Tank of the Month - May 2004

[Reef_Alchemy]

Eugene,

Glorious tank m8t.

Truly an inspiration for those of us who have struggled along with all of the constraints of temperature, water quality etc. Nice to know that a little tlk (tender loving care) with less "attention to detail" is a formula for success. I used to watch each and every little bump, bruise, chemical shift, temperature shift that occurred in my reef. Now I try to leave it alone as much as possible...and it seems to be working!

I was most gratified to see your tank temps at 80+ and so healthy...my tank runs at 81-2 deaytime to 79-80 at night. I have been told by many of the local reefers and lfs' that my temps are a formula for disaster, especially with the fluctuation.

Thank you for sharing!

p.s. you have inspired me to add my first pair of sps to the tank...I used to think they were boring

[lead]

Eugene,

Outstanding tank!!!!!!!!!!!
Is there a website or an address to the sea star aquarium products? I would like to check out their stuff.
Thanks
Lead

[rjwilson37]

I know this hobby with the LR/LS is suppose to sort of take care of itself, more so than a freshwater tank. I had actually gotten to the point on the 29 gallon I was running, in a hands off approach. It took almost a year to get to this point where it was stable enough to just let it go pretty much besides feeding and an occasional water change or supplement addition, or filter cleaning. But all in all it was pretty much hands off.

I moved to a new 55 gallon with sump/refuge and I am going through the stress headaches again worrying about everything because I do not know the system yet. I can not wait until I get to the point where I know what is going on and it can start running itself again.

Eugene, How long did it take for that size tank to become stable enough to give it the hands off approach.

[Dag]

Beautiful tank.

Can you share some more details on your choice of generator to protect against power outage?

Do you also have an auto shut off if it gets too hot or cold?

[jashort]

Originally posted by SylvioFN
What a fantastic tank!

Some questions: do you add any trace elements to the tank? Do you add anything besides the calcium you mentioned? I say this because you mentioned you run a skimmer that theoretically will eliminate the some important trace elements in the water... I love naturalistic low-maintenence tanks.

congrats-

If you look, you can see that he is running two calcium reactors in the tank. BTW can we see some pictures of the sump?

[Eugene Reefer]

To Lead: I do not believe that they have a website. (They didn't when we ordered the tank.) We talked a lot on the phone; I sent some plans, etc.

To rjwilson37: This tank has been quite stable almost from the time the sand stopped blowing around. Part of that is simply size; and part, I think, stemmed from the fact that a fair amount of the sand and live rock came from a tank that had been established for about 2 years. Ditto some of the corals. So we didn't have to wait for the sand to become "live," critters to mulitply, etc. Indeed, we shocked at the size of some of the worms we discovered in our 120G tank when we made the shift to this one. Believe me, we used to test all the time--and worry (still do the latter), and I didn't mean to suggest that our way is the right way-especially as regards water changes. I was simply describing what we've been doing--or not doing--over the past couple of years.

To Dag: We have a gasoline powered Generax (sp?) generator with (I think) a 5000W capacity. It's enough to run the return pump, heaters, and some of the vhos + our refridgerator, pellet stove (if it's winter), a few lights and the tv (essential, for us). When we lost power several years ago, we assumed it would come back on shorty; it didn't, and we lost all of our fish (except the three stripe damsel), and many corals. On January 1st of this year we lost power again for nearly four days and the generator kept everything relatively happy.

We don't have an auto shut off.

jashort: Actually, there is only a single calcium reactor, albeit a very large one with two reactor tubes (8"x18" and 6"x18"). I don't have a picture of the sump, which is not a design I'd recommend anyway. (I'm in the process of building a new one.)

[rjwilson37]

I think we all worry at times, wondering if we can do more for our tank or do a better job. I know there is not one right way to do this hobby, we hear and see it all the time. What works best for one person does not necessarily work for another. I constantly say to the new reefer's you need to find what works best for you. Bounce a hundread questions of different reefer's and do what makes the most sense for your situation. Everyone comes up with there own regimend of what does best for there life and system setup. We can see what is working and what is not, and then just make adjustments to that regimend.

Thanks for the response!

[lead]

Eugene,
Do you happen to have their address and phone?
Lead

[Eugene Reefer]

Lead--here is the info' I have about Sea Star:

Sea Star Aquarium Products Ltd.
340 Goward Road
Victoria, B.C. V9E 2J6
Canada

Ph: (250) 479-8899; Fax: (250) 727-0447

The owner is Wayne Etherington. The total price, including shipping and crating, was $2,697.50 Canadian or (at the January, 2001, exchange rate) about $1700 US. The time between ordering and shipping was about 6 weeks, if I recall correctly.

Note: the above was for standard glass (5/8" for the sides; 1" [1/2' x1/2" laminate] for the bottom), with two overflows with 2 1.5" holes drilled in each, and 5 1.5" bulkhead fittings. I am located only about 9 hours south of Victoria by truck, so shipping would likely be higher in many cases.

Let me know if you have any other questions about Sea Star or the tank itself.

Best,

George

[Craig Lambert]

Outstanding tank!

I had to take down my 18 mos. old tank last December when we relocated to Portland Ore. I'll be starting it up again soon and was wondering what your source for live stock and Corals are. Any lfs in the area that I should shop? Or did you aquire them by mail order?

Craig

[WmTasker]

This tank is another example of why I keep trying. Beautiful aquarium, simply awsome

[original-reefland]

Sweeet! Very nice tank.

[nemogirl]

What a beauty!

[Brazil]

Beautiful tank! Does it sit on a bottom floor slab, or is the floor braced somehow?

[onefin]

All i can say is one AWESOME tank, maybe someday mine will look like that, i'll keep on dreaming.--------------My Lagoon

[Skinwatch]

What do you feed those corals and how often?

[melev]

Skinwatch,


To Reef Central

Did you already see the main article about this tank?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/totm/index.htm

[tiny tentacle]

Great tank and very inspirational
thanks

[biomekanic]

Nice tank, and a local too!
Have you been to the new store in Springfield, Cichlids and Salt?
Ever thought about hosting a PNWMAS meeting, it'd be nice to have one down here instead of always up in Salem or Portland.

Congrats on this! Hope your power stays up, I've been lucky and only lost power a few times, and only for a few hours.

[acropora]

Congratulatiuons on the TOTM honors.Well deserved. Simple beautiful. Enjoyed every picture.

[Bunifa]

looks great!!!
How does the copperband butterfly do in there? Ive heard they eat some kinds of coral.

[Eugene Reefer]

Thanks to all for the kind comments. I've been away from the computer for awhile, so here are some (belated) answers to a few questions:

To Brazil: We had an architectural engineer take a look at the floor (there is a bearing wall supported by a large beam directly behind the tank) and, as a result, have added jacks bracing the joists that are under, and in front of, the tank.

To Skinwatch: We don't feed the corals specifically, but I think that some of the the spirulina and vibragro that we feed the fish dissolves and helps in this regard. We have some success with corals that seem to require a nutrient rich environment (we grew a red goniopora for over three years, for example), so I suspect that there is a fair amount of nutrients in the water.

To Bunifa: The Copperband (our "70s" fish) has never bothered any corals. We purchased it to help with aiptasia, after having tried just about everything else, and it cleaned them out in a week or two and has kept them out since. It is in many ways our favorite fish--cruising night and day looking for bugs and capable of the most amazing contortions in an effort to check every possible crevice. It eats brine shrimp other than what it can find in the tank.

[Reef_Alchemy]

!Update!

I have shared the pics of your tank with my favorite lfs in an attempt to persuade him to stock more sps corals. He has just recently installed a 600 gallon reef as a show tank with motorized hood and the works for filtration (his dad manufactures Rio pumps and a variety of other salt water goodies like Helios t5 lights). He was a bit miffed at me cause I went on so about your tank...but he agrees...his show tank is by and large lps and ricordeas with a smattering of sps. -sighs- time to step it up.

How often do you feed the tank btw? Also, ho long have you been in Eugene?

[Nosferatu]

Very nice and clean tank, beautifull!!

[aqua_obs]

ER, nice job. I have an unrelated tank question, but in one of the photos there is a dining table. Where'd you get it? It is also very nice!

Ah, someday to have a tank so grand!
TIA