This is my tank when the pandemic started back in March. It's not an awesome FTS but you can get an idea of what I was starting with. LOTS of green bumpy mushrooms!! Lots of them.
I've been wanting to post my tank (re)build thread for a while now. I started my first reef tank in 1995. Bought mail order live rock from Florida. Used compact florescent bulbs. Had a few softies and LPS in a 15 gallon tank when the term nano tank was not a buzz word yet. I slowly upgraded tanks over time and ended up with this 72g bowfront after my 30g sprung a leak at 3 in the morning. In 2015 this aquarium was a mixed reef tank. It was mostly LPS and softies with a few sticks. The first coral that starting showing signs of stress was my teal candy cane. It probably had 40 to 50 polyps which started from a single polyp in 2012. For some reason it started ejecting its polyps. I did water changes. Checked my parameters over and over. Changed all the bulbs. Had a nearby reefing buddy help me try to troubleshoot it. But we got stumped in the end. I slowly watched all of my corals die...except for these green mushrooms. I never did figure out what happened. My heart was broken for sure. I suspect root cause(s) to include: salt that stratified during shipping wacking out my parameters, bad test kits, lighting too strong while having high nutrient levels (not actually blaming the high nutrient levels), lack of knowledge, and not being a member of MARSH and seeking help from a larger community. So for 4 and half years my tank became a fish only tank...along with a couple hundred green mushrooms. I just couldn't deal with another crash.
Fast forward to October, 2018. I went on a 2 week SCUBA diving trip to Indonesia. We stayed at a private dive resort out in the middle of nowhere. We had to take a 2 hour private charter plane ride from Bali to get to the resort. The diving was beyond amazing. Blew mine and all of my dive buddies minds on how spectacular the reefs were. The coral density and diversity was absolutely stunning as well as the fish density. Truly amazing. When I got back from the trip I started to get the bug to get my reef tank going again. I spent a little over a year updating my knowledge base. I didn't realize how out of date my knowledge was in just 3 and half years. I watched a TON of videos produced by a supply company in Minnesota that sells reef supplies in bulk. Those guys helped me get fired up about reefing again. Thanks Randy and Ryan!
Once the pandemic started...it was time. Here is a FTS of my tank as of tonight. And thanks to a Filter Lens thread I bought the Ice Cap lens and filter kit this past weekend. What would we do without Amazon?!
Still have a lot of mushrooms!!!
Equipment list:
I've been wanting to post my tank (re)build thread for a while now. I started my first reef tank in 1995. Bought mail order live rock from Florida. Used compact florescent bulbs. Had a few softies and LPS in a 15 gallon tank when the term nano tank was not a buzz word yet. I slowly upgraded tanks over time and ended up with this 72g bowfront after my 30g sprung a leak at 3 in the morning. In 2015 this aquarium was a mixed reef tank. It was mostly LPS and softies with a few sticks. The first coral that starting showing signs of stress was my teal candy cane. It probably had 40 to 50 polyps which started from a single polyp in 2012. For some reason it started ejecting its polyps. I did water changes. Checked my parameters over and over. Changed all the bulbs. Had a nearby reefing buddy help me try to troubleshoot it. But we got stumped in the end. I slowly watched all of my corals die...except for these green mushrooms. I never did figure out what happened. My heart was broken for sure. I suspect root cause(s) to include: salt that stratified during shipping wacking out my parameters, bad test kits, lighting too strong while having high nutrient levels (not actually blaming the high nutrient levels), lack of knowledge, and not being a member of MARSH and seeking help from a larger community. So for 4 and half years my tank became a fish only tank...along with a couple hundred green mushrooms. I just couldn't deal with another crash.
Fast forward to October, 2018. I went on a 2 week SCUBA diving trip to Indonesia. We stayed at a private dive resort out in the middle of nowhere. We had to take a 2 hour private charter plane ride from Bali to get to the resort. The diving was beyond amazing. Blew mine and all of my dive buddies minds on how spectacular the reefs were. The coral density and diversity was absolutely stunning as well as the fish density. Truly amazing. When I got back from the trip I started to get the bug to get my reef tank going again. I spent a little over a year updating my knowledge base. I didn't realize how out of date my knowledge was in just 3 and half years. I watched a TON of videos produced by a supply company in Minnesota that sells reef supplies in bulk. Those guys helped me get fired up about reefing again. Thanks Randy and Ryan!
Once the pandemic started...it was time. Here is a FTS of my tank as of tonight. And thanks to a Filter Lens thread I bought the Ice Cap lens and filter kit this past weekend. What would we do without Amazon?!
Still have a lot of mushrooms!!!
Equipment list:
- Neptune Apex Controller with 2x EB8 Energy Bars, pH probe, Temp Sensor, and 1/2" Flow Meter
- Trigger Systems Sump 26 (with 4"x14" felt sock filter)
- Reef Octopus VARIOS-2 Controllable DC Return Pump (792 GPH)
- Cobalt Aquatic 250W Accu-Therm Submersible Heater
- Clear Water Systems CW-50 Algae Scrubber (with dedicated Sicce Syncra Silent 0.5 Pump)
- Aqua Ultraviolet 15w Classic UV Sterilizer (with 1/2" Neptune flow meter and dedicated Hydor Seltz D 750 gph DC Pump)
- 2x Hydor Koralia Evolution 550/600 Pumps
- 2x Hydor Koralia Evolution 750/850 Pumps
- 2x 150w Metal Halide with Ushio 20K Double Ended Bulbs
- 2x 48" T5 ATI Blue Plus
- Reef Brite 48" Blue XHO LED
- BRS 4 Stage 150 gpd RODI System with booster pump
- I use either Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt or hw Wiegandt HW-Marinemix Reefer Salt when Tropic Marin is out of stock
- Pair of Ocellaris Misbar Clownfish, named Marlin and Cora
- Pair of Three Strip Damselfish, named Bonnie and Clyde
- Bristletooth Tomini Tang
- Red Stripe Angelfish
- Female Melanurus Wrasse
- Spotted Mandarin
- Emerald Crab
- Dancin’ Polyps
- Teal Stag
- Sunset Monti
- Meteor Shower Cyphastrea
- Purple Sand Dollar Porites
- Bird of Paradise Seriatopora (Bird's Nest)
- Golden Leptoseris
- Superman Monti
- John Deere Leptoseris
- Blue Pavona
- Forest Fire Digi
- Purple Cap
- Green Cap
- Terminator Blastomussa wellsi
- Green Duncan
- Bicolor Hammer Euphylia
- Hologram Hammer Euphylia
- Neon Green Candy Canes
- Purple on Green Frogspawn
- Green on Green Frogspawn
- Baby's Breath Favia
- Blue Eye Lithohyllon Chalice
- Tri Color Oulophyllia
- Large Pastel Alveopora
- UC Senorita Blasto
- Pink BOObies Chalice
- UC Tiger's Blood Blasto
- Purple Tip Duncan
- JF Yellow Bandit Chalice
- Two Tone Teal Candy Cane
- Teal Candy Cane
- Orange/Peach Octospawn
- BigR Gumdrop Acan Echinata
- Rainbow Acan
- No Shortage of Bumpy Green Mushrooms
- RBTA
- Blood Red White Lace Border Ultra Rock Anemone
- Green Flower Anemone w/ red outter border and yellow inner border
- Green Ricordea With Orange Spots
- Orange Ricordea
- Orange/Blue Ricordea
- Kenya Tree Soft Coral
- Blue Clove Polyps
- Wintergreen Pipe Organ
- Green Tip Toadstool
- Papaya Clove Polyps
- Japanese Pink Koji Wada Nepthea
- Blue Florida Ricordea
- Bambam
- JF Crybabies
- JF Visuran
- Nirvana
- Purple Palys
- WWC Peachy Kings
- Gobstoppers
- Scrambled Eggs
- Green Bay Packers
- TSA Blowpop
- Sunny Ds
- Kedd's Reds
- Blue Steel
- Butt Kissers
- Tequila Sunrise Maybe
- Phobia
- Solar Fusion
- Rainbow Hornet
- Gaterade
- Blue Tubbs
- Armor of God
- Pink Zipper
- Mandarin
- Red Hornet
- Blue Hornet
- Joes Crab Nebula
- Bob Marley
- Illuminati
- Pink Diamond
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