August nTOTM
DSC_5718 by neal.kaye, on Flickr
Introduction:
Thank you to everyone who voted for me. I have been a Reefcentral member since 2006 when I purchased my first saltwater setup. I have been working for last few years to mimic all of the great aquariums that have come through this thread in the last few years. I would also like to thank my reef club www.WAMAS.org, which is where most of my coral has come from.
How I started:
In 2006 one of my friends, Wellington, decided he was getting into the reef club and purchased himself a 30G Oceanic Cube and I followed along for the ride. I purchased a 30G cube from petco, ordered a diamond hole cutter and some plumbing equipment and built my first tank from scratch. I screwed everything up for about 2 years and then finally started to figure everything out.
In 2009 I got married and the wife told me I couldn't have my Frankenstein tank so I upgraded to a Solana. I had been trying to grow SPS under a 150MH and all I got was brown stalks. So I upgraded to Solana to a 250MH and I was off.
System Profile:
34G Solana
ICE CAP 250 MH (Phoenix 14k bulb)
MP10
Filtration:
Stock Skimmer
Maintenance:
I usually do a water change once every couple of weeks. I added a 5G tank in the stand and use it as my extra ATO reservoir and the saltwater mixing station.
CA Addition- I have a 2G reservoir in my stand that is hooked up to a Toms Aquatic Pump and then hooked into my ATO sensor. The tank runs out every few days and I refill with freshwater and 3 teaspoons of Seachem Reef Advantage.
Alk Addition- Alk has always been my downfall. There is just no good way to do this without screwing everything up. So here is my approach, I am not recommending this to anyone. When I remember, I add a cap full of Aquavitro eight.four. This is seachems premium line of additives and it seems to work. Once every other I week test my Alk and it is always low so I add a few spoonful’s of Seachem Reefbuilder.
I got hooked on Seachems products early on because of their simplicity and then they made a program for my iPhone called Dose. It made the whole process make a lot more sense to me.
On occasion I will add a few other products but not that often.
My biggest battle was with the exportation of Phosphates. I tried everything that every person on this board has tried or recommended. Then I walked into my LFS, Tropical Lagoon in MD, and he pulled Phosphate RX off the shelf. This is the easiest product I have ever owned. It made reefkeeping enjoyable again. It is some type of bonding agent that gets skimmed off. I don't really know how it works but it works really well and the colors in my corals took off after I started using it. So once a day I add 1 drop of this stuff and my phosphate is taken care of.
Lighting:
ICE CAP 250 MH (Phoenix 14k bulb). This light has been perfect. It penetrates to the bottom of the tank and the color is always crisp. The lights turn on around 2pm and run until 9pm.
Water Parameters:
Specific gravity: 1.025 - 1.026
pH: 7.9 - 8.0
Calcium: 520 ppm
Alkalinity: 6.5-7.5 dKH
Magnesium: 1300 ppm
Temp: 78-80 F
Feeding:
Each night I feed the fish some flakes and maybe a few frozen mysis. That is all.
Corals:
Most of my coral came from frags of fellow members of the Washington Area Marine Aquatics Society, WAMAS. Everything that you see in my tank has been there for years.
DSC_5718 by neal.kaye, on Flickr
1. Montipora Setosa Colony.
DSC_5745 by neal.kaye, on Flickr
2. Blue tipped Acro LE- Show Piece
I happened to be at Dr. Macs when they received a shipment from his facility in Fiji. The shipment included 2 large colonies of this coral. I scooped one up and the owner pulled the other one to use as a mother colony for fragging.
3. Purple Deepwater Acro
4. Huge branching green tort coral.
5. Pink and Green Styliophora
6. Tri-Colored Viladia Medium
DSC_5746 by neal.kaye, on Flickr
7. Tri-Colored Viladia. Large
8. Large LE Christmas Tree Acro
9. Sunset Monipora frags
10. Multi- Colored Monti on a baseball sized rock
11. 8- Headed Duncan
12. Watermellon Chalice- 5 eyes
Livestock:
1. Maxima Clam
DSC_5742 by neal.kaye, on Flickr
2. Large Green Bubble Tip Anemone
3. Small Blue Hippo Tang
4. 1Yellow Watchman and Tiger Pistol Shrimp Pair
Conclusion:
Thank you to all who assisted me in the build-up of my tank. To see more photos click the link below.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65337880@N04/page3/
Photo Credits go to Nick Elkins!
DSC_5718 by neal.kaye, on Flickr
Introduction:
Thank you to everyone who voted for me. I have been a Reefcentral member since 2006 when I purchased my first saltwater setup. I have been working for last few years to mimic all of the great aquariums that have come through this thread in the last few years. I would also like to thank my reef club www.WAMAS.org, which is where most of my coral has come from.
How I started:
In 2006 one of my friends, Wellington, decided he was getting into the reef club and purchased himself a 30G Oceanic Cube and I followed along for the ride. I purchased a 30G cube from petco, ordered a diamond hole cutter and some plumbing equipment and built my first tank from scratch. I screwed everything up for about 2 years and then finally started to figure everything out.
In 2009 I got married and the wife told me I couldn't have my Frankenstein tank so I upgraded to a Solana. I had been trying to grow SPS under a 150MH and all I got was brown stalks. So I upgraded to Solana to a 250MH and I was off.
System Profile:
34G Solana
ICE CAP 250 MH (Phoenix 14k bulb)
MP10
Filtration:
Stock Skimmer
Maintenance:
I usually do a water change once every couple of weeks. I added a 5G tank in the stand and use it as my extra ATO reservoir and the saltwater mixing station.
CA Addition- I have a 2G reservoir in my stand that is hooked up to a Toms Aquatic Pump and then hooked into my ATO sensor. The tank runs out every few days and I refill with freshwater and 3 teaspoons of Seachem Reef Advantage.
Alk Addition- Alk has always been my downfall. There is just no good way to do this without screwing everything up. So here is my approach, I am not recommending this to anyone. When I remember, I add a cap full of Aquavitro eight.four. This is seachems premium line of additives and it seems to work. Once every other I week test my Alk and it is always low so I add a few spoonful’s of Seachem Reefbuilder.
I got hooked on Seachems products early on because of their simplicity and then they made a program for my iPhone called Dose. It made the whole process make a lot more sense to me.
On occasion I will add a few other products but not that often.
My biggest battle was with the exportation of Phosphates. I tried everything that every person on this board has tried or recommended. Then I walked into my LFS, Tropical Lagoon in MD, and he pulled Phosphate RX off the shelf. This is the easiest product I have ever owned. It made reefkeeping enjoyable again. It is some type of bonding agent that gets skimmed off. I don't really know how it works but it works really well and the colors in my corals took off after I started using it. So once a day I add 1 drop of this stuff and my phosphate is taken care of.
Lighting:
ICE CAP 250 MH (Phoenix 14k bulb). This light has been perfect. It penetrates to the bottom of the tank and the color is always crisp. The lights turn on around 2pm and run until 9pm.
Water Parameters:
Specific gravity: 1.025 - 1.026
pH: 7.9 - 8.0
Calcium: 520 ppm
Alkalinity: 6.5-7.5 dKH
Magnesium: 1300 ppm
Temp: 78-80 F
Feeding:
Each night I feed the fish some flakes and maybe a few frozen mysis. That is all.
Corals:
Most of my coral came from frags of fellow members of the Washington Area Marine Aquatics Society, WAMAS. Everything that you see in my tank has been there for years.
DSC_5718 by neal.kaye, on Flickr
1. Montipora Setosa Colony.
DSC_5745 by neal.kaye, on Flickr
2. Blue tipped Acro LE- Show Piece
I happened to be at Dr. Macs when they received a shipment from his facility in Fiji. The shipment included 2 large colonies of this coral. I scooped one up and the owner pulled the other one to use as a mother colony for fragging.
3. Purple Deepwater Acro
4. Huge branching green tort coral.
5. Pink and Green Styliophora
6. Tri-Colored Viladia Medium
DSC_5746 by neal.kaye, on Flickr
7. Tri-Colored Viladia. Large
8. Large LE Christmas Tree Acro
9. Sunset Monipora frags
10. Multi- Colored Monti on a baseball sized rock
11. 8- Headed Duncan
12. Watermellon Chalice- 5 eyes
Livestock:
1. Maxima Clam
DSC_5742 by neal.kaye, on Flickr
2. Large Green Bubble Tip Anemone
3. Small Blue Hippo Tang
4. 1Yellow Watchman and Tiger Pistol Shrimp Pair
Conclusion:
Thank you to all who assisted me in the build-up of my tank. To see more photos click the link below.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65337880@N04/page3/
Photo Credits go to Nick Elkins!
