Made in Canada - A Shallow Reef

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17 May: It's alive!

The tank is finally wet, looking forward to getting some life in there soon!

Napoleon Dynamite Dance GIF
 
Super, love the scape man. Very nice!

Love the scape!

Agree on the scape. 4 reef bommies, Excellent. If I ever do another tank, thats the look I'm going to go for. Or maybe you've inspired me to rip my current one apart lol.
Thanks all!
Looking great!

While we wait for this one to be all stocked up show us some more pics of the previous tanks :)
Sure, I will slowly start sharing some older stuff. :)
 
Springer Damsel
I've always been a fan of the Springer Damsels. They are super calm tank mates, and very eye catching blue.

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Had 3 of them for probably 8 or 9 years, before a small crash. Loved em, they left my corals alone, a bit pugnacious, between themselves, but I don't mind that....they add a lot of colour imo that nice bright blue.
 
Had 3 of them for probably 8 or 9 years, before a small crash. Loved em, they left my corals alone, a bit pugnacious, between themselves, but I don't mind that....they add a lot of colour imo that nice bright blue.
Yah, I've had one in all my tanks. I'm a fan. :) Seems to have bonded with the Royal Gramma, they are cruising around together, haha.
 
@lombeard Love your tank, I've been eyeing a Waterbox for a while now. I have a quick question, with the 16" height of the display, do you ever find yourself wishing you would have gone for something like their Reef models with the extra height? Just curious if you feel limited with livestock selection due to the height as that's my only concern going with the Frag series. I love the aspect ratio of the Frag which is really drawing me to them. Awesome build though :)
 
@lombeard Love your tank, I've been eyeing a Waterbox for a while now. I have a quick question, with the 16" height of the display, do you ever find yourself wishing you would have gone for something like their Reef models with the extra height? Just curious if you feel limited with livestock selection due to the height as that's my only concern going with the Frag series. I love the aspect ratio of the Frag which is really drawing me to them. Awesome build though :)
Nope, it's deeper than any tank I've had - I'd do 12" depth if possible, I love shallow tanks. But I do see how it could put someone off if they aren't that way inclined. The only think I don't like on the tank is the black back and centre overflow, I wish it was corner and clear.
 
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Patience Wins
For the longest time, I battled to get this tank to settle in. For reasons, I could not explain. Corals, even the most basic ones which I had never been able to kill were struggling to take off. Water parameters were stable, and it was a classic case of “my parameters are perfect” but things were not happy. This continues for well over a year, and I was mostly out of ideas. As a last ditch, I decided to buy a bunch of corals, glue them down and see what happened. And from this moment, things turned around for me.

I’m not sure why but unlike in my previous tanks where I’d frag a coral if it started to STN, I just rode it out and left all of them in place, and most survived. You can see in the first Staghorn photo, that the coral had STN’d. I took this photo as the tank had stabilised and you can see the tissue looking stronger and beginning to regrow. The bottom image is taken a little over 1 year later, it's recovery has been remarkable. All my corals have taken off and are growing really well. (Knock on wood).

So what was the issue? I think the tank was just too sterile, and lacked any good bacteria our reefs need. Ever since it's been a steady improvement and joy has replaced frustration.

Overall the tank is doing well now, I’m fighting bubble algae ( :expressionless-face: ) but the corals and fish are happy and that is most important.
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
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