My 58 gal

[VSpeck]

Hey all
I rearranged my 58 today and wanted to get some opinions. The tank was set up as a 3 sided room divider and I didnt like the limited amount of room i had for coral since it had to be away from all panels. Also hard to take pics because you cant see the whole tank at once.

Anyway today I had nothing to do so I pulled all the rock and corals out and started over. Here is a before and after.
Before

After

The new skimmer

 

[VSpeck]

Here are some pics of the corals an such. LMk what you guys think of the new setup.

 

[Piggy]

Tank looks good. You have some very nice looking corals. Love the Flame and the tang.

 

[messiah023]

Looking good V.

Wholly Crap!!!! Is that an optical illusion or is your skimmer a mammoth?
It looks like you could skim the scales off your fish with that thing!

 

[d.french]

tank looks alot better better, love the red zoos, if you frag any let me know i have a couple frags of fire and ice zoos(red skirts with blue centers).

 

[VSpeck]

Messiah-No illusion its as tall as my stand. 12"diameter 32" tall 3nw pumps

DFrench-If you are talking about the bams i have some ready lmk when you want them. I dont have any fire and ice zoas yet.

 

[fatman]

You bought the skimmer based on up grading to a larger tank I take it? What is the rated capacity of that skimmer, something like 400 to 600+ gallons? Why so much rock? I like the Montis. Whoa, and Tunze Turbelle Streams. If your gonna use power heads they are definitely "the" power heads. Magnets or not, I would rather have Tunze Turbelle Streams than VorTechs.

 

[Bifferwine]

The new aquascaping looks great! I really like your tank.

 

[VSpeck]

thanks everybody. yea i like my streams. everyone i talked to wasnt impressed with the vortecs so i stuck with tunze.

I bought the skimmer for the upgrade but There has been a change in upgrade plans and i dont think this skimmer is going to do the job anymore. But it does a hell of a job on my 58.

As far as rock i like the look of a reef wall. I use alot of rock because when the corals grow out i can remove some.

 

[roberttroy81]

Like the new look alot better.Just More Natural looking.I also love your little frag setup in the back.Thats a skimmer,looks like your sump and skimmer is bigger then the display tank?:DKeep us posted.

 

[VSpeck]

I think the sump (40long) and the skimmer almost equal the volume on the dt.

The frag racks were a last minute idea between a freind and i after splurging on some corals. and having to clear some room. We made two racks and he now has the smaller one. I'm sure some one has done it before but it is just eggcrate and some magfloats so i can adjust the rack.

 

[RyanG]

Cool idea! Ive never seen it done. Patent it haha!

 

[VSpeck]

damn now i have to take the pictures down so no one steals my idea...lol

really it works great though if you dont have a dedicated frag tank try it.

 

[fatman]

I bought the skimmer for the upgrade but There has been a change in upgrade plans and i dont think this skimmer is going to do the job anymore. But it does a hell of a job on my 58.

That must be a pretty large upgrade your planning. Isn't that skimmer rated out for up to 600 gallons? I start out with a lot more rock in my tanks, and remove most of it over a period of time. I like the wide diversity of life forms that can come with good live rock, but I am not all that impressed with having to give up the space they require when they are used as the primary biological filtration system. Especially when it is the prime space. That 1/3 up to 2/3 up from the bottom space that is so good for coral. Removing it to remote vats suits me much better. I would rather look at SPS corals, than tunicates, sponges and coraline covered rocks.
The rack coral grates with magnets has already made the rounds of the other sites, never pictures of them that I have seen though, just references to them and a few vague descriptions.
Some nice looking color and shape on some of those frags. I grew up in Missouri. A place called Gladstone, that was surrounded by Kansas City. Definitely did not have coral in Missouri back then. Left the state in 1972.

 

[VSpeck]

Added some new corals i dont have many closeups but i will get some. I have to get a big tank up i am running out of room.

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Can anybody tell me what these corals are called? Not up to date on most sps names yet. TIA

btw the algea is b/c i lowered the flow in my tank and started feeding more.(not good for my tank) I upped the flow and it is going away.
\/\/\/

 

[fatman]

Are you asking about the bottom left hand coral? It looks like a Seriatopora (Cats Paw or Birdnest). Typical description is: Finger-like branches of varying thickness with blunt tips. Thicker ones are more typical of shallow water high energy reef zones with strong water motion. Thinner branched ones, which are more common, occur in shallow lagoon environments and deep water. The green one on the right looks like a Montipora from the Soloman Islands, they are increasing in value as they are no longer available from the Soloman Islands, only from fragged stock now.

 

[VSpeck]

the two corals on the bottom of the last pic. thanks

 

[lightcs4]

Tank looks great! I always enjoy seeing what can be done with tank similar to mine. The new design really looks good. Awesome idea with the frag rack, by the way :Cheers:.

 

[daugherty]

the blue one looks lie a bali tort

 

[fatman]

Could very well be. It does seem to have a lot of under deloped length to its branches, they would have to lengthen out if it were a Cats Paw. That would make it about a $50 frag it is is a Bali. The Below picture is an older,larger, $100 Bali Tyree limited Frag. Most of the blue ones can be traced back to Tyree, an avid coral grower, speaker, researcher, author etc.