absolutely breath taking setup. Loved the large corals you have in the smaller tank. What happened to those. The shelf like ones I'm still learning names. Sorry. Their the reddish pink ones too rightHello R2R.
My name is Jason and I've recently joined Reef2Reef based on references from some local friends.
I am quite active with my local club and forum and a member of another larger forum, but I have heard that there is a lot of good information and people over here also. So over the past few weeks I have been acclimating myself to Reef2Reef. I don't think you can ever have enough resources to increase one's knowledge about this incredible hobby.
With that said, on to my tank thread.
My 120gal system evolved from a 45gal Cube that I started with my son.
Over the course of a couple of years, the reef was quickly nearing its capacity.
Here is a pic from the Zero Hour; right before the transfer.
Back in the mid 90's, I dreamed of owning a 120gal aquarium. So this was the obvious choice for the tank upgrade.
Over the course of a few months, I designed a number of different stands and canopies for the 120gal.
For those people that know me well, I am very particular and meticulous; a perfectionist or OCD.
I wanted to have my aquarium system to match our home's interior design and style. I am a HUGE fan of the Arts and Crafts movement; specifically Frank Lloyd Wright and Greene and Greene.
I have spent the better part of 25 years working with wood; the past 17 years as a cabinetmaker. So, I built the stand and canopy myself.
This was the upgraded system from February of 2013.
I have a very detailed build thread that documents the stand build which you can find elsewhere.
If you would prefer to see the entire build process, I can re-post the details here. I just don't want to be redundant.
The cabinet-style stand is made of Rift-sawn Red Oak with painted panels and Oil-rubbed Bronze hardware.
A HD laminate top keeps the stand protected from any water spills; I tend to get my hands wet often (OCD).
The canopy is mounted to the ceiling and rides on a pair of guides that allows the canopy to be pushed back seven inches or so.
The 40B sump has custom glass baffles to create a raceway flow. I use one section of the sump for frags and recovering corals.
My initial equipment list included:
- Vertex Illumina SR260 LED Light Fixture - 3ft
- Reef Octopus Diablo 160 XS protein skimmer
- Reef Octopus Water Blaster 5000 water pump
- VorTech M40 (x2) and MP10 (x2) pumps
- Digital Aquatics Reef Keeper Lite
- Aquatop water heater
- BRS Top Off Pump
- Ecoxotic Panorama LED Fixtures (Marine and Actinic)
- BRS Deluxe Reactor
Here's what the tank looked like after one year.
After a couple of VERY BAD mishaps, I made some equipment changes.
I dropped my Vertex fixture into the tank, so I now use two EcoTech Radion Pro LED fixtures.
After I lost my entire clam collection to GFO fines, I stopped using the BRS reactor.
I have recently added some Kamoer dosing pumps to dose for my Ca/Alk.
I also started dosing the Red Sea Coral Colors Program additives.
Earlier this winter, we needed to replace the old carpet in our basement so the tank had to come down for a few weeks.
During this transition, I ended up losing a few of my corals but the fish all made it.
So here is the tank right after getting set back up. Right at about two years.
Since I mentioned fish and corals, I should mention them.
My fish/inverts include:
- True Percula Clownfish pair
- Kole Tang
- Lemonpeel Mimic Tang
- One-spot Foxface
- Scribbled Rabbitfish
- Lamarck's Angelfish (female)
- Lyretail Anthias (male and two females)
- Bipartitus Leopard Wrasse (female)
- Gold Midas Bleny
- Randall's Goby with Tiger Pistol Shrimp
- Ruby red Dragonet (male)
- Japanese Red Pistol Shrimp
- Squamosa Clam
- Derasa Clam
Here's a pic showing what it looks like at feeding time.
My coral collection contains a variety of SPS, LPS and zoanthids.
You can see from the earlier pictures that I had great results keeping montipora spp. corals. The combo colony grew to a size of over 24"L by 16"W by 9"H. I ended up selling the colony to open up the right side of the tank for more SPS frags.
Even though I like to fill my tank with many SPS corals, I have an addiction for LPS; mainly brain corals, duncans and ricordeas.
Here's a couple of pictures showcasing some of my corals.
This should be enough to get my tank thread started.
If you would like to know more about anything you have seen here, please feel free to ask.
And if you would like to see more pictures, I have many, many more.
So here's one last picture; one of my latest favorite pictures of a great fish.
Thanks for reading!
