Richer
07-29-2004, 06:39 AM
Here are some pictures of my first ever SW tank. I did at least a couple years worth of on and off research in keeping a reef. After some debating, and a bit of experimenting, I decided to go BB on this tank and hoped that I'd have enough flow going through the tank to catch most of the crude in the sump. Currently I have a Mag950 going through a SCWD with two Ocean Motion Revolutions on the outlets. I also have a Maxi-jet 500 and a Maxi-jet 750 running to provide surface aggitation (yes, they are old PHs, but they work perfectly). I figure I have a turnover rate of about 30x on this tank. As for filtration, I have two 1 inch" drains with Stockman Standpipes going to a 15 gallon sump. The sump is a combo settle out/fuge design with a bakpak 2 skimmer on it. My main tank has 192 watts of PC light (one 10000k and 1 actinic) over it, and my fuge has a 36 watt 6700k PC bulb over it, which is slightly overdriven, because the PC ballast is actually designed for a 55watt bulb. I use kalkwasser for my topoff via float switches, a bucket full of RO water and a kalkwasser reactor I bought off of Dez. All of my LR I bought from a couple members off of this board, and the baserock I got off of my girlfriend's dad.
So far this tank has been running in its current condition for about 2-3 weeks... before then, all the rocks sat in a holding tank for an additional few more weeks while I got this tank ready. My tank conditions are pretty much perfect... everything is at zero, and my pH ranges from 8.2 to 8.4 from the morning till the evening. Even after a couple of weeks I've noticed coraline growth on nearly all of my rocks... so I figure calcium and alk. levels are probably good too.
On with the pictures!
Here's the full shot of the tank:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/Tankshot1.jpg
The tank had just gone through a diatom and red cyano outbreak... as you can see from the overflow and on some of the rock, I still have some algae left over from that.
Here's another full shot from a different angle:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/Tankshot2.jpg
You can sorta see the sump area under the stand and the corner of my bakpak skimmer. Notice the pile of sand in the middle of the tank... the sand came from the rocks (I never was able to get all the sand out), and it seems like thats a lower flow area in my tank... crude tends to build up there a bit.
Here's a shot of a Xenia frag Harvey gave me:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/Xenia1.jpg
The thing has about double in size since I got it... its pretty much a self sustaining coral, I've done nothing but accimilate it and ploped it in my tank.
Here's another shot of the Xenia frag:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/Xenia2.jpg
I love this thing... I could stand there and watch it without getting tired. Although my girlfriend swears it gives her the finger whenever she watches it.
Here's a shot of a mystery mushroom that I found on a tonga branch:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/Mushroom.jpg
Any idea what this is?
Here's a full shot of my 15 gallon sump:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/Sumpshot1.jpg
I pretty much ignored most of the advice I got when I was asking about how to design a sump... and stuck with the KISS rule. Seems to be working out quite well IMO. Notice all of that sediment on the bottom of the sump? Thats crude that had come from the main tank... before I started everything up, that bottom was completely clean.
Here's a closer shot of the fuge area:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/Fuge1.jpg
I got the Chaeto off of Al. It has grown from the size of a golfball, to something about 10x bigger than that. It must be doing a good job at keeping my nitrates down... because those are undetectable in my tank. Once again, notice how the settling out area of the sump seems to work quite well.
I did get a few mushroom frags from Patrick... unforunately, the rubber band I had on them was not strong enough to hold them, and they went flying around the tank. So no pictures of those. I forgot to clean the glass before I took the pictures, but I think you can get a pretty good idea at what I've got right now.
Thanks for reading :biggrin:
-Richer
So far this tank has been running in its current condition for about 2-3 weeks... before then, all the rocks sat in a holding tank for an additional few more weeks while I got this tank ready. My tank conditions are pretty much perfect... everything is at zero, and my pH ranges from 8.2 to 8.4 from the morning till the evening. Even after a couple of weeks I've noticed coraline growth on nearly all of my rocks... so I figure calcium and alk. levels are probably good too.
On with the pictures!
Here's the full shot of the tank:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/Tankshot1.jpg
The tank had just gone through a diatom and red cyano outbreak... as you can see from the overflow and on some of the rock, I still have some algae left over from that.
Here's another full shot from a different angle:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/Tankshot2.jpg
You can sorta see the sump area under the stand and the corner of my bakpak skimmer. Notice the pile of sand in the middle of the tank... the sand came from the rocks (I never was able to get all the sand out), and it seems like thats a lower flow area in my tank... crude tends to build up there a bit.
Here's a shot of a Xenia frag Harvey gave me:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/Xenia1.jpg
The thing has about double in size since I got it... its pretty much a self sustaining coral, I've done nothing but accimilate it and ploped it in my tank.
Here's another shot of the Xenia frag:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/Xenia2.jpg
I love this thing... I could stand there and watch it without getting tired. Although my girlfriend swears it gives her the finger whenever she watches it.
Here's a shot of a mystery mushroom that I found on a tonga branch:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/Mushroom.jpg
Any idea what this is?
Here's a full shot of my 15 gallon sump:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/Sumpshot1.jpg
I pretty much ignored most of the advice I got when I was asking about how to design a sump... and stuck with the KISS rule. Seems to be working out quite well IMO. Notice all of that sediment on the bottom of the sump? Thats crude that had come from the main tank... before I started everything up, that bottom was completely clean.
Here's a closer shot of the fuge area:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/Fuge1.jpg
I got the Chaeto off of Al. It has grown from the size of a golfball, to something about 10x bigger than that. It must be doing a good job at keeping my nitrates down... because those are undetectable in my tank. Once again, notice how the settling out area of the sump seems to work quite well.
I did get a few mushroom frags from Patrick... unforunately, the rubber band I had on them was not strong enough to hold them, and they went flying around the tank. So no pictures of those. I forgot to clean the glass before I took the pictures, but I think you can get a pretty good idea at what I've got right now.
Thanks for reading :biggrin:
-Richer