Russ' Tank
Congratulations to Rus for being selected as Canreef's Featured Tank of the Month for April. Thanks, Russ, for sharing your system details with us! Please click on the thumbnails to view the pictures larger.
Introduction
First off I would like to thank the staff of Canreeef for choosing my tank as FTOTM, it’s truly an honor to be chosen and be part of the small group of amazing tanks that have been chosen before me and will continue to be chosen in the months to follow, I know I always look forward to reading what people have written each month when I check out TOMTM, so hopefully I will be able to give a little insight into my system for those of you that read this as well.
The Beginning
I have been keeping reef tanks in one fashion or another for the past 12 years or so , and to be perfectly honest I’m not sure what specifically got me interested other than seeing one and thinking I would like that in my home. Ever since I’m been trying to learn as much as possible over the years to make my systems a better environment for my inhabitants. I also am really fascinated by the techie stuff involved in the hobby which doesn’t hurt (other than my wallet from time to time) I have to say by far the vast majority of my knowledge has come from reading and asking questions on Canreeef, and other boards that have become so easily available for all of us to learn from in the insanely addictive hobby. I would like to thank everyone that has helped in some way or another over the year even if you didn’t know you had. This write up features my latest’s tank which has been running almost 2 years now, although like most others in the hobby I already have started working on new ideas and plans for an even bigger and better setup sometime in the near future . (If my wife lets me I should add, I believe she mentioned something about a trip to Italy before I get the go ahead on it).
System Profile
Display tank – Seastar - Starfire glass custom made 72”x 36” x 28” – 315 gal, external rear overflow
Sump – 72”x 24” x 24” custom made plywood and fiberglass (Jamie Cross former sump)
Quarantine Tank – 20 gal tank, lighting Marineland LED setup, hang on Filter
Lighting display – 2 – 250 Radium (HQI Ballast), 1-400 - watt Radium (Vertex Ballast) and 4 – 4ft T5 (All bulbs varying types of Actinic)
Photoperiod- Actinic (7:00 am – 10:00 pm) Halides (start turning on at 2:30 pm and are varied ½ apart and start turning off at 8:45 pm, and are varied ½ hour apart)
Water Circulation – 2 Vortech MP 40w, 1 Tunze 6100, 1 Tunze 6105 and 1 Tunze 6045 (all controlled via APEX) and main pump return through 2 wavy seas at around 1200 gph per unit
Return Pump – Sequence dart 3600
Skimmer – Deltec 902 external
Media Reactors – 2 – Next Reef SMR1 used for Rowas (550ml per month) and Carbon (changed monthly)
Dosing – Profilux Stand Alone doser – Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium
Ro/di – Vertex Puratek RO/DI – 100GPD. (Auto shutoff and booster pump) 33 Gal holding tank for Ro water to be gravity fed to sump.
Heating and Cooling – 2 -250 watt heaters in sump and a wall mounted fan that is located in sump area for cooling. Both of these are programmed to keep temperature via the Apex Controller.
Controller
Apex Controller (wxm module for Vortech, AquaSurf for Tunzes) run off a Netbook located in fish room with full-size monitor. Apex display is located on outside wall by tank for easy viewing and additional control if needed.
Quarantine tank controlled by Aqua controller 3 for heat only. Eventually I will add another module to my Apex and sell off the AQ3 , for now it serves the need for this.
Filtration
As we all know water quality is one of main factors to keeping a successful thriving tank. Over the years I have moved towards purchasing a few higher end products to help with this, and keep things very low maintenance for myself. The Skimmer in my opinion is the biggest key to this I have been using a Deltec 902 skimmer with my system as well as my past system and must say it is one of the best investments I have made. I also believe the more water, the easier it is to maintain levels , this system is using a 200 gal sump which I keep around 60% full , which still leaves plenty of room for any issues such as power outages or other unseen circumstances, but still adds over 100gal to my overall system. The Sump is split into 3 sections; first section houses a filter bag that both returns enter first before the sump as well as the pump for the skimmer. Second large section has the heaters as well as the returns for the Reactors (Carbon, and Rowas) all my probes for readings of Temp, Orp, and Ph are located here as well as the dosing lines for additives. The third section has a Spectra pure auto top-off controller to maintain a steady level in the tank at all times.
Lighting
I would say this is probably one of the most debated aspects in the hobby, and in also a personal choice as far as what looks best to some. For this setup I have gone with metal halide lighting and used T5’s for dawn and dusk effect as well as supplementing the colors. I am definitely looking forward to the next few years as I think by then the LED light systems may be come the way to go as they are fine tuned over the next while.
I have used 2 – 250 Radium bulbs driven by HQI ballast, and 1 -400 watt Radium driven by Vertex Electronic ballast. There are currently 4 – 4’ T5’s as well that are all running Actinic lighting bulbs in them.
Water Parameters
- Specific gravity 1.0255
- PH: 8.20 – 8.40
- Calcium: 400 – 420 range
- Alk: 8.0 dkh
- Magnesium: 1350 - 1400
- Nitrates: nil
- Phosphate: 0.03
- Temp: 77.5 - 80
- Orp: 440 – 470 range
Maintenance
I must say that enjoy the behind the scenes part of my system almost as much as the front side some days, so maintenance for me has never been a real problem to find time for, but I want it to be because I choose to do it as opposed to I have to do it. So picking proper equipment is crucial to me. I clean the glass at least every few days as I like the it to look clean at all times if possible , fish are fed at least twice a day by hand , as well as I have an auto feeder for small portions through the day.
Daily – feeding, wipe out riser in skimmer, clean glass, change out filter bags as needed
Bi-weekly – 30 gal water changes (Instant Ocean salt) and clean skimmer, a complete cleaning in tank for sand, glass and detritus in the rocks.
Monthly - Change out Rowas, Carbon and premix one month of additives for dosing.
Livestocks
Fish – 35 Total
- Sailfin Tang
- 2 Yellow Tangs
- Regal Tang
- 2 Percula Clownfish
- Checkerboard Wrasse
- Debelius Wrasse
- 5 Bartlett Anthias
- 2 Lyretail Anthias
- Borbonius Anthias
- Red Striped Cardinal
- 2 Black ringed Cardinals
- Banggai Cardinal
- 11 Glass Cardinals
- Copperband Butterfly fish
- Goldflake Angel
- African Flameback Angel
- Damselfish (Unknown, and unable to catch as well)
*** Picking up 13 Red Spot Cardinals to add to Quarantine system shortly this will bring Fish total to 48. I have been waiting for these for quite some time and look forward to the challenge of getting them healthy and add to my system .
Corals
Many Assorted SPS , LPS , ZOOs and Soft corals (I have never been one to know all the names of these , so I will not pretend to try know them now as well)
Acknowledgment
I would like to start with saying thanks to my wife, who although is not extremely interested in this hobby she does know enough to talk with friends about it , and best off is able to put up with me constantly talking about , working on and otherwise consumed with this hobby . She has been very supportive, which for couples and marriages to coexist with this hobby, is definitely a must. I would also like thank everyone who posts on the boards I read as there information and knowledge has been vital for me in learning about this awesome hobby.
