May 2014 CTARS Tank of the Month Winner
David Landino “DLANDINOâ€
David Landino “DLANDINOâ€
Please allow me to thank you all so much for the honor of winning Tank of the Month! I am flattered to have even been nominated and never would I have thought 7 years ago when I stumbled upon this hobby that my tankwould ever have been in a condition to win this prestigious accolade. My story started early in December of 2007. Our daughter, and first child, was 1 year old and my wife said that she would like to have a fish in a smalltank or bowl for the baby to watch. With that, I set out to the local Petco looking for the paraphernalia needed for a goldfish or beta. I had kept fresh water tanks in the past so I was familiar with how sustain cold-water and tropical fish but it had been some years since I had been in the hobby. Arriving at the pet store I immediately had noticed the advancements in the style of tanks and the equipment that was available. The bug bit instantaneously and I quickly located a 46 gallon bow front aquarium and stand as well as all of the equipment to maintain a tropical fish tank. Needless to say when I called my wife to tell her mom to bring me her minivan, she was a little taken abackJ. When I arrived home and place the tank in its new home I began researching online and that’s when I stumbled upon Reef Central and CTARS. Talk about getting bitten by the bug! The pictures that I was seeing of coral and saltwater fish were like nothing I had ever dreamed could be kept in the home. When I was into freshwater tanks in the early 90’s it was always a desire but a pipe dream as marine was far too expensive and the risks were too large to venture down that road. Now, it seemed perfectly reasonable to try my hand at saltwater.
This is my first attempt at a reef tank in January of 2008, just a few weeks after the tank cycled.
I quickly joined CTARS after many more months of research and visiting member’s tanks I began to shape a plan for the addition of new coral and fish. I decided to focus predominantly on an SPS tank because it seemed to be the toughest to maintain and you know what they say, play hard or go home.
I began adding coral to the tank in very small frags. Some in my early days were critical of me taking only a small one branch, 1†frag of this acro or that but in my opinion it allowed me to see the tank grow on its own way rather than me having to fit larger colonies into the already growing reef. At the height of my SPS days you see a very full tank with little wiggle room.
The above shot was taken in the morning of June 6th 2010, just before a water change. We were having friends over for a cook out and swimming so I wanted the tank to be extra clean for the kids that love to stare at it. I performed my water change as usual and we went about having our party. When we arrived in from an afternoon of swimming, 4 hours post water change, the house stunk to high heavens and this was what I saw.
A nearly completely bleached out tank! The cause of this would not immediately be known but it turned out that that a power head in my salt mixing vat had shorted and fouled the water. The only thing that gave me hope was that there was PE on all of the SPS but they were completely devoid of color all having expelled most of their zooxanthellae. I quickly turned to RC and CTARS. There had been some luck in restoring health to SPS with fairly large additions of amino acid and having nothing to lose at this point I began a daily dosing regimen.
After many months of amino dosing and careful water changes, the tank recovered nicely and growth was incredible! Until….
Hurricane Sandy and a 9.5 day power outage. While the majority of the reef seemed fine I believe that this outage started an irreversible downward slide ending with me having little left except dead coral, fish and some live rock. I was at a crossroads, either I started over again with all new rock and sand, or, I threw in the towel and called it a day. I decided to press on and start anew. This leads us to the present set up, a mixed reef.
Display – 46 Gallon, non-drilled all HOB reef
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The reef foundation is Pukani dry rock from Bulk reef Supply which I soaked for a week in a vinegar and RO/DI water bath while running a power head and performing three complete non-vinegar ro/di water changes.
As many of the club members know, I follow a K.I.S.S. principal with my tank. I have minimal equipment in regard to not having a sump, refugium, reactors, reef controllers etc. All of my equipment is HOB (hang on back for those more advanced than I *wink*) Currently, I am running the following equipment;
EQUIPMENT
Deltec MCE 600
SkimmerVortech MP10 (x2) with wireless controllers.
Aquactinics Classic MH/T5 dual 175w halides, dual 39 watt T5 Fiji purple bulbsTruelumen Pro 453nm LED strip.
Dosing and Chemistry Parameters:
I am using Reef Foundation ABC+ to help maintain the following parameters:
Ca2- 440
DKh - 9-11
Mg - 1440
Po4 – 0
No3 - 5
As for filtration media, my Deltec Skimmer has a media basket that I constantly run ½ cup of carbon and 10 tbs of BRS GFO. I change these media out once every month during a water change. My W/C rate and frequency is 10 gallons bi-weekly with water provided by my Mighty Might 100gpd ro/di system from Air Water and Ice.
My livestock is run fairly heavy and yes tang police, a little irreverent.
I have the following in my tank currently and for at least the past year:
Hippo tang
Yellow Tang
Royal Gramma
Yellow Goby
Blue Cromis x2
Black Saddle Clown
Serpent Star
Various snails and hermits for clean-up crew.
In closing, thank you all again! I owe all of my success to this club and forum. There were many times that I wanted to close up shop and quit but the selfless imparting of knowledge and personalized assistance that thegood folks of this club have provided has always been second to none. Thanks for reading and happy reefing!
Sincerely,
Dave Landino (DLANDINO)
Congratulations!This month's winner won a gift certificate from our sponsor, Affordable Aquatics!!
Are you interested in nominating someone for CTARS tank of the month or feel that your tank is deserving of the honor?
Here are the official rules!
Are you interested in nominating someone for CTARS tank of the month or feel that your tank is deserving of the honor?
Here are the official rules!
