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Just a quick 4K walk around our Caribbean Reef Tank. Enjoy! 
180 Gallon Florida Coral Reef Aquarium Build at the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center
- Build Thread
- Thread starter Brandon McHenry
- Start date
- Tagged users None
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Caribbean Palythoa
And our ricordea are finally splitting!
And our ricordea are finally splitting!
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“Mirror view” of the tank
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Ahhhh! Your tank is in the upside-down! Watch out for demigorgons, mind flayers, and maybe a yuan ti or something else as-yet unseen.
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Well played! Very well suited for Halloween. ;Vamp
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Managed to snag a quick picture of our Atlantic Surgeonfish sporting some very nice blue coloration this morning. Enjoy!
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I feel like I didn’t even make a dent lol
fishybizzness
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By far my favorite fish in my tank! Hard for me to get it to slow down enough to grab a good pic! (Btw, the line is on the glass, not the fish)..Managed to snag a quick picture of our Atlantic Surgeonfish sporting some very nice blue coloration this morning. Enjoy!
Lifelongaquaria
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Feel that! One day I will leave behind my black boxes t5s and metal halides with controllable lights but just got my first Apex so probably be a while longer.
AnxiousReefer
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Congratulations on getting to ur masters. Your build is truly an inspiration!Hello All!
Its been a while since I have updated any of my threads and a few things have changed. First of all, I finally completed my Masters Degree at HBOI and graduated in May. I am now a member of our Outreach and Engagement team! I work on maintaining our live displays and updating them where need be as well as giving tours and working on new content for our visitors center. I hope to be able to update the threads for all of my tanks more frequently as part of my position. In the meantime I'd like to share two exciting things in the works.
First, our summer intern Abbey is working with me to completely overhaul our existing seagrass aquarium with better filtration and a larger display tank. Make sure to check out her updates to our current seagrass thread as we progress throughout the summer!
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/seagrass-aquarium-at-the-ocean-discovery-visitors-center.444340/
Second, we just recently received a donation from Ocean Reefs and Aquariums (ORA - located on our campus) to create a display showcasing their products at our visitors center. We have already gotten the tank up and running and I will be working on creating a build thread to showcase our new 100% aquacultured display tank! Stay tuned!
In the meantime, here are a few pictures of how the Florida Coral Reef is doing.
Our gorgonian growing its first ever branch.
The progress of our Caribbean Zoa rock.
And the most frightened jawfish that I have ever seen
Thanks to everyone who has read this thread and I hope everyone enjoys all of the cool stuff that is coming!
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Yeah ours is definitely near impossible to get a picture of because of how much it moves around. Beautiful fish for sure!By far my favorite fish in my tank! Hard for me to get it to slow down enough to grab a good pic! (Btw, the line is on the glass, not the fish)..
Thank you! It was a along road for sure but glad it’s done! And I’m glad you like the tank! It means a lot to know that people appreciate what this tank represents.
This is exactly what I’m trying to do in a nano twenty gallon! I’ve been looking for videos or blogs where people have replicated a Floridian reef system but haven’t been able to find any. What kind of corals do you have in the tank? I haven’t really been able to find any that are widely available or decently priced.
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Sounds really neat!
We have a few species that are protected (Staghorn, elkhorn, Montastrea, porites and oculina) that you wont be able to get but make up a large portion of our tank. However we do fill the gaps with Florida ricordea, st Thomas mushrooms, zoanthids and several different types of gorgonians all found throughout the keys and Caribbean. My recommendation for a “Florida“ system would be some good gulf live rock, lots of mushrooms zoanthids and a few nice gorgonians. You could also fill gaps with Christmas tree worms, sponges and ornamental macroalgae like halimeda, shaving brush, mermaids fan and caulerpa. Hope this helps! I’d love to see pics when it’s up and running!
It helps a lot! Yeah, I’m kind of sad I can’t have the corals like Elkhorn, Staghorn, and those Monti they were some of my favorites to see while diving. But I’d rather have them protected from being pulled up and sold. But I have a few zoanthids and mushrooms. Most of those others you mentioned I’ve never even heard of but will definitely be looking! And I’ll definitely show pictures when I compile it all. Thanks!!!
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Good luck to you! The Caribbean reefs definitely have a natural beauty to them and make you feel like you have a little slice of the ocean in your house!
fishybizzness
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I agree 100%! In my opinion, alot of people don't appreciate a natural looking tank because they have become accustomed to seeing super clean "reef" tanks on this site and others. Paul B's tank is probably one of the few that I've seen that is most like the reefs that I snorkel on! Keep up the good work!
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Thank you so much! Sorry I didn’t reply sooner, work has been busy!
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Here are some top downs for Thanksgiving! Enjoy!
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Came in to work the other day and all of our Astrea snails were spawning! Never had that happen before so I was super excited, and so were the fish!
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Christmas came early! Our colleague at the Smithsonian Marine Station gave us some more of his Acropora cervicornis frags! They look awesome!
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