showing off a new tank... and a old one

[Reefinmike]

Old tank first... 14 gallon biocube that has been set up for 3 years. there are 2 yellowtail damsels, a scooter blenny, and a small volitan lion that will get a new, bigger home in a month or two. this tank is also home to 100+ bristleworms, and 30 blue leg and scarlet hermits, one bristle worm is 8+ inches and about .5" wide.







For my new system, I am focusing on fish, but am also wanting to keep a lot of softies. It is a 20 gallon tank, drilled in the back corner. the sump/fuge is also a 20 gallon, and I am planning on adding a small protein skimmer. The main star of the tank is the Yellow Tilefish, he is such a unique fish, its head shape and it contorts its long body as it swims. for the fish list, I have:
Yellow tilefish
3 zebra dartfish/bar gobies
pink spot watchman goby
percula clown (probably wont stay in the tank long, I forgot how stupid clownfish are)

Im looking at adding a firefish and a helfrechi firefish if I can find larger ones because before I bought the tilefish, he ate a 2" engineer goby.

[HUNGER]

very nice

[hamiltro]

looking good, what lighting you running in the 14gal?

[reefman]

nice

[UD Flyer]

Looks like a lot of fish in little real estate.

[UDJustin]

I was under the impression tile fish need a lot of room to swim and a deep sand bed to hide in?

[Rayman]

nice tanks , love the tile.

[ohioreef]

Love the nano

[Reefinmike]

Hamiltro- actually, it is just one PC bulb, it has two, but one burnt out 6 months ago and I never got around to getting a new one.
UD Flyer- kinda what I was going for, Im running a filter sock, a 20 gallon fuge, and Im getting a skimmer up and running along with 10 gallon weekly water changes. I don't think the bio-load is too outrageous.
udjustin- sure it isn't optimum, but he was in a cube at gerbers for 3 months (he is a jumper, and ate a small engineer goby) and this is a good upgrade for him. His swimming pattern is similar to that of a firefish, he stays in the middle, moves a few inches, stops, moves, stops, so on and so forth, he isn't too big on swimming.

[Reefinmike]

Update!

well, as expected, 4 days ago I got the usual brown diatom algae, and I think im already past that stage. I have since added 2 hammer corals, a larger frogspawn, some pom pom xenia, some gsp, some zoos, a nice play rock, a couple trumpet colonies, and a shroom. I also added about 60 pounds of rock to the fuge along with some cheato and other algaes. Im looking into removing the filter sock from the setup, and adding a small fish such as a six line wrasse to the fuge to eat the leftovers that make it to the fuge, and just to look cool swimmin throughout all the rock in there.

[HUNGER]

looken good

[Reefinmike]

Long overdue for an update:

current fish:

3 bar gobies
helfrichs firefish
mystery wrasse
black shrimp ray goby/pistol shrimp
yellow sharknose goby
yellow clown goby (banned to fuge)
pinkspot watchman
perc clown

Inverts:
two skunk cleaners shrimp
4 peppermint shrimp
pistol shrimp
1 Xlg(golfball size) nassarious
15 lg nassarious
50 small nassarious
35 assorted hermit crabs
20 cerith snails
20 margarita snails
10 nerite snails
15 astrea snails

Coral:
sun polyps
three varieties of trumpets/candy canes (most banished to the fuge)
A few different mushrooms
hydnophora
pink/teal chalice
orange scolymia
blue/gold chalice
small walling bubble
4 varieties of hammer coral
several pocilliporas
green digitata
alien eye chalice
orange digitata
fox coral
pink chalice
green lobo
orange lobo
lg green duncan
aussie duncan
small plate coral
small red/green favia frag
blue (mostly browned) acro millepora
montipora fungites?
blueberry monti digitata
frogspawn
green cap
kenya tree (fuge)
green palys (fuge)
walling torch coral
green scolymia
scroll coral
orange monti cap
purple cats paw
red/teal acan
2 birds nests
sunset montipora
pokerstar montipora
superman montipora



This tank has been running for several months now and all the corals are doing great. The tank and fuge are packed with over 100 pounds of rock, and the fuge is loaded with thousands of amphipods and copeopods. even with the outrageous bioload and how much I feed my tank, the nitrates stay under 2(two). I believe this is only possible because of the very abundant biodiversity in my fuge- I cant find one square inch in the fuge that isnt crawling with some form of life

[Reefinmike]

ooh yeah- dont mind the ugly frag rack in the middle of the tank- I had to build that after the swap... I really really really need a bigger tank

[HUNGER]

+1 on the bigger tank   but it looks great

[lazylivin]

Looks very nice and filling out well. Good work!

[Reefinmike]

Thanks!

I am planning on keeping this setup for lps only, and get a bigger tank for sps. The only problem im having is deciding on a tank size. I am wanting to have an efficient little tank. this means something like a 70 wide (48lx24wx13t) and throw two 150w halides with lumenarcs over top or a 70 square (30x30x17) and put a 250 or even a 400w over top.

[yinyang]

very nice setup

[HUNGER]

the 70 square with the 400 would be bad a$$

[TechGuy]

the 70 square with the 400 would be bad arse

I agree!

[Reefinmike]

the 70 square with the 400 would be bad arse

I was leaning more toward doing a 250 with a lumenarc... mainly to save money on the electric bill, but also im not really dead set on light demanding acros. I would certainly put more light demanding corals dead center in the tank under the bulb, but I also like a lot of monti caps and encrusting montiporas.

[HUNGER]

true  but ive seen some nice sps get even nice under 400 watts

[Reefinmike]

my main reasoning is the fact that the tank is only 17" deep. with a tank that shallow, I think a 400w may be a waste of electricity.

[HUNGER]

ya true       but more is allways better j/k

[Seano Hermano]

Nice tank. What wood did you use to construct your tank stand? I thought it was 2x4's but the edges don't look rounded like they are on 2x4's. ?

[aquavista99]

Looks great, Mike!