Vic's 75 Gallon Shallow Reef

[VicSkimmr]

Ok here we go. My goal with this tank was to create a shallow reef system dominated by SPS. It was to have a low amount of rock, and lots of room for coral growth, it was also to be viewed from 3 sides.

 

Lighting: 36" 6 bulb Tek fixture. Bulbs are as follows:

 

ATI Blue+

ATI AquaBlue+

Giesemann Actinic

ATI Actinic

ATI AquaBlue+

ATI Blue+

 

When the bulbs get too old, the actinics will be replaced by more Blue+ bulbs.

 

Water flow is achieved by 2 Tunze Nanostream 6045s

 

Mechanical filtration: EuroReef CS-1, Current USA UV Sterilizer (don't remember the wattage)

 

So, on to the pics.

 

First, the stand prior to painting:

 

Then the tank, built by NAGA. Its dimensions are 36"x24"x20"

 

Here it is freshly set up: 1.21.07

 

2.5.07:

 

3.16.07:

 

4.26.07:

 

9.12.07:

 

1.5.08:

 

Sorry for all the pics, next post will be corals

 

Corals:

 

SPS:

 

A. abrolhensis

4.26.07

1.5.08

 

A. millepora

4.15.07:

1.5.08:

 

A. turaki

4.26.07:

1.5.08:

 

Misc. acro (freebie from Reefer Madness)

 

Misc. monti - I don't have frags of this at this time.

 

 

Not phenomenal growth by any means, but considering how much this tank gets neglected, its not too bad. I've got a few new ones to add as well, but I won't take pictures of them till they're nice and settled in.

Edited January 7, 2008 by VicSkimmr

[dandy7200]

Stunning!

[jamesbuf]

Very nice. I love the 3 sided look.

 

Also, just to let you know, if you send an email to Roger at Tunze he will send you new clamps for the nanostreams. I had 2 break on me and I got 4 sent to me for free. They changed the material the clamps are made of, and the newer ones are more flexible so they don't break so easily.

[VicSkimmr]

Very nice. I love the 3 sided look.

 

Also, just to let you know, if you send an email to Roger at Tunze he will send you new clamps for the nanostreams. I had 2 break on me and I got 4 sent to me for free. They changed the material the clamps are made of, and the newer ones are more flexible so they don't break so easily.

 

Ack I already ordered 2 of them :( Oh well, they're not but $10 pieces. Thanks for the compliments

[jamesbuf]

What other equipment are you running? Kalk stirrer? ATO? Some pics inside the stand would be cool.

 

Also, where'd you get the tank?

[zotzer]

Very pretty!

Tracy

[stratos21ss]

It is great how you actually created a land peninsula (a point) inside a peninsula tank..it really comes across well and the scale is perfect. Are you placing your future inhabitants with this in mind too?

 

_Matt

[rioreef]

Great looking system. I have always liked the cubed tanks.

[VicSkimmr]

It is great how you actually created a land peninsula (a point) inside a peninsula tank..it really comes across well and the scale is perfect. Are you placing your future inhabitants with this in mind too?

 

_Matt

 

I'm trying to keep everything to scale as much as possible. I'm planning on letting all my SPS grow into large colonies so I'm giving them plenty of room to grow.

[Connor]

very nice

 

Connor

[VicSkimmr]

What other equipment are you running? Kalk stirrer? ATO? Some pics inside the stand would be cool.

 

Also, where'd you get the tank?

 

I've got a generic ATO that I dump kalkwasser into. The sump consists of 2 10 gallon tanks plumbed together. I'll try to grab a pic tonight.

 

My wife only agreed to let me have the tank in our living room if everything could be contained under the stand, so I couldn't fit a kalk stirrer/reactor or a calcium reactor down there, and my ATO reservoir is undersized (5 gallon bucket).

 

Thanks for the compliments guys. Next I'll try to catalog my softies.

 

Soft Corals

 

Purple photosynthetic gorgonian:

 

Zoanthids:

AoG: Next gen

 

Zombie Eyes

 

Greenbay Packers

 

Candie-apple Pinks

 

Metallic Pinks (not actually named)

[Leishman]

Nice!

[Gadgets]

SWEEET!!!! I love the palys and zoas!

[VicSkimmr]

SWEEET!!!! I love the palys and zoas!

 

LOL!

 

 

Ok so I've got a question. I'm still battling these darn dinoflagellates and I'm trying to figure out the best way to treat them. I just got a bunch of SPS frags from Leishman and the last thing I want to happen is to lose them from the treatment, so here are my 2 best options.

 

1) Cut out all light for 5 days. I honestly don't know how well new frags could handle that

 

2) Raise my pH to 8.5 until they're gone. I have a feeling my SPS won't like that either.

 

Any suggestions? Can SPS successfully live without light for 5 days or will I lose all the frags I just got? :(

[Larry Grenier]

Very nice! NAGA does great work. I really like viewing from multiple sides. I also like the short-n-fat, kinda like me

[davelin315]

You have to let the dinoflagellates run their course. Any chance you can get someone near you with an established tank to hold them for you? You could also be very careful with them and spray them off daily, but again, it's a risk, especially if the frags are newly cut. You have to remove the nutrients that the dinoflagellates are feeding on in order for them to actually disappear. Sounds like you have some silicates in your water, maybe do a couple of massive water changes with very pure water?

[VicSkimmr]

I've been trying that but it never seems to help. I've tested the water I've been getting and its not reading anything on the TDS.

 

Everything I've been reading so far says that they're pretty common in home aquaria but don't generally get out of control, but once they are its extremely hard to get rid of them. The two most efficient ways to treat them are what I posted above, the second coming from here, and the first one coming from an RC thread.

Edited January 11, 2008 by VicSkimmr

[zotzer]

This tank is just gorgeous!!

I had some dinos the second month in on my tank (that's the stuff that looks like mucous, right?).

 

I used the turkey baster daily to suck them off wherever I saw them, and am absolutely anal about 10% weekly water changes. They persisted for about two weeks or so, but I haven't seen them since.

 

Good luck with them!!

Tracy

[VicSkimmr]

Ooh a turkey baster would probably be a lot more effective at removing it!

[VicSkimmr]

Well, I ended up knocking out the lights for 3 days, which killed almost all of it, but it came back worse than ever over a 2 day period, so I went to the extreme and cut the light for 5 days. I didn't lose any corals, but most of mine browned out to varying degrees.

 

Here's my new additions.

 

Purple Monster:

 

Purple rimmed, purple polyped Monti cap:

 

Red Table Acro:

 

Superman Monti - Since the coral is so blue and I didn't bother to set the white balance through my camera, the color got all messed up when I adjusted it in PS.

 

Pink A. millepora w/ potential blue tips:

 

Blue polyped Styllopora:

 

I had more but I lost 3 of them to RTN for an unknown reason. I lost one overnight and the other 2 I lost over the next 2 days. Chemistry was spot on. Whats odd is that the PM was unaffected, so I don't think water quality would be a potential cause.

[Leishman]

Were they from me? What died?

[VicSkimmr]

Some pics of the tank and it's home

 

 

[tbittner]

Beautiful tank and a beautiful setting. NAGA really does nice work too, eh?

[VicSkimmr]

That he does He should consider working with glass too, I think he'd get a lot of business from that (but he's probably already swamped with just acrylic tanks).