First of all, I’d like to say a massive ‘thanks’ to all the UR members who have commented on my tank in my various tank threads over the last few years. It’s really rewarding to get such nice comments and being awarded another title for this little tank this year is just fantastic!

Like many members on here, I’ve been into fish tanks since I was small, keeping goldfish first then community tropicals. After a bit of a break, I had some success breeding SA cichlids and tetras and then I kept Discus for a while. It was at this point (2001/2) that I got a copy of John Tullock’s ‘Your First Marine Aquarium’ for Christmas (must have been a mistake actually!). I loved this book and read it many times over. I really like the simple, natural approach based on ‘more biology, less technology’.

Anyway, this is my first reef tank and it’s now nearly 3 years old.

Set-up and Equipment

As this was my first tank and it was to be located in my tiny dining room, I went for a simple ‘low-tech’ sumpless design based on the Berlin system. Basically, it’s all contained in the main tank which is a 32x16x16 Juwel Panorama 30gal ‘flat back hex’ shape tank. By ‘low tech’ I really mean the tank has as little equipment as possible. This was primarily for budgetary reasons, but also because technical failure and particularly flooding is something that bothers me (canister filters give me sleepless nights, let alone sumps!). It also needed to look very neat. As such, I love the completely ‘stand alone’ contained nature of this design.


So basically the tank runs a small hang-on skimmer (Aqua Medic Biostar with wheel), a maxijet 900 attached to a Fluval surface skimmer, a ‘sawn-off’ maxijet 1200 and the 400lph powerhead running the Juwel internal filter. I use a Hagen Tronic 200watt heater with guard and a digital alarmed thermometer. I left the Juwel filter box in place as it acted as a useful support for my first large piece of rock (20kg Fiji premium in all, on a polycarbonate cushion, followed by 1” bed of 2mm grade live Caribsea aragonite). In retrospect, this was critical in enabling me to build a really open structure away from all walls of the tank, even the rear panel, and allows me to keep the tank pretty spotless, even in the corners, with good flow all around the rockwork. I was very happy with the aquascaping which I did on the first attempt. In the first few weeks I ran the filter with a couple of foam inserts, but now I just use polyfilter in the very top of the chamber, plus some live rock (as such the chamber acts as an in-tank crypt/refuge area of sorts). The rest of the filter box houses a spare heater and earth probe. The Biostar returns into the top of the filter box too. I originally did this to reduce micro-bubbles, but now it just trickles straight onto the polyfilter pad, thus reducing splashing noise. Building a nice high reef structure also allowed me to hide the ocean-runner pump which feeds the Biostar. Overall the tank is extremely quiet, with all that can be heard the hum of the ocean-runner. So that’s skimming, filtration, heating, circulation…



Lighting was something that needed a great deal of thought with this tank, indeed as we all know, the standard Juwel lighting isn’t great. As such, due to the small size of the tank (and the fact that MHs were ruled out due to heat, light-spill etc), I decided to go for one of the compact T5 retrofit units. This allowed me, after some tinkering, to cram 2x55watt tubes plus reflector under the standard canopy. I also now run a 24watt T5 pure actinic for dawn and dusk lighting, an LED moonlight system and 2 variable speed PC fans. Everything is fully automated, running off segment timers. The hood looks exactly like a standard Juwel except for the 2 fan intake grilles on the front flap (image of lighting set-up below shows old system which had T8 at rear rather than T5 at front as supplement to main lights).


This arrangement has worked well over the last 3 years with the tank temperature remaining very stable in the short term with an evaporation rate of about 1-1.5 litres per day (approx 1% of total tank volume). Carbon dioxide accumulation isn’t a problem. I top up overnight with a home made dripper (which I stand on top of the biostar body) using RO or Kalk. My RO/DI unit, located under my kitchen sink, is an RO-Man 4 stage 50gpd unit and produces water of approx 5-10ppm TDS (yes, the DI resin needs replacing!). For 15% water changes (every couple of months), I use Reef Crystals salt.

Stock

As this was my first tank, once the initial cycling was complete, I decided to start off slowly with tank raised livestock and false/soft corals where possible. I think the rampant growth of the xenia has really helped keep nutrient levels down. Although it is hard to control I wouldn’t like to be without it as it provides so much movement in the tank. Later, when I was sure the tank was biologically stable and technically sound, I got interested in LPS. I have to admit that the fuller the tank has got the choosier over livestock I have become.

Tank parameters are:

Salinity - 35ppt (measured with a Deltec Refractometer)
Temperature - 78f (give or take 2degF over a 24 hour period)
ph - approx 8–8.2 (using handheld meter)
Alkalinity – 2.5-3.0meq/l
Calcium – approx 400-420ppm
Magnesium – above 1500ppm (no idea why!)
Ammonia, Nitrite – undetectable
Nitrate – less than 5ppm
All tests are performed with Salifert kits

As a supplement to regular testing, I monitor a range of biological indicators in the system through regular careful observation.

As of mid September 2006, the tank contains:

FISH

2x Ocellaris Clowns (1 b&w, 1 orange & white)* - Amphiprion ocellaris
1x Orchid Dottyback* - Pseudochromis fridmani
1x Sulphur Watchman Goby - Cryptocentrus cinctus
1x Flame Angel - Centropyge loriculus
1x Azure Demoiselle - Chrysiptera hemicyanea

I am hoping to add 2/3 small rock dwelling gobies in the near future to finish.


INVERTS

1x Randals Pistol - Alpheus randalli
1x Bullseye/Purple Clawed Pistol - Alpheus soror
2x Cleaner Shrimp - Lysmata amboinensis
1x Red Brittlestar - Ophiocoma sp.
4x Scarlet Reef Hermits - Paguristes cadenati
4x Astraea Snails - Astraea tectum
2x Bumblebee Snails - Pusiostoma mendicaria
1x 5” Scaled Clam – Tridacna squamosa

Plus a variety of pods, dozens of tiny collonista snails, a few harmless asterinas, some mini-brittlestars etc – Note: It’s been interesting to observe the appearance of this natural clean up crew as the tank has matured. I don’t intend to interfere with this process, although I’d like to add some burrowing snails and more ornamental shrimp at some point.




CORALS

False Corals and Polyps

Green Striped Mushrooms* - Actinodiscus sp.
Red Spotted Mushrooms* - Actinodiscus sp.
Blue Mushrooms - Actinodiscus sp.
Green Florida Rics* - Ricordea Florida
Orange Florida Rics - Ricordea Florida
Pink and Green Ric – Ricordea Yuma
Brown Zoanthids* - Zoanthus/Palythoa sp.
Yellow Zoanthids* - Parazoanthus sp.


Soft Corals

White Pom-Pom/Red Sea Xenia* - Xenia sp.
Blue Xenia* - Cespitularia sp.
Toadstool Leather - Sarcophyton sp.
Cabbage* - Sinularia dura
Clove polyps* - Clavularia sp.
Gold Tree/Bush* - Nephthea sp.

Seeking some bright green star polyps now