Chaotic_Reefer AKA Bill Grimlan has been a valuable contributor to #reefs for years - tonight he is going to tell us about his set-up, and I'm sure we can all learn a lot.

I would like thank all the #reefs ops for having me talk tonight. It’s a real honor being asked to speak about my tank tonight.

First, I would like to start off by talking about a little about my aquarium history.

I started this venture with a freshwater system in my high school years, which was around 10-11 years ago. As my interest peaked, I became interested in Discus. While pursuing this freshwater madness, I acquired a 100 gal planted Discus tank.

My first venture into saltwater aquaria began on June 26, 1999. This first system (a 20 gal long saltwater tank) was designed to be fish only, but like most newbies the design got tossed out the door in less than few weeks; it quickly changed to a reef tank! As a newbie with a voracious appetite for knowledge my quest for information brought me to the internet to find reefs.org and eventually MIRC and the #reefs channel. (BTW, thank you guys, for getting me interested in this expensive hobby ;-) )

As the progression to full blown reefing continued, my first system ran its course within 6 months. It was time for an upgrade. As with most people who make the transition from fresh to salt, my knowledge level brought me to a comfort level in which I felt secure changing my 100gal freshwater to a reef tank. The system was broken down and the livestock traded off or given away on Dec. 28, 1999.

Evolution is always at work, not only within the glass box but even the make-up of the outside of the box…my reef project seems never complete. The areas I will be covering in my presentation will include lighting and the three types of filtration that I use, which includes: a sandbed, protein skimming, and the refugium. I have been tinkering with the present setup for quite some time now and the current set-up is as follows:

Lighting: composed of two 400 watt Iwasakis supplemented by two 55 watt actinic Power Compacts. The photoperiod is 8 hours for the Metal Halide and 2 hours for the Power Compacts. The latest change in lighting has only been operational since March of this year, prior to this I was running 250 watt Iwasaki’s. With the upgrade I have noticed a huge improvement with my corals: they have grown faster and have developed brighter colors.

As the headlines have read in the last few months, California is in an energy crisis, which seemed just the right time to upgrade my lighting :-). The lighting change caused major cooling problems. Fighting daily ambient temps of well over 100 degrees here in California can be a major task, especially without running an air conditioner which would make anyone’s wallet cringe. Power is too expensive!

An economical solution I employ is the use of fans. I am running 8 fans to keep the tank’s temperature down. A box fan (in the window), 2 window fans, 2 radio shack 4" fans, and a regular household 12" fan are all put into service. I have been lucky so far: I only had to turn off the metal halides for 4 days so far this summer. A view of these fans can be found at:

http://www.chaoticreefer.com/17june2001/FullTankView.JPG

You can see the fans located on top of the canopy and, of course, the large fan aimed at the sump. My tank’s temperature now ranges from 80 to 84º F on average. On really hot days, the fans can’t keep up and temperatures spike around 86 (at which point I start shutting down the lights at 86º F). In addition to the fans, I have changed my photoperiod span the early hours of the morning: from 5 am until 1 pm.

Filtration is pretty much basic: a deep sand bed, live rock, protein skimmer and a refugium in this system. Let me expand on these some….

The Sand bed contains about 230 lb of aragamax covered with 100 lb of coarser aragonite to help hold down the sugar sized sand which tends to be picked up by the water current.

There is 160 lb of Fiji live rock in my tank. The majority of the live rock was received as un-cured. I decided that it would be easier to cure it right in my tank which is located in my bedroom (this shows my IQ level ;-) ) Man, did it stink!! We had every air freshener opened, every scent candle lit, and every window opened, but we still couldn’t make a dent in the decomposing smell.

http://www.chaoticreefer.com/29oct2000/hardwaresump.jpg

The Protein skimmer I am using right now is the Red Sea Berlin Classic Skimmer. I have used this skimmer off and on as I try other skimmers, but I always go back to the Berlin. I have tried so many things attempting to improve my skimming. Hopefully, I have found the right combination. I am running the Berlin with Mag 7 now. The old venturi was removed and replaced with a Kent Venturi.

Since the modification the skimming performance has increased five-fold! It’s an amazing improvement for only few bucks, whereas I was almost ready to spend hundreds of dollars to try another skimmer.

The circulation runs about 40 times the tank’s capacity (4, 000 gph). There are 3 Maxijet 1200’s (300 gph each), 2 Hagen 901’s (952 gph each), and a Mag 12 (probably running at 900 gph) hooked to two ½" Sea Swirls. The Sea Swirls are placed at the front of the tank in the 2 corners and pointed backwards.

http://www.chaoticreefer.com/17june2001/Refugium.JPG

The refugium is a 30 gal Rubbermaid with aragamax, a few pounds of live rock, and macroalgae. I started it out with a 175w mercury vapor lamp. The fixture was the one you buy at home depot for 25 bucks. This lighting system worked wonderfully with the macroalgae. The algae had to be pruned weekly. The fastest growing algae in the refugium is the feather caulerpa.

A carpet anemone was added to the refugium a few weeks ago, as well as a 175 watt 10,000K metal halide fixture. Since then, the macro growth has slowed down, but I expect the growth to return to normal once the 2 chloroplasts balance according to the new spectrum. I know it is kind of odd to have a carpet anemone in a refugium, but I did not want him wandering about the main tank and stinging other corals.

When it comes to livestock I am very selective, and even more so when it comes to fish: once they are put into the tank, they are staying there until the day they die! It’s almost impossible to catch an unwanted fish with all the live rock; it usually takes me about a month to decide on a fish after researching it.

The fish that I have now are a pair of Orange-fin (A. chrysopterus) clowns, Flame Angel, Hippo Tang, Green Chromis, and Mandarin. I, also, have a Clarkii clownfish in the refugium hosting in the Haddoni carpet anemone.

http://www.chaoticreefer.com/17june2001/ChrysoClown5.JPG

When it comes down to it, the chrysopteruses are my favorite fish. These clowns have a very interesting behavior. The female controls the whole relationship between her and the male. In fact, she controls the whole tank!

http://www.chaoticreefer.com/29june2001/ChrysoClown.jpg

She has all the big roses on the right side of the tank, whereas, the male has a small rose on the left side of tank. I call his rose anemone the "living room sofa" (I am sure you married people know why I named it that, after your wife finds out how much you spent on your tanks ;-) ). It’s so funny seeing him sleeping in it, because the rose is so small that it’s like a full-grown man sleeping curled up on a wooden dining room chair.

The female mostly chases the male around, but sometimes I think she is trying to chase him into her rose. The interesting part is after all this chasing, she will get in front of him and flap her tail in the male’s face (kind of like she is trying to invite him into the relationship).

http://www.chaoticreefer.com/17june2001/ChrysoClown.JPG

I have 15 anemones (12 Roses and 3 Green Bubble Tips) in the main tank. Most of the Roses have come from Guam. I have only had 2 Roses split and 1 Green BTA. People say that anemones split under stress, so the small amount of splitting might be an indication of next to no stress (or I need to feed more often).

http://www.chaoticreefer.com/29oct2000/clarkii.jpg

At first I was feeding every 2-3 days, but I experimented by feeding less and less every 2 weeks. This seems to make the anemones expand more. I am thinking about starting back up to feeding every 2-3 days to see if they split more rapidly.

Even though the clowns and anemones are the main attraction of the tank, the tank is packed with corals. My corals are mostly stonies (SPSs) but I believe that a mixed tank is more pleasing to the eye for many reasons. I have seen many 100% SPS tanks, they can be striking in colors, but the tank is still dull, in my opinion. I consider one of reasons for this is that there’s no movement in the tank. To combat this, I have a Colt and pulsing xenia (yes, I like the weed ;-) ).

http://www.chaoticreefer.com/11nov2000/colt.jpg

Also SPS corals look at their best when they are placed at top of the tank (where there is more light). I place LPSs at the lower part of the tank to draw your eyes downward so it balances out the tank’s view instead of your eyes sticking to top of the tank. The LPSs I am using for this are an Octobubble, an Elegance, and a red Open Brain.

http://www.chaoticreefer.com/29oct2000/millepora.jpg

I am a big fan of Montiporas and A. Milleporas. I have about 10 different Montipora Digitatas, 8 different Capricornis and about 5 different Milleporas. The rest are mostly Acroporas.

Before we end my talk and begin the questions, I would like to thank a few people that helped me great deal with this tank. The first person (I gotta shallow my pride to thank him ;) ) is Sang Lee (Maximus), he has given me probably about half of my SPSs in my tank.

Another important person is Kevin Done (Kevd). I try to do most of what I can on my website, but can’t take too much credit for it, since Kevd designed probably about 90 % of it. I would also like to thank Rich Knecht (RichK); he’s the one that tried the Berlin skimmer modification first (which probably has saved me hundreds of dollars). Thank you so much guys!!

How long have you had those amazing clowns and have they bred yet?

the clowns came from guam, it was about 4 months ago, no breeding yet.

are you providing any extra current for the carpet in the refugium?

atm,i am only using the return current which is a maxijet 1200.  theres not much difference in height so theres not alot back pressure so it gets about 300 gph 

where else do you get your corals from?

all around, but living close to lax is an advantage because we grab the awesome pieces b4 they r ship out to usa plus i get frags from other ppl i like getting frags because they can for,m to ur system. so its best to get frags from hobbyists imo.

how do u take the photos of your tank and avoid glare, etc

thats real simple, have other ppl take the pics. i dont own a d. cam. i get my friends to take pics :)

do you have a schematic of how your sump/refugium is plumbed?

my tank is not drilled so i had to settle on few of hand-on back overflows for the sump but the refugium is just plumb by flexible tubing, nothing special

What brand are your PC actinics?

custom sea, 55w actinics

will a true perculae and a false clown "get along" in a 125 gallon tank?

hmmm, i believe it can be done but cant state too much, because i have not tried nor done some research on it

have you experienced any flooding problems due to the hang on overflows?

not from o/f but many other ways, ref. tubing popping off, sump overflowing, reactor's tubing pop off

What is your favorite food for feeding your system?

hikari marine pellets is my favorite, but i also feed staple flakes.

what kind of return pump are you useing and what size?

mag 12, but in the future i am hoping to change to a ampmaster external pump 

What do you do to make your anemones split so much?

actually i am splitting at a under rate people say that anemones split when they`re  stressed

has your cyano ever subsided?

yes, i have beat it way back. the main thing that i believe was flow i added 2 hagen 901, 952 gph each thats when it was reducing .