Rick Mathew
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Howdy,
As the title indicates I've been browsing the threads here for years, but finally decided to jump in to the discussion.
I've been keeping saltwater tanks for years, starting with a predator tank in the 90s housed in a 40 breeder, upgrading to a 90 wave (front panel blew out), and eventually a 120 custom build.
I had a major crash this past spring and almost gave up the hobby. Long story short, a cheap ac interrupter switch I used for my mixing station transfer pump burned through and increased my salinity while I was out of town. Many lessons in redundancy were learned that week. I lost a 5 year tank in one day, with the exception of one miraculous Marshall island flame Angel and a single bubble tip anemone.
So what you see here is sadly very fresh.
While my equipment has evolved over the years, here's what I'm currently running:
2 red Sea reef led 90s on ends of tank, 2 red Sea led 50s split over center brace.
2 maxspect gyre 250s horizontally placed on either short end of tank
40 gallon sump with a 15 gallon fuge
Coralife turbotwist 12x running approx 250 gph
TLF phosphate reactor
TLF reactor modified for biopellets
BRS dual 300 watt titanium heaters on BRS temperature controller
3 jebao dosers for: alkalinity (BRS pharm), calcium (BRS pharm), magnesium (BRS pharm), red Sea reef energy a&b, red Sea Coral colors, fresh and salt water top off and nopox ( 2 ml/day to support biopellets).
Return pump is a skimz leopard (4200gph, powers everything through a custom manifold and return system I built).
aquaC EV 240 skimmer with IIwaki RL40 pressure pump
Cheap Amazon clamp on plant led for fuge
Monitor pH and ammonia with a seneye reef
I keep a live stream of my tank up on twitch, I usually put it up on the projector as my students take exams. Much more peaceful than a ticking clock (link below).
Currently the tank inhabitants are:
Roughly 55 species of Coral, SPS primarily, but some LPSand softies down low.
1 Marshall island flame Angel
1 yellow Tang (once he outgrows my current tank I already have a home for him)
5 pajama Cardinal fish
1 davinci false percula clown (female)
1 false percula clown (male)
1 algae blenny
2 (FAT) red scooter blennies
1 pistol shrimp (red and white)
3 peppermint shrimp (remarkably well behaved compared to past crews)
1 emerald crab
1 green BTA
2 Sally Lightfoot (lightfeet?)
About a dozen red and blue legged hermit crabs
About a dozen Trachus and turbo snails
**Edit. can't forget about my six line wrasse**
I keep alkalinity stable at 9.5dkh, calcium at 430, magnesium at 1550, iron at .15, iodine at. 06, potassium at 410 and salinity at 35ppt.
While crashes are obviously devastating, I'm happy to have some continuity between the two iterations of this tank.
If you want to see the live stream, here's the link: . I hope you enjoy, and I welcome any thoughts!
Welcome to R2R....Really Great to have you jump in...Explore....Learn....Share...
Very nice set up...
