PAST TANKS

Early in 2003, I bought a virtually new MH setup from a member of ReefCentral.com. The only thing I was lacking were the quick disconnect cords that run from the mogul sockets to the ballast, but another person pointed me to PremiumAquatics.com. $18 later, I was finally in a position to fire them up! This is a PFO Dual 175w system, which I feel is plenty for a 55 gallon tank. The aquarium is narrow, and not very deep. Using Ushio 10,000K mogul-based MH bulbs, the tank still needed actinic supplementation.

11/03/02 - New 55 Gallon Setup: It was in a home in the Azle area, and was in really sad shape. The husbandry was pathetic, merely because they didn't have someone good to mentor them.

My 3g Pico tank ran for about a year, providing a tiny splash of color in my kitchen.  The tank was later repurposed to treat infested corals, and then became the Suncoral Tank for several years.

After giving it some thought, I came up with a solution! What I needed was something that would fit in a very narrow area, due to the bracing in the back of the stand. However, I had more space on both sides of the brace, which would add up to more gallons of water if utilized. I gave this a lot of thought, trying to come up with a way to install the sump within the stand without having to take down the tank in the process. After a few weeks, I finally realized the perfect solution.

Over the years, I've used just about every type of lighting available for the aquarium hobby. Normal Ouput (NO), Power Compacts (PC) also referred to as Compact Fluorescents (CF), Very High Output (VHO), Metal Halide (MH) and now (time of writing is 2003) T-5 High Output (HO) are available for a reasonable price in the U.S.

The 5 in T-5 stands for the bulb size, and basically it is the same diameter as a PC bulb, except it is simply one straight tube. A PC bulb is one bulb folded in half, with a socket at the end.

Computer fans sometimes include colored LED lighting, purely for visual effect. I thought that I could probably utilize them not only for cooling my reef, but also to create some moonlighting for the late night hours.

July 2004 I made a photographic list of everything in the 55g reef.

Pictures	Description
	This is Spike, my Six Line Wrasse. Originally he was purchased to help consume flatworms (red planaria), but he never showed any interest in those.

My reason for setting up the Sun Coral tank was to allow me to feed these hungry Tubastraea corals easily on daily basis.  It housed an adorable tiny eel that I caught during a collection trip near Galveston, Tx.  This tank was taken down after four years, when the new 400g came to live. 

My frag tank is 22" x 13" x 8" with a 1" Durso drain in a 5" x 5" corner overflow. The locline feeding into the frag tank is adorable, I've never seen such tiny locline before. It's got a 1/4" outlet. The tank holds just under 10g of water.

How my 280g reef was powered from August 2004 to June 2007:  I had a lot of power cords that needed to be plugged in, and I wanted something tidy and water resistant. This cabinet affixed to the wall housed everything, including some handy switches to toggle gear on and off.  With the door swung closed, it hid most everything and keep it clean.