|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
TCMAS : Member Tanks : Dale SandersMember Since...July 2005Screen Name on TCMASdalejsandersBackground...I started keeping a tank back in 1990 while in college at UW-Milwaukee. I bought my first tank, a 55 gallon AGA, and did what most people did back then... put in an undergravel filter, with Whisper powerheads and a Whisper Power filter with carbon. I used standard fluorescent lighting, with no Actinic. It was a fish only tank with the typical O. Clown, Blue Damsel or 2 and a Coral banded shrimp. I tried to keep a Catalina Goby, but without access to proper food, it didn't live long. Brown algae was a huge problem.It was some time around 1992 or 1993 that I discovered Hoffers Tropic Life Pets in Milwaukee. It was there that I really discovered how many different types of corals there were and I knew then that I was in trouble! In 1996, on the day that I moved from Milwaukee to Appleton, WI, I bought a new 125 AGA tank with custom stand from "The Fish Store" in Waukesha, WI. This was my first "real" tank. Around 2000 or so, I purchased 3 Metal Halide pendants from Hamilton Tech. and also ran VHO Actinic to supplement. Since I only had softies in the tank, the halides were too much lighting... so I sold those and went with all VHO. Now, in the past year or so, I have added T-5 with great results. My Current Tank...My current tank is a 180 from Midwest Custom Aquarium with custom Sump/Refugium from Reef Mania. |
||||
|
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||
| Tank Size: 180 Gallon Acrylic | Sump Size: 30 Gallon | Refugium Size: 35 Gallon |
| Skimmer: ReefMania PS-8 | Supply Pump(s): 2 x Mag 950's | Salt Mix: Instant Ocean |
|
||
Lighting & Schedules... |
||
| Actinic: 2 x 72" VHO | Turn On: 7:30 A.M. | Turn Off: 9:00 P.M. |
| White/Daylight: 4 x 35" 6500K GE T5's | Turn On: 8:30 A.M. | Turn Off: 8:00 P.M. |
| Moonlight: Currently building custom LED | Turn On: N/A | Turn Off: N/A |
| Controller: Neptune AquaController Jr. | Ballasts: 2 x IceCap 660's | |
|
||
Heating & Cooling... |
||
| Heaters: 1 x 500 Watt Titanium | Chiller: 1HP AquaMedic TC1200 | Controller: Neptune AquaController Jr. |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||
Water Flow...Water flow is provided by 2 MAG 9.5's throttled back to approximately 60-70% output. Theses pumps are connected to the bulkheads of the sump and feed directly back to the tank. I have no other pumps in my tank, so this makes for a nice cable-free look. I also have a MAG 5 connected to the sump on the same side as the tank supply. The pump feeds out first to the chiller and then thru to the skimmer. The output from the skimmer feeds back into the refugium. The refugium overflows back into the sump. | ||||
|
||||
Water Supply...Top-off water is provided by a Kent Deluxe Maxxima 60 Hi-S RO-DI unit. I don't have any auto-top-off set up. I simply turn the supply on when I need to top-off the tank and it runs from the utility room directly to the sump. I'm pretty satisfied with the results so far. | ||||
|
||||
|
