Breathtaking! (warning: long post)
That is a breathtaking reef; I teared up a bit looking at the photos (which are also wonderful).
I'm truly inspired by your story Chris!
I "inherited" a 20 gal saltwater tank from friends in July of 2011, which they had sadly neglected. One clownfish (which I later named Sid Vicious, and which got given to my LFS because he was just plain mean) and a single blue leg hermit crab were the only visible live creatures. Well, other than an infestation of cyano, which I quickly learned was a bad thing.
I decided Sid needed a host, so started doing some research. That's when I learned that the salinity was off the scale. No wonder Sid was so mean. It took three months of careful water changes to get the salinity and other parameters back in hand, and I purchased my first three corals in November of 2011. To make a (very) long story short, the tank is now a reef and has become my passion. Of course the irony is that Sid was the original reason for looking into coral, and I gave him away.
I now have 36 separate specimens of 25 different types of corals. I've probably lost about a dozen other types that I wasn't experienced enough to maintain. The sand and rock are alive with creepy-crawlies, visible both day and night. I have a flame hawkfish (called Neville - I don't normally give my fish names but once in a while it just seems appropriate), a yellow-tail blue damselfish, a cleaner shrimp, a rainford goby, two hector's gobies and a dozen small snails (the tiny ones - nassarius?). There are also some bristleworms which are big enough to have names!
My basic equipment is a NEXX filter augmented 2 days on-2 days off with a cheap coralife skimmer, a hydor rotating attachment on my filter outflow and a Koralia nano powerhead. My phosphates and nitrates are zero and the zero nitrates is probably why I seem to be unable to keep zoas alive so your information about dosing is something I'll look at very carefully. I will also be more disciplined in testing for the various other parameters, because looking at what you've accomplished, it appears to be very worthwhile!
Because of what I've learned, and in order to give things more space to grow (they are starting to touch each other and I can see the effects of it) I feel like I can upsize a bit so I've acquired a 30gal cube. My plan is to slowly transition everything from the 20gal, over the next however-long-it-takes. Right now I'm trying to figure out whether to have a sump/overflow/refugium. We have put wheels/casters with brakes on the new the aquarium stand to allow better access for maintenance, so I may go ahead and have some type of sump since I will now be able to get at it behind the tank location.
So thank you for posting your prior builds on this site - I have lots of helpful reading ahead of me!
-Cindy
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