hello all, just found this site and loving it.
as I have been reading the posts in this thread for a few days...I feel a few of you might be able to give me some insite....lol feel like I know Monicle..hee hee... down there in Vancouver!!
I have only been in the hobby for about a year now...but as a dbl bio/chem major, I have really taken to it. I am huge into no impact and low tech hi bio systems. You all seem to share your stats of your tanks so I figure I will share mine with this thread since this is a topic I will visit a lot.
MY Tank btw this is my first tank ever of any kind, never did any freshwater I have made many mistakes and have made some silly contraptions...but back to simple....i have not updated anything since march but if you want to see some of it you can visit
www.BillWesterfield.com. My younger brothers thought I needed to learn web design at the same time so I could share...I got lazy...need to make my website better. also if you look at my site that silly deal I made for my pumps is gone, stand keeps changing that is why its just a frame and plywood..messing with dimensions eventually i will make it look nice...and my site sucks to
120 gal allglass w/2 600+gph overflows, 48x24x24
130lbs live rock...grrr I bought this before I knew we were killing stuff, but the stuff I got is uber, liverockusa.org.... Although I did only 2 orders ever my live rock looks better then any rock I have seen in any lfs. Mitch and Kathleen that run it are super awesome and communicative....only catch is you have to pick it up from the airport.
80lbs of home made agro....(own twist...balloons are easy way to make uber caves!!!
I used pasta and rice as well for tunnels and divits, worked out well but long curing time, but way cheaper then filling cavities with expensive crushed coral or shells and the tunnels u get from the pasta are incredible, I also collect shells around our beach for my plugs for my cuttings.)
60lbs of crushed coral
60lbs of live sand
29lbs of garf grung
3lbs of argonite dust
Lighting
2 400w MH 10,000k - 8 hours
1 250w MH 20,000k - 12 hours
2 96w PC 6,700k - 12 hours
2 96w PC actinic 03 - 16 hours
2 led luner strips - 4 hours
Later will change for better color but right now lighting for grow more then show
Refugium
I have a 40 gal refuge
Its all garden now, I ran a skimmer 24/7 in the beginning but my tank has so many animal filters now that the skimmer never even gets dirty...although still sitting in the sump if things get bad it hasn't ran in 3 months.
The cleaning staff
400+ snails and crabs, I bought 400 but they breed like crazey so I have way more then 400.
Snails - Nass., Turbo Nass., Astrea, Nerite, Turban, Margarita, cerith, Mex. Turbo, queen conch, sand sifting
Crabs - blue legged, scarlet, corsica, mithrax
Star fish - 6 green brittles, 4 black brittles, 4 serpants, 6 sand sifters
4 sand sifting cucumbers
20 peppermint shrimp
2 gold banded coral shrimp - mated pair
1 harliquin shrimp - btw kicks ass at eating the evil coral eating star fish, I used to have 10 bad starfish or so on the glass at any given time...I rarely see them at all now....It does eat the sand sifters though but I am trying to breed them in a new tank.
1 blood red fire shrimp
Clams - 2 1st grade blue maxima, 1 gold maxima, 1 squamosa, 1 derasa, 12 cleaner clams in refug....these almost went to my kitchen into a boiling pot of water look like steamer clams....yummy!!!!
Corals - hard to count...would say 80-90 in the tank...all are or were frags.
will get my stuff together and get some pics to share.
Anenomies - 1 long tenticle greenish/white and one long tenticle purple...super bright...cool Anenomie
Fish
1 male and 2 female lyretail anthias
1 female leapard wrasse...looking for a little male
3 fridmani pseudochromis
3 orange spotted watchman gobies
3 pearly jawfish
2 bicolor blennies
2 rainfordi gobies
2 marron clowns
5 blue/green chromis
almost done here thinking a pair of angels or tangs to finish maybe both depending on how things go as these little fish grow to adult hood.
I currently own a business that has been good to me, but need a change of pace. I have had it for sale for about 2 years now. soon as it sells i will be able to semi retire and at this point I am planning what I will do next, I am only 34. I am fully addicted to this hobby, as a scuba diver I have always loved marine life...so much fun over here in western washington to go play with the wolf eels and many octopus we have in our waters...or spear fishing a 4 or 5 foot ling and even those special dives when you get to see a huge 15 foot 6 gill shark. Nothing like slurping down fresh abalony, or cracking some fresh dungeoness in between dives around the san juan islands or any other nice spot in the puget sound.
although I plan on opening up a handful of other small businesses I believe a saltwater fish store will be one of them. I currently have been coral farming on a small level...mainly enough to where my lfs gives me store credit so new additions are free, and enough for my brother to kill in his death tank...lol
But Now that my tank is getting full I already have purchased another...lol where does it end?
So since I already enjoy coral farming....I plan on setting up 48 brood stock coral tanks and 12 macroalgea tanks...I have been working on this for a couple of months to maximize cost and efficiency. This is all going in my living room thank god I am a batchelor...lol. A few more bugs to work out but should atleast have them cycling water before the new year.
for those of you that made it this far here is where I am curious.
Since I will have 60 tanks...I thought I might try to breed 60 different types of reef friendly fish. I realize it will take time to create 60 different mated pairs but in the long run it would be pretty cool.
after the 60 tanks....and the big 4 foot stand of 4 tanks to hold my cuttings any additional tanks will have to be planned...one of my bathrooms has some room
1) if fry are unharvested and the parents gobble them up...do they tend not to rebreed?
2) when u raise the fry in another tank...it has got to be a messy ordeal...lots poo from lots of fish in a small place....how is this handled?...its got to be semi insane...any insite?
Thanks for your time all info or ideas are welcome,
Bill
fish breeding 
. I had to fire a manager in one of my satellite offices and have been out of town since the 12th of December. I should have the new one trained by mid January...then can finally build my coral/fish farm.
