Drill Sergeant Office 30g Reef

I suppose I have been a ghost here long enough, so I finally was inspired to take some time to snap some pictures of my office tank, and register here at 3reef.

I'm finishing up my time as a Drill Sergeant, and this little tank has been a life saver. Working 16 hour days most days with one or two 27-28 hour days can be stressful. Early this my doctor advised me to do something to my office to make it a relaxing retreat for me when I need a moment in the middle of the day. Being a FW junkie I thought this would be the perfect chance to start a little SW aquarium and slowly break into the hobby. So I received permission to put a tank in my office. My XO donated her old 30g she had in her garage and my CO brought in a stand. I went to my LFS and picked up some cured live rock and live sand and went to work.

This tank has been a savior, whenever I hit my boiling point I just go in my office and study it for a few minutes... instant stress relief.

Attached are pictures of 30g reef right after the lights came on, I'll take some more pictures tomorrow at mid-day with everything opened up. I started this SW tank back around early June. It's 30 inches long, 12 inches wide, running 1 50/50 10k/acintic T8. My LFS has a double on order for me, then I will be upgrading to a 14k and an acintic T5. There are two SICCE Voyager's currently providing my water current. The rockscaping looks aweful, but in 3 months I'll be moving to a new building and a new office. When I move I'm going to redo the rock layout.

Currently the tank is home to 6 snails, 1 red emerald crab, 1 colony of red/brown button polyps that hitchhiked in on some LR, 1 frag of neon green clove polyps (added 3 weeks ago), 1 frag of green star polyps (added 1 week ago), and a bit of pipe organ (added one week ago) my LFS hooked me up with for free. After I move my office I'll apoxy them into place on the new LR setup.

 

more pics

Here are the rest of the pics.

 

Hello and welcome to the 3reef fam. Nice setup drill sgt.

 

Looking good! I always felt bad for my drill instructors looking back. Its a tough job to put on that personal for so long! Keep finding ways to be yourself when you have the opportunity and thank you for making better soldiers!

 

Careful DS, you know Top don't like folks hoppin in those public chats....lol jk

Glad to see the set-up, great work.

 

Any suggestions?

Thanks a lot!
I'm the envy of the battalion, people stop buy at least once a week to see what's new with the tank. My CO is always yelling "WHEN YA GONNA ADD FISH!" I'm thinking of adding this beautiful velvet damsel I found, but I wann have a very stable reef before I slow bring in fish. I'm curious as to what kind of cleaning crew I should add. This is a Long Slow Build. Nothing good happens fast.

My sand bed varies from .5 inch to 2.5 inches thick thanks to my crab. It is showing lots of great life, but I think I need something to sift/stir it. I was contemplating a Red Dwarf Star. Any suggestions? I eventually will have 12-15 snails in there. Been picking them up a few at a time. What else should my cleaning crew consist of?

 

blue leg hermits, nerite or cernith snails. sand sifting starfish. the possibilities are endless.

 

I'd really like a starfish, my concern is that I don't have enough life in my sand. The tank has been running about 3 months. I used live sand and cured live rock. I can see tons of life in the sand. At what point to do I know it's enough to support a creature like a starfish?

 

you can target feed it if you have to. until you get fish in there.

 

Nice start.
Some convict damsels would be kinda funny s your recruits may feel akin to them...LOL

Or some soldierfish
like this http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15 42 305&pcatid=305...edit can't get this as it requires a 70 gallon tank.