Below are the configurations for all my tanks. As some of you can attest, many times you start with one tank and then keep adding additional tanks to your collection. For me I added the Pico to my collection as I was looking for solution for a problem with my toadstool and SPS coral warfare with my SPS losing. Easy solution was get rid of my toadstool but I found myself not wanting to as it has sentimental value as it was first coral I bought. If you are thinking, what an idiot, I agree but could not part ways with it. So it begins, I now have two tanks as equipped below:

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Current 24 Gallon Cardiff

Below is a list of equipment installed on my 24 gallon Current Cardiff tank which was set up on November 1st, 2008. It is a mixed reef tank which is predominately SPS and a couple fish:

System Profile:

• Display: 24 gallon Current Cardiff Tank (20″ x 20.5″ x 20″) — Frameless bullet shaped design with beveled glass edges. (Owners Manual)
• Substrate:
  • 1/4″ Clear Acrylic Sheet – cut to fit
  • 15 lbs Live Rock
• Lighting:
  • Sunlight Supply Lumen Max Elite HQI 250W Fixture
  • Sun System Galaxy Electronic 250W Ballast
  • Phoenix Double-Ended 250W 14000K+ Metal Halide Bulb
• Sump: Built into back of tank
  • Left Chamber – Overfill
    • Skimmer: Sapphire Aquatics Solana / Cardiff Nano-Skimmer
    • Heater: Jager 100 Watt 3604
    • Aeration: Alita AL-6A Pressure Air Pump — Installed outside house to combat internal CO2 driving down pH
  • Middle Chamber
    • Reactors:
      • TLF Phosban Reactor 150 with Maxi Jet 900 (230 gph) containing GAC
      • TLF Phosban Reactor 150 with Maxi Jet 900 (230 gph) containing GFO
      • TLF Phosban Reactor 150 with Maxi Jet 900 (230 gph) containing N/P Reducing Bio Pellets
    • Heater: (Back-up)
    • Lighting: Current PowerBrite 10,000K Daylight LED Lighting System — Used for Chaeto Macro Algae
  • Right Chamber – Return and ATO/Dosing Outputs
    • Closed Loop: Maxi Jet 900 – 230 gph
    • Misc: Eheim Compact 300 – 80 gph (Kalk Drip Chamber Stirrer)
• Auto Top-Off:
  • SpectraPure LiterMeter 3 (Kalk)
  • 2 x SpectraPure LiterMeter Top-off Control Module (One is primary and other backup)
• Dosing Pumps: 2 x Drew’s Doser Peristaltic Dosing Pump (Alk/Ca)
• Circulation:
  • 2 x Tunze Turbelle Nanostream 6025 Powerheads – 660 GPH each (Alternating Currents)
  • EchoTech MP-10 Wave Maker / Powerhead – 500 to 1575 GPH
  • EcoTech Marine VorTech Battery Backup
• Cooling: Tunze AquaWind Twin Aquarium Fan
• Controller: Reefkeeper Elite with the following installed:
  • 1 x RKM-GC1 (Head Unit)
  • 1 x RKM-SL1 with pH Probe, temp probe, and ORP Probe
  • 1 x RKM-SL2 with pH Probe, temp probe, and Salinity Probe (On Order)
  • 1 x RKM-MLC with 2 x White Pods and 1 x Blue Pods (Lunar Cycle)
  • 1 x RKM-NET
  • 4 x RKM-PC4
  • 1 x RKM-HUB
  • 1 x Expansion Socket
  • RKE Configuration (MS Word Document)
• Misc:
  • TYPHOON 5 Stage RODI Reefkeeper 75 GPD modified with an additional Dual DI Canister (Making it a 7 Stage System)
    • 5 micron Purtrex Depth Sediment Filter
    • 1 micron Purtrex Depth Sediment Filter
    • 1 micron Pentek ChlorPlus 10 Carbon Block (Chloramine Removal)
    • 0.6 micron MATRIKX® +1 Carbon Block
    • 75 GPD Dow Filmtec RO Membrane
    • 2 DI Resin Canisters
    • Accessories:
      • Dual Inline TDS Meter DM-1 HM Digital (Installed before and after DI)
      • Glycerin Filled Pressure Gauge 1-100 PSI (Installed before membrane)
      • Membrane Fast Flush Valve
      • DI Bypass Valve Assembly
      • Automatic Shut Off Valve (ASOV)
    • NOTES: Source (Municipal FL Aquifer / Chloramine Used) – 66 psi, 387 TDS, Pre Membrane (RO) – 63 psi, Post Membrane (permeate) – 5 TDS (Rejection Rate 98.71%), Post DI – 0 TDS, Waste – 439 TDS. Pre Membrane Pressure should be between 50 – 90 psi for 50-100 gpd system. Filmtec 75 gpd Membrane Rejection Rate should be between 96-98%.
  • TLF NanoMag Magnetic Glass Cleaning Device – Works great!

System Modifications:

• 4 x JACO fittings mounted in second divider for dosing injection

Removed, Replaced, or Upgraded Equipment:

• Substrate:
  • 10 lbs live rock (Status Changed on 2009-11-01)
  • 25 lbs Live Sand (2009-11-)
• Reactors: TLF Phosban Reactor 150 with Maxi Jet 1200 (295 gph) containing GFO (2009-07-11)
• Skimmers:
  • Stock Intake venturi protein skimmer (2009-07-29)
  • Euro-Reef Nano Skimmer for Solana 34G – NS2.5-3 (2009-11-28)
• Closed Loop: Stock Jebao WP-1500 Pump – 396gph (2009-10-04)
• Lighting:
  Current USA Nova Extreme Pro T5HO – 20″ – 6 x 18 Watts (2009-11-21)
  • 3 – 10K
  • 3 – 460nm Actinics
  • Hoping alternate bulbs are available in October when need to replace stock bulbs

Tank Shots

Tips & Tricks

Key to success is to monitor, track, and log all key parameters so you can more easily track down a problem which started occurring over time. I am including a log to my mixed reef which I use to track everything for my tank. I will not be consistent updating this but thought I would include it here incase you wanted include it in part of your reef husbandry:

• Reef Aquarium Analysis Log — Current (MS Excel Document)
• ARCHIVED: Reef Aquarium Analysis Log — 2008-11-01 to 2009-10-31 (MS Excel Document)

In addition to monitoring your parameters and keeping a log of the data, another key piece of advise is to do your homework prior to setting up your tank and making any changes. I don’t know how many times I have jumped into a project to only wish I had done my homework so I would have bought a better product or attacked a problem in a different way.

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JBJ 3 Gallon Picotope

In addition to my 24 gallon Current Cardiff tank, I added the JBJ 3 Gallon Picotope to my tank collection. The real purpose was to move my toadstool out of the Cardiff as I have predominately SPS in it and starting to point my finger at the toadstool for some SPS issues. The leathers release slime which have allegedly been shown to have negative impact on SPS as it is the leathers defense mechanism in coral warfare. I will use this page for build thread, information, tank shots, and livestock information as the rest of the web site is dedicated to my Cardiff.

Tank Specs

Below is a list of equipment installed on my Pico tank which will be dedicated to softies and zoas:

• Display: 3 gallon JBJ Picotope Tank 11-3/4″ x 8-7/8″ x 8″ (Frameless curved glass edges)
• Lighting:
  • Tank: Current Satellite 20″ 2x40w as had it laying around (really want the 12″ 2×18 but discontinued)
  • Fuge AC70 Mod: Stock compact fluorescent Clamp-on Lamp fixture with 9W 50/50 lamp and remote ballast
  • Future Tank Upgrade: Evilc66′s PAR 38 – 21w Cree 12000K Lamp with 60 degree Optics
• Filtration:
  • AquaClear 70 Modified with Filter Floss, Carbon, NP Biopellets, and Chaeto
• Substrate:
  • 3 lbs CaribSea Caribbean Live Sand
  • 3 lbs Live Rock
• Heater: tbd
• Aeration: Alita AL-6A Pressure Air Pump — Installed outside house to combat internal CO2 driving down pH
• Controller: Reefkeeper Lite with the following installed:
  • 1 x RKM-GC3 (Head Unit)
  • 1 x RKM-SL2 with pH Probe, temp probe, and Salinity Probe
  • 1 x RKM-PC4
  • Overkill for a 3 gallon tank… Yes but I won it.
• Miscellanious:
  • TLF NanoMag Magnetic Glass Cleaning Device – Works great!

Removed, Replaced, or Upgraded Equipment:

• Stock 40 gph Pico Power Filter filled with ZeoVit

Tank Shots and Details

• 2009-11-28 Finished Cycle and added Toadstool and Zoas
  
  

  As of 11/28/2009

• 2009-11-11 Cleared, Added Rock, and waiting it to cycle with help of the ZeoVit quick start protocol
  
  

  As of 11/11/2009

• 2009-11-05 Delivered to me today and set it up
  
  

  As of 11/05/2009

• 2009-10-31 Today was the first step as I ordered the tank from Doctor Fosters & Smith.