Benapilot's SCA 150 Upgrade

[benapilot]

Awesome!! Hope you are doing well

All is well!

The tank is chugging right along. I made the tough decision to re-home the Lemonpeel Angel. His appetite for my LPS has gotten out of hand. It’s hard because I really like that fish. It’s beautiful and gets along with everyone. Catching it was surprisingly easy with my IceCap Fish Trap.

 

[benapilot]

New batch of corals from Corals Anonymous:
Three varieties of Zoas
Dragon Soul Favia
Watermelon Favia
Rock Flower Anemone
Ultra Mini Carpet Anemone

I put the Anemones in jars with a piece of rubble hoping they’ll eventually latch onto the rock, then I can place them where I want…

 

[benapilot]

Update:

1- Aiptiasia in the system. I first saw a couple in my refugium, then in the return chamber and then a couple in the display tank. I have Aiptiasia X and am taking care of them. I also got a peppermint shrimp for the refugium. I put one in the main display tank and he’s disappeared. He might still be hiding somewhere, but I dunno! I think he’d be an easy catch for my Coral Banded Shrimp.
2- Refugium is working! I got a little softball sized clump of Chaeto from an online retailer and it’s taking off (basketball sized now)! In the last few months I’ve trimmed it twice. It’s probably doubled in size twice already. The Neptune GRO light was well worth the investment.
3- Fish. Last spring I bought three blue/black damsels from the LFS. They tripled in size and turned jet black. They were model citizens, but just not real pretty. Idecided to get rid of them. I just put an order in for 4 wrasses from Blue Zoo Aquatics. I’ve always had good results with them, plus they’re the only retailer that ships free to Alaska! I need to figure out a mesh covering for my overflow weir or else the new small fish will wind up in my Clarisea (it’s happened several times before with sad results: Biota Majestic Angel, Mystery Wrasse. RIP).
**Update on this Update…. I grabbed some egg crate in the garage and made this weir guard and zip-tied it in place. Hopefully the teeth are small enough to prevent any of the new wrasses from going down the overflow.

4- Corals. I’m having mixed results. Some Zoas are thriving, others wither away. Some LPS do well (Blastos, Torch, Hammer), others wither away (Duncan, Favia). I’ve only got two out of about a dozen SPS frags to survive. Parameters are all stable.
Nitrate 5-10
dKH 9-10
Calcium 400-430
Only thing I can think of is lighting. I don’t want to spend $1200+ on new lights when my Hydra26/52/T5 should be adequate!
Maybe try a new light recipe?
Pics:

 

[benapilot]

After some thought and a lot of YouTube watching, I've decided to give the Redsea ReefLED 90s a try. I got a couple off eBay that I'll use to replace the Hydra 26s on the outsides of the light bar. I'll keep the Hydra 52 in the middle.

I went with the Redsea lights because they seem to be the most "plug n play" of the the LED lights. I considered upgrading to the Hydra 32 HDs, but they just aren't as readily available in the used marketplace (maybe that's a good thing?!? ).

 

[benapilot]

I bought two Red Sea Reed LED 90s off eBay…. It’s been 4 days with no word from the seller

New friends from Blue Zoo!
- Naoko’s Fairy Wrasse
- Exquisite Fairy Wrasse
- Carpenter’s Flasher Wrasse
- McCosker’s Flasher Wrasse
I use Blue Life’s Safety Stop Rapid Fish Quarantine. I’ve had good success with it so far. I get two buckets, one for each part, an airline and a heater. I put some big PVC
pieces for hiding places. Each step takes 30 minutes.

The McCosker’s Flasher is teeny…. So I put mesh over my egg crate overflow guard.

After treatment, I’ll put all four in an acclimation box for a few days, or maybe a week. My only concern with these guys is my Sixline Wrasse, and unfortunately, I don’t think he’ll notice the others until they’re released

 

[benapilot]

 

[benapilot]

The Naoko, Carpenter’s and Exquisite Wrasses disappeared
So now I have a $400 McCosker’s Flasher Wrasse in my system.


A couple days ago I stopped in at my local Petco and saw a healthy looking Powder Blue Tang…. Went back yesterday, talked to the department manager who said he’s been eating well…

So now it’s time to disrupt the balance of power amongst the Tang gang!

I’ll keep him in the acclimation box for three more days, then release him to fend off

 

[Zach B]

Sorry for the losses Beautiful additions though. Hope you are well!

 

[benapilot]

Sorry for the losses Beautiful additions though. Hope you are well!

All is well, my friend!
I think I’m done with fish for a while. I knew the Powder Blue would be able to hold its own, but anything else won‘t survive the aggression (two big damsels, a maroon clown, sixline wrasse, and a purple tang).

I’ve been playing around with the lighting, as I can’t see, to keep any SPS alive. Maybe too much? I’ve got a PAR meter on the way- Amazon “rental” I’ll see what my numbers look like and rule out that variable.
My water chemistry seems to be good and stable.

Stay tuned…

 

[benapilot]

Current PAR readings pretty close to the brightest part of my light schedule. I’m happy with those numbers.

(pay no attention to the mat of cyano on the sand…. I’ve got some Cyano RX on the way which will nuke it in no time!)

 

[vpierce3]

Got most of the wiring done. Float and optical switches, cabinet lighting, probe wiring routed, pumps wired, modules mounted. Scooted the whole thing in its final resting place and leveled it. Kalk stirrer cleaned and set in place, as is the AWC plumbing.

I think I’m ready for water!
The plan is to connect my RODI outlet i
to my auto water change tubing and plumb it straight into the tank. Should take a couple days at 75 GPD!

My Gyre XF130 won’t work. The magnets are too weak for the 12mm thick glass. So I ordered two more Nero 5s, for a total of four Nero 5s. They should arrive tomorrow.

Your cable management is awesome.

 

[benapilot]

Video Update!

 

[vpierce3]

I started the process tonight!
Fish and a few base rocks in the left tub, and rocks and coral in the right.

Nasty sand, gunk, and discarded shells and coral skeletons is all that remains!

Tomorrow will be a busy day!
l‘ve got to finish the tear down, get all my equipment out and cleaned. And move the old out of the way.
The new tank and stand are being moved in tomorrow afternoon!

Love your build. Where did you find those 55 gal totes?

 

[benapilot]

Love your build. Where did you find those 55 gal totes?

Thanks!

Home Depot!

 

[JayRozzer]

How’s the tank looking?

 

[benapilot]

Thanks for asking!

All is well. Struggling with SPS for some odd reason. I have a couple growing well, in fact, one SPS that came over from my old tank that I thought was gone forever just started growing!

I'm okay with an LPS, Mushroom, Zoanthind tank!
Fish are all happy!

My AI Hydra 52 started acting up about six months ago, it would pulse in low light phases, then just up and quit last week. I could factory reset it, but it wouldn't take the firmware upgrade that myAI was sending. I went back and forth on what to replace it with.... Hydra 32HD or Radion, or RedSea's LED, or ??? I knew whatever I got (except for getting another used Hydra 52) would require a different light schedule than my two existing Hydra 26s.

I finally landed on the Red Sea ReefLED 90. It works. The Reef Beat app to control it is not as good as the myAI app. It's not as responsive when you change the light schedule. I'm okay with it. Once I get the schedule set, I shouldn't have to do much with it. My screen top has a brace down the middle that blocks the light a little (just enough to make my eye twitch.... just a little LOL). Nobody but me will notice it, though!

My refugium is doing real well! My chaeto grows like crazy... as does the bubble algae and hair algae. Better there than in the display!

PICS!!

 

[JayRozzer]

Tank looks great.

 

[benapilot]

Not much to update…. Had some wins and losses (including a bit of palytoxin poisoning ). My green mushrooms and mint green zoas/palys are marching across the tank consuming everything. Ugh. Don’t get me wrong, they’re very pretty, but soon my whole tank will be green softies!

New toys…

There’s an Ozone generator in the cardboard box. Looking forward to seating this beast up.

I’ll hand off my Life Reef skimmer to a friend setting up his first big reef tank.

 

[benapilot]

It's been 970 days since I stared this tank!
Lots of ups and downs, but overall I'm very pleased with it!

Enjoy this little video I made:

Day 970 Video Update

 

[benapilot]

The new Maxspect Jump skimmer has been a great addition. Previously I had a LifeReef skimmer with a Jebao pump. I thought it was quiet… until I fired up the Maxspect! This skimmer is near silent!
I cleaned it for the first time today and about drove my wife out of the house with the smell! I would get good brown gunk from the LifeReef, but this stuff was stinky!! Who knows if stinky = better performance, but I’m really liking this new skimmer. Money well spent!
I don’t know if it’s psychosomatic, but the water looks cleaner with the addition of ozone. I run it for an hour every night. Aside for little particulates floating around, I can’t even tell there’s water in the aquarium!