Tank of the Month - October 2007

Amazing tank, Paul. Congratulations on TOTM.
I thought your PVC structures were very interesting. You'd never know by looking at the tank pics. I'd like to try something like that on my (sigh) next tank build.
 
hi Paul

your tank is beautiful!

if you dont mind i had a question about the energy consumption
of a system this big... iow what sort of electricity bills is this costing you?

our electric bills over the summer
were the highest ever at 350-400/mth - we have 125disply (part of a 210gal system), 150fowlr and 30 mini reef

before i think of upgrading to a larger tank i want to be sure to understand the long term cost of operation.


thank you and regards.


ps i am okie - graduated from OU in norman back in '94
 
I wish I lived closer to you so I could ck. out your tank. It's guys like you that make it look so easy. You could get paid to setup tanks for others. Hell.. I could probably pay you nicely with all the money I've wasted on equipment I later changed ... and the corals/fish I've killed. :confused:

I hope I'm not asking a redundant question but I didn't see it in your TOTM article.

What is your feeding regimen? Some people add a lot of stuff .. and some only put in what they do for fish... but they might put a lot of this to make up for specific coral food that's not added. I stopped using Phytoplankton long time ago. And I use Mega Marine cubes now b/c they melt into nice brine size chunks that I make sure get eaten up and not settle on my rock/sand. I'm not sure if the lack of all those food dust particles with other foods is what my filter feedings were feeding on or not.

I actually have a 1000 questions but I'm gonna keep reading your article and see if I can somehow mimick some parts of your tank into mine.
 
Other thing I wanted to say... I've been to a lot of diff. aquariums all over the world. The one in the Bahama's @ ATLANTIS, just came from California and saw Monteray Bay Aquarium (except for the kelp you got them beat), San Francisco, want to go to Atlanta Aquarium some day too but from the pics I've seen you got them too. I should have just paid to visit your tank. I always thought some of these places were just tight on money and a really nice tank was too expensive. But after reading about your tank I don't believe that any more.

Anway... got another question. You talk highly about a Ca+ Reactor setup. I was reading the little articles at Drs.FS about the pros and cons. Boy, seems like more cons to me. I guess.. it really is that much harder to maintain Ca+ at optimum levels using additives? Seems a whole lot easier. I guess one could at least get a Ca+ monitor and use additives. I've been using additives for years and they always seem to be 450ppm but I don't see the sorta growth you experience. But it doesn't add up if my levels are normal. :rolleyes:
 
Thought of another one as I was reading your article. You say NO snails and NO crabs. I've heard of some people who swear off of crabs for various reasons.. but not snails. I think I've had some crabs eat my yellow colonial polyps, I've heard they tend to just eat fresh food and don't help with waste much. But what's wrong with snails?? What about emerald crabs for bubble algae? I'm curious what you think about snails and crabs.

What is the purpose of Conchs?

I saw you have a trigger.. really kool one too. Are these like anything else that could eat coral... it's a crap shoot.. but if you keep em fed well you may be ok??

You have any problem with such a heavily stocked tank and those aneome's moving around? I have a nice finger leather that my clown has taken too... so I get to see symbiosis without messing with any more aneome's.

Any tips/advice on Tangs... especially Pacific Blues? I've had little to no success with PB's. I've had temp. problem with 85'F for too long so that may have been a big factor. I imagine you quarantine and do everything right?
 
Last edited:
Paul, you have 6 Royal Grammas in your tank? I would like to add multiple Royal Grammas to my tank (350g). They also need to be QT'd in a 50g for 6 weeks. How high can I go - 10? :)
 
Do you touch up your photos or is your tank really as blue as the picture of your Clown Tang? It looks a little too blue thats why I'm asking.
 
Tom Fay, AN41, PaulB,

Many thanks for the compliments.

Paul...I actually sometimes don mask and snorkel and pop my head in the tank when i want to do some major rearranging.

P.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11016742#post11016742 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SCIFI_3D_zoo
....What is your feeding regimen? Some people add a lot of stuff .. and some only put in what they do for fish... but they might put a lot of this to make up for specific coral food that's not added. I stopped using Phytoplankton long time ago. And I use Mega Marine cubes now b/c they melt into nice brine size chunks that I make sure get eaten up and not settle on my rock/sand. I'm not sure if the lack of all those food dust particles with other foods is what my filter feedings were feeding on or not.
Click to expand...

I feed theraA pellets mixed with garlic (crushed garlic from the store). I also make a blended food from shrimp/haddock/squid/clams/nori/garlic that I feed the fish with.

Other than a few shrimp now and again to the anemones and the trigger....thats all i do.

P.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11020814#post11020814 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SCIFI_3D_zoo
Thought of another one as I was reading your article. You say NO snails and NO crabs. I've heard of some people who swear off of crabs for various reasons.. but not snails. I think I've had some crabs eat my yellow colonial polyps, I've heard they tend to just eat fresh food and don't help with waste much. But what's wrong with snails?? What about emerald crabs for bubble algae? I'm curious what you think about snails and crabs.

What is the purpose of Conchs?

I saw you have a trigger.. really kool one too. Are these like anything else that could eat coral... it's a crap shoot.. but if you keep em fed well you may be ok??

You have any problem with such a heavily stocked tank and those aneome's moving around? I have a nice finger leather that my clown has taken too... so I get to see symbiosis without messing with any more aneome's.

Any tips/advice on Tangs... especially Pacific Blues? I've had little to no success with PB's. I've had temp. problem with 85'F for too long so that may have been a big factor. I imagine you quarantine and do everything right?
Click to expand...

No snails because they can scratch acrylic. No crabs because they were eaten by the wrasses I think. In my other tank I have both crabs and snails. They do a great job.

Conchs eat stuff from the sand surface and generally keep it clean. They eat diatoms as well ( I think..?)

Tangs, like all fish relaly need a good quarantine tank. I have a tank with sand and rock like a reef for them. I set it up knowing I would be buying several over several months. Each is QT-d till it is eating the same food as the main tank eats. I havent had issues with diseases and the garlic TheraA pellets work wonders on ich.

P.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11022995#post11022995 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NexDog
Paul, you have 6 Royal Grammas in your tank? I would like to add multiple Royal Grammas to my tank (350g). They also need to be QT'd in a 50g for 6 weeks. How high can I go - 10? :)
Click to expand...

Hey there Laurence, hope all is well with you.

The Gramas I QT for a few weeks. I QT-d all 6 together last time and they were just fine. They are quite social when you have enough of them in the tank. 10 would be nice.

P.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11025263#post11025263 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rickyrooz1
Do you touch up your photos or is your tank really as blue as the picture of your Clown Tang? It looks a little too blue thats why I'm asking.
Click to expand...

No I dont touch up the pictures.
The photographs were taken with a Nikon D80 using either an 18-135 or a 70-300 macro. Images were captured in RAW format and opened in Picture Perfect (Nikon proprietary program). From there they were cropped to suit and saved as a JPG.

The tank is pretty blue, especially at the back. It helps give an illusion of depth.

Paul.
 
Insaneclownfish:

Yep, Arnie is now a star! My wife was very happy he had his picture included. We have had him for 8 years and he loves to watch the fish.

---so do the other 3, but they are more camera shy.

Paul.
 
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