[rededteck]

3 Pictures of my almost 2 year old reef. 220 gallon.

[rededteck]

Picture of a splitting leather about the size of a bowling ball. My clowns sleep in it at night

[rededteck]

This is my favorite a red sea springer dottyback, electric blue lines in the face and swims every where in the tank.

I have only 5 pieces of coral but they are larger pieces and growing like crazy. Getting ready to add a pulsing Xenia.

[Barry N.]

Your tank looks really nice I wish I had luck with power blues.

[organicreefer]

looks like some fat healthy fish.how about the lowdown on equipment ,lighting/ flow etc.
thanks for sharing youre pics.very nice

[watermama]

Very nice pictures! That is so awesome, the way the leather is splitting.....

Since you are doing so well with the leather coral, I will ask you, how hard are they really to keep? If someone was successful with various mushroom corals, do you think that they could keep the leather as well? Also, are the lighting requirements the same?
I have been thinking about trying one, but I want to make sure that it will do well in my tank.

Thanks for posting your photos, I love that dottyback!!!

[rededteck]

Thanks for the kind words both of you. This was a Christmas present from 1999. I bought the tank from aquamark aquariums, it is acrylic and was custom made to fit the length of my wall 68LX24WX30H. Built in overflow with about a 40 gallon sump.

No fair laughing at my equipment. My main pump in the sump is a mag drive 7 pump, 3 maxijets 1200 for waterflow. A berlin classic skimmer in the sump. The lighting is a do it yourself model made by me, an ice cap 660 ballast with 4 110 watt vho lamps, 2 blue and 2 white. 1.025 on salinity. Live rock is from pohnpei island, near fiji. It was priced at 2.00 per lb to Pittsburgh airport +$70 air freight.

Tank inhabitants Large Naso tang, yellow tang, purple tang, sailfin tang, juvenile blue atlantic tang, flame angel, pygmy angel, springer dottyback, royal gramma, 6 line wrasse, mandarin goby, cleaner shrimp, 1" abalone and 3" long now)

Corals are a frogspawn 2 large ones now, 2 yellow toadstools, a green polyp and a few others I dont remember there names. Anyway, the leathers have been easy to keep. I dose with C balance every other day.

Thanks again for the replies, happy reefing

[FISHme]

Great looking setup, very nice looking fish.

[organicreefer]

just maybe a little snickering behind youre back j/k

not alot of flow for a 220,but youre fish seem happy.i wish i had room for all those tangs,not laughing at youre tank one bit.

[scubadude]

This is what I consider a VERY spacious tank, as he doesnt have the tank flooded with corals.

You have alot of fish, but few corals...are you gonna be increasing the coral load anytime soon? Im interested in your upgrades if any as far as your bioloads and equipment. As you have seen Red I have a 220 goin that i just setup and I tried to do everything state of the art new....but you got your tank back in 1999 and back then this setup was fairly new im sure. Also im curious as to how much you feed your tank a day? or do you? LOVE the springer!!

[rededteck]

I feed them brine shrimp at night, my wife helps out some time. I have to caution her on the amounts as she does not understand what overfeeding does. I also give them dried seaweed, more so on weekends than during the day as we both work.

I have thought about adding more powerheads but there is plenty of movement in the tank.

The only other coral I plan to add is a pulsing Xenia which I will pick up on Friday. I obviously have more fish than corals, but, I just dont have the proper setup to add coral as the placement of the live rock was not well planned out.

[Penguin]

Hi rededteck,

Very beautiful tank and nice pics! Your fish posed so nicely in that first one. Could you give any additional info or comments on the Springer's dottyback (type/amount of food, disposition, behavior, etc)? Does it get along ok with the cleaner shrimp? I've actually been strongly leading towards a Springer's for my tank. Nice fish. Any insight you could give would be greatly appreciated.

[rededteck]

The springer dottyback is my favorite in the tank. He really has no certain area he maintains, he swims all over in and out of the rocks. I also have cleaner shrimp and have had no issue with them. He eats brine shrimp daily and flake food when I offer a variety.

It is a gorgeous specimin, I have been pleased with him. The price on these is a little stiff, however, salt water in general is an expensive hobby.

Good luck, I look forward to seeing your pics of a springer on here soon!!!

Any one else have one of these and had good luck?

[Penguin]

Thanks. I think I will be getting one after we move in a couple of weeks. You're right, they are a little pricey, but it sounds like it's worth it.

[vtec si]

Nice tank! I really like your leather! ADD MORE! SHOW US MORE!

VTEC SI