WAMAS Tank Of The Month March 2007 David Hochheiser (dhoch)
Congratulations Dave on being selected for WAMAS TOTM March! Thanks, I'm honored.

About the Tank

Q First off can you give us the run down on your tank set up?

A (See White Box ->)

Q That's a pretty good list of equipment. What would you say the “heart of the system" would be?

A My Neptune Controller without a doubt. This one piece of equipment has already saved my tank once. Last year when I went to MACNA in Houston I got a page on my cell phone from my controller back home. It alerted me that I had a GFCI tripped and the tank was not getting the needed power to provide life support. I was able to call a friend and have him go over to the house troubleshoot the situation while I guided him by the assistance of my tanks web cam. Without the controller I could have lost everything.

Q Wow, what a great tool to have. I have seen your website where you have all of the tanks parameters listed there right?

A It's all uploaded in real time via the web server built into the controller and I wrote a program that interfaces it to my site.

Q Ok, how about second most critical component?

A Lighting. I have been using T-5 lighting since the very beginning of when it started coming onto the scene. I was told by so many people early on that you couldn't grow stony corals with anything other that metal halide. That just didn't seem right to me. I even talked to experts in the field of lighting and got their opinions and the consensus was that T-5 just didn't have the PAR needed for the corals to grow. I have never been one to take even an experts word on something when I felt there was a chance that I might be on to something.

Q You seem to have great growth and color from your lighting.

A I'm happy with the results.

Q How long have you been keeping saltwater tanks?

A I got my first 55 gallon in the mid 80's. It was kept as a FO tank for 5 years. I broke that down at some point when I was in college and didn't have the time/money to keep it going. About 6 years ago, I moved into my current home and set up another 55 FO tank. Soon after that I bought a 29 gallon tank that was setup as a complete reef. Very soon after that, I moved the contents of both tanks into a 125 gallon and in December of 2004 I moved everything to the 180.

Q Who got you into the hobby?

A  don't remember who or why I first got into it. I have always been intrigued with reefs and salt water fish though.

Q Your setup is very high tech and methodically laid out with a lot of attention to detail, do you have any reef keeping rules that you break?

A I would never say there are hard rules about reef keeping. Go slow and be patient, that's about it. I take every claim with a grain of salt even when those claims come from experts in the field. Having many different opinions and philosophies out there is a motivator for me to research and make my own conclusions.

Q Do you spend a lot of time keeping this tank maintained?

A Not really. I change 10 gallons of water 3 times/2 weeks feed daily, add water to the top off, daily alk testing, and lately I have been trimming corals back just to keep the growth in check. Other than that and regular cleaning that's all I do.

Q Do you have an upgrade in your future?

A Nothing planned. I just set up my frag tank which will free up some space in the tank and I'm pretty content with everything else. I may just do some tweaking of things here and there like changing out one of the larger fish for several more fairy wrasses.

Q What are all the fish you currently have?

A (See White Box ->)

Q What are some of your other hobbies?

A Definitely music. I play bass guitar and acoustic guitar. I also am very active in sports and play softball in spring and summer.

Q What kind of music are you into right now?

A Blues, light rock and pretty much anything but rap.

Q Who would you most like to meet past present or future?

A Jascque Cousteau and Jesus.

Q If you could go one place on earth where would it be?

A Australia, the Great Barrier Reef.

Q What book is on your nightstand right now?

A 1001 ways to reward employees (by Bob Nelson PhD)

Q Football or basketball?

A Football. Pittsburgh Steelers. Been a fan since I was a little kid (before I knew anything about football)... I liked their black and yellow colors.

Q Scotch or bourbon?

A Scotch, single malt please.

Q Thanks Dave for taking the time to tell us about your tank!

A Any time.

Bubble coral recovery pics:

3/2005	9/2006

Growth pics:

7/2005	1/2007
7/2006	1/2007
6/2006	1/2007

Equipment: