My 75 gallon

[KEstep]

Just decided to post some pics of my 75 gallon to see what everyone thinks.

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m258/kestep434/fullshotsmall-1.jpg

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m258/kestep434/rightsidesmall.jpg

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m258/kestep434/Clown.jpg

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m258/kestep434/firefish.jpg

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m258/kestep434/goby.jpg

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m258/kestep434/star.jpg

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m258/kestep434/sunburst.jpg

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m258/kestep434/ucrocea.jpg

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m258/kestep434/orangefungia.jpg

[jay2525]

SHOW_OFF!!!!!


J/K tanks awesome. camera skills too!

[Zarn]

Very Nice Tank. Thanks for sharing

[tls]

what kind of lighting do you have?

[KEstep]

48" Outer Orbit (2 130 watt PC's actinics and 2 150hqi Current 10ks)

[kactusficus]

wow, very beautiful!! I love the purple anemone on the front, very nice disposition! I love your anthias, it is a gorgeous specie you have here!
I love the colors and diversity of corals!!
I love the photos too!
I like a bit less the disposition of the rocks, a bit too compact and making a "wall" on the rear, to my opinion. And I do think your Achilles would love to have more room... Do you project to have a bigger tank soon, to raise this large swimmer?

[KEstep]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9572166#post9572166 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kactusficus
wow, very beautiful!! I love the purple anemone on the front, very nice disposition! I love your anthias, it is a gorgeous specie you have here!
I love the colors and diversity of corals!!
I love the photos too!
I like a bit less the disposition of the rocks, a bit too compact and making a "wall" on the rear, to my opinion. And I do think your Achilles would love to have more room... Do you project to have a bigger tank soon, to raise this large swimmer?


The tank is a 75 room divider RR so the over flow box is on the left side middle. I did not have enough room to actually let it come out from the wall so I just use it like a regular tank. But the overflow takes up a lot of room. When I set up the tank I had to order 50lb increments of rock. I wanted more than 100lbs. so I went with 150. It took up a lot of room and I am not one that can waste what I get so I put it all in there. There are powerheads and spraybars behind the mountain of rock so that there are no stagnant spots.

As for going bigger, it is in my highest hopes (crosses fingers). I am thinking about buying a DAS Designer Series 150 gallon. Lucky for me I can order anything at cost, I just need to throw some money into savings and build it up. As for now that tang does great, all he thinks about is eating which he does often.

[vallon]

awesome tank, one of the best I've seen. Really nice colors.

[KEstep]

Thanks for all the kind posts.

[edwing206]

Wow that tank is amazing. Def one of the nicest around.

[livestockvendor]

Nice picture

[fast94m]

Amazing tank, and i i love how you prove that 150w mh are more then good enough for a beautiful 75g tank. Any pix away from the tank showing the room divider? Dose anything or do anything out of the ordinary to get those colors and growth?

[KEstep]

The tank is a room divider tank but it is not set up as one. It is up against a wall so you cannot see through it. In other words I only have two viewable sides to my aquarium. The front and the right side. The left side is occupied by the overflow that I have a ball of chaeto growing in.

As for supplementation I keep it very very simple. Kalkwasser. It is undoubtedly the best supplement for a reef aquarium. I place 10 tsp. of Kalk in 5 gallons of RO/Di that is gravity fed via a Kent Marine Float Valve that replaces all evaporation. This maintains my ph at 7.9 to 8.0 at night up to anywhere between 8.34 to 8.40 during the day (varies on how much it evaporates). Calcium levels are maintained between 380 and 420 for my tank through this method and my kh is kept around 6 to 8. I do not supplement any other calcium products. I do 10-20 (depends on how much my back hurts) gallon water changes every two weeks religiously, and hydro clean the sand.

I feed my fish daily with mysis cubes, spirulina brine cubes, krill, plankton, rotifers, and bloodworms (kelp is also added daily for my tang). I split 6 cubes (1 of each between two tanks), in essence they both get about 3 cubes daily I also add selcon daily and occasionally garlic extreme. I feed my corals every other time I feed the fish (they love to eat). My Purple LTA eats 2 silversides every 3 or so days and my Green BTA gets the same.

I keep my nitrates down with a Remote Deep Sand Bucket 6gallons worth (thanks goes to Anthony Calfo for that one, absolutely fabulous nitrate reducer). Before I added this bucket my nitrates ran 40 and up. Now they either do not register or they are around 2 ppm with Salifert Nitrate Test kit. Phosphates occasionally rise so I add Seachem Phosphate Sponge every two weeks for a week to keep them at bay (I like my fish to be fat and happy so cutting food is not an option). I do not use a phosphate reactor either I simply place it in a bag, rinse it very well, and add it to the high flow area in my sump. I also run a new bag of carbon when I do water changes every two weeks in the same fashion.

My Filtration consists of a recirculating modified Coralife Superskimmer 220 with an aquabee needlewheel pump. This skimmer works great modified but I am thinking about buying a Octopus Recirc 150 to setup external from the sump so I can turn the skimmer chamber in my sump into another larger refugium. It is plumbed directly from the overflow. Next to it is a refugium apprx 4 gallons worth with sand, rubble rock, and more chaeto lit by a 13 watt lightbulb I found on Melev's site (thanks melev).

And lastly, all my equipment is controlled and monitored by a Reefkeeper 2. To anyone that has ever wondered if this unit was good I will stand behind it 100 percent. It keeps my temp between 79.4 and 82 degrees all the time. It prevents my tank from being destroyed by heater malfunctions and will kill my lights if the temp ever rises above 85.

Sorry if this was long I just figured I would try and answer a lot of questions in one post.

[fast94m]

I totally agree on the kalkwasser, i think it accounts for alot of the growth in my 75g.

I may have missed this but how long has this tank been set up?

[reef2]

beautiful tank

can i ask how is the remote bucket plumbed or do u have a link?

thanks

[KEstep]

The tank was setup in November or decemeber of 05 I am not exactly sure of the date. I cured my live rock for a month and a half and then added my first snail cleanup crew.

The RDSB is just a Kent Marine 6 Gallon salt bucket. I used a hole saw and drilled two holes (opposite each other) and placed 1 inch bulkhead fittings. Make sure to place the output bulkhead a little higher than the input otherwise you may have splashing (I learned that the hard way) One bulkhead is fed via maxijet 1200, and I just plumbed pvc back into the sump. So the return on my bucket is just gravity. I filled the bucket all the way up with sugar aragonite and left enough room for about 2 or three inches of water to roll across the top.
Here is the link where I discovered this http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=595109&perpage=25&pagenumber=1