I would like to thank
everyone for the opportunity to have my tank
spotlighted here in the TOTQ thread.I have
been pretty proud of how my tank has grown and
appreciate being able to share it with everyone.
Hobby History
I started into
saltwater back in the late 80’s (I know, many of
you weren’t even born yet).I
started with two 30 gallon tanks and tried coral
with not much success.My
next tank was a full blown 120 gallon reef ready
tank with a rotating drip bar for
filtration. I
was actually quite successful with this tank and
kept LPS corals that actually grew.You
have to remember that back then that was early
pioneer territory.I even had several photos published in a
column that Julian Sprung wrote for Freshwater
and Marine magazine of an elegance coral that
was a good 10” x14” in size. The tank
slowly went to the route of hair algae and lack
of interest for years. I got the bug
again and was amazed how much the hobby had
changed and what was possible in keeping
different corals.So I went into the planning stages and
gathering together parts and pieces until I was
ready to put together my current tank.
Tank Profile
My current tank
is a 180 gallon oceanic tank that I purchased
from Tim(aquavista99)
about 3 years ago.I have since reworked the center bracing
to two smaller braces instead of the huge 12”
brace that was over the tank.The
huge brace both blocked light and made it very
hard to work within the tank.This
tank also had 2 huge overflows which took up a
lot of room within the tank.I
removed one of them which made a huge difference
in looks and space within the tank but the
trade off was I had to slow down my return pump
to keep from overflowing the tank.
Lighting
My current
lighting is 3 homemade LED lights supplemented
with 2 HO t-5’s.Each of the lights consist of a 14” x
8.5” heat sink with 35 cree LEDs.I went
with a 50/50 mix of whites and blues.I
would guess the color to be close to 15k.The
appearance in the tank is a nice blend of color
and if you have never seen the shimmer off leds
it is really cool.My corals have never had the
beautiful colors they now have even with metal
halide or t-5 lighting.I use
the 2 t-5’s mainly to fill in some of the
shadowing effects the leds tend to have.I currently
have the lighting schedule controlled by my
Neptune Aquacontroller and have the t-5’s coming
on about 3:30pm, followed by the leds at 4:00pm
and then lights out about 10:15pm.The tank
seems to be doing really well with this
schedule.
Maintenace
My maintenance chores consist of
a 20 gallon water change using Seachem
reef salt with ro/di water once a week.I use
a gravel vacuum along with a
turkey baster to try and
collect as much detris as I can. I will also
clean my skimmer cup and throat at the same
time.I
don’t use any supplements other then what my
calcium reactor puts out.
Reef
Salt
Water
Chemistry
Next, I will
outline the water flow through my system.The
water from the overflow is directly routed to my
8” Euro Skimmer which I modified to use two sicce
pumps plumbed as recirculation pumps.The
skimmer is housed in a 35 gallon livestock tub
which also has a deep sand bed with mangroves.From
there it overflows into a 55 gallon tank with live
rock.It
then is pumped back into the main tank.I am
lucky enough to have a small room behind the tank
that I am able to keep all my equipment in.I
maintain my alkalinity and calcium levels with a
MRC twin chamber calcium reactor.I
recently added a coil denitrate reactor that I
built to hopefully control my nitrates.The main
circulation within the tank is with 3 MP40 pumps
which the corals really love. It
was really hard to spend that much money for the
pumps but in this case you really do get what you
pay for.I
tried the route of diy maxi-jets and several
others but in my opinion there are no other pumps
as nice as the mp40 line.
Live Stock
I only have 10
fish in my tank and feed them once a day just
before the lights go out.My
favorite fish would have to be my purple tang.I
named her after my grandmother, who’s name was
Violet.Actually
I don’t know if it is a he or she but what the
heck. She
will
eat right out of my hand and is so tame I could
probably pick her up right out of the water.My
corals consist mostly of SPS coral with a few
LPS.I
have about 24 differentSPS
corals in the tank.One of
my favorites would probably have to my ORA red
planet.That
coral hasn’t been affected one bit by any bad
conditions within the tank and just keeps on
growing with the wonderful pink and green color.Corals
seem to be like people where everyone is
different and is affected differently with the
different conditions.
I have made my
share of mistakes over the years that have been
very frustrating and painful (emotionally and
financially).My current issue has been a fight with
nitrates.I
didn’t use my test kit properly and the nitrate
levels within the tank crept up to the point the
corals have suffered from STN and loss of
growth. The
corals have improved since the coil denitrate
reactor has broken in and has started working on
the nitrate levels.I look
forward to low nitrate levels again with happy
growing corals.
I would have to
guess that the best way to being successful with
sps corals is consistency.Some of
the best items I have gotten for this would have to be my
autotop off water system, and calcium reactor.The
next would have to be a good controller for my
temperature.Also I recommend not making more than one
change at a time.That way you will know what did or didn’t
work. Keep
everything consistent with good water quality and
lighting and your corals will be happy.The hard
part is to find that fine line.