Okay so...
I started my 55 gallon tank about 4 years ago. Initially it was a brackish tank full of beautiful figure 8 and green spotted puffers. At the time I had 2 HOB filters (400gph) each, a heater, and the Deep Blue 48" HO T-5 lights. Loved the tank and with only about 4 hours of light a day, I had perfect water parameters, no algae, no problems.
Soon afterI fell in love with the idea of anemones...
I gave away my beautiful puffers and converted the tank into salt water and kept all the same equipment. I always thought my filters did a pretty good job (and to this day completely believe that) and I slowly started trying to turn my little aquarium into one of those gorgeous reef tanks - I kept mostly some zoas, 2 beautiful anemones, and all sorts of crabs, stars, snails, and shrimp. Sadly, after Hurricane Sandy hit, we lost power for quite some time and as you may imagine that caused havoc on my tank (total annihilation)
Fast forward to now:
The T5 system broke (I replaced parts, bulbs, spoke with Deep blue -nothing could be done)
Recently bought the Fluval Sea 48-57" LED light fixture (692 LEDs -2,340 LM -7,825 LUX -25,000K - 6 different types of LEDs including 400 420 440 460nm)
I have an overflow going into Eshopps Wet DrySystem.
I have a pump which has 500 GPH capabilities.
I recently bought the Aqueon 950 circulation pump and the Aqueon 700.
This system (minus the light and circulation pumps) has been running since November 2012
Livestock:
Niger Trigger (I know that they get big, I usually trade my bigger fish back for smaller fish)
Small domino damsel
Small blue damsel
Small clownfish
Hermit crabs (~10) Niger does not seem to bother them
Snails (~5-10)
Small feather dusters on live rock
My guilty pleasure: Condy anemone (bought her/him about 1 week ago)
My readings are as follows
1.023 SG
8.3 PH
0 nitrates
0 nitrites
0 phosphates (on top of this all the time)
0 ammonia
My temperature is 78 F
I change about 10-15 gallons of water a week using RODI water from LFS and mix it with reef salt
I also add a small amount of trace minerals but I have never tested for them
About 5-7 hours of light - depends on my schedule
That's pretty much it. It has been a mundane and boring tank since Nov 2012 and I want to spruce things up. Like I said, I buy fish pretty small and once they grow a bit I trade them (or just give them away) to my LFS
I would like to maybe start with some button polyps and see how they thrive in my tank.
My only concern would be my light and the fact that the Condy avoids it like hell hath no fury. I put her on a top rock, she anchored her foot on the rock and crawled towards the back of the rock where there is less light, I turned the rock around so that she could be in more light, she once again moved towards the dark area. Repeated this once more and gave up. When I had anemones before they gravitated towards the top or stayed in the middle of the tank. I have been told that the LED unit seems to be quite strong for some corals. Maybe that's it?
Anyways.
Went to look at some zoas last week, saw the following
Small "radioactive zoas" (about 8-10 heads) for $40
Small colony of "button polyps" (about 4-5 heads) for $20
Seemed to be a steep price for these, so I will continue to check around.
I will upload some photos of my tank tomorrow.
I started my 55 gallon tank about 4 years ago. Initially it was a brackish tank full of beautiful figure 8 and green spotted puffers. At the time I had 2 HOB filters (400gph) each, a heater, and the Deep Blue 48" HO T-5 lights. Loved the tank and with only about 4 hours of light a day, I had perfect water parameters, no algae, no problems.
Soon afterI fell in love with the idea of anemones...
I gave away my beautiful puffers and converted the tank into salt water and kept all the same equipment. I always thought my filters did a pretty good job (and to this day completely believe that) and I slowly started trying to turn my little aquarium into one of those gorgeous reef tanks - I kept mostly some zoas, 2 beautiful anemones, and all sorts of crabs, stars, snails, and shrimp. Sadly, after Hurricane Sandy hit, we lost power for quite some time and as you may imagine that caused havoc on my tank (total annihilation)
Fast forward to now:
The T5 system broke (I replaced parts, bulbs, spoke with Deep blue -nothing could be done)
Recently bought the Fluval Sea 48-57" LED light fixture (692 LEDs -2,340 LM -7,825 LUX -25,000K - 6 different types of LEDs including 400 420 440 460nm)
I have an overflow going into Eshopps Wet DrySystem.
I have a pump which has 500 GPH capabilities.
I recently bought the Aqueon 950 circulation pump and the Aqueon 700.
This system (minus the light and circulation pumps) has been running since November 2012
Livestock:
Niger Trigger (I know that they get big, I usually trade my bigger fish back for smaller fish)
Small domino damsel
Small blue damsel
Small clownfish
Hermit crabs (~10) Niger does not seem to bother them
Snails (~5-10)
Small feather dusters on live rock
My guilty pleasure: Condy anemone (bought her/him about 1 week ago)
My readings are as follows
1.023 SG
8.3 PH
0 nitrates
0 nitrites
0 phosphates (on top of this all the time)
0 ammonia
My temperature is 78 F
I change about 10-15 gallons of water a week using RODI water from LFS and mix it with reef salt
I also add a small amount of trace minerals but I have never tested for them
About 5-7 hours of light - depends on my schedule
That's pretty much it. It has been a mundane and boring tank since Nov 2012 and I want to spruce things up. Like I said, I buy fish pretty small and once they grow a bit I trade them (or just give them away) to my LFS
I would like to maybe start with some button polyps and see how they thrive in my tank.
My only concern would be my light and the fact that the Condy avoids it like hell hath no fury. I put her on a top rock, she anchored her foot on the rock and crawled towards the back of the rock where there is less light, I turned the rock around so that she could be in more light, she once again moved towards the dark area. Repeated this once more and gave up. When I had anemones before they gravitated towards the top or stayed in the middle of the tank. I have been told that the LED unit seems to be quite strong for some corals. Maybe that's it?
Anyways.
Went to look at some zoas last week, saw the following
Small "radioactive zoas" (about 8-10 heads) for $40
Small colony of "button polyps" (about 4-5 heads) for $20
Seemed to be a steep price for these, so I will continue to check around.
I will upload some photos of my tank tomorrow.