[WSBoyette]

Hello, all you scholarly aquarists !

A word of introduction....
I am Wade Boyette, and I am out here in the wilds of N.E. NC. Back in 1990-1992 while residing in a nearby college town, I had a slightly reefy 45 gallon fish-only setup (I say reefy because the were about three pieces of live rock in the thing). I successfully kept a maroon clown, puffer and a mandarin during this tenure - many people over on Reef Central find it difficult to believe that my mandarin thrived on his own (self-propagating !) prolly pod supply in such a small setup ;-)

After moving to my current home, I was forced to break down the setup and store my tanks (also have a 20L and a 90 in storage). Sadly, the 90 has never been set up, as I still am hard pushed to find room for it. Oh well, probably can't afford to do a reef that big anyway.... After putting an addition on my house, I am now finally ready to set up the 45 as a Berlin mini-reef. As I will explain here, it has many of the attributes of a bigger system.

Just prior to moving here back in 1992, I decided I wanted to change my 45 to a reef one day, so I obtained a Seaquest venturi skimmer (which I got CHEEP so it never worked properly), and a 10 gallon sump tank. I will be shortly purchasing a new skimmer...Then I proceeded to break out with the 'tools from H***, and built an oxygen reactor and an algal scrubber - this last thing I did because I had been reading of the Smithsonian's Dr. Adey's now-questionable success with scrubbers. I've been to the Smithsonian's aquarium a couple of times, and have yet to see any reef tank. The oxygen/ozone reactor uses high pressure air/ozone mix injected into a chamber in which incoming water is violently sprayed over some bioballs. Ozone, of course will prevent it from becoming a bio-filter. So the other night, I dragged the 45 and 20L out of the storage building, and proceeded to assemble and test my setup. The 20L will be used as the refugium, and will sit next to the 45 so that it may share the filtration system. I even have made arranagments to put a 10 gallon hospital tank underneath the 20L. Here are some pictures of the testing and overhaul work in progress, featuring my homebuilt equipment:

Grand view of the rear:



My homebuilt O2/Ozone reactor, of which I am particularly proud - it is my own design:



View of my crowded sump; note the soon-to-be-removed algal scrubber above it (probably wasn't big enough and has no place in a Berlin reef setup), and my homebuilt float switch at the left end:




Well, there's what I have going on in a nutshell - if I wasn't as slow-moving as a fat mandarin, I would be anxious to show some pictures of the finished reef.

Happy reefing,
Wade Boyette

__________________
____________________________________
Albert Thiel waz so non-Berlin, I burned his book....
Crabz iz YUGLY, an' ain't too tastee, either !

[zhenya]

Hi Wade,




Got anymore pictures of the progress of your tank? I'm curious to see how things are in your 45.
In any case, good luck with it!

[Reefland]

Hi Wade and Welcome to Reefland!

[WSBoyette]

Originally Posted by zhenya

Hi Wade,




Got anymore pictures of the progress of your tank? I'm curious to see how things are in your 45.
In any case, good luck with it!

So sorry - not yet, Gene...

I kind of got sidetracked and low on money from buying a Honda Prelude a few weeks ago, coupled with doctor bills and other things. I got back on track with it today, and drove that georgeous Prelude to Raleigh (nothing but cheezy PetSmart, etc in this town) to scout skimmers and livestock. I was disappointed in what is being passed off as a "reef shop" up there; the equipment was just fish-only stuff and the Mandarin I saw in there looked SICK. They did at least have some other decent livestock, however, and I prefer to buy livestock that I can inspect firsthand over mail-order. I am still in a quandry where choice of skimmer is concerned, but I am leaning toward the Aqua-C Urchin, as I have seen only rave reviews on it and it will fit easily under my stand in my sump (limited space down there !). I am now champing at the bit to 'shoot the engineer' and get on with this project !

Best Regards,
Wade
_________________________________________
Albert Theil was so anti-Berlin, I burned his book....
Crabz iz YUGLY, an' aint too tastee either !

[WSBoyette]

Originally Posted by Reefland

Hi Wade and Welcome to Reefland!

Thanks, Scott,

I am sure that I will enjoy this forum; the experience of the other aquarists here is worth a thousand issues of FAMA !

Best Regards,
Wade

_________________________________________
Albert Theil waz so anti-Berlin, I burned his book....
Crabz iz YUGLY, an' ain't too tastee either !

[charlie]

I'll tag along here and add my own
.

It will be fun watching the progress here.