45 Gallon Reef Tank

45 Gallon Reef

This is the newest addition to my ever
growing collection of tanks. It's actually
a 45 gallon cube tank, dimensions are
25"x24"x18", this makes it very nice to
build in. Basically this tank is the old 30
gallon long in a new setting with new lights.
I upgraded the lighting since the tank is two
feet deep to power compacts, which I am
really very impressed with so far. I'm running two 55 watt bulbs, one 6700K daylight and one 7100K actinic plus two normal output flourescent 20 watt actinics that come on first and go off last for a dawn and dusk effect.

This photo is now outdated but will give some comparison as to the growth of the tank. It was taken one week after moving everything from the 30 gallon over. The only new addition is a long tentacle anemone. Oh, and some caulerpa in the upper left corner. Photo June 27th, 2000

This is the side view of the tank and also what I see while sitting here at the computer. Think this could be why I never get any work done on here anymore? :-) A new tank raised raised xenia was also added in this photo which is growing like a weed and has already split into five seperate xenias to date.

These are the most current photos of the tank. 40 pounds of additional live rock was added to build the rest of the way up the back of the tank.

Coral Photos

Long tentacle anemone
and Sebae Clown. The anemone seems to love the new power compact lighting and the clownfish definately loves his anemone!

Pineapple Brain Coral
(Blastomussa wellsi)
One of the few pieces I brought with me when I moved from Ohio and now six years old.

Tank Raised Xenia
This was actually propagated
under normal output flourescent lights and grows very well under them because of this. The growth under the power compacts has been truely amazing tho. Amazing enough for this to rank it's page very soon showing it from day one in the tank to current.

Branching Frogspawn
This piece was a tiny quarter size fragment when I purchased it and it did well under the NO flourescent lights in the old tank but since it's addition to the new tank with the PC's it has grown to the size of a baseball plus it now has two mouths and is in the process of splitting and forming a new branch.

Green Open Brain
Also from the old 30 gallon reef tank. It really hasnt shown any major growth to speak of in the new tank but it does open much fuller than before.

Colt Coral
This being a very hardy coral to begin with there was never any doubt it would do well in the new tank. It's shown some very good growth and looks like it will eventually split into three.

Giant Hairy Mushroom
This is a new addition to the tank and opens to the size a baseball. It also has two new buds forming at it's base. If these continue to grow like this I'll need a 300 gallon soon! :-)

Porites Coral
This is also a piece that was brought down with me from Ohio. It was originally a christmas tree worm rock but those didnt last too long. The porites continued to survive tho even under low light conditions. Under the new lighting it has gone from a bland brown to a beautiful green and it extends it's polyps all the time. These were rarely seen before. Some green and orange zooanthids have also started growing on the rock along with the encrusting porites.

Green Striped Mushrooms
Another of my original pieces from Ohio. These have spread all over the tank, have been given away, traded, and are still going!

Yellow Toadstool Leather
This is a newer addition to the
tank and has been doing very
well, but since these are an
excellent starter coral there was no doubt that it would. Even tho it is a beginner coral it's still one of my favorites.
This piece is growing down either side of the rock it's attached to and from the fold in the head of the coral it appears it will split and form two seperate pieces in the future.

Fine Grape (Frogspawn)
This is in the same family as the the frogspawn pictured above but this has a solid skeleton where the other is branching and has thicker tentacles. It is a double piece and was purchased at a good price because of some tissue necropsy on one side. The left piece is perfectly healthy and right has neither continued to receed nor has it started to come back. Time will tell.

Purple Hairy Mushrooms
This was the first piece of coral I purchased after moving to Florida so it's approx. a year old now. An entire colony of orange centered zooanthid polyps strung up from the rock the mushrooms were attched to and some nice red macro algae has started growing on it as well since it was moved into the new tank with higher lighting. It's doubtful that the algae will ever get a real chance to grow since my coral beauty seems to love it!

Stick Polyps
These are a colonising zooanthid that often grow up and over other corals, gorgonains in particular, since they do not have thier own skeletal base. These seem to have taken over a hydroid.

This is the newest full tank photo, taken on Aug. 9th, 2000
Notice all the new coraline growth and the progress os the pulsing xenia which is now in three different places in the tank.