Progress pictures! 1 year update


Hi friends! 

Today we will look at something a little different. The ugly side of my tanks! Normally I give my tanks a grace period of 1-6 months before I post them for the world to see. This gives it time to break out of the ugly phase after it has been cycled. (On that note, I always start with already cycled live rock to help the process)

The first picture above is when the tank was roughly one month old. It has a standard white led light and a sponge filter. I had no vision of where the tank would go. I stuck with mostly LPS (long polyp stony coral) in this tank. It is considered a mixed reef because there are a few different softies and SPS. But the majority of the tank is LPS.

This second picture is roughly around month 4-5. As you can see I added a lot of critters to the tank. Mostly the two clownfish and the anemone. In month 2 the green zoas began to grow off of the plug onto the rock. Once this happens growth becomes exponential as it has a lot of surface area to spread.

The picture above is about 9 months old. As you can see the coral have begun to spread further and brighten up. Around this time I purchased the AI Prime led lighting. You can see the pictures are more blue. But I also started learning how to take more detailed pictures.


Finally, this is the tank at one year old. The coral are growing large and very fast. They are all healthy and have clear boundaries. At night you can see sweeper tentacles come out to protect their perimeter. 

Overall I really loved the journey that I went through with this tank. I think 29 Gallons is an excellent size for beginner reefers. It offers a nice size to keep smaller fish like clownfish while also not having drastic parameter shifts.

As always, if you have any questions let me know!!!

-FFF
 

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