75 Gallon Reef Tank After 7 or 8 Months(Pictures!!!)

This is my reef tank, almost 8 months in. It will be 8 months at the beginning of March. I use well water, no RO/DI. About, 10 to 15 gallon water change, weekly. 1 unit bio-chem zorb, GFO, Carbon, 2 units Chemi-pure elite, and a filter pad in a canister, with 9Watt UV sterilizer on it, using a spray bar. 2 Maxi-jet, and 2 penguin powerheads directed at the front glass from the sides, and straight across the back, behind the rockwork. 2 Odyssea, 75 gallon, HOB skimmers. (1)4bulb T5HO 48" Light, and (1)2bulb T5HO light over the top 12 hours on, 12 off, with moonlights on, alternately. Glass lids, not topless. 1 HOB Odyssea refugium, with Chaeto., and two twisty daylights over that(bedside lamps, with CFL 6500K Bulbs). About 125lbs. of live rock(definately more, although I don't know how much.) Mainly Softy, some LPS, Zoas, and a small anemone(Bought as unknown polyp, and turned into 3 small anemones. Go figure.) I bought most of the corals from Garf.org, which is where the Aiptasia came in, so most are tank raised. Got an awesome deal, over Christmas, on a frag pack, from them. I forget the heater type. I dose 4tsps. of Kent CB Part A. and 4tsps. of Part B, every day. Salinity is 1.025. My params. are Ph 8.2, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Calcium 360ppm, Alkalinity 10, (need to test Phosphate, and Nitrate, but last I checked both were 0, which I suspect to be wrong.) I skim wet. Inhabitants: 1 Yellow Tang(Tank Raised), 2 Ocelleris Clowns(Captive Bred), 1 Sixline Wrasse, 1 Cleaner Goby(Captive Bred), 3 PJ Cardinals, 1 Bangaai Cardinal, 1 Lawnmower Blenny, 1 Yellow Watchman Goby, 1 Reg. Firefish, 1 Purple Firefish, 1 Cleaner Shrimp, 1 Fire Shrimp, 1 Coral Banded Shrimp, Various Snails, A few Asterina Starfish, various hitchikers. If you have any questions or comments, please ask or make them. Thanks, for looking. Hope you enjoy.

I was feeding microvert, but the more I read on wetwebmedia.com, the more I'm getting away from it. Now i feed frozen brine shrimp, and bits of mysis. I've had the gorgs. since the week after Christmas(If I remember correctly.) I feed a lot of formula II, and i mash it up with a spoon for the smaller fish, so, I'm sure the corals get a lot of it. I've found that freshwater mysis(p.e. mysis) can kill your corals. Possibly, it was something else, but I fed my blasto. wellsi, and merletti, and the next day they started to die, and did not recover(totally bummed! The wellsi was this great green, and red.) Apparently, they can't handle the freshwater in them, and I rinsed them, and all. I clean the filter pads once a week, and i just do the recomended 6 month change-out for the chemi-pure, and bio-chem zorb. The carbon, once a month, and the gfo I'm going to change out every three weeks. I have changed out the gfo as long as a month, and totally regretted it. Lots of algae. I rinse all my frozen live foods, and get a lot less algae, now. That green film on the glass? Phosphate laden frozen food water.

Glad somebody likes it. I'm a little embarrassed by it, actually. I've been on a rollercoaster ride with supplements, but have started to get it right, and have had a few corals die(including the two blastos., and a whole bunch of zoas. Beginner coral my butt!). I caught a bunch of parasitic snails, that prey on zoas, I believe I have a flatworm infestation. I had a very bad case of cyano., but started to vacuum the sand, and that cleared that up. One of my ballasts went out on my lights, have aiptasia, now. I get this brown scum growing, and on the surface of the water when I feed too much or feed flakes that the fish won't eat. Don't get me wrong. This hobby rocks!!! I love my reef tank. I just can't wait to get over some of these new tank blues. My colt coral grew tons! I bought it as a tiny frag, that the lfs employee scraped off the live rock with a fingernail! It grows the fastest in my tank. Faster than the green star polyps. My mushrooms are totally happy, and some of the new frags have already started to grow, noticeably. The xenia hasn't done great, but they take a while to recover from shipping, and new tank, chages, etc., etc. I'll change my light bulbs at the beginning of next month. The chaeto. I traded half of the new growth into my lfs. Got rid of my hermits(wasn't sure if they were the culprit in my zoa die-offs. Only fish death was a yellow tang that I bought malnourished, and didn't see it, until I got it home(darn low light lfs!), after the store had already closed. If your just starting out with a reef tank I recommend reading a ton. I learned more from websites like wetwebmedia.com, reefcentral.com, and this one, than any of the books I bought(although, I recomend reading a ton of those, too. Especially, if you've never kept saltwater fish, before.), read the hobby magazines, too. I learned so much from them, it's not even funny.

Problem with testing Alk. is that I dose it in the afternoon, and test at night, so I believe it tests a little high. I, personally, thought for sure someone would say to get my calcium up a bit. Anyway, my tests have been steady a couple of weeks, so, I'm holding my breath. This is ever since I started to dose with the Kent CB. I misread the label, and only dosed one supplement a day, and since I started dosing correctly it's been stable. I test every week on Sunday's, so, I'll see if it's steady. I, also, started dosing Purpleup, again, because I moved my rockwork, and there are a lot of bare patches, with no corraline algae. Any suggestions would be helpful. I use a canister, because there's no sump. It's on a big, sturdy dresser, not a stand. I've thought about switching to media reactor, but this seems to be working, so, why switch?

In my Garage?!?! Lol! I guess, my unpainted shelves are sort garage chic. It's in my bedroom, actually. I'm renting a room from my parents, so, space is at a premium, as well as cash. I have shelves all over that room, and plastic bins under the bed, and my closet is overflowing with stuff. I'm not totally sure the flatworms are parasitic. They've been in the tank since I set it up, and I've never seen them bothering anything. Plus, I think my sixline has eaten most of them. I'll try to post apicture, at some point, to maybe get an i.d. Yeah, I plan on all hardy corals. Is it a little bit of overkill? I'd love to reduce the amount I use of media, I was just told that since I didn't have RO/DI I'd have to overskim, use a lot of media, and do extra large water changes, as well as lots of maintenance, don't overfeed, etc., etc., etc. So far, the fish are all great, and most of the corals are doing good, too. I planned on a mixed reef, from the beginning, and have Lps, zoas, softies, the anemone, and planned on a birdsnest, since, I read they were hardy, for a sps. Thanks for the comments. Don't know anyone else who reefs, out here. I'm, sort of, confined to the internet, magazines, books, youtube, and the two guys at Petco who have tanks. My LFS doesn't sell individual frags, unless I ask them to sell me the pieces that detach, get broken off or seperate from a colony somehow. I'm going to try to hit the frag swap at the Idaho Marine Society, in April, but it's four hours away, one way. The other salty tanks I had in CA failed miserably, due to ignorance, and a lack of funds, so, I've been overdoing everything on this tank. Any other suggestions are, totally, appreciated! I'm, always looking to improve my husbandry, and help the little guys grow. No Nitrates, probably due to all the media, wet skimming, vacuuming the substrate weekly, 15 gallon water changes, weekly, rinsing my frozen foods, light stocking, the chaeto. filled fuge, and going slow. Man! Never thought I'd have trouble with Xenia, because I keep a clean tank! Must be something else, lol!