As noted earlier, the turtle tank I constructed three years ago was starting to get a little rough around the edges. Organic materials like bark can only last so long when constantly submerged. When it came time to move this summer, we realized that carrying a 40 gallon aquarium filled with a land mass would not be feasible. This, combined with the deterioration, prompted me to gut the tank back to a regular aquarium. Since then, a turtle accustomed to a life of biotope luxury has been forced to put up with a bare aquarium.



If you want some details on the plan and build of the original turtle tank, take a look here: http://www.nattarbox.com/projects/turtlevivarium/

Now that we are settled in, I've begun thinking about how I can enhance his tank. I'm looking to solve a few problems with the original design, specifically the reduction in swimming space that a large land mass caused. I have an idea around a sculpted back wall panel to replace the bark that will hopefully be longer lasting, with a suspended platform attached to this and a sidewall. Once I formalize the sketches into real plans I will be posting them here, along with details of the build.

Labels: Moving, Planning, Turtle Aquarium

I find it interesting how often a career in design seems to intersect with a hobby for reef keeping. Certainly when browsing reef hobbyist related websites and communities, there seems to be a much larger percentage of designers than one would expect to find.

Design and Reef is the blog of what appears to be a very talented industrial designer working in Manila. The aquarium related posts are interesting and unique to this blog, but also be sure to check out the sofa that the author designed and had built. I imagine in Manila it is much easier to find affordable craftsmen capable of brining a designers plans to reality.

Labels: Design, Link

The first day of fall, and my first post in awhile. I have some topics from the summer I'd like to write about at length, including the loss of a few coral specimens, the acquisition of several new ones, and some changes to the equipment in the tank. These are summarized below and will be discussed in future posts, but first some new photos:

As mentioned earlier, this summer we moved to a new apartment in Harvard Square. Moving a reef tank is a challenge, and doing it during July does not help, but things came off without a hitch. I will attribute that to careful planning and a lot of luck. Here is the tank in our new living room:



I also recently switched from my Koralia 3 powerhead to a Vortech MP20, after reading many good things. I can vouch for all the positive reviews about this unit:



And some new corals:





Summer Loses
I had a few coral losses related to one event this summer. We were in LA for a long weekend, and I did not leave the cooling fans running on my tank because of the rapid evaporation they cause. It had been as of late and didn't seem necessary. Apparently it was not so cool that particular weekend, and my corals suffered. I lost all but one polyp of my green zoas, and two of my fastest growing SPS colonies.

As a result of this, I'm currently planning on investing in a controller that will be able to accurately monitor the water temperature and turn the fan and heater on as appropriate, in addition to shutting down the metal halides as an emergency last step. At this point I am looking at the Reef Keeper II as the best option.

Changes in Equipment
As mentioned above, I have moved to a Vortech MP20 to provide water flow. The corals and fish have become much more active with the improved water circulation, and the undertow has kept detritus from accumulating in places on the rock where it previously did.

Additionally, I've decided to stop my experiment with Zeovit. Because my tank is so sparsely stalked and has never had an issue with excess nutrients, it seemed unnecessary and potentially harmful to be running a powerful filtration option. I have switched my power filter back to running two bags of carbon and some live rock rubble.

New Species
I've added several new animals to the tank over the summer. I have become quite interested in the large polyp stony corals and will be looking to get some more in the near future.
• A pair of tank-bred clownfish, Amphiprion ocellaris
• Two peppermint shrimp, Lysmata wurdemanni
• Neon green trumpet coral, Caulastrea curvata
• Brown and green candy cane coral, Caulastrea furcata
• Yellow cup coral, Turbinaria peltata
• Short tentacled plate coral, Fungia repanda

Labels: Equipment, Fish, Reef Aquarium