First steps into SW with a 30 gal tall

ahh, come on Gabe you know in a reef system everything is trying to kill everything else it's all about spacing and placement, trial and error /grin

grawlfang wrote:ahh, come on Gabe you know in a reef system everything is trying to kill everything else it's all about spacing and placement, trial and error /grin

That's why I said:

I'm not trying to talk you out of getting one but depending on if you value your corals or fish more you may end up having to remove some corals or the angel. Like everything in this hobby YMMV so give it a shot if that's the fish you want.

YMMV=Your Mileage May Vary

I've tried flame angels twice and had to remove almost all of an sps reef to get one of them out. One picked at LPS the other picked at SPS and softies. I'll most likely try another one day.

Man that really makes me rethink adding one now.. I know my wife wants a much more harmonious set up.. But I think it's time for another experiment lol.. I'll keep an eye on em, but it'll be at least 2 months before I consider adding any type angel so we'll see how our build goes

so its been a few weeks and the tank has cycled, so now I've been able to add some corals as well as finish the sump with some more live rock and then add some clowns the other day
here are some pics of what we've got goin on so far






in addition i got rid of my remora and got an aquaticlife nano internal 115 skimmer and its working great! i saw a dramatic change in my water chemistry in 2-3 days, as well as the addition of some caulerpa in the sump to knock out a lot of the algae thats been trying to grow in the main display
Id really like to get my hands on some GSP, and some xenia soon if anyone knows where i could find any

Oh wow, awesome rock! Is that Tonga?

Yeah from what I can tell it is.. I got about 25 lbs in my display from b_bailey and then about another 10 lbs is from a grand cayman reef

Great looking setup!

I'll double up on the no flame angel thing. If corals are important to you don't do it! :-) The main issue though is tank size. 30g wouldn't concern me if it were a shallow 40" long tank, but vertical space doesn't allow much swimming room (which is what this guy is going to need).

Love the clowns, and the fire shrimp! You should start seeing hair algae soon. It's quite normal. When you do, don't panic, snag a large clean up crew. www.reefcleaners.org has a great reputation.

Cool thanks for the advise.. During the cycle I did have a brown algae bloom that was pretty annoying, so i added a clean up crew that I picked up from josh, it was his urchin, 2 turbos, and 4 hermits and I kid you not, those guys had my tank spotless in 4 days.. Now in starting to develope a neon/ lime green algae as well as some coraline.. What's the green algae called btw? I'm also considering a tiger serpent starfish to add to in a couple weeks, but I don't know much about their care

I got a steal on a 150 watt metal halide lighting from Danny21 and I needed a housing for it and so I built this out of 3/4inch aluminum angle bars with a 3/4inch square pipe for the support. Aluminum is easy to work with because its a soft yet strong and light.. I built a simple 24x12inch frame and added sheet metal on the top to cover it.. after some primer and paint I then stripped the reflector and wiring out of the light and added it to the underside of fixture along with a longer and wider reflector just to make sure all the light is focused downward. I might add a fan if the temperature gets too high, but I think all in all it cost me about $30 for the materials and since Ive been running this light for several days I can already see a difference in my coral's polyp extension as compared to my 42 watt T5 light.. SPS here I come lol here are some pics of the underside and the front side


and the front underside

Nice looking job!

Looks really good! You could probably mount some stunner leds on there some point down the road. So a disaster turned into something great!

Just uploaded my first video of my tank! Just click on the "30 gal reef tank" link in my signature box and let me know what you think!

Lookin good!! I recognize some of those corals! Nice growth!

Thanks man! all those softies have been growing really nicely.. Some of the Kenya tree has even broken off and attached in several different location all of my tank including inside a little shell lol