My Reef Aquarium

[IdahoOrchid]

Originally Posted by isurus79

How big is your sump and are you using a refugium?

I am using a 20 standard divided into 3 sections: Drain/Skimmer section, refuge and return. The first two sections are separated by a bubble trap. I have a 2" sand bed in the fuge along with some rock and macro algae. This is were the two little shrimp like critters (and many others) hang out.

Originally Posted by isurus79

I also love that first Zoa you posted, its colors are amazing!

That one does not have a name that I am aware of. I have lots of other reds and oranges that I do not have pictures of yet. Looking to get some BLUES in the next few weeks.

Originally Posted by isurus79

Im also curious about that clownfish. Is that an occelaris with an all orange color morph?

Yes, it is a color morph of the normal "nemo" clown fish. It is called a Naked Clown.

Originally Posted by isurus79

Also, Im curious about the object (live rock with anemones?) in the middle/top part of the tank that is seen in the pic of the whole tank. What is that?

That is my return overflow. I am glad it looks like live rock. I'll post a link to my build thread so you can see why it does. What looks like an anemone is actually a Zoa called Armor of God. You should see it under just my actinic lights!!!!

Originally Posted by isurus79

Overall, Im really impressed with that setup! Congrats!

I just set up a 55 gallon at the beginning of December and set up a 12 gallon nano yesterday! Any tips on the nano care? I know the smaller the tank, the tougher it is to care for.

Thanks to you and everyone else that has been wowed by my endeavor. It has been a great deal of fun and I still have many things I want and need to accomplish to give it more polish.

Nanos are not that much different. You just need to be more regular with water changes and watch your temps. If you a/c your house it should be OK, otherwise lots of fans will help with evaporation for cooling. ATO becomes VERY critical for teh smaller tanks too.

Being in HI you should have access to LOTS of cool fish and corals for pretty cheap!!!!

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by IdahoOrchid

Being in HI you should have access to LOTS of cool fish and corals for pretty cheap!!!!

Yes and no. The fish here are really cheap (especially since I can catch my own and I work for Hawaii's largest wholesaler!!) but unfortunately the corals are illegal. It is illegal to harvest your own coral and it is illegal to import ALL invertebrates!!!!!!! Very frustrating. So we are limited to collecting blue octocoral (0.25" tall) and Zoas for the aquarium with no hard corals what-so-ever. On a lighter note, I was able to collect some really cool Zoas yesterday! One type is a large burgundy red Zoa and the other is a small (Palythoa maybe?) guy with a glowing green center. Very cool! If you get a chance, do post more pics! They look great!

[quiltergal]

Very nice job Steven! There are days that I miss mine.... I had mostly fish with a few invertabrates in a 55 gallon set up. Had it for probably 7 years. I just got burned out on the weekly scrub downs (way more than 20 minutes) and water changes. The other issue I ran into was not being able to introduce new fish to an established community. Towards the end I was maintaining a 55 gallon aquarium for 1 very aggressive angel, 1 Tomato Clown and a hermit crab. The angel would eat anything new that went in the tank. So I sold the fish back to the fish store and the set up got sold in a yard sale.

To satisfy the urge to see marine critters I learned to snorkel. Now we make an annual trek somewhere tropical to play with the fish.