msmith619
Mon, 13th Apr 2009, 06:46 PM
About 6 weeks ago I found MAAST and have been a regular blogger since. I have kept salt water fish since age 15, 34 years ago, back when undergravel filters where the way to go, but gave up my aquariums about 8 years ago when I moved. I am back!
I purchased a used 75 gallon reef-ready aquarium, wet/dry filter, and return pump then added a protein skimmer and a 4-bulb T5 light system. I was planning to go full reef and bought 73 pounds of established (most of it was in the tank for over a year) live rock and 90 pounds of live sand, 75 pounds new in the bag and 15 pounds from an established tank. I then added Caulerpa prolifera for both the looks and also the benefits of macro-algea. The tank cycled in less than a week using the established rock and sand. It now houses 2 false perculas. 1 tomato clown (added at the same time, no fighting), 1 blue hippo tang, 1 bangai cardinal, 1 firefish, 1 blue damsel, 1 royal gramma, 1 juvenile queen angel (yes, I worried about polyps and coral), 1 green BTA, 3 different Zoas, 2 rocks of green star polyps, 3 cleaner shrimp, a Kenya tree that has now split into 5 Kenya trees, a ricordia, assorted hermits and snails for clean-up and a small red anemone that came on the live rock.
I am happy to say there have been no losses, all are eating well, all parameters are normal, the caularpa has had to be thinned twice and now I am going to post pictures and show off my aquarium! I really worried about adding the queen angel but decided I would live without corals if she ate them. Happily she is eating everything offered (brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, planktin, frozen angel and butterfly food with sponge, and Omega Marine flakes and has totally ignored all corals.
I guess my reef became a reef/Fowler but all are fat, happy and doing well. Water changes are 15% every week and testing is done weekly and stable.
The pictures were taken with my camera phone and not the best quality and the window glares in some but it is the best I could do at the time.
Mike
I purchased a used 75 gallon reef-ready aquarium, wet/dry filter, and return pump then added a protein skimmer and a 4-bulb T5 light system. I was planning to go full reef and bought 73 pounds of established (most of it was in the tank for over a year) live rock and 90 pounds of live sand, 75 pounds new in the bag and 15 pounds from an established tank. I then added Caulerpa prolifera for both the looks and also the benefits of macro-algea. The tank cycled in less than a week using the established rock and sand. It now houses 2 false perculas. 1 tomato clown (added at the same time, no fighting), 1 blue hippo tang, 1 bangai cardinal, 1 firefish, 1 blue damsel, 1 royal gramma, 1 juvenile queen angel (yes, I worried about polyps and coral), 1 green BTA, 3 different Zoas, 2 rocks of green star polyps, 3 cleaner shrimp, a Kenya tree that has now split into 5 Kenya trees, a ricordia, assorted hermits and snails for clean-up and a small red anemone that came on the live rock.
I am happy to say there have been no losses, all are eating well, all parameters are normal, the caularpa has had to be thinned twice and now I am going to post pictures and show off my aquarium! I really worried about adding the queen angel but decided I would live without corals if she ate them. Happily she is eating everything offered (brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, planktin, frozen angel and butterfly food with sponge, and Omega Marine flakes and has totally ignored all corals.
I guess my reef became a reef/Fowler but all are fat, happy and doing well. Water changes are 15% every week and testing is done weekly and stable.
The pictures were taken with my camera phone and not the best quality and the window glares in some but it is the best I could do at the time.
Mike