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melev

DFWMAS Tank Tour - Jan 23, 2010

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This is going to be a long blog, so if you are using your SMARTphone, better switch from 3G to WiFi.

Here's the schedule for that day. I removed the addresses and phone numbers since they are unnecessary at this point. While we did drive from home to home, the travel time wasn't too bad. Some tanks were a few minutes apart, and a couple were 30 minutes between destinations. I attempted to group them to keep drive times reasonable, and I made it a point not to overload the day with too many stops. Instead of feeling rushed, the day flows nicely and no-one feels worn out. That's the trick; you heard it here.

Saturday, Jan 23, 2010 - Meet at Ryan's house at 10:30 a.m. Please try your best to be on time. From there we will simply go down the list, sticking to the time table listed:

10:30 a.m.
Ryan Reeves aka Servo

11:30 a.m.
Eric Bryson aka Eric69
Eric is grilling hamburgers for lunch, and has beer and soda at the ready!

12:35 p.m.
Jerry aka Duster
half-round tank

1:10 p.m.
uchin

2:00 p.m.
David and Tracey Glenn aka RPD645
Brownies and bottled water at the ready

3:00 p.m.
Jim aka theturk

3:40 p.m.

Marc Levenson aka melev

The weather was in the mid 50s, and it rained on and off throughout the day.

The first stop was Ryan's 400g reef.




Ryan's woodwork rises up to provide front tank access. Ryan is in this picture.


To see behind the tank, we entered the fishroom from the garage.


An auto-feeder helps provide food on a precise schedule daily.




I don't know what it is, but-I-like-it.














Eric was our second stop.
He has two tanks plumbed together into a single sump that is located in a fishroom behind the wall. It was very narrow, and I didn't take any pictures of it.


The BTAs need lots of flow, and get the 1/4-round tank.


The mixed reef















Stop #3 was Jerry's 144g half-round tank. It is lit with dual MH fixtures.








Lights affixed to a cross brace.


Normally, a wall of rock is a negative, but Jerry arranged it in tiers to create shelves all the way up. It really looks good in person, rather than too full.




This chalice was about 5" across, if not more. He picks it up and rotates it to stop it from growing onto the rock so the plating will continue outwards.










The next stop was Uchin's 200g tank. I think he's a DJ at heart, or maybe for income. I can totally imagine him rocking out while tinkering in his tank.

Oh, and by the way, he loves blue.

And chalices.








He's using a Tunze Wavebox, which provides a 2" wave.












His frag tank is gorgeous, also plumbed into the main system's sump.








The guts of the system


Now that is one sexy sump. :wink:


He likes getting Australian corals. (I don't know if this is one, but it's a good shot so I'm including it)




Stop #5 was David and Tracy's new tank. It has been up for about a month. I don't recall the gallonage, but it was probably around 150g.




























Stop #6 was Jim's reef. He's trying to decide which color bulb he prefers. The reef tank is lit with two 400w MH bulbs.














The surface ripples nicely, necessary for good oxygen exchange.




The electrical is up high. It keeps everything tidy. This tank uses a chiller.


He recently started two-part dosing with Drew's Dosing Pumps.


In his office, he has a Softy tank.






The final stop was my house. The angled tank was the first thing you saw when you walked in. It's 20g, and plumbed into my main system.


My 280g reef.


The fishroom


The quarantine tank


There was quite a bit of interest in the brine shrimp hatcheries.


I hope you all enjoyed all the pictures.

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Comments

  1. fishtal's Avatar
    Awesome! Great pics all around!
  2. Jessy's Avatar
    AWESOME!!! NICE STICKER placement
  3. drakedeming's Avatar
    Nice post, very good read/view
  4. jasonh's Avatar
    Nice tanks on the tour.

    Were you using a tripod for all those pics, or just handheld?
  5. melev's Avatar
    I brought my tripod along, but it was never practical to use it. Too many people walking around, and you don't want to get in their way or make them feel like they have to wait for you to take your pictures. It was all taken freehand, and I did try to stay out of people's way. Opportunities open up to take a few pictures if you watch for the openings.

    And before you ask, I shot with a Nikon D70s with the stock 18-70mm lens. Almost all shots were taken in Manual mode at ISO 640 with f/3.5 to 4.5
  6. washingtond's Avatar
    Here is a video (part 1) of the DFWMAS Tank Tour that was held on Sat Jan 23rd.


    Updated 06-13-2010 at 06:36 AM by washingtond
  7. washingtond's Avatar
    DFWMAS Tank Tour parts 2 & 3.



    Updated 06-13-2010 at 06:38 AM by washingtond
  8. cweber's Avatar
    Very beautiful tanks everyone!
  9. johnbanks's Avatar
    those are some very very very pretty tanks

    nicely done