125 gallons (6 feet long x 18" wide).  Not so deep (20") that I can't reach the bottom with my hand.  And my hands are in there a lot (I've had a number of live rock avalanches) -- I do try not to use hand lotion.

Lights:  Six normal output flourescent lights - two10,000K, three actinic, one 50/50.  (I'm not willing to spring for metal halides yet, although this may be why I don't have much luck with anemones.)

Filtration:  Although reefer purists will probably cringe, I use a Quickfilter (change filter 1x/wk), an Emperor biowheel (double) with carbon and filter pads (that I clean 1x/wk) a Fluval canister (that I hate cleaning -- it's hard to prime), and I just installed a Lifegard fluidized bed.  I use maxi-jet powerheads.  I have a SeaClone protein skimmer which is probably too small for the tank, but it seems to work well, and I like the big scum cup which I only have to clean 1x/wk.  And then of course as much live rock as will fit in the tank while leaving room for water to circulate behind and around.

Salt:  Ocean Salt, dissolved a day in advance in a big tub, add hydrokroll and aerate.

Temperature:  Was at 76 degrees, but I've bumped it up to 79 after seeing all the webchat on this subject.

Salinity:  1.023-1.025, which is too high according to the books.   But I haven't had disease problems (except for a slight case of ick on the regal tang that quickly cured itself, and a cottony looking thing on my maroon clown after his anemone died--when I got him a new one it cleared up).

Chemicals:  Kent Tectra CB, Parts A & B (calcium) (I switched from kalkwasser, it was leaving too much white fallout on the rocks), strontium, iodine, essential elements.

Age:  11 months.  No problems with hair/slime algae yet.

Right side of tank:  green brain, green button polyps, mushrooms, green star polyps in upper right corner.

Historical foto of redbase anemone and maroon clown.  (Anemone       Earlier foto of tank with my first fish--Yellow Tang and school of
did not survive a rockslide.)  Cleaner shrimp in background.                   Green Chromis, Regal Tang, Emperor Tang.
 

Reproduction:   My mushrooms have multiplied.  Some loose ones that fell onto the sand were placed on rocks and went wild.  My green button polyps are multiplying rapidly (tripled in number in 7 months).  My cleaner shrimp pair appear to be having shrimpies 3 months after I added my second one.  (Like most neophytes I panicked the first time it moulted.  It disappeared for days so I assumed it was dead, and then was CONVINCED it was dead when I saw the exoskeleton, complete with antenna, floating around the tank!)  I'm trying to raise them in a convalescent home hanging inside the tank.

Lessons Learned:

Sand:  Make sure you rinse your sand out before putting it in the tank.  I spent days with a razor scraping cloudy gunk off the sides of the tank after I poured water on top of the sugar sand substrate right out of the bag.

Anemones seem to be hard to keep.  I've killed 3 so far.  The worst experience was when one exploded after I switched from a 60 gallon to the current tank.  It slimed all the filters and the glass.  It is very depressing to see them fall upside down onto their tentacles and shrink up.  The problem is that my maroon clown is miserable without them, and bugs the gonipora.

Difficult Fish:  I've had bad luck keeping the following fish alive:  dragon wrasse, mandarin goby, golden-headed sleeper gobies, flame angel.  The fish store told me regal tangs were dainty--I was cleaning off a plastic plant and unbeknownst to me the tang was in it.  I sprayed hot water on it before I noticed it in the sink drain.  I threw it back in the tank and it has since tripled in size.

Favorite Fish:  My favorite, most robust fish are my flame hawk (they're expensive though!), yellow tang, coral beauty, and six-line wrasse.  But it's so hard to choose!

Feeding:  I feed my fish live brine shrimp at least once a week, which is why I think they're so healthy.  I also feed live bloodworms, but they clearly prefer the shrimp.  Otherwise, I feed them dried kelp (in a suction clip), frozen food (Sally Omega3 brine shrimp cubes are their favorite--they don't seem to care for mysis) and flake food or pellets on occasion.  I feed lightly, twice a day.   I feed my eating corals (bubbles, hairy leather, greenbrain, frogspawn) once a week (pieces of shrimp or scallop with tongs).  My cleaner shrimp and brittlestar also get shrimp or pellets once a week.

Corals:  I have tried to pick easy corals since I am new to the hobby (although I kept freshwater for years).  Most of my corals look fabulous (amazing expansion after a water change).  I've had problems with a small pink star polyps and some orange button polyps both of which are slowly declining, and a red brain that had tissue recession on one of its two branches.  Also had one branch out of five on the frogspawn receed, but the rest looks great.

Buying:  The best buys (tanks, coral, live rock, even fish) are from people who are either moving, or have grown tired of the hobby (I find them through the classifieds).  I usually pay 1/2 to 1/3 of retail store prices.  Most of my rock (Fiji?) came from this source, and was already heavily encrusted with coralline algae.

Heat:  In Amarillo (AKA Siberia--a lovely location that smells like a cowpie made with rotten eggs) it gets very hot in the summer (100 degrees plus for days on end) and I have to shorten the lighting period, turn off a power head, and put a clip-on fan on the edge of the hood blowing across the surface of the water.  Tank temperatures get up in the 80's, but I don't want to invest in a chiller and most hobbyists don't seem to rave about them.

Bad Anemones:  Don't buy live rock with glass anemones (apistasia) on it.  I've had to hunt mine down one by one and, using an 18 gauge hypodermic, inject them with boiling water.  This is tough to do because they retract quickly--you can't hesitate.  It works though!  Scarily enough, I'm actually starting to enjoy the massacres--gives my life a sense of meaning.

Pictures:  I haven't had much luck with fotos.  They are usually blurry and washed out looking.  I wait until night, and use a 35mm with 400 speed film, no flash.  A tripod would probably help.

Read!:  Read every book you can find!  My favorite books are Nick Dakin's The Book of the Marine Aquarium, Robert Metelsky's Simplified Reefkeeping, and Delbeek and Sprung's The Reef Aquarium (Volume 1).  The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium (Volume 1) has some great underwater fotos, and lots of information, but I found it a bit disorganized.

Links:  There is an awesome amount of information on the web.  My favorite links so far are  Thefty's Photo Gallery (awesome closeups!),  Aquarium Frontiers On-Line (magazine),  Aquarium Net (F.A.Q., library of articles, etc.),  and Simplified Reef Keeping (Robert Metelsky's site).  These sites and the excellent personal reef pages out there have listings of other informative links you might want to check out.

Left side of tank:  bubbles (red and white), colt and green elegans.     Right side of tank:  gonipora, frogspawn, colt, regal tang, leather

"You have now confirmed that you have absolutely no life in Amarillo.  I can just picture you sitting at home with the tumbleweeds bouncing off the house, your dog peeing on the furniture, and you with an 18 gauge hypodermic needle squirting little undesirables in your tank.   Pathetic Scooter---get a life!?"  - David IShouldTalk (who currently maintains a 20 gallon hair algae farm tank with one lone surviving fish in it).

"Very cool, informative saltwatery website with tentacled tidbits of marinated minutiae and stimulating latin binomials to boot.  Low-res photos could be transferred to a lobotomy sample website without noticable loss of relevance, but improve as the colorful descriptions allow fascinated webweenies to project their own fevered Rorshak images onto the amorphous blobules.  Better get the 10-digit visitor counter embedded soon - this site promises to be the Sargasso of the
Cyberworld sooner than you can shake a limulus polyphemus."  - Steve Pita

 

Close ups

Anemone

Gianapora

Reef Inhabitants

Fish

Right side of tank

Comments, suggestions, or related information or questions are welcome!   E-mail me at  scooter@connix.com

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