150 gallon half round bubble tip focused mixed reef.

[Duffybubbleboy]

So we have the progress of my reef tank over 5 years, it was first set up as a fish only then a macro algae tank, so on. I should have a current updated pic tomorrow.

Skimmer - 2 kessils , 3 primes macro in the sump, hand dozing brs two part.

 

[JaimeAdams]

Looks good.

 

[Duffybubbleboy]

Thanks, recently got some new additions from lazy.

 

[Duffybubbleboy]

new arrivals bauspawn nems and a gold hammer coral the next day.

 

[Duffybubbleboy]

Is it me or do these rocks really look like an ork?

 

[Duffybubbleboy]

Yep orc - ork rocks confirmed.

 

[Duffybubbleboy]

Little better pic.

 

[Duffybubbleboy]

Added a 55 watt uv light and a 9 watt UV light. Turned up the whites from 7-12 and cranked the UV , royal blue , at night. I was Afraid the UV lights and pumps would put me over the limit on temps, I’m sitting at 80.7 a little high for my tank, I have a new fan coming next week. The nems sometimes get these rings of Bacteria or protozoans something on them I have to Turkey baster off , the uv is in the hopes to kill that off what ever it is. My sump is getting packed.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Following along,

The 1/2 tank has that classy high end look like your in a fancy restaurant or hotel. Looks nice. Interested in what you are using for flow

 

[Duffybubbleboy]

Constantly changing my rocks for better or worse. I kinda want a G5 for the “sps” side of the tank.

 

[Duffybubbleboy]

Thanks , in using two big Jeboa wave makers although I would like to Down size them they are all most two big.

 

[Duffybubbleboy]

eBay fan arrived today, just in time too my tank was hitting pretty high temp of 83. Way to high for comfort. I don’t run a heater I have not for about 6 years. My pumps do that job more than well. I monitor the temps and my set up always stays about 10 degrees higher than the room.

I don’t test for much other than the basics and do water changes pretty much instead of testing.

I do have a weird brown residue from my ro water or saltmix, that builds up mostly on the overflow, I have seen it in my mixing tub if I leave the hose in there. Iv added a ton of new plastic in the past few weeks for a tank this old. It might be diatoms but pretty dark, almost looks more like a redslime but blackish, dark brown. It wipes off easy enough if you hit daily. My friend who has a amazing clean tank says it’s the salt mix. LFS says it’s my RO source water. It could be both even lol.

I’m going to try to half and half with my salt mix plus Aqua forest, I’m not trying to go ULN but hopefully the aqua forest half mix will produce less of this brown stuff.

Other than the residue I get good results for only having my tank set up for reef for 2? years, it was not easy converting from a FOLWR tank, the sand and rocks were just making things impossible. I had to take all the sand I could out and remove about half the rocks as you can see in the pics. Over the years the idea of not moving rocks and not going into the tank has proven less effective than being hands on. Removing every rock with out coral on it to clean every inch of the tank possible is the best way to truly keep the tank closer to reef quality water than not for me.

I’m also finding less is more when it comes to rocks. Tanks have a certain cool “old school” look when they are filled to the top with rocks , and are pretty stable for a while, but then the algae builds up on/in the glass( becomes one lol) and the huge structure is now an impairment, also dropping a frag into the deep unreachable abyss you created with your rock work sucks. I would some times just say- oh well Davy Jones has my montipora frag now, “to the locker with you” and forget it. Now with less rocks I can drop something and not cry about it. Being able to reach the corners of my 26 inch deep tank is nice. I wish my tank was not acrylic over the starfire star view? Glass, not that the glass isn’t clear, it’s clear but there is some distorting of the view going on if you are looking at the from anywhere but tank straight ahead, also it’s insane heavy.

My old tank before this was a 120 tall that was another as tall as this tank, I really love tall tanks, or tanks with tall stands so I can see the fish and coral with out bending over. They are a pain in the butt though for real lol. Cleaning the glass, flow , and lighting are all kinda a nightmare hehe.

Any way since I installed the fan and wrote this my tank temps have dropped 3 degrees, I’m hoping I can get it down to 77 if not I guess I’ll get a fan for the sump.


I should say I’m loving my prime HD16s for little lights they are impressive, I have three and I’m hard on lights I get water on them and so on, the primes seem to be able to take my abuse. I do feel I’m not getting MH levels of growth at the bottom of my tank but my corals are growing and looking nice, my huge pink rose bubble nem now bubbles up at certain points vs being a giant spaghetti monster all the time. That’s partly flow but ramming him with whites and then the blues separately for sure is key. The side of the tank portioned for my montiporas could use more light than what the kessil and prime hd put out.

I’m debating a XR15 g5, or just letting it be and buy like $300-400 worth more of hammer corals to build a wall for the nems. The little yellow hammer frag is enough to keep them off that rock lol. The forest fire montipora grows like a weed the only reason it’s not 3/4 up the tank is I routinely smash it some how or lawn mower the sps side with a pump when I hit the magnet or some foolish mistake I just can’t not stop doing lol. Oh well I have tons and tons of frags to trade to my LFS.

I’m done with fish, I have my 6 year old purple tang and paired clowns, one goby, and 5 damsels, all hardy easy fish I don’t have to worry about other than buying a mixed variety of food. These fish probably appear “basic” or “noob” to some but to me they are prefect salt water fish. The damsels peck at everything floating in the water, the tang picks at the green if there is any. The clowns tend the nems and push them down them down when the nems try to walk.

 

[Duffybubbleboy]

I meant to say I wish my tank was not glass.

 

[Duffybubbleboy]

Equipment so far, 55watt uv, 9 watt Uv after that in the dome both feeding into the macro algae chamber, which is a home made egg create box that flows into a mesh bag to grab some of the cheato and sawblade algae - it goes sexual but it’s not really a big deal like they say. That goes into a bubble Magnus skimmer that is good but blows bubbles, then out a e-flux return pump, in the tank we have two giant jeboa wave pumps and a third eBay $16 constant pump that is on a timer that fires off three times a day aimed up to blow junk out of the water Column, one of the huge pumps might need to be down sized given the size of the nems they will reach it pretty soon. The eBay pump is so loud probably not worth saving the money there but they are cheap enough you can think of them as disposable.

Lighting is two kessils and three ai HD prime 16 supplemented with two junk strip lights that will get replaced with Reef breeders or orphateks however you spell it strips. The kessils I would like to replace with the AP900 when it’s out and also add one more XR15 over the montiporas they grow but they could take probably double the light for that crazy color on the bubble gum I only have seen with MH so far . I’m a little scared of the extra light spilling over on the area I want to fill with hammers though. I could just get a cheap eBay light but these nice name brand lights now days are so nice lol. It’s worth eating ramen for a few weeks to get one. I have not had a radion but I’m pretty sure they would be worth it. The only thing stopping me is an upcoming sale at lazy house corals , I want more hammer corals badly.

After the hammers and possibly buying a G5 then it’s probably time to upgrade to WiFi dosing pumps over doing it by hand. Or trying to use my auto top off vat as a kalk reactor. I would go for a calcium reactor but I live in an apartment and would have to move it sooner or later. I don’t really need the crazy growth on the sps I will end up breaking them into tiny pieces anyway.

I try to source my live stock from forum supporters or LFS since they are pretty good . Although some people seem overly combative on this forum it’s overall super useful and friendly.

 

[Duffybubbleboy]

The gear/ method of keeping the cheato from clogging the skimmer.

 

[jordan10]

Digging the BTAs tanks looks good.

 

[Duffybubbleboy]

Temps are hovering around 77.9-78.2, the fan is evaporating a lot more water than I thought it would and it’s aimed out of the hood not in. As you can see in the pics the water is pretty clear come the UV lights and the rings on the nems are gone or fell off, I only can imagine the “rings” were being feed by something in the water that isn’t there any more. I’m still getting a tad of brown residue on my over flow, it stays off the rocks and the glass mostly. Other than my plan to change the salt mix slightly I guess I’ll just have to wipe it off and live with having to do that until this new plastic is done feeding what ever it is. I need to get some black tubing to replace the clear tubing on my UV I just grabbed some to get it on, but I hate clear tubing it always seems to grow algae in there no matter the water quality. Iv noticed the clear tubing I use to pump in water for water changes leaves large residue marks in the vat so I stopped leaving it in there.


I’m mostly happy with my tank although I want a little more live stock and a little more lights but it’s running fine as it is. I will use restraint and not fly to close to the sun with lighting or parameters.

The evaporation is probably going to drop my nutrients lower than I keep them. I usually like to see a bit of green in the highest rocks just to make sure the macro algae doesn’t crash. I use reef roids not as food so much as to keep the macro algae , I use like 1/20 of the recommended amount a week, I find it’s way too strong unless you want a water change the next day. I don’t feed my nems often, they tend to spilt and then I have to worry about the splits going on walkabout. The flow on the left side of the tank where I keep my sps is high enough the nems walk right back. The hammer coral provides another deterrent for the nems.

I took out like a 5 gallon bucket worth of rocks in my last aquascape crusade.

The flow at the moment is a little high on the nem side but it’s worth it for now just clear them off and be rid of some the odd ball bacteria that was on the rocks and clouding the water at night and day time light hours. I’m not sure what it was but it seem related to dinos.

I’m nearing the point of adding a few bits of live stock and maybe some lights,

 

[Duffybubbleboy]

I’ll try to get a lens for the phone soon so I can take better pictures.

 

[Duffybubbleboy]

Still debating the last order of live stock or lights.

 

[Duffybubbleboy]

I probably won’t use reef roids again it just isn’t needed for my set up and causes me issues with algae and cyno, I went back to making my own water and dealt with the brown slime. In still doing extra water changes to deal with the algae in the main tank on the rocks but it’s dying. The Montis and so on are are growing nicely. The nems all seem to look better if I feed them.