Ross' 67 Gallon Attempt At Recreating A Reef

[Ross]

My 67 Gallon Mixed Reef.

I set up this tank after deciding my 33 gallon tank would be better suited as a sump than a display tank.
My wife made the mistake of leaving me home alone one weekend while she visited family.
She came back to a new tank sitting on a 2x4 DIY stand.
Naturally she did what most of our wives have done several thousand times before. Rolled her eyes and gave her support.

I rather quickly acquired a wide variety of new and used equipment and buying up what ever I though was a good deal from the buy and sell section of Canreef and several stores in Calgary.

Hardware:
Tank:
The tank was new from Bow Valley Aquariums early in 2011.
67gallon with an internal left corner over flow.
The dimensions are 36"l x 24"h x 18"w.
It's held water for 3 years so I cant complain too much about it.

Lighting
DIY LED Lighting from Modular LED with heat syncs from Rapid LED.
Currently their are 192watts (3watt leds x64) of royal blue and white.
I have a few green and reds that I will be adding in the future to broaden the color spectrum a bit more.
I have the dimmable Inventronics 75W drivers simulating sunrise and sunsets.

Controller:
Automation/Control is done Via a Neptune systems Apex Lite with the optional VDM module.

Water Movement:
2 Koralia Evo 1050gpm powerheads
1 Tunze 6015 475gpm powerhead
Return pump is an Odyssea WP700 (700gpm)

Filtration:
Vertex IN100 Protein skimmer

Dosing:
Marine Magic 3 channel Dosing pump. (set up March 2012)

Reactor:
1 TLF phosban 150 Reactor powered off the return line running a few inches of Vertex biopellets

[Ross]

Stocking
Fish:
1 Black Clown - from Red Coral Calgary - Dec. 2009
1 True Percula - from Big Als - Dec. 2009
2 Bi-color Chromis - from Blue World - 2010
1 Coral Beauty - from a canreefer in Strathmore - approximately 9years old
1 Pseudo Chromis - Ocean City - Mid 2011
1 Yellow Tang - Ocean City - Summer 2010
1 Banana wrasse - Gold Aquariums - Summer 2013
1 Blue Tang - Gold Aquariums - Summer 2013


Corals:
I'm not going to attempt to layout the schedule in which the Corals were added or even what the heck they all are.

Most of my corals have come the Buy and Sell section.
Notable users include Xtreme, Wayner, Kien, and Argentiner.

[Ross]

And now some eye candy.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7397/9796068493_09ce943eb5_c.jpg
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossmct/9796068493/)


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7427/9796021366_b738ffa8f0_c.jpg
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossmct/9796021366/)


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7289/9796006224_26bd730c70_c.jpg
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossmct/9796006224/)


http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5531/9796019766_bd90db0ab8_c.jpg
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossmct/9796019766/)


http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5479/9796018305_aef11910f9_c.jpg
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossmct/9796018305/)


http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5505/9796043654_61eea9720e_c.jpg
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossmct/9796043654/)


http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5463/9796046404_9361e8524d_c.jpg
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossmct/9796046404/)

[Tn23]

Great Looking tank Ross, Your red planet looks pretty "red" under LEDS I can't get mine to do that. Any FTS?

[kien]

wow, very nice Ross! Love those shots! We all know how it goes, better to ask for forgiveness than for permission. Well played sir! :lol:

[wayner]

Wow! - that Red Planet is looking awesome - Good Job!

[chi]

FTS FTS FTS

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk 4

[Ross]

Great Looking tank Ross, Your red planet looks pretty "red" under LEDS I can't get mine to do that. Any FTS?

Thanks!

The red planet usually that deep in color except for when the whites dimmed down and the blues are slightly higher in intensity.

I find that under exposing my shots by 1/3 or 2/3rd of a F stop really deepens the colors and adds the wow factor.
The colors are not saturated/increased or "Photoshopped", but seen in a different light so to speak.

I'll get a FTS up in a bit.

[Delphinus]

Fantastic photos!

[Ross]

Thanks guys!

I haven't yet figured out how to make stunning full tank shots yet.
I won't boost colors and as such they look rather blah to me.
Some areas are too dark... some too bright....
Either way, here it is.


http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2807/9824244586_b545baa246_c.jpg
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossmct/9824244586/)

I went for the wall of rock look. In some ways I regret this, but in others I don't. I only have 18" front to back to work around, so it leaves the most free space at the front.
I am running into space constraints now and have to limit what corals I buy.

I will be fragging a bunch of the Corky Finger, Red Monti Cap, Pink Poci, and some of the Purple tipped Acro in the near future and whatever GBTA's wander to a place where they can be pulled.

[Ross]

Last night, I finally got around to installing my new Jebao WP-40 from Nick at http://www.ReefSupplyCanada.com.

Wow does this thing ever move water!! 3400gpm indeed.

Previously I had 2 Koralia Evo 1050's and a Tunze 6014. (2575 gph total)

The amount of crud that it has blasted off my rocks is insane compared to the trio of other power heads.

It is quiet. Not Tunze quiet, but definitely not a MP-40 buzzing away either.

Size wise its about as big around as a hardball. I'm not going to forget its in the tank that's for sure.

I'm not a huge fan of the twist off end to the unit. It will get gummed up and glued in place much like the 1st gen Koralia's did. So I have to remember to clean this thing more often or be prepaired to soak it in vinegar over night to open it up.

Not to be forgotten is the wave modes.
On full power, stand back because water is headed over the edges.

I am digging the back and forth motion the corals have now. A lot more dynamic looking vs everything just getting blasted against one side and then back the other way when my apex switched the modes.
I wish that the controller had a slower mode to it than it does. My lps is cycling back and forth a few times a second and its not as soothing to watch as a reel reef cycling slowly.

Perhaps I can get my Corky Finger to rock back and forth like a metronome??

Eventually, I'm going to mod the cord to tie into my Apex VDM module. Sounds like a winter project to me. The kind of things that should be done when its cold and dark outside.
This will allow me the freedom to slow it down to a calming pace.