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Introduction
My name is Hilton Theron and I live in Centurion,
Gauteng. I have been keeping marines for a total
of 10 years. I did not start out with tropicals
as most other guys do but went straight for marines.
The exotic colours had me hooked. I had little
experience and a number of animals unfortunately
died at my clumsy hands. :-( I couldn’t find any
lfs to provide advice and the Internet was still
a twinkle in Bill Gates's eye.:-) I plodded forth
and read as much as I could. This was a fish only
system with trickle filter and no live rock -
at this time I lived in Durban and most of my
specimens were collected from rock pools etc.
I learned a great deal during this time and the
system matured nicely and started to be quite
successful. It was to change soon.......
I was forced to move due to work commitments and
a break of a few years resulted. I met a wonderful
woman, got married and started a family. During
this time marines had to take a backseat BUT was
still in my blood. So when we eventually bought
our own property I saw this as my big opportunity
to set up a new system. The Internet was a wonderful
new resource, I spent loads of time on forums
(Must have made my boss happy :-)) and took a
year or so just to soak up as much information
as I could. My mind was made up - I would start
a reef tank.
I bought my first tank of about 300 litres, some
poor equipment as I could not find any better
and started looking for liverock - I was however
met with MANY blank stares, and became quite despondent
at the seeming lack of "Reef" knowledge
in South Africa. I persevered and got this tank
running well, and soon moved onto bigger and better,
this happened a third time when the tank I had
at the time cracked!! (Long story :-)) This resulted
in the system I have at present - this has been
running for about 10 months now.
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Display
Tank Size in cm
160 long x 70 deep x 80 wide
Sump Size in cm
120 long x 50 deep x 50 wide
Additional tanks if applicable, linked to main
system
Frag tank 100 long x 30 deep x 80 wide
Total system volume
Approx 1200 litres after displacement
Natural Sea Water or Synthetic Salt
Synthetic - Instant Ocean, Reef Crystals or Pro
Reef
Tank Construction
All Glass 10mm thick, Double base with euro bracing
Location
A dedicated room with a viewing window into the
lounge |
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| Mushrooms |
Hairy
Mushrooms |
Mechanical
Aqua C EV400 Protein Skimmer
Biological (Live rock, DSB etc)
100kg live rock, DSB in refugium, main tank barebottom.
Chemical (Whether run mechanically or passively
and how often)
Carbon and Rowaphos fluidised 24/7 changed once
per month
Other
Filter pad for short periods when doing maintenance
to catch particles.
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Main
system lighting
T8 Fluorescents 36 watt over driven with electronic
ballasts
1 X 10K 3 X ACTINIC
2 x 400 watt m/h venture bulbs 1 x 14 k 1 x 20k
in lowbay units
Photoperiod
2x T8 Actinics on at 6:30 10k T8 + Actinic on
at 7:00
M/H on at 10:30
M/H off at 19:30
10k T8 + Actinic off at 20:30
2 x Actinics of at 21:00
Other lighting (Sump and additional tanks)
Sump 70 watt halogen 24/7
Frag tank/Refugium 400 watt M/H 6500k
On 11:00 of 18:00
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| Sliding
light canopy |
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Return
pump
Resun gp18000
Feeding manifold with multiple outlets 18000 litres/hr
Powerheads
1 x Intermittently - 2800litres/hr - mostly used
to blow rockwork clean
Closed loops if applicable
1 CL of 6000 litres/hr flushing liverock through
spray bar |
Calcium
reactors / Kalkstirrers / Drips etc
Nilsen Kalkreactor (diy)
Add Kalkwasser using the slurry method / about
1/2 teaspoon/day early in morning before lights
on.
Other additives you add to your system and
how often
Buffer
Top up
Diy automated with RO
Other Equipment
Aquamedic/Hailea chiller
Diy automated tank computer.- Controls top-up,
lights and temp
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| Cup
Coral |
Hammer
Coral |
Trumpet
Coral |
Livestock
FISH
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1x Powder Blue Surgeonfish |
Acanthurus leucosternon |
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1 x Foxface |
Lo vulpinus |
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1 x Clarkii Clown |
Amphiprion clarkii |
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1 x Percula Clown(Tank Raised) |
Amphiprion percula |
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5 x Green Chromis |
Chromis viridis |
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1 x Sailfin Tang |
Zebrasoma desjardinii |
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4 x Silver Dollars |
Mono |
| SOFT
CORALS
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| Finger
Leathers |
Sinularia
spp |
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Various mushroom species |
Dicosoma spp |
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Hairy mushrooms |
Rhodacts indosinesis |
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Various polyps |
Zoanthus spp |
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Button polyps |
Protopalythoa spp |
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Green star polyps |
Briareum spp |
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| Green
Montipora |
Pink
Montipora |
| LPS
CORALS |
| Frogspawn |
Euphyllia
divisa |
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Anchor coral |
Euphyllia ancora |
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Torch Coral |
Euphyllia glaberscens |
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Cup Coral |
Turbinara peltata |
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Bubble coral |
Plerogyra sinuosa |
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Trumpet coral |
Caulastrea furcata |
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SPS
CORALS |
3 Species of Acropora |
Acropora spp |
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2 Species of Encrusting Montipora |
Montipora spp |
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Various plating Montipora |
Montipora spp |
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2 Species of Bush coral |
Pocillopora spp |
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Scroll coral |
Turbinara reniformis |
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OTHER
INVERTEBRATES |
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Various tube worms |
Sabellastarte spectabilis |
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2 x Cleaner shrimp |
Lysmata amboinensis |
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Various Bubbletip anemones |
Entacmea
quadricolor |
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Various blue/red legged hermits astrea/nerite/turbo
snails |
Unknown |
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Bubble tip anemone and Clown fish
Water
change regime
5 % water change per month
How often are lamps replaced
Tubes every 10 months
Bulbs every 13 months
How often major equipment is stripped and cleaned.
Every 6 months
General system parameters tested (How often)
I don’t test often - use stock health as an indication
of how the tank is doing.
Levels (Average or when last tested)
SG .
1.026
Temp (low/high)
26.5 C to 27.5 C
PH
8.1 to 8.3
CA
380
NO3
Don’t test
PO4
Don’t test
Mg
1450
Feeding
Feed once daily in the evening. Homemade vitamin
mixture (Kiddies chewy tablets and garlic dissolved
in distilled water) Flake and pellets soaked in
vitamins every other day. Frozen mysis left to
thaw and excess water poured off. Soak in Vitamins
and feed on alternate days. Julian Sprung Sea
Veggies once in a while and Red and Green algae
twice a week on a clip for the grazers. Corals
and anemone’s not fed at all. |
Acro
Crab
Things
that you like most about your system?
The fact that it is in it's own room, the light
canopy that can be slid out of the way, the aquascaping.
Things you would change if you could do it over?
I would go bigger - as in more width because it
allows for more aquascaping possibilities.
Favourite on line resource besides SA Reefkeeping.com?
Reefland.com, Reefpark.com and Ultimatereef.com
Best Advice received?
To take your time.
Worst advice received?
A person selling me a fluidised filter as a skimmer
(What can I say - I was gullible :-)))
Favourite fish?
My Sailfin tang
Favourite coral?
Pink encrusting Montipora
Your all time wish list for a fish you don't
have but would love?
Regal Angelfish but just not reef safe.
Your all time wish list for a coral you don't
have but would love?
Any of the Strawberry corals (Dendronephthya spp)
but just too difficult to keep alive, might still
do a dedicated system for them some day. |
| Conclusion
I am very happy with my system as it is now -
I would like to add some more sps corals and increase
the flow further. I would also like to make the
tank slightly bigger to increase the aquascaping
possibilities. I aim to add a calcium reactor
in the future. I can also say that my Bubbletip
anemone is thriving and has split a number of
times. There arenow about 6 or 7 clones scattered
about the tank and their stinging power is becoming
a bit of a problem. I plan on moving them to a
dedicated clownfish habitat somewhere in the future.
The central rock aquascape I have built is very
successful and makes it easy to clean right around
the tank. A big thank you goes out to my wife
for putting up with numerous floods. Weekends
when we can’t go away because I don’t trust just
anybody to look after my tank and for letting
me take a whole room up with my obsession.
I would like to thank SA Reefkeeping.com for choosing
my system as their first Praiseworthy System of
the Month.
Comments welcome. (See link at the bottom of this
page for the discussion thread)
Happy Reefing
Hilton |
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| Tank
Left |
Tank
Right |
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