[youtube width=”670″ height=”400″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sncfi4hgnM0[/youtube]
The 1200 gallon Rocky mountain Reef Aquarium of Stephen Hurlock is a very special one for us, and a very important one for Reef Builders. I was fortunate enough to be involved in the design and construction of the 1200 mountain reef since way before I started working here at RB. By the time I wrote my first post here on RB this reef tank was just around a month old, and a month later the first video of the mile high reef aquarium was posted way back in September 2008.
In the meantime, this ten foot peninsular reef tank has been the subject of many many Reef Builders stories. We’ve used it to make ten foot long gyres, we’ve tested ReefBrite LEDs, CoralSky SL2 LEDs, the Avast Marine self cleaning head, the Vortech MP60 was tested on this reef and the Vortech MP10 got it’s first handson video in front of this tank. A lot of live stock has also been featured from Steve Hurlock’s reef tank including the Tuamotu Maxima Clams, True Acropora Echinata, will the real springeri damselfish please swim up and Symphyllia wilsoni. Needless to say, the 25 five feet of viewing on this 1200 gallon peninsular reef has been instrumental in helping RB flex it’s aquarium muscle at the highest level.
Ever since that first posting I’ve been absolutely pestered for the last two years to get an update of this reef tank and now it’s finally here. You must watch the video that was posted two years ago to truly appreciate how phenomenal the growth has been in this aquarium. The combination of very good and strong water flow, combined with the chemical inertia of 1200 gallons and perhaps even the altitude have grown the staghorns over 18 inches and parts of the tank are well beyond overgrown. Now that it’s time to consider some bushwacking of the reef, I made a special trip to visit this high altitude reef on the two year anniversary of it’s conception to make this video. We would tell you more about this tank and how it runs but we’ve already committed all of our notes to the next great book of reefing by Tony Vargas which will be available soon.
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