125 Gallon Mixed Reef - Triton Method - Ever Evolving Equipment

[jkrohn]

This tank has been up for just over 4 years and has had its ups and downs. The primary issues have been around stability, both of the major elements but also of N and P over time. I'm largely happy with current state and just working to maintain stability to grow out the SPS while refining the aquascaping, coral choices, and placement over time introducing the right new pieces. I'll be using this thread to document some interesting learnings / events from the last 4 years as well as to document changes going forward in the tank as well.

Tank: Aqueon 125 Gallon - 6' Long with dual overflow
Management: Triton Method since inception
Setup Date: 07/19
Current Tank Shot (12/24):

Fish:
- Hippo Tang, Purple Tang, Tomini Tang
- Magnificent Foxface
- Pair Black Oscellaris
- Blue Chromis
- Bicolor Blenny
- Timor Wrasse
- Yellow Coris Wrasse
- Pintail Fairy Wrasse
- Mandarin Goby
- Pair of Lyretail Anthias


Upcoming Plans:
- Maintain stability to grow out SPS frags while fragging out continued growth
- Get rid of large frogspawn on upper right and grow out large SPS colony in it's place (it is limiting flow and the clowns like the one down on the sand)
- Get rid of Birdsnest colonies as well as all the other frags I have growing out on the back wall, see if there is potential for larger colony growth there that complements the aquascape
- Move large GSP rock and RFA out and find something better for the sandbed

 

[jkrohn]

Major Equipment:
Lights:
- ATI Sunpower - 60" 8 bulbs
- Aliexpress blue LED bar
- AI Fuge on external refugium
Controller: APEX A2
Return Pump: Cor20
Skimmer: Reef Octopus Regal INT 150
Feeders: Neptune AFS and Avast Marine Plank
Mechanical Filtration: Clarisea SK-3000
Ozone: Poseidon 200 with Avast Marine Reactor
UV: Pentair Acquatics 40W
Flow: Two MP40s
Automated Testing: Trident and Trident NP

 

[jkrohn]

Technology:

I work in the software development industry so programming the APEX and other various integrations is super interesting to me. I'm reasonably willing to go through a decent bit of troubleshooting and enjoy programming the apex and seeing what automation and technology can do to help make my life easier or push my reef forward. As a result I end up with a lot of gadgets I may not need but are super fun :) I also end up traveling a bit for work so it lets me know if there is a problem as well as, usually, manage a resolution with minimal at-home assistance.

The two main things I use are Apex Fusion and Home Assistant.

Fusion is there for day to day management of my reef and major automations:
- Adative Reef's breakout box to control under sump lighting and ATO refill as well as feed modes and uv/skimmer off for phyto dosing
- Feed modes trigger a number of other devices either off / on or adjust their flow
- Flow monitors on return and UV runs

Most of my dashboard:

Home assistant is there for allow me to combine better over - time data with graphing as well as integrate my tank camera for remote viewing. I use the APEX integration along with a Reolink integration to accomplish this:

 

[jkrohn]

Progression:
I was upgrading from a JBJ 29 which was doing well (and I learned a lot of lessons with it the hard way) but I needed more room for coral.

I got this tank, as I have always gotten my tanks, used! It came to me completely dead. Completely inadequate lights, and was pretty much a coral graveyard with zero nutrients. I got it setup and aquascaped, found a great deal on a T5 fixture, moved my corals over, and installed a new sump / skimmer (Jul 19).

Once things got acclimated I placed them and they started to grow in, also added a number of fish (Jan 20):

I continued to add corals and things were going REALLY well. By the end of 2020 the tank was looking amazing. I was struggling a bit with SPS but everything else was growing great (Jan 21):

Then I started dealing with some setbacks through late 2021 and 2022. Primarily I had a bad nitrate test kit and nitrates were up over 100. Additionally I was not testing like I should (got complacent with how things looked!) and so my alkalinity started to drift a lot more. As a result I ended up losing most of the SPS. I took this opportunity to rescape some things and change focus a bit bringing in some easier SPS and focusing on stability (Jan 23):

Since those changes and the focus on stability things have largely been growing well. I'm fragging the fast growers, but that largely gets us to the first post.

 

[jkrohn]

Since run the Triton Method a fuge is an important part of that. I got tired of the fuge in my sump though as the light spill was causing algae growth in all chambers and in my skimmer. It was also hard to keep clean and to keep nuisance algae from taking over. I've struggled with the fuge over the years. Chaeto would boom and bust. Calurpa did OK for awhile, but ultimately nuisance algae would take over. I wanted something easier to access and clean to hopefully be able to stay on top of it better.

I moved to an external refugium to address some of this and it's working well. Outlined the build in a DIY form thread.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-external-fuge.1089008/#post-13162910