Reef Chronicle

Hey guys,

Just trying to catch up on all my updates here. I havnt added pictures for a while and my tank has been through quite a few upgrades.

Coralife Clamp on 150 Watt Metal Halide

The first of which was a coralife clamp on metal halide fixture. I would not recommend coralife to anyone looking for a new fixture for their tank. Overheating was a problem for this fixture and it needed to be supplemented by another fan. Light output was poor due to cheap reflectors. Also, the fixture quality seemed pretty cheap for a $350 piece of equipment. The neck is also not adjustable enough to fit on a tank less than 12 inches wide making light spillage an issue. For the price, I would have expected a little more quality.

Coralife Clamp on 150 watt Metal Halide Fixture mounted on my 37 gallon tall reef aquarium

Catalina Aquarium 6 x 24watt 24″ T-5 fixture

Next, I upgraded to a 6 x 24watt 24″ T-5 fixture by Catalina with dimmable LEDs. Unfortunately, because my tank is 30″ long, the fixture did not sit flush on my aquarium, which is the main reason I do not use this light any longer. The fixture comes with individual reflectors, and that combined with 6 high quality bulbs was a great combo that produced a ton of light. All my coral seemed to do well with this light and the light spread covered every inch of the tank. However, the light does not have any type of internal cooling (no fans), and for T-5 bulbs to run optimally, they must be under a certain temperature. So, I had to add a small fan, which isnt a big deal, but again, for the $400+ price tag, you would expect it to be perfect out of the box.

Another reason I chose to upgrade to another fixture is the fact that the bulbs can get expensive. Most good quality bubls are in the $20-$25 each price range for the 24″, and that times 6 equals a little too much for me every 6 months. Also, when I purchased the fixture, I did not know very much about light spectrums and color, and I chose a poor color, but high par spectrum. This means that my coral was happy, but the color was not to my liking. Overall, its a nice fixture, but I would go with the current t-5 fixture over this for the quality, cooling, and similar price.

Catalina Aquarium Solar T5 6x24w Fixture /w Dimmable LEDs mounted on my 37 gallon tall reef aquarium

Current USA 20″ 250 Watt Sunpod

Finally, I upgraded to Currents line of metal halide fixtures called the Sunpod. This is a high quality, solid, professional fixture. It looks and functions very well. Light output if very high and all my corals are loving this fixture. I opted to go with the Ushio 20k bulb, which is very blue, but really makes the coral pop. I opted to go with the shorter fixture because I am going to be installing a hutch on top of my aquarium shortly and I needed something that would fit inside with no problem. Also, I decided to go with this fixture instead of a retro because I like the warranty and this fixture has all the fans and LED moonlights already installed.

However, not everything about this fixture is desirable. Unfortunately, the fan on both the ballast and the fixture itself are pretty noisey. Also, this fixture puts out a lot of heat, but this is to be expected with a metal halide fixture. Other than that, this fixture is perfect.

20" Current USA 250 Watt Sunpod mounted on my 37 gallon reef aquarium

Welcome. My aquarium has come a long way since the first updates here and I wanted to fill you all in on improvements and additions I have made over the last year.

Stats:

• 55-65 LBS of live rock – mix of Figi and Haitian rock
• 10-15 LBS of Base rock
• 40 LBS of live sand
• Current USA SunPod Metal Halide Fixture, 250 Watt HQI, 20 inch with 20k ushio bulb
• Two little fishes Phosban reactor with Maxi-jet 400 – I use ROWAphos and Phosban phospate sponge
• AquaC Remora protein skimmer with Maxi-jet 900
• 15 gallon sump/refugium combo homemade with 6 gallon section fuge, 40LBS of live sand, chaeto, mangroves, Rio 1700 return, and a 33 watt floodlight 4-5000 k rating.
• 2 x Koralia 2 powerheads
• Aquacontroller JR with DC8, temp and pH probe. Koralia 2 powerheads are oscilated by the wavemaker function on the controller for random flows in the aquarium.
• 150 watt Heater

Livestock

• 2 True percula clownfish maited pair
• 1 Midas Blenny
• 1 Lawnmower Blenny
• 1 Yellow Watchman Goby
• 1 Purple Firefish
• 1 Purple Reef Lobster
• 2 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
• 1 Tiger Pistol Shrimp paired with YWG
• 1 Coral Banded Shrimp
• 1 Green Bubble Tip Anemone

Corals

• Red Montipora Cap
• Green Frogspawn
• Yellow Finger Gorgonian
• Various colored Zoanthids – Greens, pinks, yellows, oranges, etc
• Purple mushroom
• Green Star polyps
• Ricordia Anemones – Green and purple
• Green Toadstool Leather

More pictures can be found here. I will be updating this section with new pictures tomorrow. I have a lot of great stuff to show

A quarantine tank is a separate, smaller fish tank that is used to segregate brand new or sick fish. Many people claim that a quarantine tank is a MUST have for any aquarium, and the reality is, you do. No one wins in the long run without having a quarantine tank, some just have better luck for longer than others. Having a quarantine setup will reduce the chance that a new fish will bring foreign sickness to your existing fish as well as have a place for a sick fish of yours to be rehabilitated without spreading whatever sickness to your other tank mates.

Fish in quarantine can be fed medicated food, as needed or as a prophylactic. New animals should be observed for any trace of disease, fungus, or hitchhiker pests. A sick fish that is placed in quarantine will have the opportunity to recover from illness in a quiet, protected area where there is no competition with other tank mates, creating a much better chance of survival. The quarantine tank will allow you to treat your new or sick fish with medicines that could potentially harm your invertebrates or corals as well.

While in quarantine, new fish will learn what food is being offered without having to compete with other fish. They will become accustomed to feeding times and how the food will be offered. This will greatly increase the chance of success with the new fish because it will know what to do when feeding time arrives, how the food will enter, and what it should do it get its fair share. It is recommended that you quarantine a new fish for 4-8 weeks before introducing it to your display.

A quarantine tank can also be used for corals, which can also carry unwanted hitchhikers as well as pathogens. By placing your new specimens into quarantine, you will be able to closely monitor the coral, without putting your display tank and its inhabitants at risk. Many corals go through a tough time rigorous and traumatic shipping conditions and can use the time to recover in a separated space.

These are all very important reasons to set up a quarantine tank to protect your fish, coral, invertebrates, and your system as a whole. But, if you are not yet convinced, lets take a brief moment to play out an inevitable scenario: Lets assume that you decided to go without a quarantine tank and your shipment of new fish has just arrived. Instead of putting the new specimens in a place they can be closely monitored, you decided to place the questionable fish into the display. Unfortunately for you, the fish was carrying marine ICH and your whole system is now contaminated. What will you do now? your fish are infected, and the only proven method to treat them is with medicines that will instantly kill coral, invertebrates, and live rock. Now, you are forced to remove all your fish, which probably means emptying your tank since they will all hide, and then you still have to buy a quarantine setup to treat them. On top of that, marine ICH can remain dormant in a fish tank for 8 weeks or more. If you try to treat the fish in the system with a drug that claims to be reef safe, you will be adding more chemicals into your tank and the chances that it will do more harm than good are high.

The quarantine tank is a means of loss prevention. Please, include a setup like this with your initial start up and you will save yourself a lot of trouble in the long run as well as have happy, healthy, long living inhabitants.

And so ends my algae and the scrubber chronicle. I will continue to post pictures on how the scrubber is doing, but there is no more algae in my tank. This thing really works and I will continue to use this as my only source of filtration on the tank

If anyone wants a scrubber like the one I have below, I can send the specs of what I used to make it, or make you one and ship it for a small price. I will post comparison picture from start to finish in a couple days when work permits. Thanks all for following along. And please, if you have questions, or just want to talk about some reef stuff, send them to my email: Jason@reefchronicle.com or instant message me on AIM: Jason@reefchronicle.com (im normally on from 9am-5pm.

here is what the tank looks like now…Time for coral =)