Tank Update w/ pics New URL !!!

[FranklinP]

Well I started my tank in Febuary. I have been through many setups and have finally got a good stable setup. This tank was built on a extremely limited budget. I tried to cover many bases on filtration.
Here are some pics, I have lots of life in the tanks but not much coral other than the stuff growing on the excellent rock I got from Tampa bay Saltwater for $2.50 a lb. Family members have bought me 3 other corals you will see in photos. It was a little cloudy today since I blasted the dust off the rocks this morning. As always the pictures are blurry due to the cheap camera. Please feel free to give me names of any thing you may see in the pictures. The shop I got corals from had names like flower pot coral, Carpet coral , and Mushroom coral. Thanks.

http://iongun.com/reef/

 

[krullulon]

from first look, i'd say you have some serious issues with compatibility in your tank.

first, puffers are *not* reef safe fish... you should remove that guy if you want a healthy reef system. you should also remove the horeshoe crab, because of the difficulty keeping them alive -- most starve or boil to death in reef aquariums. wetwebmedia.com has more information on both puffers and horeshoes.

second, "flower pot coral" most often refers to a type of goniopora, which is one of the most difficult corals to keep alive in an aquarium. there are folks who have been successful, but the one in your picture appears to be in a state of serious decline.

your "brown" shrimp also looks suspiciously like a mantis shrimp, and if so will probalby eat your blenny. 8O

what's your lighting situation? you mention halides and actinics, but your tank looks very dark for a reef... how many bulbs, what wattage?

definitely spend some time on wetwebmedia, advanced aquarist and this site looking through the FAQs and searching on the friendly names of your corals and fish. and never, under any circumstances, allow family members who don't know anything about reef keeping to purchase items for you -- reef ecosystems are highly complex and each addition should be added with an eye to how it will interact with the other occupants of your tank -- if your family isn't reef-aware and doesn't understand the nature of everything in your tank, they will most definitely make inappropriate choices that either won't live long in your system or will negaitvely impact your other critters.

sorry if this sounds rude, it's not my intention... just trying to give more info.

 

[FranklinP]

I don’t think your comments are rude at all. I asked for opinions and that’s what I got. I would like to take a moment to go over a few things though. Don't fall asleep.

The flower pot coral is always extended all the way out with all the arms extended, I was trying to photograph Horse shoe crab which hides in the sand during the day and I nudged the flower pot coral with my plastic pointer by mistake. This caused several pods to zip into its body. They are 6-8" normally. That coral was one of the first and has done great for about 3 months now.
All live stock except the clown fish and Red eyed fish were caught in the local waters. The Shrimp is a brown shrimp like you would buy in the store to eat. He has molted twice now in the tank. There are ten or so blenny's in the tank. Two have nice blue colors in them but are rarely seen. The big one is what I always called a Dog fish and eats lots of live food. The Horse shoe crab has been in for about 2 months now. He swims in the open water during feeding then does a back flip and eats food off surface of tank. There are many types of crabs living amongst the rock, the blue crabs seem to grow very fast and I think I got most of them out and returned them to the wild. They came in with the oysters that are in the filter tank. Stone crabs are make up the bulk of the crabs but there are several red crabs and 2 white crabs that I got with the live rock. I feed with mixtures of canned minced clams crab meat and fish, run through the food processor. The clown fish feeds the purple tip anemone by catching food and spitting it into the anemone. The puffer fish was vacationing in the main tank for the photo shoot but normally resides in the filter tank eating little copepods and baby shrimp.

My lighting is provided by two Hamilton 10k 175 watt metal halides, 2 VHO atinics, 2 96 watt 6500k Power compacts. The filter tank/ refuge is lit by 2 6500k 48" fluorescents and 2 actinic NO fluorescents. The refuge is lit 24/7.

I feed the sea horses home cultured brine shrimp raised to about 2 weeks. I plan on growing plankton next to wean away from plankton supplements. I also add frozen store bought brine shrimp when my supplies are low. I use a slow sinking pellet in both tanks for all the bottom feeders.

The main tank has 3 1" drilled holes in bottom. One line goes to a wet dry which I left the bio balls in, One line just dumps into the sump a remnant a of dual wet dry, The third line goes over to the filter tank, A 55 gallon with a partition to allow water to go through several bio balls allowing all the sediment to fall out. It exits through an over flow into the sump. Another over flow was added from the main tank to the filter tank and the current is now very strong in it. The filter has oyster bars and about 24 clams in the mud. Conch's were removed since they were some how digging up the clams and sucking them out of their shell. Any rate there is 6" of muck in filter and many types of grasses.

The main tank sits atop 6-8" DSB with a Plenum below, Mostly play sand up top and crushed aragonite below, 60 lbs of live sand was used to help cycle tank. The sand bed is thriving with worm’s copepods and others. I have planted manatee grass in the sand and it is doing well.Coraline algae grows all over tank walls. Ammonia is 0, Nitrite and Nitrate is also zero.

I recently began building an air lift pump and ATS it should be done next month. It is powered by a Rotron Spiral blower. This will hopefully allow critters to safely travel between tanks with out getting tore up.

I am very happy with tank. The pictures are dark Due to the photo shop contrast enhancement to clear them up. Here is a pic of the flower pot on a normal day. It is untouched to show lighting. is is a nice neon green color.

 

[FranklinP]

Forgot to mention the tank has a home built chiller but the temp never rises above 76 degrees since the top is open to air and the one advantage of a mobile home is that the air vents are in the floor, in this case blowing on the sump. I was heating to 78 on advice that it would help my coraline during cycling, now the large volume of water keeps a stable temp. I removed the chiller and the heater. My horse shoe crab is from florida and was caught in 90 degree plus water. If anything he needs a jackett.

 

[FranklinP]

Thanks to your link I have identified my "puffer" as a Honey Comb Cow Fish. He is the size of a 50 cent piece. Thanks.

 

[FranklinP]

Did i mention I hate my ISP ? Hence the exceeded bandwidth on the pics. Sorry. I will post it up on my Cousins site as soon as I get the FTP info. Again I am sorry about the link.

 

[krullulon]

Thanks to your link I have identified my "puffer" as a Honey Comb Cow Fish. He is the size of a 50 cent piece. Thanks.

there's another conversation floating around about goniopora, and SpicyBalls posted a link to http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/ ... invert.htm that might give you some more info about your flower pot.

 

[ricky1414]

the one advantage of a mobile home is that the air vents are in the floor, in this case blowing on the sump.

But the disadvantage is that all that weight could tip your mobilehome over!! J/K
On the other hand, watch out for the cowfish, it could nuke your tank if it dies. Not to be rude, but I don't believe that 175 w MH's will properly penetrate a two foot column of water. Hope it works out for you.

 

[Anonymous]

I had trouble viewing the pics...I was hoping to see the possible mantis shrimp...and Puffers are usually a FO type fish..puffers will eat your nice ornamental shrimp....you sound like you have a huge system with plenty of room for some really cool fish...your seahorses are doing ok in that system?? Im concerned the puffer would pick on them..seahorses are usually kept in a species only system...they're non aggressive feeders and will starve if kept with aggressive fish..but im unable to follow your homepage, cuz i couldnt see the pix so im just assuming at this point...

 

[FranklinP]

I am waiting on FTP info from my cousin then I will move pics over to his site with unlimited bandwidth. The sea horses stay in a 55 gallon planted tank that also serves as the main filter for big tank with no other predators and are fed with brine shrimp live and dead, also have seen them suck up some finely minced clams and shrimp.

The shrimp is a common Brown shrimp like the kind you eat. I have never seen the mantis shrimp since I put two in there. The little puffer has alot of shrimp to eat before he impacts the supply. I only have the little glass shrimp in there now nothing store bought as far as shrimp go.

The mud minnows are called Sheepsghead minnows. I looked it up.

I will update subject line when new ISP is up.

 

[FranklinP]

New Link:
http://iongun.com/reef/

 

[Anonymous]

kinda mantis looking, id like to see the front side of that shrimp..im curious thats all..i happen to have a mantis thats why...