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May 3, 2006 Rocks are completely covered with coralline and
SPS frags are incrusted.
More pictures past and present of Dave's reef are in the
gallery.
Click on each picture for larger view
Welcome to "The Concrete Reef" Dave's 120 gallon reef tank
project web site.
...
This site contains information about the salt water reef tank aquarium display
that was set up in my old house's basement
family room. I no longer live there. The tank has since been
broken down and sold. I have moved to a new home and hope to
build an even bigger setup in the future. For now I am
tank-less.
Some of system features are:
- 120 gallon All Glass Aquarium display tank and stand.
- DIY 48" x 24" Aquarium Canopy, hood, and lighting
built to match existing stand.
- DIY sculptured cement based live rock reef structure inspired by the
GARF Aragocrete™ bullet
proof reef.
- A 2 piece Refugium - Sump converted
from my existing amiricle wet dry filter and 15 gallon AGA tank.
- Retrofit Metal Halide and Power Compact Lighting
installed in the canopy.
- Custom plumbing with closed loop dual SCWD (Switching
Current Water Device).
 What's
New
- I have moved to the new house. Starting to get settle
in. Planiing on setting up a 20 gallon fresh water in my
daughters room then maybe my other 29 gallon as a reef tank
with hopes for another big tank some day in the family room
when it is built.
- See the gallery for
**New Tank Pictures** and
Livestock Page for pictures of the fish and coral.
- Thanks Mark, Dawn, Ray, and Chris for the free frags.
- Life Before the reef my 120 gallon
African
Cichlids tank. "See the mpeg Movie"
My background in the aquarium hobby.
I have been active in the
aquarium hobby for over 30 years. I have had at least one aquarium running
since I was a teenager. I started like many in the hobby keeping
guppies and other tropical fish, and then I moved on to
cichlids. I have at times had multiple tanks. Until I got my
first house the largest size aquarium I owned was 20 gallons.
I purchased my house in 1986. I was single
at the time. I had been working since 1983 in the computer
industry as a customer engineer repairing mini computer systems
made by IBM, Wang, Honeywell and others. Traveling across the
US and Australia.
Around this same
time I started to really get the bug for saltwater. More and
more LFS (Local Fish Store) began to carry saltwater live stock.
This is when saltwater fish Aquariums really started to
become popular. In 1988 I purchased my first really large tank
from a LFS it was 70 gallon all glass tank with stand. At first It was set up as a saltwater fish
only tank. Eventually I converted it to a reef tank
around winter of 1990 - 91. I have some pictures from back then and plan
to scan them in and post them here in the future. The reef was running
for about 2 years when it was broken down due to the extended
time spent away from home and no one to take care of the system.
The tank was broken down and changed
back to fresh water requiring much simple maintenance. I have not kept any
kind of saltwater since then
until now.
Setting up the Concrete Reef
In the beginning,
When a friend (Thanks George and Ann Marie) gave me a 120 gallon reef ready tank for my
family room. I had originally thought about setting it up with
salt water. I had given up my 70 gallon tank about two years
earlier when it was broken down to remodel the dining room and
construction of my basement
family room had not been completed yet. At the time the 120
gallon tank was
given me I wasn't sure that I wanted to spend the extra money
involved in setting up a salt water - reef aquarium. The 120 gallon tank was
originally set up with
African cichlids instead.
Then in March of 2005 as
part of another attempt to stop smoking. The smoking secession plan I was looking
at this time recommended that you use the money saved by not smoking as an
incentive and put it towards a reward. For some that might
be new clothing or jewelry for others it might be a hobby. I
chose my salt water reef aquarium. I have been a non smoker
since April 1st 2005. At around 50.00 dollars a week for
cigarettes the savings have provided considerable funding for my
reef tank
project.
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