We just restarted our 55g mixed reef (to be) water zoo. Haven't done too much other than the initial setup, cycle, live sand, one aquacultured piece of live rock, and all of our old dead rock, which sat in those orange Home Depot buckets for about 5 years.
First addition was 2 clowns, then we added a small school of 4 pajama cardinals (though they're still trying to figure out their pecking order), and a sixline wrasse. A very kind member of this thread has offered us some incredibly colored zoa frags to start with our corals, hopefully they'll be in their new home in a couple of weeks. Our water parms right now are pert near perfect, even for SPS, but then again, we have nothing in there that's eating calcium or magnesium yet.
The photo attached is our clowns under actinic lighting, I think it came out rather well, and I'll work on getting a full tank pic to add to this thread soon. I'm disabled and pretty much stuck in a hospital bed, so climbing in my chair to take pics is a once in a while thing for me. I do at least have good gear to do so, so that helps.
The tank itself is an old-school 55g (that has wood framing on the top, making finding an ATO difficult!), and we have an over the back mechanical, biological, and chemical filter which does a fantastic job, though at some point I might want to switch to a sump. The tech on those has changed so much, I don't even know what the heck I need. Seems bio-balls are no longer even a thing. Also thinking about an over the back fuge to keep nuisance algae out of the tank.
We're running a couple of Viparspectra LED lights, and they are so very bright, I doubt we'll ever see anywhere near 100% output, even with some light hungry SPS critters in there. They seem like an outstanding value and product for the money, I only wish they had moon lights.
Anyway, that's where we stand for now, but as it starts to build, mature, and get new livestock, I'll keep this thread updated.
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or simply want to chat about how the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are going to be back-to-back Super Bowl champs, I'm glad to hear from you...
My other hobby is flight simulation. I'm not sure which one is more expensive!
Kev
First addition was 2 clowns, then we added a small school of 4 pajama cardinals (though they're still trying to figure out their pecking order), and a sixline wrasse. A very kind member of this thread has offered us some incredibly colored zoa frags to start with our corals, hopefully they'll be in their new home in a couple of weeks. Our water parms right now are pert near perfect, even for SPS, but then again, we have nothing in there that's eating calcium or magnesium yet.
The photo attached is our clowns under actinic lighting, I think it came out rather well, and I'll work on getting a full tank pic to add to this thread soon. I'm disabled and pretty much stuck in a hospital bed, so climbing in my chair to take pics is a once in a while thing for me. I do at least have good gear to do so, so that helps.
The tank itself is an old-school 55g (that has wood framing on the top, making finding an ATO difficult!), and we have an over the back mechanical, biological, and chemical filter which does a fantastic job, though at some point I might want to switch to a sump. The tech on those has changed so much, I don't even know what the heck I need. Seems bio-balls are no longer even a thing. Also thinking about an over the back fuge to keep nuisance algae out of the tank.
We're running a couple of Viparspectra LED lights, and they are so very bright, I doubt we'll ever see anywhere near 100% output, even with some light hungry SPS critters in there. They seem like an outstanding value and product for the money, I only wish they had moon lights.
Anyway, that's where we stand for now, but as it starts to build, mature, and get new livestock, I'll keep this thread updated.
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or simply want to chat about how the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are going to be back-to-back Super Bowl champs, I'm glad to hear from you...
My other hobby is flight simulation. I'm not sure which one is more expensive!
Kev