K9s 20g Reef - Warning: Image Intense!

[K9]

As some of you may know, I recently made a rapid upgrade from a standard 10g AGA tank to a 20g long (30x12x12) AGA tank. Just wanted a little more space, that's all . Well, I got my VHO lights today and wanted to post some pictures of the tank with the new lights. There are two 24" 75-watt URI bulbs with one being Actinic 03 and one Actinic White (50/50). FYI, the shots were taken with a Canon PowerShot G5 and simply cropped and compressed in Macromedia Fireworks to make them download a little quicker. The colors you see are real, not doctored. Obviously, the darker blue photos are with only the actinic bulb turned on.

The other equipment is just 2 Maxi-Jet 600s (160gph/each) and the tank is currently skimmerless.

I will keep this thread constantly updated with new pictures of my fish, corals, and inverts, so enjoy. Sorry there are no photos of my Ricordea, they were camera shy . Now, on to the photos!

[The Yellow Longnose]

very nice pictures, nice setup you got going on
Joe

[kyman_33]

Very nice tank. I like your zoos.

Keep it up!

[Agu]

Nice pics !!


Notice it's not barebottomed .

[K9]

Thanks for the compliments so far!

Originally posted by Agu
Nice pics !!

Notice it's not barebottomed .

Most certainly not . I wisely heeded your suggestion Agu. There's a nice green and purple Short-tentacled Plate at my LFS just screaming to be bought and put in this tank . Oh, and what's that I hear?....I think it's the neon green open brain calling me as well. Don't worry guys, you'll be "home" soon enough .

[Kigs]

Awesome pictures K9! i love the rockwork

[nonamesright]

good move with the sand. i think most great successes in this hobby have come about through attempts at emmulating the ocean. and if im not mistaken, the ocean is NOT a b.b.

[K9]

Originally posted by vsny2k5
Awesome pictures K9! i love the rockwork

Thanks! It's only 15lbs, and I may add 5 or 7 more, but I wanted the tank to look like a shallow reef outcropping. That's why I have a couple pieces sitting out on the sand by themselves. The rockwork is also shallow to allow for future corals to have plenty of room to grow upwards. It's only a 12" deep tank, so it'd be silly to have rocks going upwards to within a couple inches of the surface.

Originally posted by nonamesright
good move with the sand. i think most great successes in this hobby have come about through attempts at emmulating the ocean. and if im not mistaken, the ocean is NOT a b.b.

I definitely like the look of the sand. I didn't want a DSB, just a 3/4-1 inch bed to give it the natural touch.

[Treevore]

Looks cool, I really like it.

It looks like the only equipment is a pair of powerheads... is that all that you have in there? If so, are you planning to add fish, and how is it working out for you so far?

Keep up the great work.

[K9]

Originally posted by Treevore
Looks cool, I really like it.

It looks like the only equipment is a pair of powerheads... is that all that you have in there? If so, are you planning to add fish, and how is it working out for you so far?

Keep up the great work.

Thanks! Yes, the only equipment in the tank is two Maxi-Jet 600s. The tank is currently skimmerless, but I will be adding a skimmer in the next month or two. My old 30g tank was skimmerless for almost a year, and I never had algae or nitrate problems. Just changed 10% of the water weekly as I am doing on this 20g.

There actually is a couple critters in there however. I have a Six-Line Wrasse who was in his mucus cocoon during the pictures, and a Skunk Cleaner Shrimp who hides behind the rocks when the lights are on.

Time for pictures of my canopy and VHOs! Just built the canopy today. I will be getting some wood trim tomorrow for the corners, and then painting it all glossy black. The stand still needs panels on the front and sides, but I'm in no rush to finish it. Why buy plywood when you can buy corals and fish?!?! What's in the tank is what counts! Enjoy the photos . Feel free to ask any questions!

[K9]

My wiring bird's nest


The 10g tank you see is going to be a sump...someday

[phenom5]

looks good K9...no comment about the sand...traitor.

[K9]

Originally posted by phenom5
looks good K9...no comment about the sand...traitor.

Sorry man. I just couldn't come over to the dark side.

[Engine 7]

The way you take pictures you could work for Playboy...great job

[K9]

Originally posted by Engine 7
The way you take pictures you could work for Playboy...great job

Haha, I don't know about Playboy, but thanks for the compliments .

Today I got some new Hagen test kits from the LFS. One to test calcium, and one for carbonate hardness. I bought these since I'm dosing Kalkwasser and Kent Marine pH & KH buffer. Like the saying goes, "Don't dose it, unless you test for it!". After measuring the levels in my tank, I'm happy to mention that both tests returned good numbers :

Ca: 420ppm
dKH: 9 (160ppm)

I also just bought a new Cherub Angelfish today and put him in the tank about an hour ago after a 3 hour acclimation. The little guy is just barely over an inch in length! He hid for about 20 minutes, but he's out swimming around with my 6-Line Wrasse and pecking at the live rock now. I feed them marine flakes and Prime Reef frozen. Here's some new shots I just took a few minutes ago.

[lil_fishey]

nice pics so clear

[Soccer]

Nice looking tank!

Everthing looks nice and healthy, and those are really great pics!

Good job

[WarEagleNR88]

K9, that 3rd pic of your first post in this thread is really good. I like the spread out look of your reef. Lots of room there for some good corals. And yes, definitely turn that 10G into a sump. It will most likely be the best decision in the long run.

Willing to give any help I can, but it looks like you're rolling just fine. Looking forward to watching it develop. Good luck.

[kyman_33]

Very cool fish.

What kind of shrimp is that?

[WarEagleNR88]

Skunk cleaner shrimp. Bold red & white stripes down their backs with bright white antennae. Very active and very common SW shrimp.

[leaffish75]

nice setup. I have a 20L but im running 4 vhos

[Brewen]

Great tank, even better pics. Best of luck Brewen

[K9]

Thanks for the compliments everyone! I'm a bit of a shutterbug when it comes to my reef, so you can expect lots of pictures whenever I add a new coral or critter to my tank.

Originally posted by WarEagleNR88
K9, that 3rd pic of your first post in this thread is really good. I like the spread out look of your reef.

Thanks alot. I thought about buying a few more lbs of live rock, which I still may do, but I'm happy with the low-lying design of the rocks. I didn't just want the live rock to be covered with low-profile corals like zoas and ricordea, so that's why I left plenty of room corals that grow upwards.

I'm eventually going to put in some taller-growing things like a toadstool leather, a green finger leather, a hammer or frogspawn, or I might even try a Montipora capricornis. I plan to fill some real estate on the sand bed with two of my favorite LPS: a short-tentacled plate and an open brain (wellsophyllia). You can definitely expect new pictures as soon as I put in anything new. Thanks again for the generous compliments!

[vanmo92]

very nice pics.

[WarEagleNR88]

Can you go into further detail about your lights? Ballasts, where'd you get them, for how much? They're pretty sweet and they light your tank very well. I just wonder if they'll really benefit SPS when you start putting them into your tank. I've been wondering about the differences between VHO and PC. I'm running 3x96W PCs about 4" off the water and I have to use a couple of PC fans inside the canopy blowing over the fans and out of the canopy to keep the water around 80-82 degs. Are VHOs that hot as well?

But good job again going with the 20L instead of the 10G. They're pretty sweet and I like the wide angled look of the 20L. It's similar to the look of a widescreen TV compared to a normal sized screen. I kind of want my next tank to be either a 20L or a 40 breeder and if so I've got to wonder about the whole MH/PC/VHO question of lighting.