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July
2001 Reef Tank of the Month
Snailman &
Snailwoman's Reef Tank
Below is
a description of Snailman's and Snailwoman's incredible 200 gallon reef
tank.
History:
For years we wanted to get into the Saltwater tank world. We read
everything we could get our hands on, talked to everybody we could talk
to and then when our SW sources started running when they saw us we figured
we must be "ready"......
We started off with a used 125 gallon acrylic tank. Bought the tank,
rock, 3 fish, a couple of corals, 'What a deal" we thought !!
It wasn't long that Snailwomans arms were getting weary trying to reach
the bottom of the tank for cleaning..got some 24" tongs.. The acrylic
tank wore heavy shall we say on Snailwoman so off to Penn we go.. "TANK
SHOPPING".. and home we come with a 125 gallon glass tank.. shorter..longer..
All is well I think to myself..
We pain-stakenly take one apart, set the new one up. AHHHHH, I think my
tank moving, carrying days are finally done. And SURELY going through
the routine "troubles" with new tank set-ups will certainly
be absolutely enough the second time around for her. YUP, that bigger
tank bug that had bitten her will be buried once and for all. One
day we are in Penn again (gotta keep her outta there) and I called her
over to see this tank. I ONLY wanted her to LOOK at it. Snailwoman looked
it all over and said "LOAD HER UP". Luckily we had the truck
that fateful day. So here it is (and she says THIS IS IT) It is
a 200 gallon RR Oceanic Tank.
Lavender
Spotted Mushrooms
Livestock:
We still
have the 3 fish that we originally started out with. We absolutely love
the corals so that is really where our concentration is. Snailwoman has
propagated many of the corals that we have. The parent devil's hand is
in our 400 gallon tank and one day I caught her looking it over and the
next day it was missing a "finger. Most of the Snails are from larvae
that I raised.
Chilli Coral
For
more details on our livestock, visit our website.
DevilsHand
Equipment:
I drilled two holes in the floor and have all of the equipment
in the basement. I put a 1 1/2"durso standpipe in both corner
boxes. The sump is a 150 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank with approx. 3"
sand-bed, with lots of critters, even some peanut worms. The hose runs
directly into a 5 gallon bucket that has some LR in it to hold it down.
The skimmer is one of Ron's Satlwater 4" CC skimmers. A Medo linear
piston air pump provides the air for it and the skimmer on the other tank.
A 1/4hp chiller, and 3-250W VisiTherm heaters maintain the temperature.
In the tank there are four Maxi-Jet MJ-1200 powerheads. The Main
pump is a Iwaki MD100 RLT. The skimmer, calcium reactor UV and refugia
are run by an Iwaki MD30RL.
There is a 20 gal
Rubbermaid tank as a refugia with approx. 2" sand-bed with lots of
critters too, hooked in which has 4
mangrove trees growing by leaps and bounds. A UV sterilizer keeps Snailwoman
happy :-). An Aquadyne Octopus 3000 is monitoring and controlling
the systems. A 20lb CO2 tank running a Knop C Calcium Reactor is
in-line right now, but, I have built a 24" dual chambered Calcium
Reactor which I hope to have on-line soon. A Digital Oceans LW401
LightWave controls the Lighting and power heads.
The lighting is 2-140W 50/50 VHO lamps, 3- 175W 10,000K MH,3
Spyder reflectors, and four 25 watt blue incandescent lights
that are for moon-light, the MH and VHO all use IceCap ballast. All this
is housed in a DIY hood which hangs from the ceiling with chains. I will
have pictures on the website soon with pictures of the equipment and the
hood in detail.
Seamat
Tank parameters:
The Calcium level remains about 450, Alkalinity 4 to 4.5mtg and
PH 8.0 to 8.3 throughout the day.
Sun
Coral
For
more information about Snailman's and Snailwoman's incredible tank check
out thier web site - Click
Here |
