mlburchjr
Community Member
Hello everyone,
Let me first start by introducing myself. My name is Mark and I have been in the hobby on and off for approximately 20 years. I have been a member on Reef2Reef for a very long time however, I never really interacted. I used it more for information and you all have given me plenty of great information over the years. Thank you for that. I thought it would be good now to start my own tank thread.
The tank (Bernice V2.0) is up and running and has been for approximately 6 months now so this isn't exactly a build thread but I will try to be as descriptive as possible. I will include pictures where I can. My photography skills are not very good.
Let me start with a brief history of the tank. It is a Red Sea Reefer 750 XXL (160 gallon display) that I purchased in 2021 (Bernice V1.0).
The tank did great and matured very well. It wasn't perfect, nothing ever is, but I was happy with the progression. I used 2 Neptune Systems Skys and 2 Kessils for lighting. I switched back and forth between Vortechs and Gyres for powerheads. I used a Varios 6 for a return. The tank was doing well. The corals were growing, not thriving, but I was working on it. Bernice was doing great.
Then Hurricane Milton happened. I thought I was prepared. In previous hurricane seasons I had bubblers at the ready for my wife to put in the tank once the power went out. When the power would go out it would only be for less than a day so bubblers worked just fine. But this year I purchased a generator large enough to run the whole house. So I said to myself, I didn't need the bubblers anymore. Over confidence will always get you. What I had not thought about was how long it would be before the portable generator could be turned on. The power at the house went out pretty early in the event and rain and wind made it dangerous and impossible to hook up and turn on the generator. I am in law enforcement so for disaster events like a hurricane, I am not home but at work for many many hours. At least 12 hours passed before my wife could turn the generator on. By that time fish had already started to die. I love my wife very much and none of this is her fault. This is 100% on me for not preparing her or the tank for what could happen. Because I was at work for many hours a day for many days in a row, I was unable to save anything. We were without power for 9 days. After the power was restored and work slowed down, about a week and half later, I was finally able to tend to the tank and empty it. Low tide was definitely in the house.
This was last October. I tore the tank down. Got rid of all the sand and chipped away the dead coral from the rocks. I rinsed them with water and let them bake in the sun for a couple of days and decided to start over. While the hobby can be frustrating at times, I love it. The peace it brings to me to just watch the tank and the stress relief I get from working on and maintaining it can't be beat.
Lessons were learned and precautions are being put into place to hopefully prevent this in the future. I am having a complete battery backup solar system installed which should be able to get through days of having no power. At the very least it will give me time to plug the generator in if needed.
So that is the backstory, now lets begin with Bernice V2.0. Forgive me for not starting earlier but I will try to catch up. The reboot began with filling the tank with water. I used my my BRS 7 stage RO/DI to fill the tank with freshwater. I brought over the Red Sea ATO, Red Sea Reef Mat, Skys, Kessils, and Neptune GRO light from the first iteration of the tank.
At the time the tank was taken down I was using 2 XF 350 Gyres for powerheads. With the new rebuild, I decided to switch back to Vortechs. I now am using 4 MP40's. I also switched my return from the Varios 6 to 2 Red Sea 7000 return pumps. I got them barely used from my LFS. I also decided to switch to the Red Sea 300 Skimmer. I was planning on purchasing a third Sky, but they didn't sell them anymore so I went with 4 Kessil A360XE's. This all, with the exception of the skimmer, worked well for the first couple of months. I wasn't happy with the skimmer, so I decided to sell it and replace it with the Reef Octopus Regal 200int. I had the 150 on the previous build and was happy with it, but I felt it wasn't big enough.
I let the tank sit empty for a month and used the frozen shrimp method to cycle it. Then came time for fish. The first fish I typically put in a tank are green chromis, however, my LFS didn't have any. I instead went with yellow damsels. They have done great and are fat an happy. After a couple more weeks, I added a blue hippo, yellow eyed kole, and a purple tang along with a cuc. A few months passed and it was time for coral. I hadn't yet tested par and I was concerned what the kessils by themselves were actually doing. I borrowed a par meter and was only getting 200 at the very top of the tank. The kessils were running at 85% (I wasn't going to go much higher than that). My plan was a mixed reef being SPS dominant. 200 at the top and below 100 at the bottom wasn't going to cut it. Throughout all my years of reefing I stayed away from the Radions. Why, I don't know, I just did. But I decided to go with 3 G6 Pros. I like more of a full spectrum over blue so the pros were my choice. I was surprised to see them out of stock on many websites and had to wait a little bit to order them. After getting them and setting them up, I know now why some consider them the top tier. Aside from not having the shimmer of Kessils, these are the best lights I have ever had. My first corals went in. Now I am going to tell on myself. I love keeping coral and fish, however my husbandry practices are absolutely abysmal. I never remember the names of most of the coral I put in so I am unable to tell you exactly what it was that went in first. I do know it was a Duncan and some type of acro.
Every time I set up a tank, I tell myself I am going to better organized with equipment. I plan to cable manage with the best of them and I start with good intentions but always finish in complete disaster. This time however, I finally decided to actually build an equipment board. I think for a DIY it came out pretty good. Don't ask to see behind it, because it ain't pretty. It may be a little easier to perform maintenance on then a extremely well zip tied and managed cable system, but it ain't pretty.
Well this post is getting pretty long. So I am going to stop it right here. I will add more at a later time because there is more and I am sure I will be asking questions now that I have decided to actually engage on the forum. Again, thank you for the wealth of knowledge that you have imparted on me. I leave you with a full tank shot from today.
-Mark
Let me first start by introducing myself. My name is Mark and I have been in the hobby on and off for approximately 20 years. I have been a member on Reef2Reef for a very long time however, I never really interacted. I used it more for information and you all have given me plenty of great information over the years. Thank you for that. I thought it would be good now to start my own tank thread.
The tank (Bernice V2.0) is up and running and has been for approximately 6 months now so this isn't exactly a build thread but I will try to be as descriptive as possible. I will include pictures where I can. My photography skills are not very good.
Let me start with a brief history of the tank. It is a Red Sea Reefer 750 XXL (160 gallon display) that I purchased in 2021 (Bernice V1.0).
The tank did great and matured very well. It wasn't perfect, nothing ever is, but I was happy with the progression. I used 2 Neptune Systems Skys and 2 Kessils for lighting. I switched back and forth between Vortechs and Gyres for powerheads. I used a Varios 6 for a return. The tank was doing well. The corals were growing, not thriving, but I was working on it. Bernice was doing great.
Then Hurricane Milton happened. I thought I was prepared. In previous hurricane seasons I had bubblers at the ready for my wife to put in the tank once the power went out. When the power would go out it would only be for less than a day so bubblers worked just fine. But this year I purchased a generator large enough to run the whole house. So I said to myself, I didn't need the bubblers anymore. Over confidence will always get you. What I had not thought about was how long it would be before the portable generator could be turned on. The power at the house went out pretty early in the event and rain and wind made it dangerous and impossible to hook up and turn on the generator. I am in law enforcement so for disaster events like a hurricane, I am not home but at work for many many hours. At least 12 hours passed before my wife could turn the generator on. By that time fish had already started to die. I love my wife very much and none of this is her fault. This is 100% on me for not preparing her or the tank for what could happen. Because I was at work for many hours a day for many days in a row, I was unable to save anything. We were without power for 9 days. After the power was restored and work slowed down, about a week and half later, I was finally able to tend to the tank and empty it. Low tide was definitely in the house.
This was last October. I tore the tank down. Got rid of all the sand and chipped away the dead coral from the rocks. I rinsed them with water and let them bake in the sun for a couple of days and decided to start over. While the hobby can be frustrating at times, I love it. The peace it brings to me to just watch the tank and the stress relief I get from working on and maintaining it can't be beat.
Lessons were learned and precautions are being put into place to hopefully prevent this in the future. I am having a complete battery backup solar system installed which should be able to get through days of having no power. At the very least it will give me time to plug the generator in if needed.
So that is the backstory, now lets begin with Bernice V2.0. Forgive me for not starting earlier but I will try to catch up. The reboot began with filling the tank with water. I used my my BRS 7 stage RO/DI to fill the tank with freshwater. I brought over the Red Sea ATO, Red Sea Reef Mat, Skys, Kessils, and Neptune GRO light from the first iteration of the tank.
At the time the tank was taken down I was using 2 XF 350 Gyres for powerheads. With the new rebuild, I decided to switch back to Vortechs. I now am using 4 MP40's. I also switched my return from the Varios 6 to 2 Red Sea 7000 return pumps. I got them barely used from my LFS. I also decided to switch to the Red Sea 300 Skimmer. I was planning on purchasing a third Sky, but they didn't sell them anymore so I went with 4 Kessil A360XE's. This all, with the exception of the skimmer, worked well for the first couple of months. I wasn't happy with the skimmer, so I decided to sell it and replace it with the Reef Octopus Regal 200int. I had the 150 on the previous build and was happy with it, but I felt it wasn't big enough.
I let the tank sit empty for a month and used the frozen shrimp method to cycle it. Then came time for fish. The first fish I typically put in a tank are green chromis, however, my LFS didn't have any. I instead went with yellow damsels. They have done great and are fat an happy. After a couple more weeks, I added a blue hippo, yellow eyed kole, and a purple tang along with a cuc. A few months passed and it was time for coral. I hadn't yet tested par and I was concerned what the kessils by themselves were actually doing. I borrowed a par meter and was only getting 200 at the very top of the tank. The kessils were running at 85% (I wasn't going to go much higher than that). My plan was a mixed reef being SPS dominant. 200 at the top and below 100 at the bottom wasn't going to cut it. Throughout all my years of reefing I stayed away from the Radions. Why, I don't know, I just did. But I decided to go with 3 G6 Pros. I like more of a full spectrum over blue so the pros were my choice. I was surprised to see them out of stock on many websites and had to wait a little bit to order them. After getting them and setting them up, I know now why some consider them the top tier. Aside from not having the shimmer of Kessils, these are the best lights I have ever had. My first corals went in. Now I am going to tell on myself. I love keeping coral and fish, however my husbandry practices are absolutely abysmal. I never remember the names of most of the coral I put in so I am unable to tell you exactly what it was that went in first. I do know it was a Duncan and some type of acro.
Every time I set up a tank, I tell myself I am going to better organized with equipment. I plan to cable manage with the best of them and I start with good intentions but always finish in complete disaster. This time however, I finally decided to actually build an equipment board. I think for a DIY it came out pretty good. Don't ask to see behind it, because it ain't pretty. It may be a little easier to perform maintenance on then a extremely well zip tied and managed cable system, but it ain't pretty.
Well this post is getting pretty long. So I am going to stop it right here. I will add more at a later time because there is more and I am sure I will be asking questions now that I have decided to actually engage on the forum. Again, thank you for the wealth of knowledge that you have imparted on me. I leave you with a full tank shot from today.
-Mark
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