I have known Kurt for a few years now and have always known him to have nice corals and clams. There was never a time where I could not get a fragment of this or a fragment of that from him. We actually met at NASA and collaborated on a web page project for his company. Kurt has been in the business for over 10 years and is very active in reef and marine societies in the Northeast, Ohio area. I can always count on Kurt for straight and honest answers to all of my questions concerning the hobby. It is always a pleasure to have a levelheaded conversation with another hobbyist and not have one claim to know-it-all about everything. Kurt is a down to Earth, no-nonsense type a guy that is a valuable resource to the reef community. I decided to feature Kurt's tank because he has some very rare corals thriving in his tank. Kurt is also one of the few hobbyists that has had a history of success with goniopora species and has a purple goniopora in the center of his main tank. I really enjoyed going to Kurt's place taking pictures of his setups and featuring his main tank. He has a green house outside full of grow out tanks for corals and clams that is piped into his central air system. If it is 100^oF outside, it will still be a cool 72^oF inside the tanks. Even though the air temperature in the green house will get to 120^oF, the heat exchanger cools the water. Since this is Ohio, we will get temperatures more like 10^oF on the other end but it will still be a warm 72^oF inside the green house due to the fact that there is a 1500 watt heater heating the tank. Kurt has a Xenia farm in this outside facility as well.

Tank Description: The are three giant pieces of live rock in this cube. One piece in the center of the tank has its tip hanging outside of the tank and corals can actually grow down the tank after they reach the top. This produces an interesting effect when looking at the top of Kurt's tank. The tank is a custom built 30"x30"x24" acrylic tank that is approximately 90 gallons that is gravity feed into a large 50 gallon sump that also supports a 100 gallon coral grow out tank in the basement. The piping is through the floor into the basement and back again. This system is in its own little room and can be easily accessed for maintenance. The lighting is one 250 watt 6,500K Metal Halide and three actinic blue 90 watt VHO bulbs and one actinic white VHO bulb mounted in a custom hood. The lights are on for approximately 12 hours a day and are set to timers with the VHOs coming on first. The pump is rated at 1500 gallons per hour and is pumped through 2" diameter piping and fed and drained from the tank on opposite sides of the tank. One large power head and the return nozzle provide for excellent currently throughout the tank. The additives used in this tank are reagent grade Strontium Chloride, Potassium Iodide and Calcium. The additives are dosed daily using a peristaltic dosing pump. Water changes are too infrequent to mention. If you want to know more about Kurt's setup up and how to get xenia or fragments form him, please e-mail him at fishboy@bright.net.
 

This is a picture of the middle of the tank. It is completely  filled with acropora and corals resulting from an actual  coral spawn. (center is acropora humilis)	Bottom left picture of pavona catus and  pocillopora damicornis.
These are two of the biggest clams that I have seen in anyone's tank. The Gigas has to be over 15".	The tips of an acropora nana.
An entire colony of acropora aculeus reaching for the sky.	Pulsing Xenia coming from the top of the tank.
Encrusting pillar coral (acropora sp.).	Two sailfin tangs (yellow and stripped).
This is a rare coral (australogyra zelli). There are not many  thriving in captivity. Notice the slime, which is normal  for this particular coral.	A beautiful bouquet of goniopora.