Tommyjr61's Marvelous Mixed Reef

[tommyjr61]

My name is Tomas Diaz. I live in a little island in the Caribbean, that practically enjoys summer the complete year. This beautiful and exotic island is Puerto Rico, I have established my home where we can find the hottest temperatures of the island, in the south part. I am an old school style student in reef keeping, that is one reason that I keep my tank the most simple way that I can. My wife Gesenia and my kids Tommy and Eduardo, also enjoy my passion and love for this hobby and help me in maintaining the reef tank , a reason that motivates all of us to continue in this hobby.

I started reefkeeping in 1998 and since then I have had several tanks of different sizes, including 10, 20, 55, hexagonal 60 and 125 gallon tanks. My current tank is a 150-gallon aquarium. The tank measures 72-inch x 18-inch x 26-inch. I am constantly researching and working on my tank. I research a lot and read lots of books by authors like Tullock, Fenner, and Borneman, etc. The hard work is well worth it because it allows me to enjoy this "little piece of ocean" right here in my home.

Equipment & Maintenance

I enjoy wood working and built the canopy and stand cover myself. Recently, I had to replace the stand because it was damaged by a small earthquake we had in Puerto Rico. It was affected by the pressure and shifted about a 1/4-inch. The stand you see in the photo is constructed of galvanize metal stand and with a wood covering.

My system utilizes a wet and dry filter. In the wet-dry area, I use the famous bio-balls and the lower part ceramic ring, chemi-pure and carbon. In the middle section, I made a hole that draws the chiller and the skimmer water in one 100 micron sock filter, reducing the micro-bubble in this section and filtering the water. Near to this I put one phosphate reactor, using at this moment the 550 Phosban reactor with granulate ferric oxide pellets. Finally, the water runs to the main pump, where I use a Reeflo pump, Dart model that throws 3600 gallons per hour. This pump powers the entire system and is connected to a PVC a manifold that I use to split the water to different processes. One line goes to the phosphate reactor, a second one goes to the protein skimmer, a third one goes to the chiller (that is outside of the house), the forth one to the calcium reactor and the last one exits to the tank. This pump is durable and easy to use.

Equipment

30 gal wet-dry filter/sump
Resun 1/2-hp chiller
Phosban 550 phosphate reactor
Reef Octopus 200 protein skimmer
Reeflo Dart pump
Korallin 1502 calcium reactor

Lighting

My light system consists of three metal halide blue 20,000k bulbs, and two 72-inch VHO fluorescent bulbs, one Actinic white and another Super actinic by U.V.A. company. The photoperiod starts at 8:30 am with my VHO, at 11:00 am starts my metal halide, and the VHO until 7:00pm. At this moment, only the VHO runs until 8:30 pm. When both systems shut down, my moon-light starts, and stays on until 12:00pm. My moonlight is a 15 foot long blue Christmas rope led light.

Parameters & Maintenance

I maintain the following parameters in my tank. Tests are performed weekly with test kits as indicated below:

Temperature: 79-80 F
PH 8.10- 8.20 (American Marine Pinpoint Monitor)
Salinity: 1.025 (ATC Refractometer)
Calcium: 435-440ppm (Salifert Test Kit)
Alkalinity: 9-9.6 dkh
Magnesium: 1350 ppm
Nitrate: 0.00ppm
Phosphate: 0.00ppm

Around 15% to 20% percent of the water is changed monthly, but for that I use rain water that is captured in drums and filtered using Reverse Osmosis with Deionization filters. TDS measures zero on water used in the reef tank.

My wife feeds the coral and fish each evening. The tank is fed mysis shrimp and zooplankton. On alternating days, frozen food, live baby brine shrimp eggs and other products are also fed. The fish are also fed flake, frozen food, live Baby Brine, Pellets, seaweed, krill and other products.

Inhabitants

Thank you to all of you for selecting my "little piece of ocean" here in Puerto Rico as the Tank of the Month. To all the people that see this tank, the key for maintaining an aquarium in any place of the planet is: Dedication, Patience and Love.

- Tomas and Gesenia, from Ponce, Puerto Rico, The Little Star in the Caribbean.

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[jimsflies]

Congrats Tomas you have a beautiful reef! Thanks for sharing it with us.

[larryandlaura]

Congratulations on a beautiful reef. Those colors are popping, and very eye catching.

[Manoj's Reef]

awesome reef....nice collection of corals...

[Rabidgoose]

Beautiful, congratulations, very good choice. The bar continues to be elevated for TOTM.

[luisgo]

Wow Congratulations on TOTM!! I have seen this tank in person and all I can say is that it is one of the best tank I have seen in my life!! Colors, coral placement and fish are all impressive.

Felicidades from Puerto Rico!!

[Sir Patrick]

Awsome tank man!

[ReeferRob]

Just awesome!!!!

[slapshot]

Congrats!!! I can't believe how much coral you have in that tank. Well done.

[tommyjr61]

Thank to everybody and the great staff of Captive Reef not only to select the TOMT if not left that all people see my tank. And the question about how I put this coral in my tank, the answer is easy my wife help me in that, she like to select the coral for the space that she like to put them and don't disturb the other ones. Thank and appreciate all comment about my tank. Thank to Captive Reef from Puerto Rico.