• Why not take a moment to introduce yourself to our members?

A

Anonymous

Guest
Well I finally got my cheapie camera working so here will be some pictures of my 55g. Sorry about the quality of the pictures but it is a very limited camera.

Just a reminder for new people, my basic philosophy of maintaining all aquariums it to simply take care of the plant life and the plant life will take care of the aquarium. Just as happens in the wild.

I have maintained FW and FO tanks since the late 70's with that philosophy because the dramatic results I obtained after I switched from the usual, water change, filtration, and plant less Fw tanks I started with. Following those "usual" methods I had trouble keeping fish longer than three months and when I tried to get plants going, the did not establish themselves.

So I tried a tank by first starting the plants for a week so the plants were in control right from the start. I found I had no algae to clean, and descendants from the original two red wag platys were in the same tank 8 years later. Six years in one city. With no water changes, no filter, no circulation, and minimal lighting. Just fed the fish and replaced water that evaporated.

I also applied the same philosophy to a FO salt tank, under gravel filter, dolomite substrate. For plants I just let the algae grow but cleaned the front glass for viewing. Again no water changes, just replaced evaporative water. And 8 years later the tank was still functions, fish had lived for up to 4 years, and three strip damsels, spawned numerous times.

I set up numerous FW tank in about ½ dozen cities in the US while in the Air Force. With the same results. So it was not unusual water quality where those two original tanks were located.

About two years ago I started this 55g. No one in Huntsville mentioned anything about saltwater plant life even though I made several requests. And the initial results were so disastrous, my wife and I were seriously considering switching to a ciclid tank. Basically, any nicer fish like a tang would slowly deteriorate develop white spots, start breathing heave and die (in about three weeks. I tested Ph and found the just before lights out ph was down to 7.4 or lower (very light brown to yellow on the aquarium phar**** test kit). I then discovered macro algae and saltwater plants. One week after adding 8 gracillaria bushes, just before lights out ph was 8.4 and has stayed there for 1 ½ years. And a yellow tang with white spots recovered, is still in the tank, and is about 3 times the size.


Nitrates have finally come down to and stayed at 0.0 with the addition of the in tank back wall refug and the back lighting. Cyano bloomed then disappeared as nitrates lowered below 5 ppm. I have and external sump/refug with a diy filter box. Powered be a mag 5 pump circulating all the water through crushed oyster shells. Calcium went from 250-300 ppm to 400ppm in 4 weeks and have stayed there for months after adding the oyster shells. As usual no water changes and the tank has seen only straight tap water.

I do not recommend external sumps/refuges to newbies. They can and will flood. While they are useful for very very large system or those with numerous tanks, they do not make sense to me for a hobbiest with a single tank.

I am still learning especially with the corals, so any help on ID or possible problems will be appreciated.

Finally, The only filtration is the diy filter box and the macros. No skimmer. lighting is 2 4' 2 tube utility fixtures behind the tank pointing forward and two 4' 2 tube fixtures 2x overdriven on top. all tubes are 4100K 3300 lumen utility tubes. Glass top is installed.

parameters. just before lights out ph 8.4, ammonia, nitrItes, nitrate 0.0, calcium 400ppm, alk 2 leg/l, mag 1200ppm, iron unmeasureable. I suspect phosphates ar low or 0.0 as cyano has bloomed then gone away.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
This open brain has been in the tank for a year or longer. The pic is yellowish but the color in person has the usual green stripes. I feed it a sliver of raw shrimp per day.
 

Attachments

  • openbrain5x37572dpi.jpg
    openbrain5x37572dpi.jpg
    21.9 KB · Views: 3,404
A

Anonymous

Guest
here are some buttons that have been in there for about ayear also. They suffered with a bahama and green brittle starfish and a coral beauty also. But right above the @ is new buds so hopefully recover. Geuss it helped to get nitrAtes to 0.0, higher lighting, and actually feeding them.
 

Attachments

  • buttons5x37572dpi.jpg
    buttons5x37572dpi.jpg
    21.5 KB · Views: 3,403
A

Anonymous

Guest
here are some zoos that have been in there about 3-4 months.
 

Attachments

  • zoos5x37572dpi.jpg
    zoos5x37572dpi.jpg
    25.2 KB · Views: 3,406
A

Anonymous

Guest
some stars as a gift from a lfs. they seem to be spreading and doing nicely. 1-2 months.
 

Attachments

  • star5x37572dpi.jpg
    star5x37572dpi.jpg
    25.5 KB · Views: 3,409
A

Anonymous

Guest
frogspan or frogspawn. about 2 months in tank
 

Attachments

  • frogspan5x37572dpi.jpg
    frogspan5x37572dpi.jpg
    24.9 KB · Views: 3,407
A

Anonymous

Guest
hers is a recordia that has been in there bout 8 months or so. along with a frag from the zoos
 

Attachments

  • ricyzoos5x37572dpi.jpg
    ricyzoos5x37572dpi.jpg
    24.7 KB · Views: 3,394
A

Anonymous

Guest
a colt coral bout 2 months or so. sorry its fuzzy :D
 

Attachments

  • colt5x37572dpi.jpg
    colt5x37572dpi.jpg
    19.6 KB · Views: 3,391
A

Anonymous

Guest
fuzzy mushrooms about 4-6 months.
 

Attachments

  • fuzzy mushroom5x37572dpi.jpg
    fuzzy mushroom5x37572dpi.jpg
    21.8 KB · Views: 3,401
A

Anonymous

Guest
heres is a pulsing xenia and a frag. both about a month. the frag has grown about 1/3 in that time.
 

Attachments

  • xeniayfrag5x37572dpi.jpg
    xeniayfrag5x37572dpi.jpg
    26.8 KB · Views: 3,384
A

Anonymous

Guest
this is the mother where is broke hmm h err fragged the previous piece off of. behind the turbs is also some polyps. not visable are the baby polyps from those. snail has been in there 1 3/4 years the corals about 2 months.
 

Attachments

  • spsypoplys5x37572dpi.jpg
    spsypoplys5x37572dpi.jpg
    21.6 KB · Views: 3,393
A

Anonymous

Guest
and a new cleaner shrimp
 

Attachments

  • cleaner5x37572dpi.jpg
    cleaner5x37572dpi.jpg
    19 KB · Views: 3,393
A

Anonymous

Guest
nemos in long anemone. bout 8 months for fish 4 for anemone. feed anemone piece of raw shrimp per day.
 

Attachments

  • nemos5x37572dpi.jpg
    nemos5x37572dpi.jpg
    22.5 KB · Views: 3,388
A

Anonymous

Guest
Here is a picture that shows tank lighting. top lights are comercial electric utility fixtures. those fixtures have the sumpark sl-15 electronic ballast. Which I rewired to that a ballast fires one instead of two tubes. That requires an electronic ballast and results in about 55w being delivered to the tube. Each top fixture has two ballasts one for each tube. fixtures cost $7 delivered and two fixtures were used to create on. So the top fistures are about $30. the back fixtures are standard mag ballast $8 from home depot. Fixture costs total were about $46. tubes are 4100k 3400 lumen type for about $5/two tubes. Actually I got some on sale for 2 tubes for $.88. So lighting costs were about $50-$60.

the egg crate in tank back wall refugium is visable in this picture also.
 

Attachments

  • lighting5x37572dpi.jpg
    lighting5x37572dpi.jpg
    17 KB · Views: 3,390
A

Anonymous

Guest
this is my diy filter box with the lava rock and crushed oyster shells. the jar on the left has some new red grape I am cultureing.
 

Attachments

  • filterbox5x37572dpi.jpg
    filterbox5x37572dpi.jpg
    21.4 KB · Views: 3,376
A

Anonymous

Guest
cardinal is about 4 weeks in there. also has cleaner, zoos and show the back lit refug
 

Attachments

  • cardinal5x37572dpi.jpg
    cardinal5x37572dpi.jpg
    30.8 KB · Views: 3,382
A

Anonymous

Guest
here is the in tank refugium left side where the chaeto is
 

Attachments

  • chaeto5x37572dpi.jpg
    chaeto5x37572dpi.jpg
    30.8 KB · Views: 3,386
A

Anonymous

Guest
here is the center refug with various macros. the graps has been there a few months and harvested many times. the feather and others are about 2 weeks old.
 

Attachments

  • centerrefug5x37572dpi.jpg
    centerrefug5x37572dpi.jpg
    34.6 KB · Views: 3,373
A

Anonymous

Guest
right above the "@" is a baby turbo. and there are several in the egg crate in this picture. Kinda like each turbo has its own cubicle.
 

Attachments

  • babysnails5x53772dpi.jpg
    babysnails5x53772dpi.jpg
    23.4 KB · Views: 3,372
A

Anonymous

Guest
and overall picture.
 

Attachments

  • overall7x52572dpi.jpg
    overall7x52572dpi.jpg
    47.9 KB · Views: 3,381

Sponsor Reefs

We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.

Click here to sponsor $10:


Top