Ben's Mixed Reef

[class clown]

I'm finally at the point where I'm mostly satisfied with my tank, so thought I'd share it with you all. It's been about 5 years in the making, so some may say it's about time, right?

Here it is...

I've got about 50 types of coral in there too. I won't try to list them all because I don't know all of there names, but some of my favorites right now that I can remember the names of are:

• Oregon Tort - Dang
• ORA tort - Macbeth
• Blastos - Robert (Sushiboy)
• Acans - Robert (Sushiboy) & Reef Mystique
• Purple blue green acro - Reef Mystique
• purple tort - Chad (reefman069)
• Green slimer - always a favorite - Chris from Below Sea Level
• Purple bottlebrush - Chad (reefman069)
• Pink/tan body w/ blue tip mili - Scott (Szidls)
• Baby blue digita - Scott (Szidls)
• green w/ purple rim monti - Scott (Szidls)
• Ked Red zoos - JasonD
• blue zoos - JasonD
• Blueberry Turaki - Jeff
• RBTA - Chris from Below Sea Level
• Green cats paw - Scratchman
• Pink Mili - Mattseattle
• Purple Gonsai (sp) - Mattseattle

 

[class clown]

For Fish/inverts, I have:

• 100 lbs of various LR
• Copper banded butterfly -POTHNTR
• two purple square anthias - Reef Mystique
• pymgmy angel
• blue jaw sleeper goby - Reef Mystique
• Maroon Clown - 5 yrs old - she's mean - Chris from Below Sea Level
• Mandarin Goby
• 2 cleaner shrimp - Reef Mystique
• 2 nassarius snails
• 1 tiger pistol - JR5658
• 1 yellow watchman sleeper goby - Reef Mystique
• 1 bicolor blenny

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Looks great!

 

[class clown]

And anyone who has met me will tell ya I'm an equipment type of guy.. so, here is what I'm currently using to support the system:

• 55 gallon display (IAP acrylic) - yeah I know, of course I want to go bigger
• 45 gallon sump/fuge (from Big T)
• 2 250W PFO MH ballast running 12k reefluxes
• 2 55w PCs for actinics
• Neptune Aquacontroller III
• Euroreef skimmer
• Geo Calcium reactor
• Iwaki return
• Pacific Coast Chiller c280
• TLF Phosban150 reactor
• 6 Mj1200's for oscillating current

Most of the equipment is housed out in my garage. I've had one to many overflows and decided to go this route last summer. I've been very satisfied so far with everything being out in the garage b/c it is so much easier to access and I don't have to worry about spilling.

here's under the tank..

And here's outside in the garage...

 

[cwby416]

Great looking Tank Ben!! is that the purple acro from the meeting in the pic? looks like a purple on the left side....

Great job, thanks for sharing (finaly )

 

[class clown]

So there ya have it.. my pride and joy... the reason my pocket book feels always empty... The cause of much joy and sometimes stress in my life.

Feel free to post questions/comments/suggestions.

I'll try to post some more close up pictures of the corals later throughout the day, but for now, it's back to work I go

 

[Herefishyfishy]

With the sump in the garage, does the chiller ever need to turn on? Great set-up

 

[class clown]

Great looking Tank Ben!! is that the purple acro from the meeting in the pic? looks like a purple on the left side....

Great job, thanks for sharing (finaly )

Indeed Randy.. it's the guy on the left side. Here is a closeup. Thanks to Wil at Reef Mystique again for the donation!!!

ok.. now it's really back to work I go

 

[class clown]

With the sump in the garage, does the chiller ever need to turn on? Great set-up

It does, but only in the summer time and even then, only on those extreme days. I have noticed a dramatic improvement in heat though overall since moving the sump to the garage. One thing though you have to be concerned with when you move to this approach is rusting of pipes & tools and things in your garage. I've noticed some rust on the metal pipes out there. My tools are fine so far, but yeah.. if you are thinking about moving to this approach, jsut be mindful that evaporation of the water into the air and the humidity caused by it can rust your stuff. I guess the same is probably true though for inside the house too, but you just don't notice it that much b/c all of the pipes are behind the walls.

 

[Jan]

That's really beautiful, Ben! Quite an achievement.

By the way, I notice that your white sand looks very clean....not algae-y at all. Is it hard to keep it that clean?

 

[class clown]

Thanks Jan.. It was hard to figure out how to keep it that way, but after I figured it out, it's the easiest thing to keep it clean. If you had asked me that question even a few months ago, I would've told you that it's impossible and that there is just no way to keep it clean and free from diatoms. I've since learned that flow means so much!!!!!!! I added two more mj1200's towards the bottom front of the tank and they constantly move the top layer of sand back and forth jsut enough to keep it disturbed. Because of this turbulance, the sand stays that crisp white color and algae free.

For many years, it was not like this and was frustrating. I tried many things like cutting back on feeding, or adding red slime remover, or sucking it out and replacing it, or adding sand sifter star fish and crabs and nassarius snails. In the end, the answer was right under my nose - keep the top layer of sand moving just enough so that the algae can't form. Hopefully you can learn from this and it doesn't take you 5 years like it did me

 

[class clown]

Here are some photos..

Gotta love the green slimer - this was the first SPS I started with. When i got it, it was only a couple inches long. Now it's like a gigantic tree and definately dominates the center of the tank. Anyone who doesn't have one of these that is into SPS, I'd highly recomend because of their hardiness & beauty. conveniently, I have frags available from it all of the time, so don't be shy to shoot me a PM...

also pictured there is a Oregon tort frag still growing out from Dang's tank (just to the right), a green monti cap encrusting the base, some blue/purple mushrooms, Tenius frag just starting to take off (bottom left), a red cap (in the back), a tan w/ blue tip mili, and something new I picked up from Scott over the weekend (front left) - It's a baby blue color but looks white with huge polyps and I'm thinking it might be digitata, but please someone correct me if they know better.

 

[class clown]

Here is a closeup of that one from Scott's tank that I think is a baby blue digitata - someone though please let me know if they have a better ID. I love this coral!!!!

 

[class clown]

Here's a cool shot. That's an acan in the middle there that I got from Robert (sushiboy). Also pictured are the blue stag (thanks Dang), purple slimer (thanks Chris -Mcgiver), pink mili (thanks Mattseattle), some green/purple acro (thanks again Dang), some slimer frags growing out in the back, and my male squareside anthias (thanks reefmystique), and a bicolor blenny..

Look closely for the bicolor, that's his favorite hangout.

 

[class clown]

Here's another cool one..

gotta love those JasonD Ked Red zoos! Also, I really like this new blue lunar acan I got in the raffle (thanks PSAS) as well as some purple chalice growing on the tip of that figi LR.

(umm.. yeah.. please ignore the bubble algae front and center please )

 

[class clown]

blue zoos (thanks again Jason), a trumpet, and some other zoos (orange w/ yellow skirts and green w/ orange skirts- which btw, I seem to always have frags available of - PM me)

 

[class clown]

This is what I'm calling the green cat's paw. Someone please help me out with a better name though. I've seen them before and the real name starts with a "P" I think. There are some red w/ green center blastos on the right (thanks Robert - sushiboy) and some crazy orange, grey, and blue like acan in teh background (thanks again Robert)

 

[class clown]

Here's my homie mandarin in front of a torch

 

[class clown]

Blueberry Turaki - Watch out when this gets a little bigger, boy, this one is awesome!!! he has a little acro crab that lives inside him too.

also featured to the left is something from the solomons (thanks Dang), and a purple gonzai frag (thanks Mattseattle)

 

[Herefishyfishy]

This is what I'm calling the green cat's paw. Someone please help me out with a better name though. I've seen them before and the real name starts with a "P" I think.

Stylophora pistillata