Thank you for nominating our 120-gallon reef! It turned 5 years old this past December, and has come a long way through a myriad of successes and problems. All in all, it's been a grand ride having it in our living room to enjoy every day! It's the first place company and clients gravitate toward when they enter our home and neighborhood kids have taken samples from time to time to their classrooms for inspection under a microscope. The tiny little misshapen starfish have been a real attraction for the kids and a classroom favorite. And now, after the release of Finding Nemo, our Pacific Regal Tang and pair of Percula Clowns are a guaranteed attraction. We've had them for about 4-1/2 years, so they've grown quite a bit and been around much longer than the movie has.
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| | Ridge Coral (Hynophora ridgida) | When did this all begin? Our eldest son, Troy, is the reason we have reef tanks. Saltwater aquaria and teeny, tiny organisms were his passion from a very early age. He had his first 10-gallon saltwater tank when he was only three years old, and he learned so much about it from a marine scientist friend as well as television programs such as NOVA and George Page's Nature before ever allowing me to get him his first fish, a Tomato Clown. A week later, we added a sea anemone, then later on a small horseshoe crab and sea urchin. We lived in Baton Rouge then, so he had hermit crabs, small conchs, and a small starfish from the Gulf of Mexico. With weekly water changes, his tank thrived. We had to tear it down and give away the inhabitants when we moved18 months later. I don't recall adding chemicals to that tank, other than chlorine remover, and of course I didn't know what RO water was. We set it up with an undergravel filter, no powerheads, IO salt, and normal fluorescent lighting. Amazing that it was so successful. Years later, in 1998, Troy turned an empty 30-gallon tank into a thriving reef with all the right reef equipment. We were soon hooked and began our search for a large used tank. We found our 120-gallon reef system 5 months later, empty, with excellent lighting, a decent protein skimmer, 2-stage Kent Marine RO unit, a stand, and a 20-gallon aquarium sump. | 
| | Sailfin Tang | During the first year, we were overprotective parents of this reef in the worst way. I did water tests once or twice a week, added this and that, tried all sorts of things and followed a variety of conflicting advice, and the tank progressed in spite of our interference. The tank put up with a lot of excess hands-in-the-water syndrome � Reef Hand, I believe that's called? Some corals thrived and some did not. Many are still there today, and have grown impressively. We have had intermittent success and failure with the stony corals and clams, regardless our husbandry practices. Some of the SPS corals continue to thrive while others don't. The same has been true with our LPS corals�some are 5 years old and some have survived only a few weeks. We have a stunning meat coral that was originally in Troy's 30-gallon reef, so it has been with us for 5-1/2 years. In summary of our current practices, we have no golden advice to offer, except loads of patience, ask for advice from a variety of sources, and read recommended books. What have we learned that has produced the most dramatic improvement? Food for the fish and corals is no longer fed in massive quantities every day�the nitrates have dropped from an all-time high of about 70 ppm to hardly detectable. The first few years the tank was fed a smorgasbord of food nearly every day, and for the past year it's been fed very sparingly. Consequently, our corals are much happier.
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| | Mushrooms | Water changes: It seems we are always making RO water, but we don't do the changes nearly as often as we'd like. Sometimes we go eight weeks or longer without a water change, but that's not what we recommend. Cleaning the Protein Skimmers: We used to do this a couple times a week. Now, and I certainly don't recommend you do this, we get around to it a little more often than we do the water changes. I have no excuse for this�it takes only a few minutes to disconnect, clean, and re-connect these units. Additives: I add B-Ionic parts one and two, Calcium Chloride (Kent Marine Turbo Calc), and Calcium Hydroxide (Kalkwasser), but not regularly like I should. I do believe this is a primary reason why we have lost an SPS or LPS on occasion�the calcium should be around 450 ppm, but it stays around 350 � 380 ppm. When I think of it, I add Lugol's Iodine, about 4 drops for 120 gallons, and I do this for the Xenias, which thrive from time to time. They are either growing like weeds or they suddenly shrivel and disappear. Lately, they've been growing quite well. I've heard the Lugol's is good for the Xenias, but I can't substantiate that it has helped. | 
| | Meat Coral | What has consistently done well? The fish have done very well. We have not added a new fish in a very long time. We have the following in the 120-gallon reef: -
Red Sea Desjardini Sailfin Tang -
Pacific Regal Tang (Hippo Tang) -
Pair tank-raised Percula Clowns � they spawn every now and then -
Six-line Wrasse -
Lawnmower Blenny Our soft corals, except for our Colt, have done quite well. They even drop babies quite frequently. The mushrooms have grown and reproduced nicely, but that took a couple years before the reproduction really took off. | 
| | Frogspawn (Euphyllia paradivisa) | What's the most amazing thing that's happened? A year ago Thanksgiving 2002, I noticed a teensy tiny sparkle that looked a little bit like a tiny baby Galaxia growing a rock away from our main large Galaxia. Now it is quite large and very impressive! The rocks were not connected at all, and this is the first time we've had a coral such as that appear to reproduce! What makes general maintenance easiest for us? Our vacuum tube auto top-off system replaces the 10-13 gallons per week that evaporates from each of our 120-gallon and our 125-gallon FOWLR tanks. Without those devices, we'd be blowing massive bubbles into the tanks and burning return pumps out before we remembered to do daily manual water top-offs. So why is our tank, for the most part, quite successful? I really don't know. Perhaps fiddling with it less is better, but I know I should attend more steadfastly to the calcium level, the water changes, and clean the skimmers often. The pH is good now, and the first couple of years it was chronically low. I worked hard to bring it up, and finally it just stabilized at the right number.
What have we done that may have helped our system significantly? During the past three years, we have done a major cleaning of the rockwork along with a huge water change, including a careful vacuuming of the substrate, approximately every 8 mos. This rid the tank of a lot of algae, which had become a problem after three years, but is controlled now for the most part, and it helped get rid of all the settled food waste. Feeding significantly smaller quantities has substantially helped the system. | 
| | Six lined Wrasse | Why do we have a Plenum in both large tanks? We debated and read and researched and sat on the fence for a good while, then decided it made sense to build plenums for all our tanks except the mini-reef. A year or so ago, I thought we should have a deep sand bed instead of a plenum. Now I believe that perhaps we should have a 1-2� sand bed and a large planted refugium. I don't believe we would build another plenum if we were doing this over again. And, we'll never know how much the plenum has helped the system. The nuts and bolts: | 
| | Clowns in polyps | • Tank: All-Glass 120-gallon pre-drilled tank, 4' x 2' x 2'. Both rear corners have two holes for drain/return. Both corner overflows are double-sided, designed with slots near the bottom and at the top so that water flows over the top and pulls water up from the bottom to flow over the top to the drain holes leading to the sump and skimmer. The tops of all our tanks are covered with eggcrate to prevent fish from escaping. • Stand: Factory-made pine stand with two cabinet doors, oak stain. • Lighting: Black metal light hood holds two 48" 110w VHO actinic bulbs, two 175w 10,000K German metal halide bulbs, 4" variable-speed fan w/thermostat. We have removed the plexiglass cover under the lights. Hood is 13" wide, 6" tall. Lights are 5-1/2" above the water. Ice Cap model 430 ballast powers the VHO actinics. CustomSeaLife 175w 2-Lamp Metal Halide ballast powers MH bulbs. All bulbs are replaced once each year. • Photoperiod: All lighting is plugged into timers. Actinics run 9:30 A.M.-11:00 P.M. MHs are plugged into two timers, one set for 10:30 A.M.-10:00 P.M., 2nd set for 11:00 A.M.-10:30 P.M. • Protein Skimmer: Red Sea Berlin Triple Pass, powered by Mag (7?) pump. | 
| | Maxima Clam | • Auto Top-off: Tsunami AT-1 auto top-off system and pump. Be sure fill hose is always above water level in sump so that a siphon doesn't occur in either direction. 18-gallon Rubbermaid tub for RO top-off water hides behind Steve's recliner. • Return Pump and powerheads: Gen-X Mak-4 external fan-cooled return pump; various Maxi-jet pumps in the tank provide water movement. • Sump: 20-gallon aquarium inside the stand�not a good deal at all. Next time we'll have a larger sump, we'll have a refugium, and they will not be trapped inside of the stand. A ground probe is placed in sump. • Testing Equipment: Pinpoint Ph Monitor. Refractometer for checking salinity. Salifert test kits: Calcium, Phosphates, Alkalinity, Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia. • Cleaning Glass: CPR scrub pads - best for cleaning glass in our experience. Magfloat Magnet for both large tanks. | 
| | Right Side of Tank | • Plumbing: Combination of PVC pipe and plastic tubing. • Plenum: Yes, both large tanks have a plenum. • Heaters: We don't use heaters in the large tanks. • Noise Reducer: We made the Ken Stockman standpipe modification on the overflows, which eliminated the flushing toilet noise and reduced some of the Niagara Falls noise. • We should have: Our electrical safety outlet devices (GFCI - Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) should be installed�maybe some day. |
