A couple weeks ago we shared with you the luscious and coral-packed reef aquarium display of Aquatic Art Inc. Many of you asked us to see more of the corals in this tank, so we went back and took the camera inside this 900 gallon reefing beast to give you a fish-eye view of what these corals look like.
Being able to go ‘beyond the glass’ with nothing but water in between these fantastic corals and our camera makes these corals truly shine. With our hobby getting dominated by puny coral frags and so-called ‘mother colonies’ smaller than a fist, it’s quite refreshing to see a field of ‘two handed’ coral colonies.
Despite hardly using any LEDs besides a couple single ReefBrite strips, the tank is primarily lit with Radium 20,000 Kelvin metal halides. This means that not only do the SPS Corals grow like weeds, but their colors are more realistic and there’s much fewer dips in overall lighting intensity.
Don’t get us wrong, we’d love to see some more significant LED light to supplement the old school metal halide lamps, and there’s already some talk about supplementing with totally blued-out AI Hydra 52 HDs. Angling these LED fixtures not straight down but shining on the front face of the reef should really help these corals gain even more pop, and it will significantly boost PAR especially in areas where corals are shading each other.
Even as it is right now, Cris Capp’s 900 gallon reef aquarium display at his store Aquatic Art Inc. is one of the most luscious we’ve seen in recent memory. While the top two thirds of the Aquatic Art reef display is mostly SPS corals like Acros, Montis and Stylophora, there’s nice big colonies of other stuff too.
Large chalice corals, big mats of zoanthids, a huge Space Invader Pectinia all make a prominent appearance in this reef aquarium system, and there’s even a nook in the corner of the reef for three large colonies of Euphyllia hammer coral and one large Duncanopsammia. No matter what kind of reef aquarium you’re into, there’s colonies in here for everyone to love and the Aquatic Art reef aquarium display is an inspiration for all reefers who see it.
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