The Reef

dam love this tank is that clam any bigger yet?

Awesome shots!!!!

finally found some pink zoa's, and some nice red/crimson/blue/greens:




This piece i took a 6" diameter piece of live rock, almost the same shape of a small plate, i took 6 different frags i had and puttied them on, looks kinda cool:

Awesome Chris!!! Amazing set up

Great pictures and an amazing tank!

Just love that tank . Any fish pics?

There's that beautiful tank!

I spent a little extra time in my LFS yesterday looking closer at the saltwater tanks.

Great looking tank Chris. Can you give us a little detail about the tank, like how long its been set up, filtration and lighting.

drips185 wrote:Great looking tank Chris. Can you give us a little detail about the tank, like how long its been set up, filtration and lighting.

my stocklist pretty much has it all, i'll get pics of my refugium...

Awesome tank Chris. The colors are outstanding. I didn't even notice the shrimp in a couple of the pictures untill I went through them a couple of times. He does blend in well.

The Zoes are beautiful. How many different types do you have?

iceblue wrote:Awesome tank Chris. The colors are outstanding. I didn't even notice the shrimp in a couple of the pictures untill I went through them a couple of times. He does blend in well.

The Zoes are beautiful. How many different types do you have?

14 variations

Chris can you give all the non saltwater people an idea of how long it takes to get a tank to look like this. How often you do water changes, initial setup, how you keep the salt and any other thing they may need to set up a tank.

Micheal wrote:Chris can you give all the non saltwater people an idea of how long it takes to get a tank to look like this. How often you do water changes, initial setup, how you keep the salt and any other thing they may need to set up a tank.

as far as care for the tank goes:

i do weekly doses of magnesium, essential elements, iodide, strontium & molybdenum.

i also of course dose calcium when needed... i keep the tank at 420-460ppm calcium.

when i add RO water for top off for eveaporation i put in about 10-15 drops of Kent pro buffer (liquid)

i also use a 2 part alkalinity/calcium... brightwell's reef code a and reef code b.

i target feed the corals with a syringe once a week, i turn off all the pumps, and use a mixture of 2ml oyster feast with about 5-6ml of DT's live phytoplankton. other than that every other day i dose Brightwell's reef snow... just as small general feeding.

every two weeks i do a 10gallon water change with a very heavy sand vac.

a typical water test is as follows

Ammonia (NH3): 0ppm
Nitrite (NO2): 0ppm
Nitrate (NO3): 0ppm (I've never had a testable level of nitrate in this tank)
Potential hydrogen (pH): 8.3-8.4 during later lights on hours, 8.15-8.25 through lights off until morning
Alkalinity: 220-260ppm
Dkh: 11-12 degrees
Calcium- 440ppm
Water temperature: 75-76 degrees F during the day with full lights, down around 74.9 during the later night hours
Specific Gravity/Salinity: 1.026



coral food: the oyster feast and DT's phytoplankton are refrigerated

oh and this tank is my first saltwater tank other than a biocube i had live rock in for like 2 months. this is the first reef tank i have ever had, and its only been up since april/may of 09.... sump/refugium has been on the tank for about 5-6 months, really made a huge difference.

Great job Chris that should answer most questions. If the tank is that young it will be a real beauty in a year. Can't wait to see it develop with you.

Micheal wrote:Great job Chris that should answer most questions. If the tank is that young it will be a real beauty in a year. Can't wait to see it develop with you.

thanks dude.

new zoas coming thursday...



new forums colors look awesome! i love it!!!!!

i love that tank chris, one day i will have one like that! mine is pretty blah for now, atleast till i get that nem out of there, and put in a bunch of zoas and some frogspawn, then i will have some color... i love pink zoas!!!

i want some pink,green,orange bam bams, among others...lol..

i can see how it gets so addicting so fast, so many pretty colors....

briansbelle wrote:i love that tank chris, one day i will have one like that! mine is pretty blah for now, atleast till i get that nem out of there, and put in a bunch of zoas and some frogspawn, then i will have some color... i love pink zoas!!!

i want some pink,green,orange bam bams, among others...lol..

i can see how it gets so addicting so fast, so many pretty colors....

Belle its terribly addiciting... i often find myself asking.... hmm, dinner? or the new blue hornet zoa's...

That tank is absolutely amazing!