JEREMY GAY
4 DAYS AGO
Every day is reef tank day for me, but on Sundays, I take the day off from writing and have the opportunity to execute some of my bigger plans. The 200-liter shallow soft coral lagoon is doing great. So great in fact that is there no room left for any new corals. The softies are starting to really overgrow, shade off and kill off some of the less aggressive LPS in there like Blastomussa, and as anyone could predict, the Green Star Polyp and Pulsing Xenia that I added intentionally to fill spaces have completely overgrown. I run a high pH, as high as 8.6, and it’s not just hard corals that put on extra growth, the softies go mad for it too, but with not an inch of room left and still plenty of corals I want to purchase, its time for a bigger tank.
A year in the making, I took the opportunity to move into what was my old kitchen, taking my laptop, and some empty fish tanks, and making it my new office. Knowing I wanted to go bigger I strengthened the floorboards and ran pipework through a hole in the wall to outside. The largest tank I could get through a diminutive porch door was 22” wide, so I managed to buy a freshwater 60x22x21” high freshwater tank and set about drilling it, sumping it, and converting it to marine. The blank canvas that is a bare tank is always the most exciting time for me, as in every tank I set up I aim to run better than the last, and my only conundrum now is if I opt for self-harm and go Acropora only, a fleshy, neon LPS-only crowd pleaser, or another mixed reef. They always end up mixed reefs as I like all corals but never have enough tanks, but regardless of coral type I always take time to plan the aquascape.
For the whole article, please go to:
How to Aquascape with Reef Cement | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog
Every day is reef tank day for me, but on Sundays, I take the day off from writing and have the opportunity to execute some of my bigger plans. The 200-liter shallow soft coral lagoon is doing great.
reefbuilders.com