280 today 800 tomorrow.

[2Sunny]

O.K. so last month I joined MR and promised to start a tank thread so here it goes!

It all began a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away . . . oh wait that's already been done. . . actually it began in the fall of 2001 with a 7 gallon bowfront and then quickly progressed to a 45 gal Tenecor

but then I progressed right upto this in September of '02

​

and now of course it looks like this

​

Specs:​

Tank - 280 gallon Tenecor
Sump - 300 rubbermaid stock tank
Lights - 3 400W 10K Hamilton MH + 4 60 inch URI VHO actinics
Circulation - 2 Tunze 6200 set to alternate in tank + external Iwaki 100
Filtration - MTC HSA 1000, dual Tidepool sumps (no bio wheel) but carbon in the trays.
Mineral Supplementation - MTC Pro Cal + 200 ml weekly of B-Ionic
Corals - 43 at last count
Fish - 21 including a Melatremus eel
Other - an heteractis magnifica, 5 cleaner shrimp, 4 pin cushion urchins, 2 star fish​

Lately I have been getting nervous because I fear a failure of some of my plumbing can not be too far off. I experimented with 1000 watt MH lamps (yes Virginia I said 1000 watts!) and may have stressed the PVC on the top of my tank. The good news is that means I can begin planning my major replacement. I intend to try my best to duplicate the efforts of Steven Weast. I had the distinct pleasure of seeing his operation in person several years ago and, for me, it was the best I had ever seen. So if all goes well 18 months from now I should exchange my 280 for an 800 gallon system in my basement. We'll see heh?​

Anyways, I've been plugging away online all day so I better call it quits for now.​

I promise to keep updating this thread overtime, but for those who want a bigger fill now try my website . . . BlueFrags.com​

Viszlat!​

Joe​

 

[nanoreefer22]

B_E_A_UTIFUL tank!!!! :bigeyes:

 

[steveo32]

800 gallons ?!? can I snorkel in there some day lol

 

[twinreef]

very nice tank Joe. u got some beautiful corals.

Jorge

 

[samster]

that is very very eye catching beautiful!!
and my momma told the 75's good don't do the 225 =X lol

 

[rstimeout]

Very Nice Set Up I Wish Mine Looked Half That Good

 

[Quang]

Spectacular!

 

[herman]

Shaweeeeeettttt!!!!! :d

 

[reefman]

thx 4 sharin that. that IS an amazin tank. i agree with his concept on landscaping too.

 

[jackson6745]

I remember your tank from RC back a couple of years. That Purple Humilis colony was awesome! All the blue corals look awesome. Are you in the NY area? I would love to see that tank in person.

 

[2Sunny]

Feel the love . . .

Thanks dudes! The kudos make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :inlove:


I'm in Pound Ridge, NY (10576) and anyone is welcome anytime to swing by and have a look around. Maybe even go home with a frag :birthday:

It's not like I get a whole lot of lovin' from the family over the effort, but then who does, LOL.



Thoughts etc:

Clean up crew

I figure I'll add to my tank thread as the whim hits me with opinions and experiences. Hopefully no one will take anything too seriously as I know full well there are a thousand ways to get the job done. . . anyways I was just looking over my list of "Others" and realized that some people may be wondering did I omit the mention of snails, hermits, and other cleaners. The answer is no; For my set up I have found that the urchins do a fantastic job of keeping algae non-existant in my tank. I originally had several hundred snail and hermits, but slowly over time they have all died out, and now I rely on the urchins and the sea stars to keep everything clean. Also, I am slowly siphoning out my DSB as I feel it had turned into a detritus trap rather than a filter. I would say that right now I probably have an average of 1.5 to 2 inches of sand which I clean monthly by siphoning off the top layer. When it starts to get so low that I can see the bottom I plan an adding sand as necessary just for looks.

Lighting

Also, I recently tried a 14K bulb in the center and my plating monti browned out very quickly, but when I went back to the German 10K the purple color returned in about 4 wks time. Moral - 10K + actinic VHO works for me. I should mention that the 10Ks are running on PFO-HQI ballasts which make them very "white" in appearance.

Water Changes

I was doing monthly changes of about 25% but switched to every other month 50% only because this allows my to use a wet dry vac to vacuum the bottom of my sump which when its done creates unbelievably sparkling clear water for a couple of weeks.



Joe

 

[2Sunny]

Complacency, clam spawn, and lesson learned.

So today I did a water change and made sure the temperatures matched, but didn't bother checking the salinity since I have done some many similar changes before "how could it be that different"?

After the change I went upstairs to find the main tank all cloudy, and within seconds I noticed my Blue Maxima pumping out gobs of gametes. After the 3rd or 4th massive spewing of spawn I decided to pull him out and set him up in a separate tank until he was finished. Then I ran upstairs to the computer to figure out what others have seen. A short while later I suspect my water change as the culprit and check my salinity. It was 1.028; assuming my salinity prior was 1.025 to 1.024 I must have added water about 1.032 to 1.031 which makes sense because I usually add 10 gallons of water to my water change water to make the salinity just right, and I ended up adding 12 gallons of RO water to the system inorder to bring the salinity to 1.025. My water change is 300 gallons or about 50% every 2 months - I know, I know not the norm, but I have been doing it that way for quite some time and as long as the parameters match it works out just fine.

For me the moral is - my complacency in not diligently checking the water change parameters almost cost me a significant price.

"Measure twice and cut once."

AND

"Don't take shortcuts"

atleast not in this hobby!


Vislat,

Joe

 

[twinreef]

i hope everything turns out o.k. u know how finicky sps are.

Joe i wonder if i can pass by one weekend, u have a couple of pieces i want to buy from u, if possible.

Jorge

 

[House of Laughter]

Joe,

Aweesome display - anytime you decide to frag that purple humulis, LMK

Great job on catching the potential tank crash - good eye

House

 

[herman]

Hopefully there are no ill effects man!!! Keep us posted.

 

[cali_reef]

Awesome tank!!

 

[spykes]

man your tank is awsome! such intense colors =D

 

[Croman]

"Measure twice and cut once."

Vislat,

Joe

I hope all is well and nothing is lost - you have a beautiful tank. As for the above quote that's funny you must work in a machine shop or in construction I use to say that to my employees when I had my machine shop.

 

[2Sunny]

Latest shot.

Just monkeying around with my camera today and here's the latest.

Everyone seems to be fine as far as my recent incident, but I am slowly realizing that I will have to spring for a Deltec kalkstirrer because the MTC pro cal just doesn't quite keep up with the calcium usuage and I'm getting tired of dosing B-Ionic calcium every week. I tried twoo other varieties of kalkstirrer and found them to be more work then dosing B-Ionic so I'm hoping the Deltec model will do a better job. . .

 

[twinreef]

very nice pic.