This spring I upgraded my overfilled 120 to a 180 (lots of fun on a 2nd floor apartment) and it's starting to take shape. I decided to set it up in a new location so I was afforded the luxury of having the weekend to clean the tank. I had already cleaned my sand and did several 30 gallon water changes, keeping the water with pumps and heaters, so after I cleaned the tank, I put the new sand in and filled it about half way with said "used" water change water, and the other half with new RO/DI water. I had a DIY led set but since I'm heavy into SPS I wanted to try the metal halides that had come with the tank. The sump that came with it was not good, same with the skimmer, so I kept my old one sump is small at 35 gallons, skimmer is Reef Oct. Diablo 160, although rated for a 160, it kicks butt. So originally I have 2 x 250W 14k Phoenix, and 2 x 60" T-12 "454s." I was given a couple of pendant fixtures and used them, but still didn't feel I was getting enough light. So I went with one pendant over the SPS, and I took my 4' DIY LED over the other half (it was mounted on top of the open top canopy, so rather high off the water). I was still unhappy with the look, so I took 2 smaller MH fixtures and set them side by side over the SPS, thus giving the SPS 500 watts (this has been in the past month or so). I just started Zeospur 2 this week, so I'll be adding "after" pictures of my Sps. I don't have many early pictures as I lost them in a computer crash (much better than a tank crash). I would like to do take some serious pics and will add them. The sad part of the crash is that I can't do a growth ratio from June until now.
Livestock -
Fish = a purple tang (the boss), a naso tang, and a small blue hippo. A mated pair of black clowns and their overgrown sherman rose bta (it's HUGE).I have a Randall's goby with his pistol shrimp,a big pink spotted goby which I haven't seen in a while, 4 chromi, and 4 firefish
Inverts -
2 large cleaner shrimp, 2 large brittle stars, a pretty big (3 inches) elephant snail, and a bunch of hermits, blue legs, etc. crabs.
Corals to name a few. I have a nice colony of rainbow stylo (but looks more like green cat's paw) and I fragged it into maybe 10 mini colonies/frags. I nice colony of pink and a colony of green stylo, a colony of purple stylo and a bunch of othe SPS that I don't know the names of. I have a HUGE original Tyree mummy eye chalice and a few smaller chalices. Two sicko welsos, 4 large colonies of neon green nephthia (sp), some nice big pieces of frogspawn and torches, and I've build up my zoa collection lately. Again, I'll have pics of all these by next week
a full tank shot a month or 2 into this
The Sps side
The "mixed" side (with some SPS)
Livestock -
Fish = a purple tang (the boss), a naso tang, and a small blue hippo. A mated pair of black clowns and their overgrown sherman rose bta (it's HUGE).I have a Randall's goby with his pistol shrimp,a big pink spotted goby which I haven't seen in a while, 4 chromi, and 4 firefish
Inverts -
2 large cleaner shrimp, 2 large brittle stars, a pretty big (3 inches) elephant snail, and a bunch of hermits, blue legs, etc. crabs.
Corals to name a few. I have a nice colony of rainbow stylo (but looks more like green cat's paw) and I fragged it into maybe 10 mini colonies/frags. I nice colony of pink and a colony of green stylo, a colony of purple stylo and a bunch of othe SPS that I don't know the names of. I have a HUGE original Tyree mummy eye chalice and a few smaller chalices. Two sicko welsos, 4 large colonies of neon green nephthia (sp), some nice big pieces of frogspawn and torches, and I've build up my zoa collection lately. Again, I'll have pics of all these by next week
a full tank shot a month or 2 into this
The Sps side
The "mixed" side (with some SPS)
