Neptune Aquatics

Tank Spotlight #3 @apon

I guess its easy to use this as my tank log.....Updated pics 2 years growth and changes?
 

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Awesome gorgonians and leathers. I got a frag of each of your gorgonians from the last swap and they are doing great! I like how I can tell you have been doing this a long time because of the huge soft colonies that were popular 10+ years ago. I dig it.
 
Awesome gorgonians and leathers. I got a frag of each of your gorgonians from the last swap and they are doing great! I like how I can tell you have been doing this a long time because of the huge soft colonies that were popular 10+ years ago. I dig it.
tank pic from 2007.jpg


Thanks here is pic from 2007 of the tank. Some of the fish and coral are still here.
 
Apologies for the delay folks! but I now found some time to post. Also for the pictures below, I don't have a nice camera or skills for really nice pics. Everything was taken from my Galaxy S7.

For those who missed Spotlight Tank #2 of Matt and Asia's cool tank setup here is the link.
http://www.bareefers.org/forum/threads/tank-spotlight-2-coral4me-matt-asia.22561/

I hate to disappoint everyone, but my tank is the opposite of most folks tanks - low tech and skimmer less, but more on that later.

Thanks to Matt and Asia to nominate my tank, which they have never seen in person I believe, but my tank needs alot of work before I can get it to where I want it to be. Hopefully someday I can get it close to the 2018 Neptune System's MACNA display tank.

Video

Picture attached below - double click to enlarge

Background on myself:

My name is Arnold for those who don't know me. I have been into fish tanks since I was in high school many years ago. I started trying saltwater in a 40 gallon Aquasystem tank, when I was in college and I was very disappointed that I lost many fish due to my lack of knowledge. While I was able able to keep a few damsels alive corals never did well for me.

After college, when I started working, I invested in books and started learning things from the internet. On one day I came across this club that seemed to meet over in the east bay called B.A.R.E (Bay Area Reef Enthusiast). I was excited to try to attend a meeting. When I showed up, it was a quiet dark room at a Wholesaler (ASAP) with only about 10 people in room. I was kinda of put off by the low attendance. However it turns out, that BARE had some falling out and the people left, were talking about starting a new club. I stayed and listened and decided to join anyways.:D

So it seems I was a founding member of BAR. Along with some others that are around today: Mike - sfsuphysics, Thales - Richard Ross, dswong - Dudely, and I think Capescuba - Dave (who recently returned to the club) to name of few. I guess its been like 15 years now?:eek: I was a BAR BOD member for the next 5 years as Sponsorship Director. Joining the club gave me a wealth of knowledge, I made some good friends, and it was great to finally talk to others who enjoyed the hobby as much as I do. Sometimes my other friends and family don't really understand how much time, effort, and cost it takes to do this.

Anyways, besides being on the BOD for a little while. I have organized a bunch side events ( 10 SF tank Tours, Store tours, Aquarium tours, etc...) for the club and I was even able to be a volunteer at the Steinhart Aquarium for a few years with Matt Wandell. This was all made possible by my connections made from the club. For those who say I win too many raffle prizes:cool:, I always felt it was karma paying me back for the work I did with the club. I recommend you all try it and participate and volunteer what/when you can so we can keep the club going. I have seen membership as high as 200 and as low as 20. Well, enough about me on to the tank.

Tank Info:


My tank is about 15 years old, but some of the live stock is older, that came from the 40 gallon starter I had.
If you want to see some old photos of the tank here is my old thread
http://www.bareefers.org/forum/thre...ion-shots-and-video-from-over-the-years.2291/

Mixed reef with lots of LPS, some SPS, Softies and clams -5 of them currently ( I did lose 1 last month, as you can see in the video but decide to leave the shell in there for now.

Tank-
4x2x2 120g tenecor tank.- dual overflow -small unknown sump

Pumps
Iwaki return pump returns 3 pipes into the tank.
2 vortec MP40s pump for additional flow.

Lighting- all my lights are over 2-3 years so will probably need to replace soon
2 Rapid LED Corona lights
1 Kessil A350 wide
1 Reefbrite 48" All blue led fixture
3 Reefbrites 3 watt moonlights that I leave on all day long.

Filtration-
No Skimmer (for past 13 years)- No filter sock - filtration is maintained by 5 gallon water changes once a week, 1 small bag of carbon, and a few clams. Basically the Skimmer pump died long ago, I didn't see and difference in the tank so I never replaced it. I like to say I have a skimmer, but don't use it.

Additional-
A really old Aquasystem Aquacontroller 3 I use to monitor a few items - (This is now Neptune Systems, I have a classic Apex ready to go when this fails)
I dose lime water twice a week ( 5 gallons drip in) and sometime some iodine
A small fan to maintain temp
a Calcium Reactor
No Heater, No refug. No Cheato, that's it ....pretty simple setup, very lower tech.

Livestock-

It's a heavily stocked tank as you can see from the video and attached pics. I try to list most of the fish and inverts.
1 Powder Blue Tang from Crabby
1 Yellow Tang - 17 years old
1 Onyx clown - 15 years (mate died last year)
2 of Kimmie's clownfish from last swap
over 14 Chromis
3 Red Stripped Cardinals
2 bangaii Cardinals
1 six line wrasse
1 small Blue Tang 3 inches
1 File-fish that eats my aiptasia I had...thinking about loaning him out if others need him.

Just added from MACNA so I hope they make it
1 Flame Angel
2 Mocha clowns in holding
2 Orange firefish (hiding)
1 Dottyback

Corals - trying to keep hardier corals since I know my tank is dirtier than most other tanks around.
Hammers
Torches
Several types of Gorganians
Mushrooms
Several Chalices
Several Leather - included the Fiji Yellow you don't see much of anymore
SPS - Purple tip Green Pocillopora
SPS- Pink lemonade - darkend up in my tank

I think I wrote enough.....enjoy the attached pics and lmk if you have any questions.

Thankso_O
Thanks for sharing that background Arnold. Super interesting to read. I knew you’d done a lot for the club but I wasn’t aware to that extent! Nice to see you still around :) Beautiful tank
 
I've always wanted to learn more about your zero edge tank e.g. how is it plumbed, how the sump is set up, how you catch the water over the edge etc.
Yeah, me too! Can you show the FTS and plumbing? It sounds really interesting.
Great tank Arnold.
 
I've always wanted to learn more about your zero edge tank e.g. how is it plumbed, how the sump is set up, how you catch the water over the edge etc.
The sump has a return to the center of the tank through a check value. The tank must be leveled to get even flow over 4 sides of the tank. Around the tank is like a 3inch moat to catch the water and at the back tank drains back into sump. Pretty simple I think.
 
Yeah, me too! Can you show the FTS and plumbing? It sounds really interesting.
Great tank Arnold.
Here is an old pic years a ago but you can see the 3 inch moat around the tank to catch the water. It's like an infinity pool basically. I cover the center return so you don't see the return pipe. The drain is by the light pole of the left of picture. You need to get the correct flow on return pump as not to cause too many ripples on the water surface.
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