Randy's Tank Description

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 14, 2014

Just found some other pics online that I had posted years ago. Not sure of the exact dates:

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 14, 2014

In these each of these three pictures you can see the evidence of something that, according to others with more experience with multiple clowns, is somewhat unusual.

For years I kept spawning pairs of ocellaris clowns (settling on a soft corals for lack of anemone host) and pink skunk clowns (in the H. crispa) at the same time. In fact, they were separated by only inches, and neither pair moved away, and they never fought that I could see. Both pairs were more interested in challenging their reflections in the glass than each other, although that didn't happen all that often either.

I guess I just run a happy tank.

Fin · Oct 12, 2014

I think this is awesome of you to share your personal system with all of us. Nice to see that in this day and time of high-tech equipment, a simple, more natural approach being used by one of the gurus of the hobby. Thanks for being here at R2R!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 12, 2014

Thanks, Gary.

Happy Reefing.

Steven C · Oct 17, 2014

Hey Randy i see in one of your earlier pictures you had a flame angel with your corals how did that work for you ?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 17, 2014

Steven C said:
Hey Randy i see in one of your earlier pictures you had a flame angel with your corals how did that work for you ?

It worked out perfectly well for a number of years until a tank wipe out while I was travelling. I lost all the fish in the main tank then.

Cory · Nov 24, 2014

Beautiful tank Randy!

Are your clownfish hosting that soft coral? I think it's a finger leather. What caused the tank crash? Fwiw the Apex controller is awesome, when your away from home you can turn off pumps with your iPhone, or turn them on. You can also view your tank via webcam, and see the current ph, dissolved oxygen, etcetera. Everything could be controlled with your phone when away. I'm going to get one as the wife and I go to Mexico for a month in the spring usually. Peace of mind is worth tons.

I'd love to see new pics of the entire setup! Even a pic a month is cool! Interested in seeing the sump. Don't worry if it's ugly, mines laughable sometimes. Not that you'd worry about that.

maroun.c · Nov 24, 2014

Lovely tank Randy,
Its nice to see a swaying tank compared to today's interest in a fixed glowing sticks tank... any plans to add a few SPS so its a mixed reef?
Any specific reason to go with the marginalis VS rostratus for Aptasia control or was it just a choice? looks like you've been lucky with it not touching the clam.
I've just introduced my Copperband to try to control Aptasias and I have 10 clams in the tank so it's scary. Luckily he's cleaning out a Tube worm infestation and I hope he'll switch to Aptaisias not clams afterwards. on the positive side he eats frozen from the water column as well.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 24, 2014

Cory said:
Beautiful tank Randy!

Are your clownfish hosting that soft coral? I think it's a finger leather. What caused the tank crash? Fwiw the Apex controller is awesome, when your away from home you can turn off pumps with your iPhone, or turn them on. You can also view your tank via webcam, and see the current ph, dissolved oxygen, etcetera. Everything could be controlled with your phone when away. I'm going to get one as the wife and I go to Mexico for a month in the spring usually. Peace of mind is worth tons.

I'd love to see new pics of the entire setup! Even a pic a month is cool! Interested in seeing the sump. Don't worry if it's ugly, mines laughable sometimes. Not that you'd worry about that.

They did settle on a green tree coral (a soft coral) for many years before I got my gigantea anemones. Now my ocellaris live in my blue gigantea.

The tank crash happened when I was on vacation. Not entirely sure what happened, but flow between the basement systems and the main tank stopped. Exactly why that killed all of the DT fish, I do not know, but among the dead was my long horned cowfish that are known to contain toxins, so its death may have accelerated other deaths (but that's speculation).

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 24, 2014

maroun.c said:
Lovely tank Randy,
Its nice to see a swaying tank compared to today's interest in a fixed glowing sticks tank... any plans to add a few SPS so its a mixed reef?
Any specific reason to go with the marginalis VS rostratus for Aptasia control or was it just a choice? looks like you've been lucky with it not touching the clam.
I've just introduced my Copperband to try to control Aptasias and I have 10 clams in the tank so it's scary. Luckily he's cleaning out a Tube worm infestation and I hope he'll switch to Aptaisias not clams afterwards. on the positive side he eats frozen from the water column as well.

I don't recall my exact rational when I got it, but I had heard that it was easier to get it feeding than other copperbands, and that was true. Mine eat Rod's food (which it gets about every other day). It did a perfect job on the aiptasia and has never shown any interest in my clam. I have a huge number of tube worms and these seem unaffected by him.

Cory · Nov 25, 2014

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
They did settle on a green tree coral (a soft coral) for many years before I got my gigantea anemones. Now my ocellaris live in my blue gigantea.

The tank crash happened when I was on vacation. Not entirely sure what happened, but flow between the basement systems and the main tank stopped. Exactly why that killed all of the DT fish, I do not know, but among the dead was my long horned cowfish that are known to contain toxins, so its death may have accelerated other deaths (but that's speculation).

That's unfortunate. Sorry to hear that. What have you done to prevent this from happening again in the future?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 25, 2014

I don't currently have a cowfish, for one.

dallasg · Nov 26, 2014

Great, I love the anemones

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 26, 2014

dallasg said:
Great, I love the anemones

Thanks.

My blue gigantea with the trio of clowns and an anemone crab in it is certainly my favorite item in the aquarium.

s2nhle · Jun 18, 2015

Great, thank you for sharing. any recent pics?

pdiehm · Jun 18, 2015

I see a Hippo in a 120. surprised the police haven't gotten on you (assuming the tank listed is the one being shown).

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 18, 2015

pdiehm said:
I see a Hippo in a 120. surprised the police haven't gotten on you (assuming the tank listed is the one being shown).

While I do not currently have a hippo, I've never actually had anyone suggest to me that my 120 wasn't appropriate for the fish I had.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 18, 2015

s2nhle said:
Great, thank you for sharing. any recent pics?

None more recent than those already posted. Too lazy.

pdiehm · Jun 18, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
While I do not currently have a hippo, I've never actually had anyone suggest to me that my 120 wasn't appropriate for the fish I had.

Would love to get one for my 60" 120 gallon but so many people have said it won't work out, I have stopped thinking about it