Figured it was time I made a thread to track the progress of my 125... It has a ways to go haha
This tank has been running for 3 years now, my original plan was a mixed reef with mostly softies and euphyllia but I ended up going with an anemone dominant display with a few random softies mixed in. I've always loved anemones, particularly magnifica, so I thought it would be cool to have a display focused on them specifically, however, I found that there were some issues. Mainly, quick growth and several deciding to split that quickly caused overcrowding issues, anemones wandering the tank in search of real estate is no bueno. I believe having several different species in the same tank didn't help with this either, if I were to attempt it again, I think a species only tank would be far more successful long term. Eventually it got to the point where I was moving anemones every couple days to prevent them from walking into each other, rearranging rocks and moving powerheads, just trying to keep everything happy, I enjoy working on my tank, but this got old quick. I eventually got sick of it and sold most of them off in May, except the mertensii and red haddoni (which then proceeded to walk into a powerhead and lost over half of its oral disc, it's still alive and recovering in my nano). The tank was pretty much empty at that point, aside from the fish and a few softies that survived the anemone onslaught.
I'll openly admit, I lost interest in the tank after that, so it was pretty much on autopilot for almost 6 months. Didn't do anything other than fill the top off, feed the fish, occasionally dose 2 part and empty the skimmer. It turned into an algae filled mess, but all the remaining coral and fish did just fine. I was looking at it a few weeks ago and decided it was about time to do something with the tank. Did a big water change and some minor re-scaping, and decided I'm going to go with a softie dominant display with tridacna clams and a few other inverts.
I'm still fighting some algae and a few patches of aptasia but overall it's looking way better.
-Tank and Equipment-
The tank itself is an old school Marineland 125 I picked up a while back off Craigslist. Ended up buying a premade stand from Petco for it since the 2x4 and plywood stand it came with looked like crap.
I've always been a K.I.S.S type reefer, having all sorts of controllers and gadgets has absolutely no appeal to me, so I'm about as low tech as you can get nowadays with new-ish equipment. Below is the sum total of equipment I'm running on this tank:
x3 Viparspectra 165W LED Fixtures
x2 AI Nero 5
Bubble Magus Curve 7 Protein Skimmer
No name return pump from Amazon
300w Eheim Heater
JBJ Auto Top-Off
Old homemade acrylic sump
The return pump is the only thing that will likely be upgraded at some point in the future, the controllable ones seem like a good idea.
-Current fish stock-
Zebrasoma xanthurum
Genicanthus watanabei (Female)
Xanthichthys auromarginatus (Male)
Paracirrhites nisus
x3 Amphiprion ocellaris (WC)
-Coral and Inverts-
Stichodactyla mertensii
Stichodactyla haddoni (red)
OG Milka Stylophora
Birds of Paradise Stylophora
Rainbow Pocillopora
Slimeball Anacropora
Forest Fire Digitata
German Blue Digitata
Red Capricornis
Red Setosa
Teal Staghorn Acro
GARF Bonsai Acro
Space Invader Pectinia
AC White Polyp Toadstool
AC Green Cap Fat Polyp Toadstool
AC Snowflake Toadstool
AC Green Fibre Light Toadstool
AC Flat Crown Toadstool
Biota Mountain Dew Toadstool
TCN Weeping Willow Toadstool
TSA Long Polyp Toadstool
TSA Green Long Polyp Toadstool
TSA Short Tentacle Toadstool
TSA Japanese Green Toadstool
TSA Neon Polyp Toadstool
TSA Glowworm Toadstool
ORA Neon Sinularia
ORA Kenya Tree
ORA Vargas Cespitularia
Tyree Green Polyp Toadstool
Japanese Neon Green WW Toadstool
Neon Green Cabbage Leather
Pink Pulsing Sinularia
Green Polyp Sinularia
Various unnamed mushrooms and zoas
I'll try and keep this post updated when I get new additions.
And a few pics from today. I really need to get one of the orange lens covers for my phone, but I did my best haha.
FTS
I did do a good bit of Black Friday shopping, so I'll have some new additions coming to fill some of the open spots haha
Thanks for looking!
This tank has been running for 3 years now, my original plan was a mixed reef with mostly softies and euphyllia but I ended up going with an anemone dominant display with a few random softies mixed in. I've always loved anemones, particularly magnifica, so I thought it would be cool to have a display focused on them specifically, however, I found that there were some issues. Mainly, quick growth and several deciding to split that quickly caused overcrowding issues, anemones wandering the tank in search of real estate is no bueno. I believe having several different species in the same tank didn't help with this either, if I were to attempt it again, I think a species only tank would be far more successful long term. Eventually it got to the point where I was moving anemones every couple days to prevent them from walking into each other, rearranging rocks and moving powerheads, just trying to keep everything happy, I enjoy working on my tank, but this got old quick. I eventually got sick of it and sold most of them off in May, except the mertensii and red haddoni (which then proceeded to walk into a powerhead and lost over half of its oral disc, it's still alive and recovering in my nano). The tank was pretty much empty at that point, aside from the fish and a few softies that survived the anemone onslaught.
I'll openly admit, I lost interest in the tank after that, so it was pretty much on autopilot for almost 6 months. Didn't do anything other than fill the top off, feed the fish, occasionally dose 2 part and empty the skimmer. It turned into an algae filled mess, but all the remaining coral and fish did just fine. I was looking at it a few weeks ago and decided it was about time to do something with the tank. Did a big water change and some minor re-scaping, and decided I'm going to go with a softie dominant display with tridacna clams and a few other inverts.
I'm still fighting some algae and a few patches of aptasia but overall it's looking way better.
-Tank and Equipment-
The tank itself is an old school Marineland 125 I picked up a while back off Craigslist. Ended up buying a premade stand from Petco for it since the 2x4 and plywood stand it came with looked like crap.
I've always been a K.I.S.S type reefer, having all sorts of controllers and gadgets has absolutely no appeal to me, so I'm about as low tech as you can get nowadays with new-ish equipment. Below is the sum total of equipment I'm running on this tank:
x3 Viparspectra 165W LED Fixtures
x2 AI Nero 5
Bubble Magus Curve 7 Protein Skimmer
No name return pump from Amazon
300w Eheim Heater
JBJ Auto Top-Off
Old homemade acrylic sump
The return pump is the only thing that will likely be upgraded at some point in the future, the controllable ones seem like a good idea.
-Current fish stock-
Zebrasoma xanthurum
Genicanthus watanabei (Female)
Xanthichthys auromarginatus (Male)
Paracirrhites nisus
x3 Amphiprion ocellaris (WC)
-Coral and Inverts-
Stichodactyla mertensii
Stichodactyla haddoni (red)
OG Milka Stylophora
Birds of Paradise Stylophora
Rainbow Pocillopora
Slimeball Anacropora
Forest Fire Digitata
German Blue Digitata
Red Capricornis
Red Setosa
Teal Staghorn Acro
GARF Bonsai Acro
Space Invader Pectinia
AC White Polyp Toadstool
AC Green Cap Fat Polyp Toadstool
AC Snowflake Toadstool
AC Green Fibre Light Toadstool
AC Flat Crown Toadstool
Biota Mountain Dew Toadstool
TCN Weeping Willow Toadstool
TSA Long Polyp Toadstool
TSA Green Long Polyp Toadstool
TSA Short Tentacle Toadstool
TSA Japanese Green Toadstool
TSA Neon Polyp Toadstool
TSA Glowworm Toadstool
ORA Neon Sinularia
ORA Kenya Tree
ORA Vargas Cespitularia
Tyree Green Polyp Toadstool
Japanese Neon Green WW Toadstool
Neon Green Cabbage Leather
Pink Pulsing Sinularia
Green Polyp Sinularia
Various unnamed mushrooms and zoas
I'll try and keep this post updated when I get new additions.
And a few pics from today. I really need to get one of the orange lens covers for my phone, but I did my best haha.
FTS
I did do a good bit of Black Friday shopping, so I'll have some new additions coming to fill some of the open spots haha
Thanks for looking!
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