Victoriana

My Tank

10 gallon – 10/2000
My tank started out as a 10g Cichlid tank that I got as a birthday present from my gf (now wife) in 2000. The LFS's fascinating saltwater fish made cichlids seem drab, and so 6 months later I decided to start again as a saltwater. That was good for a year or so, and that 10g tank did pretty well actually. I still have all the corals that started in that tank today 5ish years later!

65 gallon – 2001
I bought a used 65g tank, and 70lbs of gently used live rock($70) which came on condition that I take his Snowflake Eel. That Eel was pretty cool, and never bothered my fish. He did make a mess digging in the sand though.

That 65gtank ended up leaking. It shot a tiny stream of water two feet out side seem. I wasnt happy, and my landlord was less so, but the 100 year old hardwood floors didnt seem to mind. Temporarily I kept some of my rock, and livestock in the 10g tank. The rest I stuck in a sump I was using. That snowflake eel stayed in the ten gallong tank for 2 weeks till I gave him away. I bought a new 65g, which I set up in my gf's dance studio. and and moved most of the Rock and stuff in there. I kept the 10g going at home and think it was a big success.

20 gallon – 2003
IWhen I moved into a new apartment I wanted more room and so I had Johnny at North American Fish Breeders build me a bigger tank that still fit on my fireplace mantle, yet tall enough that I could fit my 2Bakpac skimmers on it.. It was 20g aprox and I supped that puppy up with 2 175W metal halides, and 4 Powerheads on a wavemaker. Dang that tank looked good. It's so much easier to fill a small tank with corals. You notice the growth more, and get to frag too since there is no room.

This tank did great, but there was no room to stuff in any more corals. I started to get hair algae for the first time ever, so when I saw a cheap tank that would still fit on my fireplace, yet was more than twice as big, I jumped on it.

45 gallon – 2004-2005
It's a 45g tall. 36"wide, 12" deep, and 24" tall. I filled it with more live rock, and a few more corals and this is the tank now (Picture below: Oct 2005).

This 45g tank is awesome, and runs pretty smoothly with lots very high lights and high water turnover. My fireplace mantle that it sat on was very high, and the center of the tank was eye-level, when standing. To me that is the perfect viewing height for a tank, and from now on all my tanks will be either sitting eye level, or standing eye level. It seems most stands are an awkward height.

Water Movement
Hidden in on the right side, under corals, and behind that green macro algae, are a bunch of pumps. One for my Hang on CPR bakpak skimmer, one for my external H&S 1260 skimmer (rated for a 310g tank!), two Rio Seio 820 powerheads, and one Tunze 6060 powerhead. Rarely are all the powerheads on at the same time in this tank. One 800gph pump stays on continuously, the other comes on for 4 hours a day, and the tunze wisks the tank into a frenzy for an hour a day. The fish seem to really enjoy fighting the current, they definitly dont avoid it, and usually jockey for pole position 7 inches from the tunze nozzel. I'm extremely pleased at how well hidden all that stuff is. My secret? Velcro! Just velcro a coral to a pump and it's easy to hide. One last thing to mention about the pumps, is that I have the tunze and skimmer hooked up to a remote controll. I love to turn the tunze on when the fish are near it, and looking the other way. It makes the tank seem more interactive. The skimmer sucks... a lot of air, and can seem noisy, so I often turn it off when I want to get romantic with my TV.

Skimming
With the H&S 1260 skimmer, I'm overskimming the heck outa this tank, which is kinda funny considering that I dont think that a skimmer is a neccesity for a reef tank. I believe that they can help small problems from turning into big ones, like those occasions where you get lazy with your tank chores. I got the skimmer in return for building someone a website. Boy does it ever skim! I've been very lucky in that I've never really had a tank crash or water quality issues, even when I didnt skim at all. I sleep better at night with that thing skimming away though. I have adjusted the skimmer to make a really dry skimmate, it's pretty much all mud in the collection cup. Oddly it doesnt smell that bad.

Lighting
I also went a little overboard on the lighting. The tank has a 400W SE XM 20K light on the left, and a 175W SE XM 20K on the right. As well, I DIY'd a row of Blue LED moontlights so the fish are never in complete darkness. I like the Bluish colour of the 20K lights, but I might try 14K next, as it's a tad too blue for me.

Calcium
To replenish Calcium and Alkalinity, I have been replenishing evaporated water with kalkawassr via my Auto top-off. I supplement this with occasional doses of DIY 2 Part Calcium Additive . Many thanks to Randy Holmes Farley, and Dowflake for this calicious recipe. Dowflake can be purchased here in Ontario.

Cleaning and Maintenance
It's easier to do water changes on a smaller tank, and so my smaller tanks got their water changed more often. I did a 30 percent water change every month on my 10g tank, yet it was a year between water changes with this 45g tank. I just did 2 20percent water changes on itlast month, and I had forgotten how much the tank improves with a water change. My clowns started flirting more, and my Millipora looks downright hairy, because it's extending its polyps. Its a simple way to dilute whatever pollution is in your tank, and it will help bring your water chemistry back from wherever it's been straying. Mind your water, your fish will mind themselves.

Every few months I use a one sided "safety" razorblade to scrape the inside front glass of whatever has stuck there. Daily I run the cleaning magnet over the glasss while I watch the tank, it's become a habit, and I think that keeps coraline algae from getting any kind of hold on there.

My top top-off water is automated with a tsunami level sensor, and that takes care of much of that hassle. I just top-up the freshwater bucketweekly. I feed a variety of foods; cyclopeeze flake, and cyclopeze freeze Dried, Hikari pellots, dried nori, mysis shrimp cubes, and Omega One Flakes, as well as my own frozen food mix which contains some clams, fish, scallups, and algae. Oh ya, and for the corals I feed Golden Pearls, whenever I remember.

157 gallon – 2005-present
It's a tall tank. 48"wide, 24" deep, and 31" tall. I filled it with more live rock, and a few more corals and this is the tank now. I'll make pics etc later... But perhaps the webcams below are on?

 


My Sometimes Webcams
There are 2 Cams, and one page that tells me my tanks current parameters from my aquacontroller.

This is cam1

This is my current tank status and graph.
Current Tank Stats
This is cam2 (kinda bluish no?)


And this is a flash version just in case there is no java on the computer I'm watching from.
(like last time I went to the carribean)