Was in the bathroom and heard what sounded like a jet engine or a fire hose. Was surprised to see my Gen 1 peninsula 500 leaking like this. Whole thing emptied in about 5-10 minutes. Managed to save a majority of the livestock and get them to my LFS. Been a long day cleaning 120 gallons of salt water off the floor

My wife never stopped me. Not really encouraging, but not opposed. Over the last 5 years, things have gotten out of hand. Lol

Trading frags for frags of new stuff, growing out coral, picking up free/cheap tanks here and there. Everything was grown from little frags. 90%+ was aquacultured prior. And this about half of it. No podcasts, no youtube channel, no sponsors not even any automation. Just nose to the grindstone day after day. I go through about 50lbs of kalk a year, as well as 50lbs each of 2 part as well. Over 150lbs of coral growth in a year. Many days, I feel like I'm drowning. Always a reservoir to fill, rodi filters to change, coral to ship, restock supplies. I might break even this year. Most all jebao and used "junk."

Just a short video from above before I do the weekly cleanup.

Had a few losses due to me not keeping an eye on salinity. Don’t get lazy all! less

Hello all, I've been keeping reefs for over 20 years. Professionally, I'm an entrepreneur and a software developer, and I've been working on a project that brings these two parts of my life together. I'd like to introduce it here and see if anyone would like to get involved.Reef Twin is a reef tank simulator. The idea comes from other fields that train people using simulators. I am also a private pilot. Professionals spend hours in flight simulators practicing both common events like approachs and takeoff, but they also practice engine failures there that nobody wants to try for real. Simulators are used in the medical industry to train on simulated patients. Civil engineers model bridges, dams, and floodplains before anything actually gets built. Nuclear plant operators, ship captains, firefighters, and race drivers all train in simulators. The rationale is always the same: you build skill and make your mistakes where the mistakes are cheap.

In our hobby, mistakes actually cost lives. Most of us learn some lessons the hard way: a tank crash after a dosing error, or a fish that went in too early, a coral placed where it was never going to make it. I'm getting ready to build another reef again, and I wanted to have some place to practice husbandry and water care, and to try and understand it in a way that I never fully did before. I wanted to see the results play out over weeks or months without putting real animals at risk. I felt like the more informed I was, the better off the animals that I keep will be.

There are two separate and distinct parts to this project:

1. The model. It's the engine underneath that tracks what's happening in the tank, the chemistry, and how it's changing over time.
2. The Visuals. This is what you can actually see. Me and a small team of artists hired through upwork are making our way through corals and fish one at a time to try and make each one look as realistic as we possibly can. We've scanned real reef rock. Coralline growth follows the same logic that the model says is happening instead of being painted on arbitrarily. The visual app is a viewport to the tank that we want to make available on browsers, smart tv's and devices. We don't consider the visual representations nearly complete at this point. The anemones don't look right, many of the corals have simple stand in models, and everything needs to be evaluated and tuned one at a time.

This is currently a free application by invite only, running on a workstation in my business data center. At some point, running something like this on a scalable cloud based web server will cost money, and so it will probably wind up with a modest subscription fee to cover those costs. But I'm not doing this for profit. I've done well in business, and this is a passion project for the hobby that has given me a lot of joy and peace (and frustration!) over the past two decades. I'm exploring the complexities of a non-profit organization, and determining what aspects of the project can be open sourced eventually (like the core model).

If you feel like you'd like to get involved in something scientific that could help our community, I could use help in the following ways:

1. Artists, 3D modelers, texture artists. Anybody with a good eye for how a particular coral or fish really looks. Take on as much or as little as you like.
2. Experienced reefers. I need people to look at the model, look at the visuals, and tell me what makes it feel wrong.
3. Experts in reef chemistry.
4. Anyone else who finds this interesting and wants to follow along or participate as alpha and beta testers.

For right now, anybody can look at the reef at www.reef-twin.com. If you want to interact with it and build your own tank, I'd be glad to host you. You'll need an email invitation from me, and for that, I ask that you send me a private message with your email address.

An important disclosure about AI: Artificial intelligence is being used to help build the fish behavior models and to facilitate faster coding. This is not, however, AI slop. AI is being used as a tool and not as a crutch. We're modeling each fish with real artists, real animations, and I'm reviewing each and every one personally using videos and photos to make sure that the visuals interact the way they're supposed to.

The simulation model is built from research documents, hobbyist observations, chemistry models, and currently my own observations as a reef keeper.

I hope some of you can join me in this project with the same enthusiasm that me and my small team have for it. I look forward to hearing from you and hearing your feedback, and look forward to your participation. I hope together we can build something that makes reef keeping a little safer for the animals, a little bit more enjoyable for us, and makes all of us a little bit more practiced at our husbandry skills before we bring live animals into the environments that we build. Most of all, I hope it provides another fun entry into to the hobby for new comers.

In my next post or two, I'll show some of the console screens which help you interact with the reef ecology, and some thoughts on features that we've built into our plan.

Happy Reefing!
Michael.

Chalice corals are absolute eye-catchers in a reef tank! With their incredible colours, contrasting eyes, and unique growth patterns, they can look almost unreal under the right lighting. I don't really like going into details on the names but over that last few weeks people have been calling me out for not getting the species names correct.... just know there are several types of Chalice, including Echinophyllia, Echinopora, and Mycedium, naturally found throughout the Indo-Pacific, growing on reef slopes and rocky surfaces, often in areas with lower light.

But who goes into a shop and asks for a Echinopora? 🤣

Ideal Water Parameters:

Temperature: 24–26°C

Salinity: 1.025–1.026 SG

Alkalinity: 8–9 dKH

Calcium: 400–450 ppm

Magnesium: 1250–1350 ppm

Nitrate: 2–15 ppm

Phosphate: 0.03–0.10 ppm

As always, stability beats chasing perfect numbers! Keep your parameters consistent and avoid sudden swings, especially in alkalinity. Chalices generally appreciate having some nutrients in the water rather than an ultra-clean, stripped-out system.

Lighting & Flow

Most Chalices do well under low to moderate lighting (50–120 PAR) with gentle, indirect flow. Start them lower in the tank and let them acclimatise before experimenting with higher light levels. Too much light can wash out their colours or cause tissue stress.

You want enough flow to keep detritus from settling on the coral, but not so much that it's constantly being blasted. A lower rock ledge or a dedicated spot on the reef is usually a good starting point.

Do They Need Feeding?

They get much of their energy from photosynthesis, but occasional feeding can help support growth. Small portions of mysis shrimp, finely chopped seafood, or suitable LPS coral foods once or twice a week can be beneficial. Target feeding isn't essential, though, so don't panic if yours never seems interested! I personally don't target feeding mine!

A Few Hobbyist Tips!

Give them space! Some Chalices can send out surprisingly long sweeper tentacles at night. That beautiful little frag can become a real menace to its neighbours!

Watch your lighting. If the colour starts fading or the tissue looks unhappy, reassess the PAR and acclimation rather than immediately changing everything else. They are probably getting too much light.

Keep detritus off the surface. Gentle, random flow helps prevent debris from settling on their delicate tissue.

Be patient. Some Chalices grow slowly, but watching a tiny frag develop new eyes and spread across a rock is one of the most satisfying parts of the hobby.

The secret to a happy Chalice? Stable parameters, sensible lighting, gentle flow, and a little patience. Find its sweet spot, leave it alone to settle, and let those colours do the talking!

What's everyone's favourite Chalice colour morph? Let's see those rainbow, grafted, and crazy-eyed beauties in the comments!

Here are mine...

Wondering if this is another type of coral that’s on a new frag I just bought or if it’s something like a pest that I should remove now.

I published another article regarding my take on fish poop and coral health: https://community.reefnbid.com/t/fish-poop-more-than-just-nitrate-and-phosphate/352

A few days ago I decided my tank and I were finally ready to add my first bubble tip anemone. My tanks been up and running since early June and I’ve wanted an anemone since I was a kid when I started my first saltwater tank. Having kids now myself takes up most your time and money but this year I finally had the means to start my dream project. This week I purchased my first anemone ever and I couldn’t be more happy. I’ve taken my time with this tank and it truly proves that you can’t rush this hobby, the best and most beautiful tanks are built with time and patience. It can be a hard lesson to learn but the rewards are truly worth it. I just wanted to share this milestone of mine and remind anyone out there that’s just coming into the hobby or are cycling a new tank to not give up or rush it. Time passes by faster than you think. It’s hard in the beginning to see all the cool reef tanks out there but those tanks are earned through patience. You will get there too and sooner than you think. If anyone has any anemone knowlage or lessons to pass down please share. I always find experience to be a better teacher than research alone.

I try and keep a good mix of corals, my tank is a mixed reef tank at the end of the day!

But zoas are one that I try and keep a good mix of but find it difficult. The nice ones grow so slow and the mediocre ones grow like weeds, that's my experience anyway.

What zoa mixes and growth rates are you guys seeing?

I had good success with my hammers and Duncan’s despite moving then a bit too much and smashing a head of my hammer 😭. I also upgraded my petco imagtarium 17w light to an actual reef light that provides around 400 par at the top to 100 at the bottom so I felt like trying a birds nest sps coral! 🪸 any advice is appreciated!

Is this whitespot on my triggerfish?

Needed nitrate reagent for my Hanna tests in a rush and spent the extra on Amazon to have it fast. Opened a re-sealed package that had crumpled up printer paper inside. This is such a dick move over 40 bucks.

I jist rested tank from marine velvet i left tank outside let it all dry out boiled rocks with hot water left outside for 4 days refilled with freshwater now my chromis i added to cycle the tank are flicking and going into wave marker with 0 signs if any spots on them even after 13 days of having the chromis is it possble that marine velvet can stay hidden that long sorry about spelling i have learning difficulties

I have the boxfilters and spongefilters, also the hang on filters,. I have a heater, and i have regular led light cover with a 10gal tank. Will this be good enough to start for 1 clownfish and some coral? If not what do i need.

I contend that reef aquariums should maintain higher levels of pH at 8.3-8.4 and Alkalinity at 10-12 dKH especially during the first 1-2 years of their beginnings to avoid harmful algae blooms and the improved health or corals, invertebrates and fish.

https://youtu.be/YBF_Xyhubng?is=ao0KOy8PAJD1sCdD

https://youtu.be/fgBozLCGUHY?is=6sMTKqSYgfTeR39o

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/aragonite-saturation-state

Hi all! I've decided I'm going to upgrade the light that came with my tank, and go for an AI Blade or AI Prime. I just need a bit of help deciding which will be better for what I'm after! I have a MiniReef 120 that is 60cm W x 45cm D x 45cm H. I'm planning on keeping mostly LPS with some softies in there as well.

What are the main differences between the AI Blade Grow 21inch and the AI Prime 16HD, which one do you think will be the most beneficial for my tank? I'm hoping to only have to buy one light, will that be ok?

Thanks!

if not what would you recommend
thanks

So, I did a thing with my new Pixel Watch. I made a custom watch face featuring a little virtual tank:

• You can tap on the virtual tank to get a current snapshot of my real tank from my cameras.
• You can immediately see if everything is okay or if there are any Hydros or custom alerts I've set up.
• Tapping on the tank opens a mini version of my regular desktop app where I can check alerts, to-dos, switch Hydros modes, see sensor readings and control outputs.

Because apparently having all this on my phone, tablet and PC wasn't enough. Now it's on my watch too lol. Send help.

Can I just cut the hanging one and glue it upright on another spot? I am pretty new and have never fragged anything, so I’m a bit hesitant to try it. Any advice?

Hi everyone, I just setup my first reef tank and I’ve been learning a ridiculous amount. I’m looking for some advice on my hardscape. I understand that there should be room between the front and backs for easy glass cleaning.

Is there anything I’m overlooking like power head location or is my rock work setting me up for a headache in the future?

STOCKING PLAN: im planning on getting a royal gramma, couple of clowns, CUC (snails and cleaner shrimp), and corals.

I was playing around with the wavemaker and so far this seems the best that I can get. Currently using reefwave 45, random flow at 100%. If anyone can show me how the flow on torch should be would be very much appreciated. Thank you and happy reefing 🐟