Rob
03-16-2006, 08:33 PM
First I would like to thank Rob and all the staff of Talkingreef.com as well as the sponsor of the T.O.T.M. Jake at Razorcorals.com.
This is the first contest that I have won and hope it is the beginning of many to come.
This hobby began for me about a 14 months ago after having a 29 gallon softee tank in my
Living room. My wife and I visited a member of the Boston Reefer Society to purchase some frags and instantly fell in love with the 120 in-wall he had. When the wife and I got home from that visit we immediately looked for a place to house a bigger tank. After a suggestion from my wife we decided to do an in-wall that was adjacent to a kitchen type room in the lower level of our split entry house.
Luckily a short time after another member of the BRS was breaking down his tank for a move out of state and we made him an offer on that Tank, light, sump and return pump and off to the races I went.
Construction began a short time after and I documented the entire process on my website
http://www.mcgrade.com/Reef%20tank%20Page/Main%20Page.htm
During the entire building of my reef tank I made it a point to keep things simple as I was pretty new at the large system as you could probably imagine coming from a 29 gallon system that didn’t even have a sump. The tank has come a long way but there are many many items I want to add, it seems endless.
One thing you may notice in the pictures is most of the fish are juvenile in age along with the corals that are mostly frags. My reason for that is I wanted to start with a young system and watch it blossom.
Anyway, here are the details of the tank and feel free to ask any questions that you may have and I will do my best in answering them.
Tanks:
Tank: 180g AGA w/ dual overflows
Sump: 40 gallon breeder
Refugium: 10 gallon
Circulation:
Return/circulation pump: Mag-drive 24
Skimmer: Euro Reef 8-2
Skimmer pump: Sedra 5000
Lighting Fixture: Aquamedic Aquaspacelight 3 x 250 watt w/ 4 x 24 watt actinic
Lighting Bulbs: (3) Phoenix 14K MH HQI
Lighting Bulb: (4) Aqua medic 24w blue Actinic
Refugium Lighting: 75 watt spiral compact fluorescent bulb (6500K)
Circulation Powerheads: (1) Seio 1500
Circulation Powerheads: (1) Max-Jet 1200 with modification
Heater: 500w Finnex titanium w/ 300w Finnex titanium for backup
PH Monitor: Pinpoint
Temperature Monitor: Pinpoint
Miscellaneous:
Live Rock: 250 lbs.
Sand: 200 lbs Southdown (2 1/2" sandbed) + 15 lbs. in Refugium (4" sandbed)
Cleaning Magnet: Hammerhead Algae Free
Salinity Tester: Refractometer
RO/DI: 110GPD RO+DI Reverse Osmosis Water filter
Dual head Peristaltic pump for dosing RHF 2 part Cal & Alk
Fish:
1 Bluethroat Trigger - Xanthichthys Auromarginatus (male)
1 Foxface Lo - Siganus vulpinus
1 Clarkii Clownfish - Amphiprion clarkii
1 Ocellaris Clownfish - Amphiprion ocellaris
1 Brazilian Gramma - Gramma brasiliensis
2 Yellow tangs - Zebrasoma flavescens
1 purple Tang - Zebrasoma xanthurum
1 Blue Mandarin - Synchiropus splendidus (female)
1 Scooter Blenny - Synchiropus ocellatus
1 Coral Beauty Angelfish- Centropyge bispinosus
2 Green Chromis - Chromis viridis
Invertebrates:
1 Green/Brown BTA
1 Derasa Clam - Aquacultured
1 Sand sifting starfish
1 blood red fire shrimp
2 Scarlet cleaner shrimp (mated pair)
2 peppermint shrimp (mated pair)
100+ Cerith snails
20+ Turbo snails
100+ Astrea conehead snails
25+ Bumblebee snails
10+ Tongan Nassarius Snails
This is the first contest that I have won and hope it is the beginning of many to come.
This hobby began for me about a 14 months ago after having a 29 gallon softee tank in my
Living room. My wife and I visited a member of the Boston Reefer Society to purchase some frags and instantly fell in love with the 120 in-wall he had. When the wife and I got home from that visit we immediately looked for a place to house a bigger tank. After a suggestion from my wife we decided to do an in-wall that was adjacent to a kitchen type room in the lower level of our split entry house.
Luckily a short time after another member of the BRS was breaking down his tank for a move out of state and we made him an offer on that Tank, light, sump and return pump and off to the races I went.
Construction began a short time after and I documented the entire process on my website
http://www.mcgrade.com/Reef%20tank%20Page/Main%20Page.htm
During the entire building of my reef tank I made it a point to keep things simple as I was pretty new at the large system as you could probably imagine coming from a 29 gallon system that didn’t even have a sump. The tank has come a long way but there are many many items I want to add, it seems endless.
One thing you may notice in the pictures is most of the fish are juvenile in age along with the corals that are mostly frags. My reason for that is I wanted to start with a young system and watch it blossom.
Anyway, here are the details of the tank and feel free to ask any questions that you may have and I will do my best in answering them.
Tanks:
Tank: 180g AGA w/ dual overflows
Sump: 40 gallon breeder
Refugium: 10 gallon
Circulation:
Return/circulation pump: Mag-drive 24
Skimmer: Euro Reef 8-2
Skimmer pump: Sedra 5000
Lighting Fixture: Aquamedic Aquaspacelight 3 x 250 watt w/ 4 x 24 watt actinic
Lighting Bulbs: (3) Phoenix 14K MH HQI
Lighting Bulb: (4) Aqua medic 24w blue Actinic
Refugium Lighting: 75 watt spiral compact fluorescent bulb (6500K)
Circulation Powerheads: (1) Seio 1500
Circulation Powerheads: (1) Max-Jet 1200 with modification
Heater: 500w Finnex titanium w/ 300w Finnex titanium for backup
PH Monitor: Pinpoint
Temperature Monitor: Pinpoint
Miscellaneous:
Live Rock: 250 lbs.
Sand: 200 lbs Southdown (2 1/2" sandbed) + 15 lbs. in Refugium (4" sandbed)
Cleaning Magnet: Hammerhead Algae Free
Salinity Tester: Refractometer
RO/DI: 110GPD RO+DI Reverse Osmosis Water filter
Dual head Peristaltic pump for dosing RHF 2 part Cal & Alk
Fish:
1 Bluethroat Trigger - Xanthichthys Auromarginatus (male)
1 Foxface Lo - Siganus vulpinus
1 Clarkii Clownfish - Amphiprion clarkii
1 Ocellaris Clownfish - Amphiprion ocellaris
1 Brazilian Gramma - Gramma brasiliensis
2 Yellow tangs - Zebrasoma flavescens
1 purple Tang - Zebrasoma xanthurum
1 Blue Mandarin - Synchiropus splendidus (female)
1 Scooter Blenny - Synchiropus ocellatus
1 Coral Beauty Angelfish- Centropyge bispinosus
2 Green Chromis - Chromis viridis
Invertebrates:
1 Green/Brown BTA
1 Derasa Clam - Aquacultured
1 Sand sifting starfish
1 blood red fire shrimp
2 Scarlet cleaner shrimp (mated pair)
2 peppermint shrimp (mated pair)
100+ Cerith snails
20+ Turbo snails
100+ Astrea conehead snails
25+ Bumblebee snails
10+ Tongan Nassarius Snails