After three years ... and lots of your help ...

friendlyAlien · #1 10/23/2007, 06:47 PM

Hi,

It has been a long time since I have posted any updates. Life has been pretty busy with our baby and the reef room madness project (for those of you that remember).

Now a year after I completed the project and my display tank (90 gallon) got a backup of 400 gallon and the summer hair algae is over I think it is time to share with all of you where things stand.

You all helped me a lot and i never imagined I would get the system into this state:

I also have a few hilights for you ...

The coral in the left back is about the size of a football ... it started as a little half inch piece from a member I got from a member of this forum ... today I throw out tennis ball size pieces every month to keep it from taking over the tank ...

The next is the center piece of the tank. The colors I can't get right with my camera it seems - these are some spectacular colors though and the corals are growing. I am particularly fond of the sponge that grows under the blue tipped coral ...

So what was the trick for me you ask? For starters, the massive water volume makes things so much easier ... I have a deep sand bed (with gravel not sand) - not sure whether it helps - it sure doesn't hurt. Also, I overskim and I grow about 40 different (mostly hard) algae and chetae in the sumps (no fish in the "sumps") and have massive water movement. All algae grew out of the huge amount of liferock I use as the main filter.

Here two pictures of the "sump":

I struggled a lot in the beginning ... but thanks to all of you, your hints, your patience and your support I am now owner of a reef aquarium that needs hardly any maintenance and grows substantial amount of corals.

PCIALF · #2 10/23/2007, 06:50 PM

Nice Setup!!

Great Job!!

Conesus_Kid · #3 10/23/2007, 07:18 PM

That is a very impressive display and sump system.

Your hard work has paid off!

I only hope mine looks half as good three years from now!

Namyar · #4 10/23/2007, 08:15 PM

very nice great work on the set up

tmz · #5 10/24/2007, 12:46 AM

Nice job makes me want to get a bigger sump.

KurtsReef · #6 10/24/2007, 05:45 AM

Cool. would be interested in seeing some more shots of inside the sump and sump area. It looks like more than algae's growing in there, whats the sump lit with?

friendlyAlien · #7 10/24/2007, 06:57 AM

Kurt, you are correct. There are a few corals in the "sump" as well. Stuff that I had no room for anymore in the display.

There are maybe 8 hard corals and a bunch of devils hands that grow between the algae.

It also is the home of my elegance coral which grew to big in the display.

It also is home to a typical cleanup crew.

The majority of the flat "sump" is overgrown looking like this

Here a bad shot of a close-up of the coral side of it:
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...mp1closeup.jpg

The second sump is nothing but water volume, life rock, and a bug clump of chatae which gets halved about every two weeks for nutrient export.

Besides hitchhikers and a handful of snails no other life in here.

As for light, there are 2 x 250 W MH blasting into the flat "sump" and 1 x 250 W MH into the big sump.

mark fanara · #8 10/24/2007, 12:48 PM

very nice...is that a big gorg. in the front?

friendlyAlien · #9 10/24/2007, 01:39 PM

Yep, blue gorgonian ... this was a frag (1/2") from Jarek actually that grew into this monster gorg.

Gary Majchrzak · #10 10/24/2007, 06:49 PM

I'm impressed with this aquarium. Is the photoperiod on your sumps/refugia on a reverse lighting schedule?
What foods do you feed the aquarium (if any)?

friendlyAlien · #11 10/24/2007, 08:08 PM

Gary,

thank you! This means a lot to me as you are one of the people I learned a lot from. Many things in this aquarium you partially shaped with your hints, opinions and discussions.

The lights are on from 10am to 10pm both in the main display and the sumps/refugia. PH ranges from 7.9 to 8.2 (night to day).

I always wanted to try reverse lighting but then my rule of not changing a workign system stops me short of actually doing it. Besides the hair algae outbreak once in a while it seems to be very happy after all.
(My current theory on hair algae is that it needs both water temperature of 80 degrees (summer) plus running out of CO2 in the calcium reactor and hence low hardness for a day or two make it happen).

As for feeding, I only feed the display (the fish and whatever lurks) with a good amount of flakes and/or cyclopeeze most every day.

My theory and hope is that most feeding for the corals and critters comes from the life in the algaes, the deep sand bed and liferock ... Obviously I can't proof that ... I still want to claim that it true and and important piece of this architecture :-)

Gary Majchrzak · #12 10/24/2007, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by friendlyAlien
I always wanted to try reverse lighting but then my rule of not changing a workign system stops me short of actually doing it.

this is a good rule to stick to.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Good for you- it's obvious that your research is paying off.
You've given me sump envy

KurtsReef · #13 10/25/2007, 07:45 AM

If there is ever a time your return pump is off and the flow is stopped in the sump would be interested in even more shots of your sump.

Is that the overflow sticking up (The PVC)?

friendlyAlien · #14 10/25/2007, 08:29 AM

Kurt,

I'll try to create some better pictures early next week.

As for the overflow - yes that is exactly what it is. What you see is basically a 35$ horse trough (spelling?) I drilled a hole in the bottom and that is where the pvc pipe comes through (with bulkhead, etc).