Tank photos, finally! -- LOTS of photos!

xcreonx · #1 04/26/2007, 10:43 PM

So I figured my tank is finally ready to be seen in public.

I moved to Austin a year ago from Florida. Back in FL I had a 180g mixed reef, a 90g sps and a 50g frag tank. Obviously these would have been a tremendous pain in the *** to move 1200 miles, not to mention impossible to setup in a 3rd floor apt.

I considered a 40g breeder as a new tank. I like the dimensions of the 40, but I was looking for something better. I designed a custom tank and had Miracles In Glass out of Canada build it. It is a 35g (18x24x18) with 1/2" Starfire panels and euro bracing. There is an external overflow on the back with 2x 1" drains.

I had the horrible task of getting rid of about 80% of my livestock before moving... corals, fish, inverts, equipment, etc. After a big aquarium garage sale, I was down to an acceptable amount.

The move went well, only lost a bubble coral. I triple-bagged everyone in 4mil bags. Since you cannot get oxygen in FL without a prescription, I went to a dive shop and got the most O2-saturated bottle of Nitrox I could find. For those who dive regularly, you know what Nitrox is. I found a bottle with 42% O2 and used that to inflate the bags. Then into coolers and a 19 hour drive straight through to Austin.... FUN!

Onto the photographs:

It's hard to see but there are two separate rocks here. There's a valley right behind the Kenya Tree and Elegance that runs to the back.

xcreonx · #2 04/26/2007, 10:44 PM

Livestock: ( I'll use common names so everyone can enjoy :P )

*** It should be noted that it was my intention to create an Indo-Pacific biotope. All of the livestock were researched to try and fit this criteria.

Fish
Copperband Butterfly - Have had for over 3 years
Blue Devil Damsel - Have had for over 4.5 years and she's been through alot.
Spotted Cardinal - 3 yeas
Bi Color Blenny - 3 years

Tomato Clown living in the fuge until I find a suitable home.

Inverts
Zebra Turbo Snails
Nassarius Snails
Astrea Snails
Banded Trochus Snails
1 Blue-leg hermit
1 red-leg hermit
1 Sea Hare
1 Mated pair of Harlequin Shrimp

Corals

LPS
Elegance
Frogspawn
Hammer
Jasmine / Fox

Softies
Anthelia
Neospongodes
Rhodactis
Zoanthids
Kenya Tree
Various Sinularias
Finger Leathers
Devils hand leather
cabbage leather
a mushroom or two hangin around

About 80lbs of live sand ( around 5" of sandbed)
30lbs or so of live rock from my old tank.

More photos:
Various leathers mixed in with Neospongodes and Anthelia

You can see the different colors of Neospongodes in the right-center of this shot.

I think this is a kind of Lemnalia

xcreonx · #3 04/26/2007, 10:45 PM

Closeup of Neospongodes

Pink Anthelia I am training to grow up the back wall.

An Elegance

Another Elegance shot

Frogspawn (VERY metallic green in person. Photo does not capture right)

A Sarcophyton I have cut the crown off and fragged many many times

A different species of Sarcophyton

Blue Damsel that's been with me for a long time

xcreonx · #4 04/26/2007, 10:46 PM

Metallic green Rhodactis - Hairy mushroom

Sarcophytons

Female Harlequin Shrimp

I tried to aquascape so there's a space in the back of the tank too. This is the left side.

And the right side

xcreonx · #5 04/26/2007, 10:47 PM

Lastly, Equipment

The stand is built from 2" tubular steel and individual Birch panels held on with magnets. This enable complete access to every part of the sump area.

Water is moved by an Eheim 1262 through an Oceans Motions 4-way. There are 4 outputs in the tank.

There are two drains. One dumps into a chaeto / fuge, the other into a Deltec AP600.

I have a Redsea Ozonizer on the tank, but as you can see, the Deltec keeps the redox where it needs to be without running any ozone!

Here's a shot of the water movement on the top of the tank

The light fixture is a Sunlight Supply Teklight T5. It has 4x 24watt T5s with 3 Blue+ and 1 Aquablue bulbs. There are 2 LED moonlights as well. The sump has a screw-in PC bulb for the chaeto and 2 T5 6000k bulbs for the fuge.

Parameters

PH 8.3
ALK 8dkh
CA 380
TEMP 80 degrees
Tropic Marin Salt

Enjoy!

Hormigaquatica · #6 04/26/2007, 11:03 PM

Excellent tank man! That officially ranks as one of my favorites! It will be tough to maintain as corals grow I suppose, but if you keep up with trimming, should be OK. Nice work!

xcreonx · #7 04/26/2007, 11:08 PM

Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me of that.

These corals are much "older" than they look. They've been trimmed and trimmed and fragged and clipped for years. This is essentially a heavily manicured tank!

Thanks for the nice comments

Mojo Jojo · #8 04/26/2007, 11:16 PM

Very clean look I really like the tank

all-apologies · #9 04/26/2007, 11:21 PM

that tank is sick,

nice stand idea

Raibaru · #10 04/26/2007, 11:34 PM

How long you had the Harlequin shrimp? I want to make a small tank for a pair of them but I hear they are very difficult to keep. I love the way they look though.

Great tank.

Aquabucket · #11 04/26/2007, 11:47 PM

Beautiful cube you have there! Great mix of LPS and softies. That's one of the healthiest Fox corals I've seen in awhile! Nice job!!!

edwing206 · #12 04/26/2007, 11:57 PM

That is an awesome tank.
Very clean.

RoGeTa · #13 04/27/2007, 12:27 AM

Gorgeous.

xcreonx · #14 04/27/2007, 12:32 AM

Thanks everyone for the nice comments!

Raibaru, I've had the Harlequins for about 8 months now. I do have a healthy population of little star fish for them to eat in the tank. I will feed them a choc chip star every month or so to make sure they are well fed. It is strange to buy a beautiful star just to feed it to something, but I made the decision to support the shrimp. I also have to feed live little-neck clams to my Copperband...

Thank you everyone!

drummereef · #15 04/27/2007, 12:35 AM

Absolutely stunning tank. Very nicely done.

plyle02 · #16 04/27/2007, 12:39 AM

That is a really nice setup you have there..... Not to mention your corals seem real happy too.... Very nice tank!!!

Ritten · #17 04/27/2007, 12:50 AM

Absolutely stunning! Are those clove polyps in the back?

str8clownr · #18 04/27/2007, 01:03 AM

do you have more pics of your sump, id love to check it out..

xcreonx · #19 04/27/2007, 01:09 AM

Ritten, the corals on the back wall are Anthelia. I've been wanting clove polyps for a long time.. but they never seem to arrive in Texas.

str8clownr, I can take some clower shots tomorrow. It's a very simple sump divided with eggcrate pieces. The pump sits in its own bucket.

Again, I appreciate all of your nice comments everyone!

ccoons43 · #20 04/27/2007, 01:09 AM

very nice, Good job

tangyreefer05 · #21 04/27/2007, 01:31 AM

very nice, your setup is impressive.. Wish i had the money and smarts to do it.. someday maybe

Reef Man · #22 04/27/2007, 08:22 AM

Very nice tank !!!!

Very good for my work desk,

I want to know what your copperband eats?

Mine just aptasia and they are gone for now.

Thanks !!

nemofish2217 · #23 04/27/2007, 08:30 AM

very nice tank! what lighting are you running? it has a very calming and soothing look....

isistius · #24 04/27/2007, 09:37 AM

very very nice. looks like everything that made the move made it in great shape. thanks for sharing.

xcreonx · #25 04/27/2007, 11:51 AM

Reef Man, my Cpperband eats frozen mysis, blood worms and little-neck clams. In my old tank he ate all the Aiptasia in about 2 days,

Nemofish, for lighting I have a Teklight T5 ( 4x 24watt) fixture with 3 blue+ and 1 aquablue.

Thank you all!