The tank(s)

[Darkbaron1192]

The DarkBaron's Getup


125 gallon Reef Aquarium, full oak stand and hood.

Lighting:
(2) 72" VHO URI AquaSun and (2) SuperActinic R
(1) 24" T5 Coralife 20 watt 50/50

Current:
(1) Taam SEIO M1100 Powerhead
(5) Maxi-Jet 1200 Powerhead
(1) Maxi-Jet 600 Powerhead

Filtration (electrical):
Emperor 400 HOT for carbon/flow use only [selective]
Magnum 350 for flow / deployment of chemical equipment.
SeaClone 150 w/ MJ1200 Skimmer

Natural Filtration:
180# Premium grade Fiji live rock
3" crushed aragonite UNDER LR. 1/2" Oolitic sandbed in display area
[Current Project as of 080606] 58 gallon (29/29 doublestack) Convertible refugium/hospital-iso tank ; Caulerpa, Chaeto

Invert:
12" Macrodactyla Doreensis Long tentacled anemone
5" Epizoanthus sp. Green Button Polyp colony

LiveStock:
(1) Canthigaster Solandri "Blue-spot Toby Puffer"
(2) Amphiron Occelaris "Percula Clownfish"
(2) Chromis Viridis "Green Chromis Damsel"
(3) Chrysiptera Hemicyanea "Yellow-Tail Damsel"
(1) Zebrasoma Flavescens "Yellow Tang"
(6) Phimochirus Operculatus "Blue-leg Hermit Crab"
(1) Percnon Planissimum "Sally Lightfoot Crab"
(1) Unk -- "Pink Cucumber"
(1) Lysmata Amboinensis "Skunk Cleaner Shrimp"
(1) Turbo Fluctuosa "Mexican Turbo Snail"

Water perameters:
SG 1.024 +/- 0.002
TEMP 78F +/- <4deg
NO2 0 +/- 0
NO3 <20ppm
PO4 <0.25ppm
pH 8.2 +/- 0.1
Ca [not measured at this time]
KH 110 +/- negligible

Additional:
4 units D!ck Boyd's Chemi-Pure
2 units Seachem Matrix Carbon
1 unit Purigen
2 units Phos-Zorb (Seachem Version)
1 bottle 250mL Seachem Reef Calcium
1 bottle 250mL Seachem Reef Plus

Foods:
Cultured Phytoplankton
Live Brine Shrimp
Frozen Mysis Shrimp (rinsed before feeding)
Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef
[Current Project Enriched Cultured Copepodia]

Top off water:
RO/DI Hi-S purified from Kent Marine MAXXIMA Deluxe 65

Change water:
RO/DI Hi-S with Instant Ocean Reef Crystals


...the other tanks just arent show-worthy, but include Oscars and Guppy breeding tank.

=)

 

[Darkbaron1192]

This is before I removed the entire aragonite bed, scrubbed the rocks, etc.

[/img]

LTA

My favorite Rock

Nite lite

 

[Darkbaron1192]

Flow Diagram

Side View before gravel overhaul

2nd August right after removing gravel

Closer view

Closer even...

R.I.P. Pierre

DoDo the Yellow Tang

First Zoanthid

2nd August Late night, most cloudiness gone.

Ghetto canopy

350 Magnum loaded with carbon, chemi-pure hollowpoints, and a filter pad

18w 50/50 for 9pm-12pm lighting

Close up

Lighting rig, updated to swivel on the manifold which is not in use

3rd of August. Added Seio M1100 and new VHO bulbs

9th August. Finally got around to the doublestack fuge

Fuge stack and DT with full lighting

9th of August. Clean

 

[Anonymous]

That's a great tank! Keep up the good work.

 

[Darkbaron1192]

thank you =) Im sure I will have a syringe full of reef soon too, if not already. The wife says im obsessed, and my tank pales in comparison to the rest of you guys lol.

My current issue here (as of today 10 Aug 2006) is diatoms. The hair algae has since left due to rapidly declining nitrates from gravel bed removal. My phosphates are negligible, and I *think* the diatoms came from my shrimp dying. I think it was defective; I bought it from the LFS, acclimated it for about 8 hours in a bucket via drip system. I kept a close watch on it for about 3 days then I havent seen it since. I think I MAY have seen an antennae on a filter intake screen. That makes two shrimp now as my only loss other than a damsel when I started up the tank. The damsel got sucked into the impellar of the HOB filter when the intake screen fell off.

Apologies for the ultra long response; I am using this thread to list ongoing events with my tank chronologically, so I can refer to it later on. (major events, etc.) I tend to look at other folks' tank threads and I enjoy seeing how far they come along over time. I just wish more people posted more often about even the little things.

Plus, being able to see the changes is better than hearing. If I said I had hair algae all over and you could see it, its not perspective, but perception. Then, if I follow up with steps to control growth, and follow up pictures, we can then decide perceptually which method works better, etc.

Plus I am OCD with my tank. Since I got started ive got well over 1000 photos *yowza!*

 

[Anonymous]

I enjoy reading post.....so keep them up. I'm definately obsessed...not OCD but obsessed. What kind of shrimp did you have?

I'll tell you about my mishap last night. My husband did the top off b/c it was low. We had bad weather which caused a power outage for 3-4 hrs. My sump was about 1/2" from overflowing when I desyphan my overflow and unplug (I thought) everything. Well I didn't unplug the right thing and left my intake pump on. The electricity came back on at around 11pm. You know what happen next. I overflowed my tank.....AGAIN. Well I thought I blew another ballast but thank god it didn't get wet. Cleaned up all the water, unplugged the ballast and everything else and went to bed. I didn't sleep much last night thinking about the fish/corals or if I should sell the tank b/c I just bought this ballast 3 weeks ago and set me back $180.00. I woke up this morning plugged the ballast back in and it worked (YEAH!!). So I set all the pumps skimmer and everything else and was working fine. That was one stressful night last night.

 

[Darkbaron1192]

ouch that is the suck. We had bad storms here earlier and I was sure that the power would go out but it didnt. If my tank overflows the wife is going to kill me. My original shrimp was a skunk cleaner, and he died due to too quick of a salinity change during gravel removal. the second one was a much, much smaller skunk cleaner and I guess he just wasnt a good buy.

You know what would be nice? a switch of some sort that is magnetically or electrically set into the on position. When the power goes out, the magnetic *seal* is released, causing it to remain in the off position, until you manually reset it. Wonder if that could be DIY'd

 

[Anonymous]

That's a good idea.

I was explaining my mother about my mishap and she told me there is an alarm that if you have an overflow, as soon as the water touches the floor, the alarm will sound.

My brother flooded our second floor bathroom years ago (fell asleep in the bathtub with water running). She looked into it b/c of that.