Canreef Tank of the Month

Chaloupa's 150G Gallon Tank

We welcome 2009 with Chaloupa's gorgeous reef ! Thanks for sharing with us!

Introduction

When I first started in the hobby, I wanted to achieve the amazing tanks that I had seen in magazines previously...HAH, that was going to prove tougher than it sounded. My first tank, you want mistakes, I made most of them. I was told to buy live sand, $50 of live rock, mix up salt water and in a week come back for 4 clownfish. Easy as pie right?! Wrong...what a disaster. After many dead fish, corals, etc.. well here I am today.

When Christy came by for her frags from a group order, she had a look at my tanks and asked if I would put my 150g SPS dominated tank in for January. PARDON??? My first reaction was "there is no way mine is as good as ANY previous tanks and...I can't do this, who's really going to want to read about MY tank?" Then I realized, it's not a competition on whose tank is best, who keeps the most amazing SPS/LPS/Zoa or softies, who has this or that...it's experiences that we all have, to share that will help make this hobby that much more entertaining and rewarding. HUGE thanks to Christy for considering me and Canreef for featuring my tank and all the help I have found on the site from others. And thanks to everyone that takes the time to read this.

System

It's glass 60x24x24 or a 150g. We had purchased a 180g 6 foot tank and THEN measured the wall it was supposed to go on....oops can only fit a 5 foot tank. The stand and cap were custom made by a local guy in Vancouver when we bought the tank. After many problems getting this tank going ok, this tank was a nightmare to start...but now it's working out well!

Equipment (boring but necessary)

Sump; 50g poorly baffled glass tank. Microbubbles GALORE!!

Return pump; Sequence Reeflo Dart

Protein skimmer; H&S 200-3xF2001

Lighting; PFO 2x400w Aquaconnect bulbs, and 2 x T12's

Precision Marine Calcium Reactor

Tunze Wavebox

Tunze 6080 x 2

Controller; Neptune Aquacontroller Jr.

LED lights for moonlighting

Lighting

I like to see my corals and fish so my lighting periods are long....my T12's come on at 8:00am and go off at 12:00am, my LED's are on 24/7 as I didn't have a space available for them on my controller, and my halides come on at 11:30am and go off at 8:00pm. I also really like to feed them and do so 2x per day! No wonder my nitrates have to be watched so closely. I change my halides every 10-12 months, and I change the T12's as often as I remember to.

Aquarium Chemistry

Temperature: 76-82 F pH: 8.1 Alkalinity: 8-9 dkh

Calcium: 400 ppm Magnesium: 1200 ppm

Additives

Zeo Coral Vitalizer 2x a week, Zeo Stylo-Pocci Glow 2x a week, Zeo Coral Snow, Tailored Aquatics Potassium weekly, Tailored Aquatics Magnesium as often as needed, Tailored Aquatics Nitrate Destroyer when needed.

Current Fish and Inverts

In this tank I previously kept 3 tangs and an African Flameback Angel.
The tangs were a Red Sea Sailfin, Powder Blue and my favorite for
personality, Naso. All 3 tangs have been caught and re-homed due to
aggression (they killed a Moorish Idol AND a Green Sea Grass Wrasse).
The angel I have yet to catch but will as it loves to eat polyps, and I
don't love it eating polyps! I went from a large bioload to fairly
minimal...but that won't stay. There are sooo many beautiful fish that
need to come home with me!

Fish:

Trio of Picasso Clownfish
Pair of Spotted Mandarin Dragonette
Leopard Wrasse
Yellow Wrasse
Hectors Goby
Copperband Butterfly (very tiny!)
1 Bangaii Cardinal

Inverts:

Not many as I had redbugs in my SPS and have never replaced the hermits
that are killed when medicating.
Strawberry tophats
Nassarius snails both large and small
Unknown snails that I got from J&L when they were out of turbos that
have been the best ones yet
1 sand sifting starfish
1 cute little conch

Routine

Are we supposed to have one? I missed the memo on that one. I don't have a routine...sad but true. I do a water change of around 50 gallons when I have water prepared (could be 1-2 times a month), I top up with RO/DI water often as I have many fans to keep the heat down, and I check my levels..not often enough. I got a bit of a wake up call when I did check them a few months ago...ooops my Nitrate was as high as would register on the Salifert test...so I tried again with an
Elos as that couldn't be right, my fish and corals look ok....and it was true! Had to do some quick husbandry changes and got it back under control. Note to self to develop a better routine. Amazing colors on my SPS now! I do turkey baste the rock daily as I love getting the crud out...it's like vacuuming a dirty floor-you see a difference when you're done.

Things I'd do differently if I could do it all over; purchase fantastic lighting the first go around, add the calcium reactor closer to the beginning, get the skimmer I want not the one available, add the controller on day ONE, quarantine all new SPS corals, and find reef sites that have the quality of information and the passion that most have for this hobby A LOT SOONER!

I like to talk fish, so my write up is long...hope I didn't bore anyone...you just don't get me started talking fish. My husband has abandoned me in many fish shops!

Thanks again to Christy, Canreef and all the other reefers that make this site what it is, and took the time to read about my tank!

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