75gallon mushroom tank

[Rick's Reviews]

 

[ajax969]

A weird worm

That green/blue one to the left in the second picture is wild! I got on a kick of getting a bunch of green mushrooms so I have tried to venture towards red and this latest one was a lava lamp looking one.
I am hoping to get a really nice yellow leopard sometime next year, I had one but it seemed to wander off somewhere and hasn't been seen again.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

No major issues with the ones pictured. I have added ricordeas in the past and they started out as 2-2.5" single heads, one split into 3 and then they slowly shrank until I have just one left. Not sure what the cause of it was but figured possibly a light issue or nutrient.

I am working on feeding a little heavier/direct feeding the corals because everything I have read/heard says that mushrooms love "dirty" tanks.

Yes but 'dirty' does not literally mean dirty/ don't clean your aquarium.

Thanks for sharing my posts

Mushrooms have abit more resilience then other corals, everything will die in your aquarium if you do not maintain it.
Your GSP will proberbly out live a mushroom in a 'dirty' aquarium...

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Yes it's very unusual

 

[ajax969]

Yes but 'dirty' does not literally mean dirty/ don't clean your aquarium.

Thanks for sharing my posts

Mushrooms have abit more resilience then other corals, everything will die in your aquarium if you do not maintain it.
Your GSP will proberbly out live a mushroom in a 'dirty' aquarium...

I don't plan on just letting it go, just realize that some extra nutrients isn't going to hurt anything per say. I was slacking off on water changes, was doing about 10% every 2-3 weeks and noticed a bit of "fall off" in growth so I have started direct feeding the corals more and trying to get back on a 10% weekly water change schedule which is what I was doing when I really noticed some of these taking off.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Best way moving onwards, it's your aquriam/ tank

 

[Rick's Reviews]

This will be a lot of copy over from my intro thread but I will use this to update any major changes to the tank as I go.

My original plan was to have an aggressive tank so I set up a little 30 gallon with some fish but on the upgrade to the 75 I apparently didn't keep a close enough eye on things and lost pretty much all my fish so I decided I would just go with a peaceful, soft coral tank.

Started out with a 75 gallon tank that my wife bought off marketplace and used as our main tank for 9 months, LFS owner was upgrading to a 180 drilled so we got her 150 with overflow boxes and sump for too good of a deal. Once her tank was switched over and running good I decided to make a tank of my own in the basement. We had a stand custom made by a local guy who has done a few pieces of furniture for us.
Equipment:
18" CurrentUSA lights (x2)
Aquatop 500uv Canister Filter
Sicce powerheads (x2)
hob refugium with an old kessil 160 tuna blue for a light(set to full white)

I went with Caribsea Hawaiian Black sand to be different from the normal look. Between that and the black vinyl on the backwall it has made fish choices require a little more consideration. I also found out that these CurrentUSA lights are not great for growing coral, except apparently disco and rhodactis mushrooms, for some reason ricordeas don't fair too well. I haven't figured out what is up with that.

I read about this lights being good for only some soft corals when I was researching them. I went with them anyway due to budget at the time considering we just bought all new stuff for the wife's 150. I may eventually upgrade them but this tank is supposed to be a stress-free(ya right), low maintenance tank so I am not rushing out to spend a bunch of money on it all the time.(plus I have two other hobbies to support)

My current stocklist is:
Mocha Ocellaris Clown
Ocellaris Clown
Green Chromis
Royal Gramma
Bar Goby (x5)
Flametail Blenny
McCosker's Flasher Wrasse
Blood Shrimp

Still planning either a dwarf angel or tang but haven't settled on anything just yet.
Corals:
As I stated above mushrooms seem to be about the only thing that lives under these lights so I have a fair selection of discos and rhodactis mushrooms and a newly added rock covered in GSP from my wife's tank.

I attached some pictures of the tank as we were setting it up and after it was up and running. The last picture was from tonight. I have kind of let the glass get away from me so it's not spotless like it used to be but like I said, this is supposed to be a low maintenance, stress free style tank so I don't spend a whole lot of time scrubbing it down constantly.

It's alot to take on but tomorrow is another day

 

[Rick's Reviews]

This will be a lot of copy over from my intro thread but I will use this to update any major changes to the tank as I go.

My original plan was to have an aggressive tank so I set up a little 30 gallon with some fish but on the upgrade to the 75 I apparently didn't keep a close enough eye on things and lost pretty much all my fish so I decided I would just go with a peaceful, soft coral tank.

Started out with a 75 gallon tank that my wife bought off marketplace and used as our main tank for 9 months, LFS owner was upgrading to a 180 drilled so we got her 150 with overflow boxes and sump for too good of a deal. Once her tank was switched over and running good I decided to make a tank of my own in the basement. We had a stand custom made by a local guy who has done a few pieces of furniture for us.
Equipment:
18" CurrentUSA lights (x2)
Aquatop 500uv Canister Filter
Sicce powerheads (x2)
hob refugium with an old kessil 160 tuna blue for a light(set to full white)

I went with Caribsea Hawaiian Black sand to be different from the normal look. Between that and the black vinyl on the backwall it has made fish choices require a little more consideration. I also found out that these CurrentUSA lights are not great for growing coral, except apparently disco and rhodactis mushrooms, for some reason ricordeas don't fair too well. I haven't figured out what is up with that.

I read about this lights being good for only some soft corals when I was researching them. I went with them anyway due to budget at the time considering we just bought all new stuff for the wife's 150. I may eventually upgrade them but this tank is supposed to be a stress-free(ya right), low maintenance tank so I am not rushing out to spend a bunch of money on it all the time.(plus I have two other hobbies to support)

My current stocklist is:
Mocha Ocellaris Clown
Ocellaris Clown
Green Chromis
Royal Gramma
Bar Goby (x5)
Flametail Blenny
McCosker's Flasher Wrasse
Blood Shrimp

Still planning either a dwarf angel or tang but haven't settled on anything just yet.
Corals:
As I stated above mushrooms seem to be about the only thing that lives under these lights so I have a fair selection of discos and rhodactis mushrooms and a newly added rock covered in GSP from my wife's tank.

I attached some pictures of the tank as we were setting it up and after it was up and running. The last picture was from tonight. I have kind of let the glass get away from me so it's not spotless like it used to be but like I said, this is supposed to be a low maintenance, stress free style tank so I don't spend a whole lot of time scrubbing it down constantly.

 

[ajax969]

Best way moving onwards, it's your aquriam/ tank

so far between mine and my wife's tank we have had fairly good luck with our methods. They're far from top tier as far as equipment or sophistication but we enjoy the relaxing aspect of being able to watch the tanks and not stress about things being absolutely perfect at any given moment. If it ever becomes more work than enjoyment I think that is when we will get out of the hobby.
I have a similar approach to my other hobbies, I do this stuff for fun and to relieve stress, not add to it.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

You will do fine my friend

 

[ajax969]

small update with no current pictures.....added what for the moment will be my last fish. This puts me at a grand total of 13 fish for the tank. LFS called this weekend while we were out of town and said she got a small(~2-2.5") Blue eye Kole Tang in and asked if I was interested. I had decided that I was going to buy a small(~2") tomini from her but it sold by the time I made it back to the store.

I was hoping for a lighter color fish due to how dark my tank seems to be but decided for the price I would go for it and so far he seems to be fitting in just fine.

I think my next goal is going to be planning a light upgrade. The CurrentUSA lights that I have were a great way to get the tank going and have been great for the 1+ years I have had the tank going. They seem to do fine for the mushroom corals that I have but I do miss the ability to add different corals and would like the possibility of some easier LPS/SPS corals in the future. I am looking at a couple Kessil 160s due to that's what is on all the other tanks we own but might take the opportunity to branch out and try something different.