I have now had a mixed reef tank now for about two years. I was introduced to saltwater reef tanks by my brother about six years ago and he has been around them for about 12 years so I have been able to soak up a little of his knowledge but am still a newbie to saltwater tanks. He also set up a 35 gallon mixed tank for my dad who I have alway been lucky enough to alway take a few coral frags from (blue mushrooms, fuzzy red mushrooms, finger leather). I am going to start from the beginning and end at current setup. I had my tank set up for a little over a year before having a heater get stuck on open and frying everything in my tank accept my hippo tang who later died and one blue mushroom. So here are some pictures of my tank before the heater problem...
55 gallon tank I picked up on craigslist for $80, 80lbs live sand, and remora aqua c skimmer I also picked up from a guy on craigslist for cheep. I am running 4x65 watt power compact lights.
Filling up the tank
Tank is full and I also put in about 30lbs of mature live rock. Another craigslist special! I love craigslist!
First tank inhabitants..
and a few turbo snails and hermit crabs...
As my tank progressed alittle...
my blood shrimp set up a cleaning station..
my first couple coral frags...
my new blue spotted jaw fish! he was the coolest fish I have had!
new inverts...
sorry I know this is getting long but I have been wanting to make a tank profile for awhile... I have a lot of pictures to share.
This was about was how my tank was looking until about eight months ago when I came home from a long vacation to find that the tank was over heating and everything was dieing. My tank watcher (dad) neglected to watch the temp close... but oh well live and learn.. move on. So after this I did a 65% water change and continually did smaller water changes bi-weekly. I let the tank cycle again and about four months later I started to restock. I also added a CPR hang on refugium with some macro and some more live rock. Here are some pictures of the tank after doing little restocking and this brings me up to current day.
New refugium..
Everything seems to be doing fine to date but I am getting some cyno bacteria and some hair algae blooming. Not bad but enough to notice. Most of my hermits and snails have died so I am planning to add to my clean up crew. I am also hoping the addition of the refugium will help with nutrient export. I am planning on an upgrade in the near future. Well anyway this is my first attemp at a saltwater aquarium and have learned a lot and continue to learn daily from everyone here on the club website!
Some updated photos after frag tank and sump addition. Most everything seems to be doing well although I may change out the return pump to get some more flow.
My tank has now been running for a full year with the new sump and frag tank. I changed my return to a mag 7 and am more happy with the flow through my sump and algae turf scrubber. I also have changed my lights to (2) 250w metal halides. My corals are all looking very happy. However I am starting to get some GHA growing. I have reduced my light and increased my water changes which have seemed to help. I also picked up a new 125 gallon tank to upgrade to. I am currently waiting till I can save up to get a new skimmer and return pump big enough for my new system. Here are some resent pictures of the 55.
The new 125 gallon tank the I am planning to upgrade to as soon as I can gather the upgraded equipment.
