54 gallon bowfront corner mixed reef profile

[joey d]

Johnny,
awesome tank as usual... what is the capacity of the sump and fuge ?
what kind of lighting are you running on the fuge?
thanks,
joe

 

[angelofish]

Now THAT's a tank.

I love the way it looks so natural. Not like everything was placed or set evenly and straight. I wouldve never thought to set a gorgonian that way. SHARP!!!!!

 

[rwhite]

If you dont mind, I'd like to e-mail you when I get home for more than a couple days. You got that info on your profile or can I get get in touch with you another way. In NoVa it seems like everything is 1/2 hr hour away without traffic. Anyway, let me know if you can, I can provide info if you'd prefer. Our set up is mediocre compared to yours, but I'd love a frag if you're willing to part with anything. I'd rather buy something from you and drive an hour than worry about shipping losses. Again, I'd like to get in touch with you if you don't mind.

 

[rwhite]

Here's ours earlier this month:

 

[gregvabch]

brooklyn johnny, i wanted to ask you an "inappropriate" question, i'm gonna be in dc this weekend.... if you could shoot me an email i'd appreciate it. gregory(remove)gampfer@yahoo.com

 

[debbie g]

Magical, Brooklyn Johnny. And your photography rocks too!

 

[007]

Hey Brooklyn . . . . I have a question I would like to ask you about your old 10 gallon as well as some others . . . could you send me an email if you get a chance?
Thanks
millerj24 at yahoo dot com

 

[brooklyn johnny]

Thank you all very much. As with all of us I've learned so much from other people, and it's great to share what I have learned. In the past couple of days I've taken over 200 pics of my 65 gallon sps/clam/ricordia tank, which I'll share soon.
Saltynewbie, it was tough breaking down the nano, but luckily everything has survived the move. I learned so much from that tank.
Joey D, the sump is a 15 gallon high, that I siliconed some baffles in, and the fuge is probablly around six or seven gallons. The lighting I've used on all my fuges is the same, $7 18 inch "Lights of America" under cabinet units that come with bulbs (15 watts a piece). I have two of these over the 54 fuge.
Angelo... I have always been VERY picky on aquascaping. The first rule I would say is to buy the largest pieces of live rock available, as it gives you the most opportunities to aquascape. If you have all smaller pieces, no matter how you stack them they look like a pile of rock. So many tanks have rocks placed in this uniform pile along the back of the tank, while others are stacked "teetering" on eachother looking unnatural. Don't make your tank look like a coral display, make it look like a reef!
rwhite you are more than welcome to come by. Are you a member of WAMAS? If not, our next meeting is on April 17th. If you are unfamiliar check out our site at www.wamas.org. This Sunday my wife and I travel to Hawaii as I have work in Pearl Harbor for a week. After that we go on vacation to the Big Island. We're back on the 14th right before the meeting. If you'd like to meet up there you're welcome to come by after the meeting.
Greg- This weekend will be tough. As I said Sunday morning we leave, and Saturday night the Rangers are in town to play the Caps and my company has season tickets. The rest of Saturday will be getting the taxes done and preparing the tanks for my father for 11 days

... I'll shoot you an e-mail...
Debbie G... I'd be lieing if I said I knew anything about photography. Digital cameras are amazing, if you have the patience to read the manual and play with it...
007... e-mail coming...
I haven't uploaded pics yet of my 65, but my friend Robie Sayan was by a few weeks ago and took some pics. Here are a few good ones. I'll get a thread going on this system later this week.
Thanks again all...

 

[brooklyn johnny]

Acropora efflorescence on a ledge with Tridacna crocea (this one from Vietnam) on the sandbed...

 

[brooklyn johnny]

Here you see T. maxima and T. derasa, with my prized peppermint hogfish in the middle. The small striped fish you see are yellow lined cardinals (Apogon cyanosoma). I have a school of 12 of these awesome lesser known cardinals. Anyway, that's it for the 65 now. As I said I'll throw a whole bunch up and profile it later this week.

 

[brooklyn johnny]

Originally posted by gregvabch
brooklyn johnny, i wanted to ask you an "inappropriate" question, i'm gonna be in dc this weekend.... if you could shoot me an email i'd appreciate it. gregory(remove)gampfer@yahoo.com
what's your e-mail Greg?

 

[rwhite]

Thanks for the info about WAMAS. Do we need to be members to attend or can we join at the meeting? I checked out the web site and all, but like you I travel for work and I may forget to send in the fees or end up on the road again before I get a chance to do it. Anyway, I'm in Colorado Springs right now and will be back Sat. so I'll just miss you at home. You can e-mail me at jscot71@cox.net instead of using this board. Thanks again, looking forward to hearing from you.

 

[rkm]

Wow

I need to take lessons. My corner is pretty bare at the moment. I did buy large LR pieces. Maybe it will make placement of corals easier.
Do you use a Ca reactor? IF not How ofted do you suppliment the tank?
I saw in one of your pics that you use a filter sock. I just got all my bio balls out and added a sock in my wet dry. I want to move my skimmer to that side and add baffles to rid the micro bubbles.
I also want to add a refugium. What size do you have? What do you have in it?
Your tank looks so bright for 20k's on it. I have 10k's and it looks bluer. My thank is a little over 100gal. corner and I have 2 10k 250's over it. I use t-5's for the blues.
Sorry for all the questions. You had it comming with those pics. Man it looks like a part of the ocean. Again

I work near you. I am from MD. I travel to Dullas Tole Road almost every day.
Take care.

 

[brooklyn johnny]

Hey Ryan... I am at work right now in Bethesda and very unfortunately will be dealing with the Toll Road in a half hour...
On this tank I have no calcium reactor, but I have a Nilsen Reactor (for kalk) that my friend built that is ready for pickup. Right now I am just using B-ionic. On my other system I do have a calcium reactor, but on this one there is no need as most of the corals are soft, and the Nilsen reactor hooked up to auto topoff will be plenty.
I use a filter sock only occasionally to polish the water, as I do with carbon. If you continuously run a filter sock every bit of planktonic life will quickly be filtered out, but about every month I run it for a few days and stir up the detritus in the tank. I have baffles installed on all of my sumps and they are the key to cutting out microbubbles. Also, live rock in the sump will help a bit.
My refugium is I'm guessing around 6 gallons, with some live rock, chaetomorpha, and various species of caulerpa algae. Seed it with some good rock and/or sand and soon you'll have a jungle...
Have a great weekend...
Johnny

 

[rkm]

Sorry to hear about the Toll Road....I can only think of how bad it is on a Friday night in the rain. I wake up at 4:15 in the morning:sleepy: . Then I get ready jump in the truck at 5 and I am on the Toll Road by 6. The best part is their is no traffic in or out a 2 pm.:happy:
I will have to look into the Nilsen reactor. I will do a search on the web and see what the deal is with them. A CA reactor has a lot of equipment. I am tight for space under my tank now let alone add a CA reactor, and squeeze in a fuge.
Maybe you can give me a quick rundown between reactors. If time permits.
I will do some searching though.
I'll be back on the boards tomorrow. Actually I'll be on the Toll Road tomorrow morning. I shold be back by noon.

 

[mjsdas]

You definitly have one of, it not THE nicest tanks, i have ever seen! (second to mine ofcourse ) I was wow'd by your 10 gal page, amazed even more by the updated 10 gal page, and this tank is awesome. Congradulations on the great tank.

 

[mr. tuna]

Everything looks awsome!!
I love those clams though! :yes:
That t.dersa looks alot like t.squamosas

 

[brooklyn johnny]

Thanks again... Ryan a Nilsen Reactor is a fancy name for a simple device. It is basically a chamber of water (usually an acrylic cylinder) that you add kalkwasser to every week or so. Inside the tube water circulates keeping the kalk in suspension, while a second pump pumps water through and into the tank, usually for makeup water. It's an easy way to get the advantage of kalk without having to deal with dripping... very low maintenance. Also, tanks with calcium reactors tend to run at lower pHs due to the CO2, and so the Nilsen will even out the effects of that. A calcium reactor dissolves old coral skeleton in a chamber by the injection of CO2, resulting in a lower pH in the chamber, dissolving the media. A calcium reactor is expensive up front, but almost a necessity in heavily stocked sps and clam tanks...
Mr. Tuna the T. derasa has been the fastest growing clam I've ever owned. This one is one of the farm raised ORA ones, and have a pretty consistent look as opposed to maximas and croceas. Squamosas and derasas are easily confused when looking at the mantle patterns, but can easily be distinguished by looking at the shells. The blue outline is typical of many derasas though. Thanks again all...
John

 

[rkm]

Johnny, thanks for the discription. You are so very helpful. I was wondering on how much Kalt you put in the reactor each week? How do you know when to add more?
I was reading somewhere that people use them for top off water. I am figuring that you figure out what your tank uses (gal. wise) a week and add enough Kalk to the reactor for that week.
I think I almost have it figured out.
Ryan

 

[rkm]

Johnny
I have my own thread going about the kalk reactor. I have just figured out the reactor wont raise the CA levels, but it will maintain it like my kent doser. I just wanted another opinion on that. I have a 5 gal kent doser that I use at the moment. I am curious to see if a reactor would be better for my tank. I would like to keep the same type of corals you have in your corner tank.