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.