. Still a better tool than chemicals, as it does not drip on lower corals and clams like aiptasia X type products, and you can reach more pests. Have to frag the tank way back to get them all though, unfortunately. Oh well, snacks for filefish (: Kate

I'd have to say the number one choice around here for cleanup crew is the human. Not too big on snails, they knock the frags all over the place. But I do like Silky Tegulas, which I got once from Reeftopia and have not seen again. They stay small, and even produced a few babies in the tank. Hermits killed them off eventually, took their shells, and then mostly got murdered by the male melanurus wrasse. That's fine, I don't need no stinking hermits! Oh I like the free nocturnal snails as well, such as Stomatella varia (used to have black fleshed ones, so would like to track those down again) and the tiny Collinista snails. Here's a link if you don't know what I am talking about http://www.chucksaddiction.com/Hitchsnails.html

I now have the power to smite and it is awesome!

I am missing the meeting due to migraine... thanks though. I had been warned about using it for x amount of time by a friend who had access to a prototype unit. He was not entirely pleased but it beats letting the darn things go (: I have plans to use it in my 3 tanks and at work, and I might buy one too if it works out. Thanks, Kate

Hi, Sorry I took so long to get back to you. Is it still at OIAB? I should probably give it a shot, the majanos are exploding, and there is one big aiptasia killing a bunch of coral where I can't get to it with the liquid stuff. Love how I clean my skimmers and find baby majanos inside... they must be bulletproof. Kate

I have been meaning to write... thanks for the offer to rent this right now but I have to wait a couple weeks. My skimmer is dead and the new one will not be here for a good while. Probably not a good time to deliberately raise the ammonia (: Kate

I have hydroids that look like that too, tried to get a photo and it was almost impossible. They are tiny. It does appear they are dying out though. I put mushrooms, favia and an RBTA by them and they are on the decline.

Thanks! Yeah, I stuck a gorgonian in the middle of the montiporas originally as I had seen someone do that on a forum post and it looked great. But they fought, and there was tissue recession causing the gorgonian to suffer. So I swapped it for the birdsnest, which is doing quite fine. Few current pics: This already looks better, I call it "Mr S" because I got it from him. Was tort color at the base and emerald green at the tips but is coloring up to be the reverse. Was about the size of a garbanzo bean when I got it. Don't think this will change much, it was purple tip in its last tank Also noticed my alk was like 5 and the calcium low as well, and fixed that. So some color changes might be from that. Today I dropped the skimmer's impeller assembly. It never really did skim into the cup, the bubbles rarely made it more than an inch from the top and burst in the neck instead, leaving a thick black deposit. Not the biggest problem since either way the crud was gone but since I need a new pinwheel and ceramic shaft and the sedra 3500 obviously was not cutting it anyways, thinking of ditching the entire skimmer and going with something new. Not sure what to pick. So many choices, so little cash (:

Another time... besides it needs a good cleaning (: Thanks for the frags, they are awesome!

couple quick pics of the tank with my new light... first is with only 2 bulbs, the next is all 6. Both pics kind of dark, sorry... not used to the new light and I shot it on manual. So basically I guessed on the exposure and got kind of close. Will reshoot when the gorgonian is open. Had a 4 bulb unit on before and it was ok, obviously, but I wanted something with better bulb spacing and 2 more bulbs so photography would be easier and so I could use the 4 bulb unit on my frag tank. New light is a Hydrofarm "Designer" grow light. Liked it's spacing and deep wide reflectors. If only it had a fan but the price being so low could not expect that. I think both the old and new fixture were slightly overdriving the bulbs, should get a kill a watt and see. Considered LED's but love the colors of T5HO ATI bulbs too much.

If I can rent it I will test it on all that stuff... palythoas, hydroids, majano, aiptasia, red sea pink pompom zenia, mushrooms, even good ol zoanthids. Well the not so good ones. Might need to rent it for several days (: Kate