My name is Matt and thought I would introduce myself. I'm from Evansville, Indiana and am fairly new to reef tanks but not new to saltwater in general. About 2004 I started my first saltwater tank (29 tall) and it was mainly FOLR. I tried keeping some coral but no such luck. I learned many things on that tank and quickly realized what I'm sure we all do... That I needed a BIGGER one lol. I then purchased a 92 gallon corner tank and consolidated all my livestock to it. I had many beautiful and fat fish in there for many years until I sold it a few years ago. I still have my 29 tall which is recessed into the back of my bar that I built. For years it was a nasty wasteland full of spiders but recently I decided to get it running again and spare no expense making it the perfect reef tank
I started by deep cleaning everything and totally redisgning the sump to accommodate such things as a photo sensor auto top off, small refugium, and ofcourse all the other goodies.. Heater, skimmer, filter sock. I have a degree in industrial automation so ofcourse why not use that for my tank i integrated a digital chart recorder to constantly chart my ph, temperature, and auto top off. The temperature is PID controlled and holds within 1/10th of a degree from 79F. I learned in the past with my 92 gallon that carrying jugs of saltwater for water changes was simply not my thing. I found myself somewhat neglecting the care of the tank. I wanted to make sure I didn't do that again so I designed an automatic water change system. I have a big container that I mix saltwater in and am simply using dosing pumps to remove a certain amount of tank water to dispose of while at the same time replenishing with the freshly mixed saltwater. It has been working great so far the tank has been running since February and have it stocked with a lot of healthy coral. I have many zoas, lps, and a few sps which all seem to be doing great. I only have a couple black clown fish for now but plan on getting more later. all my water parameters are pretty steady considering the small water volume. To keep calcium and alk levels steady, I am running a geo calcium reactor. Well, enough about that tank... Let me tell you all about my future plans I once again got the "bigger tank!!" Bug and pulled the trigger on a brand new reef ready marineland 180. It was just delivered 2 days ago and cannot wait to set this thing up! I plan on having a very large custom sump with all the gadgets and automation that my 29 has. I am eventually going to have my 29 gallon, 180 gallon, and also a small frag tank run off of the same sump. It's going to take a lot of time and $$ but I am planning on having it all done by this winter. I will take many pics of this build and share with you all. For now here are some pics of my 29
I started by deep cleaning everything and totally redisgning the sump to accommodate such things as a photo sensor auto top off, small refugium, and ofcourse all the other goodies.. Heater, skimmer, filter sock. I have a degree in industrial automation so ofcourse why not use that for my tank i integrated a digital chart recorder to constantly chart my ph, temperature, and auto top off. The temperature is PID controlled and holds within 1/10th of a degree from 79F. I learned in the past with my 92 gallon that carrying jugs of saltwater for water changes was simply not my thing. I found myself somewhat neglecting the care of the tank. I wanted to make sure I didn't do that again so I designed an automatic water change system. I have a big container that I mix saltwater in and am simply using dosing pumps to remove a certain amount of tank water to dispose of while at the same time replenishing with the freshly mixed saltwater. It has been working great so far the tank has been running since February and have it stocked with a lot of healthy coral. I have many zoas, lps, and a few sps which all seem to be doing great. I only have a couple black clown fish for now but plan on getting more later. all my water parameters are pretty steady considering the small water volume. To keep calcium and alk levels steady, I am running a geo calcium reactor. Well, enough about that tank... Let me tell you all about my future plans I once again got the "bigger tank!!" Bug and pulled the trigger on a brand new reef ready marineland 180. It was just delivered 2 days ago and cannot wait to set this thing up! I plan on having a very large custom sump with all the gadgets and automation that my 29 has. I am eventually going to have my 29 gallon, 180 gallon, and also a small frag tank run off of the same sump. It's going to take a lot of time and $$ but I am planning on having it all done by this winter. I will take many pics of this build and share with you all. For now here are some pics of my 29
