185g w/ 60" Solaris LED 20k Complex Reef (Photos)

[pqlr]

Reef Specifications . . .

Tank: Tenecor – 60”x24”x30” Acrylic
Top covered with Reflective egg crate for focused dispersion

Light: PFO Lighting / Solaris 60” 20K LED – Full Program Automatic Solar & Lunar Cycles computer controlled by onboard controller Suspended 12” above tank top

Reservoir: BG30 Precision Marine 30”x14”x16”

Motion: (2) Wave2k wavemakers

Skimmer: Bullet 2 Skimmer by Precision Marine

Heating: (2) Jaeger 300 Watt Heaters in Lifegard Towers (78.5F)

Filtration: Lifegard: AF-94 Double - Mechanical Tower
AF-93 Double (3) Chemical Towers
Activated Carbon
Phos Guard
Di-Nitrate
AF-92 Double (2) Heating Towers
40Watt UV Tower

Eheim: 2080 External Canister (Professional 3)

Dosing: Koralin1502 Calcium Reactor

AquaMedic Quad Reef Doser: Iodine / Strontium & Molybdenum/Reef Plus

Nitrate Control: Aquaripure – Large Denitrator Fed with Vodka
AquaMedic – Nitrate Reductor Fed w/ Deniballs

Ozone: AquaZone Plus 50 w/ ORP Controller

Pumps: Pan World 100 PX – Protein skimmer
Pan World 100 PX – Reservoir Return to Show Tank
Pan World 250 PS – Lifegard System Flow and Return

Substrate: 200 lbs Live Florida Keys Sand & 80 Lbs Fiji Black Live Sand

Live Rock: 70 Lbs Fiji Foundation
65 Lbs Fiji Premium
72 Lbs Tonga Branch
36 Lbs Tonga Ridge/Shelf
36 Lbs Lalo
TOTAL: 279 Lbs.

Live Stock:

Fish

1 Royal Gamma Basslet
2 Mated Pair of True Percula
1 Gold Strip Maroon Clown
1 Imperator Angel
3 Spotted Cardinal
1 Green Chromis
1 Yellow Tang
1 Starry Blenny

Coral
1 Pinstripe Mushrooms
1 Green Galxea
1 Purple Monster Montipora
1 Candy Cane
1 Pineapple Brain
1 Short Tenticle Plate Coral
1 Purple Encrusting Montipora
1 Yellow Porites
1 Ruffled Ridge
1 Green Button Polyp
1 Yellow Colony Polyp
1 Bullseye Mushroom
1 Hairy Mushroom
1 Orange Supreme Zoos
1 Neon Green Blastomussa
1 Rainbow Ricordea
1 Green Branching Frogspawn
1 Star Polyp Colony
1 Umbrella Mushroom Polyp
1 Orange Ricordea
1 Blue Tort
1 Red Blastomussa
1 Lightning Green Candy Cane
1 Green & Blue Leptastrea
1 Rainbow Blastomussa Colony
1 Scarlet Red Micromussa Colony
1 Endive Hydnophora

Inverts
1 Sea Apple (Pseudocolochirus Axilogus)
1 Debelius Reef Lobster
1 Harlequin Star
12 Scarlet Hermits
4 Emerald Crabs
100 Turbo Snails
24 Cerith Snails
12 Nerite Snails
1 Flower Anemone
12 Nassarius Snails
8 Bumble Bee Snails
1 Orange Flower Anemone
1 Ribbon Gorgonian
1 9-Leg Sand Sifting Sea Star
2 Star Serpents
1 Persian Sand Conch
4 Brittle Starfish
3 Serpent Starfish
1 Bumble Bee Shrimp

Updated 01/10/2008

 

[bleedingthought]

12 starfish?! 8O

Man, you're super stocked!

 

[Anonymous]

Way over-stocked if that list is accurate.
Chocolate-chip stars are coral eaters btw.

 

[pqlr]

The Photo following demonstrates the confusing set up.

 

[pqlr]

For Christmas one year my wife gave me a book called Ultimate Aquariums, I read it cover to cover and studied what I liked carefully in each example, then I referenced the stocking lists and was astounded by them, as they seemed to defy logic - - the trick was so I am gathering is to over filter the system, meaning if you need a filter capable of handling a 200g system, filter for 400g be sure to use RODI water, skim, use UV and use ozone in the skimmer, and control nitrates . . . if all this is done, you will have success. With that said only time will tell . . .

All of the stock I introduced with the exception of the CC Star, which is for my son, temporally, it will move to the Q-tank soon was carefully selected, and fed specific diets to maintain them.

On another note, the light is doing well, I have had several spawning events, not sure that is a good thing, beyond it showing good health. And I have had one loss due to bleaching, it was an acropora which was too high in the tank. . .RIP.

 

[SnowManSnow]

hope it holds up for you


b

 

[pqlr]

I need some suggestions please what will work well at the top of the tank as far as corals go??? i had a bleaching problem, and removed the bright white skeletons - - but now i have voids, please give me some ideas. . .

 

[pqlr]

FYI: The clams look terrible, i would not suggest any clams with this fixure at this point they all look brown.

I had some severe bleaching problems, and I called on anyone who could help, many people came through including, Mike (husbandry) extremecorals.com, and several folks from PFO who have been running the smaller fixtures, we came up with a new plan for the top of the reef, I will post some pics and revise the stocking list as soon as it is all settled, but it is not as straight forward as I had hoped, this is not a bad thing, but conventional thinking just would not cut it, these lights do not look nearly as bright as they actually are.

The people at extreme corals are very helpful and completely stand behind what they sell, if you need something or are looking for something I cannot recommend them enough.

With the negative sentiment out of the way I can share some remarkable things that have been happening, and I have previously witnessed in any of my previous tanks – spawning events like crazy, from the fungia plate, to the nudibranches, the urchins and several other egg ribbons and nests I cannot identify. The full solar and lunar cycle does make a difference. The most noticeably interesting thing to me though is that the snails seems to migrate from the back to the front of the tank with each new lunar cycle leaving eggs on the back wall and nothing on the from. . .

On a completely different note, the two wave2k’s have proven themselves, there are no dead spots in the tank, some are quieter then others not nothing dead, how nice to not have the four power heads strewn along the side walls. And Mike for wave2k is awesome, every question any problem he was there for me and got it worked out immediately and painlessly. Great company to do business with.

If you have any idea, comments or questions I will do my best to help, everyone I have dealt with thus far has been amazingly helpful.

 

[Carlos]

Is it just me or did I just read that you have a "Chocolate Chip" star in a tank that also has clams????

You also have a couple of angels that are known for picking on corals. That may be the main reason why your corals are not doing so well and not the lighting.

Looks like you need a bit of reading to do if you want that tank to survive.

There are several books on the subject or setting up tanks and also compatibility between organisms. I would recommend picking a few of those before you add or change anything to your tank.

HTH,

Carlos

 

[pqlr]

I have updated my stocking list, several inverts left the show tank to live in the connected Fuge including the cc star - - - at this point everything seems to be doing well under this light - -good growth a few spawning events and awesome coloration - - I am not sure I will e adding anything else to the system for a while it is very well stocked and it looks ideal to me, let me know if you think I am missing something. . . your comments are always appreciated. Thank you for looking, I will upload more photos as time allows.

 

[Concrete]

WTF?? Whats up with your Aquascaping? It sounds/looks like you bought everything from a LFS and just dumped it in your tank. 8O


I think you need to cut your fish and Invert list in half?? Emerald Crabs-- I had about 5 in my tank at once, They ran out of H-algae and started eating anything they could fit in their little mouths (Brown Xenia??)


Your equipment list is awesome, the setup is great.. I just think you got a little carried away. You could always get rid of all the Coral Eaters and just get a bigger Tank (300 gal min.)

BTW- In the pic of the Sun Coral- What kind of Substrate is that? It looks like the same gravel I had in my 10 gallon FW when I was 10 J/K (Except mine was Neon Green)

 

[pqlr]

Concrete - i spent hours arranging and reaaranging the rock in the tank to hide the wave2k's but still allow flow and provide enough ledgework to place all the coral i wanted too. I am not sure got too carried away, but i definately pushed the limits, which was my objective. Thank you for your comments. . .

the substrate in the sun coral pic is the sand mix - there are just a few food pellets there, which the clean up crew had not yet removed. Good eye.

 

[Concrete]

Yeah, I can be an A-Hole at times.

Maybe its just the Pics, but I really like your setup. Just get rid of almost all of your Inverts 8O


BTW- How is the Solaris working out for you? I'm upgrading my 90 to a 210 in the next couple of months and looking for a High-End Light Fixture. Either a Giesemann Infinty or Solaris (Trying to simulate Mother Nature as much as possible)


Buuuuttt, I was thinking about using 4 Solatubes (I live in South FL) and supplementing with 14K Halides if I have to (To get the pretty blues). Thats about as close to nature as I could get, alot cheaper too.

 

[pqlr]

Thank you for the compliments on my tank. I have two opinions for you for your new system;

The Solaris fixture, I am in love, it is truly all I wanted and then some in comparison with other fixtures, I have regular events in my tank which I have never seen before, growth spawning etceteras . .. but most importantly it mimics mother nature as close as is technologically possible. I have had my ups and downs with figuring out placement, I started off having it built into the canopy, then raised six inches and now I have it hanging nine inches off the top (11.5” over the water) which finally got rid of the color striations. I have had many color changes in the tank, e.g anything bought that was red turned to burnt orange then to almost a day glow orange within a few days, and purple things, clams, corals ect dulled down to a brownish variation. But the corals and the fishes seem to really like the lighting, they react to every cloud pass, and something spawns with every lunar cycle.

The second opinion I have for you in the wave2k’s they are really the best water movement system I have used or seen, they are a simple design which are very effective, just keep in mind if you want to use them, make the decision upfront, I made the decision a couple of weeks in and had to do a ton of work to get them in, remove the curing rock, drill the tank, clean out the plastic bits replace the rock and the water. But they do a great job, the anemones swell and the fish play and the corals blow their “wax” etceteras all very well, there are no dead spots in the tank with one exception, on the back wall under them, but I have a deep tank, so that may be easily avoided with a shorter tank.

Recently I added my old system into the new system for more water volume, I am using it as a sort of fuge, I cannot get it to balance with the sump so I run the pumps once a week for a nutrient export, it seems to be working well since the filter feeders are growing nicely.

Solatubes are great, just not for me, I live in CT, but even if I lived in FL or CA I am not sure I would go that route, simply because I like to see my bright happy tank even when it is gray outside, in fact more so on those days, and Florida gets a good number of thunder storms.

Hope this helps. . . but I tried to recreate mother nature as much as possible in as many aspects as possible.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, how long have you managed to keep half the ocean alive in such a small system?

IMvHO you are flying in the face of all accepted research into acceptable stocking levels and are most probably stressing your livestock enormously.

Alternatively, you are a pioneer and the rest of the hobby are overconservative, if so I wish you well!

 

[trido]

I need some suggestions please what will work well at the top of the tank as far as corals go??? i had a bleaching problem, and removed the bright white skeletons - - but now i have voids, please give me some ideas. . .

Have you ever considered raising the lights higher above the tank as many experienced reefers do?

 

[pqlr]

I realize many people said this tank was a disaster waiting to happen, but I have kept up with all the needed maintenance and it has been running very well, with all the levels right where they need to be – but . . .
This past weekend around 8PM a strong sulfur smell began emanating from the tank . . . and the fish began dying rapidly – first to go were the damsels (Green chromis), six dead within twenty minutes, then the tangs were breathing heavily and the trigger was lying down trigger up . . . I began reacting immediately, down to my pump room and dosing the tank with amquel and stress coat – I dumped all of my filter media replacing it all with fresh rinsed active carbon ( all three towers) – I turned on the secondary air pump and began bubbling the tank with the air strips I used initially to mix the tank and left in place under the sand bed. My redox went from 385 to zero and I had no clue what was going wrong.
I shut down my fuge – it cycled through the primary reservoir, and mixed four buckets of fresh super filtered water dropping air stones in each, My RODI water was not ready and way too slow for this crisis– the water was 74 degrees, shy of the 78.5 I keep the tank at, the ph was 8.2 a hair off the 8.3 in the main system, but the mixes were fresh and I have never used fresh mixes before. I had a fellow reef keeper on the phone, trying to figure out what was happening and he suggested we just get the struggling fish out.
My wife and I began netting fish and got out all that we could and got them into the buckets. The corals seemed to all be spawning at the same time, slime trails and drips all over the place – actinic full power and bright – the inverts were moving on with their nightly routines the snails were acting as all was well with the world.
I began all running all the tests I had – and the only reading that was off was the O2 which was almost non-existant – what could have absorbed all of the oxygen in the 200+ gallons of water and why were only the fish reacting?
Long story short, after I finished all the tests, the smell was gone and carbon was doing it trick, I turned on the RODI to make new water for the tank and began to re-run tests. Because I live in CT and the pump room is in my stone basement, and I was not at all prepared for this – I began getting the living fish back into the main tank which was at least warm and stripped due to all the carbon. Those fish which were returned all survived and are doing well back in the main tank –
I have spoken with a few dealers and other reef keepers and still have no idea what the root cause was – any suggestions or ideas are welcomed since I do not want to ever experience this again.
That night I lost 22 fish within two hours, from a system which has been running very smoothly.
1. Black Cap Basslet, 4 Neon Gobies, 1 Carpenter Flasher Wrasse, 1 Coral Beauty Angel, 1 Purple Firefish, 1 Dispar Anthia, 1 Six Line wrasse, 6 Green Chromis, 1 Regal Tang (my most senior fish), 1 Chalk Striped Basslet, 1 Exquisite Wrasse, 1 Scott’s Fairy Wrasse, 1 Helfrichi, and 1 Tail Spot Blenny.
The corals and inverts are all fine and acting normally now five days later. . .
Any idea?

 

[bleedingthought]

Do you use ozone in your tank?

 

[pqlr]

Only into the skimmer which is in the open resevoir . . .

 

[Anonymous]

Did you ever figure out why the O2 crash ?