swannyson7
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REEF SPOTLIGHT - February 2013
The Reef Aquarium of:
Mark Rosenblatt aka "Watchguy123"
You can also check out Mark's tank build here on R2R:
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/ge...99363-small-polyp-stony-branch-out-plate.html
Introduction
Wow!! I am both excited and surprised to be asked for this very cool and prestigious honor of reef2reef spotlight.
I have been interested in aquariums and reef keeping ever since I was a little kid. Every time there was a fair, I always wanted to win a gold fish in the “ping pong in the jar” contest. I am sorry to say that I've killed a lot of goldfish over the years.
My interest in saltwater tanks began about 15 years ago when my then 13 year old daughter begged and begged for a saltwater tank for the holidays. Finally, my wife and I relented. We headed for the local fish store and bought a 40-gallon display tank with all the recommended equipment, which of course was all the wrong equipment. I quickly became in charge of maintenance although my daughter denies that to this day. Spent a gazillion dollars on coral, none of which I could maintain for longer than a few months. So over time, I asked a lot of questions, visited lots of fish stores, got all kinds of contradictory suggestions and really was not very successful at growing any corals.
About three years ago, I thought it was time to quit. Then, I discovered this thing called "Craig’s List" and found a 180 bowfront with a chiller, protein skimmer, Hamilton metal halide light fixture, and a bunch of miscellaneous gear for a great deal. I decided that maybe a bigger and better tank was worth a try. I rented a U-Haul and hired a couple of local fish store employees to help with the move, but on the morning of the move, they flaked on me. I discovered that if you drive to Costco in a U-Haul truck, there are a whole bunch of guys willing to take on any task for a few dollars. So, I bought and moved the 180 bowfront to our home and began this process. I got some help with plumbing the tank, bought the wrong pumps (which of course were recommended by the local fish store), and my new journey started. I've updated and improved some of the equipment over the last few years, but most of it is from the first set up.
I was very fortunate and had immediate success with my new tank and corals. I wanted an SPS dominant tank and in Southern California, there are a lot of wonderful high quality, high-end reef stores that provide this opportunity. Additionally, I discovered Reef2Reef and other online forums for crazy people like all of us. This also meant that I could purchase great stuff from online vendors!
My tank flourished and then I decided to improve my success by trying Bio-Pellets and vodka dosing, but probably didn't demonstrate the patience required to make this successful. I made a few little mistakes and corrected them with much bigger mistakes, until I successfully crashed my tank about year and a half ago. Talk about feeling disheartened... so I let the tank sit fallow for a few months to recuperate. Once again, I started my SPS acquisition binge around the end of summer 2011.
What you see in this spotlight is the growth and development of my tank over the last 15 or 16 months. It has really been an incredible odyssey to this point. I now try to keep my tank pretty simple in terms of technology and maintenance, because that has really been the best formula for success in my experience.
System Profile
Display tank: 180 gallon Oceanic Bow Front (72 x 26 x 18-24).
Glass or Acrylic: Glass.
Stand: Oceanic stand for bow front.
Sump: ~30g acrylic tank with three chambers, and two filter socks.
Refugium: 20g acrylic.
Protein Skimmer: Bubble King 200 in sump (and worth every dime).
Carbon/phosphate filtration: Rowaphos in a Nextreef reactor, I usually run it for two months or so. I put a couple of tablespoons of carbon in a filter bag because I do not really understand the value or importance of Carbon except to make the water less yellow and I guess my fish do not pee very much because my water never looks yellow.
Return Pump: Reeflo dart/snapper hybrid. Hopefully, 4300 GPH.
Water circulation: Two tunze 6105 on full blast, all the time. No rest for the weary, lot and lots of crazy flow is the goal.
Lighting: Hamilton fixture. Three 250w 20k metal halides and two 80 watt T5 actinics.
Calcium/alkalinity/magnesium dosing: I use a Pro-cal Calcium Reactor by Marine Technical Concepts and love it. I change out my CO2 tank about every 6 months and replace my aragonite on about the same time frame. I add a bit of Brightwell's magnesium powder directly into the tank, after mixing, on a semi-regular basis. I should consider a dosing pump for magnesium because the Ca reactor doesn't quite keep it up, but I don't want any more power toys.
Auto top-off: Tunze osmolator.
RO/DI: Local fish store, I have way too much equipment already.
Heating: No heater, not sure why but tank never drops below 77.
Cooling: Arctica ¼ horsepower as main chiller and a Coralife ½ horse power aqua-chiller in series or parallel—as a backup. Both chillers originally came with tank from Craig’s list.
System control: Just me with a bunch of power strips and a couple of timers.
Water Parameters
*Temp: 77.7-79.4F
*pH: Around 8.2. I don't check this. Instead, I am more concerned with alkalinity and I believe alk buffers the pH within normal ranges. So, although I don't test pH, I do have the local fish store check it once in a while.
B]*Salinity: [/B] I am running 1.022 to 1.023, but plan to slowly raise it soon. Not sure how it decreased on me.
*Ammonia: Don't test.
*Nitrate: Rarely test, but my chaeto is growing like crazy and I try not to over feed as evidenced by my slim fish.
*Nitrite: Don't test.
*Phosphate: Undetectable via Hanna ultra low phosphorous checker
*Calcium: 400ppm via Hanna checker and LFS test. I'd like it higher, but my tank is going through a coral bloom currently and is just eating up that Calcium!
*Alkilinity: 7.8 dKH via Hanna checker and LFS test.
*Magnesium: Always low at around 1100 – 1200 via LFS test.
I don't like testing because of the variability among tests and test kits. I'm not satisfied with any of their predictability or accuracy. Yet, I absolutely appreciate the importance and necessity of testing. I am slowly trying to raise calcium, magnesium and salinity.
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