Progress on my 180lt

[Rossy]

I thought that after nearly 5 months I should post some pics of my new tank and its progress.

This is the first photo just after the LR was added back in September.

[Rossy]

This is it in Jan. The rocks were moved due to the removel of some poorly chosen damsel fish which were very aggressive to each other and their removal meant taking most of the rock out to catch them.

[Rossy]

Some of the inhabitants.

[Rossy]

The Mushroom Polyps

[JJG]

Maybe I'm weird...but I can't see any pictures at all, on any of these posts.

Edit: There they are. Man I can be dumb.

[Sandworm]

The tank is looking good so far.. One note, those are Camel Shrimp and are generally not considered reef safe.. They are known to nip at colonial anemones, disc anemones, and soft leather corals.

[Rossy]

The shrimp name I have is Rhynchocinetes uritai and the only common names I had were Candy Shrimp and Dancing Shrimp. Now after a search, I can see they are also known as Camel Shrimp, Hingeback Shrimp, Peppermint Shrimp (shared with Lysmata wurdemanni) and Camelback Shrimp.

I agree that a more reef safe variety would perhaps have been better but rather than not safe my references (mainly The Book of Marine Aquaria) suggests that "on occasions they will pester corals and anemones, but are generally harmless". I have not seen them pester anything as yet and I agree they are a good starter specimen - if not ideally suited to a reef setup.

[Joey88again]

What kind of lighting are you using, and how many gallons is your tank? Also how many pounds of live rock is that I dont know the metric system. :roll:

[Rossy]

I believe that my tank holds about 50 of your imperial gallons, and I have about 45 lbs of LR. The DSB is about 5".

I have only 2 36" actinics, about 80watts. I am still deciding on my upgrade - and making sure I have the funds :wink:

[Joey88again]

Thanks I dont know the metric system I need to learn it. I have a 55 gallon and just made it a reef. I have 2 110 watt VHOs. If you know how to wire lights you can get a Workhorse 7 long and run to 95 watt VHOs or 2 96 watt compact flourescents. That plus the lights you have would be very good.

[Rossy]

I managed to upgrade my lighting yesterday. I went for the Arcadia 3 series, 150w MH with 2 x 25w Marine Blue Actinics.

Looks a lot different :D

So onto the next things, some more light demoanding corals and considering a sump.

[Joey88again]

Can you post a pic so I can see how brite it is? I was thinking of getting a 150 watt MH. Do you have a canopy if so how tall is it?

[Rossy]

Here are a couple of pics, one showing the light. There is a big difference which is not very evident from the picture, but the exposure was much faster.

The colours are more natural, they were a bit blue before. Unfortunately the Juwel tank has a strut across the middle made of plastic, so I am looking into replacing this with a transparent strut to remove the shadow line across the middle.

The unit is suspended from the ceiling and it is recommended to wire into the house circuit, but I have just wired a plug onto it and it works fine - a RCD is necessary though!!

[Joey88again]

Wow that is bright! I want to get halides but I want to get a wet/dry filter, better cleaner crew, and some more live rock.

[Rossy]

So do I (well I want a sump/refugium, more livestock, etc.) but I reckon that lighting appears to underpin everything else, so it got priority. On to the refugium...