Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

Hello all
I have been reading your board for a while and I thought I would join. I dont live in your area but I didnt think you would mind. ( Let me Know)

I am currently keeping two salt water systems. A 220 Gal (see below) and a 12 gal Nano Cube.

This is my main tank


TANKPAGE WITH CLOSEUPS OF ALL OF THE CRITTERS

YOU CAN ALSO SEE IT ON MY SITE BY USING THE BANNER AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST

Some of the creatures that live here


Here is the tech nitty gritty for the reefs geeks among us.

220gal

2X 250w MH 14000k with standard ballasts,

MTC skimmer.

45 gal sump with 55w pc 24/7

Kent bio-sediment and lots of Macro in sump

10 in deep sand bed - 300 lbs of live rock.

xenia, mushrooms, star polyps, carpet anemone, leathers and asst SPS & LPS coral.

Asst small fish. 150 hermits and 50 snails 15 sand sifting stars and hundreds of tiny brittle stars and tiny bristle worms.

1 tsp Kalkwasser, 2 drops Kent lugols, 8 drops Kent strontium
& molybdenum in 2 gallon of make-up water every morning.

I feed the tank a lot.
For the coral: DT's mixed with Marc Weiss* black powder and spectra vital.

For the fish: brine shrimp and krill and squid mixed in a food processer. I then add garlic and a very strong anti-oxident called OPC3. It is made from red wine extract.

I overfeed a little but the large amount of clean-up crew (see above) takes care of any waste and all of the macro takes care of of any overload that feeding would cause.

*I know all of the stories (pro & can) about this stuff. I have done a lot of lab grade testing (In my prop systems) of this stuff and color, growth and overall health is always better when I use it. The combination of these two products will change the color and polyp extension for the best looking coral.

I am redoing most of my system so I will post pics as soon as I am done

Welcome! Nice set up, how old is it in the picture you posted?

Keep up the great work, nice setups!!!!

Welcome to the forums!!!!

Welcome to the board... you know it will be a long drive for the meetings

Amyjoe:Maybe I will have to move
Scott: tank is 3 years old in pic

Question ?? how large is your group ( how big are the meetings )

More Eyecandy from my tank

We usually have between 15 and 30 people at the meetings. Maybe more but we stopped counting several meetings ago.

Like the naso and purple tang

Think you could get me a rock started of those zoos you got?

Wow you sure do have a massive clean up crew ! Have you still got that large of a clean up crew ??

Man those buttons are beautiful....

Down to about 100 hermits but all of my snails are breeding. I see hundreds of baby snail of all six types in the tank( even the bumble bees). There are maybe 600 snails now. I feed them nori. I place a few sheets on the sand, they cover it and it is gone in 5 min.

It is unusual for normal snails to breed in the tank and the young live. I am guessing you have the normal hitchhiker snails that breed in the aquarium. You will see these in time, but they do not get large they will stay relatively small.

I know this but I have found a food to feed babys that increases their chances. Mark wiess Black powder. The babys will eat it. if I see them I take them out of the main system and put them in my refuge. I have sold over 100 Nass. snails out of my system. the other snail that I have a lot of is the little Bumble bees. I bought about 10 and they are everywhere.

My system runs very stable. With two refuge systems (one under the tank and one over). Large amount of macro algea in the refuges. (I throw out about 1 lb a week). a 8-10 in DSB, the system has a lot of inverts reproducing.

I do have a large skimmer (MTC about 5 ft high ) I run it 1 day out of 3 or 4. Pollution levels are low but plankton levels are high. Both phyto and zoo plankton. and I don't seem to have any fish that prey on the snail eggs.

I know the little white hitch hiker snails that you are talking about and I have those also, but I have to date documented 6 other type of babies that have survived to adult phase.

All i have to say is WOW, great info there on snail survival. How about some pics of your refuges.

Here is a pic of my over tank refuge

It is a 6 gal eclipse with the filter removed and a 13 watt PC bulb. There is a 2 in bulkhead in the top back corner. Water is pumped up from the main tank into the eclipse and then it returns thru the 2 in bulkhead back into the main tank.

the tank has a few shrimp a lot of pods and a tube worms. This is the refuge that I place baby snails into so I can feed them and keep them safe