April 2014 CTARS Tank of the Month Winner
Emery Messier - emessier
Emery Messier - emessier
First of all I would like to thank you for nominating my tank. When you look at your own tank you see the flaws and when you look at someone elses tank you see the good. I got into reefing about 3 ½ years ago after years of encouragement from my son Chriskid. I started out with a 26 gallon bow tank and some mushrooms and leathers.
In my opinion reefing should be spelled “P A T I E N C E” LOL. This is something I have had little of until I changed the tank over to the 120 gallon SPS dominated tank. I like instant gratification, something that is not possible when growing corals from frags. Last May is when I upgraded from the 75 gal zoa and paly dominated tank to the 120.
I started paying attention to cleaning up the water in order to be successful with SPS. I never really have been able to keep the nitrates and phosphates at zero or undetectable. The nitrates always seem to be in the 10 range and the phosphates at .25. I vodka dose in order to bring down the nitrates and also run some GFO for the phosphates. I usually run about ¼ of the recommended amount of GFO . So when you see my target parameters they are listed as such.
I do about 35 gal water changes every 10 to 14 days. The real change in growth that I noticed was when I bought the Lumatek ballasts that were adjustable from 250 watt to 400 watt. I added 400 watt Radium MH bulbs and started out burning them at 250 watts. I slowly cranked them up to 250 high then 400 low. That is when new growth started sprouting up all over the tank.
Most of my success has been from the help of my son Chris and also the reef forums. I may not comment much but I read and take it all in. Reefing has been one of the most relaxing experiences of my life. Going to frag swaps, conferences and our club meetings have been exceptionally enjoyable. Meeting new people and enjoying new friendships has been great.
I would like to thank you all for that and especially my wife Lisa for enjoying this hobby along with me.
Thank You,
emessier
Emery
Target Parameters
Salinity 1.025
Calcium 420
Alk 7.5 – 8
Magnesium 1350
Nitrates 5 – 10
Phos .25 or less
Live stock
1 Coral Beauty
1 Purple Tang
1 Powder blue Tang
1 Atlantic Blue
3 Lyre Tail Anthius
5 Blue Chromis
1 Foxface
1 Hawk Fish
1 Christmas Wrasse
1 Clown
1 Harlequin Shrimp
SPS Corals
Hydrophora
Pink Birds Nest
ORA Green Bird
Bird of Paradise
ORA Purple Stylo
Green Stylo
Carolinian
Pink Tabling Millie
Green Slimer
Green Deep Water
Red Planet
Orange Digi
Purple Digi
CK Stag
Green/baby blue stag
Green Tip Orange Humilus
Green Humilus
Green Efflo
Zoas & Palys
Bam Bams
Gila Monsters
Irish Mist
Sunny D’s
Red Hornets
Rastas
Tubbs Blues
Mind Blowing Palys
Black Mauls
My Clementines
Nuclear Green Palys
Duncans
Trumpet Corals
Fire & Ice
Also
Frog spawn
Maxi Mini
Chalice's & Monti's
Meteor Shower
Martian Landing
Northern Lights
Poker Star Monti
Orange Cup Chalice
Green Spungode
Yellow Polyp Purple Monti
Yellow Eye Baby Blue Chalice
Equipment
120 gal DT
2 400 Watt Radium MH
6 HOT5 w/ 10 3 watt blue led
ATI Bubble Master 250 Protein Skimmer
Pan World NH 200ps Drive Pump
Current Chiller
60 Gal Sump
20 Gal Refugium
20 Gal Wet Dry Bio Ball
All photo's were taken by our member, Franky Rivera. Thanks so much for taking the time to help out the club with your time!
Congratulations!
This month's winner won a gift certificate from our sponsor,
Affordable Aquatics!!
Meteor Shower
Martian Landing
Northern Lights
Poker Star Monti
Orange Cup Chalice
Green Spungode
Yellow Polyp Purple Monti
Yellow Eye Baby Blue Chalice
Equipment
120 gal DT
2 400 Watt Radium MH
6 HOT5 w/ 10 3 watt blue led
ATI Bubble Master 250 Protein Skimmer
Pan World NH 200ps Drive Pump
Current Chiller
60 Gal Sump
20 Gal Refugium
20 Gal Wet Dry Bio Ball
All photo's were taken by our member, Franky Rivera. Thanks so much for taking the time to help out the club with your time!
Congratulations!
This month's winner won a gift certificate from our sponsor,
Affordable Aquatics!!
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