Todd's Mini Reef Tank

Since I live in an apartment in NYC (elsewhere referred to as 'closets') I don't have room for a big tank but someday would like to have a gigantic 55 gal tank. (really, a 110 would be ideal but I would have to sleep in it).

Todd's 30gal Reef Tank circa Dec1996

Photos moved from original article to a Picasa album

Description:

So, my tank is an 30 gal extra tall, which is probably about the worse size reef tank you could ever hope to use, but circumstance dropped this tank into my hands for free. I can't argue with free. I have a home built stand that would probably support a tank (an Army battle tank, that is), and also has room in the bottom for anything up to a 20 tall. Currently, it has 15 gal tank as the sump with about 10 gals of water in it.

The sump is home to the coils and probe of a chiller, the FF, and the main tank return pump. The chiller is a 1/4 hp from Aquanetics (somewhat over powered, but ready to take on the challenges of a 110 gal!) with electronic temp control by UltraLife. I use the outflow from the main tank, and a Hagen 402 power head to get the necessary current over the titanium coils. The Foam Fractionator is a 23" tall 4" diameter counter current model from Spectacular Sea Systems. I use a Tetra luft air pump, and 3" wood airstones, and a Hagen 301 to provide the current. It produces plenty of foam, but with wood airstones, you have to keep them replacing them in order to keep the bubble quality high. I recently replaced my main water return pump, from an ancient Eheim 1050 pump, with a RIO 1700 which is about twice as powerful, and gives me about 120g/hr, which is a 3x turnover rate.

The main tank has a surface skimmer siphon by Spectacular Sea Systems which keeps the water surface nice and clear. Pinpoint pH probe by American Marine. For circulation, I have two Hagen 801s and a 401 connector to a SandPoint Wavemaker3 XR.

Now, my favorite part: my home made lighting hood. Scrape together some scrap plywood, a dozen or so aluminum screws, some extra 14 gauge wire and your in business. I purchased 2 HO (40 watt ea.) 2' long Actinic-daylight bulbs, and 2 straight Actinic bulbs of the same style, along with some water proof end caps and 2 HO florescent bulb ballasts from URI, and I was ready! I set the actinics on one ballast and set the heavy duty appliance timer for 14 hours, and the actinic daylights on another timer for 12 hours. Note that wiring ballasts and lighting fixtures is fairly easy, and the guys at URI were very helpful in answering the wiring questions. This gives me a total of 160 watts, or about 5 1/3 watts/gal, or about 80 watts/sq. foot of surface area.

Livestock:

• Tridacna crocea clam - purple with bright blue speckles. Arrived spring '95
  
• Blastomusaa wellsi - a hard coral with fleashy polyps, brown with purplish center. When fully open, looks similar to closed brain coral. Arrived Jan. '96
  
• Nemenzophyllia turbida "Fox" - very large green ruffly polyps (extending about 4" across) along a ridge. Arrived late winter '96.
  
• Porites spp. - very small polyped colony on a peice of live rock which were being overrun by green zooanthid anemonies, but seem to be making a come back. Arrived fall '96 (first peice of livestock in tank)
  
• Tubinaria peltata "Pagoda" - my largest coral. fast growing, with fleash colored polyps. Arrived late winter '95
  
• Favites/Favia spp? "Closed Brain" - Beigh/light brown with bright green polyps. The corallites all run together, and single polyps are always surrounded by corallites.
  
• Corallimorph (not Ricordea) - This baby was bought at about 1 1/2 inches across and now approaches 7" across. Tentacles are slightly branching into fingers. I feed it a priece of freeze dried whatevers on hand and it curls up and around it. Arrived?
  
• Corallimorph Ricordea - This is definetly a 1" diameter one and it appears it has a baby just budded off it.
  
• Zoanthid "Mushroom Anemones" - At least 7 different varieties. Some encrusting, some colonial, some solitary.
  
• "Astrea Snails" - 6 quantity.
  
• "Turbo Snails" - 2 quantity.
  
• Ophioderma spp. "Brittlestar" - a large bright red one with an approximate arm span of 9 inches. Likes to be feed frozen feeder fish.
  
• "Damsel Fish" - Bright yellow. The first and only surviving fish in my tank.
  
• "Hermit Crabs" - about 1 dozen. Herbivorous. These guys are great.
  
• Terrebellidae Eupolymnia spp. "Spaghetti Worms" - perhaps a half dozen of these that are big enough to be noticible.
  
• Spirobranchus spp. "Xmass-tree Worms" - 9 quantity. Arrived summer of 95.
  
• "Encrusting Sponge" - Many varieties in different color and forms. These are all smallish stowaways on live rock. Some of these may be actually tunicates.
  
• "Encrusting Tunicates" - Many vartieties in different colors and forms, many smaller ones reproducing well.
  
• "Fan worms" - many of these, mostly smallish, both calcareous and otherwise. Some are most likely Hydroides spp. - because of the distinct operculum on long stalk and the tubes are embedded in rock/coral. Sabellidae spp. are the non-calcareous fan worms.
  
• Unknown - Many many encrusting tiny (less than 1/8" wide, 1/4" long) clearish/light brown tubes have small anemones of similar color. Seem to be colonial. Don't seem to hurt anything.
  
• Sessile Barnacle - a few of them, each no larger than 1/2" across
  
• Macro algea - assorted small clumps.
  
• Non-sessile Polynoidae worms - Grayish ones that are definitely segmented.
  
• Mystery worm - Grayish/brown, not resembling the Polynoidae but more like an earth worm. Its body is tubular, about 1/2" in diameter, and it pokes out of its hole in the live rock and seems to eat algea or detritus. Reacts to light be retracting back in - it seems from the times I've observed it that it seems to invert into itself as it retreats. I know it sounds strange but there is no other way I can think to describe it.
  
• Gorgonian "Sea Fan" - purple, about 6" long. Seems to be doing only so-so. Any suggestions?
  

Previous Inhabitants:

• Sci. Name? "Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp" No. 1 - Lost during the "vacation disaster" see FtE.
  
• "Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp" No. 2 - Lost to a hungry Corallimorphian.
  
• Tubastra spp. "Sunflower" - acquired two small pieces from the store which were on their way out.. tried my best to save them... these are hard to keep.
  
• "Basket Star" - this amazing creature lost all his "hairs" over the course of about 1 week and then disintegrated.
  
• "Snowflake Eel" - I was fish-watching because a friend of mine had a electrical fire in/around his tank and this was the only survivor. This thing always tried to climb out of the sump and one day succeeded.
  
• Lima spp. "Fire Clam" - This I inherited from a friend when he moved, and did great until one day. boom, then that's it.
  
• Chiton - I saw him twice, but not since.
  

Pesky Inhabitants: My motto: Any organism without proper identification is banished to the sump

• "Rock crab" - I've removed 3 from my live rock but I still believe one is hiding somewhere.
  
• "Mantis Shrimp" - I hear the clicking... I've seen him twice. About 1" long.
  
• Aiptasia - Perhaps 2 or 3 at any one time. Small. I entomb them with small amounts of underwater epoxy. Mine seem to be photosynthetic which I though Aiptasia weren't supposed to be.
  

Additives

• Kent SuperBuffer dKH when necessary.
  
• Kent Kalkwasser powder, but when it runs out I'm going to get Ball's Pickling lime. I mix it with RO water, and dose it out of a plastic milk jug with a piece of plastic tubing tied in a not so it drips about every couple seconds. Not elegant, but easy and cheap.
  
• Instant Ocean salt mix
  
• Hydrogen Peroxide - I'm testing out a theory by GVD. I use 10cc of 3% solution (as sold in stores) every morning and night. I pour it in slowly to the overflow box. Now if only had a redox meter.
  
• Kent SuperIodine - 2 drops every morning
  
• CombiSan - Every Monday morning I add 30 drops.
  
• Selcon - Every couple days I drop in a few drops. Usually, at twilight when the corals are open the greatest.
  

Other Equipment

• I use Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Tap Water Purifier, with RAIAR's TWP recharger kit.
  
• Aquarium Systems Reef Multi-kit : Low-end Nitrate, Calcium & Phosphate tests. I used to use SeaCHem pH and Alk. tests but I found them very annoying.
  
• About 4 heavy-duty (sometimes called "appliance") timers
  
• A ground fault interrupt. If you don't have one, get one now!
  

Future Plans

• Replace my scarlet cleaner shrimp. These guys are fun, especially the way they try to clean my hand when I'm working in the tank. In fact, I'm going to get a pair and hope they reproduce. Even if the young never mature, they'll make great plankton!
  
• I'm thinking about getting some SPS corals
  
• but that will probably have to wait until I get a larger tank, hopefully 75 gal or larger.
  
• I want to get a nice reddish piece of Caulastrea "Torch coral".
  
• With the larger tank, I'm thinking a mixture of MH and HO FL.
  

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All Rights Reserved, Todd Zebert