myzislow
Active member
First I must say thanks to everyone who voted for my tank as the April nTOTM!
Background:
I have been keeping and maintaining saltwater tanks for roughly seven years now. My initial fascination with marine animals came about while I was working for a LFS in high school back in 2002. I started with FOWLR tanks and slowly graduated to simple mushroom and zoanthid dominated reefs with PC lighting. When i stopped working for the LFS I took a break from the hobby for a little bit, but I always knew I would own another tank at some point. In 2004 the opportunity came about for me to acquire a freshly setup 29 gallon FOWLR from a friend who had to go away for school. I jumped on it and 5 years later the tank has matured into what you see today.
back in 2004:
Methodology:
I subscribe to the KISS (keep it simple stupid) method and it seems to be working well for me. at this point my tank is on cruise control as it is pretty much completely automated for the most part. For dosing
I use B-ionic 2 part with drews Peristaltic dosing pumps controlled by digital intermatic CP924 timers. These timers are very nice because they have an internal battery that stores the settings when the power goes out. For top off I have an tunze osmolator which keeps my specific gravity rock solid. I do weekly ~5 gallon water changes with tropic marin pro salt. I feel that with a heavily stocked nano tank frequent water changes are a must. I also lightly vacuum the sand every other week to help remove trapped detritus that has accumulated in the sand bed. I do weekly water testing to make sure everything is in spec and stable. I run ESV granulated carbon in a small media bag in the return chamber of my cpr bak pak skimmer. the media bag is held in place by a magnet to ensure the bag cannot float up and clog the return, creating a disaster( don't ask me how i know lol). I change the carbon every 2 weeks. I wipe down the algae with a mag float maybe once a week, or as needed.
Filtration:
~40 lbs. fiji live rock
CPR bak pak 2r HOB skimmer W/modded maxi jet 600
ESV GAC changed biweekly
lots of flow:
(1) tunze nano stream 6025
(1) hydor koralia #2
(1) hydor koralia #1
(4) hydor koralia nanos- 2 of which are positioned in each back corner for detritus suspension
Lighting:
150w sun pod with a 20k radium bulb
Retrofitted 24w T5 strip light -giesemann pure actinic
Misc. equipment:
Tunze osmolator
2 drews dosing pumps
Azoo dual cooling fan-on timer when MH is on
150w stealth heater hidden behind rock work.
125w ebo-jager heater in return chamber of CPR bak pak
pinpoint wireless thermometer
Livestock:
rosy scale wrasse
ornate/Christmas wrasse
African flame back pygmy angel
lawnmower blenny
ORA blue neon goby
snails:
3 mexican turbo
4 tiger trochus
4 astrea
To many corals to list
If you have any questions on anything don't hesitate to ask.
Thanks again everyone!
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