Imaexpat's 135 Gallon SPS Tank

Tank

135 gallon Non RR

Stand

Custom built solid Oak

Canopy

Make shift 2 x 4 ccanopy to replace Oak one damaged in Sept 03 by fire as a result of defective light fixture.

Substrate

180 lbs of Indo-Pacific live sand

Live Rock

220 lbs Kaelini Live Rock

Lighting

3 x Halide/PC pendents, 2 x 160 VHO and 1 x 40 watt NO
400 watt XM 10K bulbs (3)
32 watt Actinic PC (6)
160 watt URI Actinic
4O watt Blue Moon

Filter

DIY filter moving 500 GPH

Skimmer

Oh...ah, there aint one!

Refugium

140 gallon Poly-Tank (AKA: Rubbermaid cattle trough - yeah its budget but it works great!)
110 lbs of Oolitic Sand
20lbs GARF Grunge
5 lbs GARF Grunge Light
45 lbs Live Rock Rubble(DYI - Agrocrete "seeded")
80 lbs Kaelini Live Rock
18 Red Mangroves
Chaeto Macro-Alage (enough to fill 5 galllon bucket after trimming)

Pumps

1 x Mag 5
4 x Mag 3

Salt

Instant Ocean

Additives

Seachem Reef Complete
Seachem Marine Trace
Seachem Reef Advatage Stronium
Seachem Iodine
Seachem Reef Buffer
Seachem Reef Builder
Seachem Reef Plus
Seachem Reef Advantage Magnisium
Seachem Kalkwasser

* Added as per GARF Bullet Proof Reef Recipe for the most part

Live Stock Corals

1 x Elegance Coral (Medium)
1 x Torquois Avelopora (Medium)
1 x Pavona Bright Green (Large)
1 x Blue Ridge Coral (Large)
1 x Yellow Porites Cylindrica (Large)
1 x Hydnopora Rigida (Large)
4 x Hydnopora Rigida (Small)
1 x Purple Tipped Montipora Digita (Large)
3 x Purple Tipped Montipora Digita (Small)
1 x Encrusting Montipora Efflorescens (Small)
1 x Red Montipora Capicornus (Medium)
1 x Platygyra Brain (Medium)
1 x Orange ("high-lighter orange"!) Zoanthids (Medium)
1 x Pachyseris Rugosa (Small)
1 x Acropora ? (Green Slimmer) (Small)
1 x Acropora Formosa (Small)
1 x Acropora ? Blue (Small)
1 x Acropora Millipora Pink w/ Chart. Tips (Small)
1 x Acropora ? Bali Green Staghorn (Large)
2 x Acropora ? Bali Green Staghorn (Small)
1 x Stylophora Pristillata Pink (Medium)
1 x Seriatopora Caliendrum Brown w/ Met. Green Polyps (Small)
1 x Montipora ? Olive with Bright Met. Green Polyps (Medium)
1 x Acropora? Rust colored w/ Chart. Tips
1 x ORA Blue Acropora Tortusa (Medium)
1 x ORA Blue Acropora Tortusa (Small) (fragged broke tip)
1 x ORA Blue Acropora Millepora (Medium)
1 x Torquoise Bali Staghorn (Medium)
1 x Tri-Color Acropora Valida(Medium)

Live Stock Fish

1 x Pink Spotted Shrimp Goby
1 x Founder (Type Unknown)
2 x Blue-Green Chromis
2 x Golden Stripe Maroon (Mated Pair)
5 x Maxima Clams
2 x Rose Bubble Tip Anenome (12 incher cloned last week!)
1 x Hawaiian Feather Duster

Clean Up Crew

8 x Peppermint Shrimp
1 x Coral Banded Shrimp
3 x Red Brittle Stars
3 x Mini-Serpant Stars (balck & white striped)
2 x Fighting Conches
24 x Cerith Snails
30 Bumble Bee Snails
100 x Golden Asteria Snails
48 x Nassarious Snails
140 x Dwarf Blue Leg Hermit Crabs
13 x Scarlet Reef Hermit Crabs
1 x Long Spine Urchin
1 x Short Spine Urchin

Tank was established June 03. Had oak canopy to match cabinet I built unfortunately it was damaged by a light fixture fire and couldnt be repaired. Oak stand was built with removable center post holding two doors and allows post to be removed and installation/removal/maintenance of large sump up to 57 x 21 x 29 inches in size. I oringinally had a Berlin XL, but after three replacement pumps and pathetic performance I took it to the gun range with my AK-47 and a couple of 30 round clips to go (Stress Management). Since September 03 I have been running skimmer-less. As such this is why I installed such a large refugium! Thus far the only changes I am planning to make at the moment is at bulb change time I am going to fore go the XM 10K's in favor or XM 20K's. The 10K's are just too "Retina Frying White" for my taste dispite the amount of actinic lighting that I am currently running. Now for pics...First off my camera software is not supported by Windows XP and I cant find a patch so I have very few recent pics! I have several older pics that I will try to post if I can figure that trick (please feel free to help the computer illiterate) out!

[MikeS]

got some pics?

Mike

sorry, I got "rudely interupted" by a phone call in the middle of posting.....

[MikeS]

:lol:

Mike

Thats probably a little better Mike. I havent figured out the trick to adding pics but I will try the next couple of days to get with a buddy at work and see if we can "master" that trick.

[MikeS]

it's easy....just add it from the "add attachment" option at the bottom of the reply screen...

Mike

Thanks for the assist there Big Guy! That wasnt too terribly challanging after all.

Those are a bit old but the best shots I have right now, so please cut me some slack! Most of the softies that are in there are in other tanks now such as the Gorgonians, leathers and capnella. Hopefully after the across country move I can post some better ones!

[MikeS]

nice photos.....looking good! :D

Mike

[icereefer]

"agreed" nice pictures and a very well disciption of your set up.

Icereefer

Well thanks for the generous appraisals. I wouldnt give it that much credit at this point. Its still a somewhat "new" tank and has a lot of growing and maturing to do. But Rome wasnt built in a day, so they say, but I am getting it there.

Thanks icereefer. I have put together a diary of a sort on this tank from start up to present that made it easy to put the tank set up together here in detail. Of course its got a whole lot more photos than this does, its just a shame I dont have a better camera. I got the idea for this from Scott Morrel at GARF. It looked like such a cool way to document a tanks life, I just had to give it a shot. Except for a couple of short lapes due to computer problems I have been able to keep it pretty updated and accurate.

[icereefer]

good for you, it's nice to keep a diary so you have something you can look back on if ever any problems a rise. :chuggin:

That was kind of the game plan. I also knew that I would try little things here and there to "tweak" my system and thought this would be kind of a good way to track wheather the changes I made were an improvement or a liability. Plus as you mentioned...when things go wrong I can thumb back a week or two and see when and where I went astray. I am trying to periodically take photos so I can gauge the growth of corals as well.

Here are a few more pics (if I can get this to work for me...)

Here is a shot of my Avleopora and Elegance coral.

Here is another one, of my favorite fish, Miniatus Grouper. He is about 6 inches long and eats like a vaccum cleaner!