June 2016 Tank of the Month - PSXerholic
Link to build thread: Click Here
Other useful info on the tank, Click Here
Hi everyone,
Many of you know my tank and it's great and fast progress in the last 2 years since it's been set up.
I started in 2009 in the Saltwater hobby after coming over to the great state of Texas from Europe.
My first tank as a little kid was a 25G air bubbled crawfish tank which I caught in the local river, and I remember that night when my mom was complaining about all the crawfishs all over in the house, lol.
Well over the decades I maintained nicely planted freshwater Amazon themed tanks and finally in 2009, my wife convinced me to get into the marine tank hobby ;-)
Going through all the pain and learning over the last few years, nights of educating myself and no sleep while working on the tank systems, I tried a lot of different methods for nutrient reduction and maintaining trace elements in the reef tank and finally I found the right methods finally how to maintain a thriving reef that do work for me ;-)
This tank is not done yet, ........it just started !!!!!
-Andre
Aquarium Profile:
- 2-1/2 years old SPS dominated, mixed reef
- 210 Gallon AGA (from the shelf tank)
- Black silicone
- 2 overflow with DIY Durso, silenced & tied to a Co2 scrubber
- Co2 Scrubber Phosban 550 reactor
- Black acrylbased back wall coating
- Aragonite Deep sand bed
- 150 lbs Fiji Rock, mounted and supported by a piperack/build
- APEX Gold Control System
- APEX Salinity with Temperature compensation
- APEX LED Driver modules
- 30G Biocube plumbed into DT for frag healing
- 4 x Low noise 12VDC Fans for tank cooling (APEX controlled)
Stand
- Rocket Engineer modular DIY stand
- Red Oak DIY Skirt around the stand with Roll off gear for full access
- Inside coated with brown outdoor paint (less dirty and less light reflection)
- Top Trim, Stain and final coating to be completed ☹
- 2 x Kitchen cabinet lights
- Canopy with 4x Low noise Fans
Sump
- Overall very compact design for a 260G system
- 40 Gallon Breeder, DIY glass baffled sump
- Lifereef skimmer
- 100W Heater – barely used
- No socks
- Prefilter foam blocks prior Siporax
- SIPORAX 25mm Pond media chamber
- 1 x UV-Sterilizer 40W
- 2 x Return pumps in sump (MAG12/18)
- 1 x Auxiliary pump (MAG 9.5) for UV and Frag system
- 1 x “Just in case“ media reactor fed from the main return line
- Aqualifter Air pump from Co2 Scrubber to Skimmer (if needed)
- ATO system hardware
Water Circulation & Flow Summary
- 1 x WP60 Wavemaker in Wave mode (mostly 75%)
- 2 x RW8 Wavemaker in Wave mode (100%)
- Both Return pumps running 24/7
Water Parameters
- Temp : 78-82
- pH : 7.8 morning / 8.2 evening
- Salinity : 35ppt
- Alkalinity : 8.0-8.5 (6.5 in ULNS mode)
- CA 420 (430 max)
- MG 1350-1400
- No3 :4-5 (0.25 in ULNS mode)
- SR : 8
- Potassium : 410/420
- Iodine : 0.6
Lighting summary & objectives
- DIY Combo fixture of MH / T5 / LED
- 4 x 250W MH Hamilton Technologies Cayman fixtures
- 4 x 275 Electronic dimmable Ballast Hamilton Technologies
- 4 x 20K Hamilton Technologies bulb
- 4 x 80W - T5 on ATI Ballasts
- 6 x 4 Channel Rapid LED (42 supplemental LED’s)
- Light control via APEX
Filtration & water quality summary & objectives.
- APEX Controlled Water change system every hour (2-5 gallons per day, depending on salt mix. Check my Video on Youtube and as well my Sponsor section !!!
- Sockless and more dirty
- Carbon only as exception if needed
- Dosing of ALK via a mix of baked and unbaked baking soda
- Dosing of ESV Calcium Chloride
- Dosing of Brightwell Magnesium
- Potassium, SR and other traces as needed
- VSV Dosing (Vodka, Sugar,Vinegar mix)
- Biodigest bacteria weekly
- ZeoZym weekly (If I don’t forget)
- Acropower Aminos
Tank inhabitants
FISH:
- 1 Md maxima clam
- 1 Orange Rainbow BTA
- 1 Purple Tube Anemone
- 1 Yellow Tang
- 1 Blue Tang
- 1 Flame Angel
- 3 Royal Gramma
- Plenty of True Percula Clownies
- More fish coming soon !!!
- Plenty blue / red legged hermit crabs
- All kind of snails
- Plenty of Acro Crabs
- Few Emerald Crabs
- Hitchhiker Crabs
- Recently found a Pencil Urchin
- Serpent Starfishes
- Sea Cucumbers
- Sea Slugs
Corals
- Yellow, Red, Blue, Purple, Green, Rainbow and Ultra SPS’s
- A few High End Acros
- Gold and Orange Wall Hammer corals
- Micromussa, Acans Zoa’s etc.
- A few Soft Corals
- Check my website for most of the SPS
Fish & Coral feeding
- Tetra Flakes
- Coral Frenzy powder
- Reef Roids
- Selcon
- Frozen food cubes
- Silverfish
- Skimmate
Quote
“When one door in life closes, another one will open”…………nah, in real life ? If the door is closed, it’s closed !!!