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Unread 07/02/2009, 03:11 PM   #1
uwwmatt
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Location: Madison, WI
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July nTOTM- UWWMatt's 25G Mixed Reef



Equipment
Quote:
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



Livestock
Quote:
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

Maintenance
Quote:
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
Quote:
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:


This is basically what my tank/apartment looked like for the month of May.


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



Last edited by uwwmatt; 07/02/2009 at 03:40 PM.
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Unread 07/02/2009, 03:21 PM   #2
uwwmatt
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Coral layout:


FTS


A very shy orange spotted goby


These are most recent tank additions. I trio of spot gilled cardinal fish.


This is me hand feeding my bumblebee shrimp


My porcelain crab on a ricordia mushroom


This is a mini brittle starfish orgy. I came home from work one night to find hundreds of brittle starfish in little piles like this all over my tank.


My pom pom crab in the shipping bag before I put him in the tank



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Unread 07/02/2009, 03:27 PM   #3
uwwmatt
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More mess from the tank disaster. My fiancé was not happy.


Another shot of the cardinals


Some pictures from the build



This is my bicolor blenny



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Unread 07/02/2009, 03:32 PM   #4
uwwmatt
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This is the 14G biocube that I upgraded from.


Here is a shot of my 25G right after the transfer.


I also transfered the livestock from my 2.5G tank


Sexy Shrimp (I only have 1 now)



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Unread 07/02/2009, 03:39 PM   #5
uwwmatt
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Some coral shots


More livestock pictures



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Unread 07/02/2009, 03:48 PM   #6
ReeferChick85
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congratulations!!! I love the progression shots and all the random fish and invert pics!! Great picture taking skills you got! Very cool. You definitely deserved this one! Glad you got through your dilema back in May and now your nTOTM!! woo hoo!! congratulations once again


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Unread 07/02/2009, 03:53 PM   #7
DSR
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Congrats. Wonderful tanks and great story. I had a similar incident happen and I am rebuilding as well. You deserve the honor this month.


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Unread 07/02/2009, 05:54 PM   #8
Jadams
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Nice tank! Good job!


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Unread 07/02/2009, 06:05 PM   #9
got2envy
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Congrats! very sweet tank


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Some people are like Slinkies...
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Unread 07/03/2009, 01:52 AM   #10
uwwmatt
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Thanks guys.


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Unread 07/03/2009, 10:28 AM   #11
E.intheC
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Congrats! Very nice tank. How do you like your vortech? I'm thinking of the MP10 for my next project.


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Unread 07/03/2009, 11:10 AM   #12
uhuru
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well deserved nTOTM. congrats!


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Unread 07/03/2009, 12:24 PM   #13
louie07
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Quote:
Originally posted by uwwmatt
This is the 14G biocube that I upgraded from.


Here is a shot of my 25G right after the transfer.


I also transfered the livestock from my 2.5G tank


Sexy Shrimp (I only have 1 now)
Looks great! you also have the same desk as me lol


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Unread 07/03/2009, 01:13 PM   #14
DFason
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Love this tank! One of the few NTOTM I like.

-Dave


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Unread 07/03/2009, 04:31 PM   #15
uwwmatt
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Quote:
Originally posted by E.intheC
Congrats! Very nice tank. How do you like your vortech? I'm thinking of the MP10 for my next project.
I love the vortech. I would definitely recommend getting one.

Quote:
Originally posted by louie07
Looks great! you also have the same desk as me lol
It is a pretty sweet desk,although it took me like 12 hours to put together.


Thanks everyone.....if anyone wants to know more about a certain aspect of the tank or see more pictures just let me know.

Matt


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Unread 07/03/2009, 05:35 PM   #16
Agu
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Congrats


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Unread 07/03/2009, 08:12 PM   #17
Ansphire
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Congrats!.. just one question?.. do you still have a fiance?..lol


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Unread 07/03/2009, 11:48 PM   #18
dalston
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Well deserved winner, stunning tank and shots.

Excellent write up of your tank, very well put together.


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Unread 07/04/2009, 02:07 PM   #19
uwwmatt
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Quote:
Originally posted by Ansphire
Congrats!.. just one question?.. do you still have a fiance?..lol
LOL, yeah shes still around. However she has much less tolerance for fish tank messes so things have been much cleaner lately.


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Unread 07/05/2009, 01:55 AM   #20
oregonanenome
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Very nice tank. It is not too common to see a 25 tall aga as a reef tank. I think you did a great job aquascaping. Great composition and mix of corals.


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Unread 07/05/2009, 06:25 AM   #21
CurvBall
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Well done uwwmatt - great looking tank, with a great write up.

I hear you about the fiance and tank situation... I've managed to have 1 tank burst, and flooded our old apartments on more than one occasion, ha ha. couldn't have been that bad though, we're now married ...hoping to raise the 'upgrade' question with her soon...


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Unread 07/05/2009, 07:03 AM   #22
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really like the tank matt. I like to see other people out there with the same kind of "hands off" aproach to testing and maintaining their tanks. Yours is proof that it can work.


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Unread 07/05/2009, 12:34 PM   #23
nate82
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ncie tank well deserved ntotm


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Current Tank Info: 45g cube in the works. With 15g sump, 10g fuge, DIY LEDs. and more
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Unread 07/05/2009, 02:01 PM   #24
uwwmatt
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Thanks for the comments everyone!


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Unread 07/07/2009, 12:23 PM   #25
RumLad
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Great looking tank sir, well done.

Couple of Q's..

What type of overflow are you using, what return pump and do you have a top down shot of the sump in the stand and associated plumbing?

I have the exact same tank stand combo and am thinking of making some radical changes soon.


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