WAMAS Tank of the Month
|
|
I’d like to thank the WAMAS TOTM committee for this unexpected nomination and opportunity to share my continuing journey into the reefing hobby. It’s a real privilege.
I got into the reef hobby back in 2012 after walking into a Petco with my son and thought it would be fun for us to set up a 29G planted tank. A few days later I mentioned this to one of my co-workers at NIH and his exact words to me were; “Dude, why would you get a fresh water tank when you work with fish every day?” (I’m a research scientist and was using zebrafish (danio rerio) as a genetic model to look at leukemia and blood development). So I decided to get a saltwater tank. I bought a 45G tank from Petco and had several 5-gallon jugs of salt water at home to get started. I even had an electrician install an outlet in the living room where I wanted the tank to be. Then my wife suggested that I should put the tank in the basement, where my office is. Excited by this option, I returned the 45G tank and bought a 75G tank from Craigslist. This tank also came with a stand and canopy. After doing more research, I discovered that the footprint of the 75G and 90G tanks were the same, meaning I could put a 90G tank on the same stand. So I did my 3rd upgrade, all before adding one drop of water to the tank.
I kept this 90G tank for 2.5 years and was very successful in keeping LPS and softies. The tank was doing really well. My euphyllias grew like weeds and my red bubble tip anemones would split if I looked at them too hard. At this time I realized that I was running out of real estate and wanted to upgrade my tank.
This time I decided to plan much better and take my time with the upgrade. Given the wall space I had, I went with a 180G tank as this was the largest ready-made tank I could purchase. After doing lots of research and talking to my LFS (thank you Vince @ Quantum reefs), I decided to proceed with the new build and with the help from folks at ERC, the new 180G tank was completed in August 2015.
My current tank is a standard 180G that sits on a custom built wooden stand in the basement. It has a custom-built 5’ overflow box and uses a Bean Animal drain system. The stand is 44 inches high and this gives me plenty of space under the tank for a big skimmer and other equipment. The tank is a mixed reef tank with LPS, SPS, and softies. The sump is a Tideline 48 from Trigger Systems with a total volume of about 64 gallons. The tank has been up for about 4 years now but in February of 2019, it was completely broken down and rescaped due to coral over growth. All corals started from 1-2” frags.
My return pump is a Waveline DC12000 with a maximum flow rate of 3100 GPH. For internal water movement, I use 3 EcoTech MP40 and a Gyre XF150. I use a Koralia 1400 in the refugium to move the macroalgae around.
I run a combination of LED and T5s. I have two Ecotech Radion XR15 G4 Pro fixtures and 1 XR30 G4 Pro, all with diffusers. The LEDs are running the Ecotech Marine CoralLab AB+ lighting program. I also use 2-two bulb 80W T5 fixtures. Each fixture has an ATI coral plus and a blue plus bulb. The T5 fixtures are on for a total of 8 hrs.
The refugium has a full spectrum LED grow light from Amazon and runs on a reverse lighting cycle.
My filtration system consists of a Reef Octopus 9” DC Regal 220INT skimmer. The tank itself has about 100 lbs. of live rock and about 2” of live sand for biological filtration. I use a 7” filter sock that I change out once a week. To clean the socks, I hose them off in the laundry sink then I soak them in a bucket with about 10% Clorox for a few days. After that, I soak them in fresh water for a few more days then allow them to dry. This has been working really well for me.
The refugium has a mixture of chaetomorpha and feather caulerpa. Both are growing well, but at times, the feather Caulerpa will outgrow the chaeto. Typically, I will remove about half a bucket of algae every month. I also use an 8W UV sterilizer on the system. The fuge also has two phosban 150 reactors. One reactor has carbon and the other has GFO. Generally, I run one cup of each media and the media is changed out about once per month. A manifold feeds all the reactors, UV sterilizer, chiller, water change lines, and return lines. When I first started in the reefing hobby, as my corals started to grow, I started with Kalkwasser solution. In my current 180Gal DT system, I was dosing BRS two-part solution. It got to a point where I was doing 300 ml of alk and cal solution just to maintain an alk level of 8 dKh. I have since switched to a calcium reactor. I do not dose anything else. I did try Red Sea Trace-Colors ABCD program but got bored of hand dosing every day so I stopped. Also, I did not see any obvious results. As you can tell, I LOVE tangs and cannot get enough wrasses. In fact, I have not seen a reef-safe wrasse that I did not love and would not love to have. Sadly, I have had a few that commit suicide by jumping through the smallest of openings. I'm done adding tangs to the tank, but I would love to get my hands on a trio of Hawaiian flame wrasses and a Lennardi wrasse. As for corals, I love euphyllias, specifically hammers. Something about the way they move in the flow and their colors. My favorite coral in the tank has got to be my gold hammer, but I also have an orange yuma that is the brightest thing in my tank. The colors are amazing to look at under actinic lights. I also love all the millis in the tank and the way their polyps move in the flow. I feed my fish a mixture of pellets, flakes, and frozen foods. I usually put a sheet of nori for the tangs to graze on before I leave for work. I have an automatic fish feeder with Spectrum pellets that feeds twice during the day. When I get home I feed a mixture of LRS Reef Frenzy, Rod’s food, and PE mysis shrimp. The tangs also go crazy for the feather caulerpa, so I put a few pieces in from time to time. I occasionally feed the corals Fauna Marin LPS pellets and the anemones small pieces of fresh shrimp. I’ve dealt with a few major challenges. The first was a sustained battle with brown jelly disease, which killed several very expensive gold hammer morphs. It was heart breaking to see these beautiful corals just slowly melt away, one head at a time. Fortunately, no other corals were affected and I’ve been brown jelly free for years. I also fought a battle with purple clove polyps that crowded out some zoas and a few acros and just looked plain unsightly. I treated with fenbendazole several times, but the clove polyps would always return. In January 2019 I re-aquascaped the tank due to overgrowth of some across, and I and took the opportunity to remove the infected rocks. More recently I’ve had to deal with STN, and I lost two very large colonies that I’ve had for over 3 years. The first was a strawberry shortcake acro colony that was at least 12” x 12” and was one of my favorite colonies. The second colony was a yellow millepora that was easily 10” across. I removed the coral and fragged it once I noticed the STN, but couldn’t save any of it. Currently I’m dealing with low ph. Before bringing the CaRx on line, the pH in my tank was 8.1-8.3. Now with the reactor on line, my pH is high if it reaches 7.9. Even with a dual reactor chamber, a fuge with macro algae and a Kalk stirrer, the pH only gets to 7.8. My future plans for this aquarium is to stay consistent with the process that I have established. I test all the important parameters weekly and I record EVERYTHNG. I am also diligent with my water changes. I do a 35 gallon water change ever 2-3 weeks. As for livestock, I plan to only add the corals and fish that I like. I have been thinking about converting the tank to an all millepora tank. I am really developing an affinity for them. |
|