PIPSREEF AQUARIUM

[pipsreef]

Hi all
As promised here is some details of my Aquarium.

TANK
108"x30"x30" 12mm Seabray with a weir on right hand rear.A further 1" hole drilled in r/h/s/for skimmer outlet.
On l/h/s 2 x holes drilled 1 x outlet to sump the other for water return from sump.

SUMP
54"x16"x18" incorporating 12"x12"x16" fresh water top up tank and at present a trickle tower with bio balls

EQUIPMENT
2X 900gph March return pumps
2x 30watt tmc uv
Turbo flotta 5000 twin skimmer
Korralin 3001 calcium reactor
Deltec kalc wasser stirrer
1xtriple arcadia 250 mh
1xsingle arcadia 250 mh
1xsingle s.t.m 250 mh spot
1x 140w actinic
sys 2000 kit is
power supply
2 x 4 way wave machine
control unit for light + heat but No heaters used yet
cooler
Red sea ozone unit (not used yet)
Auto top up by float switch + micro jet through stirrer
WATER MOVEMENT
5 x Eheim 1060 buried in rock
1 x eheim 1250
1 x 802 power head

Main cooling now done by swimming pool Titanium Heat exchanger

13 x boxes of fijian live rock. from STM and Fantasea backed up by ocean rock

FISH
7 x green chromis
2 x black clowns
Algae blenny
Yellow tang
Chevron tang
Purple tang
1 x Mandarin spotted
1 x Mandarin Psycadelic
Saphron goby
yellow neon goby
Watchman Goby
Banded goby
2 x yellow tail damsel
1 x Humbug damsel
Shepherd eye angel
bi color blenney

turbo snails
red + blue hermits
Big hermit (not sure what type)his name is sebastion though,and we have had him 4 years
Various brittle stars
Sand starfish and other starfish
pistol shrimps living with gobies
Boxing crab
Boxing shrimp
Peppermint shrimp
Marble shrimp
2 x Purple legged marble shrimps (still)
and my latest purchase an OCTOPUS.
(All the hermits snails and friendly beasties i can catch are residing in the sump while i wait for the Octobeast to rid me of them 2 shrimps).

CORALS
The tank is dominated by a large leather
and an even larger finger leather
acropora
blue tip
purple tip
hydnophora
organ pipe
tongues
plates
discs various colours
feather dusters
coco worms
euphillia frog spawn
anchor
gonoporo stoksie
open brain
bubble coral
cabbage
yellow polyps
various mushrooms
pulse zenia
sand anenomae

REGIME
monthly water changes 30-50 gallon
dose trace elements every 6 days
lugols solution 6 drop every 5 or 6 days
phytoplex every other day
strontium weekly
clean glass every 3-4 days depends whose visiting
empty and clean skimmer (ugh) every 4-5 days


Thats all for now more photos to follow.

Happy Reefkeeping

Andy :biggrin::wink::wink:

[Lisa Page]

Hi Andy,

Wow, that's quite a setup you have there. I can't wait to see the pics :biggrin:

BTW don't forget to let us know how you get on with the octopus :eek:

Regards

[ziggy]

Hi Andy,

Yeah lets' see some more pics (I remember the one's you posted before :cheesy:)

and I thought I had a big tank :lol:
Cheers

Ziggy

[bosi]

Nice setup. Can't wait to see the pictures, but did you say you bought? an OCTOPUS?
In a reef tank?
I am very curious to hear about your experience with him/her. (I have none at all, that's why I'm curious http://www.ultimatereef.net/ibv3/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Keep us posted
Ciao
Alex

[pipsreef]

hello all

Ive made a few changes to the system i now have 4 x 4oowatt lights fitted in pairs either side of the centre stress bar.

ive removed the bio balls and trickle tower from the sump,This area will now become my fragging factory lit by the 250watt s-t-m spot.

My experience with the Octopus was a disaster
The first one £51 worth from Taunton Aquatics lasted 2 weeks It was great watching him moving over the rocks exploring He never found the shrimps (which was my main reason for buying him)I found a few empty crab shells so he was feeding,one morning as usual i was observing the tank and noticed the octopus dead laying in the cave and the hermits getting their own back by eating him.
My next big idea was a Harliquin Tusk a Beutiful fish the largest in my reef,he has eaten more of my crabs.but hasnt touched the shrimps as he goes to sleep when they come out to play.
I got another Octopus from Swallow aquatics at greenhythe which is one of my LFS only £12.90 popped him in the tank after letting him aclimatise to my water and he went behind my gonipora i went to make a brew when i returned to the tank only 2 to 3 minutes later there was tusker with a few tentacles hanging from his mouth saying thank you for my meal. And the worse thing about it is i still have these bloody shrimps.
Happy Reefkeeping

Andy

:biggrin:

[waterman]

hi andy
that sounds like one big tank,ive seen ziggys and went whoooo when i saw that ,ansd your is bigger,would love to see some piccys,if youve upgraded to 400 watters ,whast are you doing with your 250watts units,out of interst.

cheers

waterman

[Lockey]

Andy

I know what you mean about the Marble Shrimp. I had one for a while with an unhealthy appetite for my mushrooms.:shocked:


Looks like a great set-up:biggrin:

[pipsreef]

Hi All
I had my arms in the tank a couple of weeks ago and removed two salt buckets of rock,and a full salt bucket of dead coral bits and muck that had accumilated over the last 6 years.
I wasn't getting much light at the lower end of the tank so had to do something.
This photo gives you an idea what it was like,

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2007Q2/beforpic1.jpg

and a couple of pic's as of now


http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2007Q2/loftank1.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2007Q2/loftankfull1.jpg

I still have some more tidying up and repositioning to do but will let it settle for a few weeks first.

Hope you like it!

Happy Reefkeeping

Andy

[rockaria]

wow the fish wont know what to do with all that extra swimming space! lol looking good, with all that extra light you'll be pruning again really soon! ;)

[Tony B]

Having seen this tank a few months ago, it was what I could only describe as 'very well grown in' akin to that of a german women's lady garden (iirc they don't trim much either)..... Huge amounts of acropora packed in, awesome growth :worship:

Looks better already Andy, must have been hard to make the decision.

Your tank will go on and be even better for it, I'm sure :)

[PawsReef]

About time you updated :p

I saw this just after and I have to say that pictures dont do this tank justice or show its depth with caves and overhangs etc.

It will be interesting to see how the corals settle into their new lighter set up and as someone said, I bet the fish are enjoying more space :thumbsup:

[pipsreef]

Hi Tony
Yes i had been meaning to do it for a couple of years, but took the plunge,
I tried to get the acro out in one piece but it was all intertwined and started breaking apart, That hurt, so once i had started i couldn't stop, seven and a half hours it took.I removed two of the 1060's that were buried in the rock one had stopped working the other was fine, not bad as they had been running since june 2000 on a wave machine without any maintenance
Tried giving some away some frags but over night a load i had in my holding vat with heater and circulation keeled over and i lost it all.
I do have a few frags hanging ready for repositioning at a later date,
It was only the left four foot that i trimmed, I'm not brave enough to touch the other five foot yet, Maybe in another couple of years.
Thats enough waffle for now.

Happy Reefkeeping

Andy

[fireproofcujo]

Wow you need an under water gardener to keep that lot under control :cool:
i bet it's like having a new tank with it trimmed down like that :thumbsup:

[Corsetts]

You have been busy !! :shocking:


Looks superb :worship:

[Reef bloke]

Lots of hard work there,now the fun bit,watching it re grow!!.

[hihat]

Well done Andy it's looking good for the thining out:thumbsup: , loads more light and space:) .

Jim

[Wee-Man]

That must have taken balls of titanium to do that Andy, looks good

[JJreefer]

That looks ace :thumbsup:
One of the most natural looking tanks ive seen, not too many garish colours.
Looks like youve grabbed a couple of square foot of a natural reef and stuck it in a tank :D

[pavlo]

Well done, looks great.

[muzzy]

that growth is (was!) incredible!

at least you wont need any ca reactor media for a while, just dry it out and chuck it in the reactor

[SCOOB]

looks empty by comparison :D

good on ya mate, as mike has said, that must have taken some bottle.

(or you were on the bottle :D )