240 gallon reef

[Sean O''Hara]

240 gallon reef

 

[SPR1968]

The tank looks great Sean!

And welcome to R2R it’s great to have you with us!

 

[Sean O''Hara]

The tank looks great Sean!

And welcome to R2R it’s great to have you with us!

Thanks!

 

[MnFish1]

240 gallon reef

That is a nice tank.... Welcome to R2R - you have convinced me - I'm going to get the large anemone at my LFS

 

[Jrod381]

Welcome to r2r nice tank give us some specs on your equipment, parameters love stock etc..

 

[Sean O''Hara]

That is a nice tank.... Welcome to R2R - you have convinced me - I'm going to get the large anemone at my LFS

Just be careful, I started with one, and they have split so many times,they at one point took over. I've gotten rid of atleast 50 of them and they're still prominent, but they are pretty

 

[raylinds]

Great looking tank!

 

[Sean O''Hara]

Some pics from today

 

[Sean O''Hara]

More pics

 

[Sean O''Hara]

Left side

 

[Sean O''Hara]

Right side, heck of a lotta green nephthea!

 

[Sean O''Hara]

Naso, hes about 9 inches

 

[Sean O''Hara]

Angle shot

 

[Smarkow]

What's the trick with the growth on those news and nepthea?
Love it

 

[Sean O''Hara]

Good water chemistry and water movement seem to do the trick. Been dosing with Reef pro complete for the past few years, seems to be doing well. Recently did a Triton lab test, and all came back pretty decent.

Those anemones have split well over 50 times, if not 100 in the past few years. And the nephthea started as two little frags a couple years ago. Been trying to weed out as many nems as possible lately, as they bother anything else I try to keep. Working on covering the left side side in zoas, mushrooms and star polyps, now that I have the nems somewhat under control there. Not sure what I wanna do with the nephthea side, its actually a tunnel, and my fish all love it

 

[Sean O''Hara]

So heres the low down on the equipment....

All controlled and monitored by an Apex... Ph, orp, leak, 2 temps, fluid levels, etc

4 Ai prime HDs
Trigger systems sump
Chaeto in Fuge, kessil h80 at night
Aqua Maxx sulfer denitrator
Aqua Maxx skimmer with auto shut off if the overflow jug fills
CO2 scrubber
Gfo reactor
No name DC return pump
Apex Atk, trigger systems ato res,
auto-top off by ro/di daily
5 dosing pumps, for reef pro complete 2 part, this way I can fill up 2 reservoirs each, and one for magnesium if needed. Doses each 4 times a day
2 maxspect gyres running alternate gyre mode
2 Apex feeders, one lg pellets, one small
Fluval fx6, just for carbon and sponges
All this stuff plugged into 2 apex energy bars, so I can tell if anything fails. The tank is in my business, not my house, so I get a little nervous not knowing what's going on.
Anxiously awaiting my MOAI robot glass cleaner with reef cam. If you haven't been up on this things design and manufacturing progress, you need to check it out, moaidevices.com

Probably missing something, but that's the most of it

 

[Sean O''Hara]

Some pics from today

So I have a mated pair of clowns, they spawn constantly, but I've never had any babies make it all the way to hatch. They always seem to eat them all before they get that far

 

[Sean O''Hara]

And the parameters...

This always a battle for reefkeeping. Been at this hobby for about 30 years, and it's still sometimes gets the best of me. Heres where I try and keep things

Alk around 9, between 8.5 and 9.5 is where we seem to end up

Calcium 450ish, usually read 420 to 480

Magnesium like to stay around 1350

Nitrates, less than 5 ppm lately, that's my goal. Like to be less than 2 ppm if I could, I dont have any sps, so the lower the better

Phosphates less than .05 ppm, that's important. Things tend to go to sh#t if they go over 1 ppm

Keep my salinity at 1.026. Been using Brightwell salt for the past few years, as well some Fritz Pro as of late. Its important to find a salt that has the same parameters as your tank, and that's not easy. Most salt mixes seem to have low alkalinity when mixed, like around 7. The fritz pro is supposed to mix up to 8.5, we shall see

 

[Sean O''Hara]

Oh yeah, one more thing

So i test po4, alk, cal with hanna colorimeters, and no4 and mag with salifert test kits. I have a Milwaukee digital refractometer for salinity as well. They all test equivalent to the Triton lab results. I've tried other stuff that I thought was accurate, but were way off. I find these guys work the best. Looking for a good iodine test, but havent had any luck. I have a red sea version, but it doesnt work at all

 

[Sean O''Hara]

Apex Control Board