Modest Reef, for sale

Modest Reef, For Sale

My modest 100 gallon reef has taken 10 years to complete.
I needed to build a small, silent system with simple maintenance requirements and little energy consumption.
The circulation, skimming and filtration consume only 321watts. The lights add another 485watts during the day, and the chiller adds 240watts if the water temp rises above 27 degrees Celsius.
The main circulation pump is supplied with an uninterruptible power supply from a deep cycle marine battery that is normally on a trickle charge. In the event of a power outage the inverter automatically supplies power for two to three days.
Five float switches with relays control the safe operation of the reef.
Evaporation losses are automatically replaced with filtered water from domestic supply though a solenoid valve into the sump.
The sump also has a high level stop float, which turns the make-up water system off in the event of a malfunction with the level control float.
There is also a float in the sump which turns the circulating pump off in the event of a sudden drop in sump level.
The main circulation pump is momentarily switched off by another float if the level in the overflow rises too high.
The last float shuts off the skimmer pump when skimmed scum fills the collection container.
Lighting is provided very efficiently by two 48” super actinic VHO’s in a custom made fixture at the front of the tank. The rear has two 15,000K, 125 watt compact fluorescent pendants. Each of the pendants gives as much light as a five hundred watt metal halide, but with greater color rendition and without the heat. A cooling fan for the light fixture is not necessary with this set-up.
Water chemistry maintenance is enabled though a peristaltic dosing pump with two channels. One adds the bicarbonate solution, the other adds the calcium chloride solution.
When one gallon each of the first two parts have been dosed, which takes a month through the dosing pump, two and one half cups of the magnesium solution is added by hand in one dose.
These homemade solutions are very pure and are easy to deliver in constant, precise, quantities with the dosing pump. Once the feed rate is set up to match calcium consumption in the system, repetitive water testing is unnecessary. This method, in my opinion, is the Holy Grail of reef keeping and is vastly superior to a calcium reactor or Kalkwasser additions.
Salinity rises slowly over the month, but that rise is eliminated when I change the carbon and filter floss in my mechanical canister. The canister holds two gallons of water, which is discarded with the media, and fresh water makes up for the loss.
Trace elements are added from feeding nori, and when I stir parts of the sand bed. Sand clumps must be removed or broken up to keep the sand bed healthy.
The tank is strictly vegetarian. I only feed nori, yet my yellow tang is seven years old and very healthy. The six line wrasse also feeds on the daily nori, but supplements his diet with fauna from the live rock and is six years old.
With just a couple of healthy fish on a vegetarian diet, huge clams, aggressive skimming, and proper sand bed maintenance, the need for water changes has been eliminated.
I have records of all maintenance performed, including water parameter measurements, over the last four years.
Even though I feel I have succeeded in building a low maintenance reef tank, that is simple and inexpensive, I need a break after ten years of reef keeping.
Is there someone who would like to buy this system in the Vancouver area?
I would ideally like to sell the whole system, complete with livestock. I would include all maintenance records and instructions, bulk chemicals, spares, everything!
I will also spend a full day moving the system to your house and setting it up.
If I can’t get a decent price for the hardware and the control system I built, I will sell all the livestock separately before the fall season and hold on to the hardware.
Perhaps I will start it up again at a later date.
$3000.00 or best offer.
Happy reefing!

James Hipwell
jhipwell@dccnet.com