Nvert's 40 Gallon Reef World

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My tank is a sps dominant, mixed-reef environment. From the onset, I was determined to create a tank that combines a variety of colors, textures, and forms. My fish husbandry skills (and tastes!) sure have come a long way since childhood days when I kept gouramis in a bowl on top of my dresser. I had experience keeping a marine only fish tank years ago but nothing prepared me for the time, dedication, and obsession required for keeping a reef. Watching my reef mature from bare rock and polyps to the complex eco-system it is today has definatley been one of my most enjoyable experiences.

Corals (to just name a few)
Acros
Montis
Favites
2 Euphyllia sp.
Blasto
Xenia
Shrooms
Ricordia
Brain
Pavona
Seritopora
Stylophora
Turbinaria
Tubastrea
Hydnophora

Inverts
Derasa
Crocea
Bubble-tip
Cleaner shrimp
Sexy shrimp
Hermits
Snails
Fighting conch
Porcelain crab
Tiger brittle star
Chiton

Fish
Maroon clown
Purple firefish
Cardinal
Spotted mandarin
Yellow-tail blue damsel
Anthias
Clarkii (died Aug2003)

Feeding
I feed the tank often and heavily. Generally, any time the lights are on and the fish are out I give them pinches of flake food several times during the day (Prime Reef and Formula One). Once every day, I feed the tank thawed cubes of Ocean Nutrition products, target feeding the Tubastrea, Polyps, etc. The tank goes CRAZY when I do this. Every two days, I dose 15ml of DT's Phyto. Obviously, I strongly believe in heavily feeding the tank. You need to work up to this though in order for the proper levels of bacteria, worms, amphi-, and copepods to help consume the amount of food going in. I have NO algae issues (except for the occaisional valonia) and never had issues with ammonia or nitrates.

The thumbnails below will take you to larger pictures of my tank. I hope you enjoy them.

Pics from the early days, March and April 2002 respectively: