First in a Series
My name is Sally Jo Headlee, I am the Executive Director and President of the Geothermal Aquaculture Research Foundation, Inc. I have been asked to write an article to share the successful and not so successful results of my 55 gallon reef aquarium.
On Feb. 14, 1996 my husband, LeRoy Headlee called me into my office, told me to keep my eyes closed then asked me to open them. What was displayed before me was a glass aquarium, stand with a hood and all the gadgets that go with it. He said "Happy Valentines Day honey", I looked at him with caution and surprise. I had spent years watching his magic with reef animals, the incredible beauty of his aquariums and the many hours spent trying something new or spending money on some new toy, NEVER, DID I THINK I WOULD GET HOOKED!.
This was my very first attempt at my very own reef aquarium, although I had the fortune of being married to the expert, I still spent countless hours researching, reading books that scared me, and almost made me give in before I made my first attempt.
I would like to express right here that by no means do I want to ever discourage anyone from setting up a reef tank, nor do I want to share my research and methods as the only way to do this. I agreed to share this information more on the basis of making sure that the mistakes I've made won't have to be made again and if I can save someone a step or two that they might be stumbling on then we will all get to where we want to go safer and faster. This is such a fun and educational project, any parent and child should take this up as a bounding opportunity. There are several new things to learn and share with all levels of the hobbyist.
LeRoy started setting up my tank days after he presented me with this gift. He started by placing a ecosand filter on the bottom of my tank. Than he brought me in about 80lbs of Garf Grunge TM live sand to evenly spread on top and told me to make sure that there were no holes and that the ecosand filter was completely covered. I can tell you my tank was so cloudy I never thought that it would clear and it did make it hard to be sure that I covered all the black plastic mesh. So just to be sure I'd add another handful to the bottom. I could not believe it when I came to work the next day the tank water was crystal clear!!!
LeRoy then put in the lights, we started with 6 - 40 watt lights which gave us about 5 watts per gallon. The next thing we added was some beautiful arches that LeRoy made by hand for me. I than began glue animals to these arches (yes I did this under water). I placed my base rock where I wanted it, then I added my live rock to fill in.
To explain more in detail about how I accomplished the super glue methods under water I will take you through this step by step. I first found the animal I wanted to place in my reef tank. Then I researched were it needed to be placed in my system. I had the animal cut and soaking in salt water resting before moving to my tank. I then put a pretty good dab of glue on the bottom of the animal opened up the reef hood and placed that animal where I decided it would survive and thrive the best.
I held this animal in place for at least 45 seconds to make sure it attached to the rock. We have tested several brands of glue and have found that the GARF REEF GLUE is safest and the best glue for giving you time to adjust placement of the animal before solid attachment. We know that some of you will think that this form of attachment sounds harsh but, believe me when I say that they use these same methods on our service men who where injured in war. My tank is completely covered by placement of animals with glue. Out of 175 different specimens only about 10 of them came from the ocean. Even my fish, who is like having a cat in the tank. He has to check out everything new that goes into my tank, got his own taste of glue more than once. This method of gluing is faster, more accurate, and definitely much much, more successful. I have seen NO adverse effects on any of my corals either soft or small polyp stony.
I went around the entire lab and picked pieces that had color on them and had unusual shapes to them. It was the second day that I began adding creatures to my reef and to be honest with you I have not stopped even today! ALL OF MY ATTACHMENTS ARE DONE UNDER WATER WITH SUPER GLUE.
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