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.







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



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





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



Starfish sitting on the GSP lol



Next photo of the month? Lol



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.



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.







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



The blue back n orange side is my fav=)


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.