Tank Of The Month - March 2009

[chingchai]

Tank of the month.
You truly deserved it.

Hats off to you! Mr. Keith.

[NanoCube-boy]

What is in the magic box?

[Hop]

Originally posted by NanoCube-boy


What is in the magic box?

From the article

Nothing is kept inside the stand, although I did build a wood box that sits a couple of feet to the left to house some equipment for the lights and other miscellaneous items. Wires are hidden behind a piece of plastic running along the baseboard.

[reedrodz]

Congratulations. Beautiful tank..Can you tell us how you started setting up your corals. Did you start from the back or in the front of the live rocks? How do you which corals will grow faster? If the coral in the front grow too fast then it will cover the coral in the back.

[dougie]

awesome! if my 225g looks anything like yours il be stoked!!

congrats mate!

[reefing102]

Awesome tank, your 120 looked great too

[brentj]

Gorgeous! Inspiring.

Can you point to a thread or more info about how phosphate removing media led to the demise of your old tank? That frightens me and I hope I'm not heading the same direction...

[paulthomas]

Oh snap! Again!?! That's awesome Keith! I gotta see your tank next time I'm in your area. If that's ok with you of course?

Congratulations again bro!

[billyr]

WOW!! I'm finally impressed enough with a TOTM to post on RC! Not that I'm not impressed with the others. If you spend the national debt...er... the old national debt, it should be impressive! Like an other post above there is about 4 to 5 TOTM's that impress me. I like the lack of computer control! YOU are the reason your aquarium looks so good! I grew up in Hawaii and the corals on the reefs there don't have that much color! All of the TOTM corals have bright colors. Do only certain ones get like that or will the right conditions make most any SPS frag from LFS get like that? I'm also interested in your crash!
Awesome aquarium!! I hope to be there some day! Very inspirational!

[snaza]

Beautiful Keith,

Im interested in your flow. just 2 tunze on the back facing each other. Does that cause a sandstorm? How are they setup? Do you find you have any dead spots?

Thanks

[chatyak]

I love the overflows built into the back of the tank. I want that on my next tank.

Can you tell me, where did you order this from?

Edit: I found it was Aquarium Obsessed.


So I guess I shall ask, how much do they charge for a tank of this size?

[ReefBum]

Many thanks folks!! I'm away for the weekend so I'm going to reply to all of your questions when I return tonight!

[Baros]

Super-Clean and Immaculate, Beautifully done!

[ReefBum]

Originally posted by rcypert
Beautiful. Can you tell us more about the Goniopora? Thanks for sharing!
Ross

Thanks Ross! The Goni was added a few months after my tank cycled and has been a happy camper since. I don't do any special feeding.....it grabs stuff when I feed the fish and folds up so I know its chomping on something.

Thanks Mucho Reef, OCRick, eaglesrx.

Originally posted by IridescentLily
*faints*
This tank is perfection. I'm absolutely gobsmacked.
Your story of the previous tank and current tank is filled with valuable info for us. Your husbandry, tank, corals, fish, aquascape, problem solving skillz, eye for design... are all #1.
You've got the whole enchilada Keith Berkelhamer.
And your father is awesome too.

Bravo! And thank you.

Very kind words IridescentLily!!

Originally posted by Dudester
Incredibly beautiful, and quite an honor and tribute to your success to have two TOTM's.

How thick is the black acrylic that you used to obscure your overflows?

Thanks Dudester. The acrylic is 1/4 inch.

[ReefBum]

Thanks Jeremy B., Adrienne, soccerbag, JRaquatics, Sara, KDDG, Sonny, iaJim, MMOORE0324, Oldude, MeuserReef, chingchai, dougie, Shane, Baros

Originally posted by acro bat
Amazing reef tank!I wish I have a basement here in Florida so I can put all the equipment down there.
I also like the open look of your tank and not the overcrowded look like many other tanks .
How often you change the Radium bulbs?And where I can buy the light fixture?
Again beautiful reef tank!
Joe

Thanks Joe! I've been runing the Radiums for almost 6 months and I plan to change them out in the next week or two. The fixture came from Aquarium Obsessed.

Originally posted by Hop
I have to say that there have been about 4 TOTMs that truly inspire me and subsequently begin reducing my wallet thickness... This is one of the 4. Great job!!!!

Thanks Hop! That is an awesome compliment!

Originally posted by rsuplido
Congrats! Great tank!

I'm wondering if you were able to document what happened on your previous tank. What happened when you added some phophate remover. Did you experience RTN or STN? Which ones got affected first? What have you learned from it?

Thanks.

Many thanks Reggie! As for the phosphate remover, I recall some acros going quick and others taking a couple of weeks. I believe I added too much at once and it shocked the corals. The lesson I learned is run a phosphate reactor right when you start a tank or add it super slow to an established tank.

Originally posted by MACH5
Way to go Keith!!! Dude you didn't tell me you were getting TOTM again!! Big congrats and keep up the good work.

Simply amazing!!! All frags are doing great BTW.

Sergio

Many thanks Sergio! I was keeping a low profile on the TOTM honors Glad the frags are doing well.

Originally posted by jhlbeef
Am looking at setting up a 210. Can you help on whether I will need to add supports in the basement?

I would. The best money I spent was bringing in a structural engineer, who mapped out how much support the tank needed.

Originally posted by strendo
Amazing tank! I'm like a kid in a candy store when I go to Grenwich Aquaria as well!

How long has the tank been set up, did you buy everything as frags?
I'd love to see some growth shots.
Thanks

strendo- Jason really has a fantastic shop. Greenwich Aquaria is one of the best ones I've seen. As for the tank, it will be 2 years old next month and I started it with a lot of frags and a few small colonies....my website has some nice progression shots of the tank.

Originally posted by reedrodz
Congratulations. Beautiful tank..Can you tell us how you started setting up your corals. Did you start from the back or in the front of the live rocks? How do you which corals will grow faster? If the coral in the front grow too fast then it will cover the coral in the back.

Thanks Reed. I started my corals on the top, front and sides and just let them grow out and frag when necessary. I also tried to keep certain tabling corals in spots that wouldn't block out other corals when they got bigger.

Originally posted by brentj
Gorgeous! Inspiring.

Can you point to a thread or more info about how phosphate removing media led to the demise of your old tank? That frightens me and I hope I'm not heading the same direction...

Thanks brentj! Let me see what I can find.

Originally posted by paulthomas
Oh snap! Again!?! That's awesome Keith! I gotta see your tank next time I'm in your area. If that's ok with you of course?

Congratulations again bro!

Thanks dude. You are more than welcome to stop by and check out the tank.

Originally posted by billyr
WOW!! I'm finally impressed enough with a TOTM to post on RC! Not that I'm not impressed with the others. If you spend the national debt...er... the old national debt, it should be impressive! Like an other post above there is about 4 to 5 TOTM's that impress me. I like the lack of computer control! YOU are the reason your aquarium looks so good! I grew up in Hawaii and the corals on the reefs there don't have that much color! All of the TOTM corals have bright colors. Do only certain ones get like that or will the right conditions make most any SPS frag from LFS get like that? I'm also interested in your crash!
Awesome aquarium!! I hope to be there some day! Very inspirational!

Thanks for the very kind words billyr! I think there are some basic things you can do in reefkeeping to maximize colors. A big one in my book is to have stable parameters. I also feel the Radiums help me with the colors and of course feeding. I believe my colors have improved recently for certain corals after I started adding Roti-Feast and Oyster-Feast.

Originally posted by snaza
Beautiful Keith,

Im interested in your flow. just 2 tunze on the back facing each other. Does that cause a sandstorm? How are they setup? Do you find you have any dead spots?

Thanks

Thanks snaza. All the flow is generated by the Tunzes and 2 return lines. No sandstorms with this setup, although there a a couple of dead spots. I might have to add some more flow down the line as things get more packed in. I have them running on an interval/pulse flow and they produce a nice surge

[reedrodz]

Reef bum, I just re did my 300gallon tank just like yours. I really like your set that I tore down my tank and Ijust finished last night cleaning and shampooing my Bar area where the tank is located. My fishes are able to swim more and the water is crazy. My only problem is that sometimes when fishes swim to some spots it create a little sand storm. does these things get better eventually?

[cward]

Fantastic tank!!!! Congratulations on your TOTM.

[Blueflu1]

that tank is incredible. Congrats. Well deserved.

[ReefBum]

Many thanks cward, Blueflu1.

Originally posted by reedrodz
Reef bum, I just re did my 300gallon tank just like yours. I really like your set that I tore down my tank and Ijust finished last night cleaning and shampooing my Bar area where the tank is located. My fishes are able to swim more and the water is crazy. My only problem is that sometimes when fishes swim to some spots it create a little sand storm. does these things get better eventually?

I did get some sand storms in the beginning so it did take a few weeks for me to figure things out with my flow. You may want to tinker with the positioning of your pumps.

[ReefTank1]

ReefBum, you have one of my favourite tanks - I also have a 225 gallon reef, but I am having problems with my MTC ProCal. The flow rate is never consistent (always drops over 24 hours). What feed pump do you use, and what flow rate/bubble count are you using? I am using: mag2 pump, 70mL/min, ~1bps, large grain ARM. The reactor and media are always full of bubbles. Reactor pressure is 3psi.

Thanks

[ddier2020]

Reef Bum, will it be possible to get some pics of the return going into the tank, where did you drill for the anti siphon hole?

Thanks

[n9gux]

Gorgeous tank! Congrats!

[chingchai]

Keith. If you don't mind, I'd love to see some clip video of your tank.
Thanks.

[chatyak]

Originally posted by chatyak
I love the overflows built into the back of the tank. I want that on my next tank.

Can you tell me, where did you order this from?

Edit: I found it was Aquarium Obsessed.


So I guess I shall ask, how much do they charge for a tank of this size?

bump..

[reedrodz]

Originally posted by ReefBum
Many thanks cward, Blueflu1.

I did get some sand storms in the beginning so it did take a few weeks for me to figure things out with my flow. You may want to tinker with the positioning of your pumps.

Ok I'll do that tomorrow if it doesnt settle down. Ireally love this open set up. I cant believe I was stuck with that rock piling before. This set up just makes everything better.