Spring Tank Tour 2005 - details and photos

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Peek-a-boo!

 

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Tube anemone:

 

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Seahorse tank:

 

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Seahorse:

 

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Pipefish:

 

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We then headed to Westford, MA to visit Karen's (KAS) and Rich's (KAS2) setup.

A huge Derasa clam grabs your attention as soon as you enter the room -- that is, if you can go past the turtle (that swims in another tank nearby) without stopping to check it out.

tank: 75g Oceanic
lights: 2x175 MH with 2x110 VHO
equipment: Knop C calcium Reactor, Euro-Reef ES6-1 skimmer

fish: yellow tang, scooter blenny, sunrise pseudo, 6-line wrasse, false perc
corals: mixed reef (softies, LPS, SPS)
3+ years old

 

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The clownfish couldn't have picked a better looking host:

 

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Huge hammer:

 

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Are you looking at me?!?

 

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Reef scape:

 

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Next on the list was Mike (Tucc185) in Tewksbury, MA.

Mike's setup proves that age doesn't really matter in this hobby, and a dedicated, interested young person can be as knowledgeable and have as much success with their tank as anyone else.

Among the creatures that Mike keeps is a very unique mexican wrasse with interesting coloration, and a really nice set of blue and green Christmas tree worms.

 

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Christmas tree worm:

 

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Nate (NateHanson) in Lawrence, MA was the last stop in Massachusetts.

Nate and his adorable daughter Lilja had been with the group since the beginning.

tank: 65g
lights: 2x175w 10K, and 1x175W 20K.
flow: mak 4 GenX in the basement through a Penductor, a Seio 820, and a mag 7 closed loop
sump: 55g in the basement
equipment: DIY skimmer, DIY Kalk reactor, and DIY carbon/phosban reactor

fish: Majestic angel, 2 pink skunk clowns, a LMB, and a yashe haze goby corals: primarily SPS corals

Nate's tank is recovering very nicely from "the great flood of 2005" , corals all seem happy... but nothing in the tank is as happy as the beautiful pair of pink skunk clowns hosting deep in their very own bubbly RBTA.

 

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Pink skunk clowns in RBTA:

 

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In the rain, we drove the 19 miles to Newton, NH to tour Patrick's (PHreef) setup...

Nothing could prepare us for what we were about to see... a huge DIY tank with portholes on each end!

tank: 345g DIY plywood/glass
lights: 3x250w 14K SE
flow: iwaki MD55rlt thru 2 SCWD's (return), modified Maxijet prop pump (around 900 gph), 3 MJ900's on wavemaker
refugium: 40g breeder, 5"dsb, chaeto and various caulerpa sp. (to be online soon)

fish: pair Ocellaris clowns, 3 yellow tangs, coral beauty, blackfinned shrimp goby, tank raised B. cardinal, 7 blue green chromis
corals: H.Crispa anemone, branching hammer and frogspawn, gsp, silver xenia, devil's hand, large toadstool, assorted mushrooms...

 

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Porthole:

 

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Opposite end:

 

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Mushrooms:

 

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Anyone bring the snorkel and fins?

 

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The next stop was Bill (syris) in Epping, NH.

Bill keeps two tanks, a softy tank upstairs and a bare-bottom SPS only tank downstairs, using an adjacent room as his "fish room" with the plumbing running through the wall.