My Maldivian Puddle

[aaron23]

FREAKING WONDERFUL!!!!
I Am honestly digging the man made rock. That is awesome.

I really like the fact that some fish have certain areas for ex. the damsel in the gorg and each has its own specific spot i love it. TERRIFIC !!!

beautiful corals and awesome fish selection

 

[Simon Garratt]

Cheers Cali.

How far up are the light bulbs from the water surface in this photo? Do you find the two pendents gives the 6+ feet tank an evenly lit effect?

Distance between the lights and the water surface is about 12". having them this high does offer a fairly even spread with a bit of a drop off towards the outer edges of the tank which is where i place corals that dont need a very high intensity. but I am toying with some sun tubes that will go in as well later this year to offer a bit of extra light at no extra cost.

How much water is flowing thru your sumps? and how do you find the "cryptic zone" helping with your filtration scheme?

The return pump runs about 6000-7000lph back to the tank, a 1000lph off to the rowaphos reactor which recycles back to the bottom of the sump to catch any fines instead of them being dumped into the tank, and about 500lph right up to the top cryptic tank which then overflows directly back to the tank. The rest is lost in head loss.

The cryptic tank is an experiment in progress to be honest. It still growing out bit by bit, and is one of those areas that i just leave to its own devices..It was the last area to have any substrate added after the system was up and running. unfortunately though, it took a bit of a pounding a month or so ago when a mates tank burst and i had to house all his fish which were split amoungst my sump tanks. So its a work 'back' in progress if you will becouse it was heavily predated during that time (Nearly all the sponges were gobbled up). My next move with it is to source a fresh shipment of branch rock to dump in there to give it a good boost again. Never the less though, even now when i take a peek in there, there is loads of life swimming around, so its working as a good breeding area for live food for the rest of the system, and i feel that as it fills out again and matures, it will help out over the long term in taking out very fine particulate waste and utilising it in a usefull manner which returns live food back to the rest of the system in a growing quantity as it matures. I like to look on cryptic zones as both cultivation areas, and as a method of extracting that little bit more from a filtration system by utilising some of the waste into biomass rather than just removing it all together, a bit like sandbeds to a degree.

regards

Simon.

 

[jason18]

Wow thats amazing, Love it ..

 

[KathyC]

Great tank/build/fish/corals Simon! Worthy of 6 stars but the best we can award here is 5!
:starfish: :starfish: :starfish: :starfish: :starfish:

Your arrangement with the remote sumps already has me visualizing the disappearance of the closet that is behind my tank...hmmmm...

Best of luck with and and like everyone else - definitely looking forward to more pics!

 

[jhale]

Simon thanks for taking the time to start a tank thread here on MR.

It looks like you built the rock work before the tank was finished?
now that is different

 

[Aquatic Life Direct]

Wow that is an awesome tank!

 

[DontXtripNfall]

Simon-
What is the name of the fish in the second to last pic? It looks like a wrasse...

 

[Josh]

Amazing! Can you post some more specs about the tank? Lighting, supplements, maintenance?

 

[chazertis]

:inlove:

 

[NYPDFrogman]

Awesome!!!

 

[crox99]

Hey Simon,

would you like to take a trip over here and build me something similar? Awsome tank:splitspin

 

[NYReefer]

amazing setup!! Thanks for sharing your build, and please keep the pics coming..

This is one of the most wierd yet beautiful fish ive seen, could you tell me the species name??

 

[crox99]

leopard wrasse

 

[NYReefer]

thanx crox..Macropharyngodon meleagris if im not mistaken..found an interesting article on it http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/Editorial.htm
hey Simon, does your fish bury itself in the sand?? btw the coloration on yours is far better than any pics that ive seen so far!!

 

[cathym1078]

This is one sick looking tank. (in a good way of course). How I wish I got the room, $$, and time to have something like this set up. LOVE IT!!!

 

[rookie07]

I cant believe it, I am speechless.
Best tank I have ever seen.
My next dive trip is your tank

 

[aznt1217]

wow...

 

[ClosetFishGeek]

Really nice setup !!!!! I love the setup and the way your circulation was thought out. Very nicely done.....:splitspin...Going to archive this one...:splitspin

 

[reefs4life]

Your tank is just AMAZING! I love the order everything is put in. The plumbing and filters are setup so neat and orderly, I would love to have that on my tank and the actual display is breathtaking. Keep up the good work. And may I ask...is that a koran angel in a reef tank?

 

[Awibrandy]

Absolutely Gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing and please do keep the pics coming.......