120

[happysak]

Jeff, You did a great job.

[jeeperrs]

Thanks happy. It means a lot when a professional such as yourself gives a compliment :-D

[BrackishBoi]

It just gets better and better, more colourful and more alive everytime I look at it I notice something new to mezmerize me

[jeeperrs]

This is my quick tank write-up. I will submit it when i can get a bunch of good close up pictures of the livestock.

Introduction

I have always been fascinated by marine life. Growing up I had several freshwater tanks but was never able to afford a saltwater aquarium. About a year ago I decided to take the plunge into the hobby since I was finally stable enough to afford and have the time for a marine tank. I currently have a 120-gallon display tank with a 40-gallon sump. Through the last year I started with a smaller tank and accumulated everything I would need for what I wanted to end up with, which is the 120.

Aquarium Profile

The aquarium is an All Glass Aquarium 120 gallon tank. The tank has two built in megaflows, allowing for 1200 gph in overflow. The tank is connected to a 40-gallon sump with a modified refugium built in. The sump was a DIY project and a great learning experience.

Lighting

The lighting is a 48-inch Outer Orbit T5 fixture. The outer orbit consists of 4 x T5 54 watt actinic bulbs and 2 x 150 watt 10,000 k MH bulbs. This lighting system works great in both the 75 and 120. The actinic bulbs are on from 9:30 a.m. – 9:30 p.m. and the MH bulbs are on from 12:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. The refugium has a 14 inch 9,000 k compact that is run from the time I wake up till I go to bed.

Water Movement

My tank has a lot of movement inside. A Mag 12 powers the dual overflows. The overflows are run near the maximum 1,200 gph. Two number 3 and two number 2 Koralia powerheads are also constantly moving water. All together the water movement in the tank is about 4,100 gph. Having this much movement can be a challenge in placement of soft corals. However, to this point I have not had any coral appear to be stressed by the high amount of water movement in the tank.

Filtration

I currently have about 150 lbs of live rock and 60 lbs of sand. The reason I don’t have more sand is because I did no place any under the rocks. All the sand in the tank is in front of the rocks to prevent the rocks from shifting and falling, or dead spots from forming. My skimmer is a Turboflotor 1000 Multi. I decided on this skimmer because my initial 75 gallon tank did not use a sump. I knew I would upgrade to a larger tank with a sump and needed a skimmer that could still be used after the upgrade. I now have my skimmer in the sump where it is skimming 24 hours a day. In the sump I also use carbon in the bubble box, next to the drain tubes.

Maintenance

The skimmer cup is cleaned about every 3-4 days. I clean all pumps and the skimmer about every 4-5 months in a vinegar/water solution. Doing this simple maintenance makes a huge difference in the performance of the skimmer and pumps; I recommend everyone do this a little more often. I do between 5-10% water changes every week. If I am doing a 5% I will do that twice in one week (I don’t use this method to often). I also run a Tunze osmolator to keep the salinity stable. After the upgrade to the 120 I realized evaporation was going to be a much bigger problem. My salinity prior to the osmolator would fluctuate between 1.025-1.028 in just one day’s time. The osmolator adds about 2 – 2.5 gallons of water each day.

Fish

The fish I currently have has changed a great deal from my initial plan. The Mandarin fish is what really pulled me into the hobby. Since I want a Mandarin, the fish I currently have were all picked so that the Mandarin a good environment.

2 x Amphiprion ocellaris (Ocellaris Clown)
1 x Salarias faciatus (Lawnmower Blenny)
1 x Gramma loreto (Royal Gramma)
1 x Bodianus bimaculatus (Two spot hogfish)
1 x Ecsenius stigmatura (Tailspot blenny)


Coral

The coral is mixed with soft and SPS corals

1 x ORA neon green toadstool
1 x ORA blue
1 x ORA green
1 x Frogspawn
1 x Colt Coral
1 x Blue w/ brown skit zoas
1 x watermelon zoas
1 x purple with green center start polyps
1 x green start polyps
1 x Pink Birds Nest
1 x Orange Montipora


Invertebrates

Lots of different types of snails
4 x red leg Hermit crabs
2 x Fighting Conchs
1 x Bubble Tip Anemone
1 x Lysmata amboinensis (Cleaner shrimp)

Feeding

I try to make sure that the diet is varied. I rotate between brine, mysis, finely chopped krill, and plankton for the carnivores. For the omnivores/herbivores I offer seaweed sheets and a couple of frozen foods for herbivores and omnivores. I dose the entire tank with DTs and cyclo-peeze, alternating the two every other day for the corals. The fish all seem to really enjoy the cyclo-peeze as well and I count that as a feeding for the fish too. I try to feed the fish a small amount two times a day. Normally this is about ¼ of a frozen cube per feeding.


Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Aquariums in Edmond and Premier Aquatics in Tulsa for all their help. I would also like to thank COMAS for the endless information the club offers. All their help has enabled me to enjoy a spectacular saltwater reef. This is something I would not have been able to accomplish with my own limited knowledge 2 years ago.

[happysak]

Jeff, you should do tank write-up on COMAS website.

[jeeperrs]

That is why I typed all that up. I just need to find someone with a good camera so I can take some good pictures to go with the write up

[richieb]

Jeff,

The new tank looks great, and I really enjoyed the details on your writeup. I have a 30 gal and I am preparing to make a sump for my 75, going to have to temporarily brace it , take out the middle support to get it in. Great job

richie

[jeeperrs]

Thanks richie. You should start a thread so we can watch yours develop. Who knows, maybe you will have a great idea that will inspire someone else

[pwhitby]

Thats good Jeff...

Can anyone help Jeff with a set of pictures so we can this loaded onto the COMAS website?

[Travis L. Stevens]

Jeff, I can come by one afternoon and take pictures for you if you would like. I'm not the greatest, but we could take a couple hundred and keep the ones you like.

[jeeperrs]

That would be just fine. My little pocket size fugi is just not great at taking close-ups. When I do take one it is almost ALWAYS blurry. I will be out of town this Thurs-Tues with my family but we can get together after that.

[Travis L. Stevens]

Just send me a PM when you're ready for me to come over.

[pwhitby]

btw............ive already added the write up in the featured tanks section:

Mycomas>reef notes> Featured tanks.

[jeeperrs]

Well I have some sad news today. I was feeding my fish and doing my usual head count. After a short bit I realized I was missing one of my favorite fish. After much looking around then tank I felt something hard at the edge of my toe. Yes, it was a dried firefish resting at my toe. I guess I need to buy some more egg create for my 120. I had it on my 75 but thought I would be fine not having it on the 120. Looks like I was wrong on that one ha-ha. The funeral will be tomorrow around 6 a.m. when the trash man comes. I hate having expensive things die ha-ha

In memory of Mr. Flames

[mskohl]

Man, sorry about that. I like those fish too.

[Travis L. Stevens]

Sorry to hear that. Sonya scared our Six Line out of the tank last night while cleaning the glass. We're lucky we saw him jump and got to immediately put it back in the tank.

[jeeperrs]

As sad as it is that he died, I am glad that it did not die due to poor husbandry on my part. I am sure I will get another firefish but I want to try to make some kind of barrier around the top of the tank to maybe try to prevent this. However, that may not work either as Paul W. has mentioned that some fish jump not just a couple inches but can jump a couple feet.

[Travis L. Stevens]

Oh yes. That six line landed a good two feet away after ricocheting off the back wall. You could either cut some eggcrate to lay flat on top of your tank, or even some eggcrate to dangle off the back of your canopy (you did have a canopy right? I forgot)

[jeeperrs]

No, I don't really like canopies. so I don't have one

[happysak]

Sorry to hear about your fish, Jeff. I hope, you will not get "jumping out fish " curse

[jeeperrs]

So instead of spending my vacation money during my vacation, I spent it on my tank when I got back ha-ha. These are "sky palys". They have a incredible blue center with a red skirt. The pics are not very good but you can see how big they are already. From what I have read, the coloration is kind of rare. When they grow out of control I will be fragging them for some lucky people

[jeeperrs]

Oh, they were all taken under actinic lights but the last two pictures had the flash on. The flash is why there is so much "white light" in the pictures causing the reds to look more brown.

[Little Bitty]

Hopefully I am one of the "lucky" ones that gets a frag

[Travis L. Stevens]

Very pretty.

[jeeperrs]

My BTA was looking AMAZING this morning. It has been really bubbled up lately so I took a few shots under the actinics and MH lights. It is nice to see that my BTA still will bubble up and how big the bubbles can be If you like my BTA I noticed aquariums has one just like it.