Tank of the Month - May 2003

[BobCReef]

Great tank Ken. u did an awesome job with limited space. a truely beautiful setup you can be proud of. thanks for the inspiration you've given me.

 

[THEBMAN]

really nice

really nice

well put together, way to go, makes it all worth it...

congrats

B-Man

 

[K. Lee]

Excellent well stocked reef tank. Are there any stars at all? I don't know if anyone else commented on them, but those pink zoanthids are out of this world.

I don't think you want to upgrae, maybe start another.

 

[Salt Creep]

Thanks again, everybody!

K. Lee, I do have a blue linckia in the tank. It's kind of small and very active. Actually it's the only one that I've successfully acclimated... I just floated the bag, then squirted water in with a baster over the course of maybe ten minutes, then tossed the star in. The ones that I tried doing the hours long acclimation with never lived.

If I do upgrade, I think I'll be plumbing this tank in anyway. Preferably with an overflow hole drilled in!

Ken

 

[THEBMAN]

acclimation

acclimation

i noticed you were talking about acclimation, when you were doing that, did you cut the lights off, i used to have the same problem, then i read up on acclimation, and supposingly, by doing that, it doesn't stress them out as bad, so far, i've had good success, but that may not be the total reason either, it could be a hundred different reasons, but you nver know.

B-Man:thumbsup:

 

[Salt Creep]

Now that I think about it... yes, I did have the lights off for the successful one. And I'm pretty sure I had them on for the other one that didn't make it.

I think finding a good healthy one to start with was the most important thing though. I managed to find one that was active with a rock hard body. The previous star was active too, but the body (in my admittedly faulty memory) was rather spongy in comparison.

Ken

 

[pete_ra]

sps under only 256watts of flourescent/PC?? how do u do it?

 

[Salt Creep]

All the corals that need a lot of light sit just below the surface of the water, and they don't grow fast they way I see corals under MH lights do. It's probably the lack of enough light, but there's also all the soft corals competing with the sps.

Ken
I'm not doing it, the corals are. And they're being real slow about it.

 

[chipnfish]

True simplicity! Your basic approach to additives is going make people rethink what they put in there tank. Keep reefing, your tank looks awesome!

 

[jaydse]

Hello I've been gone awhile & to see your tank is A welcome it's self!!

 

[Salty Jeff]

Beautiful tank Ken!!! You just inspired me to work harder on my 42 gal hex reef. Mine is getting their but with more rock and soft corals it can be beautiful like yours!

 

[Salt Creep]

Thanks again, everybody!

Ken

 

[lebowski]

That's nice dude.


I have a 29, and your lighting IMO would not be minimal, but a great amount. I run 110 watts of pc over my tank, and have a maxima in mine.

Pete_ra. There are many SPS that can be kept under lighting like his, and as well as mine. Many can't. Lighting isn't all the fundamentals of keeping SPS. Calcium, PH, current, all that adds to a healthy colony.

Your tank ispired me. Now I'm going to go buy more corals, and lighting.:rollface:

 

[tarheel4life]

DEFINITELY looks like a huge tank. you did your thing man.

 

[Old Yeller Tang]

I just floated the bag, then squirted water in with a baster over the course of maybe ten minutes, then tossed the star in. The ones that I tried doing the hours long acclimation with never lived.

Ken

This always worked best for me as well!

Thanks Ken for that frag! Looks like purple tips w/ green polyps, sweet! The cool thing about your frag is that I can probably place it low in my tank since I have halides. I got a lot of real estate down low.LOL
Once again, congrats on your TOTM honors!

Roland

 

[Patrick G.]

Very, very nice! Congrats! :thumbsup:

 

[cali_reef]

I have seen ken's tank various time in the last two years, I always go home disappointed that my 150 gal SPS tank is not as nice as his 29 gal.

Keep up the good work and enjoy your well deserved title.

 

[deansreef]

29

29

Beautiful tank. Congrats

 

[Salt Creep]

update

update

Thanks everybody!

Well, I've had a busy week at work and have been ignoring the tank.... I replaced one of the 40-watt lamps with an actinic and the polyps on the powerhead sure weren't happy about that! I think I'm going to have to scrape off some of them because they seem to have burned and are turning white and smelly!!!!! Stupid me, I forgot to shade them or at least shorten the photoperiod after I put in the new lamp. None of the other corals were affected other than getting better colors, but scraping off rotting zoanthids sure doesn't sound like an
appealing price to pay. Oh well, it'll give me a chance to give the powerhead a cleaning, finally!

Roland, regarding the starfish: it was your comment at the fish place (I got it when we were shopping there together) that made me do the quickie acclimation thing!

Pierce, didn't you see me wiping the drool off my chin when I was looking at your tank??? And not jsut the tank; the neatness inside the stand makes me ashamed to show my tank's equipment to anybody! Ask Greg what it took to get a photograph of my sump.
:rollface:

Ken

 

[skippy2]

Hey, Saltcreep!!! Your tank is now my wallpaper. You have a gorgeous tank.: