Equipment - I have a 90GAL AGA aquarium with a custom sump that was made from an old 30GAL aquarium someone had laying around. It uses a grid type suspended filter media. I use a 50 micron filter pad with 12x12 dual media prefilter pad on top and a 12x12 Activated Carbon filter pad in the middle. I use a MAG drive 1800 to circulate the water and I also have a powerhead in the display tank to create a wave effect. I have a Seaclone 150 Protein Skimmer in the sump. For lighting I have a Current USA Outer Orbit HQI Metal Halide/Dual Actinic/MoonLight fixture. I also have a 29GAL hospital tank with about 5LBS live rock and 10 turbo snails in it - just in case of sickness.
01/12/2005 Update - I just added another Coralife 4x65 light fixture for a total of 520 watts. I think that takes me to 5.78 watts per gallon.
04/04/2005 Update - I just switched out my lighting to HQI Metal Halide. WOW what a difference!! Overall I am happy with the purchase, but it set me back way more than I should have spent.
The light is a Current USA Outer Orbit fixture 2x150Watt HQI bulbs, 2x130Watt Dual Actinic bulbs, and 6x1Watt White Lunar Lights. This kit came with everything (Feet, Brushed Aluminum Ceiling Mounts, and Timers). My reef now enjoys 6.22 watts per gallon of crystal clear light. I just wish I could have kept my canopy.
Reef Life - I have about 120LBS of very mature live rock (live rock that is covered with a lot of coraline algae)
60LBS crushed coral and 40LBS Florida white sand make up the substrate
60 turbo snails
4 turbo grazers
10 blue leg hermit crabs
2 cleaner shrimp
1 yellow tang
1 large hippo tang
1 true percula clown
1 blue-green chromis
1 yellow tail damsel
1 mandarin dragonette
2 large button polyp
3 green star polyp
Finally, I have all the associated live rock macro-life that is common to reef tanks in abundance. The only outstanding life form I was not counting on is that one of my most mature rocks has a porcelain crab living in it.
Water Chemistry – Temp = 80.2 Deg F., Salinity = 31, Specific Gravity = 1.023, PH = 8.2, Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0, Nitrate = 6 (seems to be falling back down to 0), Calcium = 440, General Hardness = 140, Carbonate Hardness = 110, and Phosphate = 0
01/12/2005 Update - I just added another Coralife 4x65 light fixture for a total of 520 watts. I think that takes me to 5.78 watts per gallon.
04/04/2005 Update - I just switched out my lighting to HQI Metal Halide. WOW what a difference!! Overall I am happy with the purchase, but it set me back way more than I should have spent.
The light is a Current USA Outer Orbit fixture 2x150Watt HQI bulbs, 2x130Watt Dual Actinic bulbs, and 6x1Watt White Lunar Lights. This kit came with everything (Feet, Brushed Aluminum Ceiling Mounts, and Timers). My reef now enjoys 6.22 watts per gallon of crystal clear light. I just wish I could have kept my canopy.
Reef Life - I have about 120LBS of very mature live rock (live rock that is covered with a lot of coraline algae)
60LBS crushed coral and 40LBS Florida white sand make up the substrate
60 turbo snails
4 turbo grazers
10 blue leg hermit crabs
2 cleaner shrimp
1 yellow tang
1 large hippo tang
1 true percula clown
1 blue-green chromis
1 yellow tail damsel
1 mandarin dragonette
2 large button polyp
3 green star polyp
Finally, I have all the associated live rock macro-life that is common to reef tanks in abundance. The only outstanding life form I was not counting on is that one of my most mature rocks has a porcelain crab living in it.
Water Chemistry – Temp = 80.2 Deg F., Salinity = 31, Specific Gravity = 1.023, PH = 8.2, Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0, Nitrate = 6 (seems to be falling back down to 0), Calcium = 440, General Hardness = 140, Carbonate Hardness = 110, and Phosphate = 0
Please post some pics for us 
