Inspiration pics

[96xjmatt]

I am bummed out that I do not have a beautiful tank up and running I will like to see some of your guys full system help me with ideas on getting my to look the best it can this is what I am working with

 

[Flippers4pups]

I am bummed out that I do not have a beautiful tank up and running I will like to see some of your guys full system help me with ideas on getting my to look the best it can this is what I am working with

Shouldn’t be bummed out! That’s a very nice setup you have going there! Very nice!

Took me a year to build my current system before it got wet!

 

[Dual40IM]

I don't really have any pics of the plumbing and workings of the tank but this is mine just after filling it up. The doors were not even finished at this point. I will also throw in some eye candy for motivation. So far your setup looks good. Love the size of the tank. What brand/size is the tank?

 

[96xjmatt]

this is what I am working with till my tank is finish it sucks

 

[96xjmatt]

I don't really have any pics of the plumbing and workings of the tank but this is mine just after filling it up. The doors were not even finished at this point. I will also throw in some eye candy for motivation. So far your setup looks good. Love the size of the tank. What brand/size is the tank?

Tank is a deep blue 80 48x24x15

 

[Ron Reefman]

You're off to a great start. Good size tank and really nice sump. I might make the rocks a little less vertical as it can be hard to get coral to stay on vertical surfaces and if the higher ones grow out the shade the lower ones. Just take your time and enjoy the build process.

I have a year building mine and I still have things I'd like to do over!

 

[Rc1989]

You're off to a great start. Good size tank and really nice sump. I might make the rocks a little less vertical as it can be hard to get coral to stay on vertical surfaces and if the higher ones grow out the shade the lower ones. Just take your time and enjoy the build process.

I have a year building mine and I still have things I'd like to do over!

I love your tank. My next build I will follow some of your steps. The whole pre drilling holes on the rock, I like as well. Sorry read that in another thread

 

[Ron Reefman]

I love your tank. My next build I will follow some of your steps. The whole pre drilling holes on the rock, I like as well. Sorry read that in another thread

Thanks. I have to admit that I'm finding that downsizing from 3 DT and a frag tank and 600g of saltwater in the house to just these 2 small tanks and under 100g of saltwater is more fun for me.

I've found pre-drilling holes in the rock make adding coral on frag plugs a breeze. Most of the plugs get overgrown by the coral so they disappear from view. The unused holes end up just looking like 'normal' holes in the rock and you don't even notice them. I knew I had a lot of zoa frags from my old tanks that I sold. So I drilled about 120 holes and I've filled over 100 with frag plugs. The drilled holes also made it so easy to try a coral in one hole and decide if I liked it. If not, it was super easy to find a new location because there were holes everywhere! The tank has only been set up for about a year and the corals and anemones have almost covered all the rocks!

 

[Rc1989]

Thanks. I have to admit that I'm finding that downsizing from 3 DT and a frag tank and 600g of saltwater in the house to just these 2 small tanks and under 100g of saltwater is more fun for me.

I've found pre-drilling holes in the rock make adding coral on frag plugs a breeze. Most of the plugs get overgrown by the coral so they disappear from view. The unused holes end up just looking like 'normal' holes in the rock and you don't even notice them. I knew I had a lot of zoa frags from my old tanks that I sold. So I drilled about 120 holes and I've filled over 100 with frag plugs. The drilled holes also made it so easy to try a coral in one hole and decide if I liked it. If not, it was super easy to find a new location because there were holes everywhere! The tank has only been set up for about a year and the corals and anemones have almost covered all the rocks!

What do you have in your smaller tank? I’m looking to start a 10-15 gallon one

 

[Ron Reefman]

What do you have in your smaller tank? I’m looking to start a 10-15 gallon one

For me the smaller tank (16g) is a frag tank and a holding tank, which is kind of like a quarantine tank, but not really. Currently in the tank there are just a few rocks that I have drilled lots of holes in to hold frag plugs, 2-3" of sand, a small frag rack and some frags I received recently from Cultivated Reef. I'm just holding them here until I have time to 'make room' in the 40g cube for them (I need to pull out some corals that are less colorful or that don't fluoresce well under blue leds). I expect this tank will get used more for frags and small colonies or anemones that get pulled from my DT and end up being sold. The other use will be for things I collect during beach walks (our winter time activity) and during snorkel trips to the keys (our summer time activity).

In the past I've added a lot of wildlife I collect directly to a DT without quarantine. I find things I buy online, from an LFS or from fellow reefers are more in need of quarantining than things I pick up off the beach or in shallow water in the Keys! But since I've downsized I ended up with enough corals and anemones to basically fill the tank. So I now collect a lot less and I'm more often looking for things that are unusual. Or at least things I do find that are unusual have a better chance of making it into my tank. LOL! Like a filter feeding sea cucumber that we've only found one time on a sandbar at low tide.

This guy is a bit bigger than a golf ball and buries itself in the sand. This pic is was when it was in a container as we tried to ID it... we didn't know what it was. BTW, there is a yellow pistol shrimp and a couple of porcelain crabs hanging on to the cucumber. Those were all found on the same morning.

This is a photo of it in my tank about 4 months later. I had never seen it put it's tentacles out like this before and for a while I didn't know it was the sea cucumber. I thiught it was some kind of basket star. But I had never bought one or ever found one in the wild. And they are notoriously difficult to keep, so how could it have hitchhiked in as a small star and survived in the tank while growing to star that was 4" in diameter?

Then it started to feed and put one arm or tentacle after another into the central mouth and we figured out what it was. Here is a link to a youtube video of it feeding. It's not great quality, but it's kind of amazing to watch as it alternates the arms it cleans from one side to the other and rotates around until all 8 arms have been cleaned!




The normal critters we find and can collect from beach walls are porcelain crabs (usually not crazy colors), pistol shrimp, very rarely a peppermint shrimp and occasionally an anemone or a small gorgonian. Yes, we find small, colorful gorgonians on the beach after a strong cold front passage which brings strong west winds and big seas. The gorgonians can survive for some hours out of the water. The crabs and shrimp survive out of the water by being inside sponges that keep them wet. The weird stuff we find very rarely are an invasive green clam, small sea hares, small reef octopus (which I put back in the water, not my aquarium!), non-photosynthetic anemones and small sea cucumbers.

The normal stuff we find in the Keys is a long list. Some is good for an aquarium like, snails, blue leg hermit crabs, green zoas, gorgonians, rock flower anemones, serpent and brittle stars, emerald crabs, coral banded shrimp, urchins, small ordinary clams and flame scallops. But we also see a lot of things that are either illegal to collect, don't do well in an aquarium or aren't good for the rest of the aquarium. We see condy anemones, some stony corals and beautiful chunks of live rock that are full of life; but those are all illegal anywhere in the State of Florida. We see lots of crazy, beautiful, colorful sponges, spaghetti worms and calcareous algae that don't survive long in transit home or in our tank if they make it home. Some sponges will survive for 1 to 3 months, but they always shrink in size and deteriorate away to nothing over time. And then there are small mantis shrimp, some algae that can get very out of control in an aquarium, or small cowfish that can be toxic if they die.