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State:
Arizona
Country:
United States
Description:
72Lx30wx27T custom hybrid tank with starphire front, sch80 PVC bottom, and acrylic perimeter brace and external overflow. Acrylic sump was built by Tenecor. Return pump is a Dart, two Wavysea units rotate the sump return giving extra flow to the upper level SPS. Most flow is from two Vortech MP40w pumps run in short pulse mode with a ~ 1" standing wave, and also another Dart used with an Oceans Motions 4-way closed loop which mostly moves water underneath the rockwork. Major filtration components include Deltec AP902 skimmer with cleaning head, Deltec KM500 kalkwasser stirrer, Deltec PF601 calcium reactor, I~Aquatic Zeovit reactor, and Nextreef MR1 Monster fluidized bed reactor for GFO and GAC. Lighting is 3 x 250w Phoenix 14k driven by EVC electronic ballasts plus T5 actinics driven by Icecap electronic ballast. Chiller is Seachill/Teco TR20. A Profilux Plus IIex controls everything. There are about 500 pounds of Fiji, Pukai, Kaelini, Tonga, and Marshall live rock in this sytem.
Advice:
Plan on spending a lot of time and a lot of money if you want to have a nice tank! Research everything and plan on spending months to years planning a large reef system.
Fish Kept:
Four surgeons (sohal, chevron, yellow, pacific blue); moorish idol; copperband butterflyfish; our angelfish (mated bellus/ornate pair, pygmy flame, regal); four anthias (hawaiian bicolor harem); eight fairy wrasses (hawiian flame pair, rhomboid pair, lineatus pair, red margin male, scottorum male); two lined wrasses (mystery and four line); two flasher wrasses (blue and McCloskers); three leopard wrasses (african, potters, common); six blennies (midas, lawnmower, segmented sailfin, starry, tail spot, red spot); two clownfish (mated ocellaris pair); four chromis (blue-green); two dragonets (green mandarin, psychedelic mandarin); three gobies (randalls, yashia pair); three pajama cardinalfish; flame hawkfish; fuzzy dwarf lionfish; two dwarf golden moray eels; blue spot jawfish.
Corals/Plants:
Too many too count, lots of SPS, LPS, and soft plus rose anemone, clams, xenids, gorgonians, sponges, tunicates, sea apple, etc. There are a lot of aposymbiotic (i.e. non-photosynthetic) corals in this tank which are difficult to keep alive. Many of them, like the blueberry gorgonians and sun corals, are fed nightly. Except for the protein skimmer, there is no mechenical filtration. This provides a good environment for all the filter feeding animals, along with use of the Zeovit system which supplements bacterioplankton. With all the feeding of corals and the numerous predators, and a lot of hungry fish, my nitrates run high -- about 25ppm. I used to stress about this, but no longer since the animals all seem happy and are very colorful.
Tank Size:
250 gallons
About Yourself:
I'm a physician and only got into the hobby a year ago. Taking care of this tank is like a second full time job, but I (usually) enjoy it. Reproducing a small piece of the ocean here in our desert home makes for a fascinating display, and it has been very eductional for my wife and two young daughters as well as myself.
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