About

Springs Reef is an aquarium located near Miami, FL. It is a 241-gallon saltwater reef, housed in a “Glass Cages” custom-made tank in a residential home.

This Blog

This blog is meant as an easy way to keep a operational history (logbook) of the tank, but it will also be a record of my development and experience as a reef keeper. I consider myself an intermediate in the hobby, and I hope that this record of my successes and failures will be useful to someone, someday.

Tank Design

My vision for this tank is to recreate a section of Indo-Pacific reef floating in the middle of my living room. I designed a wide tank so that I could create a plausible aquascape, avoiding the traditional fruitstand appearance that reef tanks tend to have. I am also planning to have a significant amount of empty water surrounding the reef. I feel that the water space around the reef surface is as important as the reef itself. It’s supposed to feel like the ocean — open. I also think that this layer of open water will make it easier to maintain water flow, and to keep the aquarium clean.

The lighting ratios in this tank will be lighter than a lot of reef tanks out there, but through my observation of other tanks, and the wild ocean, I find that the most diverse and colorful life seems to exist at slightly deeper levels, where the light is a little more faint.

The sump and all the equipment here will be located in the garage, which is adjacent to the room where the tank is. I had this tank in mind when I bought this house. I’m looking forward to having a pristine, equipment free display tank, and a cool equipment-filled sump/refugium in the garage.