[Energy]

Thank you everyone for the kind words! I obviously will miss a question here or there but will try to answer as many as possible whenever I can. Don't be offended if your questions is missed - you can also try me on a pm or e-mail.

Power consumption- This tank does not consume as much as people might expect. The average electric cost is approximately $300-$350 per month and the average cooling cost(remember this is done with tap water) is about $75 per month. I run the halides(the biggest energy hogs) about 9 hours a day but recently cut them back to 6 hours.

The Book- It's in production as we speak. It's still getting put together. In fact one of the largest home systems that will be covered, is still under construction. The tanks that we cover in the book wil have extensive information about each system. Absolutely as much as the tank owners will provide. We are going to ask everyone that is featured in the book to really cough up and share the information!!

Especially with Mike's tank and also my tank-any and everything that possibly pertains to the tank will be covered. Including any design changes that have taken place and why. If you look closely the photo's in the article, some of the fish room pictures have changed. The original design of the fish room can be seen in the picture behind me when I was sliding out the light banks(spongebob t-shirt). I removed most of that equipment and simplied it. The old layout accumulated detritus in areas that was hard to remove. The new set-up has only the basic equipment I feel absolutely neccesary in as simple a design as possible. Since the design change the overall tank conditions and water quality have improved, electrical consumption was lowered and maintenance is easier.

Furthermore if you look closely at the aquascaping the lay-out is the same but as in any reef the inhabitants have changed. Some corals have overtaken others as in any natural process.
I keep them in check to a small degree but allow the natural process to play as much a role as I do.

Clarification- the calcium reactor in the photo's is not the one I currently run. That was a three chamber experimental model Spazz and I played with briefly. My current calcium reactor was built by Reefmania and is a great product that has given me years of reliable service. I am lucky to have two great acrylic companies local to my area and I feel that needed to be clarified. My go-to guys for equipment are Spazz from Aquatic Acrylics and Bob with Reefmania.

Everybody knows Spazz's skimmers by now. I have been impressed with them since the first prototype came out and they just keep getting better and better. I know he also does calcium reactors, sumps and installations.

Bob with Reefmania does some incredible work as well. The quality is first rate from both of these guys!!!!!

Access- many seem to wonder how I get at things in the tank. Well that is why the lights slide back and the doors in the front of the tank flip up. I push the lights back and crawl in through the front. I did swim in the tank once during the intial rock placement but that was it. Everything else can be reached pretty easily. Many times I just sit on top of the tanks cross braces and work on the corals beneath me.

Really the imporant thing is initial planning and installation. As long as the system is installed correctly, maintenance should be simple and easy. My tank takes about one hour of maintenace per week if I feel like it. I would not have a system that required a lot of time. Through a lot of Trial and Error with this and other fish rooms I have built I finally have it down to a science. I know what lights to use, I know which equipment is critical and which is just BS.

I have personally experimented with much of the equipment out there. For the book I have been looking at LED lights. I don't personally own any of these yet but I would like to get my hands on a set so I could write a review and include it in the book. I want all the information in the book to be as up to date as possible and I can foresee possible advantages to this kind of lighting systems for large tank owners.

Amazingly I use very little for computer controllers. I prefer simple and easy so that anyone that walks in and looks around could figure things out after a short while. Even if they had little to no reef keeping experience.