Reefer Rob's Tank
Congratulations to Reefer Rob for being selected as Canreef's Featured Tank of the Month for April 2010. Thanks, Rob, for sharing your system details with us! Please click on the thumbnails to view the pictures larger.
Introduction
Thank you to Canreef for selecting my tank as FTOTM. My name is Rob and I have an addiction. It's been 6 months since my last coral purchase.
I've always been interested in fish keeping in one form or another, either ponds or aquariums. Strangely, as a boy I was also heavy into fishing. My first attempt at marine aquariums was it the mid '80s... it failed miserably. The fish store owner I was dealing with didn't know much more than I did, and sold me a different medication every time I went in. Eventually my aquarium ended up a toxic soup of chemicals. My new girlfriend watched in horror as one by one I managed to kill of all of my pets. Fortunately, despite my poor first impression we're still married after 24 years.
In 2004 after much pleading and being assured by Mike at Hidden Reef that "things have gotten much better," my wife allowed me to try again with a 72 gallon bow front. Any carnage would not be tolerated.
It's funny how I reluctantly paid an amount for the entire first system that wouldn't even faze me for a single item now... Anyhow, many thousands of dollars later we have my current setup.
This system is a dedicated SPS tank (with a few left over LPS and softies) and has been running since January of '07. It is a 180 gallon 2'x2'x6' in a custom cherry wood cabinet. The tank was started with the left over rock from my 72 and about 120 lbs of DIY rock partially made from my left over deep sand bed, for a total of about 200 lbs. Circulation is provided by a Dart return through two Wavy Seas, and a Dart closed loop. Since going bare bottom I've added a 2500 GPH MaxiJet mod pointing down at the back to flush detritus to the front. The heart of the system is a Profilux controller that controls heating, cooling, lighting, dosing, and monitors all the parameters of the aquarium.
The System
The technical stuff... It's OK; you can just look at the pictures.
Filtration:
The skimmer on the system is an H&S 200-2xF2001. I've always had an oversized skimmer on my tanks. After all these years of over-skimming there's one thing I can say for sure - I have no idea if it makes any difference. I get very little skimmate from such a large skimmer. On the other hand, if I didn't over-skim...
One thing that does make a huge difference in water quality is a macro-algae refugium, I would never have a tank without one. It is an inexpensive, simple, almost maintenance free way to remove excess nutrients from the water.
Two Phosban Reactors contain carbon which is run continuously and changed monthly, and GFO which is change bi-monthly. A filter sock is on one of the overflows, the other overflow is used to circulate the refugium.
Additives:
Calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium are maintained with the three part, or Balling method, which is dispensed with a Profilux doser.
Mixing ratios and dosing amounts:
Alkalinity: 20 ltr of water with 1600 gm of sodium bicarbonate. 1020 ml is dosed daily. I've tried straight sodium carbonate and various mixtures of carbonate and bicarbonate, but I find sodium bicarbonate works the best.
Calcium: 10 ltr of water with 1800 gm of calcium chloride dihydrate. 380 ml is dosed daily.
Magnesium: 5 ltr of water with 900 gm of magnesium chloride, and 560 gm of magnesium sulphate. 40 drops of Lugol's is added to this solution. 60 ml is dosed daily.
Lighting:
Lighting is provided by three 250 watt Ushio 14k metal halide bulbs and two supplemental 80 watt actinic+ T5s. Originally the tank was set up with 400 watt halides, but I found this to be too much light, and produced a lot of heat. As well, the 250 watt bulbs also allow me to play with supplemental lighting to adjust the color temperature. Moonlight effect is provided by 12v cold cathode tubes powered by a 9v transformer.
Photoperiod:
- 9:00AM - supplemental lighting on
- 11:00AM - halides on
- 8:00PM - halides off
- 9:00PM - supplemental lighting off, moonlights on
- 11:00PM - moonlights off
The Shocking News!
This summer my wife and I purchased Topolino, a Sceptre 36 sailboat. This is a realisation of a lifelong dream for me. Unfortunately I've found that there just isn't enough time (and money) for sailing and reef keeping, so shortly I will be shutting this tank down. Reef keeping has been a challenging and very rewarding experience, but it's time to more on to new things. I hope that in the not too distant future I'll be be able to jump off my boat (maybe not Topolino) and snorkel through terrain similar to what I see in my tank!
Happy Reefing!