Roy Seine works in network administration and lives in Washington. He currently has 2 reef aquariums (48x24x12" and 48"x18"x18") that share a common 40 gallon sump, with the total system volume being 160 gallons. Both aquariums are stocked with mostly SPS corals and clams. Roy likes to collect odd corals such as Oxypora sp., Astreopora sp. and other odd encrusting/plating corals.

Introduction:

I've been in the saltwater hobby since late 1993 and my first tank was a 60 gallon, which still happens to be the same tank that I use for my primary reef display. The tank was originally setup as a semi reef....with sand and a few live rocks. I completely turned it into a full reef tank in the summer of 1994. I started out with soft corals and large polyp stonies....then moved onto clams and sps corals...and now I am still keeping the clams and sps but have moved onto keeping the "rare or odd corals", some of which are very common in nature, but uncommonly available to the hobbyist. Two months ago I added another tank that is roughly 60 gallons also and have plumbed it to my main display using a 40 gallon Rubbermaid sump. This tank primarily holds the large derasa clam and some lps corals, clams, acros and a school of lyretail anthias.

Tank specifications:

The tanks are set up in a L shaped formation... the lower part of the L is viewable on 3 sides and looking down...while the top part of the L is viewable on two sides...the sump sits behind where the L joins together. Primary tank is 60 gallons measuring (LWH) 48"x18"x18" and the secondary tank is 48"x24"x12". Both tanks are run off of a common sump containing a ETS ReefDevil skimmer, K2R calcium reactor, 2 Ebo Jager 250watt heaters and 2 Rio 2500 as return pumps.

Lighting:

Primary tank uses 2 175watt 10kk German halides and 2 110watt VHO actinics.
Secondary tank uses 2 400 watt 20kk German halides.
Photoperiod is from 9am to 11pm for actinics and 10 am to 10pm for halides.

Circulation:

Water movement is provided by powerheads located within the tank ran by wavemakers and light timers...I also use oscillating powerheads for my returns.

Fish:

I currently have spread among the two tanks these species of fish: Zebrasoma flavescens , Zebrasoma desjardinii , 2 Zebrasoma xanthurus , Zebrasoma scopas , 5 Pseudanthais kashiwae , Pseudochromis dutoiti , Halichoeres biocellatus , and an Echidna nebulosa .

Clams:

4 Tridacna derasa , 5 Tridacna maxima , 7 Tridacna crocea , 2 Tridacna gigas , 1 Tridacna squamosa , and 2 Hippopus hippopus .

Corals:

SPS! Nuff said.

Other:

Numerous blue leg hermits, astrea snails and 2 serpent stars. Lots of benthic creatures.

Sounds like the tank has been running for quite a while, do you see any types of animals on your live rock that you don't normally see in tanks that have run for less time?

Hmmm... Well I do have a good collection of the Stylaster type of corals that grow under the rocks...primarily the red and white colored ones...have had a sp. of jellyfish that comes and goes on a 3 month basis...only part of them I see is when they are in their polyp stage on the live rock.

Is a lyretail anthias a squammipinis?

Well, the closest id I did with book that looked like what I purchased....so my guesses are as good as anyone else's :)

Do yours ever exibit spawning behavior?

I'm assuming the anthias...nope I've only had them for about a week.

Are you still having good luck with clams, and if so what is the best tips for keeping them?

Been having very good luck with clams :) Good tips for keeping them... Well, light is a big must...found out that the clams do well under lighting that is closer in the 6500k range for growth....but for viewing pleasure they look better under 10kk atleast to my eyes. I've always set my clams on the rock work...I also set a few on the sand and use half a clam shell to place the clam on... They seem to like it better if they have something for their bysuss threads to attach to.

Do any of your clams ever exibit a behavior where they shrivle their mantles for a week, and then die? If so, what is this?

I've had a few where the mantle retracts and never comes back out again... Only thing i can think of is it might be some sort of viral infection that is effecting the clam... I have had some success in getting the clams to come around by doing freshwater dips... and also doing sugar dips which seems to give the clam a bit of a pick me up.

What is a normal tank maintenance routine for you?

I try to keep the refill bucket full of kalkwasser.... system uses an auto topoff... ummm clean skimmer when i remember to.... make sure calcium reactor is working properly every day and occasionally clean the glass when guests are coming over...other than that the animals really do a good job of keeping care of the tank. 'Course I do feed the fish at least 3 times a day.... anthais tend to be very high consumers of food.

Do you have any trouble keeping your tank temp down with the 400W metal halides?

Aaah...that's been a constant problem hehe... those halides are about 5" from the surface of the tank... I do run a fan over it when it gets to hot... also I try to keep up a high volume of water movement... I also unplug one heater in the summer because of the heat that the lights do generate.

Do you test your ca/alk levels? and if so how often do you need to raise the ca reactor to keep up?

I really don't test for any types of levels... I've been doing the "watch the creature trick" which involves growth rates of corals... if they seem a bit slow I'll go check levels, I have some shrooms in there to check on iodine, montipora's for strontium... I watch my clams for calcium consumption...

What are your typical water parameters?

Temp is around 78-80 degs... no nitrates, phosphates, ammonia, nitrites... calcium around 370ppm, salinity is 1.025, ph is around 8.1

How would you rate the success of the tank over the last... 5 years? Any major losses? Any spawnings, stuff like that?

Well, I would rate it pretty well... I had one major total tank loss due to auto topoff filling up the tank full of kalkwasser.... I've had clams spawn 3 times so far...no success in offspring... course have the usual spawning of snails etc. overall I've been very happy with the system.

What changes would you like to make with this system in the future?

Bigger tank... about 1000 gallons would be nice...or just buying my own island ;)

Is it true that See Loong Chin's Xenia sp. is taking over the planet?

ROFL yes! hehe - that is devil spawn xenia

Thanks for the great talk, Roy!

Here are a few of Roy's pics: