Little did I know when I
picked up a used 120 gallon tank as a planned upgrade to give the
fish in my 60 gallon cube tank a little more room that I was about
to go off the deep end of the reef hobby.Although I was shopping for a Fish Only tank, the tank had
around 100lbs of Live Rock and a Icecap 430 ballast with VHO’s.I figured I would go ahead and try my hand with the new
setup and see what happened.Less than 2 years later I was planning my current 415
gallon tank from the ground up.The new tank has now been up and running for just over a
year and is just starting to come into its own.
After
extensive planning and research, I ended up with a glass tank from
Inter-American Pet Supply out of Calgary, Alberta.The tank is ¾” standard glass with dual overflows and a
135 gallon custom sump also made by Inter-American.The dimensions of the tank are 122” X 28” X 28”.I’m very happy with the finished product and it was nice
to be able to have a tank built to my exact specifications, that
extra 2” over the 10’ mark really makes a difference! ;-) The
cost was actually very reasonable and I was happy to get a large
glass tank for about the price of an acrylic tank, but the 9 guys
that helped me move it into my house and get it on the stand
weren’t very happy about the fact that the finished tank tipped
the scale at right around 1,300lbs!Maybe it would have been lighter if my wife and two of my
nieces wouldn’t have been lying in the tank?
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I’ve always been
a fan of open looking tanks and tried to keep the tank as open as
possible.I started with a
distinct spur and groove look with about a 6” channel between the
smaller rock outcropping on the left, and a larger but relatively low
rock pile on the right side.This
should give my corals a little more room to grow before reaching the top
of the water column.
The aquascaping
has changed some, but I’ve kept the low open rockwork with a larger
pile to the right so there are still plenty of hiding spots for the
fish.There is about 325lbs of rock, primarily transshipped rock
from Fiji that I cured in the tank when setting it up.
I
have a total of 950lbs of Southdown sand that I was able to get shipped
in from Pennsylvania with 750lbs in the display tank and 200lbs in the
refugium compartment of the sump.The
sandbed ranges from as deep as 8-inches to as shallow as 2-inches with
an average depth of 5-inches.
From the start
I’ve planned for the tank to be primarily devoted to SPS corals with
about 2/3rds of the tank set up for them and the left 1/3rd
of the tank setup for soft corals and LPS with a clear break in the
rockwork designed to keep the more aggressive mushroom and zooanthids
from trying to overgrow the SPS.Even
with a distinct separation of the rock structure I’ve had a few
mushroom corals separate from the rocks they were attached to and float
over to the SPS side of the tank and attach.So far there have only been a few do this but I’m currently
debating removing all my mushroom anemones from the tank while I still
can.
One other
interesting aspect of my tank is probably the stand.The frame is 2” box steel that I purchased through
Inter-American, however I finished it out with a ½” plywood veneer
and then had a layer of stonework put over it.We live in a log home, and a standard tank could possibly look
out of place, but with the stonework and a rather rustic DIY canopy out
of the same materials that the ceiling is finished in, the tank seems to
fit with the rest of the house nicely.
Water
Circulation:
I’m of the
impression that you probably can never get too much water flow.To strong of water velocity is fairly easy to accomplish, but if
you can keep your velocity down, the corals will love as much flow as
you can throw at them.I’m
currently running an Ampmaster 3000 on a closed recirculation loop and
my return pump is a ¼ hp Sequence pump rated for 6,000 gph at 11’
head.Even with the 135
gallon sump and a baffle system, I’ve never been able to run the
return pump full throttle without creating too many bubbles in the
display tank.I currently
have the return throttled back to around 4,000 gph.
Probably my
biggest single regret about setting up the tank is not going with 2
closed loops from the start.If
I could do it over again I would use a nice dependable pump that could
return about 1,500 gph as my return pump and set up a second Ampmaster
3000 on another closed recirculation loop. The recirculation loop I do
have returns water to the tank through 2 – 1-inch Sea Swirls and 2 –
1-inch static returns.The
return lines from the sump currently go through 1 – 1-inch Sea Swirl
and 2 – 1-inch static returns and an ugly 3 way 1 ½-inch cross
hanging out into the tank.I’m
in the process of replacing the 3 way cross with another 1-inch Sea
Swirl.I’ve run a couple
maxi-jets to reduce some dead spots in the middle for a while, but as of
now there are no in tank powerheads.
I recently
purchased a Reeftec PE-2 model propeller driven pump that I have placed
on the right side of the tank.I
was very impressed with the water flow that this unit puts out!The 48 watt pump flows a tremendous amount of water!(Did I already say that?)I can see a change in the water flow on the other side of my
10-foot long tank when it is on.I
don’t think the pump has been officially rated, however I would say
that it moves at least 3,000 GPH.The
water flow is cone shaped, so as the flow gets farther away from the
propeller the velocity slows down although the flow remains very good.Closer to the propeller the velocity is pretty strong though, and
I wouldn’t recommend putting anything but extremely high flow loving
SPS corals within 18-inches of the unit.
I really
think water flow is an under valued aspect of reef keeping.I feel that a big part of my success so far is due to using
high flow rates with rather low velocities compared to many
setups.Although a
1-inch Sea Swirl is designed to handle up to 1,150 gph I
personally try to limit output for 1-inch plumbing to 750 GPH.The ideal setup is not when you can see a jet stream of
water shooting across the tank, but a gentle dispersed flow that
flows in and around the coral heads at between 2 and 4 feet per
second depending on the type of corals you are keeping.Even at the reef crest you rarely see velocities exceeding 5
feet per second in the wild; however we think nothing of running
500 gph through a ½” outlet which is a velocity at the nozzle
of over 13 feet per second.That’s
enough to tear tissue off a coral if it is too close to the
output.
Lighting:
I am
currently using 4 X 400W Iwasakis with Spiderlight reflectors.I have 4 X 110W actinic VHO’s running on an Icecap 660
ballast and 2 X 160W VHOs (1 actinic, 1 50/50) running on an
Icecap 430.I just
recently purchased a used dual 250W PFO ballast and PFO reflectors
and I am debating adding a couple of 250W blue bulbs to see if it
might affect coral coloration.I like the color of the tank with the Iwasaki’s and
VHO’s, and the coral coloration seems to be very nice, however
it seems that you can never get enough color out of the corals!
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I have been amazed
at the growth rates on my SPS and even the soft corals under this
lighting.The lighting is
spread evenly across the tank and the soft corals get as much light as
the SPS and really seem to like it.
11-16-013-31-025-28-02
I’m running Bill
Esposito’s eLightmaster program to control all of my lighting and it
also runs a moonlight simulation as well.The program automatically sets the sunrise and set, as well as
the moonrise and set and the phase of the moon based on whatever
location you want to mimic.It is an excellent program and very cheap.Bill has also added a wavemaking module to the program that I
haven’t tried yet.
Filtration:
The primary filtration
method is a custom made beckett skimmer made by MyReef Creations.
The skimmer is only 24” tall but uses dual beckett injectors and
has an 8” diameter riser tube and collection cup.I’m using an Ampmaster 3000 to run the skimmer, and it
seems to do a very good job and saves a bit on electricity use.I didn’t use any activated carbon for the first 6 or 7
months from the time the tank was set up, but noticed a decrease
in the clarity of the water and have started to run some for a
couple weeks each month. I fill up 2 baskets from an old
Emperor 400 hang on filter and place them in the sump where they
get good water movement.
I have 2 refugiums to
assist in filtration through the manual removal of macro and micro
algae.One is part of
the 135 gallon sump and holds approximately 50 gallons.It is currently lit with a 175W MV light that I got from
Home Depot for around $30.I
had been running 3 – 65W Lights of America power compacts on it,
but wasn’t having very good luck keeping them running.I am using one of the LOA 65W power compacts on my 15
gallon refugium that has been running for nearly 2 years but for
some reason the newer ones that I bought weren’t holding up
nearly as well.
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I have several
species of macro algae in my refugiums.I run a reverse photoperiod on my refugiums and so far have had
pretty good luck with keeping my Caulerpa
from going asexual with regular pruning.I have various species of micro algae growing in the refugiums as
well that I prune regularly. I have some turf type algae growing
in the upper part of my overflows and where the water flows from my
refugium to the regular sump compartment that grows quickly and is very
easy to harvest.Biological
filtration is handled by the sand bed and live rock.I don’t use mechanical filtration of any kind.
Additives:
I use a MyReef
Creations Calcium reactor with a DIY 2nd chamber as well as a
DIY kalkwasser stirrer as a part of my top off setup.I added the kalkwasser stirrer after my SPS corals started to
show explosive growth and I was having trouble keeping calcium above 400
ppm and Alk over 10 dkh even running the reactor with an effluent of 500
ml per minute at a ph of 6.8 after the 2nd chamber.
When using both the calcium reactor and the kalkwasser stirrer I’ve
been able to maintain calcium over 425 and alkalinity over 12 dKH.In the first 10 months my tank was setup I dissolved 40lbs of
Caribsea Geo Marine in my calcium reactor, and went through 2 – 20lb
co2 tanks!No other
additives have been added to the tank since it has been setup.
Current
Inhabitants:
I probably already
have too many fish in the tank and I still have a few more that I want
to add.So far the fish
have gotten along very well and I haven’t noticed any real problems as
a result of the heavy bio load.Although
I have a large tank, I really like to see a wide variety of fish of all
sizes.
Current
inhabitants include 10 Green Chromis, a male and female Lyretail Anthias,
mating pair of Banggai Cardinals (and anywhere from 10 to 30 babies in
grow out at any given time), Blue Eyed Cardinal, Yellow Striped
Cardinal, 3 Ocellaris Clownfish, 2 Nigripes Clownfish, 2 Royal Grammas,
2 Rainfordi Gobies, 2 Tiger Gobies, Neon Goby, Black Sailfin Blenny,
Lawnmower Blenny, Tri-Color Fairy Wrasse, Six Line Wrasse, Yellow Tang,
Red Sea Sailfin Tang, Kole Tang, Copperband Butterfly, Flame Hawk, Male
and Female Spot Breast Angelfish (G. Melonopolis), Scribbled Rabbitfish
(S. Doliatus), and a Spotted Mandarin.Yes, that is over 40 fish not counting the baby cardinals,
however there are not very many large fish and some are extremely small
(the tiger gobies are around 1” long and less than ½ the diameter of
a pencil).
As far as corals
go, I have several Acropora
and Montipora species, Pocillopora, Seriatopora, Hydnophora,
Porites, and various LPS corals.I also have several soft corals and gorgonians including a large
Fiji yellow leather, several zooanthids, xenia, anthelia, etc.
I recently added a
purple long tentacled anemone,and
a H. Crispa anenome.The
purple LTA is doing excellently; however the H. Crispa didn’t make it.I
got these 2 species of anemones as they are known for staying put once
established.The H.
Crispa was bleached when I got it and it didn’t recover.
I really like
clams.I’ve had T. maxima, crocea, derasa, squamosa, and now even a hiphoppus
clam.At one point I was up
to 13 beautiful clams but within a week of adding a new wild collected
clam, it died and in the next couple weeks all of my existing clams,
except for a 7-inch derasa died.The derasa
definitely was affected by whatever killed the other clams, but I pulled
out of it and I still have it today.I recently was given a huge 11-inch derasa
by a fellow reefkeeper who had downsized his tank and I couldn’t pass
up a few of the beautiful maximas that Harbor Aquatics had for sale at
MACNA XIV held in Dallas recently.
I have several
different starfish including a blue and 2 Linkia
multiflora.I have a
few emerald crabs and around a dozen hermit crabs with the bulk of my
clean up crew made up of various snails including astrea, turbo, cerith,
nerite, and nassarius as well as some reproducing stomatella snails.I have a couple hundred snails in total.I also have an Abalone that I’ve had for a couple years now.
I’ve had my
share of struggles with hair algae as the tank has been getting up and
running, and the herbivores have had no shortage of food choices, but I
think that the tank is finally turning the corner now that has been up
and running for its first full year.
Feeding and
Maintenance:
I feed a variety of frozen foods and am beginning to alternate
with flake foods from Brine Shrimp Direct every other day.I would say that I feed moderately – about 16 oz of frozen
foods a month. It is getting fairly expensive to buy frozen fish
foods at the LFS with the current fish load that I have so I’m
probably going to experiment with my own foods based on several recipes
found on the Internet.So
far I’ve had enough algae in the tank that I haven’t been
supplementing any Nori sheets for the tangs.I target feed the anemone chunks of cocktail shrimp and
silversides a few times a week and target feed my Tubastrea
daily with whatever I’m feeding the fish.At one point I was up to feeding 5 ml of Tahitian Blend frozen
cryopaste on a daily basis, but I stopped feeding it several months ago
and haven’t noticed a significant difference.I’ve been debating on setting up a home culture station for
phytoplankton, but haven’t decided for sure yet.
Water
Changes:
I haven’t been
very faithful on water changes but did do a 100 gallon change a couple
months ago.This exposed
several SPS corals but no harm was done.They were exposed for a total of about 30 minutes and I splashed
them with water a few times during the time they were exposed.I try to do a 50 gallon water change every 4 to 6 weeks.I try to test calcium and alkalinity monthly, but I can usually
get a pretty good feel for it by coral growth as well as coralline algae
growth.After some
inaccurate reading with my original Red Sea test kits, I’ve switched
to a Sailfert kit for calcium and a LaMotte kit for alkalinity.I run a PH monitor on my reactor effluent 24/7 to make sure the
reactor is running correctly, and periodically I will place the probe in
tank to make sure the Ph is within normal parameters.
I clean the skimmer and add
kalkwasser to my DIY stirrer setup every other week, and do other
maintenance pretty much on an as needed basis.Pruning algae from the tank and refugium is performed
sporadically as well.I
use a Great White algae magnet from Algae Free, Inc., that can
even go around the corners on my tank with ¾-inch glass.It is so powerful that my wife can barely move it.
Water Parameters:
I’ve never had
detectable NO3 or PO4 in the tank since the
initial cycle.The
tank has a pH swing of 8.1 to 8.4 as tested by an Ultralife PH
monitor. I try to maintain alkalinity in a 11 – 13 dKH
range and calcium levels in a range from 400 to 450 ppm.I keep salinity around 35 to 36 ppt (specific gravity of
1.026 at 80 degrees) as tested with a refractometer. I
try to keep the water temperature at a range of 78 - 81 in the
winter and 80 - 83 during the summer. I’ve selected a reef
from the Northern Hemisphere to mimic with my eLightmaster program
so the seasonal temperature swings correspond with shortening and
lengthening of the photoperiod as well.
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I’m using a
total of 14 fans to maintain temperature extremes (8 in the canopy and 6
inside the stand).I
recently added a dual stage controller from www.diyreef.com
that has helped on the daily temperature swings.The fans come on when the temperature reaches 81 and shut off
when the temp drops back to 80.In
addition I have the controller set so that if my temperature exceeds 86
degrees the controller will shut down about ½ of the lights.The controller will turn the lights back on once the temperature
drops back to 84.(Although
I tested this to make sure it worked, the temperature hasn’t exceeded
84 since the addition of the controller)The addition of the controller actually brought my peak
temperature of the day down 1 degree from running the fans on a timer,
and also reduced my daily temperature swings by a couple degrees as
well.This should really
pay off this fall and winter where some days can be 85+ degrees outside
and other days can get pretty chilly.On the colder days the fans might not even turn on at all.I evaporate about 10 gallons of water each day, which really
isn’t much on a percentage basis.(That would be the equivalent of about 2 ½ gallons per day
on a 120) Evaporation is replaced with RO/DI water that is passed
through my kalkwasser stirrer top-off setup).
Captive
Reproduction:
I really am
enjoying the way the hobby is moving more and more toward captive
reproduction of the creatures in our tanks whenever possible.I’m been lucky to have a breeding pair of banggai cardinals
since I moved them over to the new tank from my old 120.I’ve lost track of the number of batches that have been reared,
but the current batch should get the total babies that have been raised
and sold to over 100 in the last year.I’ve had a Pocillapora
release planari in the tank and now have a dozen Pocillaporas
scattered throughout the tank as a result.I’ve had a Tubastrea
release planari as well; however it proved to be too much of an effort
to find the single polyps scattered throughout the tank and feed them on
a regular basis.I’ve had
a few LPS corals bud out new polyps, and just recently I noticed that my
Fiji yellow leather looks to be creating hundreds of little buds on the
underside that look as if they might be ready to detach themselves
before too much longer.
In selecting
several of the fish, I’ve tried to get pairs whenever possible
thinking that I can watch any mating attempts and attempt to raise any
larvae that are released or eggs that are laid.Raising the baby Banggai Cardinals has given me some practice so
maybe I will prove up to the challenge if any of my other fish decide to
breed.
Final Thoughts:
If there weren’t
going to be problems there wouldn’t be the tremendous amount of
resources out there to help us deal with them.I’ve gone through most of the problems that would be associated
with a new tank in the first year.Nuisance algae have been a pain, but I think I’m finally over
the hump on that.
I’ve really been
happy with the rapid growth of my SPS corals although I was hit with the
Montipora eating nudibranch that wiped out a large purple-rimmed M.capricornis
and many of my other Montiporas
as well.I feel that adding
a detritivore kit from Inland Aquatics really helped get the tank up and
running and the tank is crawling with mysis and gammarus shrimp as well
as stometella snails and tiny brittle stars and bristle worms.As far as maintenance on a large tank, I really don’t feel that
it really is all that much work.Things
like pruning the algae and water changes are a bit more work than on a
smaller tank, but cleaning the skimmer and most regular maintenance
chores really don’t take much longer.
I
really appreciate the opportunity to share my tank with everyone.One of the highlights in reefkeeping for me has been to share my
tank with people either in person or through sharing pictures and
discussions on bulletin boards and the chat channels.If you are ever going to be in Lubbock, Texas and want stop by
and see my tank in person just drop me an email and if I’m in town
I’ll be glad to show you the setup.Hopefully as the tank matures it will become even more worth your
visit.
[Note to our readers: the following
five video files are in .WMV format and should display correctly for
anyone with a fairly up-to-date version of Windows
Media Player. Our readers on dial-up internet access are cautioned
that it may take them some time to download and view these video files.
--CJD]
