but for me, i realized that simplicity is more desirable.  living in a modern apartment means having to make compromises, especially when overall aesthetics is one of things you are trying to focus on.  i too almost fell into the “just one more thing” trap of equipment planning.  for some insight, my plan at one point included manifolds on both the return and drain lines to feed my reactors, chiller, refugium and skimmer! talk about complicated…

so i took a hard look at my plan and started stripping out the unnecessary.  now my only problem will be how to organize everything under the stand!  here is my current equipment list, subject to change of course :]

Lighting:

• ATI Powermodule 10×39w T5HO fixture

Filtration:

• Custom acrylic sump 24×16x16 (2 compartment), built by Kritter
• Nutrient export via bacterial strains supplied by Prodibio system (or similar: Zeovit, etc)
• ATI Bubble Master 160 Skimmer
• 2x TLF Phosban Reactors (1 carbon, 1 GFO)

Flow:

• Quiet One 3000 return pump
• 2x Tunze 6055 Nanostreams

Supplementation:

• “Balling light” method via Profilux dosing pumps

Monitoring/Controlling:

• GHL Profilux Plus II Ex reef controller
  • Temperature, pH, Redox, Salinity

Heating/Cooling:

• Standard aquarium heater
• GHL Propeller Breeze 3-fan

Auto Topoff:

• Undecided RO/DI reservoir*
• via Profilux controller and dosing pumps

* I still haven’t found good containers to store water for top-off and water changes.  Since these either have to fit under my stand or behind a nearby screen I’m limited by size, so BRUTE trashcans or anything that big just won’t work.  These containers look promising, but mixing salt water doesn’t seem feasible since they are not open top.  Still looking for suggestions!

You’ll notice a few “key” components missing.

1. Chiller.  By using T5HO instead of metal halide, this allows me to use evaporative cooling as the primary means of temperature control.  Also, since I live in San Francisco, other than for a few weeks in the summer the average high temperature here is between 60-70° F.
2. Refugium.  Due to the fact that I plan on using bacterial means to remove nitrate and phosphate from my tank, a refugium would only effectively serve as a home for pods.  I don’t plan on keeping fish who have pods as their primary diet, so I should be OK there.
3. Calcium Reactor.  As you can probably tell by now, my tank is heavily influenced by successful European tanks. (Both functionally and stylistically)  Even though I have no personal experience with this, I’ve decided to jump in and try out the “balling light” method.  It seems very similar to popular “2-part” methods currently used in the US, but more robust in terms of overall element balance.

Hopefully with this setup I’ll be able to keep an outstanding SPS tank with a simple and efficient equipment setup.  Any and all feedback welcome!

Here are some more sketchup mocks to help me visualize how everything will come together.

i almost went with a nano tank (like 20 gallons or so), but that plan slowly morphed into a 60g tank, and then a 100g tank, and i eventually settled on a 135 gallon tank!

i just ordered my tank and stand yesterday from A.G.E. in Houston, and will have to wait 4-8 weeks for delivery. :[  in the meantime i can plan my other equipment and/or invent a time machine.  still undecided.

Tank:

• 36×36x24, 135G
• Reef Ready
• Rimless with Beveled glass
• Starphire glass on 3 sides
• Black back pane
• PVC bottom pane

Stand

• Powder-coated steel frame
• Adjustable feet
• 36×36x33

I’ve mocked up a drawing in sketchup to help me plan.

part of me really doesn’t want to setup a new fish tank. it’s like having a girlfriend, once you are single you remember how simple life becomes. (haha!) but really, the main nuisance of having a fish tank is the (in)ability to leave it alone for long stretches. you have to worry about equipment failing and your fish staying fed and the power staying on and all kinds of shit.

but the other part of me can’t let go. these things are just too damn cool. like my own little slice of ocean. so i’m doing some thinking about a downsized setup that’s city-life friendly. small, about 20 gallons, and simple equipment that doesn’t need constant fiddling. a drilled tank for sure, so i don’t have to worry about coming home to a waterfall. simple all-in-one lighting so no more hanging crap from the ceiling. (kinda hard now that it’s 20′ high!) oh and it’s time to go back to budget reefing too. san francisco is expensive!

i wonder how long i can control the urge. hopefully at least until i pay off my credit cards…

it was fun while it lasted (started reefing in 2004) and i’m sure i’ll pick it up again in the future. and that might be the not-so-distant future. :]

so i went to my first MARSH meeting today for only one reason: to buy a frag of a Leng Sy monti cap from another member. and i ended up with a custom-built Melev sump! i never win anything!

it goes like this: i’ve been on the lookout for a Leng Sy (or look-alike since they may or may not be lost from captivity) for awhile. on the MARSH site i saw one for sale. after talking with the seller, he says it is authentic as he supposedly got his from Mike Paletta. (or down that chain) i wasn’t too worried about it; if i get the tell-tale nodules it will just be a bonus. since he lived pretty far away, we decided to meet at the MARSH meeting at ADG today.

the meeting’s guest speaker was Marc Levenson, well known sump and acrylic DIY afficionado. he gave a talk about sump design and how to build stuff with acrylic. i’ve always wanted to build my own sump, but due to apartment life the closest i’ve gotten is throwing some glass baffles in an old 29g tank. (aka my current sump) as a surprise, they anounce that all MARSH members get one free ticket for a sump to raffle off. damn, i thought; i’m not a member yet. and the only cash i had on me was just enough for the Leng Sy. so it turned out the computer at ADG had internet, and i was able to sign up and pay right there. they gave me a raffle ticket and not 5 minutes later they drew my name out of the bucket! i was floored. i was this close to not even bothering with it since i didn’t have the cash to become a member.

so now i have this behemeth of a sump (48″ x 16″ x 16″) sitting in my dining room and plans for all the new equipment i’m going to buy spinning through my head. for those that care, the story behind the sump is that it was custom made for a customer of Marc’s, but Fedex didn’t handle it well and it arrived cracked. so they sent the sump back and the guy got a refund. but the sump was barely damaged, so Marc patched it up and brought it to houston for the meeting. Thank you Fedex; your incompetent workers netted me a new toy!

It’s probably the best $30 I’ve ever spent.

so i ordered some new stuff from extremecorals.com, but unfortunately they didn’t get my order right. instead of the damacornis i ordered, i got a leather instead. pretty much the exact opposite of what i wanted. so on monday i’m going to be letting them know that the only acceptable outcome here is if they ship out the coral i paid for on their dollar. i’m certainly not gonna be paying for their mistake. (update: talked with the guy over there, and he’s looking to put my coral in with an upcoming order to someone in houston who wants the leather i got. so in a week or so i’ll have it after a quick switcheroo. not exactly what i wanted but i’ll get my coral without paying any extra.)

other than that i’m extremely happy. got 2 great misbar clowns and an ORA tort that is stunning. i have a sinking feeling that it will lose its color, so i’m gonna have to work hard to get my tank in shape. pretty much every SPS in my tank has changed color from when i got it. i haven’t looked into why yet, but its the top thing on my todo list. here are my best shots of the new stuff.

did you notice a difference in my new pictures from all my other ones? yeah, they are actually in focus now! i borrowed my sister’s tripod and it has made a world of difference. you just can’t physically keep your hand still enough to capture the detail in the up-close shots without one. here’s a good example between the growth shot of my millipora i took for the last post and one taken with the tripod. i’ll let you be the judge.

night and day, right? now all i have to do is figure out how to take good shots of my fish when they are swimming around.

so now i really need some more fish. (and a digital feeder to make sure i don’t get a repeat of this mishap) after examining my original stocking plan, i pretty much have it all figured out.

• Pair of ORA Misbar Clowns - Hoping to snag these guys the next time extremecorals.com has them in stock.
• Longfin Bannerfish - My girlfriend likes these guys, but i’ll have to work hard to find the reef-safe kind. (heniochus diphreutes)
• School of Bartlett’s Anthias - Looking to get either 4 or 5 of them.
• Purple Tang - My last fish; once he’s in there i’ll be “done”.

Depending on whether i get 4 or 5 anthias, i may have room for one more undecided fish. going to tour the fish stores this afternoon to see if anything catches my eye. also going to be on the lookout for a peppermint shrimp and emerald crab for some natural predators against aiptasia and valonia.

enjoy the pics

millipora growth over 2 months:

for those that are unaware, MACNA is the yearly conference slash trade show for all things salty. its in a different city every year and this year it was at the galleria in houston. so on saturday i headed over there around noon and bought a cheapo pass for the trade show. (tickets for the workshops/presentations/banquets are much more expensive and i wasn’t that interested in them) they had lots of great stuff to check out and frags to buy, so i’ll just highlight the stuff that stood out for me.

tunze nanostreams

these bad boys have been on my radar for awhile now. i’ve always known my maxi jet 1200s just aren’t going to cut it for a SPS-heavy tank, but since my tank is only 75g, i was wary about using a tunze stream. they just seemed too big and powerful for my tiny tank. and i just knew a sandstorm would be unavoidable. but the nanostream is meant just for me. don’t let the name fool you, they aren’t THAT nano, but they would be a nice fit in alot of tanks. there are 3 flavors: a 660g/hr, a 1189g/hr, and a controllable one that goes from 264g/hr up to 1453g/hr. the non-controllable ones should be coming out in october while the nice one is scheduled for around christmas. i definitely know something that i’ll be asking santa for.

profilux controller

this was my favorite of the show. finally a controller that doesn’t make me have to comprimise on features. first off it’s the first controller that supports wireless connectivity out of the box. hopefully this becomes a defacto standard; i still remember being surprised 2 years ago when i found out that controllers were using serial connections to PCs. what were they thinking? having ethernet ports was a step up, but who wants to run a cat5 across the house to their fish tank?

another neat feature is the expansion card slots. just like a PC, you can buy up to 3 cards to customize your controller. the only cards i’ve seen so far are for redox, conductivity and USB support. and supposedly the controller will automatically detect and work with the new cards, no firmware changes needed. i like this much better than having seperate versions of the same controller when the major differences between them are what they can monitor. (AC jr, AC pro, AC3, AC3 pro anyone?)

also of note:

• all your basic controller functions
• temp monitor/control
• pH monitor/control
• outlet switching
• digital timing
• web interface for online viewing/control
• windows program for control/configuration
• T5 and LED lighting control
• dimming
• weather presets (lightning storm was my favorite)
• powerhead control
• controllable powerheads (i.e. tunze) can supposedly be controlled with this. not sure if it supports all the stuff something like a tunze multicontroller can do, but i know that things such as “soft start” are included.
• external display (added $$)
• seperate display screen which can be mounted or placed in sight while viewing the tank so that tank parameters can be viewed without opening your stand and accessing the primary unit

frags!

of course who could leave out all the livestock? i picked out 3 SPS peices i liked. kinda upset tho, since one of them doesn’t look as nice under my lighting. all just tan and boring under my 14Ks. i’ll give it two weeks and if it doesn’t color up i’ll sell it. i’m really happy with my new milli and tort. hopefully they’ll keep their color.