Welcome to our little piece of the ocean. Here you will find some info on our 92 Gallon corner salt water reef tank. I hope that by reading what I have posted here I can clarify some of the questions many ask about keeping an aquarium. Before I go into anything in great detail I will go over my basic setup to give you an idea of a basic setup.

First the Stand (Cause it's what keeps it all together)



The 92 gallon aquarium sits on an oak stand that was purchased unstained from Beverly’s Pet Center. My wife Daisy and I stained it with "Gunstock stain" from MinWax. We also used the Oil based pre stain to make sure we got an even color throughout. To finish off we used polyurethane for protection and shine...

Click here to see pictures of the stand before and after.

Filtration



I created the refugium sump shown in this picture using ideas from http://www.melevsreef.com. This is a great site for those of you wishing to build your own refugium sump, or other random stuff relating to aquariums. My setup is similar but not identical to any of Melev’s. It is a two tank setup one which holds the skimmer / intake section as well as the return. The other container is simply a refugium which currently has some caulerpa with a small piece of live rock. The reason I didn't use any of Melev’s designs was simply because of the shape of my stand. It is a 1/4 circle which makes everything that much harder.

Click here to see more pictures of the design and building process.

If you are interested you can go to my aquarium projects page for all the details.(coming soon)

I also have an aquanetics 15 Watt in-line UV sterilizer which I just stopped using because it seemed to have a leak that was somehow electrifying my water... I still haven't figured out how but I am reluctant to using this, as I often stick my hands in the tank, and really don't want to get electrocuted... I can see it now Rick Sanchez on CNN "Shocking News" really it would be shocking news... The sterilizer has been running flawlessly for a good four or five years. I think I will just replace it if I feel it is necessary. I haven't really planned on getting a new one just yet. Also there are many debates as to if they are really needed or not. At this point I am willing to give my tank a try without it.

Live Rock & Live sand
The live rock is exactly that "LIVE ROCK". It introduces algae’s, bacteria, and small invertebrates into your aquarium which are beneficial to the aquarium. The live rock acts as a biological filter. It also makes your aquarium look really nice and gives you places for your livestock to hide, and a surface to place corals if you have a reef tank. The live sand pretty much does the same as the live rock as far as being a biological filter. It also has bacteria, micro and macro organisms that are beneficial for your tank.

Protein Skimmer



I have an MR2 from My Reef Creations. In English this is used to dissolve organic compounds or waste by-products in the water. This is a must have in my opinion. The MR2 is a great product but is a bit expensive especially for the starter.

Lighting
Many people have different opinions about what lighting is best for your aquarium. Usually people tend to go for VHO or very high output lighting. However, I have had great success with just 4 x 65 watt compact fluorescent bulbs from a SunPaq retrofit kit. Two are blue Actinic and the other two are daylight spectrum. In the refugium I use the Coralife 12" Aqualight With 2-18 watt 50/50 compact fluorescent lamps I may get two more compact fluorescents in the future to give me a bit more light. The corals seem to be asking for just a little more. Many will tell you VHO is the way to go but well they are HOT and Expensive on the other side they are much brighter and seem to take up less space.

Auto Top off



Just a way to refill the water when it evaporate... Go here for pics

Cooling it off with fans

Click here to see pictures of the fans.

Need lots of outlets

Click here to see pictures of the outlets. I recommend that if you are going to do this you make it all come out of a single GFCI breaker isolated for your tank alone.