MASRQ

Paul's tank

I set up this tank in June 2005 after having run a 6 foot reef tank for 5 years. The cost of electricity and changing family priorities led me to conclude that I could perhaps do more with less and hence I opted for a 3 foot corner tank. My choice of this tank shape was primarily due to the large volume of corner shaped tanks which is offset by their small footprint in terms of taking up space. This was the largest volume tank (380 L) that I could effectively light with one hallide pendant (my 6 foot tank held 650 L and used three 400W fixtures). I figured that my existing Tunze kit would really push some water in the smaller tank and the skimmer would do a great job on the smaller volume, thus hopefully creating an ideal setup orientated towards keeping highly coloured SPS corals.

The tank has been set up as a bare bottom with starboard used on the base to protect the bottom glass. I used about 40 kg of live rock and took a lot of care to assemble the rock to minimise its footprint on the tank floor. In essence I tried to design a sloping table that would give a large platform for mounting SPS frags whilst remaining open underneath to allow good circulation.

A 40mm hole was drilled in the rear corner of the tank and a wier installed. I have set up a durso standpipe in the wier to prevent gurgling noises from the overflow. The sump is basic in design. I have a small sandbed (volume 15 L) in one half of the sump tank positioned behind a glass divider. This bed is further split in two with another glass divider. The idea behind this is that each year I can remove the sand on one side and replace it so that the sand in either side will never get older than 2 years thus hopefully preventing the reported phenomena of sand bed crashes.

I had noted over time that the best looking corals in my previous 6 foot tank were grown from small frags. These corals seemed to be brighter and looked more natural as they had grown into place. So for my new tank I decided to mostly use frags for all of my SPS most of which were fragments taken from specimens out of my old 6 foot tank. A couple of larger LPS specimens also came from my old tank. Whilst the tank looked visibly "empty" during the first 12 months, it is now beginning to bloom into a diverse slice of reef

 

At a glance...

Tank dimensions	380 litres ( 84 gal.) - 90cm W x 90cm D x 60cm H, (3 foot Corner tank) Starfire glass front and sides. D.I.Y. sump 40 litres (9-gal.) with externally mounted Aquamedic 3500 Ocean Runner
Water movement	Tunze Stream 24 kit on 7094 Multicontroller set to 6 hours tides and the return flow from 3500 Ocean Runner.
Lighting	3 x 24 watt Actinic T5 bulbs driven by HO ballasts. Actinics on at 11:00 and off at 22:00 1 x 400 watt DE Hamilton 14K bulb mounted in an Icecap Pendant and driven by an Icecap 400W electronic ballast. Hallide on at 13:00 and off at 21:30
Equipment	Aqua C 240 Foam Jet Skimmer driven by an externally mounted Ocean Runner 6500 pump. 2 x 6100 Tunze Stream pumps run by a 7024 multi-controller for 6 hour tide action (12000 L/hr). Korallin 4001C Calcium reactor packed with Aquamedic reactor media. Teco TR 2000 chiller connected via the return pump to the sump. 4 stage RODI unit (350 L/day). This unit produces water with a TDS<3ppm. The TDS of our mains water is >450. Pure water is stored in a 120 L reservoir. Tunze osmolotor used to pump RODI water from the storage tank to the sump.
Water parameters	Temperature: ~ 26.5° C Specific Gravity: ~ 1.026 pH: ~ 8.4 (day), ~ 8.15 (night) Calcium: 380 - 400 ppm Alkalinity: 9.6 - 10.0 dKH Magnesium: 1250 - 1350 ppm PO4: 0.01ppm NO3: 0 ppm
Fish	Cherub and Flame angels, yellow tang, lawnmower blenny, royal gramma and a pair of long nosed hawkfish.
Small-Polyped Scleractinian Corals:	Montipora capricornis, Montipora sp. Pocillopora damicornis, Seriatopora hystrix, Seriatopora pistillata, Acropora millepora, Acropora formosa, Acropora nobilis, Acropora cerealis, Acropora gemmifera, Acropora sp.
Large-Polyped Scleractinian Corals:	Euphyllia sp., Tubastrea sp., Favia sp., Duncansamia sp. Tubinaria sp. Other sessile invertebrates include clams: Tridacna maxima and T. squamosa. Capnella sp., Xenia and Anthelia sp.

More pictures (click on the thumbnails for a larger view)