Bay Area Reefers

Here's the tank with water in it. So far I've only managed to grow algae as I work on getting the water ready for creature comfort. The evaporation rate is rather high (~1g/36h) so I need add an ATO and/or some plexiglass cover sheets. I have only a tiny 250G/hr pump on it at the moment. I think I need to upgrade this and add a power head for more flow. The light is also going to move once I have the return pump set up correctly.

Nice start.

Nice FT Mike. I evaparate about a gallon a day on my FT and will be adding a ato down the line also. Any other equipment add ons down the line ?

I have a few frags you can plug into the rack when you're ready in time. Turbinaria, pocci, monti that should handle a beating should the need arise LMK.

I'd keep that return and just add a powerhead. If you got cash, mp10, if not so much one or two smaller koralias. Looks nice and clean. Enjoy it while that lasts!

I'm playing it nice and slow with the frag tank. I don't want to put anything in just to kill it and while I am very interested in DBTC I think it will be quite a while before I am confident to put guest critters into the tank.

Question though: I would like something to put in that's very forgiving and quick growing and make sure that it grows and I can successfully frag it, mount it and see the frags grow before adding anything else. I have been planning to put a chunk of green star polyp, some sand polyps and clove polyps in first (they are what I have that seems most durable). Any other suggestions of good "practice frag" species?

MP10 powerhead looks like the one for me and probably an MP40 for my reef tank. Anybody know of any good deals on the vortechs? Alternate recommendations also welcome. I will probably pick up two Koralias today from my LFS as my primary tank needs much more flow.

One no vote on GPS or clove polyps. Unless you plan to make topiary shaped frags and grows the GSP over forms. They grow too fast and the cloves can sprout other places in the tank.

Get some monti, encrusting, plate or digi. Try caulastria too. It will tell you if your mag gets low. Grows PDQ and frags easily. Favia was an easy one for me early on for quick growth and a charm to frag. I got rid of most as it sends sweepers, though I never saw much on my christmas type favia, day or night.

I agree with Richard... the cloves & GSP will spread faster than you would like. I have extra orange monti cap that is pretty indestructible. Can bring some to the frag swap for you. Also, I have blue-green candy cane/trumpet coral that is pretty tough... you can have some of that too, if you wish.

If you don't want to start with stonies I have some pieces of Green Nepthea, Weird encrusting bluish micro-xenia, and some regular xemia you could have as well, just let me know.

Post swap and a montipora eating nudibranch scare I now have corals in the frag tank! I tested the water parameters a couple of times and then real world tested the waters for a few days by putting in a chunk of green star polyp and some snails. They lived so I deemed it safe. Everything seems to be doing quite well.

In the meantime I also learned that the return pump I have is submersible. Removing the intake tubing I had on it and using a foam prefilter I am getting about twice the volume of water I had been getting. (now about 350Gph). I also installed a Korialia 750gph powerhead which seems to make the corals very happy. The lighting is still suboptimal. I can't move the compact flourescent hood from it's current position because the tank is currently open top and I want to avoid any splashing on the bare bulbs. I think I am going to get a second two tube fixture once I get mangroves in the tank.