Well, the tank is settling in now, and I've run out of excuses for not posting about it. So here goes:
I've been keeping reef tanks for over 6 years now, working my way up from a 3g nano up through various sizes, and eventually to my last tank, a 200g sps-dominated reef. I found out in February that I'd be moving from San Diego to the bay area. By this point, I'd had my fill of huge, high-maintenance tanks, so I sold off the bulk of my hard-won collection, tore down the tank, and begged tank space from my friends to store all the fish/corals I couldn't part with while I moved and got the new tank set up.
In order to be able to get the tank set up as quickly as possible, I ordered it before even having a new place to live lined up, so it was a matter of picking the dimensions I wanted to see in a tank, and just hoping it'd fit in our new house! The goal with the new tank was to make sure the maintenance didn't get out of control. To do that, it had to be too small to house certain critters, or certain combinations of critters. I eventually decided on a 42x28x20 starphire peninsula tank from LeeMar. Keeping it under 4' means that it can house only a few, small fish. It's not very tall, so the rockwork can't be too elaborate. The width allowed for two different viewing panels, with quite different perspectives into the little glass box.
Everything was pretty stressful, moving, dealing with new jobs, bouncing back and forth between cities, waiting for the new tank to be finished, and hoping all my livestock was doing alright, 500 miles away. Then I got the call - there'd been a freak accident, and all my fish were dead, including my beloved pair of spawning black Ocellaris clowns. The female was my very first saltwater fish, and had been through a lot with me. This was heartbreaking, I checked to see if there was some way I could cancel the tank order. The glass had been cut, the deposit had been cashed, it was too late to back out. So onwards it was.
A few weeks after we'd moved, and finally had the majority of the boxes unpacked, the tank was ready. I headed down to socal, grabbed a uhaul, and brought it up. Getting it into the house was a little challenging, as the stand is ~30" wide, and the doorway to the house is 28" wide! I called the movers who helped us unpack our moving truck, and they hauled it up and over the balcony, through the patio doors. The stand spent its first week on a furniture dolly so we could move it around the house every day or two, looking for the right spot. It eventually landed at the end of the kitchen. The overflow box is on the wrong side, but can't have everything.
The tank in its final resting place, with myself and the cat supervising:
It took a few weeks to get it plumbed and running, and I headed back down to socal to pick up what was left of my livestock, and my newly completed sump. I've moved my larger tanks several times, so the experience came in handy here. No casualties from the trip! Once I got everything put back together, I was still missing some "height" to the rockwork, so I went out hunting for something special. A quick trip to Neptune Aquatics produced some of the nicest pieces of LR I've ever seen! Finally the tank was starting to look complete!
The tank has been up and running for about 2 months at this point. I'm basically starting all over as far as what kinds of corals I'm keeping, so there will be a definite "frag tank" look to it for awhile.
- Photosynthetic: zoas, lps, and poci/stylo/seriatopora
- Fish: 3 highfin gobies, 1 mimic filefish, 1 yellow tilefish, 1 carib blue tang, 6ish nano gobies
- Inverts: 12 sexy shrimps, 18" spiny brittle star, tiger pistol, purple sebae/malu anemone
- Non-Photos: several scratch+dent dendros that had been neglected by previous reefers, balanophyllia, swiftia gorgonian
- Algae - Halimedia, Caulerpa paspaloides, and plenty of diatoms/cyano to boot!
Equipment:
Aquacontroller 3, Two Part Solution with Drew's Dosers, 2x tunze 6105, 1x tunze 6025, 2x250w MH, ATB Small Cone skimmer, Eheim 1262 return.
I'll be adding photos as time goes on, but for now, VIDEO!: http://www.vimeo.com/5143403
I've been keeping reef tanks for over 6 years now, working my way up from a 3g nano up through various sizes, and eventually to my last tank, a 200g sps-dominated reef. I found out in February that I'd be moving from San Diego to the bay area. By this point, I'd had my fill of huge, high-maintenance tanks, so I sold off the bulk of my hard-won collection, tore down the tank, and begged tank space from my friends to store all the fish/corals I couldn't part with while I moved and got the new tank set up.
In order to be able to get the tank set up as quickly as possible, I ordered it before even having a new place to live lined up, so it was a matter of picking the dimensions I wanted to see in a tank, and just hoping it'd fit in our new house! The goal with the new tank was to make sure the maintenance didn't get out of control. To do that, it had to be too small to house certain critters, or certain combinations of critters. I eventually decided on a 42x28x20 starphire peninsula tank from LeeMar. Keeping it under 4' means that it can house only a few, small fish. It's not very tall, so the rockwork can't be too elaborate. The width allowed for two different viewing panels, with quite different perspectives into the little glass box.
Everything was pretty stressful, moving, dealing with new jobs, bouncing back and forth between cities, waiting for the new tank to be finished, and hoping all my livestock was doing alright, 500 miles away. Then I got the call - there'd been a freak accident, and all my fish were dead, including my beloved pair of spawning black Ocellaris clowns. The female was my very first saltwater fish, and had been through a lot with me. This was heartbreaking, I checked to see if there was some way I could cancel the tank order. The glass had been cut, the deposit had been cashed, it was too late to back out. So onwards it was.
A few weeks after we'd moved, and finally had the majority of the boxes unpacked, the tank was ready. I headed down to socal, grabbed a uhaul, and brought it up. Getting it into the house was a little challenging, as the stand is ~30" wide, and the doorway to the house is 28" wide! I called the movers who helped us unpack our moving truck, and they hauled it up and over the balcony, through the patio doors. The stand spent its first week on a furniture dolly so we could move it around the house every day or two, looking for the right spot. It eventually landed at the end of the kitchen. The overflow box is on the wrong side, but can't have everything.
The tank in its final resting place, with myself and the cat supervising:
It took a few weeks to get it plumbed and running, and I headed back down to socal to pick up what was left of my livestock, and my newly completed sump. I've moved my larger tanks several times, so the experience came in handy here. No casualties from the trip! Once I got everything put back together, I was still missing some "height" to the rockwork, so I went out hunting for something special. A quick trip to Neptune Aquatics produced some of the nicest pieces of LR I've ever seen! Finally the tank was starting to look complete!
The tank has been up and running for about 2 months at this point. I'm basically starting all over as far as what kinds of corals I'm keeping, so there will be a definite "frag tank" look to it for awhile.
- Photosynthetic: zoas, lps, and poci/stylo/seriatopora
- Fish: 3 highfin gobies, 1 mimic filefish, 1 yellow tilefish, 1 carib blue tang, 6ish nano gobies
- Inverts: 12 sexy shrimps, 18" spiny brittle star, tiger pistol, purple sebae/malu anemone
- Non-Photos: several scratch+dent dendros that had been neglected by previous reefers, balanophyllia, swiftia gorgonian
- Algae - Halimedia, Caulerpa paspaloides, and plenty of diatoms/cyano to boot!
Equipment:
Aquacontroller 3, Two Part Solution with Drew's Dosers, 2x tunze 6105, 1x tunze 6025, 2x250w MH, ATB Small Cone skimmer, Eheim 1262 return.
I'll be adding photos as time goes on, but for now, VIDEO!: http://www.vimeo.com/5143403