Interesting being in Canada I was surprised when I came across this page where you are discussing my reef on the other side of the world so I thought I would say hello
& address a few of the questions and comments.
Warr7207 thank you for posting, I take that as a real compliment.
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AlfieAll cool but corals in a fuge don't make sense to me.
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In my opinion soft corals are a great nutrient export and are as efficient as many types of macro algae. That said this tank started out as an ornamental refugium with about 15 types of macro's but because I dose with "carbons" most of them died off. I had already put several corals in the tank and without fish it's a bit boring. True it's not a standard "fuge" however it is still quite effective and it continues to evolve. I do have a "cheato chamber" in the rear sump of this tank which is a "classic fuge".
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Warr7207Likes his softies separate from the SPS/LPS display tank, maybe it's a lighting or flow issue
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I have several softies & LPS in my main display and flow is not the issue. I try to remove stuff like xenia as it is like a weed and can first shade parts of the sps and as tissue necrosis takes place it grows right over top and will take over of you let it. If one looks closely at the picture you will see the bottom half of the tank is mainly LPS & soft corals. I have what I would call an sps dominated mixed reef.
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viper357Hmmmm, not too sure if you can really call that a refugium. I mean it's supposed to be a non-predator environment where critter populations can flourish, yet he's got fish in there. Still looks pretty good though.
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Trust me I have plenty of "critters" flourishing and most of the fish I have in the "fuge" don't bother them. I put that tank together to run as part of my filter system for the main display so I call it a refugium but you are welcome to call it whatever you like.
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jacquesbHi Warr - first time I see this thread! WOW! AWESOME Tank! I too was wondering about the fish he has EVERYWHERE! It does seem that he has tangs only in the refugium tough - probably to keep the macro algae under control?
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Thanks for the compliment. Since I don't have an equipment room and all my tanks are out in the open I wanted to have something to look at. I have no tangs in the refugium, although I do have a sailfin & rabbit fish in the frag tank as utility fish to help control algae growth. I have 4 tangs in my main display tank.
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DragonReefHow do they stop those corals from burning the crap out of each other or does he prune them back every couple of days ?
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You would likely be surprized just how little space between the corals you can get away with. Sure I get the odd burn but nothing too major. And yes I do prune occasionally as I have a little frag business I operate out of my house.
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AlanPacked too ful for my liking, none of those corals will ever reach a decent size. As for the flow rate for soft corals, they can tolerate a low flow but really do well in high deflected flow areas. remember a lot of softies are found in the upper reaches of a reef ie bright light and high flow zone.
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Sorry it's not to your liking but to each is own, although if you saw it in person you may feel differently, but who knows? As you can see I am definately not a minimalist, I find empty looking tanks really quite boring. If you are a diver I'm sure you can appreciate how crowded natural reefs get and I personally prefer that look over bare rock & empty space. Tanks with a few corals placed here & there remind me of a fruit stand and in my opinion don't look very natural. My tank dimensions caused many limitations as to what I can do but that aside I have tried to create as natural a "coralscape" as I could with what I had to work with. Just so you know I have several colonies that are easily as big around as a dinner plate so I think you under estimate the size of some of my corals, especially now as that picture was taken in January. That said, my idea of a coralscape is lots of corals of different shapes, sizes, shades and colours. I designed my tank so one can sit for hours and continually notice new things. I am however always pulling out pieces I that just didn't develop into what I was hoping was their potential so I "cull the heard" a fair bit and will continue to do so until I finally get the look I am going for, just not entirely sure what that is so my reef is always evolving. Now as for softies I mentioned earlier why I try to keep them away from the sps but it has nothing to do with light or flow.
One of the great things about this hobby is that what each of us do is entirely for our own personal tastes and if people like what you do, great, if not it really doesn't matter much since it wasn't done with them in mind.
Thanks to you all for your interesting comments and even a few compliments. Thanks for looking & happy reefing!!
11-04-2008
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