No Television Needed: Debbie's Mermaid 100G

I recently set up Debbie's new 100 gallon aquarium that she won at the Western Marine Conference in April. The aquarium was donated by Mermaid Aquarium of Fremont California. The eight bulb 36" T5 flourescent lighting illuminates the aquarium beautifully. Night time viewing is provided by the two bulb moonlight system from Fishbowl Innovations. The Moon Controller is a microcontroller based digital dimmer and moon cycle timer. It automatically varies the intensity of the connected moonlights over a 29.5 day period (the lunar month) to mimic the natural progression of the moon.

The showpiece of Debbie's aquarium, in my opinion, is the beautiful Montipora Capricornis. The Monti Cap was originated from Tim Plaza, Marine Aquarist Roundtable of Sacramento and has grown from a quarter sized frag. The colony is now over a foot and a half large.

This aquacultured coral is peaceful and can be placed in close proximity to other similar peaceful corals in the reef aquarium. Aquacultured Montiporas are one of the easier to maintain SPS corals and grow rapidly in the established reef aquarium. It requires medium lighting combined with a medium water movement within the aquarium. For continued good health, also requires the addition of calcium, strontium, and other trace elements to the water.