March's Tank of the Month

MtnDewMan's 75

Set-up: 

Tank: 75 gallon  Aquarium:  48"x18"x20" with corner overflow.  Euro bracing   so no center brace or small hole cutout to contend with at the opening on the top. Tank was made by IAP out of Bremerton Washington. 

Stand:  Made my Natural Woodcrafters in Portland Oregon.  The stand and canopy were tweaked with my design inputs so that they both contain open backs and have provisions for 4" fans for ventilation control. 

Bulbs :  Two 250W 10000k Aqualine Buschke Metal Halide bulbs driven by a PFO dual HQI ballast.  Supplemented by three 110W VHO actinics using an Icecap 660 Ballast. powerheads :  

I use a closed loop for recirculation.  One 1.5" bulkhead leads to an Ampmaster 3000 and the output of the Ampmaster feeds two 3/4" sea swirls for random water motion. 

Skimmer:  AquaC EV120 in Sump Skimmer:  

Return Pump is an Iwaki MD30RLT.  I utilize a low flow sump which has an integrated refugium.  I have most of my water flow via the closed loop and the smaller pump allows plenty of flow to have good skimming capability. 

Refugium is lighted by two 30W 18" VHO AquaSun bulbs. of live rock and 4-5" 

Sand bed:  I utilize a 4 to 6" sandbed of  www.PureAragonite.com sand.  I also utilize approximately 125 lbs of live rock as the main part of the filtration of the tank.   

Fish inhabitants include:  Pair of 12 year old Oscellarus Clowns, one Midas Blenny, one Orange Spotted Blenny, one Chevron Tang (which will be leaving my tank soon), one Flame Angel which will also leave my tank when I am able to catch it, many clown gobies, one neon goby. 

Clean up crew includes :  Various snails for algae cleanup help as well as nassarius snails for sandbed cleaning.  A few red legged scarlett reef hermits as well and a couple of Emerald Crabs. 

The corals include: Dominate SPS, with a Candycane coral thrown in.  Acropora, Millepora, Pocillapora

More info can be found on his website @ http://www.fitermania.com/75gallonreef/