300 Gallon Reef tank at 2 Weeks

Pump 1 and Chiller (Closed Loop)

40 Gallon Wet / Dry

Skimmer and Pump 2

This is a 300 Gallon Display with a 40 Gallon Wet / Dry Sump, a chiller, 2 mini giant pumps featuring 6 powerheads and a closed loop system to ensure no dead spots.

It was initially picked up from ATM on Sunday, April 5, 2009. Less than a week later it appeared to have run its cycle and was ready for some livestock. A couple days later it appeared to enter another mini cycle. I have used a variety of bacteria products to hasten the nitrification cycle.

The lighting itself deserves some special attention:

• 2 Metal Halide 250′s
• 4 T-5 Actinic
• 9 LED Blue
• 9 LED White

Livestock to date

• 200 lbs of Live Rock
• 150 lbs of Caribsea Live Sand
• Foxface Rabbitfish (lo)
• 2 Cleaner Shrimp
• 1 Yellow Assessor
• 3 Yellow Clown Gobys
• 1 Pearly Jawfish
• 5 Feather Dusters
• Bubble Coral
• Purple flower Polyps
• 50 Blue Leg Hermit Crabs
• 1 Serpent Starfish
• Starter Copepods
• 50 Nassarius Snails
• 30 Nerite Snails
• 1 Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab

A bubble tip anemone has been reserved for the clown fish to host in once water quality has improved. In addition, I plan to add about 150 more lbs of live rock over time. I estimate it will take about a year to complete this tank but I am very much looking forward to the long term project. Many thanks to my good friend David for all his help getting this set up!

In an attempt to control algae in the display tank, and promote better natural biological filtration, I added 15 lbs of live rock to the tank and moved around some of the coral. This change was made during an adaptation from using a wet/dry to building out a refugium.

50G Reef Overview

March 12, 2009 I added an additional 15 lbs of live rock to the tank and moved some of the rubble to my refugium project on the 75 G tank.

Red Firefish

Today we added a Red Firefish Goby to the small reef tank. He spent some time competing with the Ocellaris Clownfish. However, they seem to have worked out their differences.

In addition, the Pearly Jawfish continues to come out more often. Click the read more link below to see a better view of the Jawfish and current stocking of this reef:

Continue reading…

I have sold some of the koi in my office pond allowing me to transition the four that inhabited this tank to the 150 Gallon tank. This was one of my long-term goals so that I can convert the 75 Gallon tank to saltwater. The physical conversion started on Monday 2/23 and was completed on Tuesday 2/24/2009. The goal was for a 3-day cycle using 15 lbs of cured live rock and 40 lbs of Ocean Direct™ Caribbean Live Sand. I also used Saltwater Biozyme and Stability to ensure the fastest cycle time. Keeping in mind that only bad things happen fast, I will only add livestock once I have evidence that a cycle occurred and even then I will add very cautiously.

The main physical conversion consisted of plumbing the Top Fathom Skimmer back into the pump (as pictures below). In an effort to make this easily removable without getting drenched, I added 2 ball valves on the output – one before and one after the union. Since plumbing is not my best skill, this took quite a while longer than I had anticipated.

Despite less than perfect water test reading over the last three weeks, today Brandon and I set out to ATM of Las Vegas to bring a water sample to Jacque. We were both ecstatic to find out that the tank had cycled and it was a good time to hire some additional members of the cleaning crew and bring home Nemo, who was on hold for over a month. In addition to Nemo, Brandon and I picked out about 8 more small pieces of live rock to add to the reef system. We also fell in love with two types of coral, a Favia (Closed Brain Coral) and 2 small pieces of Mushroom Coral (purple / blue).
Continue reading…

Despite the growth of a velvet looking Coraline algae, we were a bit disappointed to learn that the tank was not ready to add additional lifeforms. In addition to being a bit over-salted, there was a substantial reading of ammonia. Therefore, we replaced 4 gallons of the saltwater with RO filtered water and are forced to leave it for a few more days. It is noteworthy to point out; however, that the type of algae in this marine tank is actually attractive and many different colors. This is quite a dramatic change from the plant life we see form in the freshwater tanks.