May 2009 - Aaron Delaney (snaza)

Congratulations to Aaron on winning TOTM for May with your brilliant T5 lit mixed reef.

Aaron is simply known as snaza on the RTAW forums and you can find out more about his tank in his Tank Journal.

 

1) How Long have you been in the hobby (eg. start date or length of time or a whole paragraph or two on your history in the hobby)?

Hi, I’ve been in the hobby about 3 years now. 4 years ago I was living in Japan and saw some amazing tanks and aquariums. If you’re even in Japan be sure to check out the Osaka aquarium. Biggest tank I’ve ever seen, 11 million Litres!!!!! Even has a couple of whale sharks in there. Anyway, after that I started researching and found reef central. Spent the next 6 months reading and researching til I came across the MASA forum which was awesome. Didn’t know there was such a huge Australian community. I still had another 6 months til I returned to Australia but was so excited I started buying equipment from Australian online stores. When I returned to Aust I already had all my equipment so made a stand and got a 4x2x2 tank that weekend. Back when I was researching equipment CA reactor and MH lighting was the standard. I’m always keen to try different things so wanted to go again the grain and try T5’s for lighting and 2part dosing for Calc and Alk.  

I started off with a few fish and slowly built up my collection of soft coral for almost 2 years. I never understood the attraction to those brown sticks called SPS. Not sure when, but about a year ago I got my first pink poci and suddenly realised I was removing most of my softies and replacing them with SPS.


2a) Tank Size

  Main display tank -120cm x 60cm x 60cm (432 Litres), Small Nano / Frag tank attached – 70cm x 24cm x 20cm (33 Litres)

 


2b) Any reasons for that size tank?

  Seemed like a good place to start

  Seemed like a good place to start

2c) How long has this tank been setup?

  

3 years



3) Anything you want to say about your stand?

  

DIY weekend job. Painted black. If I did it again I would do black or white 2-pac



4) Do you have a sump and/or refugium? If so, what size?

  

  Sump is 90cm x 37cm x 37cm. Simple 3 sections. Skimmer -> Fuge -> Return. Running various macro in the fuge

 

 



5) Filtration eg. amount of live rock, sand bed or bare bottom, mechanical filtration etc?

  

4inch DSB and approx 80kg LR in display. 20cm DSB in fuge and macro algae.



6) Do you have a skimmer?

  

Reef octopus recirculating 800L



7) Water flow/movement (powerheads etc)?

  

1 x Vortech MP40. 2 x 5000L/H guppies Powerheads. Return pump is Sedra KSP3000 3500l/h

 


8) Lighting, type and times?

  T5’s only. 7 x 54w. Ice cap / aquaz reflectors, standard osram ballasts. 4 x 12cm PC fans for cooling 

Bulb 1         - 10am-9pm

Bulb 4,5       -11am-8:30pm

Bulb 2,3,6,7 - 12pm-8pm

 Front  ATI - Blue plus         ATI - Blue plus         ATI - Aqua blueKZ  - Fiji PurpleATI - Blue plusATI - Aqua blue
ATI – Blue plus Back 


9) Other equipment such as auto topoff, Ca reactor etc?

  For Calcium and Alkalinity I dose with 2 x  williamson 200 peri pumps. I’m dosing PQ pool chemicals. Both are dosed 4 times a day to keep levels stable. Fluid bed filter running Carbon (200ml) and Rowaphos (2 table spoons) mixed together and replaced monthly 

Chiller – Hailea 300A

 PSI 4 stage RO/DI water filter 

 



10) Water parameters?

  NO3 - 0PO4 – 0.04 (hanna)PH   - 8.4CAL – 420KH   -  8Temperature 27c
Salinity - 1.026



11) Additives and conditioners (kalk, phophate removers etc.)

  Rowaphos replaced monthly.



12) Fish stock. Preferably scientific name followed by common name if known.

  Valentine pufferYellow tangBlue tangPair maroon clownsSix line wrasseYellow coral gobyCoral beautyRoyal dotty backLunar wrasse

Orange Anthia

Bicolour blenny


13) Coral stock. As above, scientific and common names if known

  

Soft Corals

 


Xenia spp.
Pulsing Xenia
Lobophytum spp.

Anemone



 Green/pink Bubble tip


Zoanthids



 

Green Zoanthids
Pink Zoanthids
Orange Zoathids
Yellow Zoanthids

Purple Zoanthids

Blue Zoanthids
Button polyps


Corallimorphs



Mushroom Coral
Rhodactis sp.
Hairy Mushroom Coral

Hard Corals

 


Pocillora damicornis
Seriatopora Birds nest
Acropora grandis
Staghorn acropora
Acropora formosa
Staghorn acropora
Branching acropora
Acropora nasuta
Cluster acropora
Acropora granulosa
Bottlebrush acropora
Table acropora
Acropora millepora
Cluster acropora
Acropora gemmifera
Cluster acropora
Montipora verrucosa
Encrusting montipora
Montipora sp.
Plating montipora
Fungia sp.
Disk coral
Lobophyllia hemprichii
Candy Cane / Trumpet coral
Brain coral
Duncanosammia

 

 


14) Other Inverts. As above, scientific and common names if known.

  Hemit crabsStombus snailTrochus snail



15) Maintenance such as water changes, cleaning etc?

  Daily: Feeding nightly: DIY seafood mix, spectrum flake, nori, golden peals, hikari frozen cubes.  Weekly: Clean skimmer Monthly: 20% water changes 4-6 weeks.

Replace carbon and rowaphos



16) Acknowledgments and any other comments you would like to make that don't apply elsewhere.

  

I would really like to thank everyone on MASA for their support to my self and other fellow reefers. I've learned so much valuable information on this forum and hopefully one day I can be of some help to other reefers. Special thanks to Michael @ Reefing Life for most of my equipment and Pete @ 100% Reefsafe for most of my Livestock. Thanks to everyone who voted for me