uwwmatt
07/02/2009, 03:11 PM
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m102/uwwmatt/8-2.jpg
Equipment
Display: 25G AGA
Sump:10G AGA
Light: 150w Sunpod
Water Movement: Vortech MP20
Filtration: Carbon Reactor/ AquaC Urchin Skimmer/ Mangroves/ Cheato
Controller: ReefKeeper Lite
Temperature: 78-80
ATO: Tsunami ato
Established: December 2008
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m102/uwwmatt/livestock.jpg
Livestock
Fish
1 Orange Spotted Goby (2 years old), 1 Bicolor Blenny (1 year old), 1 Blue-green Chromis (7 months old), 3 Spotted Gill Cardinals (2 months)
Crabs
1 Porcelain Crab, 1 Pom Pom Crab, 1 Emerald Crab, 1 Acropora Crab, 1 Electric Blue Hermit Crab, 6 Assorted Blue and Red Legged Hermits
Shrimp
1 Cleaner Shrimp, 1 Bumblebee Shrimp, 1 sexy Shrimp
Snails
Dwarf Ceriths, Florida Ceriths, Dwarf Planaxis, Nerites, Nassarius Vibexes, Zig Zag Periwinkles, Collonista snails, Astraea
Clams
1 Golden Maxima Clam
Corals
leathers, mushrooms, polyps, LPS, SPS
Hitchhikers
Asterina Starfish, Microbrittle Starfish, Mystery Crab (I have never seen it move, ever), Limpits, Feather Dusters
Macro Algae (in sump)
Cheato, Grape Caulerpa, Unidentified Red Macro Algae, Mangroves
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m102/uwwmatt/tank-1.jpg
Maintenance
Water Changes I try to do a 20% water change every other week. I recently purchased an Air Water & Ice RO/DI unit for all my water change and top-off water. Before that I used the grocery store "Water Island" for 2 years without a problem.
Salt Reef Crystals mixed to 1.025
AdditivesNone. I have a two part solution but I haven't been using it.
TestingNone. I don't use test kits, and I never have with any of my tanks. I am not suggesting that people do this, its laziness not pride. I do constantly monitor temperature and regularly check specific gravity with a refractometer.
FeedingEvery 2-3 days. I feed my tank a variety of food including cyclopeeze, table shrimp, krill, flake food, Microvert, seaweed pellets, mysis. I usually soak the food in a garlic solution before feeding it to the tank. For the most part I do not spot feed anything in my tank.
Disasters
May 2009
I came home one night from work at 2:00am to find my tank a complete disaster. The silicone on my sump and failed causing all the water in the sump to pour out onto my carpet. This caused my ato to kick on pumping 5 gallons of fresh water into my tank, and then eventually back onto my floor.
By the time I got home my tank was 72 degrees with a specific gravity of 1.019. The sump and all my pumps in it where running dry, and all the liverock was also without water.
I spent the next 12 hours cleaning up water and taking down my tank so I could clean under it. My tank spent the next month on my floor while I tried to clean everything up. I also was forced to develop a completely new sump design because the store bought 10G tanks have changed dimensions and none of them would fit my stand.
This is what my corals looked like the morning after the disaster:
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m102/uwwmatt/IMG_5965.jpg
This is basically what my tank/apartment looked like for the month of May.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m102/uwwmatt/IMG_5961.jpg
However, there was a silver lining in all this. Taking my tank apart allowed me to fix some problems and improve on some of my original designs. I redoubled my efforts and finally got around to painting my return plumbing (which I also had to redesign for the new sump). I bought sound proofing material and totally sound proofed my stand. I fixed some of the issues with my sump design extending one of the chambers. I also made several big ticket purchases including a vortech MP20, RO/DI, and Reefkeeper. Finally I was able to completely change the aquascape in my tank to what you see today.
This nTOTM means a great deal to me because I have really been putting in a lot of hard work after what happened in May. I honestly almost gave up. Thank you all for voting for me, and please feel free to ask me any questions you have. I will be posting more pictures soon.
Thanks,
Matt
Equipment
Display: 25G AGA
Sump:10G AGA
Light: 150w Sunpod
Water Movement: Vortech MP20
Filtration: Carbon Reactor/ AquaC Urchin Skimmer/ Mangroves/ Cheato
Controller: ReefKeeper Lite
Temperature: 78-80
ATO: Tsunami ato
Established: December 2008
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m102/uwwmatt/livestock.jpg
Livestock
Fish
1 Orange Spotted Goby (2 years old), 1 Bicolor Blenny (1 year old), 1 Blue-green Chromis (7 months old), 3 Spotted Gill Cardinals (2 months)
Crabs
1 Porcelain Crab, 1 Pom Pom Crab, 1 Emerald Crab, 1 Acropora Crab, 1 Electric Blue Hermit Crab, 6 Assorted Blue and Red Legged Hermits
Shrimp
1 Cleaner Shrimp, 1 Bumblebee Shrimp, 1 sexy Shrimp
Snails
Dwarf Ceriths, Florida Ceriths, Dwarf Planaxis, Nerites, Nassarius Vibexes, Zig Zag Periwinkles, Collonista snails, Astraea
Clams
1 Golden Maxima Clam
Corals
leathers, mushrooms, polyps, LPS, SPS
Hitchhikers
Asterina Starfish, Microbrittle Starfish, Mystery Crab (I have never seen it move, ever), Limpits, Feather Dusters
Macro Algae (in sump)
Cheato, Grape Caulerpa, Unidentified Red Macro Algae, Mangroves
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m102/uwwmatt/tank-1.jpg
Maintenance
Water Changes I try to do a 20% water change every other week. I recently purchased an Air Water & Ice RO/DI unit for all my water change and top-off water. Before that I used the grocery store "Water Island" for 2 years without a problem.
Salt Reef Crystals mixed to 1.025
AdditivesNone. I have a two part solution but I haven't been using it.
TestingNone. I don't use test kits, and I never have with any of my tanks. I am not suggesting that people do this, its laziness not pride. I do constantly monitor temperature and regularly check specific gravity with a refractometer.
FeedingEvery 2-3 days. I feed my tank a variety of food including cyclopeeze, table shrimp, krill, flake food, Microvert, seaweed pellets, mysis. I usually soak the food in a garlic solution before feeding it to the tank. For the most part I do not spot feed anything in my tank.
Disasters
May 2009
I came home one night from work at 2:00am to find my tank a complete disaster. The silicone on my sump and failed causing all the water in the sump to pour out onto my carpet. This caused my ato to kick on pumping 5 gallons of fresh water into my tank, and then eventually back onto my floor.
By the time I got home my tank was 72 degrees with a specific gravity of 1.019. The sump and all my pumps in it where running dry, and all the liverock was also without water.
I spent the next 12 hours cleaning up water and taking down my tank so I could clean under it. My tank spent the next month on my floor while I tried to clean everything up. I also was forced to develop a completely new sump design because the store bought 10G tanks have changed dimensions and none of them would fit my stand.
This is what my corals looked like the morning after the disaster:
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m102/uwwmatt/IMG_5965.jpg
This is basically what my tank/apartment looked like for the month of May.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m102/uwwmatt/IMG_5961.jpg
However, there was a silver lining in all this. Taking my tank apart allowed me to fix some problems and improve on some of my original designs. I redoubled my efforts and finally got around to painting my return plumbing (which I also had to redesign for the new sump). I bought sound proofing material and totally sound proofed my stand. I fixed some of the issues with my sump design extending one of the chambers. I also made several big ticket purchases including a vortech MP20, RO/DI, and Reefkeeper. Finally I was able to completely change the aquascape in my tank to what you see today.
This nTOTM means a great deal to me because I have really been putting in a lot of hard work after what happened in May. I honestly almost gave up. Thank you all for voting for me, and please feel free to ask me any questions you have. I will be posting more pictures soon.
Thanks,
Matt