BBlink's Tank

Congratulations to BBlinks for being selected as Canreef Featured Tank for Fall 2013! (Thanks, Rich, for sharing your system details with us!) Please click on the thumbnails to view the pictures larger.

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Introduction

First of all, I'd like to thank Canreef and their staffs for giving me this great opportunity to show case my tank. I would never have thought that my tank would be in the same league as some of the previous TOTM. I used to drool over them, day in and day out wishing that I could get to that calibre some day and here we are. What an honor!

Background

Ever since I was a young boy, I have always been infatuated with pelagic life form. I was fortunate enough to have an outdoor 80 gallon tank in my front yard which my grandfather built, 1 side glass viewing pane and the rest good old fashioned cement. It had the standard issued Chinese temples on mountain tops connected by windy bridges for decoration; it always reminded me of a scene from an old Chinese Kung Fu movie where the monks are battling the Imperial army. In this mystical tank I kept everything from tadpoles to goldfish, tropical fish to crayfish. Whatever I could find and afford at the time, I stuffed it in the tank. Sadly a few years later just before we immigrated to Canada my old man took a sledgehammer to it to make room. I am still bitter about it when I think back.

So fast forward 15 years to my first free 20 gallon tank which was intended for my ex-girlfriend's hamster. The hamster had an unfortunate accident and fell off my 19th floor apartment building, at least that's my story and I am sticking with it. Since the hamster's early departure I ended up with an empty 20g tank, suddenly a light bulb went off in my head, and I thought to myself why don't I use this tank for what it was intended for, fish! Immediately I set out for my LFS, after a couple of days back and forth to Wal-Mart (yes they sell fish and cheap) I had the thing setup and running. Things didn't go exactly as I planned but with some trials and tribulation, I was able to stop killing all the inhabitants of my new found hobby and even had a few clutches of baby mollies in the hog horn.

The 20 gallon was short lived when it sprung a leak, and that's when the 33 gallon came into the picture, after the success with the 33; I was presented with another free tank, a 55 gallon breeder tank which I kept several different types of puffers. I absolutely love those fishes and their personalities but the selection was limited until I realized the saltwater section had puffers too. I think that was the catalyst which started me on my journey into the salty side of the hobby.

My fascination grew from saltwater puffers to amazingly colourful saltwater fishes and corals (mainly softies and LPS). That's when I made the switch and turned that 55 gallon fresh into a salt water tank. The 55 gallon had a CPR overflow, oceanic number 2 sump and a coralife skimmer. All was good until one hot summer day when I was having my early 20's afternoon nap, I was having a vivid dream about playing in the water park with super soakers and having water splashed on my face, it was a great feeling. I remember opening my eyes and waking up realizing it was all a dream, which really put a damper on things and feeling the fresh saltwater on my face and seeing the tank overflowing was another surprise in itself. Freaking out at this point was an understatement; the POS CPR overflow stopped working and semi-soaked my bed. I guess that's what I get for having the tank right beside my bed. Luckily I had a quick fix and stopped the sump from completely emptying onto my bed and carpet. Ever since that unpleasant episode, I knew my next tank would consist of an internal overflow. When I look back now I can't help myself but to laugh at how many mistakes I made through-out my reefing career. I still cringe when I think about all the "DOH!!" moments. If it wasn't for the help and support from the folks on Canreef, I think I would have quit a long time ago!

The next tank I got was a 72 gallon bow front with a built-in overflow, and finally when we purchased our home in 2007, I decided to eliminate all the smaller tanks and move on to the "final upgrade," at the time I had 5-6 tanks going ranging from planted tank, puffer tank, brackish water tank and my saltwater tank in an 1100 square feet apartment. I told my wife this is it! I'll sell all the tanks and upgrade to the 210 and never buy another tank again. I guess it must have been women's intuition, she looked at me and said "Yeah right!" Well, once again she was right, but it was a contribution of several factors that led me to my current tank. My son, at an age of 3 was helping dad cleaning the film algae off the glass. He was rigorously cleaning with the larger magfloat and must have picked some sugar fine sand along the way. Needless to say, it scratched the front pane in several different places. I tried my absolute best to ignore them but it just wasn't happening. I soon found myself focusing on these scratches more than my corals, it was eating me up inside. In the summer of 2011, I stumbled across an amazing deal that I just couldn't refuse on the current marineland 300DD, after getting permission from the wife, I jumped on it right away. I promised myself that I will do "due diligence" on selecting all the top notch hardware that I could afford, and use all of my collective knowledge and experience to do an SPS dominated tank, and now here we are.

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Current Tank

Marineland 300 Deep Dimensions, 72" x 36" x 27", on a powder coated 2" by 2" metal stand. Sump is a 52" by 28" by 16" custom tank. Frag tank is 48" x 24" x 12". All the tanks are connected to a common sump.

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System Profile

Display tank:Marineland 300DD
Display lighting:12 x AI sol blue with 3 strips T5HO ATI purple plus
Sump:100 gallons
Frag tank:90 gallons
Frag tank lighting:Teklight 6 bulb T5HO
Return pump:Reeflo Dart gold (DT); Red dragon (Frag)
Circulation pumps:4 x Tunze 6105, 2 x WP40 (DT); 1 x Tunze 6095, 1 x MP40 (Frag)
Protein skimmer:BubbleKing SuperMarin 250
Controller:Profilux 3EX
Calcium reactor:Vertex RX6 Duo / Avast Marine large kalk stirrer
Top off:Profilux level sensor
Media reactor:Nextreef x 2, Rowaphos / Vertex bio-pellets
Chiller:Oceanic 1/2 horse not hooked up, mainly 2 Wal-Mart $10 clip on fans

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Lighting

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Over the years, I have tried many different lighting systems ranging from t5, t8, mh, pc and LEDs. My interest in LEDs surfaced when the first Solaris unit came on display at the local fish store, but the hefty price tag had me stuttering. The first unit I tried to build was mirrored off a user named SoundWave from ReefCentral, from that point, I knew one day LEDs will take over the lighting scene for most reef tank owners due to the flexibility of control and ambient operating temperature. As of now, I run 12 AI Sol over my tank, and 3 X 24" ATI Purple Plus T5HO to supplement the red spectrum that's "missing" from the AI's. I run 5 hours at 100%, ramp up and ramp down for 3 hours each, with more of an actinic look in the evening strictly for my own viewing pleasure since I mostly view the tank during the evening. The only complaint I have is due to the intensity of the Sols', I bleach almost all of my newly acquired LPS, I suspect it's the wavelength of the light that penetrates too deep into the fleshy LPS. Of course not all bleach, but shoot, it's like playing the lottery.

Frag tank is on T5's, and truthfully I am very pleased with the color rendition of my sps in that tank. Even though I have to change bulbs every 6 months, but it's worth it. I suspect it's the wide distribution of light and the endless combination that makes the difference, but I am no expert and we will just leave that explanation to Dr. Sanjay.

Filtration

The heart of the operation is a BubbleKing Supermarin 250. I would seriously contribute all my success to this beast. I am grossly overstocked on the fish list, but if I were to ever restock, I would still have the same amount of fish, much like my friend Peter in his 210, which was stuffed full of fishes (just kidding Pete!). Nitrates and phosphates are controlled by Vertex bio-pellets, which feed directly into the skimmer. I had some cyano issues during the heat wave this summer, but after I redirected the bio-pellet outlet straight into the skimmer intake, it improved dramatically. Rowaphos is run through a reactor and changed monthly. I run my carbon (Vertex) passively in a filter bag, also changed monthly. The last defense is a 36W UV sterilizer mainly used to combat my everlasting ich problem (not a huge deal, it seems to come and go, but nonetheless it's a pain in the butt). Water changes are done bi-weekly with a 44 gallon Rubbermaid mixing container.

My main philosophy on filtration is get as much water circulating and processed through the sump. True that your skimmer will only process a certain amount of water that it's rated for, but with more circulation it has a better chance for the skimmer and rest of the filter methods to get at it. So far it has proven its effectiveness for me, might not be for everyone, but it works for me.

Circulation

Flow, you just can't have enough in an SPS tank. Reeflo Dart pumps around 3000-3500 gph back into the main display exiting a dual 2-1/2" outlet creating more of a wide flow pattern aided by previously 6 Tunze 6105's, and now 4 Tunze 6105's with 2 WP40's. For the price, those WP40's are a much cheaper alternative for controllable pumps compared to the Tunzes and Ecotech. Frag tank is fed by a 1200 GPH Red Dragon pump, and the rest of the reactors are fed by an Ehiem 1262.

Supplements

A calcium reactor is a must for larger tanks. Not saying that you can't dose, but I found it much easier and less hassle to deal with. I use a Vertex RX6 duo reactor in conjunction with my ATO powered Avast Marine kalk stirrer. Most of the time, my numbers are bang on. Word of advice: calibrate your PH probe at least every 3 months! I had a few months of low alk due to a failed PH probe in the reactor, almost lost several large colonies. Not too smart on my part, but lesson learned.

Additives

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I have a slew of additives from Zeovit to Brightwell. IMO there are no short cuts or magic potions in this hobby, the secret is stability. Having your parameters stable which include the big 3, nitrate, phosphate and PH, and you will have yourself a well maintained beautiful reef tank, and I guarantee that. The only few additives I use are Zeovit LPS and SPS amino acid dosed once a week, lugol's twice a week and that's about it.

Feeding

I use an auto feeder 3 times day with a mixture of pellets of all sizes and taste, Reef Roids, flakes, and Acan plus and others, so everybody can get some. Tangs and wrasses get a sheet of nori twice a day. I don't usually target feed anything due to the amount of fish I have, someone once told me there is nothing better than fish poop for your corals and I have been living with that model ever since.

Corals

SPS="stability promotes success"

I am terrible with names, so I won't even attempt it. I know I have some ORA, Tyree, Reefraft ... who cares! If it's nice and you like it, then buy it and make it grow.

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Fish

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Future Plans

Rubbermaid 150 gallon LR with chaeto refugium plumbed into the system for some added filtration and pod production.

Acknowledgements

I'd like to first and foremost thank my beautiful and forgiving wife, and my 2 lovely kids for their support along this amazing journey of ours. She has always been the driving force behind me. By driving force I mean she does all my water testing and more ... not that I can't do it, but she is just that much better. Some nights I catch her gazing into the tank for a short period of time, and I know she enjoys the tank and all of the cool creatures that reside there. Or maybe she is planning a way to get rid of it, hopefully the latter isn't the case. I'd also like to thank all my friends who helped me along the way; Peter, Chris, Wayne, Jesse, Jim, Mike, Greg, Brad, Jeff, Sheena from JL aquatics, Tim T from SeaCare, Pedwin, Rochene and many others plus my non reefing friends Henry, Gabe, Mojo, Chris, Adam for the dreadful tank moves, without you guys I wouldn't have been able to accomplish any of this. Thanks to Brad, Dennis and Tim for showing me your amazing tanks and for your inspiration and always striving for a better and healthier reef. Big thanks go out to Wayne (ricereef) for coming out and taking pictures and loading them into my computer till 4 a.m. (Peter, not so much). Last but not least, thanks to all the friends and mods on Canreef for maintaining such a great forum, without the wealth of combined knowledge we share, this hobby of ours would never grow and improve for the better. Thanks again!

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