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NOVEMBER 2006
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Marie's Many Marine Aquaria
Wow, where do I start, not only was I honoured with a request to feature my
tank, they asked me to feature all three! I started in the hobby in 1992 with a 20g tank,
lava rock, a clown fish and a single feather duster worm. It wasn't until 2000 when we had
the internet hooked up that my interest expanded to all things reef. Over the years I have
had up to four tanks running, today I'm down to three: a 175g bowfront, a 55g and a 20g.
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175
gallon system:
This tank was set up March
3rd of this year by combining two of my other tanks. Because of a
few setbacks, it has taken a while for everything to adjust and
stabilize. Its only been in the last month that I can finally say
it's reached its happy place.
The tank is a 175g
reef-ready Oceanic bowfront with two overflows, 30g basement sump,
Berlin XL Protein Skimmer, Calcium Reactor, GenX PCX-70 return pump, 2
Tunze 6060 streams, 3-250W DE 13,500K Giesemann Metal Halides, 2-165W
VHO (1 actinic, 1 white actinic)
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Specific Gravity:
34ppt Alkalinity: 10 dkH Calcium:
420 ppm Nitrates: >5 ppm
pH:
8.2 Magnesium: 1250 ppm
Photo period: VHO's on at 8:00 am -> 9:00pm
Metal Halides 11:00am -> 9:00pm
approx. 180lbs of live rock and a 1 1/2"-2" oolitic sand bed
Regal angel Yellow Fiji leather
Foxface Colt coral (Cladiella)
Achilles tang Torch coral (Euphyllia)
2 Orchid Dottybacks Branching Hammer (Euphyllia)
2 Bangaii cardinals Turbinaria sp
4 threadfin cardinals Bubble coral (Plerogyra)
2 cleaner shrimp Blastomussa
tuxedo urchin Toadstool (Sarcophyton sp)
2 abalone var. Montipora sp
blueleg hermits var. Acropora sp
astreas, turbos, cerith Porities
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55 gallon system:
Two days before I was asked to feature my tanks, I had decided to shake
things up a little in this tank.I changed the vho lights to metal halide
lighting and I traded a large rock, covered in hairy mushrooms, green button
polyps and a giant toadstool, for a nice clean piece of rock. I have since
been hastily glueing corals to the new rock to try and cover up it's newness for the pictures
This tank was set up to be viewed from three sides, it's not drilled and has
no sump. There is a Remora pro protien skimmer, 3 maxi jet 1200 power heads,
2-175w 10k metal halides and 2-40w actinics
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Specific Gravity:
34ppt Alkalinity: 8 dkH Calcium:
380 ppm Nitrates: 5-10 ppm
pH:
8.3 Magnesium: 1220 ppm
Approx. 40lbs of live rock and a crushed coral substrate
Yellow Tang Open Brain(trachyphyllia)
Clarkii Clownfish Crocea clam
2 Green Chromis Fox Coral (Nemenzophyllia)
Cherub Angel Pipe Organs (Tubipora)
Sharknose Goby Clove Polyps (Clavularia)
2 Peppermint Shrimp var. Zoanthids
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This tank is the one that has been set up since '92, It is now used as a
coral quarantine/hospital tank and has also been handy as a temporary fish
holding tank. There are no fish,crabs or shrimp in it (most of the time)
which makes it easier to target feed and care for sick corals. Lighting is a
coralife 2 96w power compact light fixture, there is also a bak pak skimmer
and 1 maxi jet 900 power head.
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While I try to keep everything as close as possible to my other
tanks, when I ran test for this article I discovered everything was low
(oops). I am now working on raising them back up
Specific Gravity:
32ppt Alkalinity: 5.5 dkH Calcium:
320 ppm
Nitrates:
undetectable pH: 8.0
Magnesium: 1280 ppm
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Reefkeeping is an addictive hobby. If I knew what I was heading towards when I started, I'm not sure I would've carried on.
It's time consuming, expensive and when troubles start, it can be heartbreaking. Having said that, I'm now thinking of ways
to convince my family to let me convert my 20g into a 90g LPS tank. After all Bubbles, the yellow tang, will outgrow my
55 gallon and the Achilles will probably kill him if I put in the big tank...
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