Reef Addict - The Corals of a Home Made Saltwater Reef 📷 by unipsycho

photography · @unipsycho · Feb 22 '17

$7.83

Reef Addict - The Corals of a Home Made Saltwater Reef 📷

I've got another set of photos I have of my hobby aquariums I've had over the years.  This one, has a focus on the corals, plus a few fish which any reef has along side it, right?

This one is known as Frogspawn, one of my favorite corals, as its colors are just awesome and they move well in the water currents.  

###### Note: Click to view large images
[![Salt water Reef](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_8778.JPG)](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_8778.JPG)

The frogspawn above, and many others are known as LPS (Large Polyp Stony) corals.  They have larger fleshy polyps than those of the small polyp stony (SPS) coral so they flow in the water and in my experience, are more beautiful and easier to keep than SPS.  There are some very tough to keep LPS corals as well, but I had good luck with the ones I kept and they grow a lot faster than SPS so I was able to spread them around my tank fairly quickly.


Another cool, LPS coral, this one is hammer coral, for the hammer shape on the ends.
[![ImageText](https://steemitimages.com/DQmURvdqxshVCmo8Nd8RyjtYCF4cj3dMH95R3KkCoyuKdEi/IMG_5414_filtered.jpg)](https://steemitimages.com/DQmURvdqxshVCmo8Nd8RyjtYCF4cj3dMH95R3KkCoyuKdEi/IMG_5414_filtered.jpg)

Now, by contrast, here are a couple pics of small, just starting SPS, commonly called stoney corals.
[![Salt water Reef](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_4137.JPG)](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_4137.JPG)

[![Salt water Reef](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_5980.JPG)](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_5980.JPG)

## Building my own Base Rock
I had researched and found out that it is possible to build your own base rock and considering the high cost to buy 'live' rock already encrusted with corals and algae, I wanted to build my own.  These are built by mixing portland cement mixed with chiken scratch and formed by hand into all kinds of cool coral like shapes.  I cured it in a water tub for several months with fresh flowing water to ensure all the chemicals had leached out of the cement.

[![Salt water Reef](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_3798.JPG)](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_3798.JPG)

I created these while reading and learning about the hobby, and made more once I had my first small tank running, as I knew in a few months I would want to upgrade to a big reef tank.  I made about 100lbs of base rock with this method.
[![Salt water Reef](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_3802.JPG)](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_3802.JPG)

This is a store bought piece of 'live' rock you can see has lots of live on it.  It essentially can be used to seed base rock, the algaes will spread and start growing on your own base rock if you have about 1-4 ratio of live to base rock.
[![Salt water Reef](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_3815_filtered.JPG)](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_3815_filtered.JPG)


## The Criters

A Coral Beauty angel fish.
[![Salt water Reef](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_6126_filtered.JPG)](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_6126_filtered.JPG)

They are always picking at the algae and rock, which in this pic, shows its colors off nicely.
[![Salt water Reef](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_6547_filtered.JPG)](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_6547_filtered.JPG)

This coral started small like this piece and it grew like wildfire in my reefs.  Its called GSP (green star polyp) and I actually put it on the glass walls at the end of my tank, where it grew to cover the entire end wall of the tank.  A great coral, I had to constantly cut it back and trade or give extra to other hobbiest.

[![Salt water Reef](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_7045.JPG)](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_7045.JPG)

A nice yellow tang looking for a meal.  You can see a small piece of live rock on my new 'and ugly white' base rock added, which it will spread to over time.

[![Salt water Reef](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_7743_filtered.JPG)](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_7743_filtered.JPG)

This cool animal is known as a plate coral, and it filter feeds at the bottom.  Its attached to a hard plate shell, so doesn't move on its own really along the sand, but often gets shifted around by other critters.

[![Salt water Reef](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_7763.JPG)](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_7763.JPG)

[![Salt water Reef](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_8949.JPG)](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_8949.JPG)

Long Pollyp Leather
[![Salt water Reef](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_9037.JPG)](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_9037.JPG)

Yellow Pollyps, I had these spread very well around my tanks.
[![Salt water Reef](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_9268.JPG)](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_9268.JPG)

You can see here the base rock shown at the top, has all grown over and become encrusted with coraline algae, and you can't really tell the difference between the home made rock and the purchased live rock.  It took about a year for this, but a reef does best to be built slowly anyway, just as in nature!  

Now if only we were not destroying them as fast as we are.
[![Salt water Reef](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_12024.JPG)](http://www.ethereal3d.com/temp/2016/33Gal%20Saltwater/IMG_12024.JPG)

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