West Fort Worth Tank Tour2/26/05: Starting last year, DFWMAS started organizing Tank Tours. What this entails is the coordination of several people willing to show off their tank on the same day, then the planning of the best route for the tour, and finally getting the word out so others will attend the event. On this third tour, about 25 people participated, braving the rainy weather to visit six tanks on a Saturday. We met at the final house to start the tour, so that members could carpool. Once the tour was over, they'd be near their vehicle again. So at 9:00am, people began arriving and about 30 minutes later we drove to our first destination in Granbury, Texas. Cappy's 200g reef
Cappy's DAS tank is lit with all VHO lighting. His fish and corals looked very healthy and vibrant. In some of these pictures, you'll notice some of us look a tad wet due to the light rainfall.
About half the group are in this shot.
The Seio 1500 is visible in this picture, held on with 6 suction cups!
David took some pictures as well, and are incorporated on this page. I think this is from Cappy's tank, but they may be from Todd & Mitzi's tank instead. These button polyps are pretty, and sometimes come in as hitchhiker corals.
A beautiful copperband butterfly, a mandarin and the long arm of a green serpent star.
A firefish is tough to photograph. This was the best of three. ;)
A very healthy open brain coral.
A bubble pearl coral, extending its feeding tentacles.
The Toadstool Leather was the centerpiece of the tank, and was easily more than a foot across.
A garden of zoanthids.
Todd and Mitzi's 180g reef
This tank is an upgrade from their previous reef tank. They got into the hobby about a year ago, and later found out about DFWMAS. Once they were around our group, they quickly learned to hate their setup and upgraded. LOL! They have nothing to hate now, as this is a beautifully designed reef.
A custom cabinet shop made the stand and canopy to Todd's specifications, and he stained and sealed it himself. Access is easy for a tall person.
250w DE Metal Halides and T5 supplemental actinics did a nice job, but he's going to add one more MH in the center to light the darker center. Todd has a Tunze Wavebox on his tank, but something burned out in the driver two days before the tour and so we didn't get to see it working after all. A Tunze rep tried to get it going with a spare driver, but it wasn't providing the effect we'd heard about.
The sump holds a DAS skimmer, phosban reactor, & refugium. Top off is done via an external container using gravity and a float valve.
The refugium is currenlty using a 2700K bulb, and some growth is occuring. If he switches to the 5100K bulb, I bet it will improve.
As you can see, the group had a great time gathering together to see each other's tanks. Todd & Mitzi are SCUBA divers too, so you could say that saltwater is literally in their blood. :)
Yellow Tang
Florida Yuma Ricordia.
Sohal Tang
This interesting SPS piece had purple tips. It might be an Acropora valida, but really not sure.
Encrusting montipora polyps.
A tiny starfish. Two closed up button polyps above it help give the viewer a sense of scale.
A black ocellaris in a Torch coral. |
