Canreef Staff Tanks: Doug, Delphinus and christyf5   To kick off the 2007/2008 tank showcasing season, we thought we would show the tanks of the hardworking, dedicated Canreef staff who work diligently to bring you the Canreef you've come to expect. It turns out, they enjoy keeping reefs too! Here is a sample of what occupies their time, when not helping keep Canreef working as a well-oiled, finely tuned, high-performance machine. Doug's 90 Gallon Tank   My tank is a standard  90 gallon AllGlass tank. It is designed to be a sumpless, low power, yet efficient operating system. I have limited the amount of rock, leaving enough still for the fish to hide and have places for corals and bio filtration but with easy access to clean detritus. I traded or sold off lots of rock, some I have had for 17yrs. There is also a fair amount of rubble scattered across the bottom. It does collect some detritus but the stream pump keeps it decently clean and the rest is easily siphoned. I think of adding a couple inches of 2mm sized aragonite and keep it clean with siphoning during water changes, as it would be very accessible.           I run a pair of Penguin 330 power filters on the back. Currently using particle filters in them but they will be mainly to create surface water movement and hold the carbon, PhosBan, etc. Skimming is done by a Tunze 9010 skimmer, operating in tank. Its in the front corner, instead of the usual rear corner. {looks as good as any overflow}. I run it this way for now, because the appearance is fine for me and because of the lighting position in respect to the corals. Besides the power filters, current is created by a Tunze 6080 stream pump, which is hidden behind the skimmer and a Maxi-Jet 1200. I use a pair of Jaeger heaters. My titanium made 3 yrs. Before crapping just as this tank was being set up.       Lighting is a pair of 4ft. SWC, T-5 light fixtures. Each runs 4ft. HO bulbs with individual reflectors. Each has a 10K & actinic bulbs. They are self contained, so no external ballasts. To be honest, I never got much growth in my cube, from my 250w 12K halide and must say my tank is much brighter running the T-5's. I could have purchased another 250 and changed bulb colour but decided to try this instead. I had a 4 ft. set before but never had much of a chance to test it, as I sold it in favour of my pair of 175w halides. This is one part of the set up, that will be closely watched.                                                             My fish include a pair of mated percs, {almost 4 yrs. old}, a goofy lawnmower blennie, but then most of them are and a recently purchased baby Tomini tang. It has great colours and from their reputation, should be sized ok for the 90g.     Corals are all sps frags, both Acropora and Montipora digita, plus a couple of smaller Turbinaria corals. The only others I currently have are Caulastrea corals or better known as candy cane or trumpet corals. Besides a couple from the local LFS, most came from other tanks. I also have a blue Crocea clam and two smaller Derasa clams. The Derasas were meant to be on the bottom but are sitting on a large flat rock. They never seemed to like the bottom with the detritus accumulating around them. I placed them on the rock only temporary but they attached the same day, so there they stay. Of course as they  grow larger, I hope like most large clams, they will lose the need to be attached.                                                                                                      A lot about my tank is still experimental. I will watch close to see if nitrates are contained by keeping it clean and perhaps used by the clams. A close eye on coral & clam growth and colours will also be part of this tank because of the 220 watts of T-5 lighting. If required, I may add a third fixture but for now it seems to be intense enough. I also have my large turf scrubber in storage if needed, although the turf screen is now dead and its not really suited to this type of set-up, being in my little office type room. I would dearly love to run it on this tank but have yet to figure out where to have it sit.      Plus I hope to keep the winter humidity in check with my de-humidifier and the homes central exhaust system, which works well but not efficient like an HRV.               My system is not something we would normally feature in its young stage but as this is on staff systems, its included. And, if all goes well, it can show, as some of our features already have, how a reef aquarium can be done different from the norm.   ***************************************************************************   Delphinus' Tank Collection Extraordinaire   Hi everyone, thanks for letting me share my tanks with you. I've been keeping captive reefs since 1998, so I am approaching my ten year anniversary with this affliction. :-)  I currently have three tanks on the go, a 110g cube which is primarily a dedicated species-only tank for a large Heteractis. magnifica ("ritteri") anemone, a 75g mixed garden reef, and 40g carpet anemone/clownfish display (which also houses a few other critters I didn't know what to do with in the other tanks). One day, I might have my 280g SPS reef set up, but for now these 3 tanks are my main focus.  It may sound a little cliche, but I took an early fascination to anemones and my reef tanks reflect that. I can appreciate a softy tank, an SPS tank, a zoanthids and/or ricordia focused tank, but the things that truly captivate me are anemones. I have done SPS tanks and while the colours compare to none, I seem to always come home to anemone tanks. Which is somewhat ironic, because I don't necessarily share the same enthusiasm for anemonefish! I currently care for 2 BTAs, 2 carpets, and one massive ritteri; and yet only 1 pair of A. ocellaris clowns. The clowns are in heaven with so many to choose from, but they remain loyal to their carpets.   The 110g Ritteri tank      This is more or less the current flagship tank for me. At 30x30x30, the dimensions are the smallest I felt I could get away with to house an anemone that is capable of expanding to 24" in diameter. This is generally regarded as one of the more demanding species of anemone. I have had this particular individual since 2001 so he & I (yes - he is a "he") have been through a lot together. The trick to successful anemone husbandry is to observe each species and pay attention to their behaviours, as each species has their own particular wants. What works for one won't work for another. In the case of H. magnifica, in the wild they tend to be found at the tops of reef structures, possibly even exposed to air in extreme low tides. This suggests that bright lighting, and strong surging, wave-like currents might be their preference. Thus, creating a habitat suitable for this anemone should include the following elements: - Bright, point-source lighting (ie. metal halides) - Strong surging currents, wavemaker or controller - Rockwork aquascaped to create a coral "bommie" (a pillar like structure) that the anemone can sit atop.                                              Halides are, in my opinion, mandatory for this species. The reason for this claim might surprise you, however. It's not the intensity, as in fact the required intensity can be replicated with other lighting technologies. It is the spotlight effect that is key. If the anemone senses that it is in the brightest spot available to it, it will likely want to stay put. If it stretches out in one direction and senses a dropoff in intensity, the anemone will not want to wander in this direction. The reason for the bommie is similar. Again, remember that the anemone, generally speaking, craves the highest spot possible. Thus, it is important that the anemone does not sense a "path to a higher spot." If it does, away he'll go and you'll likely end up with the classic ritteri pose of finding the front glass and sitting right at the top. (This makes sense, because guess where the best light and the best currents tend to be in our tanks? You guessed it - right at the front at the top! :-)   This anemone tends to spawn twice a year, generally speaking, within a week or two of the equinoxes (spring and fall). "Who loves ya, baby!"   Inhabitants: H. magnifica,  Siganus virgatus (double barred rabbitfish), Pseudochromis fridmani (orchid dottyback) 2 Lysmata amboinensis (cleaner shrimp), 5 Lysmata wurdemanni (peppermint shrimp), Green urchin (not sure of species),  Diadema setosum urchin,  Haliotis sp. abalone, Teardrop T. maxima,  T. squamosa Equipment: Lighting: 250W DE 14000k Ushio Skimmer: ASM G3 modded to use meshwheel, and recirculating Sump return: Rio 32HF through 6 way manifold Flow: 2x6100 Tunze on multicontroller, alternating left and right directional flows every 20seconds   The 75G Mixed Garden   This used to be my main focus tank and in those days it was primarily an SPS dominated tank. However over the years the focus has changed every now and again and currently it is just a mixed bag of things. There are fish in here, LPS, gorgonians, clams, zoanthids .. a little bit of everything. This tank has been running since 2001 so it's been a while in setup, and even survived when I moved in 2004 (not sure that I would move a tank again, though!)  My tang and my sixline have been with me since 2002 and 2001 respectively, so these guys are like the wizened veterans in my tank now, there's not much they haven't seen in terms of ideas I've tried in the hobby! Inhabitants: - Zebrasoma desjardini (Red Sea sailfin tang),  Chelmon rostratus (copperbanded butterfly),  Centropyge potteri (Potter's angel) Neocirrhites armatus (flame hawkfish), Pseudocheilinus hexataenia (sixline wrasse), 2 T. crocea,  T. maxima,  T. squamosa,  T. derasa,  Echinometra mathaei (Math sea urchin),  Mespilla globulus (blue tuxedo urchin)  Equipment: Lighting: 2x250W 10000K plus 2x110g actinic Skimmer: Precision Marine Bullet-1 Sump return: Little Giant 4 Flow: 4xMJ1200 powerheads on a Red Sea Wavemaker.

The 40g Carpet/Clown tank

Despite many shifting interests in the hobby, I've always come home to anemones. From a period of about 4 years, I decided I wanted to try a Stichodactyla gigantea carpet. This is considered by some to be the Holy Grail of anemonekeeping, and I can certainly attest that it was an interesting challenge to acquire a specimen. From a period of about 1999 to 2004, I would visit every LFS in Calgary every week to see what would come in on that week's shipment. And never once did I see this species come in. My search became an obsession. I would see this species in the U.S. when I would go down for site trips for work, but I never came home with one, for not knowing what would happen at the border. (As it happens, I fretted for naught, as anemones are not on CITES. But hindsight is 20/20!)

S. gigantea is an absolutely beautiful anemone. Like H. magnifica, these are shallow water animals, so that tells us what kind of currents and lighting for them should be used. Unlike H. magnifica however, these anemones prefer to shelter their pedal disk in a crevasse, rock, or even bury them so you likely find them at the sand/rock interface. They like intense light, but there is no need for a spotlight effect like with magnifica.

Interesting factoid about the latin naming of this species. When you "hear" gigantea, you think "gigantic." But, in actual fact, of the 3 Indo-Pacific clownfish hosting carpet anemone species, S. gigantea is in fact the smallest. S. haddoni and S. mertensii will handily outgrow this species and have maximum diameter sizes in the order of 24" and 30" respectively. So why are they called "giant" carpets? Story goes, when the species was first described, the European biologists had not seen a larger anemone so to them these were gigantic, and named the species thinking that these Red Sea specimens were the largest anemones in the world. I don't know if this is true or not, but, it makes for an amusing anecdote - the classical ice-breaker line at cocktail parties.

A couple years ago a lot of my live rock became infested with hydroids. I decided to try chocolate chip stars to see if they would clean the rock of them. It seems they did the job (eventually). But, over time, I grew fond enough of them to keep them. They are not generally regarded as good reef tank specimens due to their predatory nature. However, I thought it was a bit of a breath of fresh air to have a starfish whose diet we can actually predict. So, this tank became the home for these stars. They do not bother the clowns or anemones, and, if I find a rock with hydroids, into this tank it goes so the stars can clean it up.

Inhabitants:

2 Stichodactyla gigantea (giant carpet), Mating pair of Amphiprion ocellaris clownfish, Neopetrolisthes sp.,porcelain crab),  Cypraea tigris (Tiger cowry),  2 Entacmaea quadricolor (rose BTA, gold BTA), 2 Protoreaster nodosus (chocolate chip star)

Equipment:

Lighting: 175W Iwasaki 14000K

Skimmer: (Shared sump with 75g tank)

Sump return: Mag5 into a SCWD which alternates flow to the left and right sides of the tank

Flow: 2xMJ1200 powerheads + 2xHagen 300 powerheads on a Red Sea Wavemaker

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Christy's 90 Gallon SPS Extravaganza

I've said it once and I'll say it again; this hobby can become amazingly addictive.  Looking at my tank pic, can you guess what I've become addicted to?  You guessed it, I'm an SPS junkie. None of that "plant 6 inches apart" gardening rules for me. I cram them in wherever there's space. I've never had the "pleasure" of growing out a tank of SPS frags before; something usually comes along and does them all in before that ever happens (see my threads on high temperatures, dinoflagellates and stupidity).

So I won't bore you with too many gory details on equipment and such although I suppose its necessary.   I'll try to keep it short and sweet. This is sort of an abbreviated version of the normal TOTM anyways and man, I could go on for pages and pages about my tank. You'd probably fall asleep long before then (unless you're hardcore like me :P).

Ok on to the good stuff.  My tank is 90 gallons of fun and excitement, (now with eurobracing!). Instead of saying its been running for x years, I'll just say I've been "successful" since 2005 when I finally ripped out the sandbed after a yearlong battle with dinoflagellates that ultimately destroyed all the corals (and a couple of fish) in my tank.  I run a 30 gallon sump with some old live rock in there hanging out making detritus.  I run a 50 micron sock on the intake because my overflow box likes to make the grossest algae (yet wildly colorful) that often gets into the sump along with other cooties.  I have a Euroreef ES6-2 skimmer, and a couple of phosban reactors down there as well, one with phosban, one with carbon and a heater of some ilk. I think it's an Ebo-Jaeger. I appropriated a bunch of these years ago from an old job and am just working my way through them.  I had one stick on a couple years ago but that didn't stop me from just selecting another one from the pile.  There's also a float valve crammed in there that controls the DIY topoff setup I have concocted which basically consists of a john guest fitting and a large rubbermaid container.  It's very complex and yes, I use RODI water. I have a rather green thumb so there wasn't any other choice really ;)

I run ozone on a regular basis (Sander Ozone Unit), my ORP hovers around 360 or so (Milwaukee ORP monitor). It's a smaller unit and I dose about 25-30mg into my tank which I believe is "underrated" for my tank size. I have a Schuran Jetstream Pico Calcium reactor that I just got awhile ago. I can't believe how small it is, yet still gets the job done.  Now I have so much room under my stand for other junk! Yay!!

Ok on to stuff that actually hangs out in or on the tank.  I have 2x250W Ushios in Lumenarc Mini A3 reflectors running on M58 ballasts. They are "supplemented" by 2x110W VHO on an Icecap 440 ballast. I put supplemented in quotations as there was some error in measurements when I decided to go with the Lumenarc reflectors.  The reflectors actually shade out a goodly portion of the actinic lighting (I'd say about 60-70% of it actually) but there's enough of a difference when they're off to notice so I run them anyways.

For water circulation I have a mag 12 running on a 3/4" Seaswirl (which is being cooked by the lighting due to yet another goofy measurement on my part) as well as two Tunze 6060s and a Tunze Wavebox. They keep everyone happy and while I thought having the two 6060s in there was "good enough", I had no idea until the wavebox was added.  The polyps on some corals look like hands stretched out as far as they can go, it's absolutely amazing.

Ok on live things!  I'm a biologist so I tend to have a bit more interest about live things rather than equipment (although, I'm more susceptible to the power of suggestion when it comes to equipment because I know so little).  I have about 100lbs of rock or so and I have no idea what it is. I just called the store and said to send a box of rock. Likely it's Fiji or something like that. I've had most of it in the tank for about 5 years or so adding a few crab/worm infested pieces over the years (which I deeply regret doing, I am still finding evil crabs in there). 

Ok I'll start with fish first.  My oldest fish are my scopas tang and bangaii cardinal, both of which I got in 2003.  Bug, the bangaii, came to me from Calgary as a tiny spawn in EmilyB's tank.  He came complete with cocktail sword urchin (which I am kicking myself for not taking pictures of!). He has a bit of a gimpy jaw and reminds me of an old guy without his bottom teeth in.  The scopas tang was a Canada day purchase from Victoria ("do you think the stores are open on a holiday? Lets go!").  That year I also added a tailspot wrasse who was the most personable fish in my tank and taught all the other fish that it was okay to come out when people were looking at the tank and that if you put on a show usually they would feed you!  Sadly he passed away a couple months ago when he became too inquisitive about the goings on in my crocea clam who wasn't having any of that and promptly closed on his head. It was very upsetting.

In 2005 I added a regal tang from a friend who wanted to try freshwater discus for five minutes.  A great deal for me as I inherited "Dory", the most skittish regal tang ever.  Many a person has come to my house to see the tank and remarked, "uh is that fish ok?" Pretty funny as over the years, she has grown bigger (now about 5 or 6") and still manages to cram herself into places she can't fit. Finding Nemo certainly hit the nail on the head with these fish: they are a few bricks shy of a load.   With the addition of the regal tang, who is known to carry a few spots or two, I decided to go "eco friendly" and add a sharknose goby to the tank for ich management.  Since then that goby has passed on (a heat incident in July of this year) but I cannot recommend them enough for fish cleaners. I've only had an ich breakout once and they did a fine job of cleaning up the mess. Unfortunately there wasn't anyone to clean them, but they pulled through with some extra feedings supplemented with garlic.   This May I added a 3" powder blue tang.  I was rather reluctant to add this fish because of their reputation for being ich magnets and poor shippers.  I managed to find a relatively healthy looking one and brought it home apprehensively.  My scopas tang immediately went on the offense and harassed the PBT mercilessly. I don't know who was more stressed, me or the PBT. The PBT was confined to one corner of the tank under the wavebox for about 2 weeks when the scopas relented and let him have more space.  About 6 weeks later all was well and the PBT even gets in to feed from the PVC nori feeder.  He's also good about cleaning any algae off the rock and is turning into quite the fat little fish! Yay!! The last fish I added to the tank was another tailspot wrasse.  I really missed my other one and this one became available when a fellow canreefer was taking his tank down. I just couldn't pass it up. His personality is much different from the first one but he's still a gorgeous addition to the tank.  Albeit a fast one, I still haven't gotten a decent photo of him.

I have 3 clams, 2 maximas and 1 crocea.  I acquired the first maxima as a fairly small specimen, about 3 inches or so, in 2005 and it has grown about 2 inches since.  The 5" crocea I got earlier this year and it has done well in my tank. Recently I also added a 6" teardrop maxima.  I've really gotten to be quite the clam hound lately and can't wait to find more to add to the tank.

Other inverts I have in the tank include a longspine urchin which came in as a pencil eraser size hitchhiker on some rock. I found it while moving earlier this year so it must have been super tiny on a coral or something. Suffice it to say, these guys grow fast!!!!  Within 3 months it has a body the size of a mandarin orange and spines that are 7-9 inches long!!  How it manages to hide now, I'll never know. 

Another good hider in my tank is my abalone.  The strangest critter, it only comes out at night and goes back to the exact same spot every morning (how does it know?!).  It used to hang out at the front of the tank under a rock (where I would know it's still alive) but now it hangs out at the back of the tank behind some coral. I only know this because I was rearranging stuff one day but haven't looked since. Perhaps I should.

  As for the corals, well quite frankly a picture is worth a thousand words anyways and while I could ramble on for a(nother) thousand words if I really wanted to, I'll save you the grief of having to read it and just say that I have Acropora, Porites, Seriatopora, Pocilipora, Montipora, Blastomussa and a few zoanthids in there that the Eunicid worm didn't finish off.  Let's face it anyways, when it comes to corals there isn't much talking anyway, just a lot of drooling.

 

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