And it's on its way finally.... (Progress Pictures)

[fattyratrat]

After about six months of this thing sitting in my house dry, I finally got it put together. It is a custom acrylic tank that is about 60 gallons, 4ft across, 2 ft back, and 1 ft high. I am now on week one day in. I am still building the 38 gallon sump/refugium, and have yet to hook up my giant berlin skimmer, but thats just more to look forward to. If my nitrites calm down by the end of this week I should be getting several peppermint shrimp, turbo snails, a sixline, and possible a zenia frag. I am so incredibly excited! Let me know what you think, I am brand new to the salt water thing so give me feedback! Thanks, enjoy.

The first 20 lbs on the second day.
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h108/branwitch/day2fulltank.jpg

Close up on those rocks.
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h108/branwitch/day2rocks.jpg

Second batch of 20 lbs, about the third day.
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h108/branwitch/Week1rocks.jpg

The coolest hitchhiker yet to come out!!! If someone could ID him that would be awesome!
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h108/branwitch/Week1starfish.jpg

Finally the last batch of about 30lbs.
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h108/branwitch/Week2fulltank.jpg

Sweet cave.
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h108/branwitch/Week2cave.jpg

Picked up some blue leg hermits 12 for $10 at LFS...
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h108/branwitch/Week2hermit.jpg

Rocks As of today.
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h108/branwitch/Week2rightrocks.jpg

Some sweet macro i am hoping will look like this some day (http://www.melevsreef.com/id/annulata.jpg)
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h108/branwitch/Week2Macro.jpg

Thanks for looking!

[kau_cinta_ku]

the starfish is an asternia(sp.)

as for the alage it seems to not last very long in home aquariums.

as for the tank it looks sweet. nice aquascape.

what are your plans gonna be for the tank?

[fattyratrat]

As far as fish I want
1)Breeding Pair of Bangghai Cardinals
2)Sixline Wrasse
3)Yahsa Goby and candy striped pistol shrimp.
4)A massive army of CUC

I plan to do a mix of corals, I am in love with several softies like xenia, neon green star polyps and mushrooms. SPS and clams will be the main focus of the tank though, Ive got 4x4 ft Vhos to put on it with a double power compact fixture, so this thing will be an sps machine.

I'm completely open to suggestions though!

thanks for the coments.

[MalHavoc]

your goal of keeping SPS corals and clams may not jive with your love of xenia and star polyps, both of which can completely overrun a tank and wipe out SPS colonies by aggressively growing over them. Just a heads up.

[fattyratrat]

yes, but there are ways around it arent there? like surrounding an area of xenia or star polyps by some agressive stiging coral, like hammer coral, or frogspawn?

[NirvanaFan]

Just make sure that you keep up on fragging the star polyps and xenia. Once they start to get out of control they will take off.

[FOSELONE]

sweet...i love the rock work too...did you try polishing out any of those scratches???

[fattyratrat]

To be honest, I didnt notice the scratches until i saw that picture. They aren't noticable at all, and the only scratches are on the side where that picture was taken. What do you mean polish? I didnt know you could do that.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

[fattyratrat]

is that asternia(sp.) going to do anything bad to a reef?

[Reefjunkee]

I dont think VHO`s and PC`s are sufficient for SPS corals.T`5 will work though.May want to upgrade to t5`s or MH`s to keep SPS.

[iwishtofish]

Beautiful rock and aquascaping, fattyratrat! Just make sure your rocks are off the glass enough for strong flow to reach all areas.

[FOSELONE]

acrylic tanks can be polished for scratches...theres a kit for it...also that lil starfish will be hundreds soon...they just happen...there not bad...they dont grow or anything...

[fattyratrat]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11537970#post11537970 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by minireefer03
I dont think VHO`s and PC`s are sufficient for SPS corals.T`5 will work though.May want to upgrade to t5`s or MH`s to keep SPS.


T5's are not an upgrade from VHO's. 4 4 ft VHO's alone will put out 440 watts, over a 60g tank, thats 7.6 wpg (not counting the PC's, T5's would be about half of that. I think the only thing I would need to upgrade to MH's for would be clams.

[drfdisk]

I was doing a little study the other night on Asterina and they seem to be beneficial. Here is the link to the FAQ.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/asterinafaqs.htm

The rock looks really nice. Did you use anything to hold them in place or just stack them?

[MrSquid]

Love what that macro could turn into. I've never seen that before - what is it? Kau - what is it about it that makes it not last long? Any way around that? That's neat stuff!

[michika]

Nice start. I would say finish your sump and get your skimmer going before you add anything else though, like the peppermint shrimp you mentioned. The rock work looks really nice. Do you think you will be adding more, or are you happy with how it is?

[phil519]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11536812#post11536812 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fattyratrat
yes, but there are ways around it arent there? like surrounding an area of xenia or star polyps by some agressive stiging coral, like hammer coral, or frogspawn?

While a mixed tank can be appealing - there will be different challenges you will face. Lets see - what to talk about...First - please don't go by "watts per gallon" - it's a rule that is abused a lot. In your specific situation, I would say that the VHO and PCs would be enough for most if not all corals given that your tank height is 12inches. It's actually less than that when you factor the sand and rock the corals will be on. If you want MH/T5/LED - do it because you want to - not necessarily because it will help you keep xenia/star polyps/hammer/frogspawn.

Besides light though - one needs to consider how diligent one is with water changes and assuring the tank has the appropriate flow - this is even more important if one wants to "graduate" into SPS. As you are posting this in "new to hobby" - so I would just encourage you to read about the requirements for SPS- and if you want to try your hand at it - please attempt it first with a frag from another hobbyist first or from ORA - rather than a mother colony straight out of the pacific.

Now let's talk about this specific quote. Xenia and GSP sometimes grow like weeds - for others they just don't grow at all. If they do grow out of control, adding a stinger like frogspawn or hammer in my opinion kinda complicates the problem because both will also aggressively seek to expand and sting other corals in your tank.

Anyways - it is a good start and I don't want to discourage you - take your time, read up and keep coming back to RC with more specific questions. Good luck!

[MalHavoc]

I agree with Phil's comment about not getting into a war where you purposely use aggressive corals to keep other corals in check. The thing about GSP or xenia is that it has a habit of breaking off and floating to other areas of your tank and re-establishing a new colony. In my specific experience, I had an old 33 gallon tank with a colony of anthelia in it, on a rock that was separate from my reef structure. My clown hosted in it, and she'd flutter it so harshly that bits would occasionally break off. I ended up with a daughter colony on a rock in the back of my reef that I ended up removing entirely because I didn't trust it.

I also had a colony of GSP completely overrun a really nice neighbouring colony of zoanthids once. That sucked. the GSP was literally growing up the stalks of the zoas, over the top of them, and then marching onward. I actually have a photo sequence of it happening, some place. I will try to find it.

[WinnipegDragon]

I love the dimensions of your tank, fattyratrat. It looks very nice with the rockwork as you've laid it out. Should be very nice once it's fully up and running.

[fattyratrat]

thanks for all of the feedback!

I am done adding rock, except in the refugium when that is made(going to get the acrylic cut today), but that will probably be all base rock to keep some money in my pocket.

Thanks for all of the feedback about GSP's and xenia.. i didnt know people hate them so much! And dont worry, I wont be getting huge colonies of anything, just frags. I am one of the rare in the hobby that realizes that time is all it takes to make a $10 frag into a $50 colony, and save yourself 40 dollars.

If pepermint shrimp are a bad idea, could I start adding a few turbo snails? or maybe even a sixline wrasse without a skimmer(assuming there are no NO2)? I will have the fuge up and running by friday at the latest. I will make sure and post pictures.. its a really cool design.

[kau_cinta_ku]

i am not sure why that alage don't grow well in home aquariums and noone that I know of knows either. sorry.

as for the lights a good T5ho setup will be stonger than VHOs 1 54 watt T5 with an icecap reflector will put out more par than a 110 watt VHO bulb. watts for watts yes the VHO's win but par wise which is what you want T5's win.

hope that makes sence

[jafish26]

i would take all the asternia you can outta your tank i had mine up and running with some huge monti caps in and i thought they were great for you tank aboug a month later little dead spots all over found out thats what they do.... http://www.reefs.org/library/article/coral_eating_starfish.html

[leoslizards]

I love your rock layout. It looks great! Can't wait to see the tank with more life. :)