Dave currently lives in Florida, on Tampa Bay. He started keeping freshwater aquaria at the age of 10 and continued to for 20 years, specializing in South American cichlids. But a marine tank was always his interest. About 4 years ago Dave got interested in the hobby again, and with seeing a picture of a reef tank was hooked. At the time it was not possible for him to keep a tank, but he did a lot of reading of magazines and books on the subject. Then two and a half years ago he started his first reef. Now he has a 55 and 15 gallon tank with various invertebrates and an anemone. Soon there will be another 90 gallon will be added, then "The Big Tank".

Ok, here we go. Tonight I'm going to talk about "bolt-together" reef tanks (BTR), with my own 55 gallon system serving as the example. For those who want to look at a selection of pictures of the tank, look here: Selection of Pics

Gannet also has a web page, CoralPlanet .

Note that the pictures were taken shortly after the tank was converted to 14,000 K metal halide lighting. However, the tank looks the same and has mostly the same inhabitants as it did with the original lighting, it's just brighter.

Before we get into the main topic of the Bolt-Together Reef, I want to talk a little bit about reeftank design in general.

Reeftanks are artificial life-support systems. It's as simple, and as complex, as that. A reeftank is a success if the main animals of interest are kept alive and thriving long-term. It is a failure if it does not do that.

So, the right way to do a reeftank is to decide on the main animals of interest -first-. Research those animals and determine their life-support requirements. Also determine if the animals you have selected can both live well with each other, and have similar life-support requirements. Once all that is done and you have a target group of animals, you can design the life-support system that is likely to support them.

But let's face it, despite all my exhortations, beginners never do that. Instead they run around asking questions like "what are the best lights?" Such a question is meaningless outside the context of a particular system design, and system designs are meaningless outside the context of particular target species.

So, assuming the tank system has been put together first, you then have to select animals that can live well within that system. Oh, you can't support the animals you really wanted? Oops. Guess you have to modify the system or wait for The Next Tank.

The reason I bring all this up is that a BTR will likely have some constraints placed on it. You're not going to keep an adult Emperor angel in a 55, nor will a typical BTR be a very good SPS tank. Fortunately, the kinds of corals and fish that are typically recommended for beginners will do very well in a typical BTR. :)

So on to the main topic. Exactly what do I mean by a bolt-together reef? I mean a reef system that has been assembled using only off-the-shelf components that you should be able to find at any good local fish store (LFS). No drilling, no plumbing, no fabrication. Buy the components, bring them home, put them together, add water, sand, and rock, ready to go.

My opinion is that beginning reefkeepers should do this simple style of tank first. There is so much to learn about reefkeeping, and complex tank systems just make it all more complicated than it need be for a beginner. They have enough other things to worry about.

Also, complex systems require significant planning, and it is almost impossible to do that properly until you have some experience. I've seen a number of beginners get overwhelmed by trying to do "too much" on their first tank. It's difficult, frustrating and consumes a great deal of time and money before the water is even mixed.

There is an alternative, one that is less money, less work, less time-consuming, and more fun. You can have your reeftank running in a single weekend, with no trips to Home Depot. That's what I'm going to talk about tonight.

When I got started in this hobby/obsession I read books, magazines, and online resources for about a year before I had a living situation that allowed me space for a tank. This was in late 1996, and at that time the closure of live rock collecting in Florida was quickly looming. So, I was in a hurry, as I wanted some of the natural Florida rock before it was gone forever. That's one of the reasons I did the bolt-together reef, for speed of setup.

Another was that "everyone says" you have to have all this fancy equipment, and I didn't believe it. I wanted to find out for myself just what could be accomplished with off-the-shelf stuff and not so much as a hand drill.

55 gallon tanks are very cheap and plentiful, and a reasonable size in gallons, so I decided on one of those. If I had it to do over that's one thing I'd change. Never again will I do a reef with less than 18" of front-to-back distance. A 36x18" 40 gallon "Breeder" or 50 gallon tank would have been a much better choice, and that's what I recommend to beginners today. I used an AGA "KD" stand. This is an open two-shelf stand made out of particle board. Although I was a bit afraid of particle board, it has held up well.

A tank larger than about 60 gallons is -not- better for beginners, imo, because larger tanks practically require sumps in order to run a suitably sized skimmer, and plumbing a sump defeats the point of the BTR. Also, large systems are usually complex and costly systems, if for no other reason than to maximize their utility, and again we go beyond what is suitable for a first tank.

Other than the tank itself, the other central pieces of a reef system are the lights and skimmer. I knew I needed at least 3 watts per gallon of light, and 4 would be better. Everyone did watts/gallon back then, so don't flame me about that. :) Mail-order lighting systems were pretty much limited to CustomSeaLife and Hamilton systems at that time, and I didn't have the $700 or so to spare.

Some measurements at the LFS showed that 2 All-Glass Aquarium (AGA) 48" dual-tube striplights would barely fit on a 55 (another reason to use an 18" wide tank, much easier to fit lights). The 4 40w fluorescent tubes yield 160 watts, which is about 3 watts per gallon. I would have preferred more, but decided to give it a try.

With the hangon filters mounted on the back of the tank the front striplight extends past the front of the tank by about 1.5". Maybe it looks a little tacky, but it works, and I didn't have to do any drilling, wiring, etc.

I didn't like the bulbs that came with the AGA striplights so I replaced them with Coralife Trichromatic and Magnitinic tubes. I used the kind with the reflector strips because the light needed all the help it could get. The striplights were about $100 each and the tubes were about $25 each (LFS prices) so this is not particularly cost-effective lighting on a dollar/watt basis. But, the total buy-in cost was quite low for a 48" tank. And I could get them at the LFS. :)

For skimming I knew I needed a hang-on skimmer, because you can't do a sump while sticking to a BTR. At the time the CPR BakPak was fairly new and getting good reviews, so I got one of those. Back then this was not something you could find at most LFS, but I did manage to find one at a dealer in the area. Today of course most LFS carry hangon skimmers.

Since the tank is sumpless and I wanted simple, I decided to use B-Ionic for all calcium makeup. With the low light levels and non-SPS corals that has worked out just fine, and I highly recommend that beginners stick to 2-part additives. One less thing to mess up while you are learning.

I also prefer to run activated carbon, so I used a Hagen Aquaclear 150 powerfilter for that. I removed the sponge and just run the carbon in a bag. I also added a couple of 100 watt heaters and several powerheads....and I was done!

Tank, stand, striplights, hangon skimmer, heater, powerheads: that's all the hardware you -need-. Add a thermometer, hydrometer, test kits, B-Ionic, and salt mix and that's it. All available at a good LFS, and none of it requires any fabrication or do-it-yourself skills.

Next up is the substrate and live rock. I am fortunate enough to live in the Tampa, Florida area, so I was able to buy my live rock and sand from Tampa Bay Saltwater and bring it home in buckets of water. I also got to pick the pieces I wanted out of vats containing thousands of pounds of rock, a decided advantage if you like interesting rock shapes. :)

I bought some additional pieces of rock from Sea Critters, who are also local. I believe the fact that my rock and sand was never shipped had a lot to do with the success of my tank.

I used about 75 pounds of natural Gulf live rock. The rock is arranged in a very open pattern with many caves. For the substrate I used 50 pounds of Gulf live sand and 44 pounds of Carib-Sea Special Grade Reef Sand. The live sand and Carib-Sea have about the same grain size and were mixed together evenly. This yields about a 4 inch sandbed. The rock is placed on top of the live sand. The rock and sand were added at the same time, 2 days after the water was added to the system.

I set the tank up about the middle of December, 1996. I had a very light initial cycle (which later turned out to be a false cycle). I started adding corals after about 2 weeks. As experienced reefkeepers might expect, the tank numbers moved around for some time, and I did have some early losses, but more than half of the original corals are still with me. heh

Here are the inverts that I have kept in the tank for a long time and which have shown good growth: two morphs of Euphyllia divisa (branching Frogspawn), Caulastrea (Candy-cane), Colt, Palythoa, Green star polyps, about 10 different mushroom morphs, a Sarcophyton, some cup corals that came on the rocks, several large featherduster worms, various serpent stars, urchins, fanworms, hermits, snails, etc., etc.

Other corals that have not done well long-term, for various reasons, include Catalaphyllia jardenei (Elegance), Euphyllia ancora (Hammer), Plate (Favia sp.), Nepthea sp, Clavularia sp. I believe the losses were caused by a combination of beginner's mistakes, water parameter fluctuations (the secondary cycle was ugly), marginal light levels, and high phosphate levels from the local tap water. Most or all of these problems could have been avoided within the parameters of a BTR if I had just had a bit more patience, a RODI, and a bit more light.

This tank has never seen a significant algae bloom, or any sort of algae cycle. I don't know exactly why, as there have always been significant nutrient levels. I do maintain a number of snails and hermit crabs, but not at an excessive level. I also have tangs now, but did not for the first 6 months or so. The tank also has very healthy populations of copepods, maybe that has something to do with it.

I note that the only places algae does not grow are places the herbivores have trouble reaching. I also run quite a bit of current for a LPS tank, on the order of 15-20x, and I think that makes a big difference in keeping the algae down and the sandbed healthy.

So that's it, a bolt-together reef that ran rather well for 2 years. No sump. No overflow. No big pump. No big skimmer. No big lights. No kalkwasser. No RODI. No plumbing. No drilling. No cutting. No gluing. No parts that you can't get at any good LFS.

And no floods, and no algae blooms. I had some losses, but I think they were well within the range of "typical" beginner's losses. I don't want to make light of the losses, I hate them, but I think everyone has them when starting. In the last year I have lost almost nothing except for fish losses due to an 8-hour power outage.

What would I do different if I were doing it again today? Not much. I'd use a 36x18" 50 gallon tank. If I had more money I'd use better lights. A Hamilton fixture is rather expensive, but very good for the non-DIY person. There are several hangon skimmers available now that are quite a bit better than a BakPak. A RODI is nice, but not required in most locales. And that's about it.

So this can work. Don't let anyone tell you that you HAVE to have all that fancy stuff. It's all just tools, each appropriate for some jobs and not for others. What a beginner needs more than anything else is knowledge and experience. I think good books and Internet resources are the best way to gather knowledge. And I think a bolt-together reef is the quickest and best way to start gathering experience. Save the fancy systems for The Next Tank. And there is -always- a Next Tank. :)

That's it for the prepared portion of the talk. Questions? There. that shows you what I can do with a spell-checker. :)

Was the P. tang added after the Yellow? If so, was there any turf battle?

Yes, it was, and yes, there was. I had to pull the yellow out for a week and hold him in another tank. After reintroduction, all as well as it ever is between two big tangs. :)

About how much time do you spend per week maintaining your tank?

I'm a bit of a fiddler, and I have a bit of a fiddly tank at the moment. In the original configuration it was about 15 minutes a day for B-Ionic, top-up, and feeding. Add another hour or so on weekends for glass cleaning and water changes.

Do you think glass tanks or acrylic are better for a bullet-proof reef?

Glass, definitely.

Why is that?

And the "bullet-proof" thing is GARF's not mine. :) Because acrylic scratches too easily, and the ones with top plates are kind of a pain to deal with.

Do you think a BTR has less "carrying capacity" than a reef with a sump?

In and of itself, no. Carrying capacity is related to imports vs. exports. All a sump does is slow down the rate that things get out of balance, it doesn't change the balance. That's assuming a "dead" sump. Live rock, algae, or other biofilters in the sump can change that.

Have you ever had to move your tank, for various reasons? What is the biggest that can be easily moved?

Heh, 5 gallons? :) No, I've never moved this tank. I have moved tanks in the past (FW). I live in an apartment, so it is a consideration for me. My present rule is a tank of no more than about 150 pounds, dry.

Is live sand necessary in a BTR?

No. But if you are going to do a deep sand bed, I recommend at least 25% live sand and more is better. I do think that a BTR should use well-proven methods. Right now, that means Berlin, with or without a sandbed.

Will the BTR way of thinking work on a FO setup?

Sure thing. One of my "buttons" is that a modern FO, what I call a "Fish Reef" is just a reef tank where the fish are more important than the corals. Other than that, use a straight Berlin. It's the best, most-proven methodology to date, imo.

What is all this talk of a first and second cycle?

Some tanks have what is known as a "false cycle". A normal cycle seems to proceed at the beginning, sometimes quicker and shorter than is typical. Then a few weeks later you get a second complete cycle, and usually a deeper one. I did. I estimate it happens to 1 in 10 or 20 tanks. Not common, but not rare.

I see you have a Goldflake angel. Any problems with it eating corals?

It did a little exploratory picking the first couple weeks, no damage done. It seems to have completely stopped that. The only thing is picked at was the Elegance coral. I've also kept a Majestic, Coral Beauty, and now an Eibli's with no real problems. Nothing is "reef-safe". :)

Do you have any idea of what the cause of this "false" and "second" cycle is?

Hmmm...that's a hard one. In my case I think it was due to the fact that I had such "fresh" rock, and I wasn't patient enough. Some rock animals that would normally have died in shipping did not, they died a few weeks later. Just a theory. I've seen in happen in tanks with "normal" rock too. Again, patience is a virtue for a reefkeeper.

Have you had any problems attributed to the substrate you used? ie: being too coarse or too fine?

None whatsoever. I have had to reach into the substrate at various points and varisou times for one reason or another. No signs of clumping, no black areas at all. Good worm populations, which I regard as critical. The only "sand-stirrers" you need or want are worms, imo. :)

On your false cycle did you have nitrates?

I had the whole works, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. It looks just like a normal cycle, except if you're like me and rushed it you have corals in there now, so you panic. :)

Have you ever collected your own specimens from the Florida waters?

Not yet. Bought some collecting equipment this weekend. :)

What are you thinking of collecting?

Just whatever I can find outside the back door, to begin with. We live right on Tampa Bay, not too far from the mouth. I like crustaceans and various motile inverts, so we'll see what the net and traps drag up. Maybe later the Keys. but I'm in no hurry. I can buy that stuff cheaply. What I want is the stuff no one collects for the trade.

Regarding the worms in your substrate... did you order a "special" package to increase the number of worms?

No, just TBS live sand. One thing I have found to be -very- important is to feed the substrate. Several times a week I feed a couple of healthy pinches of flake food, finely crumbled, a couple of hours after lights out. This causes benthic faune populations to explode. But it also increases imports, so that's up to you. I do think most tanks are under-fed. The largest biomass in your tank is in the substrate, you can't expect it to thrive on crumbs.

Can you point out some of best images we should look at from the ones you posted?

Could have stood some editing, couldn't they? :) Hold on. Lemme see if I can find some faves. As it says on the intro page, these are not good pics. Sorry about that. I make my excuses on the page, too. :) Left Side , Middle , Right Side , Goldflake Angel and Black Tang , Yellow Tang , and Featherduster I guess those are some of the better ones. Still not very good, but you get the idea.

Well, looks like that's a wrap! Thanks very much for speaking tonight Gannett. Very useful talk, IMO.