Dennis has been very involved in the 3 years he has been "in" the hobby. He is an avid surfer of the internet and has expanded his knowledge of the hobby using reefs.org and other internet sites. He has participated in one of the MACO classes and attended many of the conferences dealing with the hobby. Dennis is currently a vice president for the the Marine Aquarium Society of Los Angeles County (www.maslac.org) and has been influential in providing the excellent programs it puts on. He currently has two tanks: a 140G started in February, 1999 and a 210G started in March, 2000.

Introduction

I want to thank reefs.org for providing an excellent resource for reefers, and particularly Bill Crockett for making this possible. I'm honored (and very surprised) to be discussing my tanks and to be included with the Members Tanks chats before me.

Details on hardware of my two tanks -- First, the 140 gallon was started February 4, 1999:

• Picture of the front of the tank .
• Glass: 60x18x30
• Overflow to a 25 gallon sump
• Two 10,000K Metal Halide Ushio Lamps-----formerly 14,000K and 20,000K
• The top right side of the tank picture .
• Two 110W 48" Actinic VHO's
• Chiller: West Coast Aquatics 1/5 HP
• Iwaki MD70-RLT drives all circulation
• One ¾" SeaSwirl plus 2 outlets, all fed by the Iwaki
• EuroReef/AllSeas Protein Skimmer G2 with Rio 2100 pump
• 300 watt heater
• 200 lbs. Uncured Samoan Live Rock
• Initial sand bed 2"…..now about 4"
• A Sally lightfoot was the first animal, and unfortunately, he's still here .

The really cool thing about this tank is its' orientation. The tank serves as a room divider, and so it is totally visible from three sides, and partially visible on the fourth side. Here's the side view .

Besides making it easier to view all sides of a coral, there are virtually no areas where fish and invertebrates can hide. But, I do NOT like it's 30" height. Between the height, and the 12" canopy, my arms only go about half-way into the tank. I can't touch anything in the lower 12".

My 210 gallon began March 28, 2000 : Tank's Picture

• Glass: 84x24x24
• 2 Hang-on Overflows to 40G Sump
• One 400W Metal Halide 12,000K Sunburst
• Four 96W PC's: Two 6700 White and two 7100 blue actinics
• AquaC EV-200 Protein Skimmer w/ two Sedra 700 pumps (were Rios)
• Sen 900 takes water from the 40 gallon sump to the display tank
• Dolphin Ampmaster in a closed loop drives four 1" SeaSwirls. (formerly a Dolphin 2 which died after about 15 months….)
• Chiller: West Coast Aqua. 1/3 HP
• Rio 2500 feeds chiller from the sump
• 292 lbs. Fiji Live rock
• 190 lbs. Live sand, now about 4", from many LFS and tanks
• 25 gallon refugium with caulerpa, 4" of live sand, mangroves and various pieces of live rock

Why halides and PC's? The MH is on one side and the PC's on the other side. Partially for experimental purposes with frags, partially because the PC's generate a lot less heat.

Here's the right side of the tank.

Here's the left side of the tank, with almost all the fish .

Filtration and Feeding

I strongly believe in deep sand beds. Both sand beds are about 4", and have sand from many sources; both from LFS and friends tanks. The 140G started with 50 lbs. live and 80 dead, at about 2". I've added Southdown playsand, Caribsea Aragonite and reef tank sand from many sources. Starter kit from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms and now I have zillions of spaghetti worms. My 210G started with 170 lbs. of live sand, mostly from Aquatic Outlet, Jeff's Exotic Fish, Mark's Tropical Fish, Aquarium City, my own 140G and other reef tanks. The 210G now has about 250 lbs. of sand. It features lots of baby feather dusters, worms and crawling bugs.

Some green chromis in the 210G, top left of the picture

Live Rock:

Together with live sand, IMHO live rock is the basis of a reef tank with strong biological filtration. The 140G has 200 lbs. Samoan live rock, which cured in the tank. The 210G has 292 lbs. of Premium Fiji and regular Fiji.

Protein Skimmer:

The 140 has a EuroReef clone (G2) made by AllSeas, powered by a Rio 2100. The 210G has an AquaC EV-200 with 2 Sedra 700's. I know that the mantra of many reefers is 24/7 skimming, but I skim only about half the time. On a couple occasions, each tank has gone a month or two with no skimming, and in fact, I think the animals look better after no skimming. I think that keeps more nutrients/food in the water for the corals and micro-animals, which in turn provide more biological filtration.

Refugium:

In October, 2001 I set up a 25 gallon refugium under my 210G. Water from the display tank slowly flows down to the refugium in a 1/4" tube, controlled by a valve. The refugium has about 45 lbs of live sand, live rock rubble, and tons of several kinds of caulerpa and other macroalgae plus 4 mangroves. It is lighted 24/7 by two Home Depot PC's with fixtures (about $10 each). Lance Rettig connected the refugium to my sump using a simple tube to balance water between the two. So as the refugium fills, the water flows into the sump.

Time Factor and biological filtation:

Over time, the live sand and live rock build up more little animals, and thus more biological filtration, which I feel is the most important thing for a reef tank. No matter what kind of sand, rock or additives you put in the tank, it will take time for the little micro-animals to build up. Thus a year old reef tank which has been properly maintained will have much more filtration than a 3-month old tank.

Feeding:

This depends on the age of the tank and the animals in the tank. As the tank matures, and the micro-animals proliferate, I think it's important to feed more. This also provides food for the filter-feeding corals and inverts. I feed a combination of frozen food and flake. I make the frozen food myself. At the supermarket, I get shrimp, scallops, squid, crab, etc. and combine it with Kent Zoe, Selcon, Vita-Chem, garlic juice, golden pearls, and other things from BrineShimpDirect. Put it all in a blender and then freeze cubes of it. Very easy to feed. The flake I feed is also from BrineShrimpDirect. I've used their Plankton Gold, Tropical Fish Flake, Spirulina, and Kelp flake, which seems to be all combined in their Deli Flake. I always soak the flake food in either Zoe, Selcon, Vita-Chem or garlic juice.

I regularly use various forms of phytoplankton and microalgae paste utilitizing Tetraselmis, Nannochloropsis, and Isocrysis. I order from Liquid Life (Ed Ramirez) or Brine Shrimp Direct

Maintenance and Care

Calcium/Alkalinity:

140: Dosing Kalk almost the whole time. The coralline in the tank is one of it's best features. Calc is around 380, Alk around 10. I've gotten much looser on the Kalk preparation the past six months.

210: About half the time I've had a Calcium Reactor going. Other times I've dosed A/B solutions. Calc runs around 500 and the Alk about 11.

Water Changes:

Every two weeks I change 5%, mostly with Catalina Water, sometimes I mix.

Flatworm Infestation:

I've had serious flatworm problems . A fresh water dip of the effected coral really works. As soon as you put the coral into fresh water, the flatworms rise like a great migration.

Clean Up Crews:

Most discussions on the net suggest snails and hermit crabs, which are sold by almost all etailers. I used to have dozens of hermit crabs in my tanks. In June, 2000 at the Western Marine Conference, I spoke to Ron Shimek, who described hermit crabs as eco-terrorists. I pulled the hermits from my tank, and within a week I saw an incredible explosion of small snails, worms and other crustaceans. While the crabs are cute, and do eat some detritus, I now feel they are VERY detrimental to a reef tank. I do have lots of snails.

Make up Water:

I have a Kold Ster-il unit. It's similar to an RO/DI, but it works much faster (1.5 liters/minute) and does not have any waste water. The unit is plumbed into the sumps of both tanks.

Rose Anemone:

June 9, 2000 I got a Rose Anemone from Bill Crockett. Two months later my two Percula clowns took up residence in the anemone. Seven months after that the Rose split. I moved one of them to my other tank. The one in the 140 mostly stays to itself, although lately it's moved away from the light. The one in the 210 has moved close to the 400W MH, and terrorizes everything nearby. A Clarkii clown has taken up residence (movie). The Rose still in the 140 faded, and eventually got stuck in the overflow. I moved the two perculas into the 210, because they killed a torch and a frogspawn in the 140 with their incessant attention. I moved the Clarkii into the 140, where it has started to seriously bother a big sinularia. Suggestions?

Percula Eggs:

The clowns seem to have a batch of eggs every couple months. I've never moved them, and they gradually become food for the tank.

Baby Cardinals:

My two Banggai Cardinals have had fry several times. But they had never gotten to look like little fish until Summer, 2001. I had 4 little cardinals, about 3 cm in length. Unfortunately, they took up residence near the bottom, sometimes inside the rock, and I couldn't get them out of the tank. Gradually, one by one, they became someone's dinner.

Fragging and trading:

I've really tried to stock both tanks, as much as possible, with frags and corals from other reef tanks. Mostly this has been from fellow members of the Marine Aquarium Society of Los Angeles County ( http://www.maslac.org ) and the Southern California Marine Aquarium Society ( http://www.scmas.org ) . Animals from another reef tank seem to have easier acclimation, feed more readily, and seem more resistant to attacks from other animals. Further, the more we hobbyists can stock our own tanks through propagation and fragging, the less pressure there is on the world's coral reefs. And it's fun to trade J

Half-dead corals:

I've also tried to get corals from the "half-dead" or closeout bins at LFS. My biggest success is a candycane from Aquatic Outlet. It actually came from the live rock bin, and only contained a couple centimeters of tissue on a piece of rock. I've also gotten some Montipora digitata, a hydnophora sp. rock. I don't plan to do that anymore because of the risk of disease.

Coralline in the 140:

It's really great. Virtually every square inch of the rock is covered with a beautiful purple coralline. I think the coralline is because of the Kalk dosing.

Any success I've had, however fleeting it might seem, is owed to reefs.org and other internet sources, the friends and colleagues in The Marine Aquarium Society of Los Angeles County (MASLAC), the Southern California Marine Aquarium Society (SCMAS), and the many excellent speakers at MASLAC meetings such Dr. Ron Shimek, Eric Bourneman, Charles Delbeek, Craig Bingman, Steve Tyree, Larry Jackson and others.

Thank you

Questions & Answers

What is your favorite fish in your tanks?

Right now, my favorite in my 140G is a Chevron tang from Jeff's Exotic Fish. Very pretty, never bothers corals, readily feeds whatever I put in the tank. my 210G, it's my RedSea Sailfin, which I've had for >2 years.

If you could pick 1 person that influenced your tank who would it be and why?

Dr. Ron Shimek. His feelings on nutrients (keeping more of them in the tank), feeding heavily, etc. and getting the crabs out of my tanks.

How come you don't have a tank at home?

hahaha. Well, I could say it's so that I can watch them all day, 5 or 6 days a week...and that way I never have to debate about whether I need to upgrade the lighting or get a new couch :)

Concerning your fish, do you quarantine before introducing them?

I have several times in the past, but right now I do not have a quarantine tank. I know it's risky, but I rarely add fish. Although I've added two in the past 6 months.

As far as freshwater dipping for flatworms, do you make a point of balancing pH and temp in the dip before adding corals?

I definitely do the temp, and I measure the pH and try to get reasonably close. The main thing is that the dip lasts less than 5 seconds. In that time, the flatworms practically fly off the coral.

Do you target feed the anemones and how much do you feed?

Good question. I used to feed the anemone in my 210G every week or two by putting a small piece of shrimp in it's mouth. But then it was getting so big, and killing everything withinan 18 inch radius that I stopped feeding it for about 8 months.

How often do your roses split?

It's only split once. Strange because it's now > 1 foot wide.

Has freshwater drip alone gotten rid of your flatworms or just bought them under control levels?

I'd say it has gotten rid of lots and lots of flatworms. BUT, I don't even think I have it under control. There's just so many more. I've tried a sea slug (black with neon blue stripes) twice and both times it got caught in the overflow.

Do you know how many species of sps, lps, and softies you have in each tank? Are they regionally diverse or just mixes of things that look good together?

Almost everything is Indo-Pacific with a little from the Caribbean. I'm cutting back on SPS because I have not had great luck. They flourish for several months, and then begin a slow decline. Very depressing. My LPS and softies seem to fare much better. And I know this might be because I run a little heavy on the nutrients.

What book would you say was the best reference?

For corals: Aquarium Corals by Eric Bourneman. But I also refer to Bob Fenners book, The Reef Aquarium, The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium.

Why only one 70rlt driving that tank?

Long story. Basically, in the beginning I knew almost nothing and put it in the hands of a LFS. I wouldn't do that again.

That was our last question

Thanks everyone, VERY much. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Thanks for the great Talk, Dennis