melev

For me, milestones are important. Being able to hit specific goals or maintain something for a measurable time period is always rewarding. If you aren't familiar with the 400g's history, here's the quick recap:

February 2011: I started up the 400g dream tank to be my reef for the next decade. 13 months later it sprung a leak. 18 months after that - November 10, 2013 - the 400g and a 60g cube were populated by the livestock waiting in a temporary 215g setup. A lot of work went on during all of that time but this is the brief version. If you want details, my blog here documented every interesting moment.

Getting everything into the 400g last November was very satisfying. The corals were packed wall to wall in the 215g and needed space to spread out and grow. Getting rid of the 215g made it possible to walk into the fishroom finally once more. And setting up the 60g to host all the anemones was the best decision ever.

As the reef settled in, I focused on releasing the newer version of melevsreef.com, including all the documentation about this setup that was authored over a two year period. I focused on sales, I displayed at trade shows, and I got my workshop arranged to improve productivity. About 90 days ago, something was wrong with the reef but it took me about a month to determine that I'd badly overdosed the tank with bacteria coupled with biopellets, turning that particular reactor into a nuclear reactor. For the past nine weeks I watched corals heal up from the disaster-in-the-making. Only recently did I realize that I've never had a complete tank crash in this hobby. When I see a problem, I do what I can to avert or correct it. So far, so good.

Last night as I looked at the reef, I wasn't thinking that it should be 3.5 years old. No, I was thinking how pretty it was, about to celebrate its reef-aversary today.

I shot video to share with you all. And I opened up a bottle of bubbly to celebrate!

Here's the view of the tank. I spent the past two days cleaning stuff so it would look its best for you.

I like Astrea snails. Trochus are another good choice. If one is stuck somewhere on its back, I'll flip it over or relocate it where I need it to be productive and useful.

Those blue spots on the sand are Tiger Cowrie droppings. That made me laugh. I'm not missing any blue corals that I know of... lol

These eels are just awesome to watch.

The Flame Angel has been a great citizen, and look how fat he is.

More baby fungias in the picture above. Probably 20 on that skeleton alone.

My reef is lit with three 400w Reefbrite TwinArc bulbs. These are metal halide bulbs that will burn in 10,000K mode first, then after a power cycle will switch to 20,000K mode for the rest of the day.

Top off is under the reef, and holds enough water for 10 days. The float valve keeps the floor dry when the container is full, and the blue valve on the right is how I shut off the feed. Once a week I'll refill the container by opening that valve, after running the RO system for 90 seconds first to avoid TDS creep (another one of my videos on youtube.com/melevsreef)

You can see the foot of the Sebae anemone deep down in the sand, in the above image.

In this image of Spock, you may notice a grey strip across the top of the glass. That is vinyl from a sign shop. I applied it to the glass to hide the waterline under the black plastic trim. It's held up very nicely, and I can use the cleaning magnet right over it without damage.

Is this the perfect reef with no pests or problems? No, I have a few aiptasia here and there.

Some majanos too. I'll get them, not to worry.

What about the videos? Here they are, in two parts and I hope you enjoy them.