40 Gallon Reef Tank

[Cheebs]

Well, a little more than a year a go, I moved to my new house. In the process, I downsized my tank from a 75 to a 40 breeder, as well as 2 other separate 25 gallon tanks. At first, these were only a temporary measure until I upgraded to a much larger tank. This is still in the works, but I think I'll be keeping the 40, because I've come to like it quite a bit, which is odd considering it was to be more of just a "holding tank".

Anyways! The setup itself is quite simple. The equipment is as follows:

- 40 gallon tank
- HOB Coralife 220g skimmer
- 6 Bulb t5 Tek light fixture
- Heater + power heads

The livestock:

- 2 Maroon Clownfish
- Flame Angel
- Starry Blenny
- Filefish
- Large assortment of inverts (Emerald Crab, Anemone Crab, Cleaner and Peppermint Shrimp, etc...)

I'm pretty much as stocked up as I want to be right now.

The tank is where I want it to be in terms of water quality and algae control. I do a 25% water change every 3-4 weeks. Now I'm just concentrating on promoting coral growth, and watching it grow! I dose Iodine every day, clacium when needed, and nothing else aside from that yet. I use regular Instant Ocean Salt.

I'll start with a recent FTS:


Here's a shot of the anemone, it's fairly close to being fully expanded here, although you can see the white spots on the rocks around it where it reaches out to sometimes. The clowns are currently hiding under the nem tending to their most recent batch of eggs.


Here's my anemone crab. I'm not sure of the exact name, but it's possible it's some type of cancrid crab, meaning it could potentially be mean to my snails or other crabs, but so far he or she is very docile and eats pellet food. An easy catch if she gets too aggressive!


She's always quite pregnant! A new batch of eggs pops up regularly.


But don't get her angry!


A shot of some of the Yumas and Rics. They seem to spread quickly in the tank.



I'll be uploading many more pics, I've got plenty on my computer and camera waiting to be uploaded. Pics of the clownfish come next I hope!

Cheers.

[JetJumper]

Nice setup!  I am curious, what type of anemone is that?

[LittleX]

Really nice setup

[Rybren]

Phil,

Nice setup and great pics!

Good job.

[laffy]

great looking tank. thats one big anemone!

[ray]

Looks good Phil and very good photography skills

Ray

[Cheebs]

Thanks a lot for the comments guys!

JetJumper, the anemone is an S. Gigantea Carpet Anemone.

[salvini55]

that crab looks crazy!

[Hookup]

Very clean, healthy, happy looking system!  Really shows a great attention to the care and feeding of your system... Just simple awesome.

[bongo]

very nice

thanks for sharing

[leemay]

your tanks looks great 
I have to ask about your iodine dosing, what got you on to that?
Others say its not needed, but it is defiantly working for you.

Thanks

[Cheebs]

Thanks! As for the iodine, I started dosing a long time ago. I heard it was supposed to be good for oyur softies, and the Kent Marine Iodine has calcium and other goodies in it as well. They seem to like it!

[Cheebs]

I turned the powerheads off to do some maintenance, and my female maroon thought she'd look good with a new hairdo... not much of an update but I thought the rasta comb-over look suited her quite well.

EDIT: One thing I noticed with posting this picture is how much she has changed over the years. You can see a picture of her in my profile pic to the left. That was about 4 years ago. Now that she is over 5 inches long, she is so dark she almost looks black, and her stripes have gotten so thin, they look like they are dissapearing slowly. She is one mean looking mama! I included a pic of her with her eggs... I counted over five thousand of them some time ago... it seems like there are more now.

[Cheebs]

Update! I reaquascaped the tank recently, and things are recovering nicely. The anemone is healthy as ever, and now with more light it's getting darker, stubbier tentacles. I've been regulating feeding so it doesn't expand too much, but  now that it's got more space I'll get it back to the size it used to be.

I also "modded" my tech light and added a blue reefbright strip, which really makes the colors pop. I'll post some actinic shots soon.



Here's an extra pic:

[Darth]

beautiful tank! Well done, what is that in your "extra Pic"??

[Hookup]

One of the best tanks I've seen...

[Cheebs]

Thanks guys! The coral in the "extra pic" if Cirrhipathes spiralis, or spiral gorgonian. I plan on getting more since this one is really starting to do well in my tank. Target feeding is key!

[darkphreak]

Damn that looks nice!

[NanoSF]

Where did you find your spiral gorg? Love the new arrangement. Looks great!

[Cheebs]

Thanks guys, more pics to come this week!

Nano, I got the spiral gorg from Ray's.