melev

My reef was set up February 6, 2011. It's a 400g custom-made Starphire glass reef-ready tank by Marineland. The footprint is 84" x 36" x 30" with an external overflow at one end that is hidden behind a full sheet of black acrylic, providing five 1.5" drains to the sump underneath.




The sump is 58" x 31.5" x 17" and has a full length refugium zone. It holds a Euroreef protein skimmer, a Nextreef biopellet reactor and a Lifereef Calcium reactor. The system uses two Dart pumps, one for the return line and one that pushes water into a manifold to run any equipment in the sump and feed the frag tank.





Two penductors create cross flow from the return line. Two Vortech MP60s and one MP40 create in-tank flow.



I used a larger grade of sand by Tropic Eden called Reeflakes that tends to stay in place even with the flow created by the Vortechs. The tank has 450 lbs of sand and about 200 lbs of live rock.

Here's an older picture of the power station, frag tank and the drain plumbing.



From the left side of my tank to the right side.







The tank is lit with three Lumenbright pendants. They house bulbs in this order: 250w - 400w - 250w. The spectrum of the XM mogul-ended bulbs are 10,000K - 20,000K - 10,000K. I've been running my lighting like this for the past 7 years. The tank's lighting is staggered throughout the day, and high noon (all lights on at once) lasts from 3:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily. I'm still running VHO super actinic bulbs from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and then LED moonlighting from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. The refugium is on a day time schedule currently, shutting off its LED 6500K lighting by midnight.



The lightrack rolls on a hanging rack, and can be completely out of the way if necessary. Because of the height of the lightrack, heat hasn't been a factor. I have a small 120mm fan sitting on the overflow to gently move the hot air off the surface of the water withe excellent results.



Here are some PAR measurements I took about a month ago.




I feed the tank every night around 9:30 pm with a mixture of Rods Food and some frozen mini-mysis. I dose Microbacter 7 about once a month, when I remember. The calcium reactor doses Alkalinity, Calcium and apparently Magnesium because I've not had to dose any Mg since the tank was set up. When I dose anything, the total water volume of my reef is 300g of liquid volume. Because of the biopellets, nitrate and phosphate tests have remained 0 for the entire 8 months. I'm currently using Biospheres to see how they do; I was using Vertex for 7 months with excellent results.

I keep a reservoir of saltwater ready at all times. It holds up to 250g of mixed & aged saltwater for my reef's needs, and comes in very handy for sudden quarantine needs. Water changes are quite easy, but not automated yet. Everything is done in the fishroom, an area taken from the two-car garage area of my home. I spent several months building the fishroom from the ground up.

The tank is topped off with RO/DI water several times a day automatically from a 45g acrylic reservoir. This is more than a week's supply of top off water. Because our water in Fort Worth has been affected by drought conditions, I've been adding Seachem's Prime to the water to keep it safe for my reef over the past few months.

In the event of a power outage, I have a generator that provides all the electricity needs of the reef. The Vortech pumps are plugged into battery backups for brief lapses in power.

The system doesn't use a chiller. The ambient temperature of my home keeps the tank at the proper water temperature, which tend to run between 78 and 80F daily. I use an Aquacontroller 3 to check on the tank at home and via my iPhone when away.

The frag tank is plumbed into the system and gives me a place to park new arrivals after they've been quarantined. Plus I can feed my suncorals more easily.



I love the access I have to work in my tank from a walkboard that I can use from either side of the reef. You can check out some of my videos at http://www.youtube.com/melevsreef to see the walkboard as well as the topdown video I shot of my corals.



Coral pictures at last. Here's one of my chalices that I got about seven months ago in trade for a bag of sand.




Cyphastrea from Aaron. This coral is growing over two empty Mexican Turbo Snail shells.




The deepwater Acropora sp. that was being chewed up by an AEFW two weeks ago. Looks much better already.




Dendrophyllia






Hitchhiker tube worm or mini-featherduster




Frogspawn walled in by Hammer & Torch corals.




Fungia plates growing in size.




The purple Gorgonian I got from Florida a few months ago. The core is purple, the polyps are white (not yellow like this picture indicates).




The new Lawnmower blenny




Green Nepthea.




One of the two clowns in the Rose BTA in the refugium. She's a tank-raised clown, a variant from the Onyx line.




This is an encrusting Montipora setae, with orange polyps.




A pink chalice




The Ponape birdsnest has grown in nicely.




The Red Planet (Acorpora sp.) still holds its green core. It hasn't grown much, but has encrusted onto the rock some. Not pictured is a brand new branch coming off that encrustation (hidden beneath the larger Acropora colony below).




The Acropora austera has grown in nicely.




Bird of Paradise birdsnest was placed here to fill in the void caused by some deaths during my MACNA trip in September.




Five of the new T. maximas I got last weekend. The other three are in the front section of the reef.






A view of the Bommie section from inside the fishroom.




This chalice has grown in nicely as well.




A variety of corals in a small footprint.






The sandy valley between the reef structure and the bommie has the fungia plates and some Maxima clams, as well as that blue-grey chalice.




One of five Tigertail cucumbers always working the sandbed.




The tongue coral's green polyps glow brightly.




The Unknown Acropora sp. is taking shape nicely.






The war coral I picked up at Next Wave earlier this year has volcano'd upwards as it grows outwards.




A yellow scroll coral seems to be doing well under a 10,000K bulb.




Zoanthids are in the bommie section.








Here's a picture of the entire set up from a few months ago. You can see how much the system has grown in in a short time period of time. I try to clean the tank often to maintain its new look and eliminate distraction. I may finally get around to some woodwork this fall/winter. Maybe.