My 72g BF w/ 20g fuge progression and history and more....pics!

My aquatic hobby began a few years ago when my wife came home with a 55 gallon setup that included everything from a rummage for $50. Stocked it with oscars. Then we got a good deal on a 125 gallon and stocked it with catfish and a couple pacu the size of a quarter. These things were almost 12" in 6 months, ate cashews, pecans, grapes, lettuce, raisins, almost any kind of vegetable as well as meats.


Then bought a 37 gallon, then setup a 10 gallon for breeding guppies, then sold the 55 gallon. Sold the 37 gallon, picked up a 20 gallon hex and thats when my saltwater addiction began. I thought the 20g hex would make a really cool saltwater tank so I gave it a try. I had it setup for about 3 months before I wanted a bigger reef. Here is the only pic I can find of it.....


Well I began looking for something in the 75 gallon range so I could keep all different types of corals without worrying about space issues and also keep some larger fish. I came across a 72g bowfront from a local forum member so I snagged it up. I set it up in December of 08 and slowly pieced it together a few pounds of rock at a time, frag by frag.

Tank:
-72 gallon bowfront tank, painted trim black with pine stand painted black
-20 gallon long diy sump/fuge
-100lbs rock
-90lbs sand
-3 Koralia 3s
-Rio2500 return
-600gph overflow
-250 watt heater

Lighting:
-6x54w T5 retro.
-460nm actinic
-UVL SA
-ATI 12k
-Odyssea 12k
-GE 6500
-ATI Blue +

Livestock:
-B&W clown
-Occ. clown
-3 reef chromis
-red firefish
-mandarin
-green clown goby
-pink/blue spot watchmen pistol shrimp pair
-another pistol shrimp in the sump
-fromia tile starfish
-maxima clam
-large rbta

Filtration:
20 gallon sump with canister filter packed with carbon
2" sandbed
liverock
caulerpa taxifolia
caulerpa prolifera
chaeto
skimmer just died recently, need replacement.

This is how it started...
PCs that came with the tank...Wood trim, 32w T5 supplements, no canopy and barely any rock.







Added a 4x54w Odyssea T5 fixture (regret somewhat), more rock, few more corals....



slowly progressing.....





What the tank looks like a few weeks back....added new lights and the rbta finally moved over a little so I was able to re-aquascape some.


I recently started a little 1.5 gallon pico as well. It has about 2 lbs of live rock and about 2 lbs of sand. 3-4 purple mushrooms, green striped mushroom, gsp frags, cabbage leather, kenya trees and som palys. Started as just a fun expiriment thinking I wouldn't be able to deal with the evaporation over time but with a plastic top it barely loses any water throughout the day. Very cool tank. Also infested with asterinas!





More recent pics....




color never really came with the duncans












keds reds, still acting funny. I have 5 strong heads out of 8 original. There are still 7 alive, but 2 are struggling. I gotta pick up some furan soon and get these things dipped.


These are a couple pics I took with my phone a few days ago....



Fromia tile star on the glass....first time I saw that so I snapped pics with my phone because my camera wasn't near, like those stars are even fast lol. Sometimes it sits in the same spot for days. Its actually been on the glass for 2 days now. I'll see if I can get some macros with a regular camera.





I have put a lot of effort into this tank and am very proud. Its not a huge WOW tank but one day it will be. I've never purchased one full colony of coral because they are so expensive so I just buy $5-10 frags. Some have grown tremendously, others have barely grown at all. I finally have adequate lighting and an alk kit as well as the other important ones, so I hope to get my coralline back, get rid of most of asterinas, and hopefully see some nice growth now that I have 6 t5s and the motivation to see my reef flourish.

I will be turning my 1.5 gallon into a 5.5 gallon pico soon so look for that thread too. I'll be using my 18x2 Current T5 fixture for that one. The 1.5 is just too small to enjoy fully.

Enjoy the pics.

 

Your stuff all looks great, I like to just buy frags and watch them grow out also.

 

Amazing looking tanks, thanks for sharing! You should feel WOW about that tank, I would.

Especially loved the pics of the mandarin & frogspawn looks great (pretty sure it's frogspawn).

 

yep. I'd like to buy the nice hugh colonies....but I would rather say "I grew this massive volleyball sized $500 colony from a $5 coral the size of a pencil eraser".

Yep both are frogspawns, one has green tips, one has purple.

 

What type of light were using on that little 1.5?

 

looks awesome

 

It was a 9watt 50/50 bulb that screws in, I think corallife makes them. I just popped it in a reflector I got from Home Depot. Worked well for the tiny tank.

New pics of my 72g to come soon. I just upgraded my BS 6x54w T5 (2x54w TEK retro and odyssea fixture ripped apart) retro to a ATI 4x54w powermodule.

Did I ever mention that you shouldn't waste your money on BS fixtures because you just end up upgrading down the line anyways? Oh, thats right, thats what everyone else was telling me! Doh!

 

Great progression shots and info. Tank looks great. You will be able to grow whatever you want where ever you want with the ATI fixture. Just use top of the line bulbs to ensure that.

 

Good looking set ups and photo shoot matheuw1

Some more close ups showing the coral development would be appreciated

Steve