DFWMAS Tank Tour - Jan 23, 2010
by
, 01-25-2010 at 12:20 AM (47445 Views)
This is going to be a long blog, so if you are using your SMARTphone, better switch from 3G to WiFi.
Here's the schedule for that day. I removed the addresses and phone numbers since they are unnecessary at this point. While we did drive from home to home, the travel time wasn't too bad. Some tanks were a few minutes apart, and a couple were 30 minutes between destinations. I attempted to group them to keep drive times reasonable, and I made it a point not to overload the day with too many stops. Instead of feeling rushed, the day flows nicely and no-one feels worn out. That's the trick; you heard it here.
Saturday, Jan 23, 2010 - Meet at Ryan's house at 10:30 a.m. Please try your best to be on time. From there we will simply go down the list, sticking to the time table listed:
10:30 a.m.
Ryan Reeves aka Servo
11:30 a.m.
Eric Bryson aka Eric69
Eric is grilling hamburgers for lunch, and has beer and soda at the ready!
12:35 p.m.
Jerry aka Duster
half-round tank
1:10 p.m.
uchin
2:00 p.m.
David and Tracey Glenn aka RPD645
Brownies and bottled water at the ready
3:00 p.m.
Jim aka theturk
3:40 p.m.
Marc Levenson aka melev
The weather was in the mid 50s, and it rained on and off throughout the day.
The first stop was Ryan's 400g reef.
Ryan's woodwork rises up to provide front tank access. Ryan is in this picture.
To see behind the tank, we entered the fishroom from the garage.
An auto-feeder helps provide food on a precise schedule daily.
I don't know what it is, but-I-like-it.
Eric was our second stop. He has two tanks plumbed together into a single sump that is located in a fishroom behind the wall. It was very narrow, and I didn't take any pictures of it.
The BTAs need lots of flow, and get the 1/4-round tank.
The mixed reef
Stop #3 was Jerry's 144g half-round tank. It is lit with dual MH fixtures.
Lights affixed to a cross brace.
Normally, a wall of rock is a negative, but Jerry arranged it in tiers to create shelves all the way up. It really looks good in person, rather than too full.
This chalice was about 5" across, if not more. He picks it up and rotates it to stop it from growing onto the rock so the plating will continue outwards.
The next stop was Uchin's 200g tank. I think he's a DJ at heart, or maybe for income. I can totally imagine him rocking out while tinkering in his tank.
Oh, and by the way, he loves blue.
And chalices.
He's using a Tunze Wavebox, which provides a 2" wave.
His frag tank is gorgeous, also plumbed into the main system's sump.
The guts of the system
Now that is one sexy sump. :wink:
He likes getting Australian corals. (I don't know if this is one, but it's a good shot so I'm including it)
Stop #5 was David and Tracy's new tank. It has been up for about a month. I don't recall the gallonage, but it was probably around 150g.
Stop #6 was Jim's reef. He's trying to decide which color bulb he prefers. The reef tank is lit with two 400w MH bulbs.
The surface ripples nicely, necessary for good oxygen exchange.
The electrical is up high. It keeps everything tidy. This tank uses a chiller.
He recently started two-part dosing with Drew's Dosing Pumps.
In his office, he has a Softy tank.
The final stop was my house. The angled tank was the first thing you saw when you walked in. It's 20g, and plumbed into my main system.
My 280g reef.
The fishroom
The quarantine tank
There was quite a bit of interest in the brine shrimp hatcheries.
I hope you all enjoyed all the pictures.