Systems

About my Tank & Equipment

Tank: My tank is a 180g custom-made glass Starphire built my Aquarium Obsessed, based in Canada. The tank dimensions are 60” x 30” x 24”.  I love the dimensions because it’s small enough and still wide enough to true have a nice reef w/ lots of depth. I decided to go with a steel stand instead of building a wood stand.  The price was just too good to be true and I had a very nice 1 ½” steel powder coated stand custom built locally.

Pictures of the tank delivery:

Pictures of the tank finally out of the cold:

Picture of Overflows (1 1/2″):

Pictures of the steel tank stand(to be covered w/ a wood skin later):

Pictures of the final tank location:

Lights: My lighting consists of both metal halide and T5 lighting.  For my main lights, I use 2 x 250w LumenMax HQI Pendants on Ice Cap 250 w Ballasts.   My current bulbs are the new Icecap 14k hqi’s.  For my main tank supplemental lighting, I use 4 x 54w T5 bulbs run off an Icecap 660 ballast, using Icecap SLR reflectors.   The current bulbs include a mix of UVL true actinic, Giesmann True Actinic and ATI blue plus bulbs.  My frag tank’s lighting consists of 4x 39w T5 bulbs run off an Icecap 660 ballast, using Icecap SLR reflectors (Icecap should be paying me for all of these plugs!).  Bulbs consist of a mix of UVL true actinic, UVL 50/50, and Sfiligoi true actinic.

Pictures of my DIY light rack:

Skimmer: The grand daddy of them all…Bubble King.  After much debate, between H&S, Deltec, and ATB, I purchased a Royal Exclusiv Bubble King Supermarine 250 to skim my tank.  The reason?  There are other skimmers out there claiming to be this and that, but they’re all clones or copies of the real deal.  I don’t like supporting the copy cats.  Why settle for anything less!

Here are some pictures of where it was born:

And now resides here:

Calcium Reactor: I’m currently using a Precision Marine RFC4 Calcium reactor, Aquamedic CO2 Regulator and 10lb tank.  I like using the coarse media, Schuran type, and have the reactor setup at a ph of 6.5.  Additional periodic calcium supplements include Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium, Wiegandt GmbH calcium marin plus, and Kalkwassier.

Pictures:

Pumps: Water movement is a critical component to any reef.  I decided to get the most energy efficient pumps available while still providing the tank w/ good water flow.  My return pump, which operates the display, frag tank and other reactors, is a Reeflo Dart Gold.  Internal tank pumps include a Vortech Marine WP40, 2 x Tunze 6065’s, and a controllable(via APEX) Tunze 6105.  A battery backup system is used on the Vortech to provide 30 hrs of backup water movement in case of a power outage.

Pictures of the Dart:

Pictures of the Tunze:

Pictures of the Vortech:

Supplements: I’m currently using a ‘bacteria’ driven system for this tank.  Zeovit Basic 4, Prodibio Biodigest/ Biotim, and Fauna Marin.  Why all of the different systems and not just one?  Good question.  My answer is that I’m a nut that is always trying new things and I just decided to use them all together and experiment.  Since they all claim how great they are, I figured why not use them all!

Pictures:

Salt: I’m trying out Seachem Reef salt right now, but this can change depending on how well my corals react to this salt. Update 2/17/2010: Using Seachem’s Aquavitro Salinity now.