Hi Reefers, My name is Jarrett and I'm new to the hobby (6 months research/ 3 months application). I've always wanted my own reef tank and finally dreams are coming true! Since it is my first of such tank, I got a Red Sea MAX E-170 which has a 37 gal DT with sump that expands system volume to 56 gal. Currently I have 2 osc clownfish (1 vibrant / 1 b&w), starry blenny (old man that loves to nip me when I stick my hands in the tank), a royal gramma, a beautiful blue clam and a tuxedo urchin named Elvis. As far as coral, I have a branch frogspawn, branch torch, couple mushrooms, maze brain, pink birdsnest that came with a acro crab hitchhiker (even after dipping!), Meteor Shower Cyphastrea Coral, Favia coral, zoas, and palys. I have recently added a monti frag to try my hand in SPS (other than the birdsnest)! I'm happy to be here and happy to help but most likely will need help! Cheers!
Welcome! I just acquired an 85 gallon mixed reef setup with several corals I was not previously familiar with and am learning myself! I have many of the same ones you mentioned also. You should start a tank thread and add pics and all. And the meeting this month is actually the Corals for Charity event in OK this weekend but there should be one around here next month. You should try to make it!
Hi Cameron! Here are a few pics but trying not to add another pukani tower and get rid of the smaller rocks since all I have to work with is height!
Thanks, LJC6780! Yes, I am a bit of a clean freak and have pretty involved weekly cleaning schedule: 20% p.w.c w/ Red Sea Coral Pro salt, filter sock wash out, over-sized skimmer cup clean out 2x a week, BRS biopellet reactor and keep around 20 2" x 2" marinepure blocks in the sump. Plus glass scraping a few times a week... lol ... I still get diatom blooms but the conchs, astrias and urchin take care of that part in quick order! Also, I forgot to say in my initial post that I do have a small frag of strawberry field goniopora (flower pot coral) and last but not least, Sabastian, the fire shrimp! Also, 3 nassarius snails and 8 blue leg hermits (mean little b@stards!).
Wow, and I thought I kept my tank clean! Lol Mine is a rimless too, and I am really beginning to like that sleek look. The evaporation sucks but I guess it's not TOO bad. I probably fill my top off reservoir with about 5-7 gallons a week I'd say. Will probably be more in the winter and less in the summer when it's already more humid. With what I'm saving in waste water from my RODI upgrade, it more than evens out! So what are you thinking for a rock scape? (You did say you wanted to change it up, right?) I feel like mine looks quite ADD and cluttered, but I'm just not sure how I want to do it and I'm thinking it needs to be done around the adding of some new fish in the next few weeks. They are currently in QT and I still have my zoas to move over from the other tank. And arranging the rocks is a bit of a challenge since I have a couple covered in ricordea yumas and some with montis that are actually attached. Just about everything else is not attached or is just attached with a piece of putty. I have a tub of rocks in the garage I can use to make the right scape, but they are all dry and I want to remove as little cycled rock as possible. Plus, it's not like I can remove it all to rescape without having some major die off. I feel stuck! I'm wondering now if I can use my rubbermade tote to place the rock in while I rearrange to keep it from dying off! I guess I need to play with the garage rock too and see what I can come up with! Sorry for rambling!
Yea, i think i lose around 1/2 gal a day through evaporation, but have my own RODI system too, so not a big deal. I am going to CA for a week in July and trying to figure out a good option while I'm away. Guess I'll train a friend. As far as rock scape, i love my pukani tower and really want to eventually get rid of the smaller rocks and replace them with another tower, but the smaller rocks are really turning into my Euphyllia garden / area. You should def use your rubbermade totes to keep them from dying off - just match the salinity & temp and you should be good (might want to add powerhead if they are in there for an extended period of time). Of course, i'm pretty new but see this as typical advise .
Do you have an auto top off? If so, you could just stick the pump in a 5 gallon jug and that should be enough until you get back. Not sure if it's true for Saltwater but in freshwater I always see it recommended to just leave the fish for the week instead of risking someone over feeding and crashing the tank while you're gone. Thankfully I have a brother in law that follows specific instructions so I feel confident he would do exactly as written. Last summer we went on vacation and I was in the middle of a cycle on one of my tanks and he did daily testing and water changes for me! I think I got lucky there! I think I want to make a few little gardens myself. I have several zoas, acans/favia/favites mushrooms and blastos. I think I'd like to sort of group them together so hopefully they won't fight with each other and might look better grouped instead of all over the place. Really not sure. I do know I want to group my zoas together though. I guess I need to look at more tank pics and see what others have done.
Yea I have an ATO. Just have to install it. Right now it's just the floater kind that came standard with my sump. I just added a hammer coral from The Fish Tank to my Euphillya garden and found a iridescent feather looking thing in one of the busted hammer arms. Vanessa said it was a barnacle. Guess I'm prone to hitchhikers this month!
i think that was just my light at that time of day (more blues). it is normally a peach/pink color with those green highlights...
Yeah, when my whites are up higher it all looks washed out and brownish but with more blues my green tips look super dark like yours but the purple tip never gets that dark. I'm wondering now if maybe it's not a purple tip but one of the other varieties. They are right next to each other so I don't think it's location. They also may be different types. The green tops branch with decently small heads and the purple tip is one very large head so far (at least twice as big as the other heads). I'm wondering if it's a wall instead of branching.
