February Tank Of The Month (nitr8)

Misled · 02/01/2017, 07:48 PM

I want to start off by saying, thank you. I have watched and drooled over the RC TOTM for close to a decade now and feel extremely honored to be nominated. Many of the systems I’ve seen earn the title are very elaborate and usually large systems. I’m not sure my little 90 gallon with the sump in the stand deserves to be in the same class but none the less I am extremely excited.

I’ve been in the hobby for as long as I can remember and like most started out with cichlids at a young age. I branched out to a number of tanks, too many to count, and ended up getting my first saltwater tank in 2004. Naturally after having cichlids for so long my first saltwater tank was a predator tank. It was 150 gallons, PC lighting, wet/dry and very underrated coralife skimmer. As crude as it was, this tank was by far the best teaching tool I’ve had. Understanding the importance of water quality, proper husbandry and I don’t think there is a better hobby to apply “you get what you pay for” to. This tank also spawned my username on Reefcentral.com, Nitr8. Between the inadequate filtration, neglect, over stocking, crushed coral substrate and many other factors brought to my attention the nitrate levels were off the charts which is how I found this community. Desperate for help I turned to the internet and in no time I had the issues resolved and started to slowly replace groupers, eels, lionfish and damsels with community fish and coral.

In 2007 I completely turned to a reef system and said Good Bye to fresh water and predators. This 65 gallon tank was my pride and joy as a new reef keeper. I was constantly testing parameters, key word google searching and lighting the forums up with questions. Sadly this tank was short lived and never got a chance to mature. At about the one year mark I moved from Michigan to Massachusetts and sold my system piece by piece. I was definitely down but far from out. For close to 4 years I planned and gathered for the system I have now. I didn’t have a tank to care for but the itch still needed to be scratched so I turned to the forums to feed my obsession and research “the perfect tank” for me. I told myself that I was going to do my next system the right way no matter how long it took and refused to cut any corners. Little by little I acquired the necessary components and left them sitting in the original boxes until it was time to start up. So long that the warranty on most of my equipment was expired before even touching water. In 2011 a job offer moved me to Florida where I continued to research and gather equipment and knowledge to have the SPS dominant tank I had dreamed of. By this time I had most of the stuff I needed but was still moving around a lot and now the focus was on getting to a comfortable position and calling a place home. I didn’t want to set this tank up and have to move it around so again, I’m waiting. I settled into my career path as well as my home in 2013 and soon after that I had my tank set up and cycling.

Much of my system is still the same from the day I set it up but I have made a few changes to some of the components over the 3 ½ years the tank has been running. The display is a custom built tank made by Miracles in Glass. I made a large mistake in the beginning and built the stand first for a 36” x 24” x 24” tank and found out later that 36” x 24” is not a standard aquarium size. My options were to start over with the stand or go custom. I had done a lot of research on the external coast-to-coast overflow and really didn’t want to rebuild the stand so it was an easy decision. The specifications I sent the builder were the above mentioned dimensions and overflow, two returns, rimless and low iron glass on the front and sides. While the tank was being built I put the finishing touches on my DIY stand and built my sump and refugium. The sump is roughly 35 gallons (30” x 18” x 15”) made out of glass and consists of four chambers. The first chamber takes two of the three drains from the Bean Animal over-flow and starts the filtration process with filter socks. The second is my filtration/dosing chamber and holds my NYOS 160 skimmer, GEO618 calcium reactor with Eheim 1046 feed, JBJ 500w heater, MP40wES for circulation, Eheim 1046 feed pump for BRS carbon reactor and Eheim 1250 feed pump for BRS GFO reactor. The output of the GFO reactor feeds the refgium. It is about 12 gallons and sits little taller than the sump at 15” x 9” x 20”. This allowed me to drill the top of the refugium and allow it to gravity feed back into the filtration chamber of the sump. The refugium has a AI SOL super blue for lighting, MP10wES for circulation, 36lbs of Figi Mud and is pretty much only used for pods to reproduce, chocolate chip starfish to await the death penalty and increase overall water volume of the system. The third chamber of the sump is an ATO reservoir on a float valve fed by a 50g drum on the opposite side of the wall that is kept full via my BRS 75gpd 6 stage RODI unit. I have a Tunze Osmolator that pumps water over a baffle into the 3rd chamber. The last chamber of the sump is my return section. This chamber holds the Eheim 1262 return pump, receives the last drain of the Bean Animal overflow and regulating components of the ATO. The stand also houses all of the APEX controller components including two EB8s, WXM module, VDM module, 2x pH probes, temperature probe and auto feeder. I have the feeder programmed to dispense a small amount of food 4 times/day. In addition to the auto feeder, I also feed one cube of various frozen foods every evening. The last items in the stand are a BRS dosing pump and vertex dosing container. I don’t have anything in particular that I dose on a regular basis. Most of the time it sits empty but if adjustments to parameters are necessary I’ll use this system to do so. Target parameters are maintained at 1.025 salinity, 80 degrees, less than 5ppm nitrates, .05 phosphates, 8.1 pH, 400ppm calcium, 10dKh, 1300ppm magnesium. Usually 10% partial water changes on a monthly basis keep everything pretty close to these targets.

Misled · 02/01/2017, 08:01 PM

The display was started with 140 lbs of special grade reef sand, 90lbs of dry Marco Rock and a few small pieces of LR for seeding.
Over the years a variety of fish, inverts and corals have gone into the tank and sadly a lot have come back out. As of today my stock list is as follows:

FISH:
Royal Gramma Basslet
Bangaii Cardinal
Borbonius Anthis
Whyoming White Occelaris
Black Snowflake Occelaris
Bartlett’s Anthias
Melanurus Wrasse
Prawn Goby
Yellow Coris Wrasse
Flame Angel
Red Mandarin Dragonette (M)
Blue/Green Chromis

INVERTS:
Cherry Red Serpent Starfish
B & W Harlequin Serpent
Red Harlequin Serpent
Various Porcelain Crabs
Various Hermits
Various Snails
Feather Duster
Emerald Crab
(2) Randall's Pistol Shrimp
Coral Banded Shrimp
Harlequin Shrimp (Mated Pair)

Zs and Ps:
AOG
Pandora Palys
Rastas
Orange Delights
Magicians
Goochsters
Pink Zippers
Utter Chaos
Ultra Blue Agave
Awesome Blossoms
Captain Americas

SPS:
7 unknown/un-named
ORA Birds of Paradise
ORA Cali Tort
ORA Joe the Coral
ORA Scripps
ORA Miami Orchid
ORA Red Planet
Superman Digi
Garf Purple Bonsai
Idaho Grape Monti
Setosa
Green Slimer
Starburst Monti
Jack Frost
Acroberry
Orange polyp purple porities
Steve Elias Stag
Smurfette Milli
Rainbow Stylo
Shawn Bennet Yellow Tort
Acroberry
Raspberry Nasuta
SC Orange Passion
Red Dragon
RR Aussie Gold Tort
Blue Steel Stag
PC Rainbow
ORA Plum Crazy
Strawberry Shortcake
Greg Carol’s Ultimate Efflo
RMF Transistor
RMD Gila Moster
Strawberry Wine
CC Hell Boy
CB Fire Dragon
Blue Monster

LPS:
Red/Green Blasto
Orange Plate

SOFTIES:
Iron Man Mushroom
Red Yuma
Blue Sponge
Tyree Green Toad Stool
Ric garden

Thank you all very much for looking and helping along the way. I look forward to many more years in the hobby and hope I can always turn to reefcentral.com when an obstacle presents itself. Happy reefing!

Misled · 02/01/2017, 08:10 PM

wilder · 02/01/2017, 09:01 PM

Beautiful mixed system!

Ucantwin · 02/01/2017, 10:44 PM

Congrats! Looks amazing.

Breadman03 · 02/01/2017, 11:28 PM

Congrats!

mystikal · 02/02/2017, 04:20 AM

Congrats!

Pny · 02/02/2017, 06:02 AM

Congrats to a nice looking tank!

rogergolf66 · 02/02/2017, 06:05 AM

Well done��

robthorn · 02/02/2017, 06:41 AM

Way to go Macon.

deputydog95 · 02/02/2017, 07:17 AM

Where in Florida are you at and what type of lighting are you using? Don't remember seeing that in the article. Tank looks amazing.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

Nola Bear · 02/02/2017, 08:06 AM

Nailed it!

GimpyFin · 02/02/2017, 08:44 AM

Great pictures! What an awesome looking tank.

anbosu · 02/02/2017, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deputydog95

Where in Florida are you at and what type of lighting are you using? Don't remember seeing that in the article. Tank looks amazing.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

He has AI SOL Blues over the tank with some crazy custom lighting schedule.

nitr8 · 02/02/2017, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wilder

Beautiful mixed system!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ucantwin

Congrats! Looks amazing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Breadman03

Congrats!

Quote:

Originally Posted by mystikal

Congrats!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pny

Congrats to a nice looking tank!

Quote:

Originally Posted by rogergolf66

Well done��

Quote:

Originally Posted by robthorn

Way to go Macon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nola Bear

Nailed it!

Thank you for the kind words.

Quote:

Originally Posted by deputydog95

Where in Florida are you at and what type of lighting are you using? Don't remember seeing that in the article. Tank looks amazing.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

Thanks. I'm in Lakeland. I use (4) AI SOL Super Blues. Here is my lighting schedule and a picture.

nitr8 · 02/02/2017, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GimpyFin

Great pictures! What an awesome looking tank.

Thank you. I cant take credit for the photos but a good friend of mine also on RC (TyWynn) took these. He is an amazing photographer.

deputydog95 · 02/02/2017, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nitr8

Thank you for the kind words.

Thanks. I'm in Lakeland. I use (4) AI SOL Super Blues. Here is my lighting schedule and a picture.

So you're entirely led?

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

nitr8 · 02/02/2017, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deputydog95

So you're entirely led?

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

Yes sir. I've had these 4 lights and only these four from the beginning.

deputydog95 · 02/02/2017, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nitr8

Yes sir. I've had these 4 lights and only these four from the beginning.

Wow! Impressive!

I'm in Tampa. Anytime you need to do some pruning let me know and I'll buzz by to take your scraps lol. I'm all LED too and struggling to find frags that thrive under led.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

robthorn · 02/02/2017, 04:24 PM

Almost all of my acros are doing very well under led only. I have added 6 t5's recently though.

Allenl223 · 02/02/2017, 05:29 PM

Nice tank!!!

nitr8 · 02/03/2017, 07:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deputydog95

Wow! Impressive!

I'm in Tampa. Anytime you need to do some pruning let me know and I'll buzz by to take your scraps lol. I'm all LED too and struggling to find frags that thrive under led.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

PM sent. I always have frags available. Small tank means constant pruning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by robthorn

Almost all of my acros are doing very well under led only. I have added 6 t5's recently though.

Trader!!!! lol

Quote:

Originally Posted by Allenl223

Nice tank!!!

Thank you.

cobraz · 02/03/2017, 08:33 AM

Seen this tank in person..it is really nice and will make you drool.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

Wazzel · 02/03/2017, 09:17 AM

Very well done.

nitr8 · 02/03/2017, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cobraz

Seen this tank in person..it is really nice and will make you drool.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wazzel

Very well done.

Thank you.

02/01/2017, 07:48 PM	#1
Misled RC Mod Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Pittsburgh, Pa Posts: 11,440 Blog Entries: 11	February Tank Of The Month (nitr8) I want to start off by saying, thank you. I have watched and drooled over the RC TOTM for close to a decade now and feel extremely honored to be nominated. Many of the systems I’ve seen earn the title are very elaborate and usually large systems. I’m not sure my little 90 gallon with the sump in the stand deserves to be in the same class but none the less I am extremely excited. I’ve been in the hobby for as long as I can remember and like most started out with cichlids at a young age. I branched out to a number of tanks, too many to count, and ended up getting my first saltwater tank in 2004. Naturally after having cichlids for so long my first saltwater tank was a predator tank. It was 150 gallons, PC lighting, wet/dry and very underrated coralife skimmer. As crude as it was, this tank was by far the best teaching tool I’ve had. Understanding the importance of water quality, proper husbandry and I don’t think there is a better hobby to apply “you get what you pay for” to. This tank also spawned my username on Reefcentral.com, Nitr8. Between the inadequate filtration, neglect, over stocking, crushed coral substrate and many other factors brought to my attention the nitrate levels were off the charts which is how I found this community. Desperate for help I turned to the internet and in no time I had the issues resolved and started to slowly replace groupers, eels, lionfish and damsels with community fish and coral. In 2007 I completely turned to a reef system and said Good Bye to fresh water and predators. This 65 gallon tank was my pride and joy as a new reef keeper. I was constantly testing parameters, key word google searching and lighting the forums up with questions. Sadly this tank was short lived and never got a chance to mature. At about the one year mark I moved from Michigan to Massachusetts and sold my system piece by piece. I was definitely down but far from out. For close to 4 years I planned and gathered for the system I have now. I didn’t have a tank to care for but the itch still needed to be scratched so I turned to the forums to feed my obsession and research “the perfect tank” for me. I told myself that I was going to do my next system the right way no matter how long it took and refused to cut any corners. Little by little I acquired the necessary components and left them sitting in the original boxes until it was time to start up. So long that the warranty on most of my equipment was expired before even touching water. In 2011 a job offer moved me to Florida where I continued to research and gather equipment and knowledge to have the SPS dominant tank I had dreamed of. By this time I had most of the stuff I needed but was still moving around a lot and now the focus was on getting to a comfortable position and calling a place home. I didn’t want to set this tank up and have to move it around so again, I’m waiting. I settled into my career path as well as my home in 2013 and soon after that I had my tank set up and cycling. Much of my system is still the same from the day I set it up but I have made a few changes to some of the components over the 3 ½ years the tank has been running. The display is a custom built tank made by Miracles in Glass. I made a large mistake in the beginning and built the stand first for a 36” x 24” x 24” tank and found out later that 36” x 24” is not a standard aquarium size. My options were to start over with the stand or go custom. I had done a lot of research on the external coast-to-coast overflow and really didn’t want to rebuild the stand so it was an easy decision. The specifications I sent the builder were the above mentioned dimensions and overflow, two returns, rimless and low iron glass on the front and sides. While the tank was being built I put the finishing touches on my DIY stand and built my sump and refugium. The sump is roughly 35 gallons (30” x 18” x 15”) made out of glass and consists of four chambers. The first chamber takes two of the three drains from the Bean Animal over-flow and starts the filtration process with filter socks. The second is my filtration/dosing chamber and holds my NYOS 160 skimmer, GEO618 calcium reactor with Eheim 1046 feed, JBJ 500w heater, MP40wES for circulation, Eheim 1046 feed pump for BRS carbon reactor and Eheim 1250 feed pump for BRS GFO reactor. The output of the GFO reactor feeds the refgium. It is about 12 gallons and sits little taller than the sump at 15” x 9” x 20”. This allowed me to drill the top of the refugium and allow it to gravity feed back into the filtration chamber of the sump. The refugium has a AI SOL super blue for lighting, MP10wES for circulation, 36lbs of Figi Mud and is pretty much only used for pods to reproduce, chocolate chip starfish to await the death penalty and increase overall water volume of the system. The third chamber of the sump is an ATO reservoir on a float valve fed by a 50g drum on the opposite side of the wall that is kept full via my BRS 75gpd 6 stage RODI unit. I have a Tunze Osmolator that pumps water over a baffle into the 3rd chamber. The last chamber of the sump is my return section. This chamber holds the Eheim 1262 return pump, receives the last drain of the Bean Animal overflow and regulating components of the ATO. The stand also houses all of the APEX controller components including two EB8s, WXM module, VDM module, 2x pH probes, temperature probe and auto feeder. I have the feeder programmed to dispense a small amount of food 4 times/day. In addition to the auto feeder, I also feed one cube of various frozen foods every evening. The last items in the stand are a BRS dosing pump and vertex dosing container. I don’t have anything in particular that I dose on a regular basis. Most of the time it sits empty but if adjustments to parameters are necessary I’ll use this system to do so. Target parameters are maintained at 1.025 salinity, 80 degrees, less than 5ppm nitrates, .05 phosphates, 8.1 pH, 400ppm calcium, 10dKh, 1300ppm magnesium. Usually 10% partial water changes on a monthly basis keep everything pretty close to these targets. __________________ Jesse I'm not saying I'm Batman. I'm just saying nobody has ever seen me and Batman in a room together.

02/01/2017, 08:01 PM	#2
Misled RC Mod Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Pittsburgh, Pa Posts: 11,440 Blog Entries: 11	The display was started with 140 lbs of special grade reef sand, 90lbs of dry Marco Rock and a few small pieces of LR for seeding. Over the years a variety of fish, inverts and corals have gone into the tank and sadly a lot have come back out. As of today my stock list is as follows: FISH: Royal Gramma Basslet Bangaii Cardinal Borbonius Anthis Whyoming White Occelaris Black Snowflake Occelaris Bartlett’s Anthias Melanurus Wrasse Prawn Goby Yellow Coris Wrasse Flame Angel Red Mandarin Dragonette (M) Blue/Green Chromis INVERTS: Cherry Red Serpent Starfish B & W Harlequin Serpent Red Harlequin Serpent Various Porcelain Crabs Various Hermits Various Snails Feather Duster Emerald Crab (2) Randall's Pistol Shrimp Coral Banded Shrimp Harlequin Shrimp (Mated Pair) Zs and Ps: AOG Pandora Palys Rastas Orange Delights Magicians Goochsters Pink Zippers Utter Chaos Ultra Blue Agave Awesome Blossoms Captain Americas SPS: 7 unknown/un-named ORA Birds of Paradise ORA Cali Tort ORA Joe the Coral ORA Scripps ORA Miami Orchid ORA Red Planet Superman Digi Garf Purple Bonsai Idaho Grape Monti Setosa Green Slimer Starburst Monti Jack Frost Acroberry Orange polyp purple porities Steve Elias Stag Smurfette Milli Rainbow Stylo Shawn Bennet Yellow Tort Acroberry Raspberry Nasuta SC Orange Passion Red Dragon RR Aussie Gold Tort Blue Steel Stag PC Rainbow ORA Plum Crazy Strawberry Shortcake Greg Carol’s Ultimate Efflo RMF Transistor RMD Gila Moster Strawberry Wine CC Hell Boy CB Fire Dragon Blue Monster LPS: Red/Green Blasto Orange Plate SOFTIES: Iron Man Mushroom Red Yuma Blue Sponge Tyree Green Toad Stool Ric garden Thank you all very much for looking and helping along the way. I look forward to many more years in the hobby and hope I can always turn to reefcentral.com when an obstacle presents itself. Happy reefing! __________________ Jesse I'm not saying I'm Batman. I'm just saying nobody has ever seen me and Batman in a room together. Last edited by Misled; 02/01/2017 at 08:09 PM.

02/01/2017, 08:10 PM	#3
Misled RC Mod Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Pittsburgh, Pa Posts: 11,440 Blog Entries: 11	__________________ Jesse I'm not saying I'm Batman. I'm just saying nobody has ever seen me and Batman in a room together.

02/01/2017, 09:01 PM	#4
wilder Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Michigan Posts: 28	Beautiful mixed system! __________________ "If everyday is an adventure, then life is a journey"

02/02/2017, 04:20 AM	#7
mystikal Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Apopka-Orlando, Florida Posts: 611	Congrats! __________________ IM 40 -> Reefer 250 Transition :) My Tank Journal http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2582745

02/01/2017, 10:44 PM	#5
Ucantwin Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: some where Posts: 559	Congrats! Looks amazing.

02/01/2017, 11:28 PM	#6
Breadman03 New Old School Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Luzerne County, PA Posts: 3,293	Congrats!

02/02/2017, 06:02 AM	#8
Pny Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Sweden Posts: 169	Congrats to a nice looking tank!

02/02/2017, 06:05 AM	#9
rogergolf66 im an addict lol Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Land o lakes, FLorida Posts: 12,930	Well done�� __________________ Goal levels: salinity 35ppt, temp 78-79, alk 8-9, cal 430-450, mag 1310-1400 po4 .03, no3 1-3 Current Tank Info: System 1... 100 gal Zoa tank I built, 30 gal Ric Yuma shroom tank, 30 gal mix tank my sons,40 gal softie tank, 40 gal nem tank, two 40 gal LPS tank. System 2... 240 gal SPS display attached 100 gal frag SPS only tank.

02/02/2017, 06:41 AM	#10
robthorn Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: largo florida Posts: 5,089	Way to go Macon.

02/02/2017, 07:17 AM	#11
deputydog95 Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Sarasota, FL Posts: 966	Where in Florida are you at and what type of lighting are you using? Don't remember seeing that in the article. Tank looks amazing. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk __________________ Red Sea Reefer 500 Peninsula, Apex Controller, Apex Wav (2), Apex DOS, Kessil 360WE (3), T5's (4), Kessil H160 Fuge light, RO Regal 150SSS Skimmer, RO DC Return Pump, Red Sea A&B

02/02/2017, 08:06 AM	#12
Nola Bear Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2016 Location: St. Pete Posts: 311	Nailed it! __________________ Current Tank Info: Red Sea E 260 - Mixed Reef Current Tank Info: IM Fusion 10 - Nem Tank

02/02/2017, 08:44 AM	#13
GimpyFin Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2016 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 2,032	Great pictures! What an awesome looking tank. __________________ Brian Current Tank Info: 110 gallon

02/02/2017, 04:24 PM	#20
robthorn Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: largo florida Posts: 5,089	Almost all of my acros are doing very well under led only. I have added 6 t5's recently though.

02/02/2017, 05:29 PM	#21
Allenl223 Registered Member Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 1	Nice tank!!!

02/03/2017, 08:33 AM	#23
cobraz Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Lakeland, FL Posts: 151	Seen this tank in person..it is really nice and will make you drool. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

02/03/2017, 09:17 AM	#24
Wazzel Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Houma, LA Posts: 4,743	Very well done. __________________ Mark Beware the light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes it's a train. Current Tank Info: 120, LED, Bare Bottom, SPS/LPS