Cali Kid Corals

New member from San Francisco

Hello,

My name is Dan, and I'm new to BAR, but not to reef keeping. I have been reef keeping since 2000, and have been running an SPS dominated tank since 2005. That tank is a 375g display running 1600 watts of MH @20,000K (Radium).

I've frequented many of the LFS's in the Bay Area, and got my start at Aquarium Concepts in Hayward. No, not the one on Foothill, the other one--on B street. During those days, it was Nippon in SFO (gone), Aquarium Concepts (too far now), and Eddie's place in San Leandro (gone) that had the best selections of coral. Eddie, though, had the best SPS handsdown, but you had to play hooky from work to actually buy anything. Today, I go to Neptune, Aquatic Gallery, Atlantis, and my LFS, Aquatic Central.

I've gone through multiple large scale crashes, done tank migrations/moves, and have probably made more mistakes that I should have. I suppose that if you learn from mistakes one could call that 'experience'.

The current tank is recovering from a crash back in May of 2009. If all goes well, it should be fairly worthy in about one more year when the frags have grown into colonies.

I recently averted another crash when I went back to MH from LED after a month. The SPS struggled with that particular LED fixture. I guess that there are no shortcuts when it comes to the most sensitive corals.

I will try to post some pictures when I can get my hands on a camera that can do white balance against the Radiums. The Radiums don't look that blue to my eyes, but to the camera it looks like the pictures were taken at 15m.

Dan
 
Welcome to BAR Dan! I can't wait to see the pictures of your killer tank. Even after the crash, your tank is still is one of the best I've seen around. Love your SPS collection!
 
Welcome Dan.

Big tank you got there too! I always wonder when I pass by houses and see the familiar blue glow at night how big the tanks are :D
 
for those of you who haven't seen what an 8' x 5' coral flat looks like, let me tell you, it's insane !!!!!!!!!
i also want to vouch for Dan's experience. of all the reefers who have helped me out (i've only been around 5 years), Dan may have done so more than anyone else. yeah a few other noobies like Ian, Bryan, and that surfer dude Jeremy also have my eternal thanks.
let me also say that many of the now LE pieces in circulation (under various names) have come from Dan' collection of wild pieces.
welcome Danny
 
Here's a small section of the tank. Someone with a camera phone took a picture this weekend. Unfortunately, the fish obscured a fair amount. I think that the photographer was more interested in the fish--haha. The distance from this pane to the back pane is 5 ft. The yellow/green milli in the top middle is about 4 feet from the front and is about 8" in diameter.

snap.jpg
 
He's gotten rid of any and all majano anemones which were seriously in plague proportions. He did what a fortune in Joe's Juice couldn't. He also got rid of my zoa's and yellow polyps (which I never liked anyway). Unfortunately, he took out most of my ricordea florida.

I guess a small price to pay for the smiting of one's enemies... J)
 
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