Marie's 175g mixed reef (new pics added jan 27)
 

With all this competition going on between zeo and ultralith I thought it was once again time to post pics of my tank, proving that it is possible to have good polyp extension, growth and colour in a nutrient rich, algae driven (as compared to bacteria driven) system :razz:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oct1208018.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oct1208001.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oct1208010.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oct1208009.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oct1208011.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oct1208017.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oct1208016.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oct1208015.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oct1208008.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oct1208003.jpg

The only thing I add, besides what the calcium reactor does, is fish food. Water changes are done when I feel a need to syphon out some algae that fish/snails can't reach.
Nitrates are less then 5, phosphates when tested with an elos kit is at the lowest number (.001??) but I know they are there its just being taken up by algae and coral growth. In the end it leads to the same result as zeo...no nutrients in the water column.

Hi Marie

The tank looks awesome.

I would love to have your results.

Glad to see your back at it.

Tom R

Hi Tom,

I never left it :razz: .

I would still sell if the right person came along and offered to buy it. When I started this hobby I had no idea what an emotional rollercoaster it would be and even though I have knowledgable people offering to look after everything if I went away I don't think I could leave it for more then a few days without worrying...kinda takes the fun out of a vacation :lol:

Very nice. I think I recognize a few pieces in there ;)

Sweet tank Marie.....nice to see a beautiful tank that is running "old school" so to speak. And think of all the time you save by not dosing all that schtuff.

There has been times this year when I've been tempted but I keep telling myself that even zeo/ultra systems have major set backs and patience is always better then just throwing money at the tank in the hopes that a miracle will occur

A few top down pics
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oct1208031.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oct1208033.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oct1208034.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oct1208037.jpg

and my unkillable hairy shrooms :twised:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oct1208026.jpg

Wow Marie, your tank is just awesome. I'm glad nobody wanted to buy it :wink:

Beautiful as usual Marie.

You know, the more I see of those new lights, the more I like them.

Which new lights does she have?

I had a hamilton hood with 3 250w DE bulbs and 2 165w vhos. I kept the MH hqi ballasts but I'm now using lumenmax reflectors with xm 10k SE bulbs.
I lost the vhos but the single ended bulbs on hqi ballasts are easily twice as bright as the double ended ones and the colour of the xm bulbs are a nice white, I don't miss the vhos at all
With the new lights, a blue millie frag I got from Wendell in May has developed bright pink polyps (they were brown) and it has become my favourite coral in the tank. Unfortunately I can't get a good pic showing how pink the polyps really are

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...l/oct11002.jpg

Beautiful as always marie :)


What is the grey/blue coral (looks like a digi? maybe? can't tell) in the last pic of the first post in front of the ph's?

I believe your talking about the staghorn acropora? It used to look like this last year but I severely pruned it back because it was blocking a lot of light and flow
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...l/aug11042.jpg

It's amazing how much a tank can change in a year. Same angle now

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oct1208041.jpg

Ah, yeah, that one. I like!

Oh good, there's Doofus. I didn't see him in any of the pics and was a little worried, but didn't want to ask.

He's also in the first pic, kind of lurking in the shadows.

The fish I'm worried about is my foxface, he hasn't been acting normal since he finally lost the 2 year battle for supremacy with Doofus

How about a shot of your regal angel. I just love that fish....

Here she is


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oceanaq008.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...oceanaq032.jpg

Beautiful fish. Love that she's so thick, that always gets me :biggrin:

Geeez what kind of batteries does she need?? Positively electric!!! I've probably asked this before, so forgive my two week memory .. but .. what's the catch? ie., What, if anything, does she nip at?

That is the catch, she nips at everything...well everything except mushrooms and brown palys :rolleyes: .

All my acros get their tips pruned on a regular basis and any nice juicy lps? In her opinion they are just begging to be eaten, looking all plump and fluffy like they do :razz:

Her list of things to eat include clams, zoos, acros, most LPS corals, anemones (only the hosting ones of course), yellow fiji leathers, colt corals...

You and I are running the same filtration system! Fat fish and happy coral.

Wow... Gorgeous Angel... one of my favorites!

WOW, that fish is amazing. Totally worth nipping at the corals. Well, easy for me to say...:biggrin: A LFS in town here held one for me for 6 weeks to try and get him eating good, only for him to eventually not make it before taking him home.

Not touching that one...

Awesome tank, I hope to follow in your footsteps as i have doubts about how much I would enjoy a zeovit or similiar dosing regime versus the results I would get going through the motions.

You're tank is the pudding in which you can find the proof for lower tech systems.
Glad you posted, I also am enamoured with that blue stag btw, so nice....

Very nice... that's one fat, happy fish!

Not sure that calling it "low tech" is appropriate given the skimmer she has :)

It's more like a classic Berlin-style tank.

I believe the term I used was "lower tech".

Beautiful tank Marie, if mine was half as nice I would be happy.

And I'm not one of those. :mrgreen:

Shameless I am, utterly shameless. But what can I say, my family and friends think I'm nuts to spend so much money on fish so I need to get my justification from the internet

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...l/clown030.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...l/clown039.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...l/clown033.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...l/clown032.jpg

Wow that first piece there is out of this world. Yellow and lavender ... neat. Although I'm pretty sure if I dressed myself in those colours my wife would say "Are you really heading out in that?" ... For some reason on me it's "uncool", but on a coral, it's "exquisite." ;)

Great looking stuff Marie. I always enjoy looking at shamelessly self-promoting posted pictures. Hey if you've got, you should flaunt it!

Agreed, that piece in the first picture is crazy! Is that some sort of Montipora?

Great looking stuff. Ahh I need to get me a couple SPS pieces :lol:

Thats the montipora I got from Snappy, when I put my new lights up it bleached pretty bad and has since coloured up to look like that.

Tony, if I was your wife I wouldn't let you out of the door wearing yellow and lavender either :lol:

Cool is what you make it....corals know this.:mrgreen:

Interesting.. well it has taken on some very cool colours!

You can say one thing about millies, they do grow fast. These pics are taken 1 month after the ones above

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...nov1008019.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...nov1008016.jpg

And this rainbow stylo from Snappy is rapidly becoming my favourite coral

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...nov1008020.jpg