120gal mixed predatory reef tank
 

Here is my tank that I have been running for a little more than 2 years.

The display tank is 2'x2'x4' 120gal, the sump is a 140gal stock trough, and I have a 50 gal frag tank running off of that as well. Total system has about 270 gal of water less what is taken up by the 200 lbs of liverock.

Equipment:
AquaMedic Oceanlight 36" 2x250W 13K Giesemann HQI and 2x39W T5 Giesemann Actinic+
Precision Marine Bullet 2 Skimmer with Iwaki 55 pump
Precision Marine 422 Calcium Reactor with aquariumplants.com CO2 Regulator and Milwaukee pH controller
Oceans Motions SS Compact with Little Giant 1300gph return pump
Mag 12 running a spray bar behind the rocks
Phosban reactor for carbon
DSB in a bucket in sump
20gal fuge in sump with various macro algae
Tunze Osmolator for auto top off and DIY Kalk reactor

Livestock:
Volitan Lionfish
Snowflake Moray Eel
Purple Tang
Copperbanded Butterfly
Tomatoe Clown

big Sebae anemone
5 Tridacnid clams
Green Death Brittle Star
Tiger Tail cucumber
12 SPS
11 LPS
6 Softies

Before anyone else does I'll say it: the lionfish could use a little more swimming room and my sump looks like Frankenstiens creation.

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Wow, great looking tank. Glad you decided to share this with us.

That is one fine lookin' tank. Corals and fish look healthy and happy. Have you had any trouble with any fish picking at your clams, or do they mostly leave them alone?

I've had problems with my Purple Tang nipping a clam at least twice but he usually leaves them alone. I've had to move several corals into another tank or just to a different location in the main tank because of the Tang picking on them. I've seen him bite at one of my acan, an open brain, some yellow zoanthus, anthelia, kenya tree coral, and an oulophyllia... I also blame him for the recent decline in health of a wall hammer. My frag tank is full of coral that I cant keep in my main tank because of the tang... Oh and my tomatoe clown hates xenia. If there is any xenia in my main tank she will shred it so I only have it growing in the frag tank.

Wow, that lion fish is HUGE. Did you have him since he was a baby?

Sweet!

VERY cool tank!!! GORGEOUS! That lion fish is a giant!

Holly Crap look at the Lion!!!!

Great looking tank!

J

Wow that is one big lionfish! Love the tank, esp the caps, that green is gorgeous! :cool:

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!! Love the Lion in the reef!!!

Wow... that lionfish is massive.. :biggrin: Very clean, mature looking tank!

I've had the lion for nearly 3 years. The oldest picture I could find of him was from September 2005. Here you can see him with a ~1" astrea snail for scale. I feed him selcon and vita chem soaked silversides, krill, or sometimes clam every second day.

I had a really hard time getting him to eat frozen food at first. I think he nearly died of malnutrition feeding on guppies before I succeeded.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...do/tank050.jpg

Well this is the Tank Journal forum so I guess I should keep this up to date. I've made some changes to the equipment I'm using, and to the general contents of the tank.

Right now I'm in the middle of cooking most of my liverock in batches to rid my tank of caulerpa, hair algae, GSP and anthelia so things are a bit of a disaster at the moment. I'll post pictures again when I've got everything cleaned up. I'm also reducing the size of my aquascape, removing some of my sand and cutting back on the number of corals to allow for more swimming space for my lionfish and tang. :biggrin:

Equipment:
new Neptune Aquacontroller III
new Two Sunlight Supply Lumenmax 3 pendants with Phoenix 14K and Blue Wave 7 ballast
Precision Marine Bullet 2 Skimmer with Iwaki 55 pump
new Precision Marine 622 Calcium Reactor with aquariumplants.com CO2 Regulator
Oceans Motions SS Compact
new Sequence Dart return pump
Mag 12 running a spray bar behind the rocks
one new Two Phosban reactor, one for carbon and another for rowaphos
new DSB in rubbermaid tub in sump
20gal fuge in sump with Gracillaria
Tunze Osmolator for auto top off and DIY Kalk reactor


Livestock:
Volitan Lionfish
Snowflake Moray Eel
Purple Tang
Copperbanded Butterfly
Tomatoe Clown

big Sebae anemone
5 Tridacnid clams
Green Death Brittle Star
Tiger Tail cucumber
9 SPS
11 LPS
5 Softies

That's one big surly looking tomato you've got in there!! Gorgeous tank!!

Here are some newer pictures from December. Notice all of the anthelia and caulerpa trying to take over? I'll post new pictures when I'm done killing it off.

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great looking tank....I used to have a black Voltan Lion...rad RAD fish

Very nice! You know, there is 'sump'thing to be said for a sump that just allows you to get at everything. It may not be pretty, but it is very manageable and effective.

I love how you have some clams imbedded in the rockwork. That's a very natural setting for them.

I have found a few lionfish while snorkelling. (NOT, where they are supposed to be...but that is another story) Typically, they seem to just hang out under crevices...sometimes upsidedown. My point is, they aren't big swimmers. I doubt your tank size bothers him much.

Are you still fighting red flatworms? I was never able to beat those in my previous tank.

The sump is visible beside the tank for now. Eventually I'll make this an in-wall tank so that I can hide all of the equipment in a fish room.

I've had those flatworms for 4 years now and I just dont care anymore. I see them in a large cluster in one spot in my frag tank but everywhere else in the system its just a few here and there. I hit them with Flatworm Exit once and the treatment process killed my last lionfish so I'll just be leaving them alone for now.

Great tank man. That has to be one of the healthiest, most beautiful lionfish I have ever seen.

My display tank is a bit of a work in progress right now so here are some new pictures of my ever changing equipment.

Precision Marine Bullet 3 Skimmer installed
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...cture017-2.jpg

My new bigger and 'better' DIY kalkwasser reactor
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The first two pictures were taken yesterday after I spent a few hours re-aquascaping.

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I had to sell 2 of my big montipora colonys in order to be able to re-aquascape. I kept small frags of each so that I can start them over again.
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Great looking tank! Awesome SPS colony's and clams you have there :)

I like the new more 'open' aquascape, too bad you had to get rid of those caps though. I've had to give up some nice pieces to re-work my tank too.

I've been through a lot of threads since I became interested in reefs. Never once seen a Lionfish in one of them I don't think and it's incredible! Having the Lionfish poses no risk to your corals but means you can't really keep shrimp, crabs or small fish correct?

Loved those caps too. Thanks for sharing.

The lionfish is only half the story... somewhere hiding in the rocks is a 26" snowflake moray eel. I just realized I dont have a picture of the eel anywhere in this thread. This picture is from last November so a few things in the tank have changed. I've never seen a lionfish in any other reef tank either so I guess mine is a little unique.

Every once and a while one of them will knock a coral or something else over but I'm getting better at anchoring it all down. I've never put any shrimp in there but I'm sure they would get eaten as would any fish under 2" or 3" if they're really narrow. However Copperbanded Butterfly isnt very big yet its been in the tank for over a year now and has never been bothered. I bet I still have a few hitch hiker crabs living in there somewhere as well... The lion and eel are too fat and lazy to do any real hunting I guess.

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Holy CRAP!

This reminds me of Sphelps' tank (I think). Like a reef tank of misfits and oddballs. Something about that is really appealing to me...

Thats a bad @$$ tank you have there. Very nice!

AWESOME tank. Any chance of gettin a frag or 2 of them monti's? They are wicked. I'll be in PG Wed afternoon/evening. Doin some shopping before I head home.

Sure I'll give you my contact info in a PM. However all of the montipora colonies that I have are pretty small now so I cant do big frags like I used to... I sold all three and started them over because they were getting so big and I wanted to move some things around.

I do lots of fragging (by Prince George standards) so there might be some other stuff you'd be interested in too.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...Picture314.jpg

LOL. Frag on a rope. Thats cool, never seen that done before.

Anthony Calfo talks about it in his Book of Coral Propagation as well as in this article: Coral Culture in Suspension http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

I've read about people doing this while collecting frags... and then they were shipped damp, without water. 100% success rate... but can the frag be grown out while suspended like that? I'm very curious now...

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-11/eb/index.php

I've had really good results with most of the stuff I hang. Corals like seriatopora grow into twisted spiked balls which are pretty neat. I'll try to find some before and after shots to show the growth. I grow a lot of SPS in general on the lines and then most of my LPS sits on the bottom slightly shaded. lol Then the soft coral grow up the sides and back of the tank! By doing this I can really pack a lot of frags into a standard 50gal.

However I do have problems with algae growing on the fishing line or growing on sections of dead coral skeleton. I dont have any swimming herbivores in my frag tank so nothing can eat it off. I also find water flow to be a bit tricky, if I have too much everything blows around and smacks into each other. Currently there is 30x per hour in that tank and I dont know if I could do much more. Also as everything grows larger the coral starts to weigh down the acrylic rods and bow them in.

I couldnt find any decent 'before' shots showing how small these were so you'll just have to take my word for it. All of these frags have been hanging a year or less.

I've had mixed results with hanging some of the acropora, I think a few of them prefer the bottom where the light isnt as intense. Seriatopora, pociliopora, montipora digitata, hydnophora and pavona have all been doing very well on the stings.

This was about 2" and only 3 spikes and now is more like 4" and many more spikes.
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The pociliopora was an odd shape 1" frag and is now circular and 2" in diameter. The little acro is still pretty small but nearly double what it was. It seems to be very interested in encrusting the fishing line.
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This acro was a single 1" stick on a frag plug that I hung.
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The green montipora digi has tripled in size since the winter but I fragged it in half for someone not too long ago so it only looks double in size now. The Acro I got last July, it was under 2" and is now over 4".
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corals
 

loved your tank . would love to get some montipora , green red or blue. Do you ship and what would you be asking for a frag?. I am new and am anxious to get going. Busypencil

I'd love to sell you some frags but at the moment I'm only dealing in drop-ins and pick-ups. :sad: However I have been stockpiling used coolers and boxes so I think I may soon give shipping a try but its more stress than I need at the moment. What I sell locally I generally sell for pretty cheep too. $5 1" or $5 a head depending on the type of coral, sometimes more and sometimes less.

For you I'd recommend having a look at www.coralmaster.com hes located in Calgary and was fantastic to deal with in our group order a little while back.

A little update. At the beginning of August my (5 year old) volitan lionfish went on a hunger strike and lost all of its appetite. By the end of the month it was dead... I looked around on reefcentral to try and find answers but the best thing anyone could come up with was spontaneous fish anorexia. So I'm swearing off big lions for a while until I have a chance to upgrade to a larger tank in a few years.

In the mean time our LFS has had this little fu manchu for months and they've weaned it over to frozen food. It takes both frozen silversides and krill off of the end of a feeding stick and is almost always out and viewable.

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Ok that tomato is just MASSIVE. I sure hope the FU doesn't wander to close to his new. I saw one of these lions in person at Pisces here in town and I was fascinated by it. Seemed like a very shy fish tho so I'm not sure I'd get one. You say yours is out a lot...what's the norm for these guys?

Looks great! Your Fu Manchu is beautiful, I love those little guys. Glad you got one that's eating, I've heard they are difficult to get to eat sometimes.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

This article regards the Fu Manchu as being one of the most difficult lionfish to keep because they ship poorly, wont often eat frozen, are quite shy, and are easily out competed for food.