UltimateReef.com is proud to feature its first 'Tank of the Month'

Suk's Reef Tank



I first got into fishkeeping around 22 years ago and started of with the usual fresh water tropicals in a 3 foot tank. I had a fascination with catfish for a while and later went on to keep African cichlids. This is when I purchased a second 3 foot tank specifically for Malawi cichlids. My tanks really began to multiply once I realized how relatively easy it was to breed them. I ended up with a total of 6 tanks, 3 of which were occupied with fry of different sizes. I was a member of the British Cichlid Association for a few years back then. I attended some of the meetings where I sold off the young fish at the auctions afterwards (which was most rewarding). I specialized in breeding Aulonocara and Haplochromis species.

I started my first reef tank about 5 years ago. The Malawis had to make way and I converted their tank (54” L x 18” D x 12” H) for saltwater use by adding a Seaclone skimmer. Filtration was purely via Fiji LR and ciculation provided by 2 existing canister filters minus their media. I increased the lighting from 2 to 3 Triton fluorescents and added a further 2 Actinic blue tubes. The base was left bare to facilitate cleaning and preventing detritus buildup. The tank was fairly successful all in all, I made the sort of mistakes most people make along the way (learned the hard way). Then I discovered UltimateReef.com, which opened up a whole new universe.

My first reef tank (Softies with a few LPS corals)







The specs for my new system (set up March 2002) are as follows:

Tank - 180cm x 60cm x 60cm (waterline) Deltec Panorama trend line
Cabinet - 180cm x 60cm x 75cm
Filter Sump - 125cm x45cm x 31cm with Sand bed modification
Eco-cooler 44 watt with thermostat controller
Turbo 1060 Skimmer
Filter Pump HLP 5250
Closed Loop Interval pump HLP 5250
An additional Eheim 1262 on closed loop
Calcium Reactor PF500
Kalkwasser stirrer Km 500 UK
Auto top-up 54 litre kit
Second dry chamber
Suction pipe, pressure pipe & Reef flushing pipe
Arcadia series '3' triple 250watt unit with 2 x 5' marine blue actinics. The lamps have been changed to 10k BLV's. Additional 1 x 150cm marine white tube with cover at rear

The Sump - The water flows down into the sump compartment where it tees off to 2 pipes. One pipe delivers water to my eco-cooler via a rotating spray-bar which then exits to flow over my dsb and then into the skimmer compartment. The 2nd pipe delivers water directly into the skimmer compartment and has a ball valve fitted to control the level of water in the weir.



The Sandbed - The walls to this compartment were initially 4" high which resulted in a slight sand overspill into the skimmer compartment. Sand was also washed out of the bed to a certain extent by water flow emptying from a return pipe (the 2nd pipe as mentioned above). This problem was rectified by increasing the height of the sand bed walls to 5.25" high with acrylic extensions and repositioning the return pipe to empty into the skimmer compartment. This has given me a sand depth of around 4".



The most difficult thing I found was arranging the rockwork. I put the Aragamax in first after thoroughly washing it and letting it soak for a couple of days in tank water. The problem was that every time I scooped the sand away to set a rock on the tank bottom it just gave off clouds of silt and I couldn't see bugger all!! I had my pumps running and even covered the outlet with filter wool which helped to some degree, but even so it took half a day to get the base rocks in and a couple more to build the reef. The next problem, after the corals and fish went in was the flow from the returns making a mess of my sandbed creating numerous sand dunes. I eventually sorted that out by directing the flow over the rocks. Things are pretty stable now and parameters are good.



Water parameters:

Specific gravity @ 1.026
Calcium @ 410
Alkalinity @ 7.7
PH @ high of 8.3 low of 7.9
Reactor effluent around 40 dkh running at ph of around 6.7 with Rowalith 'w'
Temp set at 27 c & controlled with Eco-cooler, at the height of summer temp reached 28.6 c

My livestock presently consists of:

Moorish Idol, Zanclus cornutus (residing in a separate tank)
Flame Angel, Centropyge loricula
Coral Beauty, Centropyge bispinosa
Yellow Tang, Zebrasoma flavescens
A pair of Spawning Percula Clowns, Amphiprion percula
Fijian Damsel, Chrysiptera toupou
Pulau Damsel, Chrysiptera cyanea
Leopard Wrasse, Macropharyngodon meleagris
Mandarin, Sychiropus splendidus
Algae Blenny, Salarius fasciatus
Blue/Black Cleaner Goby, Gobiosoma oceanops









The Leopard Wrasse was put in initially to control a small outbreak of planaria. This he dealt with in a few weeks and since has been happy just pecking at the pods etc. He's an attractive fish and always on display.



2 Cleaner Shrimps, Lysmata ambionensis
Blood Shrimp, Lysmata debelius
2 Sand sifting Starfish, Astopecten sp.
Minstrel Serpent Star (Black & White)
A Tuxedo Urchin, Mespilla globulus
Red Serpent star
Tiger tail Cucumber (which has now split & become 2), Holothuria sp.
About 5 Red Leg Hermits, Paguristes cadenati
About a dozen Turbo Snails, Astraea sp. and 4 Trochus sp.

Seriatopora caliendrum
Torch, Euphyllia cf glabrescens
Acropora sp. from Brian, Beige with bright blue tips
Pavona cactus, from Kevin Ling
Table Acropora
Blue tipped green Acropora, from Kevin Ling
Pink tipped Acropora from Martyn
Pink Acropora millepora from Martyn
Seriatopora guttatus and Seriatopora hystrix from Kevin Ling
Blue Acropora
Purple Acropora sp. from Martyn.
Yellow Pocillopora sp., Yellow/green Porites red Montipora digitata and Frogspawn, Euphyllia sp. from Mark Anderson
Pink Stylophora sp. , green Stylophora sp. from Martyn
2 blue Clams
Palythoa colony
Hammer coral - Euphyllia sp. from Kevin Ling
Maze coral
Various mushrooms
Sun coral - Tubastrea sp.
Leather coral
Montipora capricornis frags, 2 shades of green and the famous Orange from Brian
Cerianthus anemone
Red sea Pulse covering a Goniopora skeleton
Bubble coral
Trumpet, Caulastrea furcata
Hand shaped branching LR with various Acropora frags









Here are a couple of coral growth sequences

Table Acropora

22nd April 2002:



20th June 2002:



12th October 2002:



8th February 2003:



17th August 2003:



Seriatopora hystrix

12th April 2002:



20th June 2002:



12th October 2002:



17th August 2003:



What's next for me? Well, that's a difficult one, I've no plans for a monster tank just yet. I'll try to make this system a bit less labour intensive, especially regarding the gallons of water I need to carry over to top-up my fresh water reservoir tank. I'll just wait for things to grow and keep on taking frags. I may try a Hawaiian Moorish Idol in the tank as they're regarded as being 'safe' with SPS. My Indonesian Idol is probably safest kept in my 60 gallon softie tank.

Links to a few more pictures.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/idol.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/tangandgoby.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/stylophora.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/bluetippedacro.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/caulastrea.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/Suksfrogspawn.jpg

Suk