CR's Tank of the Month - Nov 04

[dakar]

Again another unanimous decision, Congratulations are extended to Ereefic, for his SPS tank, as he is the CR TOTM for Nov 04!

Comments from the Judges - I didn't want to delay the award of TOTM, so the missing comments will be updated tomorrow (I think Daylight Savings has things a bit hosed up, at least it makes for a good excuse)

Reef_Angel - "I've always been very impressed with your beautiful collection of SPS corals. Beautiful presentation! Congratulations!"

ReptoReef - "Ereefic has some sweet tanks... I've had the honor of seeing them all (on-line) and have to give appreciation where due when I see such a new system looking so awesome. He's a great help to all and not afraid to voice his opinions. Thank you for sharing your pics with us and congrats!!!"

Peregrinus -

Dakar - "We've all read that SPS requires exceptionally clear water quality, Ereefic's tank shows that it must hold some truth, crystal clear water, even with a pretty heavy loaded tank, everything appears to be thriving! A fantastic job. It's a pleasure to post your tank on our front page!"


Truly worthy of the term Captive Reefing! Step up and take a bow.

Since you are no longer eligible for a TOTM award for another 12 months, you are hereby invited to join the Judging Staff and serve your term in choosing future TOTM's.

The CR Staff / TOTM Judges

[ereefic]

It's an honor to be chosen as TOTM and to hear all the nice comments!!!! Thank you.

All of the tanks up for TOTM are worthy of the title, beautiful tanks everyone!!!

I know I posted the pics, but Klasikb is my better half and more resonsible for the tank being up than I am, so congrats to her as well. Without her, this wouldn't have been possible.

I'll get a write up shortly explaing all about the tank. Along with many more pics of the colorful 'sticks' living there.

[ereefic]

This tank was set up in early April of this year. It ran for about 2 months with only LR. Then we added a couple of fish. Corals were added after about 5 months of initial set-up. The majority of corals were moved from our other 2 tanks. Transplanting of the corals went smooth and didn't loose anything in the process.

The tank is a 110 gal. (48x24x22) with a 30 gal. sump and a 10 gal. refugium. The tank is barebottom with a piece of food grade HDPE plastic to protect the bottom from any rock slides.

In the sump we have an MR-1 skimmer from My Reef Creations and it is running a Gen-X 6000 (roughly 1500 gph) submersible pump. A Mag 9.5 return pump running through a SCWD. A maxi-jet 400 pumps to the 10 gal. refugium which gravity drains back to the sump. The refugium is barebottom also and only has Chaetomorpha in it.

The tank has 125 lbs. of Fiji LR bought locally. There are 2 racks made out of PVC and eggcrate to give the illusion of more rock being there than actually is. Aiding in keeping the bottom clean of detritus.

For flow, we have a Mag 12 on a closed loop with a spraybar in the bottom back of the tank to keep detritus blown to the front for easy removal. We are currently running a maxi-jet 1200, 600 and a Rio 600 for additional flow, but will soon be upgrading to some Rio Seio's for better flow.

Lighting is currently (2) 250w SE XM 10k only, running on PFO standard magnetic ballasts. (2) 110w VHO's were just ordered today to compliment the MH's.

The stand and canopy are custom built by a local cabinet maker. They are made out of solid oak. You'd think for custom cabinetry they'd be pretty expensive, but were actually cheaper than store bought stand and canopy. Plus, there made just how I wanted them.

There are over 40 different corals in this tank, many started out as small frags.

Fish consist of a Blue Throat Trigger, Yellow Tang, Powder Brown Tang and a Kole Tang.

Clean up crew consists of a handful of Turbo Snails and Cerith Snails. Along with a Peppermint Shrimp and a Cleaner Shrimp.

We are currently dripping Kalk but i'm finding that I need to add buffer rather regularly to keep my Alk. where I want it. I'm planning on building a Calcium Reactor in the near future to ease the hassle of refilling a Kalk dripper on a daily basis.

These are the water parameters I try to maintain:

Alk........8 - 10 dkh
Cal........420 - 450
Mag......1200 - 1300
Nitrates are currently 0

The only supplements I add are Kent's Superbuffer DKH, Kent's Liquid Calcium and Tech-M when needed.

I've been doing 5 gal. water changes once a week and syphon out all the detritus from the display and the refugium as well.

I think that about covers it. If you have any questions, i'd be happy to answer them. Now, on to the pics.

[davejnz]

congradulations Ereefic,Your tank looks sweet

[davejnz]

Do you have any pics of the PVC rack you used to aquascape,I was wanting to do something similiar and i couldn't even tell you had one.Great Job

[ereefic]

Do you have any pics of the PVC rack you used to aquascape,I was wanting to do something similiar and i couldn't even tell you had one.Great Job

The legs are just PVC and the top is eggcrate. I drilled holes near the top of the PVC and zip-tied them together. Here's a pic.

[davejnz]

looks great,Like the closed-loop spraybar,seems to be really affective in removing detritus from back there.

[Reef_Angel]

Klasikb is my better half and more resonsible for the tank being up than I am, so congrats to her as well

NEVER forget the better half when it comes to the tanks. You wouldn't believe how much of the housecleaning we do to always keep it looking purdeee!!! I know I have wet sleeves a lot, especially since I hand feed a lot of my babies in there!

So Klasib, you deserve the kudo's too! If you're like me, you're probably wishing for more stuff to buy from the F/X Store!!! Help me hound the Administrator! :twisted: I can use all the help I can get!!

Wonderful pictures you two!! Congratulations to the both Ereefic & Klasikb for winning TOTM for November! :love6:

[ereefic]

Sorry I haven't gotten pics up sooner. I'm just going to post a link to the pics of some of the corals from another thread instead of posting them all again. I'll try to get some more pics up soon.

http://www.captivereefing.com/viewtopic.php?t=302