TONY BUI/REEFPLANET
OF/ORANGE,CA



I was pleasantly surprised to see Mike's private message last month telling me that I was chosen to be the next Featured Member to Showcase my Reef Setup.
My name is Tony Bui, I live in Orange County, CA, and I began my aquarium with great enthusiasm in January,2002 after keeping various types of freshwater aquarium for almost 5 years. I started with LPS saltwater aquarium 90g tank in 2002. Tank was crashed in the end of 2002 when I got an incident to drop the whole jar of Kent Marine Superbuffer dKH into the tank that killed all my soft corals but I never quite. Shortly after the crash I've owned couple Visio tanks in the year 2003-2006 with all wrong equipment I got.

As many people have learned, finding a new way to improve. I've decided to try out the LeeMar Tank since I love the look of it without center bracing. I bought a new LeeMar glass starphire front which measuring is 60"x30"x24". My reef is mainly a mix of LPS and SPS. I got into couple problem later since my circurt breaker was keeping pop up when the metal halide 2 x 400w and chiller turned on the same time and a space is starting to be a problem because of corals growth. I decided to upgrade to a bigger tank with open top and without the need of the chiller. About 3-4 months ago I took down my 190g tank and upgraded to a glass 220g LeeMar Starphire front tank which measuring is 72"x30"x24". Stand was built by a friend (Duc) from Acrylic World and Sump was built by John (Advance).

 

 

Lighting has always been a major debate in the reef aquarium hobby. I have been seriously involved in this hobby for more than 5 years now,and I can honestly say that I have tried many combination of lighting and many brand of metal halide bulbs on the market. I have mixed result with all of them until i discovered (I want a open top tank) a German Geisemann 72" Spectra 3x250w and 4x80w T5 with 14K AquaMax or 14K Aquaconnect bulbs. I have noticed a significant different in both growth and coloration of my corals (I chose AquaMax since the price is cheaper than AquaConnect).

Water circulation is provided by 4 Vortech (2 of each side of the tank), 2 nano tunzes controller pump 6055 connected to multiple controller 7095, and 1 nano tunze 6045 uncontroller connected to the WaveSea that mounted in the center from the back of the tank. Eheim 1262 pump is using as the sump's return pump.

My tank is placed in the family room, I want all the equipment to be hided inside the cabinet or inside the stand, so i replaced my old 300 external Bubble King to a new supermarine 250 internal Bubble King. This skimmer rated for aquarium 150-793 gallons. My Calcium Reactor is provided by Deltec PF601S. it's suitable for aquarium 500g with heavy stocking.

 

 (Fish and Inverts):

Some pictures

Click the image to enlarge

Final thoughts: I would first like to thank to Mike for giving me this opportunity to share my experience with others reefers. I also appreciated the great help and support I've received from my family, my longtime reef friends such as Emdy (John), F18 Hornet, Tetra, Jon, Bui, Ly, Sony (VietReefers), Jimmy007, Loc01, as well as many fellow hobbyiest at my local reef. I understand the challenger of keeping SPS corals and appreciated their beauty, but for me LPS and soft corals are just beautiful as SPS. With the simple equipment like mine I fell more comfortable with the corals I am keeping. here is my water parameter: Water Parameters Specific gravity: 1.026 pH: 8.0 - 8.3 Calcium: 425 ppm Alkalinity: 8.5 dKH Magnesium: 1300 ppm Ammonia & nitrate: undetectable Temp: 78 - 80° F PO4: 0.004