Well, after a 5 year hiatus from reefkeeping - I'm back! My new house has a perfect fishroom w/ its own sink, concrete floor, and thru-wall ac unit.
Tank Specs:
Hardscape:
120lbs of Alor liverock air-freighted from Indo
80lbs of Arragamax and 60lbs of Seafloor
Corals
Inverts/Clams:
Fish:
Discussion:
I set this tank up at the beginning of October 2009. I got it from Brandon Klaus (hope I spelled that right Brandon) - a local reefer who wanted to upgrade to a bigger system. The tank came predrilled for a closed loop, and with an excellent overflow and return setup.
I prefer to use external pumps so I drilled the sump and installed 3 one inch drains. I have tried my hardest to use used and recycled equipment for this tank and I think I've achieved my goal. The only pieces of new equipment are the lamps, and the skimmer.
All of the corals I have so far are captive raised, as are the clams and the bubble tipped anemone. The H. magnifica and most of the fish are wild caught.
Here are some images of the tank while the live rock is curing. During the curing process, I used an ETS800 Gemini skimmer driven by an Iwaki55RLT. It did an amazing job of removing decaying organic matter from the water.
In this image you can see all of the rubble that came with the liverock. I kept it together to serve as a breeding ground for 'pods and other cryptic stuff.
Sump - right side
Sump - left side
After the rock was cured and the tank cycled, I switched over to a less intrusive and power-hungry skimmer - and got a Vertex250 in-sump. This works great, as the sump was set up by Brandon to have the skimmer on the right, and a big refugium in the middle.
Around this time was the fall Frag-Swap for MARSH - when I picked up about 10 SPS frags, and some LPS - to try. Fortunately, all did well!
All of the photos were taken w/ a 5DmkII and either a 24-70L or Sigma 150mm Macro lens.
My next post will be a December update now that all the plumbing is squared away and I have some photos of the fish and corals.
Cheers
James Wiseman
www.reefpix.org
Tank Specs:
- 180g Eurobraced from Aquarium Obsessed - dual external rear overflows w/ Durso standpipes
Sump: 60+g acrylic with baffles and drilled for 3 bulkheads
Lighting: 1 400w Ushio and 2 250w Phoenix lamps. Actinic supplementation by 2x 96w PC
Skimmer: Vertex 250
Calcium Reactor: Original old-school K2R w/ CO2 Solenoid control and pH controller
Water Motion: Iwaki 30RLT for tank return, Iwaki 55RLT for Closed Loop plumbed to an eductor. KR4 and MJ1200 w/ Propellor Mod. Max external powerhead
Topoff: I have a sink in my fishroom and plumbed my RO/DI directly into the supply side and the waste line into the drain. The RO/DI supplies a reservoir that i keep filled with Kalk and this is fed to the sump by a float-switch and powerhead. I use kalk for all my topoff in order to precipitate out any phosphates left in the topoff water.
Hardscape:
120lbs of Alor liverock air-freighted from Indo
80lbs of Arragamax and 60lbs of Seafloor
Corals
- S. Hystrix (Birdsnest)
M. digitata
M. capricornis (Red, Green, Purple)
Acropora Sp. Purple
Acropora Sp. Green
Acropora Sp. Green (Bali Slimer)
Zooanthids
Pulsing Xenia
Green Star Polyps
Green frogspawn
Green/pink hammer
Red chalice
Green/brown chalice
All sorts of funky stuff on the live rock
Inverts/Clams:
- 2x L. amboiensis
T. Gigas (Captive grown and raised in captivity for 5+ years obtained from a local)
T. Crocea (Bright blue, purple, and gold)
Captive raised rose bubble tipped anemone
Small H. magnifica (Ritteri) purple w/ red base
Fish:
- Purple Tang
Chevron Tang
Pseudanthias squamipinnis (2) (One turning into a male)
2x McCosker's Flasher wrasse
C. exquisitus - Exquisite fairy wrasse
Mystery Wrasse
2x captive grown clown gobies
Randall's goby
Yellow watchman goby
Hi-Fin goby
Female mandarin dragonette
Discussion:
I set this tank up at the beginning of October 2009. I got it from Brandon Klaus (hope I spelled that right Brandon) - a local reefer who wanted to upgrade to a bigger system. The tank came predrilled for a closed loop, and with an excellent overflow and return setup.
I prefer to use external pumps so I drilled the sump and installed 3 one inch drains. I have tried my hardest to use used and recycled equipment for this tank and I think I've achieved my goal. The only pieces of new equipment are the lamps, and the skimmer.
All of the corals I have so far are captive raised, as are the clams and the bubble tipped anemone. The H. magnifica and most of the fish are wild caught.
Here are some images of the tank while the live rock is curing. During the curing process, I used an ETS800 Gemini skimmer driven by an Iwaki55RLT. It did an amazing job of removing decaying organic matter from the water.
In this image you can see all of the rubble that came with the liverock. I kept it together to serve as a breeding ground for 'pods and other cryptic stuff.
Sump - right side
Sump - left side
After the rock was cured and the tank cycled, I switched over to a less intrusive and power-hungry skimmer - and got a Vertex250 in-sump. This works great, as the sump was set up by Brandon to have the skimmer on the right, and a big refugium in the middle.
Around this time was the fall Frag-Swap for MARSH - when I picked up about 10 SPS frags, and some LPS - to try. Fortunately, all did well!
All of the photos were taken w/ a 5DmkII and either a 24-70L or Sigma 150mm Macro lens.
My next post will be a December update now that all the plumbing is squared away and I have some photos of the fish and corals.
Cheers
James Wiseman
www.reefpix.org