My tank on TLC this weekend

[Enigma13]

Saturday- 5 p.m. CST on TLC

Well my wife surprised me on my return from a business trip in December by having the show "While You Were Out" redo our den. As part of the new room she got Oceanic to exchange a 144 Half Circle Stainless Steel Reef Ready for air time. Coralife, Current USA, Tunze and other manufacturers also provided product. Aquatek Tropical Fish, here in Austin on Burnett Rd., provided great support and exchanged live rock, livestock, labor for setup and numerous other goodies (Much thanks to Bruce and Aaron and the rest of the staff). Kingfish Aquarium Design (Brian) provided consultation and labor on the project and now handles maintenance and Brian is training me on maintenance of my new tank.

Obviously the two-three day time window was a great challenge for everybody and Aquatek and Kingfish were awesome in supporting this project. The result was a great reef tank for me, that as I let mature, add coral and fish to and develop over the coming year(s) hopefully will be a candidate for TOTM at some point in the future. I have been a voracious learner over the last three months so that I may be a suitable reef keeper. Hope you enjoy the episode.

[Ram_Puppy]

that is awesome, you have a great wife! can't wait to see pics! setting up the DVR now!

[LoneStar]

You lucky SOB ;)

[tony]

congrats, that is awesome!

[Dozer]

that does sound cool, going to set the DVR also. Thanks for the heads up!

[gjuarez]

What day is the show coming out? I would like to wath it.

[Ram_Puppy]

if someone recorderd it you guys could watch it at the MAAST meeting.

[scuba_steveo]

Aaron told me about this. Sounds very nice. Looking forward to seeing the pics.

[GaryP]

Welcome to MAAST Enigma. I already have my VCR set to record it.

[jap1]

Hey! How come TLC never came to redo my place???!!! We are all so envious. That's so fantastic! Congrats and welcome to MAAST.

[SaltyJim]

Hey...do you live in the Milwood Sub. at Anderson Mill? I saw the truck there at the end of the year, so that must be you. I could walk to see the real thing.

Wish my wife would do that for me. Or just feed the fish for that matter...

[TheCampbells]

That's amazing. My wife loves that show. I need to get her to do something with my tank..... Or maybe I should contact the show and send her away.....lol

[lachrimae]

Congrats on the new tank! I forgot about the show until there was only 5 minutes left but I got to see the tank & the new room. I totally dig the curved bar &, of course, the tank.

What kind of lighting does it have? What do you plan to keep?

Mark

[duc]

Is is just me?

First no other posts after he shows up to tell everyone and second he has had the tank for months and has never posted anything prior. I know you aren't suppose to talk about the show until after it airs (some sort of rule) but you would think he would have joined prior to just act like a regular Joe.

Plus the screen name: mystery: something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained; "how it got out is a mystery"; "it remains one of nature's secrets" riddle: a difficult problem

Kind of hey can you guess who this is, or is it just me?

Almost think this should be moved to the vendors section seeing as it looks like an advertisement for AquaTek and Kingfish. :D

Now if I am wrong then nice tank dude, I would love a surprise like that. The whole room turned out sweet, one of my favorite improvement shows because they do cool stuff and it is very entertaining to watch.

Clif

[Reef69]

..Im sure other people are jelaous but they dont manifest it..lol

[lachrimae]

Perhaps he's not a hardcore reefer (yet) and found this forum only after the new big tank forced him to become more serious? I got the impression (from only 5 min.) that scuba was the main focus & not necessarily reef keeping. Give him a chance :)

I for one would not be more inclined to purchase from an LFS just because they were on the show & I seriously doubt the conspiracy theory.

Now if I am wrong then nice prediction dude. ;)

Mark

[scuba_steveo]

I saw the show last night. Very nice setup.
I too would like to know about the lighting. Give us some more details when you get a chance.

[Enigma13]

While I do hope that the show was a good advertisement for those who donated generously, I am a real person who was totally surprised by the tank. My real name is Jason Turner and I am an attorney at Fulbright & Jaworski in Austin.

As was guessed by someone on here I was not a hardcore reefer before receiving this tank. I had always hoped to have a nice marine setup, but this is actually my first tank of any type. I only found out about the group about two weeks ago during a conversation with Brian and have been lurking since then, but figured I would post closer in time so it would be on peoples' mind when the show actually aired. I have been reading numerous sources and web pages since the day I received the tank to get up to speed on reefkeeping and work out my long term plan for this tank. I have worked out a 15 month plan to stock this tank as I would like, but not rush things before my system (or my wallet) is ready.

The tank setup is as follows:
Tank: 144 gallon half circle Oceanic
Lighting: Coralife Aqualight Pro 53506 (2X 150W 10K DE HQI MH, 2X96W PC Actinic 03, 3X 1W LED Lunar light)
Chiller: Current USA 1/4 HP Prime Chiller
Circulation: Return- Eheim 1260 (630 gph) Powerhead- Tunze Turbelle 6100 (3150 gph)
Skimmer (I added post WYWO)- Euroreef CS 6-2+
160# live rock
Livestock Currently:
1 yellow tang (original occupant)
5 Chromis (original occupants)
7 damsels (2 orange tail blue devils, 4 yellow tails, 1 yellow belly) (original occupants)
1 Scribbled (Barred) Rabbitfish) (added mid January)
1 Bangaii Cardinal (added end of December)
2 Oscellaris Clowns (added about two weeks ago)
2 large Yellow Fiji Leathers
Xenia
Anthelia
Ricordia
Hairy Green Mushrooms
Red Mushrooms
Torch Coral

I look forward to becoming a more active part of this community in the coming months. My yellow leathers are starting to produce nice new starts and also splitting to create good frags that I will bring to future frag swaps. I would be happy to share my plans for this tank with anybody upon request, but do not want to clog up the board too much unless there is a lot of interest.

[Enigma13]

Just noticed the question about my location. I am actually in the Shady Hollow area in S. Austin, so the trucks you saw must have been for a different shoot. I know they did about 4 when they were down here in December.

[scuba_steveo]

We are very glad to have you here Jason.
Looking at your room on the show it looked big enough to host one of our monthly meetings. :innocent
What are the highlights of your plan? What type of corals do you want to keep? SPS, LPS, softies? I would think that you would need more light if you wanted to do mostly sps. Seeing as you are new to this I am guessing that you want to keep mainly softies and LPS right now.
Anyway, WELCOME TO MAAST!!!

[duc]

While I do hope that the show was a good advertisement for those who donated generously, I am a real person who was totally surprised by the tank. My real name is Jason Turner and I am an attorney at Fulbright & Jaworski in Austin.

Dang-it there goes my conspiracy theory! One of these days I am going to be right :D .
Welcome and glad to see your the real deal, I have no prob with the advertising just ck'ing to make sure it wasn't just that, that you were the actual guy not a front.
Now lets get working on my theory that earth worms are actually beings from another planet :D .
Clif

[Richard]

I still don't buy it! It's just a ploy for AquaTek to advertise on maast without becoming a sponsor. Oh wait a minute, they already are a maast sponsor. Nevermind LOL!

Welcome to maast Jason! And welcome to reefkeeping!

Oh, and you are a lucky dog! That 144 half circle tank is sweeeeet!

[lhoy]

The other show on this weekend was for a bicyclist in Austin. I'll bet that is the truck you saw in north Austin. It came on the day before the Aquarium show.

Lee

[GaryP]

The other show on this weekend was for a bicyclist in Austin.
What kind of aquarium did they put on his bicyle?

[Enigma13]

Well due to popular request I will give some of the highlights of my plan. I will separate fish and corals in describing.

Fish: First step is to remove the damsels. While they were great filler fish for the early stages of the tank I plan to have some more interesting occupants in the future. The fish I plan to add over a 15 month period are (in this order): Blackcap Gramma, Pyramid Butterfly, Solar Wrasse, Six-Line Wrasse, Orange Spotted Rabbitfish, Regal Tang, Flame Angel, and finishing with a Achilles Tang as the show fish.

With Corals I do plan to keep mostly soft corals and LPS. After the tank has been up for a year I plan to add some select SPS at the top of the reef closest to the light. Brian has assured me that my current setup should be able to keep a few at this level. The corals I plan to add are (in this order): More Zoos (in orange, blue, and red), Hammer coral, Orange Ricorda, Sun Polyps, Open Brain, Acropora, Pocillapora.

BTW, I would be happy to host a meeting if there is interest. I actually hosted a party with 50 guests here last night to debut the show and space wasn't a problem. Let's just hold off until I have time to get this system a little more mature.

Thanks to all of you for the warm welcome to the MAAST community.

Jason

I also plan to add a Maxima clam and a Linkia starfish in the 6-12 month range.

[GaryP]

Check out this article on the Pyramid Butterfly.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/Hemitaurichthys.htm

[GaryP]

I'd do some research on whether the solar wrasse will be compatible with the six-line. The six line can be a real bully.

[Enigma13]

I have done a lot of research on the Pyramid. It is considered almost totally reef safe and one of the hardiest butterflys. Marine Fishes even gives it a 4 out of 5 for aquarium suitability (an unusually high score for a butterflyfish).

I am hoping that by having the solar wrasse established for a little while prior to adding the six-line things will work out. Brian seems to think that in a system my size it will be OK. I have thoroughly researched all of my additions and while some may be a little on the edge they all have a pretty good chance of success if I keep my end of the bargain (good water quality, proper feeding, etc.).

[GaryP]

My concern about the Pyramid is that the article I gave the link to says that the Pyramid does not do well alone. They are schooling fish. Other then the stocking issue, it seems like a great fish.

I have 2 copper bands and plan on adding a long nose.