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Hello all just thought i would share pics of my tank as it has been a while since set up!
I was an already established tank when i bought it from the previous owner (2 years) so i have been lucky as i have been able to stock a little quicker than a tank from scratch.

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dave_slade@btinternet.com/

The details of tank is:
Saltwater tank 125G-30G sump with caulerpa refugium.
yellow tang, atlantic anemone, 11 turbo snails, 4 nassarius snails, 12 various hermits, 3 cleaner shrimp, 2 occelaris clowns, yellow clown goby, pink spotted lawnmower blennie. Coral green carpet xenia, zoos & mushrooms. Lights 150W MH, 1 58W NO actinic, 1 58W NO daylight.


EDIT: NEW coral & CAM! New pics from new camera on site now!

SW Pics: http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dave_slade@btinternet.com/
Saltwater tank 125G-30G sump with caulerpa refugium.
yellow tang, atlantic anemone, 11 turbo snails, 4 nassarius snails, 12 various hermits, 3 cleaner shrimp, 2 occelaris clown, yellow

How much liverock do you approx have in there? I would love a big tank like that...I'm jealous

Bill and Ted look sooo small

-Josh

Thanks There's approx about 35KG of LR in the tank (all top notch fiji stuff) it even came with blue/green sponges on. /:'

SW Pics: http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dave_slade@btinternet.com/
Saltwater tank 125G-30G sump with caulerpa refugium.
yellow tang, atlantic anemone, 11 turbo snails, 4 nassarius snails, 12 various hermits, 3 cleaner shrimp, 2 occelaris clown, yellow

I agree - those clownfish are teeny tiny looking! Make sure there isn't too much aggression between them as they grow up. My tank is pretty similiar, it's a 120 with a 55 sump and 25 gallon macroalgae fuge. Works well right.

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

Woohoo just picked out 6KG's of new LR from my LFS! Top notch again there's even some polyps/corals growing on it and a white sponge! My turbo's raced (hmmm ) onto it to get a good munch! Even the clowns came over to have a look i'll put some more pics on when i get some proper ones delveloped.
terranova that sounds really cool do you have any pics of that at all?

EDIT: Duh i just saw the pics you posted, very nice tank there!

SW Pics: http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dave_slade@btinternet.com/
Saltwater tank 125G-30G sump with caulerpa refugium.
yellow tang, atlantic anemone, 11 turbo snails, 4 nassarius snails, 12 various hermits, 3 cleaner shrimp, 2 occelaris clown, yellow

Just added some more pictures (not very good old camera ) so enjoy!

SW Pics: http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dave_slade@btinternet.com/
Saltwater tank 125G-30G sump with caulerpa refugium.
yellow tang, atlantic anemone, 11 turbo snails, 4 nassarius snails, 12 various hermits, 3 cleaner shrimp, 2 occelaris clown, yellow

The Tank looks good. I love the Anemone picture.. (the super close shot)... I am not brave enough to tackle SW yet. For now, I will just live vicariously through the pictures!

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"it's the neck, it creaks under the weight of too much heavy thinking."

Early days obviously, but that looks like a good reef setup which will in the fullness of time blossom quite spectacularly ... you'll have to keep us posted on the effectiveness of the Caulerpa refugium as a nitrogen cycle manager, because that's the way I'd like to go if ever I can afford to set up a marine system. Working on the basis that the best way to deal with an unwanted quantity in an aquarium is to find something that treats the unwanted quantity as lunch.

I'm interested also to learn if it proves to be an effective way of controlling phosphates too. The reason being that David Saxby (he of the monster 10ft x 3ft x 3ft reef with the 2,500 gallon sump - yes, you read those figures correctly!) claims that for healthy coral growth, eliminating phosphates is more important than dealing with nitrates because phosphates encourage nuisance algae at a rate of knots. Of course, if your Caoulerpa turns out to manage phosphates effectively as well, it saves you splurging a small fortune on RowaPhos (Saxby buys that in 50 kilo drums at a time because his aquarium is big enough to need it - the pipework in his system holds 100 gallons ... ).

Among the things I've discovered reading around Reefkeeping.com include this - if you keep the Caulerpa illuminated 24/7, it doesn't launch into sexual reproduction. Caulerpa launching into sexual reproduction is apparently a cause of many a filter crash, not only because it dies off en masse afterwards, but because debris clogs the pumps and breaks things, leading to a major system catastrophe. Blast it 24/7 with light and it doesn't do that. Reefkeeping.,com also mentions that having a dwarf angel around to snack on the Caulerpa is a good idea, though you have a problem there in that the angel won't want a 24/7 daylight period, and it isn't a good idea to put a Centropyge into a reef littered with sessile inverts because if it starts snacking on them, the only way you'll get that angel out of there is a full dismantling of the reef ... but the people who go this route are usually rich enough ot afford a system with a double sump - one lit 24/7 full of Caulerpa, the second lit according to a normal photoperiod containing the dwarf angel, which is fed Caulerpa cuttings on a regular basis.

Guess though that your Tang would take care of surplus Caulerpa in fairly short order ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I only recognised Cali by his long post filled with good info

Working on the basis that the best way to deal with an unwanted quantity in an aquarium is to find something that treats the unwanted quantity as lunch.

I find that this works really well. Especially if you spend a little on the lighting for the fuge. given as much lighting as you would for a softy reef tank, or say a high light planted freshwater tank, macroalgae has exploding growth.

I'm interested also to learn if it proves to be an effective way of controlling phosphates too.

IMO it is. I never register any PO4 in my tank, but I do use phosguard as well. I beleive that keeping PO4 down is pretty critical, so I employ the use of both. However, I don't need to change my PO4 media at all usually. So I think it's just there in case it gets a bit much for my macroalgae to cover.

And about the coulerpa - I decided against using it for the reasons stated by Cali. I didn't want it to explode. Though from what I understand keeping it trimmed is also a good way of keeping it from going "sexual" as they say. I use chaetomorpha instead, aka speghetti or brillo pad algae. This grows quite fast, is about as popular, if not more so, and won't ever reproduce on you.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Before i launch into a fullblown reply NEW PICS!!! Woohoo i got a new cam so there a many MUCH better pics to be seen! Anyhoo here i go:

Thanks for the feedback good to hear i'm doing well for a noob! I do try and research as much as possible and for the past 2 years since i have been keeping FW i get the ususal fish magazines but they also have BIG sections on marine so have been reading and researching for a while!

Finally it's MINE ALL MINE! Yay! (Sorry still soooo exited about my tank)

I noticed an article on the whole lighting the caulerpa 27/7 and my fuge has this with the 30W NO gro tube (6500K) so should give me good growth and nice low nitrates. The only problem is at the moment as i only have 1/2 the LR i think is needed means i still have bioballs & filter floss in the first section of the sump/fuge. I know these are nitrate factories but they're holding steady between 5-10 ppm (high for a reef i know!) but as i add more LR i remove the corresponding amount of filter media so hopefully give me 6 months and a LOT of money i will have a nicer rockscape & NO filter media but LR & caulerpa!

Phew, i'm exhasted after that!


SW Pics: http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dave_slade@btinternet.com/
Saltwater tank 125G-30G sump with caulerpa refugium.
yellow tang, atlantic anemone, 11 turbo snails, 4 nassarius snails, 12 various hermits, 3 cleaner shrimp, 2 occelaris clown, yellow