|
|
Reef Tank
I started the hobby back in '95.I bought a Clarity Plus 65 gallon tank with a large sump. I purchased live rock, live sand,a few fish, and a couple of live corals. A chiller was also needed to cool the water and keep it within range. I was using the "Berlin Method" for filtration. With that method the live rock,live sand, and protein skimmer are used for the filtration.I had pretty good luck in the beginning stages. The lighting was 2 VHO & 2 standard fluorescent bulbs.I upgraded within a year to a larger hood that contained 2 Metal Halide Bulbs & 2 Standard Fluorescent bulbs.The added light was incredible!It also increased the algae in the tank due to water conditions.The worse it got the faster it grew.So needless to say, I did some reconfiguring of the situation.I added water flow with larger pumps.I added a larger protein skimmer and an ultraviolet sterilize.The chiller really came into play once I had all of the heat from the lights and the pumps.I also purchased an Octopus 3000, which is a computerized control unit, to control all of the functions.It took a while for the algae problem to get under control.But eventually the tank was a sight of beauty.It is a living ecosystem.I've learned a lot since the beginning and just when I had thought that keeping a reef tank was easy it through me another curve ball.Now I have been dealing with water conditions that were way out of whack.As it turns out one of my dosage pumps that doses the calcium and alkalinity wasn't dosing both.So the tank is recovering and I've learned that you can't always think that things are going to be easy from here on out.
|
