Elliots Tank

[elliot]

HI,

Thought it is finally time to write my tank up prooperly.

My tank started in August 2002, and was a custom built tank by Danny from Watford.

It is a 4 x 2 x 2 tank with the following equipment

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pic to follow
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Main Tank
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2 x 250 Arcadia Metal Halides
4 x T5 54W Actinics
Ap850 Deltec Skimmer
Eheim 1060 for return and feed skimmer
Deltec 509 Rowaphos Reactor
2 x Tunze 6100 Streams on a 7094 Multi Controller
4 x MJ1100 Powerheads
2 x 402 Powerheads

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pic to follow
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Sump
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2 x 1 x 1 all glass sump
Dsb, and eggracte suspended pulsing xenia
lit by 2 x marine white flurosesents

Fuge
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15 / 20 Gallon fuge (Addis plastic Box drilled and fed by MJ600 Powerhead)
several different caulerpa
lit by 2 x marineglow fluorescents

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pic to follow
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Other
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Ratz Kalk Stirrer
1501 Korraline Calcium Reactor
Tunze Auto Top off


Still to come
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2 x 400 MH
IKS full setup

LiveStock
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Flame Hawkfish
Dotty Back (Frimandi)
Copper Band Butterlfy fish
Orange Spotted Goby
Watchman Goby
Spotted Mandarin

3 Cleaner Shrimos
2 Blood Shrimp
1 Brittlestar
1 x Orange/Red Starfish
2 x Sand Sifting Starfish
Malu Anenome
Yellow and Pink tipped Bubble Anenome

Corlas
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Blue / Cream Milipora Pora Colony
Blue Tipped Acropora Colony
1 Green / Blue Acropora Colony
Salmon Pink Acropora Colony

20 odd Acropora frags
Yellow and Green and Purple Montipora Dig,'s
Green and Yellow Monitpora Cap
Green and Pnk Pavona
Pink tipped Helio Fungia

Some soft corals - in the process of removing.


Thats about it for now.... there are a few photos here:-

http://uk.photos.yahoo.com/bc/elliot_yarro...otos.yahoo.com/ (http://uk.photos.yahoo.com/bc/elliot_yarrow/lst?.dir=/Reef%20Tank%20Jan%202003&.src=ph&.order=&.view=t&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/)

And more will come soon.

Elliot

[Lisa Page]

Excellent! B) How's it going with the reactor now?

Regards

Lisa

[Preds]

:lol:

Looks good to me anyway mate.

[simon garratt]

Elliot.

Tank looks to be coming on nicely. :) loverly copperband you have there. any hints or tips for those wishing to try?



Si. :)

[elliot]

Preds and Lisa,

Never a truer adage...

"beauty is in the eye of the beholder" - shame I have an ugly tank then!

Being a young tank and a relative novice to the world of reefs - I think it is very easy to want to rush in and achieve an amazing tank ASAP.

This is both financially crippling, and ultimately an unsustainable way to go.

Fortunately, I had kept fish for years, and more importantly researched using this and a couple of other boards - so I have been able to avoid many of the usual pitfalls.

I have probably bitten off more than I can chew with my preference for an sps tank from the start - but careful planning and guidance has so far allowed me a 100% success rate... even with the dodgy photos - you can see decent growth tips.

The calcium reactor is now kicking in - and so I hope to observe some difference.. although TBH, I have lowish ca demands still and have serviced my alk/ca needs with the kalk stirrer.

I look forward to be able to take growth shots -as for the last 6 months I have been unable to see much difference!

One day I hope to have the natural "jagged" relief that a real reef has... but I guess that is exactly where the fun is..... :)

Elliot

[elliot]

Simon,

My copperband is the typical case - the one that broke the rule.

Cooper is ludicrously bold - from the moment he went into the bag - he has been pecking. He is constantly on patrol eating almost anything he finds.

He will eat from my hand willingly - so long as the flame hawkfish is not there.

Generally, I feed him on live brine shrimp - but he will eat the fronzen mysis and artemia - which I add zoecon to.

I have generally opted out of conversations regarding the CopperBand - as I have heard the horror stories - and do not believe mine is atypical!

Elliot

[Preds]

Hi Elliot,

You'll be amazed how much growth you get in a relatively short period of time. I've only ever manually added calcium to my tank, and my purple acro colony has probably doubled in size in about 6 months. I think the two most enjoyable parts of having a reef is initially planning and setting it up, and then standing back and watching how it develops.

[elliot]

Preds,

I think you are right - although I am sure someone can quote me at the weekend in saying

"It is all gone boring!, nothing needs done!!"

I have been so used to "fighting fire" as soon as I come home - that last week was an absolute pleasure....

I hope now to be able to focus on the tank itself further aquascaping etc- rather than particular problems....

Mind you, being a techie - I certainly hope to swap back to the "plan a new tank" phase at some point!

Elliot

[Preds]

If only we could afford to keep as many tanks as we could ever plan eh? :)

[MadSi]

Ell,

Nice to see pics of your tank at last - looking good :) Ignore the pratts, they tend to fade away with time....

As for growth, just wait till you get your 400's over there of which I will be particularly interested to see, especially as my tank is also 4x2x2 (even younger that yours at that!). I'll just use you as the guinea pig :P

For myself, I get noticable growth of which I have put down to the following conditions:


Heavy Feeding
Good lighting (2 x 250w 10k BLV)
A lot of turbulence (27x) using the iks in wave mode + closed loops
Stable water conditions
I Keep temp @ 82-84 :)


Works for me but doesnt mean the same would work for anyone else!!!

L8trs

Si

[Cudders]

Elliott,

Tank looks fine to me ;) Be excellent when the frags grow out!

Just one question. I note you have six powerheads in your list as well as two Streams. Are the streams not enough or is the flow not where you want it?

Mark.

[elliot]

Lambretta,

The streams have only been in a month - and to be honest, despite seeing instantaneous results - I have not yet decided how many powerheads I would like.

I was considering this seriously over the weekend, and suspect I will keep the 4 x MJ1100s and the two streams - but will hide all the MJs behind the back - just to add a reef flush mechanism. The MJS are on a system2000 Wave Module - which I have found to be a good bit of kit.

The streams although awesome - are a bit OTT in my tank - and as such I still get some dead spots at the back.....

The two other 402s are going to be removed - they were pre-Stream.

I could probably get away with just the 2 x streams .... but I will monitor before removing the Maxi's.

Elliot

[simon garratt]

Post cleaned. :D My appologies to those who posted in defence. But i thought it best to remove 'ALL' off topic reply's. :)

( the individual concerned needent even 'THINK' about responding to this topic again.) :angry:



Elliot. Nice to see someone with an open mind keeping a copper band who admits to luck rather than judgement.

Keep up the wonderfull work.


Kind regards

Si. :)

[kosh42]

Very nice. Your only forseeable problem will be space when the frag growth kicks in :D

Tim