keithschon
Supporting Member
I'm rebooting my Red Sea Reefer 250 (previous incarnation here). I'm going for an anemone / clownfish "harem" tank. People online say either that harem tanks are extremely low-maintenance, or that they are time bombs. I'm going to risk giving it a shot.
EDIT: I meant to link to my old tank journal here. The above link is for my equipment cabinet.
For the first time, I've built my own aquascape by breaking apart my old rocks (after sanitizing them), and putting them back together with superglue and E-macro 500 cement. I don't think that the result is an aesthetic masterpiece, but I checked all of the boxes that I wanted to try (e.g. arches, platforms, an unsupported overhang). And the result is growing on me. For sand I'm using CaribSea Hawaiian black AragAlive. I've wanted to try black sand for a while. I know that it contains magnetic particles to I have to be careful cleaning the glass. On the other hand, cleaning should be easier this time because I was careful to leave enough room around all of the rockwork.
My plan is to go with bubble-tip anemones for the clowns, and rock-flower anemones that I'll encourage to live on the smaller rock, just because I love looking at them. Somewhere between 7-15 clownfish from the same brood. I'm actually not sure what the right number is for a 55 gallon tank--if anybody has done a harem tank before and has advice, I'd love to hear it. And maybe some other tankmates like anemone crabs, and a lawnmower blenny for algae control.
I wanted to do a full reboot, so at the same time I sanitized the sump and the 11 gallon Fiji Cube that I have plumbed into it. For the latter, I'm using my old (sanitized) fine white sand, and some new aquascape. I've kept my mangrove, some star polyps, some mushroom corals, and some xenia. I haven't decided where to put all of these yet, but I do want to get rid or the rocks that they are currently on. I haven't decided whether to throw out the xenia, or keep it for nutrient control.
I'm not far along yet, but here are some pics showing my figuring out how I wanted the rocks to look.
EDIT: I meant to link to my old tank journal here. The above link is for my equipment cabinet.
For the first time, I've built my own aquascape by breaking apart my old rocks (after sanitizing them), and putting them back together with superglue and E-macro 500 cement. I don't think that the result is an aesthetic masterpiece, but I checked all of the boxes that I wanted to try (e.g. arches, platforms, an unsupported overhang). And the result is growing on me. For sand I'm using CaribSea Hawaiian black AragAlive. I've wanted to try black sand for a while. I know that it contains magnetic particles to I have to be careful cleaning the glass. On the other hand, cleaning should be easier this time because I was careful to leave enough room around all of the rockwork.
My plan is to go with bubble-tip anemones for the clowns, and rock-flower anemones that I'll encourage to live on the smaller rock, just because I love looking at them. Somewhere between 7-15 clownfish from the same brood. I'm actually not sure what the right number is for a 55 gallon tank--if anybody has done a harem tank before and has advice, I'd love to hear it. And maybe some other tankmates like anemone crabs, and a lawnmower blenny for algae control.
I wanted to do a full reboot, so at the same time I sanitized the sump and the 11 gallon Fiji Cube that I have plumbed into it. For the latter, I'm using my old (sanitized) fine white sand, and some new aquascape. I've kept my mangrove, some star polyps, some mushroom corals, and some xenia. I haven't decided where to put all of these yet, but I do want to get rid or the rocks that they are currently on. I haven't decided whether to throw out the xenia, or keep it for nutrient control.
I'm not far along yet, but here are some pics showing my figuring out how I wanted the rocks to look.
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