Studio Reef starts year 23

[rhdoug]

Hi everyone, just took some pics of the tank. Hope you like them. Some of you may recognize corals you gave me at the meeting I hosted a couple of years ago.

 

[amoore311]

Is that a new Marine Beta? He looks like a small captive bred one. I would love to pick one up from Biota when they have them for sale again.

Tanks looking great as always Randy!

I think it's about time for another group get together.

 

[rhdoug]

Is that a new Marine Beta? He looks like a small captive bred one. I would love to pick one up from Biota when they have them for sale again.

Tanks looking great as always Randy!

I think it's about time for another group get together.

Thanks Adam. He is captive bred from Sustainable Aquatics, but he is not new, I've had him for 9 years. He was a tadpole when he arrived and I was afraid he wouldn't make it. He is a lot smaller (thankfully) than I expected and one of my favorite fish, very unique personality. There is a thread on here by a guy who breeds and sells them to Biota. I think he recently sent a batch to them. Great fish.

 

[WorkingHands]

Corals look great!

 

[mattdg]

Your tank is looking great! I really enjoyed seeing it in person at the meeting, several years back. 23 years is quite an accomplishment. Now days, most people are too busy upgrading, tinkering and adding named coral to their tanks, to just enjoy a reef, as you have. Very inspiring. Hope it lasts 23 more!

 

[Smoke-Town]

Awesome tank. Everything looks amazing. Love those sun polyps. Never see that many. You must be one of the few who actually is disciplined enough to feed them regularly. How often do you feed them?

Also love the marine betta. There was a huge one at my lfs a week ago... easily 8 inches. I've heard they're quite cryptic and nocturnal. Does he come out a lot during the day?

 

[Chessmanmark]

Impressive Randy.

I see you still have that candy hogfish which is zipping
through one of your pictures.

That Grube’s gorgonian is doing well in my softy tank.
It has a nice look contrasting the Sinularia, Nepthea, and Sacrophyton.

I also see you got the Psammocora established.

I can only imagine what’s in that frag tank now. Once a tank gets established corals never stop growing. It’s a blessing and a curse.

 

[rhdoug]

Awesome tank. Everything looks amazing. Love those sun polyps. Never see that many. You must be one of the few who actually is disciplined enough to feed them regularly. How often do you feed them?

Also love the marine betta. There was a huge one at my lfs a week ago... easily 8 inches. I've heard they're quite cryptic and nocturnal. Does he come out a lot during the day?

Thank you. I feed the sun corals at least once a day -- most of the time. There are occasional days that I skip for whatever reason, and sometimes I feed them 2-4 times. I had them low in the tank for a while but it was a pain to feed them, so I moved them up to the top right in front of the overflow intake. Easier to feed and most things end up going towards them, so a win-win. They don't mind the light. The betta mostly stays in the shadows but puts in frequent appearances, a great fish that gets lots of comments. He is only about 4 - 5 inches, and is 9 years old so I think he is basically done growing.

 

[rhdoug]

Impressive Randy.

I see you still have that candy hogfish which is zipping
through one of your pictures.

That Grube’s gorgonian is doing well in my softy tank.
It has a nice look contrasting the Sinularia, Nepthea, and Sacrophyton.

I also see you got the Psammocora established.

I can only imagine what’s in that frag tank now. Once a tank gets established corals never stop growing. It’s a blessing and a curse.

Hi Mark! No hogfish, I took him back to Aquarium Solutions a while back. Horrible fish!!! Glad the gorgonian is doing well for you, I have about 12-15 gorg frags in the frag tank and a lot of hammer frags, along with some monti caps (they do well in the frag tank but not the main tank), and some zoas and a couple others. The Psammocora is the bright green one I think?, I had to move him down due to the king midas zoas at the top. And I see that one has hitchiked on him after the move so a little surgery is in order... The purple stylo from you is also still there, right in the middle between the 2 green encrusting corals.