Hey everyone,
I am pretty new here so here is my official TheReefTank thread
My Background
I started my first reef tank in August 2006. Originally I wanted to start a planted fresh water Amazon tank. My plan was to be able to have a freshwater ray. However, I had a friend that was into reefs, and he talked me in to trying a reef tank. I balked at the cost at first, but then realized that the freshwater tank I wanted was going to cost the same as a reef (BTW, my realization was not really correct). My first reef was a 38g all glass. Eventually I drilled this tank for a closed-loop and overflows. I learned a lot from this tank, including a few setbacks. Primarily how to kill everything in your tank but the bi-valves, brown button polyps and a
sand sifting starfish (Hint: always use silicone marketed for tanks. Hint2: Just because it works in your friends 210, does not mean it will be ok in yours
J). My other lesson from this tank was learning how to avoid getting excess quantities of water on the floor. Finally, it taught me how to go at things slowly (I am still not fully convinced I have learned this lesson
J ).
Before getting into reefs, I went “tankless” for 4 years. Before my sabbatical I kept FW tanks for at least 10 years if you include the fish in a bowl when I was younger. I never had anything fancy, just your standard angels, goldfish, red tailed sharks, and Gourami’s.
My Current Tank:
My current tank is A 92 corner RR AGA tank, run as a bare bottom mixed Reef.
My Filtration:
20g DIY sump with an Ocean Runner 2500 return.
Tunze 9010 Skimmer
Three little fishes Phosban Reactor, I like to use Phosban or similar AFO’s.
9W UV Sterilizer, the twisty one
A cleanup crew including: Astrea Snails, Mexican Turbos, Nassarius snails(Not normally in BB, but they are doing fine), small blue legged hermits, Large red-legged hermits, one Brittle star
Chaetomorpha in the refugium
~110lb of live rock. Its really hard to say because I had about 60lbs of live rock from my old tank and a lot of dry base rock.
Air, Water and Ice Typhoon 3 RODI.
Water Movement:
Ocean Runner 6500 pushing a closed loop with 2 low and 2 high outputs. The 2 high outputs are on a SCWD and have eductors to increase the effective flow.
Current Lighting:
1x Lumenarc Mini Stealth DE with IC 250 with a Phoenix 14k bulb
2x24 T5 retro w/ Ice Cap SLR reflectors – Bulbs are super actinic
1x36 T5 retro w/ SLR. – Bulb is the True blues.
2 120mm computer fans in the canopy that keep the water temp level
Stability:
Auto Top Using 3 float switch (2 for sump level and one for reservoir level). Kalk (Via
mrs wages pickling lime) in the reservoir.
2 part dosing using an innovative aquatics pump with the 2 part tubing.
Water stays consistent temp with lights on by using 2 fans in the canopy.
‘Fuge has one of the Home Depot special lights on a reverse timer to help keep PH swings minimized.
Last water test results:
10/30/2007
Total Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Salinity 1.023
Alkalinity (meg/l) 3.5 (11/28)
Ph 8.1 no lights 8.2 with lights
Temperature 78
Calcium (ppm) 475 (11/28)
Magnesium 1450 (11/10)
Phosphate meg/l .25 (Or less)
Stock:
Fish: 1 Solorensis, 1 female Mccoskers flasher wrasse, 1 male Line Spotted (I think) wrasse, 1 False Perc, 1 black sailfin blenny
Cleanup crew as described above
Coral: Mint green Acro( I don’t know any good name to call this), Ora Blue Green tort, Ora German blue Monti Digi, Superman Monti Danae, Orange polyp Monti Digi, Unidentified Echinopora, toadstool (neon green tips), Green/pink frogspawn, Candycane coral, miscellaneous mushrooms (will probably be taken out), GSP, A few different zoa’s, Orange with green mouth ricordia.
Pics:
Here is the most recent full tank shot. The rocks have much more coralline on them now.
Under Fuge:
Fish Pics:
