To celebrate my water parameters getting in line, I bought a

Someone get me to stop buying stuff!

I got-

Massive rock with Clove Polyps on it, at least 150 Polyps on it
15-20 Polyp Frag of Anthelia Waving Hand
5 Lavender Mushrooms on a rock
4-5 Watermelon Ricordias
A single Purple Mushroom, not sure what species but it's one of the kind that sends new little baby mushrooms away from its mouth, they're fun to watch crawling around
Yellow Polyp colony

Skunk Cleaner Shrimp for antics.

Spread out over a couple of days of course ;D

I decided to take my tank in another direction. I really enjoy inverts a lot more than fish now, which is surprising because I was the opposite when I started saltwater husbandry. I'm kinda nervous cause although everything seems to be doing really well now I don't want to make a mistake and kill everything. I figured Anthelias were similar to Xenias in care, but Fosters&Smith has them as "Expert Only" which scares me They look like they're doing great and they're already spreading with new polyps forming, but I guess only time will tell.

Any suggestions? I really want some brighter colored mushrooms or other soft coral but my LFS's don't have too much left right now I'm trying to stick with softies and easier corals. I have 4 54w t5 HO lights over the 48" tank, soon to be 8 in a couple of days.

I'm so excited about everything. It's like starting over in a whole new world.

 

Congrats on everything! Sounds like its coming along well. Suggestions maybe a toadstool or go into a frogspawn or hammer of some sort, the light will be sufficient enough for those. Or you could stalk divers den on liveaquaria.com for some brightly colored zoas/shrooms/softies.

 

Awesome, sounds like you're doing great so far. I was about to ask how you can put 2 48" lights over a 55g, as it is only 12" wide. Then I saw you have a 100g, making it 18". Good luck!

 

If you have good reflectors 8 bulbs is going to be over kill for a softies tank.

 

Congrats on the adds. A six bulb unit will be fine for a softies tank.

 

Anthelias are fast growers. I advise to keep the rock there mounted on the sand bed. if you glue them to your rock pile they will spread and before you know it, it will need to be trimmed.. I have them on constant/medium flow in my sand bed, my clown loves them.

 

Thanks guys. I appreciate the tips. I am definately looking at a toadstool and on the lookout for some zoas once the light comes in. If 8 bulbs is overkill, I may just take two bulbs out of that new fixture then. I am running 2 actinics and 2 14k bulbs now, should I keep that ratio with the two new ones or run two actinics?

 

I got some Inside Out Zoas and a rock covered in neon green Mushrooms from Divers Den. That will be it right now or my wife will skin me alive and feed me to the coral bit by bit. I mean, I'm not worried about me, but who would take care of them when I'm gone?;D

 

Torch corals are nice just like the hammer and frogspawns. Also you may like a bubble coral, kenya tree, and fuzzy mushrooms.

 

I will try a Torch or a Frogspawn later on down the road for sure. I already maintain the nutrients needed to grow stony's so should be easy to put one in. Right now I am placing all of the corals in the center 2 1/2 ft and I have kind of a macro display thing going on in the remaining foot on each side. The macros frame the area with coral. I didnt start out trying to do that but after realizing it, I embraced the concept and went with it. You'd think the Foxface would eat all of it, but he concentrates on the Caulerpa for the most part and it grows about equal to how much he eats and fragments that start floating around that I pull out and throw away. It does a pretty nice job polishing the water combined with the other species I have in there. I know some people steer others away from caulerpa, but I take kind of a hardline stance with it to keep it in line. Any floaters smaller than 6 inches are removed and any white areas are immediately taken out. I also have a DMZ line where if it crosses that line its immediately trimmed.

I just ordered some Codium, Ulva, and Red Gracillaria from Reef Cleaners to add some more diversity as I only have about 4 species in there right now. I also ordered some cactus caulerpa to replace this grape variety since it's easier to manage. I heart macro algae.