Schminksbro's SPS Garden

2010 Tank of the Year · #1

Schminksbro's SPS Garden

As a proud member and sponsor of Captive Reefs I am humbled and honored to be chosen as July 2010 Tank of the Month. I would like to thank Jim and the staff along with the members here at CR for maintaining such a great community. I would also like to say it is an honor to have my tank presented along side of all the beautiful TOTMs before me.

My tank is coming up on its second birthday and still has a lot of growing to do. Unfortunately it is going to be moved soon so this is the last birthday it will see in its current state.

Equipment

The tank is a Great Lakes 100 gallon 48" x 26" x 18" glass aquarium set on a custom solid oak stand and fitted with a matching tall canopy. The tank is illuminated by two 250 watt XM single ended 20k bulbs driven by magnetic ballasts. Actinic supplementation is supplied by two 54 watt Geismann actinic+ bulbs driven by a workhorse ballast. All evaporation is replaced with kalkwasser supplied by a aqua lifter controlled by a Reef Fanatic auto topoff. Stable alk and calcium is maintained by a GEO 618 calcium reactor controlled by a Pinpoint Ph controller. I monitor pH with a Pinpoint pH monitor and bump the pH with kalk slurries when necessary. I skim reasonably wet using a mesh modded ASM G3. In addition to the skimmer I also run carbon actively in a reactor drive by one of two Magdrive 7 returns. One of the returns feed the display and one feeds the 24" x 24" x 12" frag tank fitted of course with a Blue Glow acrylic frag rack. Additional flow in the display is provided by two Vortech MP40s.

Maintenance

I have been maintaining water quality using probiotics for a little over a year now and have been extremely happy with the results. My reefing philosophy is observe and adjust accordingly. I test only alkalinity on a regular basis using a Lamotte test kit. I perform other tests only if something seems out of line. I do weekly water changes of around 10% of the total 130 gallons using Reef Crystals salt. I aerate the replacement water for 24 hours prior to changing. Other than that I observe daily and try to keep my hands out of the tank.

I feed assorted foods up to five times a day including Rod's Food herbivore blend, Spectrum pellets, Mysid shrimp, and a home made concoction. I also feed nori daily for the tangs. I do not target feed corals.

Parameters
Alk: 8 dkh
Calcium: 420 ppm
Magnesium: 1350 ppm
pH: 7.9-8.3 su
NO3: undetectable
PO4: 0.02-0.03 ppm

Supplements
Cheap vodka
Microbacter 7
ARM course calcium media
ZEO MAG
BRS activated carbon

Livestock

It started out as a mixed reef containing an assortment of corals held over from a previous 65 gallon. The intention all along was to convert to an SPS dominated system. Once the tank was standing I began steadily "weeding" out soft corals and LPS and replacing them with SPS frags. The tank now contains roughly 80-100 varieties of acropora, montipora, seritapora, pocillapora, assorted zoas, palys, a tyree war coral and a couple of favias. However my true addiction is acropora. Some favorites include a Granulosa, Cali Tort, Dark Blue Tort, Pink Lemonade, Purple Monster, Batteries not Included Acro, and a Red Hyacynthus.

There are nine fish in the tank including a yellow tang, a goldrim tang, a maroon clownfish, a blue damsel, a green reef chromis, a black lyretail chromis, and three Bartlett's anthias along with a scarlet cleaner shrimp.