I knew I'd finally succomb to writing a little something in here.  My name is Bill.  I'm currently going to Minnesota State University, Mankato for Ecology.  I plan to eventually get a job in the field of either Wildlife Biology or Marine Biology.  The latter being more of the preferred choice obviously.  I got a late start on school since I first joined the military a year out of high school.  

I first got into saltwater aquaria after the military in early 2004.  I sarted out with a 30g mixed reef with mainly softies.  I soon added a 55g and started to gethooked on SPS.  I then transitioned to a 75g and quickly to my current 125g SPS dominated reef.  I already have my next tank ordered.  Its being made by Aquarium Obsessed.  It's 60" x 36" x 24" roughly 210g  Starfire glass on front and sides and the eurobrace with an external overflow.

My current 125g holds roughly 175lbs of live rock many of which are show size.  The majority of my reef structure is made up of only 3 rocks. I have a few soft corals but mainly LPS and SPS.  As you can see from the full tank shot mainly Acropora.  Don't worry about the Sohal tang,  I bought him at a local pet store about a month ago knowing I was getting my bigger tank.  He was/is just too amazing to pass up and I knew I would give him as good of a life as possible in a fish tank.  He about 9 or 10 inches.

My lighting and filtration will stay the same for my new tank with the addition of one more 250W halide.  My skimmer is a DIY version of a Deltec.  It has an 11" wide body and a total height of 37".  My sump which I just finished is roughly the size of a standard 75g tank made out of 3/8" acrylic.  It has a 20g refugium which I plan to house a Fiji Mud bed with macro algae and a nice large Mantis Shrimp.  My lighting is handled my a DIY Oak hanging canopy that has 1-250W 10K and 2-250W 20K Radiums along with 2-165W super actinic VHO's.  My actinics are on 10 hours a day and my halides about 8 hours a day.  I occasionally run a bag of carbon and also run a small UV sterilizer.

Feeding is done my an automatic feeder with formula 2 flake food.  I also spot feed many of my LPS corals with mysis and brine shrimp.  I culture my own phytoplankton and plan to soon start culturing rotifers.  I have a pair of breeding Tomato clownfish and want to try and raise some of their eggs to maturity.  I think it would be an interesting experience.

I have a DIY calcium  reactor that supplies my alkalinity and calcium needs.

I'll leave you with some pictures.  If you have any questions or comments please feel free.

What a score this was. This interesting Echino was in a shipment from Indonesia 5 weeks ago. It's about time that a new coral hit the scene. I call it the Miami Hurricane for the similar colors to the University of Miami.i I thought I would share with everyone. I wonder what else is out there in the vat ocean?

Frags of my New Aussie Acans are for Sale & Trade.  I really would like to do some trades for Non indo micros, Tyree red watermelon, and sps.

www.eyecatchingcoral.com

Thanks,
Jim
Sportsguy247@aol.com

my tank:

40g oceanic stretch hex

lit by current usa t5s

filtered by an emperor 400

aquaclear powerhead running

live rock/sand

colt coral

xenia

mushrooms, mostly blue

long tentacled anemone

trumpet coral

three tridacna clams

1 maroon clownfish

1 neon goby

2 banggai cardinals

1 brittlestar

2 sandsifter stars

4 electric blue crabs

a dozen snails

I've had the privlege of obtaining some wild Australian Acanthastrea.  I've been waiting a long time for something like this to happen.  Some of you may know me and my love for Acanthastrea.  I've been collecting them for about 5 years.  But I've never purchased a wild colony.  Up until now all my colonies were grown from frags from fellow reefers.  This is my first step into wild collecting.

And with out further ado, some pictures.

Orange Flames

Lemon Lime

Alien Eye Acan

Cherry Bomb

Evil Eye

 MicroLord Acan

MicroLord Colony

 MicroLord with the Flash

Pastel Aussie Acan

Pink and Purple Aussie Acan

Pink and Purple Acan frag

Snowflake Aussie Acan

Orange Flame Frag

Orange Flame, Micro Lord, Evil Eye and Cherry Bomb Group photo with Actinics

Another Group shot

I'd also like to thank Reefphotos.org for the web space to host these photos.  My webspace was deleted and all my old photos not active anymore.

Hello and thanks for taking time to read volume 1 of my first blog.  I have no preconceived format so this will to say the least, be a work in progress.  I thought I'd start out by telling you all a little about myself, my reef experience, and my current set-ups.

 I turned 40 in March of this year and am well on my way to executing the mid-life crisis I've been planning since I was in my 20's.  Nothing completely "life changing", but if it didn't change my life in some way, there wouldn't be much need for a crisis half-way through life now would there.  I've been in the Air Force for almost 19 years and I'm currently stationed in Las Vegas. 

Tanks

My primary tank is a 72 Gal Bowfront with a 30 Gal sump/refugium. I have a 48" 560W Outer Orbit light over it with 2- 150W MH's, and 2-130W PC's with white LED lunar lights.   Currently using a Coralife 125 Needle Wheel Skimmer with modded impellar for increased bubble chopping.  I did the fishing line weave throughout the needle wheel splines mod found on Reef Central's DIY forum.  My sump/refugium is home made to maximize space in a bowfront stand.  I split my overflow returns and run about 60% of it to the sump side for the skimmer, and about 40% through a refugium filled with a 3" sand bed, 15 lbs of LR, and chaeto. Both sides overflow (skimmer side through baffles to reduce micro bubbles) into a center section where my return pump sits.  I am using a Quiet One 5000 right now and am pretty happy with it.  Inside the display tank, I have 2 Hydor (model 3) Koralia's, and a Tunze.

I also take care of my sons 12 Gal Nanocube.  It's a stock setup with the exception of the return pump.  I removed the factory installed return pump and lines and replaced them with a Maxi-Jet 1200 and a Hydor water deflector to increase circulation and surface agitation for increased oxygen.

I had my first saltwater tank in 1997 when I was stationed in Omaha, NE.  I converted a 55 Gal into a FOWLR and just learned the basics of the hobby.  I took the tank down when I PCS'd in 2000 and put my next one up in 2003.  I bought a 54 corner tank previously established so I avoided having to cycle it.  I had that tank for just short of 2 months when I felt the need to upgrade.  I got lucky and bought a previously established 72 Bowfront tank, which is the one I currently run.  Not to say I haven't felt that need to upgrade once again, but since I am retiring in a little over a year, I thought it would be best for all to wait until I retire and decide whether or not I'm going to stay working here in Vegas, or move elsewhere.  We all know what an undertaking moving a reef tank is like so the urge to upgrade is kept in check quite easily....all I have to do is stand in front of my tank, look at all of that "stuff", then imagine taking it down, packing it, selling what can't be moved more than across town, etc and I quickly find myself content with what I have right here...right now.

 Well, I think that about covers it.  I've also purchased a new Canon digital camera and a 100mm Macro lens so I hope to get some pictures up soon.  Thanks for taking time to read my Blog. If you have any similarities, let me know so I can read you Blog's as well ok?

Cheers, Rob 

Hello, Everyone. I just want to introduce myself. My name is Sonny Impellizzzeri and I'm the owner of www.Mrcoral.com . We just launch our site today and we are excited to bring everyone what they want great coral at great prices. Please check us out and join the mailing list and be the 1st to get updates on new corals posted daily. Also, just for joining you will get $10.00 off if you would like to place a order. I'm looking for feedback on the site!! Any suggestion please send me a email.

Thanks again

Sonny Impellizzeri

www.Mrcoral.com

Thought we'd announce our new site that launched today - www.reefphotos.org.

The site is designed as a "flickr.com" for reefers. Basically, its a service where you can organize and share your photos. People can comment on them, and we also provides free hosting of unlimited reef-related photos. That means you can be embed links to your images on frags.org, reefblogs.org (if you haven't noticed, we renamed blogs.frags.org to reefblogs.org), and even discussion forums.

The way you organize photos is by using "tags". This is a commonly used way on other sites to create a structure without having to predefine a rigid hierarchy before a site like this is launched. This also means that the collection of tags will grow over time, and more popular tags will appear larger in font size as they are used more and more.

Please let us know what you think!

 Hey  Everyone,

Just thought I would share some photos of my new obsession.

These are all coldwater animals

More Pics To come!!!!!!

Enjoy,

Mike

www.thecaptivereef.com