My 120g reef tank was 2 years old on New Year's Day (pics)
 

I wanted to post up pics on the actual day, but I got a late Christmas present of a new camera and it's taken me awhile just to get used to taking some halfway decent pics with it. Tank started off as mainly softies and LPS, but is now starting to lean towards mostly SPS. I'm going to try and dig up some of my initial frag shots for some of the corals to post up with the up to date shots taken today:

First up, the orange monti cap on initial start up of this tank:

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/DSCN0143.jpg[/IMG]

and now the big gun it's grown to be today (from above):

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/DSCN1050.jpg[/IMG]

My green mille then:

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/DSCN0488.jpg[/IMG]

and now:

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/IMG_0117x.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/RSCN1053.jpg[/IMG]

And my "peach with light blue/green polyps" mille then:

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/DSCN0502.jpg[/IMG]

And now:

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/IMG_0116x.jpg[/IMG]

more coming...

Some more current shots:

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/IMG_0118x.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/IMG_0120x.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/IMG_0129x.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/IMG_0127x.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/IMG_0121x.jpg[/IMG]

Blue mille that choked out a bunch of green zoanthids, but you can still see one hanging on surrounded by encrustation:

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/IMG_0122.jpg[/IMG]

and more:

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/IMG_0115x.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/IMG_0119x.jpg[/IMG]

And some wider view shots:

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/IMG_0126.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/IMG_0125.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/IMG_0111_1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/IMG_0110_1.jpg[/IMG]

And full frontal :

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/IMG_0108_1.jpg[/IMG]

beautiful job!!!
Tracy

WOW nice tank I can only hope that my tank will look that good after 2 years. Is the first reef tank you have set up

thanks guys :cool:


an411, it is the first and only "big" tank I've done. For a short time (a little over a year) prior to this one I had a 10g and then a 26g bowfront. The inhabitants of the 26g were integrated into the startup of this tank.

what a gorgeous tank! :thumbsup: Great photos from before and after.

tank looks great...nice camera as well took some crisp photos

It's a miracle I even got these pics posted, as I was trying to learn the new camera settings AND learn new computer software editing for it (cropping and magnification) simultaneously.

But, thanks! :cool:

wow, great looking tank.

Your tank looks great!

Looks very healthy! GREAT JOB

Wow, that's great! Tell us more about the details of the setup --- a little history of the tank, any problems you had to overcome and how, what equipment and maintenance you're doing. I'm always looking to improve my own 120.

Well, it was a loooonnngg time coming together originally. Right after I bought the tank new, my wife started having all kinds of health issues (at the ripe old age of about 37) and I was constantly debating back and forth on whether I should even start the thing up. It sat dry in my basement for exactly one year from when I bought it on New Year's Eve. I finally, in around Nov, just got the urge and started putting pieces of PVC together and testing out how my new plumbing skills were coming along. Once the ball was rolling, I couldn't really stop it. I decided to set a goal of New Year's Day to fire it up and transfer stock from my 26g bowfront I had at the time. Because I used my own rock, some established LR I got from a local guy, and base rock, I didn't have a cycle, though I had the usual new tank issues with a little cyano and algae. Tank started out mainly LPS and softy. I switched lights the following october and took down a separate refugium I had been running because my chaeto kept dying off. After doing these things, I suddenly developed a very nasty bright green turf algae that covered the lower half of my rocks, killing off some of my corals in the process. It took several months of PATIENCE, changing to homemade food instead of flakes, and adding a PO4 reactor that finally took down the algae. After that, the tank looked ok, but I wanted to go SPS, which I started to try. Initial results were "ok", but kalk drips were not keeping things stable and the corals were not happy. I finally took the plunge and installed a new Ca reactor last fall and this has really made the difference in my coral growth, along with the fact that I think my corals like my homemade food, and the current they're getting from my Tunze 6060's that I bought used to replace the Seio 1500 beasts I had in there before. Right now, I do water changes once a month of about 30 gallons or so, and watch my test values. Ca reactor keeps things stable though, but I have to watch Mg. Also have to keep the PHOSaR replaced regularly. I went from 250w SE 12k reeflux to Ushio 10k's to my current Reeflux 10k's. Skimmer is the same I started with, while being somewhat undersized for my tank, it does a good job. My sump is in the room behind my tank sitting on concrete, and this combined with my open top canopy prevents me from having any considerable heat issues. After some serious storms last summer knocking out our power, I went out and bought a generator for future emergencies to keep everything alive. An ACjr controller keeps everything in sync for me. That's about it for now. Let me know if they're any more questions. :cool:

Beautiful tank! Just wondering, how deep is your sand?

Only about an inch in some places to around 2+ inches in others. Enough for the nass snails and conchs to bury themselves in.

Very cool, looks great :)

I personally like how its not chuck full of corals. I like both looks, but I like yours cause it really shows the growth that yours have done, and gives them room to grow.

Beautiful job! It was worth all the hard work and patience, you must be proud! :)

I really like your tank, it's beautiful ! Glad to here you like your tunze's, I just got some myself.

oops, forgot to ask, did your RBTA split for you ? If so, how long was it after you got the first one ?

It split only once within a couple months of me getting it, but has not split again in over a year. I have had a few clowns in there over time (one jumper before I protected the back, another got himself caught in the overflow area and disappeared), all ocellaris, and none of them have ever hosted the RBTA's.

Nice looking tank! Your monti cap reminds me of mine before I took a dremel tool to it. I had space issues, yours looks like it has room to become even more massive than it already has.

Very nice tank I only hope to have a tank that nice.

Thanks guys!

Man, I must have been in a fog when I posted this...forgot one of my favorite corals!

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/bluegreencoral.jpg[/IMG]