Photographer: James Wiseman

Here's the Photo Album for this aquarium.

Tank: The tank is a 300 gal, polished glass tank manufactured by Lemar. It’s 96” long x 30” wide x 24” high. This tank has been setup since April 1999 and replaced an established 90 gal mixed reef tank that had been in operation for four years. There is a 60 gal acrylic tank utilized as a sump. I built the stand utilizing 4x4s, 2x6s, and ¾” plywood shear walls. Lateral bracing and torsional bracing was added since I live in earthquake country and all connections made with Simpson ties. The canopy was built utilizing 1x12s and 2x4s. The top is open and 2x4s stretch the distance where the lights are attached. There are five 3” fans in the canopy. All wood was water sealed prior to use and finished with fleck stone paint. The canopy’s interior was painted white and sealed for added reflectivity.

Filtration/Circulation: Main circulation is provided by an Iwaki 40 RLXT (1200 gph), while four Gemini pumps (960 gph each) on timers provide alternating currents. This results in a brisk current in the tank. A seaswirl will be used to provide oscillating motion in the very near future.

There is ~300 pounds of LR in the tank at the moment. I used a mixture of Fiji, Marshall, Savaii, and Tonga to provide good biodiversity and provide me more aquascaping options. I utilized a mixture of No.1 sand and aragonite to provide a 2-4 inch sand bed that is literally teeming with life.

There is an AquaC EV200 protein skimmer powered by a Sedra 1200 that is run continuously.

There is a homemade calcium reactor modeled after the MTC ProCal that is run continuously (using SuperCalc Gold) to maintain calcium levels and alkalinity. All evaporation (~6 gal/day) is replenished using kalkwasser.

Activated carbon is utilized as needed to maintain clear water.

Lighting: I am using 4-400w MHs (PFOs & Iwasaki 6500K bulbs) along with 4-160w VHO actinics (URI) powered by 2-icecap 660 electronic ballasts. The actinics come on at 9:00 and turn off at 11:00 pm (14 hrs/day) and the MHs come on at 11:00 am and turn off at 9:00 pm (10 hrs/day) I also utilize two-25w and 2-11w incandescent blue bulbs as moonlights. All four come on at about 10:30 pm and the 2-25w bulbs turn off at 1:00 am leaving only the 2-11w bulbs through the remainder of the night. The 2-25w bulbs turn back on at 7:00 am and all four turn off at 9:30 am.

Fish: The tank contains a heavy bioload due to another of my tanks melting down (Thank you Rio) forcing me to add livestock to the 300 gal. YOU try and get these fish out!

• 1-Purple Tang (Zebrasoma xanthurum)
• 1-Yellow Tang (Z.flavescens)
• 1-Blue Tang (Paracanthurus hepatus)
• 1-Orange-shoulder Tang (A.olivaceus)
• 1-Flame Angel (Centropyge loriculus)
• 1-Green-spotted Mandarin (Synchiropus pictuaratus)
• 1-Bicolor Blenny (Ecsenius bicolor)
• 1-Orange-spotted Goby (Valenciennea puellaris)
• 1-Maroon Clownfish (Premnas biaculeatus)
• 1-Royal Gramma (Gramma loreto)
• 2-Ocellaris Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris)
• 4-Banggai Cardinals (Pterapogon kauderni)
• 8-Green Chromis (Chromis viridis)
• 2-Yellow (or Square Spot) Anthias (Pseudanthias pleurotaenia)
• 2-Purple firefish (Nemateleotris decora)

Corals: The tank is heavily dominated by hard corals, which is ironic since I swore that they were “boring” just three years ago and much-preferred softies. I only started maintaining sps in early 2000. Go figure! In my quest to “make room” for the sps, I have removed the majority of the lps and soft corals that had been with me for awhile. Still remaining in the tank, however, is a T.peltata that I’ve had for approximately five years and many of the various mushrooms were “originals” from about seven years ago (+/-).

• Acropora nana, A.horrida, A.sarmentosa, A.chesterfieldensis, A.micropthalma, A.gemiffera, A.samoensis, A.valida, A.millepora, & various unknown Acropora spp.
• Anacropora forbesi
• Montipora digita, M.spongodes, M.capricornis
• Porites cylindrical
• Seriatopora hystrix
• Pocillopora damicornis
• Stylophora pistillata
• Turbinaria reniformis, T.peltata
• Scolymia spp.
• Caulastrea furcata
• Favia spp.
• Fungia spp.
• Sarcophyton elegans, Sarcophyton spp.
• Various Gorgonians
• Blue sponge (Halichondria)
• Xenia umbellata
• Too many Actinodiscus, Discomas, and Zooanthids, to list
• Tridacna crocea, T.maxima, T.derasa

The majority of the corals and fish were obtained from local area specialty fish stores while the others have been acquired through various trades with other hobbyists. I get a personal thrill out of trading with others since it reduces the cost of the hobby and I like knowing that piece of my reef is now establishing itself in another hobbyist’s tank. I also like to observe the myriad of changes that corals undergo in the various tanks due to changes in lighting, water circulation, general water chemistry. It’s fascinating!

Feeding: I feed a very wide assortment of frozen foods, flakes, pellets, nori sheets and livefood. Some of the frozen foods include: Prawn Eggs, Lobster Eggs, Mysid Shrimp, Daphnia, Formula 1, Formula 2, Angel Formula, & Prime Reef. Flakes/Pellets include: VibraGro, Spirulina Plus, Total Marine, Tetra Marine Color, New Life Spectrum, OSI Pellets, Plankton (freeze dried) and various others. The various shrimp that I have in the tank are constantly spawning (as you witnessed!) which provides livefood for the tank. I also feed cryopreserved phytoplankton twice a week as well as feed baby brine shrimp (BBS) once a week and adult brine once a week.Feedings occur a minimum of three times a day – usually more often. I feed the tank in the morning, in the afternoon after work, and in the evening after dinner. I will sometimes feed the tank when the lights go out as well in order for the filter feeders to get their chance. When I feed the BBS, I usually feed it in intervals so that everybody gets a chance. This includes evening feedings.

Maintenance: Topoff water is replenished on a daily basis using a crude system of containers with kalkwasser. These are set at a drip rate of 1 drip/sec and go throughout the day. They will soon be replaced with a reservoir that will operate with a float valve and be directly fed with an RO/DI unit.

I clean the tank glass every other day in order to not let coralline algae and the green algae dusting to get out of control. This takes me about five minutes to do and saves me time in the long run. When I am rearing baby banggai cardinals, I change 5 gal of the main tank every three days and when I am not rearing, I change 10 gal/week. I use water from the Scripps Pier and am pretty religious with my routine.

I rotate the Gemini pumps that I have installed so that I can remove 2 at a time and soak overnight in a vinegar/water solution in order to keep them operating efficiently. I try to do this every 6-9 months. The pH monitor probe is cleaned once/month and calibrated every three months. The calibration should be done more often but I’m being honest here!

Cleanup Crew: The heart of the cleaning system is provided by an enthusiastic cleanup crew. These guys are invaluable! There is an assortment of ~350 hermit crabs (Scarlet, Blue-legged, Red-legged, & Left-handed), ~200 snails (Trochus, Aestrea, Nassarius, & Margaritas), 8 Tigertail cucumbers (Holuthuria thomasi), 12 peppermint shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni), 6 cleaner shrimp (L.amboinensis), 2 fire shrimp (L.debelius) and 6 brittle/serpent stars. There are several Fromia spp. Starfish and Linckia laevigata but these are more decorative than anything else.