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STEVE TYREE
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This month’s featured aquarium viewed from the center.
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Owner: Mitch Boley
Location: San Diego, California
Tank Setup
The display tank is a 240-gallon (96 x 24 x 24 inches) tank. It is connected to a 135-gallon polyethylene sump located in the garage. The system was established in 1996.
Lighting/Photoperiod
Lighting is provided by three 250-watt, 6500 Kelvin (K) pendant lights from Coralife. two 175-watt, 10,000 K pendant lights (German), four 110-watt very high output (VHO) fluorescents (two 50/50 and two 60/40) and two 96-watt 7100 K power compacts. The metal halides are on for eight hours per day, and the VHOs are on for 13 hours per day.
Filtration
There is one ETS model 800 downdraft skimmer (5-foot stack) driven by a dedicated Iwaki 55 RLT pump, one secondary 24-inch venturi skimmer, one ozone generator delivering 50 milligrams per hour and one 25-watt ultraviolet (UV) sterilizer. The large sump is used as a mechanical/settling-out filter.
Live Rock/ Substrate
Live rock sits on top of 2.5 to 3 inches of aragonite sand mixed with crushed coral and shells, all of which sit on top of a 1-inch high plenum. The substrate is graded so the coarser gravel sits directly on the plenum screen.
Circulation
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STEVE TYREE
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This month’s featured aquarium viewed from the left.
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Four Otto 2000s, two Otto 1200s, four Otto 800s, plus the return from the Iwaki 55RLT pump provide circulation totaling 18 times the display tank’s volume. Only the Otto 1200s are pulsed using a simple MVT timer. All the other pumps are on all the time. There are various nozzles used to provide vertical and horizontal turbulence. I consider this turbulence a major contributor to the success of the system.
Make-up Water
A Spectrapure revers osmosis/deionization filter purifies all make-up water. The purified water is stored in a 30-gallon vat, into which trace elements are added. The vat contains aragonite to help maintain calcium and alkalinity.
Additives
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STEVE TYREE
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This month’s featured aquarium viewed from the right.
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An MKR-II calcium reactor maintains alkalinity at 11 dKH and calcium at 440 parts per million (ppm).
Strontium is added weekly and iodine daily. Kent’s Essential Elements is added to the make-up water in the vat weekly.
Temperature is maintained at 80 to 81 degrees Fahrenheit with the help of a chiller.
Salinity is maintained at 1.025.
Fish
There are seven large tangs (4 to 5 inches), a four-line wrasse, a mandarinfish, a maroon clown with its bubble tip anemone, a royal gramma, various damsels and a hawkfish. The fish are fed once a day and are fat and happy.
Corals
There are approximately 40 small polyped scleractinian corals, most of which were purchased from Steve Tyree in 1996 as small colonies. There are eight large polyped scleractinian corals, as well. Most of the corals have been in the tank from 16 to 18 months and, according to Steve Tyree, display some of the best growth he has seen in captive corals
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