A pictorial history of my built-in corner "Piece of the Pacific".

Before I go any further I would like to say that I am blessed with a wife who (tho not an aquarist) has an intimate understanding of the addiction and allows me to do things like tear out doors and take 90 square feet out of the great room. Without her support, none of this would have happened.

Now enough mush, on with the story.

Where my tank/lifesupport room now stands there use to be a set of french doors and the corner of our great room.

When keeping SPS corals, water movement is just as important as lighting. I never liked having visible powerheads in my tank so my goal was to have a supply and return system that would provide enough flow not to need them. Circulation is accomplished by a Sequence Hammerhead pump (4500 max GPH) and a 36" long overflow box with three 2" bulkhead drains. At 4' of head pressure I'm still turning the total system water over about 11-12 times per hour. My sump is a Rubbermaid 100g horse trough.

My biological filtration is accomplished by +/- 300lbs of live rock and 500lb of sand (becoming more live all the time). Most in the display, some in my 40g refuguim that gravity feeds back into the display thru a 1" bulkhead in the side of the tank. Mechanical filtration is accomplished by an Aqua-C EV-400 skimmer driven by a dedicated Mag 24 pump. Chemical filtration will be thru a Eheim Pro II with activated carbon and phosphate absorbing media.

Lighting is by 2-400 watt mogul metal halide lamps (Ushio 10k). Ballasts are IceCap electronic and the reflectors are Lumenarc IIIs.

Other equipment:

5 stage RO-DI system with inline input/output TDS meter.

K2R calcium realtor

ReefTek kalkreactor w/Liter Meter III dosing unit and Spectrapure water level sensor.

Two 1" Seaswirls and 4 Locline 3/4" returns (Owned but not yet installed)

PinPoint pH monitor (wouldn't be without this piece of equipment)

Refractometer

Salifert Test kits for ammonia, nitrate, KH, calcium and phosphate.

Reef Crystals salt

Now comes the waiting game. The joys of diatom blooms and bluegreen algaes (the inevitable in new systems). Nights spent exploring liverock with a flashlight for that new critter or plant that I didn't see last night. In about three more months I'll start stocking with corals and herbivorous fish.

About 40 more lbs of live rock was added since these last pics, but that's where I'm at. More to come.

So many species, so little money!

And -- let us all drink toasts to our patient and understanding spouses.

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Be warned -- everyone at college has a weird roommate. If you don't have a weird roomate -- then you're the weird roommate.
                                                                                                  Conan O'Brien, Stuyvesant High School.

Jfish13

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My Pets: Cherry Barbs, Neon Tetras, Cories, Bettas, Otos, Goldfish, and a Parakeet.

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"I love Animals!"