Troy & Sarah's

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Equipment

Aquarium

The tank is an Acrylic Creations 70 Gallon aquarium with a built in overflow (36" X 18" X 24").  It was first set up in July 2005.  The first thing people notice is that its not the standard 70 gallon size.  This tank is what is referred to as a "Tall" style tank. That means its taller and wider that a normal tank. Although its not as long as a normal 70 gallon, I like the extra height that I get because I have a lot of live rock.  The tank pictured below is the same as my tank except the background color of my tank is black instead of blue.

My tank sits on a custom-made cherry wood cabinet and stand. I purchased the cabinet and stand from Soutas Salt Water in Portland, OR.

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Lighting

One of the most important things for any captive reef system is lighting.  The keeping of photosynthetic invertebrates like corals and anemones imposes certain demands on lamps and intensities.  Systems without such symbiotic animals, however, will still require careful consideration of hardware beyond aesthetics for the cultivation of desirable plants and algae or attempts to prevent undesirable life forms (diatoms, cyanobacteria, etc).  Numerous other organisms on and in common living substrates (sand and rock) are influenced by light quality.

I chose to use a combination of metal halide and power compact (florescent) bulbs to produce the light my aquarium inhabitants need to thrive.  I use two 175 watt 10,000 K bulbs and two 65 watt actinic blue power compact bulbs.  I have these mounted on a reflector in my aquarium canopy along with two 4" cooling fans to keep the temperature down.

Filtration

I have three types of natural filtration in my system which are all contained in the sump area of the cabinet under my tank.  I have a 17 Gallon acrylic sump/refugium (24"L x 12"W x 14H") with three baffles that I built myself.  Each of the filtration types are housed in one of the four sections crated by the baffles.

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The sump is basically a water reservoir that sits under the main tank.  In the first section of my sump, I have my protein skimmer on a closed loop.  The skimmer removes waste material and chemicals that are in the water.  Inside the skimmer, the water is pumped though a series of chambers that create foam.  The foam traps the waste and it is then pushed into a collection cup. The skimmer mimics the same process that occurs in the ocean naturally.  My protein skimmer of choice is an AquaC EV-120 plumbed outside of the sump and run with a Mag-Drive 5 Pump
 

Then the water feeds into the second section which houses my refugium.  I have some Tongan branch rock rubble in there as well as some macro algaes.  The rock rubble and algae further clean the water.   I also recently added some mangrove plants that my brother Wyatt sent me from Hawaii to the refugium.

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Mangroves 8/2005

The water then runs into the third very small section which houses my heater and a couple of water quality sensors (pH and SG).  This third section also gets rid of many of the small bubbles created as the water runs through the first two sections.

Then the water runs into the fourth and final section of the sump which houses the return pump. The cleaned water is then pumped back up into the main tank. That's basically how I have my filtration system setup at the moment.  It sounds rather complex on paper, but we you see it in person it is rather simple.
 

Water Movement

Reef organisms are simulated by strong flow, and water movement serves to diffuse and distribute oxygen and wastes.  It is also the way that many corals feed off by catching the particles that move past them.  The goal of water movement is to mimic the ocean current, then place the coral in areas of the tank that it is best suited for.   To do this, I have a Red Sea Wave Maker Pro that powers four Maxi-Jet 900 power heads distributed throughout the tank.  A pump inside the sump pumps the water back up to the tank and that water is pumped back over the top surface of the tank.  This provides oxygen exchange and with water moving across the top of the surface, debris and other particles don't collect and produce a film.  I have 1620 gallons per hour of water movement in my system.

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Additives and Feeding

Many of the organisms in my reef need certain trace elements found in natural sea water to survive.  These trace elements need to be kept at certain concentrations so the organisms can thrive and grow.  I currently add only Salifert's Coral Calcium solution.  I have tried other brands Salifert's product seems to keep my calcium levels more stable.  I don't have many corals yet, so I feed a small amount of DT's Phytoplankton weekly.  I feed my fish a variety of frozen foods every other day.

Water Quality

In an effort to maintain very high water quality and monitor the levels of unwanted solutions in the tank, I test the water periodically.  I use Salifert test products.  They are reasonably-priced high-end test kits.  They are also easy to use and accurate. I also have a Pinpoint pH monitor that constantly displays the pH. For salinity I use an american marine pinpoint salinity monitor.

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