Animal World Featured Reef Aquarium

Dennis Schneiders'  55 Gallon Reef

Close-up.

Description of Aquarium:
   This is a standard Tru-Vu acrylic aquarium. It measures  48 x 15 x 18 inches. It has been set up for about 5 years (as of August 1998).

Filtration:
   Live Rock/substrate:   50 lbs. Marshall Islands.
                                       20 lbs. Florida Keys base rock.
                                       30 lbs. Caribsea Reef Sand. *
                                       10 lbs. Marc Weiss aquiculture live sand. *
           * (All the sand is placed directly on the bottom of the aquarium. There is no plenum.)

    Skimmer: CPR Bak-Pak 2 rigged with an airstone and Supra2 air pump to increase efficiency.

    Chemical/Mechanical:   An Eheim 2017 canister filter with a bag of Hydrocarbon from Two Little Fishies.

Lighting:
    2 ea. 24" Hamilton HO fluorescents ( actinic and daylight).   These lights are on 12 hours per day.
    1 ea. 175 watt MH with German 10K bulb. This light is on 10 hours per day.

Equipment:
      1/4 hp Aqualogic drop-in chiller.
      Octopus 3000 controller with pH, ORP and temperature probes.
      Rio ground probe.
      For additional water movement I placed a Rio 600 in the upper left corner.       

Maintenance:
   All evaporated water is replaced with deionized water from local market vending machine. *
   Weekly additions:  2-3 ml of the following:
                                          Thiel - KSM
                                          Seachem - Reef Plus
                                          Seachem - Combi-san
                                          Seachem - Reef Calcium
                                          Sera - Marinvit
                                          Kent - Micro-Vert
                                2 drops of Warners Lugol Solution.

   Every 3 weeks - 10 gallons of water is changed using Instant Ocean or Marine Environment sea salt.
   Every 3 months - Carbon is replaced    Every 3 weeks - 10 gallons of water is changed using Instant Ocean or Marine Environment sea salt.
   Every 3 months - Carbon is replaced

Water Chemistry:
  Temperature = 77° F.
   Salinity = 1.023 to 1.024
   pH= 8.1 to 8.4 (variable throughtout the day).
   ORP= 325 to 375 Calcium= 375ppm to 425 ppm
   Alkalinty= 3.5 milliequivalents per liter.
   Phosphate= 0.05 ppm.
   Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate are not detectable.:
  Temperature = 77° F.
   Salinity = 1.023 to 1.024
   pH= 8.1 to 8.4 (variable throughout the day).
   ORP= 325 to 375 Calcium= 375ppm to 425 ppm
   Alkalinity= 3.5 milliequivalents per liter.
   Phosphate= 0.05 ppm.
   Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate are not detectable.

Fish:    Chevron Tang
             2 Percula Clowns and a Yellow Goby
Fish:    Chevron Tang
             2 Percula Clowns and a Yellow Goby.

   The fish are fed weekly with Dr. Sanjay Joshi's homemade fish food receipe, consisting of a mix of shrimp. squid, scallop, mussel, clam and nori.