Tank of the month - January 2003

[Skipper]

This month we are featuring Susan Wilson's (Flame*Angel) awesome 120 gallon reef tank:

<center>http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-01/totm/images/tank-stand.jpg (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-01/totm/index.htm)</center>

More details can be found here (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-01/totm/index.htm) or by clicking on the picture above.

Congratulations, Susan! U go, girl! :)

[K. Lee]

Wow. With the Ca and dKH levels, I'd think there would be a lot more coralline algae. I love coralline algae. :)

The acros and clams look very nice!

[Achilles]

Congratulations girl!!

You're featured as Tank of the Month! Well done!

You have also been helpful to many of us in phytoculturing and you deserve this!!! :)

Happy New Year!

Achilles

[crumbdav]

F*A

I thoroughly enjoyed your webpage. Im not sure my boss woulda though! :smokin:
Extremely informative, and not to mention functional and down right good lookin!

Oh.. and the reef isn't bad either! ;)

Thank you for giving us something to aspire to!

Best,

[JazzMan]

She should win Website of the month as well!!!

:D ;)

[ROBZ]

Congratulations! great job.:)

[icebear]

STUNNING!

I need to check out your website with the singing(?) coral when i get home, i don't have sound here and i want to hear it...is it singing or talking?


Your tank is beautiful, and your phytoplankton culture system is very interesting....:)

[Squidman]

Congratulations Flame Angel. Is your copperband still getting along with your clams? I want one of those but I'm a bit nervous as my clams are my favorite inhabitants. My cousin just got a CBB that ate ALL of his SPS and LPS before he caught it. :mad:

[mia1974]

Hi Susan!!

I didn't even see this when I PM'ed you earlier!! Congrats on a very well deserved honor :D I think your persistance and diligence with regards to your husbandry methods show immediately when people see your website. You have a beautiful tank and the animals are some of the most well cared for out there!

Take care,
J

PS: I also really love your maximas...I am hoping mine will grow up like that someday :)

[Flame*Angel]

Thanks guys. I'm all big in the head today. This is a huge honor for me. I just had to go and slap that award sticker on my site right away :)

icebear - the tubastrea is talking, it has a very important message! :)

Squidman - I was worried about my clams too but so far so good. I've watched this copperband eat aiptasia right off the clams shells and he's never once harmed a clam or coral.

[MtnDewMan]

Susan,

I knew deep down that you would get this honor someday, as it is a well deserved honor for you. Your tank is awesome, I have always admired it. From the setup in your basement to your beautiful furniture that surrounds the tank. Awesome is the only word I can use.

I love that head on shot of the copperband in the article, so cool. I hope mine continues to do well.

Again, well deserved tank of the month ... You show us all how things are done right and with well planned designs where the research really shines through. Keep up the great reef experience and continue to share your experiences with us.

Chuck

[BarryF]

Congrats Susan! I was hoping that your tank would be featured soon. I really enjoy visiting your webpage. The daily journals / monthly picture updates are incredible.

Keep up the good work!

[Playfair]

Congrats, Susan!
Your reef is progressing wonderfully!
Your positive, enthusiastic attitude even during the minor "set backs" is an inspiration to us all!

[rbaker]

Susan,

Congratulations!!! I knew it was only a matter of time before your tank was selected for TOTM. I have been following your tank (and website:)) since I joined RC and have really enjoyed your progress. I think the way you have researched and planned every aspect of your system should be posted in the "new to the hobby" section as a blueprint for a successful reef.

Congrats and keep up the great reefing,

Ryan

[dc]

Yes, I agree with everyone else. So much deserved. Your tank and site are totally amazing! Truely wonderful.:D

[Rock Anemone]

I knew you'd get it sooner or later! Gongradulations on a beautiful colorful reef and an amazing proffesional site!

Keep up the AWSOME work, I always admire your reef and try to accomplish what you've done, which will never in my wildest dreams happen.

I love the 2 piles and the way they creep up, very creative!

You should think about adding a guestbook to your website! :)

Rock Anemone:D

[melev]

Susan, exactly how many times have you won TOTM? :lolspin:

Very, very deserving imho. I started visiting your site about 6 months ago, and was fascinated by the detail and the information. Hundreds of pictures to look through gave me many reasons to come back over and over again.

Btw, I dropped in a blue damsel in my tank yesterday, to see if it would work on the flatworm population. I"ll let you know if that ends up being true. :)

[JSC]

Beautifull tank!

[Eve]

Indeed a well-deserved honor. You give your reef a lot of time and attention and it shows in your results.

Thanks also for walking me through phyto culturing when I got started!

Eve:cool:

[organicreefer]

see ,even girls can do it:p

sweet aquascape.love the lagoon with lps and the reef column with sps.
its only gonna get better -keep it up:)

[Beach Native]

Beautiful Tank.

I really like the way you've gotten it where it is without making it look like the usual "wall of rock"!

[NorthCoast]

Susan, Congrats!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Your tank (and you) set a fine example of why this hobby is wonderful in so many ways!

Later,
NC

[Rock Anemone]

I can't get any of the pictures on her site to load anymore... All it does it say, "Loading Photos..." but it never does anything.

All the photos used to work for me.

I have Internet Explorer and it's COX Communication.

Rock Anemone:(

[melev]

Originally posted by Rock Anemone
I can't get any of the pictures on her site to load anymore... All it does it say, "Loading Photos..." but it never does anything.

All the photos used to work for me.

I have Internet Explorer and it's COX Communication.

Rock Anemone:(

Well, that really blows.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. :D Btw, Susan there does seem to be a problem. The "Next" button doesn't seem to work on your photo pages (I tried 'photo archives' as well as the 'tank construction' sections).

[LisaP]

Susan,

What a great choice for 'Tank of the Month'. It's so very well deserved :celeb1:

I regularly visit your web-site to find out the latest developments in your tank. I feel that I know your tank almost as well as I know my own now :D

Excellent job!!

Regards

Lisa

[scubadude]

Kudos Girl! You have worked very hard to get where you are today!

Hey its been a while since I been to your sight, and you never cease to amaze me, even w/a splash of humor too LMAO the talking tubastrea are hilarious! One question though, I noticed your phyto station has really increased in size and you say that you are feeding your tank alot of it now, wouldnt you attribute your flatworm infestation to that? I realize you are probably on a catch 22 w/ high demands for the tubastrea though.

[Flame*Angel]

Thanks for all the congratulations. I've been through a lot with my tank and this really means a lot to me.

scubadude - yup, you hit the nail on the head. It took me a while to conclude that live plankton (phyto, rotifers, baby brine shrimp) feeds flatworms but it definitely does. I've very recently shut down my culturing temporarily until I solve the flatworm problem. I'm target feeding some corals golden pearls to keep them going in the meantime. So far, so good. I WILL get past this!

My web site is a bit of an experiment. It's built with Flash but uses cgi scripts to talk to a database so that I can update it easily by just uploading text files and photos. It seems to work for 99% of people but now and then I come across someone who can't get my little photo viewer app to work. I haven't been able to find a bug but it would really help if you can't use the next button to flip through the photos to let me know:
- MAC or PC
- Browser and version
- Operating system (windows 98, windows me, windows xp ...)
- Does the text change when you hit the next button
One person who had trouble reinstalled his flash player at www.macromedia.com and everything worked fine.

[Rock Anemone]

All the amazing flash works but the pictures and text.

I'm using Internet Exporer, XP and no, I can't see any of the text when I hit the next button etx. It does tell me the number of the photo that should be there.

I can see the talking coral and stuff just fine.

Rock Anemone:D

[gregmoeck]

Nice Tank, but what are you going to do about the aptasia issue. I have nightmares about aptasia and hair

[Flame*Angel]

gregmoeck - My aiptasia is no longer an issue thanks to my copperband butterfly. Hair algae was taken care of by my long spined diadema urchin.

Rock Anemone - You are using the most popular browser/OS combination there is. Others with the same setup have no problem viewing the photos on my site. It's flash programming that calls the photos. Unless you're behind a really strict firewall that won't allow access to my cgi scripts I suspect something is screwy with your flash player. If you click on this link:
http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&P5_Language=English
and hit the INSTALL NOW button it will automatically install the newest version of the flash player.

[Mushroom Boy]

Your system is fabulous Susan! I really like your sump room. It's given me some great ideas for when I relocate my tank to my basement. Keep up the GREAT work!!!

Paul.

[Rock Anemone]

Hey, thanks for the help Flame*Angel but, it still didn't work... :'( Hmmm...

Rock Anemone:(

[Mad Scientist]

Congrats Flame*Angel! Great looking reef.


So, you've had good luck with your urchin? It eats hair algae, what about coraline? Do you feed it (sea-weed selects for example) anything? Has it grown and has it bothered any corals?

Thanks

[Flame*Angel]

Mad Scientist - Thanks. No regrets about my diadema urchin at all. I got him when I was getting a fair amount of hair algae and he's kept my tank clear of it ever since. It took him a little while to get started but it went pretty quickly once he did. I haven't had to feed him yet but I keep Nori on a clip for the fish and a couple times I've noticed him at it. I think he just goes for it if there's nothing else to eat. He's active every night and, although he has knocked over a couple unattached corals, he hasn't caused any trouble. Once the new corals were attached there were no further problems. I've seen him clean algae off the side of a clams shell without bothering the clam even. He does eat coralline but not at a great enough rate, it seems he actually helps spread it around the tank really.

[jersey]

Congratulations on TOTM, well deserved and long over due. I really love the cabinet. Your website rocks.

Bob

[nk57]

Congratulations Susan! Your tank is beautiful.. The talking coral though at 6 am kinda blew my mind. Who does their voice overs?


Nancy

[Mad Scientist]

Thanks!

[Flame*Angel]

Thanks Nancy. I did the voices myself first but they all sounded the same. I got my 13 year old son to give it a try and we really had a lot of fun with it. His were much better than mine.

[RonN]

Susan,

Just AWESOME

Ron

[Zoom]

Congratulations, you have amazing looking reef tank:eek2: :eek1: :eek2: :eek1: :eek1: :eek2: :eek1: :eek2: :eek1: :eek2: :D

[zimmy]

Excellent Tank and nice website. Don't be ashamed of getting that "big head" you talked about. You deserve it. Much hard work and education pays off everytime!!! Man O' Live would I like to have that much equipment to play with...oops I mean to help my tank out even more. Super Duper!

I am wondering about your lighting though. It seems to me that your actinics block much of the halides light. Have you found that this has become a factor since you lowered your actinics? The tank doesn't seem to mind from the beautiful looks of things. Just wondering. Keep up the good work and keep us posted.

zimmy

[Flame*Angel]

zimmy - I used to have my actinics mounted in the top of my canopy, about 12-14" above the water. There were two behind the halides and two in front so they didn't block any light. I just found they were ineffective this high up. The tank looked too yellow to me with the 65k Iwasaki halide bulbs. After moving them down the tank looks a more natural colour and I've seen no signs of anything suffering from a lack of light.

[David P]

I am not surpirsed you won. Perhaps surprised it took this long, congrats.

[monster]

Great tank and setup. Was it difficult to place the plumbing into the basement?

[Flame*Angel]

monster - once I got the hole cut it was as easy as just making the tubes from the tank longer. The hole doesn't actually go through the floor directly. I didn't want to cut right into the hardwood so I cut through the little partition wall beside the stand and then through the floor inside the wall. That was a bit tricky.

Having the sump in a little room in the basement is great though. I have lots of room for the equipment, can make lots of mess and not have to worry about noise. To cool the tank I can just put a couple big old cheap fans right over the sump - works great and who cares how it looks or how much noise the fans make. I made the sump room able to hold water which has been tested successfully on many occasions *sigh*

[wastwage]

Susan please respond to your emails .:)

[Flame*Angel]

westwage - I don't think I have any unanswered emails. Could you resend?

[wastwage]

Ok thanks Just resent it through your web page. Casey

[Reef Man]

Congrats Susan !!!

Please, take a look over here too !!!!!

http://archive.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&postid=962554#post962554

Nice tank !!!

[Flame*Angel]

Reef Man - thanks for pointing out the other forum. I hadn't checked it and didn't realize there were questions there. I'll respond to them now. Sorry about that.

[charvel]

Very nice !!

[Rigger]

BEATIFUL TANK!! and I love the basement setup. Judging by the other posts this honor was long overdue, congrats. :cool:


Great Website

[Flame*Angel]

Rigger - Thanks and Welcome to Reef Central. You've just joined the best message board on the net!

[raspberry]

I have followed your tank via your web-site, and hopefully I will be able to mimic your success with culturing, clams and control.

Again, well done.

[karl wagner]

The tank is great and all, but the live CULTURE layout is awesome.

Rotifers, phytoplankton, brine shrimp. That's what makes this so special. We gotta talk because I want to set up something like that. I'll be emailing you.

Great job, I really mean it. You've had some serious issues with this tank and for you not to give up shows real dedication to the hobby. I bet all that frustration work pays off everytime you log onto the RC board this month.

Where do you go from here though?
This is it, the pinnacle of reef hobby fame.

What's in store for Flame Angel?

Retirement? Another Tank? Consulting?

[abraham]

Man, I love your tank! I like the layout. It looks like you very specifically set all of your corals etc. with a specific look in mind before you ever put anything in. Did you sketch out what design you where thinking of first? It's not just a big pile! Very cool. Great job.:D

[Flame*Angel]

Yeah, I've finally found something where being stubborn, uh, I mean persistent, is a good thing :) What's next? beating the darned flatworms hopefully! Seriously, since I've been in this hobby it's never once left me without a challenge. I hope some day, when I have more experience, to be able to set up a very large tank that will allow me to keep some of the larger fish I admire but for now my reef keeps me occupied.

Yeah, I actually did sketch out my rock formations before hand. When the rock finally arrived I ended up making some compromises because somehow they didn't send the exact size and shaped pieces I drew but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I need to set up a closed loop spraybar in the back though - not quite enough circulation behind the rocks.

I've walked quite a few people through setting up phytoplankton cultures through email so I made up a printer-friendly step-by-step set of instructions a while ago:
http://www.sjwilson.net/reef/phytosteps.html

[JonK]

Congrats Susan!!!

Beautiful tank and with your help I have started my own phyto cultures and hopefully rotifer cultures as well. I had to play your talking sun coral about 10 times in a row (my kids couldn't stop laughing) :D

[cisco]

Absolutely a wonderfull creation Flame.
your tank set up is great and I love the hole set up down the basement, hope you get to make your bigger tank in the future.
well done
cisco:smokin:

[JB NY]

Susan,

congratulations on the TOTM!! You've put tremendous thought and effort into the setup and maintenance of the tank and it shows. Good luck in the future!!

[FishinGriffin]

nice tank!!!

[golf nut]

Great Tank!!

Wonderful web site, full of information

Congratulations!!!

Paul

[Flame*Angel]

Thanks guys. I've really enjoyed my Tank of the Month month.

golf nut - I just checked your site. Beautiful tank! I really love the way you bowed your whole stand like that. Incredible rockwork and an amazing variety of corals! Tell us more about your system? How long has this tank been set up?

[filishy]

Susan...

CONGRATULATIONS! I mean it! I have been following your tank for a very long time now. As you know, one day, I'll have a tank of my own and I know that your experience will help me a lot. I believe, like others, that you deserve this for your patience, your discipline and your step by step approach. It is belief that your way, is the way this hobby should be practiced.

In any case, hope your reef keeps growing and thriving.

I hope that when I grow up (meaning, when I finally have the money to establish my reef...), mine will turn up just as good as yours.

Again... Congratulations! :thumbsup:

Mary.

[RIVERROBSKI]

awesome,but I have 1 no 2 questions.Do you have a life and do you have a job. I know my little 55 gal takes alot.very very very nice.

[Flame*Angel]

filishy - hang in there. I spent over a year researching before adding water but it also took this long to get my stand built and pay for the equipment. It was worth it though, just to be able to start out with good equipment.

RIVERROBSKI - I figured someone would ask me this at some point. I do have a job, I do freelance web design but I work from home and my tank is next to my office so I can see it quite easily from my desk. Unfortunately my fish can see me too and when it gets close to a feeding time they all gather at the end nearest me and start begging. One day my copperband butterfly is going to knock himself out on the glass trying to get my attention :) My work takes a LOT of time but being a single mother and an obsessive reefer I'm very lucky I don't have to drive to an office somewhere to do it. I have long since lost the concept of 9-5/Monday-Friday.

Working from home not only means I'm here for my son when he gets home from school but I can also feed my fish regularly and fuss over every little thing I perceive could be a problem in my tank or jump up and take a picture when something is looking particularly good. My work arrangement takes discipline and dedication but then so does my tank. It's not for everyone but it works for me.

Do I have a life? You bet - I wouldn't have it any other way.