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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Graystone who wrote (65935)	11/29/2004 12:20:10 AM
From: JF Quinnelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

I have Calfo's book on coral propagation and it's getting tattered from use. I've been experimenting with some outdoor tanks for about two years. I'm using rubber water troughs I found at a feed store, in the 100-300 gallon range. I have deep sand beds for filtering (6 inches of limestone based playsand from the hardware store), some coralline covered live rock, natural sunlight. I cover the troughs with acrylic sheets and clear plastic drop cloths. The heating is from 100 watt aquarium heaters. Circulation is from powerheads and air bubbles from a decent sized air pump. I'm thinking of adding a larger airpump with the idea of doing away with powerheads entirely. The tanks are 'pod factories. Shine a light across the sand at night and you'll see amphipods and copepods running in all directions. There is a very fat Mandarin in one tank who thinks he lives in goby heaven. This setup is a variation on Lee Chin Eng's natural system. If you're patient it works. I don't do water changes, I just add iodine once in awhile. I harvest briopsis algae once in awhile, and use snails and urchins to control it. There's halimeda growing in the tanks, chaeto, and some red macroalgae. I'm having luck growing soft corals, gorgonians, and sponges. No luck so far with SPS hard corals. I don't know what I'd use if I was trying for an indoor show tank. Probably a lot like what I'm doing now, but with metal halide lights, a large skimmer, a sump, and a chiller. And a glass tank instead of a rubber horse trough, lol. There's a thread at Reef Central featuring an 800 gal show tank that is absolutely unbelievable. Apparently this tank requires very little maintenance, but I'd hate to pay the bill for constructing it. It may have cost more than my house. reefcentral.com