Tank of the Month - March 2007

[Skipper]

This month we are featuring John Tangeman's (drtango) beautiful reef aquarium:



More details can be found here or by clicking on the picture above.

Congratulations, John!


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[Ellery]

Congratulations John! You have an awesome system --- I'll hopefully meet you in person if you're coming to the Seneca Park Zoo event. It's great to finally meet all the people you chat with online.

 

[Misled]

Beautiful tank John. Love the way you hid the overflows and pipes!

 

[tom obrecht]

Another well deserved honor! Keep up the good work!

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Congratulations! One of the most beautiful reef aquariums I've seen in person.

 

[KEEPERZ]

very nice-congrats-do you dose anything to your tank besides fish poop?

 

[805puffer]

nice looking tank, good job! if i may ask, what is that green coral on the very bottom of the tank, it kind of looks like grass? thanks

 

[blue20051]

delete

 

[SEAFLOWERS]

well deserved my friend, and I love the Angelfish, one of my favorites!

 

[drtango]

Thanks all!

Keeperz--I dose Kalk, Calcium reactor, water changes and fish poop--that's it. I briefly fooled around with prodibio, thinking I could make my skimmer work better with a higher bacterial load--made no difference as far as I could see.

1203 Custom--those are Green Star Polyps, growing all over the place. Looks nice on the bottom, royal pain when it creeps up the rock towards the SPS

John

 

[TropTrea]

While I'm personaly not a SPS buff when I look at some of the tanks like this one I do start getting that itch.

I realy like the degree of DIY here. In my mind if can Do It Yourself successfully that is a big advantage. I had seen to many DIY projects where someone wanted to bulid something for $100 instead of spending $150 for a ready made unit. However in the long run they enned up spending $300 and it never worked as good as the one they could have bought for $150.

Well I'm hoping on having my rebuild done in a few months provided money holds out. My big hope is that it wioll come out to look half as good as this unit and I'll be a happy camper. Personaly I'm threading into some uncarted territory for DIY projects on this one. But with seeing John's finished tank my hopes are building up fast.

Lets see more tanks with a high percentage successful DIY ideas.

 

[blide]

John,

Was there ever a time your SPS lacked in color? Did you notice any increase in coloration when the colonies grew larger? What about phosphate control?

Sorry for all the questions...

Oh and your tank is amazing.

 

[tared]

what a beautiful tank and after you reorganize, just out of shear indulgence i would love to see what you do with a larger tank.


thanks

 

[reef_research]

Great job!

just a few questions:

You mentioned you had a maxima and a blue lincknia starfish. Dont stars prey on clams?

How long, and when (relative to the tanks begining) did you have the tiger tailed cukes?

What are the biggest pro's/con's to having such a proportionally large sump?

Sorry for the questions,

 

[TropTrea]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9417385#post9417385 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reef_research
Great job!


What are the biggest pro's/con's to having such a proportionally large sump?

Sorry for the questions,

I'm not John but I'm also planning on a large Sump system. As far as know the only drawback is cost wich is actually minimal compared to other items.

Pro's
First off the larger the total water column the more stable everything is and when you get changes they are usually much slower.

I'n my system I'm giong with a 70 galloon Refugium on a 120 gallon display tank. The refugium is a great ade in the consumption of different nitrogen molicules, and phosphates. Besides that it can be a great source of microganism to feed your system with.

I have read some older books where individuals had huge Refugiums/sumps and were successful even without protein skimmers.

 

[drtango]

Blide-I think I noticed and increase in color as the fish got bigger, and ate/pooped more. Big skimming and some GFO keeps phosphate down.

Reef-Research-agree with the above statements--the pro of having a larger water volume is huge, also plenty of room for skimmer and other stuff. Expense is minimal, as a big rubbermaid tub is pretty cheap, though you do need a more robust pump if your sump is in the basement.

The main Con is space--you need a basement or dedicated reef room for a sump this size.

John

 

[reef_research]

thanks!

You mentioned you had a maxima and a blue lincknia starfish. Dont stars prey on clams?

How long, and when (relative to the tanks begining) did you have the tiger tailed cukes?

thank you,

 

[Skipper]

Hey reef-research... No, linckia starfish do not prey on clams.

 

[taflaw]

Congratulations! Your reef is amazing!!!

 

[drtango]

Skipper is right-on, blue linckia are likely herbivores. Actually, I've never even seen it go for leftover food like a serpent star.

The cukes have been in the tank since day 1, they came from my previous system with a DSB. Seems like they don't miss the sand at all...

John