5 months into this amazing hobby!

[jason604]

After going to JL for the first time I was instantly hooked. I had absolutely no knowledge of salt water fish before hand so I had to do tonssssss of research before even thinking of starting my first reef tank. I do have tons of exp. with freshwater, I have a 1500 gal koi pond. So now 5 months in I guess ill finally post some pics of my 75 gal mix reef tank with 6 fishes 3 shrimps.

I left 2 caves to try to give it a semi natural look and my fishes love swimming in and out of it. Plus my shrimps loves hanging under them.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/75BB3776-3B35-413A-B969-D77EE7237EE4-558-000000ACE4CEF040_zps516189b4.jpg

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/E61BB14C-CFDF-4FCD-A88F-717FEA505BF5-558-000000ACFD56B18F_zpse97d9972.jpg

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/AE0EED02-F410-4A62-949D-62995EE712F5-558-000000AD0CE9F5C5_zps3f19c178.jpg

Look how awesome my starfish is lol. Hanging off the cave with only 1 arm.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/2829B9F5-15BD-4DA6-9027-4FFA79D4A2C9-558-000000AD8EBC910E_zps817bd734.jpg

Bet u guys never seen a Hawaiian feather duster hosting a GSP fully on sand bed only.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/71BAD600-0D55-444D-9FB3-6CC3D1952A2F-558-000000AD1D442D4D_zps7626b84d.jpg

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/67D71FE2-76B9-4BBB-BDF5-735B08D6D19E-558-000000AD4AC1DD38_zps8519e12a.jpg

I recently purchased this beautiful tube anemone 1 and a half week ago and it already grew about 50% larger!!! It's the centerpiece for my tank but I think I might have to move it to a corner since its growing unbelievably fast and already stung my nemo while it was drifting in its sleep lol

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/D1BD5B84-AC0B-4157-B175-64B9083F3CC6-558-000000AD31B1FCDB_zps9bbc2e3b.jpg

Starfish sitting on the GSP lol

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/4B3302B9-17B5-44D1-BB61-F27F66F6832D-558-000000ADEB531E59_zps15395293.jpg

Next photo of the month? Lol

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/49B3D649-0ED8-49A3-AF8F-F1B3B7416B6C-558-000000ADBFDE972F_zps2a869ef7.jpg

Wish I can get my nemos to host the GSP again because my frogspawn that it picked after seems to not open up fully due to them.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/6E519A08-94CD-456A-A12C-6E4EB6E774C5-558-000000BAAA42F1FC_zps7b2375de.jpg

After the first month I stopped checking the water parimeters. I only put in some KH whenever I remember to(about 1-2times every 2 weeks). I dose calcium with the purple up about 3 times since I got my tank lol. An I never ever checked Mag or dose it(never even bothered to get the kit). Everything in my tank seems to be just thriving and growing very quickly. Dunno what the big fuzz about dosing daily and checking parimeters very few days. Seems like its hugely overrated. Anyways I thought ill Throw in a pics of my koi ponds. Been neglecting it greatly since I got my reef tank lol.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/8CB0D7CE-9D98-4CD3-A1FD-B14AA80CD5A1-558-000000AEC8EE74ED_zps21d06171.jpg

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/CC869895-442D-483E-80A3-0FE13D3E0782-558-000000BB8CF5AC52_zpsfcec380b.jpg

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/3E5DB477-6CE4-4710-BB89-38054DED0E62-558-000000AEB40D9633_zpse3c4e4ca.jpg

Built an extra pond next to existing one to house my much much higher quality kois. Impluse buys on the first ones.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/CE4786A0-DB3B-4960-9919-BEFEF876268D-558-000000C11028CCC4_zps75419d9b.jpg

The blue back n orange side is my fav=)
http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/55763943-CE39-42C5-A796-AC161B71043A-558-000000C13EA1D1A8_zps901c1693.jpg

My dad and I dug and built every part of the pond. Even the filter system is made by me instead the premade Laguna filters.

Hope u guys like the pics. Please give me some tips of I misplaced some corals etc. since I'm still a noobie =). Just graduated my engineering program so I'm still broke and highly in student loan debt! So coral donations would be lovely =). (Wish I had a clam haha)

[kien]

Looks great man! The only suggestion I would make is to ask a mod to move your thread to the "Tank Journal" forum and to start a separate thread for your awesome koi pond, in the freshwater "pond" thread. Would love to hear more details about both! :-)

[BowedFloor]

Your tank looks amazing for 6 months in!

Love your large polyp hammers they look so good!

[Dearth]

Very nice tank shots and nice looking Koi pond.

Testing water parameters and dosing varies from person to person I used to be faithful in water testing but now I will test once maybe twice a month some reefers are absolutely anal about testing and have been given an earful a time or two about my lack of testing and others are even more lazy about their testing same goes for dosing.

It's up to the individual IMO

[cblair]

Awesome first reef man! Looks like some very happy corals. Every time I go into J&L I want to start a new tank as well I'm glad I don't live very close or I would be broke lol.

[Slyguy00]

Looks awesome. Im not to far ahead of you, and I did the exact same thing with the tube anemone.. Eventually it got to big, and started to kill my fish. I lost several fish to it before having to get rid of it. They look awesome but if you dont have the room for it, it can become quite a problem. Just my experience. Good luck!

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Great job. I also am doing reefing and koi ponding as well.

[Jakegr]

Everything looks really healthy! You are definitely off to a better start than when I first joined the hobby. I'm impressed that LED fixture covers your 75 gallon tank pretty well. I only test calcium regularly these days.

[e46er]

Tank looks great! Ponds are awesome!
In regards to your dosing thoughts- you have a very small coral load which means small uptake of cal/alk so water changes will handle it for the most part.
When you tank has a bigger coral load either with more coral or size of corals your demand for cal/alk will go up far past the point of just water changes.

My tank uses about 30 ppm cal daily so instead of having it drop 210 ppm and dosing weekly I dose daily with a doser well every 2 hrs actually stability is key.

[jason604]

Thx every1 for all ur very nice comments =). I put a ton of hard work n dedication in both these projects. Since starting my reef i only had 2 loses. One is my first fish due to a power head n the other was some zoas that died after introducing to my tank. Not too bad I think. All the very knowledgly n friendly ppl on this site has helped me greatly. As for my LED lights they are Thaotronics that I purchased brand new on amazon for $120. They are amazing and I never evened turned them pass 50% dim. Dunno if I need to turn it higher or not? Tips?

There's one acro in my tank that I not doing so well. I damaged it when I move it to my tank n half of its side skin is gone so there's always so much Algee growing on it. I have to take a soft toothbrush n gently brush it off every 3-5 days. What can I do to make it heal? I tried coral fx. Here's a pic.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/89C71F04-0AFA-4171-BB35-C64A9FA46901-2095-000001EF233ED396_zpsb03d5891.jpg

[BowedFloor]

Gonna address the things I know:

If you have large amounts of algae growing over three days, you probably have too much phosphate in your water (po4) if you are using RODI water for changes, you may want to look at cutting back the amount of feeding you are doing, or look into running GFO in a reactor.

You can also look at cutting down the amount of time your lights are on. I think most people recommend 4-6 hours.

I'm still a rookie, but I would at least test your phosphate levels.

You might want to frag the acro, but I don't know.

[jason604]

Gonna address the things I know:

If you have large amounts of algae growing over three days, you probably have too much phosphate in your water (po4) if you are using RODI water for changes, you may want to look at cutting back the amount of feeding you are doing, or look into running GFO in a reactor.

You can also look at cutting down the amount of time your lights are on. I think most people recommend 4-6 hours.

I'm still a rookie, but I would at least test your phosphate levels.

You might want to frag the acro, but I don't know.


I do use rodi water and feed 2x a day but I have my lights on for 10hr a day

[tang daddy]

After the first month I stopped checking the water parimeters. I only put in some KH whenever I remember to(about 1-2times every 2 weeks). I dose calcium with the purple up about 3 times since I got my tank lol. An I never ever checked Mag or dose it(never even bothered to get the kit). Everything in my tank seems to be just thriving and growing very quickly. Dunno what the big fuzz about dosing daily and checking parimeters very few days. Seems like its hugely overrated. Anyways I thought ill Throw in a pics of my koi ponds. Been neglecting it greatly since I got my reef tank lol.


The people that usually test their tanks for alk ca and mg are probally ones who have spent a lot of money on equiptment to grow sps, if you spent $2000 on sps you may want your investment to live....in this case testing would be required!

If you have a few sps that didn't cost very much, then losing it is not a big deal I guess...

I think someone already mentioned but if your tank is mostly softies and a few Lps then the ca and alk won't drop much.

If your tank is 80% sps and all of them were growing and encrusting then the alk ca and mg could drop quite fast.

I use to be like you and drop some ca and alk in whenever, most of the sps grew so I wasn't worried. It wasn't until I neglected my tank for several months and finally one day decided to test just for curiousity sake to see where everything was at, I was shocked my alk was at 4.5 and the other 2 was lower. Algae was growing rampant corals were recessing and dying. Anyways since then I have been abit more diligent with testing and to my suprise params drop at a very fast rate.

To each their own, some people look at their tank and if everything is fine don't test, some test daily because they are trying to get a base line for auto dosing, I now test weekly just to make sure everything is where they should be, and some people couldn't care less where their params are.

I am not trying to lecture you, but just trying to shed some light on the matter, just when I thought I had everything dialed in for dosing I got lazy and skilled testing for about a week and a half, then I started to notice my chalice frags recessing and thought it was something else causing it. To my suprise the alk was at 5. After correcting the params the chalice slowly healed itself. In this hobby you always learn something new.

Your tank is coming along nicely, good luck!

[brizzo]

After the first month I stopped checking the water parimeters. I only put in some KH whenever I remember to(about 1-2times every 2 weeks). I dose calcium with the purple up about 3 times since I got my tank lol. An I never ever checked Mag or dose it(never even bothered to get the kit). Everything in my tank seems to be just thriving and growing very quickly. Dunno what the big fuzz about dosing daily and checking parimeters very few days. Seems like its hugely overrated. Anyways I thought ill Throw in a pics of my koi ponds. Been neglecting it greatly since I got my reef tank lol.


If you keep adding chemicals without reason or measurement, you will understand why there is a big fuzz.

As corals grow and coraline spreads, demand will go up -- which will leave your water depleted, things start to go crappy, and you'll be questioning where you went wrong.

[The Guy]

I have the same tube anemone he's decided the side of the tank under a ledge is his home and has never moved, never lost fish to it yet "touch wood", always worried about my clown gobie getting too close but seems to keep his distance.
Your tank looks amazing at 5 months. I'm at 10 months with my tank.
Thanks to all the great reefers here it's been a fun but expensive venture, like one of my good friends on here says, it's like having any addiction and hard on the wallet! :silly:

[jason604]

I knew bringing up dosing will have a lot of mixed reviews lol. Each time I check for cal with my API test kit it's always say its at like 550+ is my guess cuz it goes pass the max on the list lol. N for KH each time I test its always 7 with dosing 1-2x between each water change. Everything seems very happy so I don't bother with mag n cal dose. I guess when I get a lot more sps my method will have to change but for now happy with being very slack on maintenance lol.

I'm thinking of fragging some of my zoas soon would any1 like to trade them for some nice sps or brains? =P. also would like to trade my bi-colored blenny.its very healthy n eats like a pig

[tang daddy]

I am not sure how accurate you API test kit is as I only use Elos and salifert. If you're near Jl you could go in to get a water test... If you even care about it.

But if you're happy with where your tank is then I wouldn't worry about it.

[Jakegr]

API is OK for calcium. I always got reasonable values using it. My main issue was losing count of the drops! I wouldn't recommend the Seachem calcium test as the color change is hard to see (although I like that it uses a syringe for the titration so that you do not have to count the drops).

John Coppolino, a well known hobbyist in the US, only tests alkalinity in his amazing SPS tanks.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/sps-corals/notes-john-coppolinos-sps-success-149906.html#.UktN7L9TvFI

IMO for reef tanks that consume substantial amounts of calcium, testing for alkalinity and calcium is very important.

[jason604]

API is OK for calcium. I always got reasonable values using it. My main issue was losing count of the drops! I wouldn't recommend the Seachem calcium test as the color change is hard to see (although I like that it uses a syringe for the titration so that you do not have to count the drops).

John Coppolino, a well known hobbyist in the US, only tests alkalinity in his amazing SPS tanks.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/sps-corals/notes-john-coppolinos-sps-success-149906.html#.UktN7L9TvFI

IMO for reef tanks that consume substantial amounts of calcium, testing for alkalinity and calcium is very important.

holy... thats got to be the nicest tank i ever seen... cant imagine how much something like that would cost... brand new BMW? lol