webdr's blog

webdr · 07-18-2006, 04:52 PM

Webdr's 29 gallon reef tank

Hello everyone!
My name is Matt, I live in Atlanta Ga.
I am a college student finishing up my last year at SCAD (The Savannah College of Art and Design) and as of today, July 18th 2006, I have 37 days till I graduate!
I work at PDK airport as a ramp supervisor(college job) and I also work part time at The Weather Channel (hopefully a career soon).
I live in a small studio apartment so size dictates my tank as of now.
Its over two years old and despite various deaths, dissapearances, algae blooms and aiptasia outbreaks, its been a great learning experience.

Heres a current pic of my tank:

webdr · 07-18-2006, 05:05 PM

Heres a shot of the early days...
I remember being so concerned about powerhead placement and sand movement. I would change the powerheads weekly.
No skimmer yet. I opted for the CPR bak pak2 which I still use.
The powerheads at the time were a maxijet 1200 and 900. Since then Ive added another 900.
The light bar is a no-name with 2x55 watt 50/50 PC.
I picked it up off of the forum from a guy for 30 bucks. Thanks Bro!

webdr · 07-18-2006, 05:18 PM

Heres my tank after a few months and my first coral. A friggin xenia! At the time I loved it. I would cut the powerheads off and watch it pulse. The coral banded was Pepe (RIP). He died in a freak kalkwasser dosing gone wrong. The water turned milk white... I thought I had destroyed the tank. He held on for a few days but eventually succumbed to the calcium based beat-down. I felt really bad

webdr · 07-18-2006, 05:34 PM

heres some pics of my first creatures. I bought a lawnmower blenny (Lenny of course), a coral banded shrimp, some astrea snails and a spray crab. The funny thing about the spray crab is that EVERYONE calls them sally light foots. They are NOT sally light foots and all fish stores screw it up. The sally is red and yellow ond FAT! The nimble spray crab is just what you get at all fish stores: the little brown and yellow banded crab. Enough ranting already!

webdr · 07-18-2006, 05:39 PM

more of Lenny
The first picture got into the TRT calendar last year. YES!!!

webdr · 07-18-2006, 05:47 PM

Heres a pic of the tank up and running well during the early days. I have a moon light attached to the hood and a hang on filter with a phos pad.

webdr · 07-18-2006, 08:04 PM

The bicolor dottyback
He was a good fish... for about 8 months.
I introduced a 6 line wrasse and he obliterated him Ultimate Fighter style!
I bought the wrasse for my girlfriend. She even picked him out and named him Jack. (after Audrey's boyfriend in National Lampoons European Vacation)
The dottyback struck him so many times my girlfriend started crying.
That was the last fish I introduced with him in the tank. I ended up selling him to the LFS. I had to pull every piece of liverock out to catch him.
UGH!

webdr · 07-18-2006, 08:13 PM

The giant Hairy Leg Hermit crab

is NOT reef safe

I bought him on an impulse w/ no knowledge except he was almost 4 inches long! Seriously this guy was huge! All went well for a few days till he ate a green BTA like spaghetti...he conveyor belted the whole thing right on in.
Then he moved over to a short tentacle plate and got about half way through it before I evicted him. He also got traded in. I should of painted FOWLR on his shell to warn others...

This is a good pic of him...

webdr · 07-18-2006, 08:19 PM

Heres a shot of my "zoo ball" I made
I glued some red/orange and green zoos together and placed the piece around the aquarium for a few months at a time. The results were great. It left zoos everywhere.

webdr · 07-18-2006, 08:30 PM

At some point along this salty adventure I decided to do some much needed aquascaping. I went with the "2 mound" approach and I loved it. I dont know why I didnt keep it. There was a little central valley and there was alot of room for the fish to swim. Before you say anything, YES that is a copperband butterfly and NO he didnt eat aiptasia and NO he didnt live past week 2. I felt bad for even buying him. Live and learn.......or die and learn in the case of the copperband.

At this point I had made a DIY hood and added a 150 watt 20,000k HQI Metal halide. Now Im pushing around 10.5 watts per gallon.

webdr · 07-18-2006, 08:46 PM

Heres some general pics of the coral and other livestock. Enjoy!

Montipora capricornus red and green w/ purple tips. The red monti cap is my largest coral. It really grows under the intense light. The green grows suprisingly slow...

webdr · 07-19-2006, 05:58 PM

Red and green montipora digitata...

webdr · 08-22-2006, 09:08 PM

Alot has happened to the tank in the past 2 months. I bought a scooter blenny who is doing very well. After 2.5 years the tank has matured and there are plenty o' pods for him. He also eats mysis and brine which I feed to my Anthias. Yea, I know, but they swim around alot. They rarely stop moving. The male is a Disbar, or is it Dispar? The female is a Lyretail. Suprisingly, they hang around like a couple. Ive heard different species of Anthias dont get along.....score one for the team!
As far as everything else, I bought a Derasa clam. Hes brown and gold with a blue rim and growing rather quickly. I got some Pocillapora and some yellow polyp colonies which have already tripled in a few weeks. Every day I think I see a new polyp.

webdr · 08-22-2006, 09:12 PM

A few more recent pics

webdr · 08-23-2006, 02:15 PM

Heres Lenny perched on the Derasa clam. Im suprised it had not closed on him yet......he gets brave and sits on its mantle. What a dingle berry