admirejb

This bad boy is up and running for about a week now. Pictures to come

Conclusion: All pictures were taken under atinics only or atinics and T5 (no pictures w/ the MH's on). Anyone who has actually checked out all these pictures, I appreciate your time. I spend a retarded amount of time fiddeling around with this tank and it's my pleasure to share it with others. If you live in South ATX and want to check out the set up or swap frags let me know, Im always down to talk fish tanks. I welcome any advice or recomendations as I am always looking to improve my system in new ways. Thanks again for checking out my tour and be glad you dont have final exams dangerously close.

Omissions: Please forgive any typos and misspellings as I am up late doing this (multi tasking between checking on the tank, studying for finals and playing call of duty) Well I forgot to add I have a Tiger Crowley. I forgot to mention I recently added a 100W 2000K (two thousand) MH fixture (purchased from VASH) and placed in in the center of the tank (the glass partitions made the tank look very dull in the middle). The tank has no calcium reactor but has been haveing low PH problems. I believe this is because I live in a small house and there is elevated CO2 levels. When I open the windows the PH seems to raise. I dont want to put a hole in the wall or leave the window cracked open. Not sure how I am going to combat this problem since I cant leave the windows open all the time. Curently running high alk to try to combat this issue as well. Recently I have been checking calcium and alk daily (Calcium 390 - 420; ALK: 3.3 - 3.9 meq/L Salifert Test Kit). Currently have been adding 40ml of each of B Ionic 2 part system daily. I do not test for anything else currently. Any time I check Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate are all 0. Additives and feeding: Underfeed tank. I cube every other day or 3 days for the tang and inverts. Tang has plenty of LR to graze on. Frequently I pick up a bottle of phyto from Clear Aquarium and spot feed to clams and anenomes. Also will mix with food. Hand feed some krill to tang and anenomes 1x per week. Once a week add a drop or two of iodine. Water changes every 2-4 weeks of 10-20g depending on schedule. Have a RO unit but currently get TDS readings of 25. Need to replace. Been buying saltwater and producing my own top off. I believe the elevated TDS readings lead to some problems. Firm believer in the less is more method when it comes it additives. Plans for the Future: I want to add 1 additional K4. I want to increase the rubbermade tub to a 75 gallon frag tank and sump (will not be filled all the way but want the overflow room for security). Finish out stand with cabinetry. Re do canopy. Build some cabinets for my storage area to the left of the tank. Install ATS and purchase new RO/DI unit. Start growing phytoplankton and feed to tank regurarly.

Storage Area. Left of Display Tank from front.

Back Side of Tank. Keep mostly softies and some shrooms. Really makes the tank so much larger having 2 six foot long display windows

The way my tank is set up there are two long sided viewable (well you see the trickle filter and the lights from the kitchen side) and one short side. The other short side has the wave maker and overflow box, so essentially all viewable area is blocked.

Left Side Front.

Right Side Front View.

SCWD Wavemaker.

Sump is an 18g rubbermade container. Overall height of 17", waterheight of 10". Contains rockrubble (15 pounds), protein skimmer, and return pump. A no light section helps to stabalize temp during summer months. Protein skimmer: Vertex IN100. Probably too small but with truf scrubber, refuge, trickle filter, and all the live rock I feel comfortable with it. I do not believe in overskimming. Collect a large cupfull every 4 days or so and clean extensively. No auto top off. Manually add 2g perday.

Refuge is a custom made acrylic tank with 3 compartments. None of the compartments have sand. Tank size is 42”x12”x15”. Lighting is provided by 30” Coralife PC fixture. Runs on reverse lighting schedule as display. Compartment 1 is 12” long, water height of 8.5”. Turf scrubber shown previously. Compartment 2 is 21” long, water height of 8.5”. Filled to the brim with live rock and macro algae. Added some DT’s copepods and definitely made a difference. Recommend trying that for 14 bucks to all. Water goes thru a bubble trap and into the third compartment. 6 inches long, 5 inch water height. Empty. Contains bulkhead that overflows into sump.

The water leaves the trickle filter, goes thru some plumbing and arrives at my homemade turf scurbber. Just now starting to get some decent algae growth. Used some plastic needlepoint stuff from Hobby lobby and some PVS. Because of the wavemaker the flow surges and really splashed thew whole needlepoint well. This is the first compartment of my refugium.