Featured Tank – Hyneckson(Erickson)

HRRC is proud to feature Erickson's Beautiful 120 Gallon Reef.  Erickson hosted the July 2010 HRRC meet and we all had a wonderful time as usual. Every HRRC meeting local hobbyist get together to share knowledge, frags, laughs, and we invite all of you to come to any future monthly meetings to meet others that share the same passion for marine life. To view higher resolution images, comment, or ask questions about his setup please visit the TOTM thread here http://www.hrrc.us/forum/index.php?showtopic=8644

Tank Specs
Display: AGA 125 gallon 48" L x 18" W x 24" H.
Sump: Acrylic 75 gallon 44" L x 21" W x 17.5" H.
Lighting: 2 X 400W Vue Technology Metal Halide retrofit kit with Radium 14k bulbs and SpiderLight Reflectors. IceCap 36” T5 2 x 39W retrofit with Coralife Actinic 420nm T5HO bulbs. A 4' IceCap LED MoonLight Retrofit, plus a Neptune Systems Lunar Simulator with 3 LEDs.
Reactors: Korallin C-1502 Calcium Reactor with Eheim pump, a dual guage CO2 Regulator Deluxe, 5 lb. CO2 Cylinder, and CaribSea Reactor Media. PhosBand Reactor 150 with Phosguard media.
Circulation: A Danner Supreme MAG-Drive 12 – 1200 GPH return pump
Filtration: Reef Octopus Extreme 200 Protein Skimmer
Controller: AquaController 3 Pro, PX 1000, Lunar Sim, monitoring probes (2 x pH, ORP, 2 x Temperature), and two Coralife AquaLight Digital Power Centers.
Top-off: Custom gravity fed ATO with Kent float
Heating: Visi-Therm 150w heater
Cooling: A Patton 14" High Velocity Floor Fan (PX306-U), located on top of the canopy in between the MH reflectors.  Established: This tank has been running for 3 1/2 months, all the live rock and some of the life stock came from my previous 55 and 75 gallon setups that were running for about two years each.

Routine
Every morning, I feed the life stock with ½ tsp of prepared food (a mix of brine shrimp, mices, blood worms, amino acids, Brightwell amino & omega – 3/6, and Brightwell garlic powder). After feeding, I make sure the drip-rate of the calcium reactor is about 60-65 drops/min as well as the oxygen counter. I check if the ATO tank needs to add RO/DI water (usually every three days). I adjust the skimmer as needed. Finally, I give a quick look to the life stock for any signs of abnormal behavior. If I have time, I soaked a piece of Nori in garlic powder, amino & omega, and I put in a clip. 
Saturdays, I feed the tank and conduct a full spectrum test (Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, pH, pH high range, Alk, Salinity, Calcium, Phosphate, and Magnesium) to be sure the tank usage hasn’t changed, and I compare the results with the last check. Once the check is completed, I proceed to thoroughly clean the tank. After cleaning, I add 2 TBS of DT's Live Marine Phytoplankton, Iodine and Kent Marine Strontium & Molybdenum as needed.
I do water changes once a month, for which a mix my own saltwater. I use a 60/40 mix of Instant Ocean sea salt/reef crystals with RO/DI water. My salinity levels are between 1.025-1.026. My temp fluctuates between 77F at night to 80F at day when all the lights are on.

Fish

2 False Percula Clowns
3 Blue Reef Chromis
1 Yellow Tang
1 Blue Tang
2 Yellowtail Damselfish
1 Talbot’s Damselfish
1 Pinkbar Aurora Prawn Goby

Corals

Trumpets
Candy Canes
Frog Spawn
Hammer
Pink Chalice
3 Birdsnest (green/pink)
Garf Purple Bonsai
Red/Pink Button coral
3 Acans
3 Caps
3 Montipora Plate colonies (green, purple, orange)
12 types of zoas
Toadstool Leather
Umbrella Leather
Xenia trees
Kenya trees
Three types of Ricordea
Mushrooms
Tongue coral
Purple/green fungia
Orange Sponge
Green galaxy
And some other stuff that I don’t even know their name.

Inverts
Blue/Red leg hermits
Various snails
2 Cleaner shrimp
Pepper Mint shrimp
Emerald crab
Tiger Tail cucumber-thanks to Anomie
Sand sifting star

History
This tank was an upgrade from my 75gl, after switching tree tanks in the first tree that I started in the hobby. I’ve been really happy with this setup ever since, and I have no plans making any more changes for now.

Inspirations
Over the last three years I’ve kept fresh water tanks with a variety of tropical and gold fish, but I never could get colors like the marine fish. The lack of knowledge and high cost discouraged me to give it a try at the time, but after I moved to Virginia early this year, I decided to try out when I found a nice 55gl setup for sale in Craigslist. The journey is been bumpy and I learned a lot from making mistakes and people from the club.

Disasters
I haven’t had any major disasters yet-nock in wood!!! I guess the biggest mistake I made was when I upgraded my lights. I didn’t know that I have to periodically have to adjust the corals to the new light intensity. The first day that I upgraded my 175W 14K to 400W 10K, I let run for 10hrs as usual. The after effect was that everything turned brown, and some stony corals were nearly fried. Thanks to Charles and other club members, I was able to correct the problem on-time. However, it took about two months for the fried corals to start recovering.

Regrets
Like Dakman said it before, my biggest regret was not quitting on time and end up breaking the bank.

Words of Wisdom
Do your homework before walking into LFS. Knowing what you are looking before actually purchasing it will save you a lots of money, i.e. find out compatibility issues, hardiness, feeding habits, etc.

Advice
Take your time to do things; this hobby requires lots of patience and dedication. This rule also applies to wait for finding good deals, the club’s forums are a good place to share knowledge and save money. Ever since I was became a member, my trips to the LFS are now limited to only buying food.

Hyneckson