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melev

Day 240: My 400g reef turns 8 months old today

Rating: 5 votes, 5.00 average.
My reef was set up February 6, 2011. It's a 400g custom-made Starphire glass reef-ready tank by Marineland. The footprint is 84" x 36" x 30" with an external overflow at one end that is hidden behind a full sheet of black acrylic, providing five 1.5" drains to the sump underneath.




The sump is 58" x 31.5" x 17" and has a full length refugium zone. It holds a Euroreef protein skimmer, a Nextreef biopellet reactor and a Lifereef Calcium reactor. The system uses two Dart pumps, one for the return line and one that pushes water into a manifold to run any equipment in the sump and feed the frag tank.





Two penductors create cross flow from the return line. Two Vortech MP60s and one MP40 create in-tank flow.



I used a larger grade of sand by Tropic Eden called Reeflakes that tends to stay in place even with the flow created by the Vortechs. The tank has 450 lbs of sand and about 200 lbs of live rock.

Here's an older picture of the power station, frag tank and the drain plumbing.



From the left side of my tank to the right side.







The tank is lit with three Lumenbright pendants. They house bulbs in this order: 250w - 400w - 250w. The spectrum of the XM mogul-ended bulbs are 10,000K - 20,000K - 10,000K. I've been running my lighting like this for the past 7 years. The tank's lighting is staggered throughout the day, and high noon (all lights on at once) lasts from 3:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily. I'm still running VHO super actinic bulbs from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and then LED moonlighting from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. The refugium is on a day time schedule currently, shutting off its LED 6500K lighting by midnight.



The lightrack rolls on a hanging rack, and can be completely out of the way if necessary. Because of the height of the lightrack, heat hasn't been a factor. I have a small 120mm fan sitting on the overflow to gently move the hot air off the surface of the water withe excellent results.



Here are some PAR measurements I took about a month ago.




I feed the tank every night around 9:30 pm with a mixture of Rods Food and some frozen mini-mysis. I dose Microbacter 7 about once a month, when I remember. The calcium reactor doses Alkalinity, Calcium and apparently Magnesium because I've not had to dose any Mg since the tank was set up. When I dose anything, the total water volume of my reef is 300g of liquid volume. Because of the biopellets, nitrate and phosphate tests have remained 0 for the entire 8 months. I'm currently using Biospheres to see how they do; I was using Vertex for 7 months with excellent results.

I keep a reservoir of saltwater ready at all times. It holds up to 250g of mixed & aged saltwater for my reef's needs, and comes in very handy for sudden quarantine needs. Water changes are quite easy, but not automated yet. Everything is done in the fishroom, an area taken from the two-car garage area of my home. I spent several months building the fishroom from the ground up.

The tank is topped off with RO/DI water several times a day automatically from a 45g acrylic reservoir. This is more than a week's supply of top off water. Because our water in Fort Worth has been affected by drought conditions, I've been adding Seachem's Prime to the water to keep it safe for my reef over the past few months.

In the event of a power outage, I have a generator that provides all the electricity needs of the reef. The Vortech pumps are plugged into battery backups for brief lapses in power.

The system doesn't use a chiller. The ambient temperature of my home keeps the tank at the proper water temperature, which tend to run between 78 and 80F daily. I use an Aquacontroller 3 to check on the tank at home and via my iPhone when away.

The frag tank is plumbed into the system and gives me a place to park new arrivals after they've been quarantined. Plus I can feed my suncorals more easily.



I love the access I have to work in my tank from a walkboard that I can use from either side of the reef. You can check out some of my videos at http://www.youtube.com/melevsreef to see the walkboard as well as the topdown video I shot of my corals.



Coral pictures at last. Here's one of my chalices that I got about seven months ago in trade for a bag of sand.




Cyphastrea from Aaron. This coral is growing over two empty Mexican Turbo Snail shells.




The deepwater Acropora sp. that was being chewed up by an AEFW two weeks ago. Looks much better already.




Dendrophyllia






Hitchhiker tube worm or mini-featherduster




Frogspawn walled in by Hammer & Torch corals.




Fungia plates growing in size.




The purple Gorgonian I got from Florida a few months ago. The core is purple, the polyps are white (not yellow like this picture indicates).




The new Lawnmower blenny




Green Nepthea.




One of the two clowns in the Rose BTA in the refugium. She's a tank-raised clown, a variant from the Onyx line.




This is an encrusting Montipora setae, with orange polyps.




A pink chalice




The Ponape birdsnest has grown in nicely.




The Red Planet (Acorpora sp.) still holds its green core. It hasn't grown much, but has encrusted onto the rock some. Not pictured is a brand new branch coming off that encrustation (hidden beneath the larger Acropora colony below).




The Acropora austera has grown in nicely.




Bird of Paradise birdsnest was placed here to fill in the void caused by some deaths during my MACNA trip in September.




Five of the new T. maximas I got last weekend. The other three are in the front section of the reef.






A view of the Bommie section from inside the fishroom.




This chalice has grown in nicely as well.




A variety of corals in a small footprint.






The sandy valley between the reef structure and the bommie has the fungia plates and some Maxima clams, as well as that blue-grey chalice.




One of five Tigertail cucumbers always working the sandbed.




The tongue coral's green polyps glow brightly.




The Unknown Acropora sp. is taking shape nicely.






The war coral I picked up at Next Wave earlier this year has volcano'd upwards as it grows outwards.




A yellow scroll coral seems to be doing well under a 10,000K bulb.




Zoanthids are in the bommie section.








Here's a picture of the entire set up from a few months ago. You can see how much the system has grown in in a short time period of time. I try to clean the tank often to maintain its new look and eliminate distraction. I may finally get around to some woodwork this fall/winter. Maybe.

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Comments

  1. diablo30xp's Avatar
    Awsome and very inspiring for me to get my tank looking a little better than it does. Thx.
  2. yankieman's Avatar
    Your tank is beautiful Marc
  3. Jnarowe's Avatar
    Looking great Marc. I almost lost a huge colony of superman monti because it grew over a divot in the rockwork. What happened was the water and organisms trapped inside went south, and the coral STN'd from the underside center. I had to do major surgery to save the colony. If the Cyphastrea has grown over a cavity, I would do some drilling to allow water to flow in and out of the shells.
  4. kitch40's Avatar
    Awesome tank Marc.thanks for The detailed write up
    I noticed your acophoras seem to be low in the tank
    Do they tend to do better down ther? All our corals seem
    To be doing well except the acophoras but min are fairly
    Close to the light. Thanks Marc(Kitch40)
  5. melev's Avatar
    Jonathan - thanks for the experience you encountered. This coral grew over the smooth surfaces, not the openings.

    Kitch - I have them down low so they have room to grow upwards. Creating swimming space allows for the fish to dart around or glide peacefully the length of the tank. Over time I know that area will fill in with corals.

    Another reason for them to be down low is so I can enjoy looking down (at an angle) when standing in front of the tank. And when taking pictures from above, the macro lens has to be a specific distance from the subject. If they are up high, it's much harder to take the picture... sometimes it's impossible.
  6. Heathd's Avatar
    Marc, you have some great photography skills, but they dont do your tank justice. The one time I saw it in person, my eyes couldnt stop finding something to stare at and enjoy.
  7. melev's Avatar
    Thanks Heath. I wish I could do better. Video seems like it might.
  8. chuck's Avatar
    Amazing setup Marc
  9. agsansoo's Avatar
    Your tank looks great.
    Your clownfish looks like a hybrid, ocellaris with a maroon ?
  10. Psalm104:24-25's Avatar
    Thank you Marc for always making me covet when I open your posts about your tank! It is inspiring. You always have your vortechs on reef crest mode? I'm a fan of your Naso. In that more open set up, does he "sleep" in that cave on the left or what? Maybe I'm taking on the sentiments of my mother, and the clownfish probably wouldn't move around much from the Rose BTA anyway, but it seems a little sad that the clowns in the refugium don't get to enjoy the 400g . Your corals look sick! and that's in a good way
  11. melev's Avatar
    The clownfish in the refugium are defendants from Black Onyx parents, but mine aren't dark at all. The other clowns in the reef were bullying these, which is why they were moved into a safer spot.

    Yes, I'm still running the Vortechs in reef crest mode. I need to take the time to try out Nutrient Export mode.

    Spock seems to like sleeping in the spot between the two Mp60s on the far left end of the reef. I've seen her there several times, and I think the Purple Tang sleeps in the same area.
  12. OneReef's Avatar
    Looks awesome. I like the exposed equipment, being the tech junkie that I am.......
  13. JimM's Avatar
    Wow Marc,
    Awesome as always! Like OneReef... I'm kind of a tech junkie also... is there a previous thread that explains your sump in more detail? I would love to be able to emulate it in miniature on a project I am just setting up. Also, your power center is very intriguing! Care to expound on how that came to be and how it works sometime?
    Sorry... I know you are busy but I can't help myself!
  14. melev's Avatar
    Oh yes, there are some documented blogs, but I'll do a new one since it's been a while and things are more settled in now.
  15. matt_longview's Avatar
    Any opinion on the biospheres vs the vertex yet?

    The tank is looking amazing! Glad I took the time to go back through some of the posts I've missed. :-)
  16. Blake's Avatar
    I know i have said these several times today but Mark you show true mastery of the art of reef keeping. I dream of having and being able to support and care for what you have and one day i will have the set-ups you have haha and please do make more documented blogs on everything you do to these tanks. ESPECIALLY a blog that goes from the ground up step-by-step of how u set-up, cycled, and maintained your systems (recently) because i would very much like to know how to create success from the start haha. your tanks are the best man keep it up!
  17. melev's Avatar
    Matt - so far, the Biospheres are working as promised. I tested the water after 30 days (and that doesn't count the two weeks of seeding them with the previous pellets), and nitrate and phosphates measured zero.

    I've added so many fish recently that I doubt they will be able to keep up with the bioload. Fortunately, my friend comes over Sunday to pick up all of his fish that are in my sump's return section, so that will help somewhat. There are 5 tangs, 2 wrasses, and 3 or 4 anthers in there.

    ATM (what's your first name?) - If you'd asked me 10 years ago if I'd be running a 400g one day, I would have said "heck no!" - that's when I was still keeping my 29g and had recently gotten a 55g. The rest is history, but I try to document to help others plan ahead for their own systems.