Tank of the Month September
Kim (Kamar)
| Owner Kim (kamar) Tank Size The tank is a 36 gallon bowfront. My husband made me a beautiful custom stand covered with stained oak veneer. It was originally designed for a 75 gallon tank that I had set up, but after we put in a laminate top to retrofit for a small tank, it works out perfectly as I have extra room to work beside the tank now. |
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| Lighting 36” Aqua Medic Ocean Light T5 with ATI bulbs. I prefer a deep blue look to my tank and run (3) Blue Plus and (1) Aqua Blue Special. The light also has a strip of built in LED moonlights that come on for night viewing. |
| Filtration Aqua C Remora HOB skimmer, an Eheim canister filter with all stock media removed, and a Turbo Twist UV sterilizer. I'm basically running the canister like a reactor now with only Bulk Reef Supply GFO and Rox Carbon in round pads that I sew made out of batting. The water stays crystal clear. |
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| Live Stock My fish have been with me for awhile and they all get along great, so I have resisted adding any more. A clownfish, which was my first fish in May of '07 (with my previous tank), a flame angel shortly thereafter, a royal gramma in July of '09, and a blood red fire shrimp that October, along with various snails that spawn and reproduce on occasion. For corals I have a pink leather, pink star polyps, green and blue mushrooms, hammer coral, green and orange montipora plating corals, an acropora, and a blastomussa. |
| Date Tank Was Started This tank was set up 4/9/08 from a 75 gallon that I had previously for about a year. |
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| How Did You Get Into This Hobby? I had a small freshwater aquarium when I was in high school, which I loved and started missing after quite a few years of going without. I have always been drawn to the ocean and started wondering if I could get into saltwater. The jaw-dropping colors of the fish is what drew me in to wanting to keep a marine tank. Now I have another new and expensive hobby . . photography! I started out learning everything on my own, but the local club I belong to now has added a new dimension of fun that I didn't have before. |
| What Was Your Favorite Part of The Build? Doing the research. I learned so much just reading and deciding about each component of the system. I still read about things I know I will never have, but want to learn about anyway. Plus, it was fun to see my husband really put himself into building the stand, and what a great job he did! |
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| Dosing and Schedule. Every other day I dose 10ml of B-Ionic Two-Part, and add top off water everyday. I do five gallon water changes every weekend with Instant Ocean Reef Crystals salt. I also test all parameters weekly, then make adjustments as needed. Nothing is automated, and the system is very simple. |
| Feeding (Fish and Coral) and Schedule. I try to do three small feedings daily, mixing it up between frozen cubes of mysis, plankton and a sponge mix just for angels, along with algae pellets soaked in Selcon. Interestingly, the carnivorous royal gramma really likes the sponge too. The shrimp gets hand fed with tweezers. I love it when he scoops up a bunch of mysis, then runs off with them to eat in private. |
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| Do You Have a Favorite Fish and Why? The royal gramma is my favorite to photograph as the color is still the most amazing thing to me. I can't believe how beautiful the fish is. I love when it opens it's mouth as wide as it can in defense mode, and that I actually caught this in a photo. The clown has such a personality, and really does not like me anywhere near her hammer coral. |
| What Is Your Favorite Type of Coral? LPS is my favorite group. I enjoy their movement in the current, and feeding them is still the coolest thing ever. I love the reaction when I show visitors the feeding in action, and they can't believe what they just saw. Acropora certainly have pretty colors and have their place in any tank, but they just don't have the movement of an LPS. |
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Please checkout Kims build thread HERE
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