Oh my 12k but what an investment - totally amazing.

Your living room is soooooooo lush too - interior designer in the household by any chance?

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Thanks for the comments...good luck with your new tank...this is our second tank...when we first started we bought everything!!You know what its like..."mmm...that looks nice..."After about 14 months of buying things and watching them slowly die....we decided to buy this new tank and really thought about what we put in it....we used to collect the dwarf angels and had about 7 different ones..as the tank was over 6ft long they didn't fight with each other...we had the usual clowns,yellow tang,regal,fire fish,shrimps..fox face..dotty backs..chevron tang..EVen bought a cow fish..(couldn't resist!)..fatal...we had it it the tank for about 3 months and noticed it never put any weight on.(it was carrying a parasite worm type thing that was eating it from the inside out!)..we then had a huge outbreak of white spot...it doesn't matter what you try you can not prevent this ...the regal tangs are reknown for stressing out and they break out in it..then passing it on and sadly the weaker fish suffer and die.I would say we lost over half of our fish stock at one point.It was soul destroying.Many a time we wanted to throw the towel in!!
My husband spent most days with his hands in the tank(not supposed to but was always fixing something or trying something new).
We seriously started collecting the corals more and noticed that the dwarf angels ..even though sold as reef safe liked to nibble on the odd zoo(as i was collecting the expensive ones..they had to go)One by one we monitored all the fish and if any were picking on the corals we took them out.
I only keep a handful of fish in there now..all completely reef safe..Bengali cardinals(which breed),a pair of tomato clowns,firefish,fox face,dotty back,midas gobby,Boring fish reallycompared to some of the wonderful fish out there(though most of them you can't keep with corals )
We have had a few hitch hikers...a mantis...a snowflake eel(that didn't show itself till it was about 8 inches long!)...some rather large crabs...We also bought a purple reef lobster about six months ago that we thought was nipping at the gobbies so we put him in the sump....he managed to crawl up the pipes and back into the tank!!He can stay there now...lol

Now eveything runs smoothly...only need to do a water change every 4 weeks...the tank basically runs itself with the help of a chiller,computerised monitors,reactors...auto top up..lights are all on timers...We just sit back and relax....after 20 months of long hard slog.

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Thanks for the nice comments.....the tank is my hubby's baby...My only imput is telling him where to put things...a bit like my house

I would have loved to become an interior designer..and love doing the house up....but with the kids...4 dogs...lizards...snakes...marine tank...cats...Koi pond...oh and a wonderful husband...doesn't leave much time for me

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That tank is amazing! It puts my two to shame I took much more time on my second oneI have to say and it looks better for it. The little nano I am so sad with right now, big flatworm outbreak so have lost some lovely corals and fish... poor pink scooter blenny . I am hoping to have it looking better soon, like the big one, which I am quite happy with at the moment (well...I was till I saw yours )

Fab looking front room too Envy!

Anna

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IT LOOKS FAB... I KNOW THE HARD WORK INVOLVED AND HUGE COST, WE HAVE AN 8FT MARINE REEF TANK OURSELVES, THE WORST PART WAS GETTING 11 MEN OFF THE STREET TO HELP US CARRY THE DAMN THING THROUGH THE WINDOW.


ITS REALLY BEAUTIFUL! WELL DONE, BET HUBBY IS DEAD PROUD OF HIMSELF!

LIKE URS, ITS MY HUBBYS BABY TOO, JEEZZZZZZZ MEN! - WHAT ARE THEY LIKE!.....

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CUSTOM MADE VIVS, RAINHAM, ESSEX .........specializing in smaller vivs, p.m for details
12 corn snakes / 6 Royals
9 beardies + 80 BABIES FOR SALE - NOW AVAILABLE FROM £25 EACH
15 geckos, 2 dogs , 4 kids
8ft marine reef tank - CURRENTLY FOR SALE, PM FOR DETAILS
18 ft koi pond.. We r known locally as the zoo

that's a great set up!