For those of you that have asked about our previous experience with reef aquariums this page is for you. We've been maintaining marine and reef aquariums off and on since our first 29 gallon saltwater fish tank in 1976 to the larger tanks we graduated to later on - the 75 gallon fish only tank with a Pinnatus batfish that scared the maintenance man so bad he wouldn't come in to fix the sink to the 300 gallon glass tank that took 10 big guys to carry it from the pickup into the house (we should have taken out all the sand). Our latest is a custom 480 gallon tank with 1 foot radius curved front corners mounted partially in-wall with the aquarium room behind it. This was originally outfitted in 2002 with the latest equipment including a 4 foot Euroreef skimmer, a Korallin calcium reactor, custom sump, surge tank, Kent RO/DI filter, Neptune PRO controller with all the probes (including the expensive dissolved oxygen probe), Optix III 250w DE lights supplimented with T5 actinics, two Ampmaster 3000 return pumps, and four 1500 gph powerheads for added circulation. When the tank crashed while we were out of town on a business trip we started looking at better ways to maintain the reef environment. Of course a large part of the reason the tank crashed was the large bioload we maintain. In addition to dozens of Acropora and Montipora specimens, and a few clams, LPS and a metallic green hammer coral (Euphyllia ancora), the tank contains several angels, including an adult Imperator angel and a large Moorish Idol (Zanclus cornutus). Keeping some of these fish fat and happy has been key to protecting our coral and clams. But that kind of environment requires high performance water quality equipment, most notably the protein skimmer and calcium reactor, along with the necessary chaotic water movement. This is when we first became aware of Brent Barr of Barr Aquatic Systems and the amazing product line that he had developed. This tank now has a Foaminator Max 5200 and a MoCalc 400 replacing the Euroreef and Korillin products - and the tank inhabitants can tell the difference. In addition we've replaced the Ampmaster pumps with Sequence Reeflo. We use a Reeflo Marlin to drive the Foaminator MAX 5200 and a Reeflo Hammerhead for sump return. The increased flow we get with the Hammerhead has made a real difference with our stony corals.
Gallery
Click here for our gallery of shots we've taken in our own tanks. The images are big so it may take a while to download.
