BPB's Humble SPS Dominant 90 Gallon

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I’m due for an update. It’s been a little while. I’ll probably try to take some new pictures today if I get a chance.

Not much has changed. I’ve added and removed a few corals. But nothing really fun or exciting. Kind of just in a watching the grass grow phase.

As my co2 tank is nearing empty and I’m on my last small bit of masterflex tubing I’ve been thinking about my reactor a lot. My masterflex is an old brush motor model. While I realize it’ll probably outlast me, it’s so noisy. Noisy enough that I am constantly just thinking about how nice it would be to have a silent tank. I’ve tolerated the hum for a couple years and it is just driving me up the wall now.

I think my chief concern is that when this tubing is done with I have to change something. My particular unit is discontinued and takes ls15 tubing. They don’t have an identical pharmed tubing alternative, and Cole Parmer only sells this tubing in 25 foot $125 sets which I’m not wanting to pony up for. So that leaves me with some options

Replace the ez load head with one that takes ls17 tubing and stock up on pharmed tubing. Pro-probably the cheapest fix
Con-still have the awful noise.

Pick up a kamoer
Pro-quiet, relatively inexpensive
Con-shoddy quality, jebao level or worse, coralvue is unaccommodating on claims

Pick up a brushless masterflex on eBay
Pro-silent, reliable
Con-Will take some setting aside of money for a while. I’m on a budget and a purchase like that isn’t one I can just make on a moments notice. Buying a used pump is a risk as well

Pick up a brand new brushless masterflex
Pro-everything. Best of all worlds
Con-the cost is borderline fantasy land. The buyers remorse would kill me

Pick up a fuel filter and run an ac pump/needle valve old school setup.
Pro-nearly a free change. Simple. Saves space
Con-hit or miss if it actually works

I’ve been hearing so many conflicting opinions
If you run a pump and needle valve
Use a prefilter
Don’t use a prefilter
Use a pinch valve
Use a needle valve
Use a return pump manifold
Don’t use a manifold it’s unreliable, use a dedicated pump
But most pumps that small aren’t very high quality.

I’m so torn on what direction to go, but I have to make a decision soon.

I’m about to cull all of my pc rainbow. Despite multiple dips and relocations, the colony and various frags tend to spiral down hill. Burnt tips, mesenteric filaments, brittle tissue, color loss. No idea what it could be, but whatever it is, it’s winning. Everything else is fine

Likely switching back to metal halides very soon. Have a pair of mint lumenbrite pendants being offered to me for free and I have ballasts as well. A pair of hamilton 14k every 9 months or so will be cheaper to run and replace than 8-54 watt t5 bulbs. I will be able to drive the par higher as well. I don’t think anyone would argue that halides don’t grow acropora lol.

I think that about covers the update for now. I’ll post some pics later. Here’s one just for attention

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Spent a lot of time on the tank today. Big purple stylo is no more. Sold off the colony as a whole

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Took down the canopy for the first time in 3 years. The amount of disgusting filth and gunk that had built up on the rim and behind the tank was appalling. I got rid of several items electrically, consolidated some cables and really cleaned up all my wiring. Got them
Bundled with cable ties and drip loops (yes I’ve run a sw tank for 8 years now having never used a drip loop. Wiped all the cables free of dust, mopped behind the tank (the floor was covered in 2” of salt creep. That took most the day.

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All clean

Mounted the metal halides and LEDs into the canopy

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Did some preliminary par testing in open air to make sure I wasn’t doing something TOO stupid.

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I realize those are in open air not water, but I wanted a ball park. So up they went

Going to have to watch alkalinity extra close the next few days to adjust accordingly since I did remove a colony that filled half a 5 gallon bucket and performed a radical change in lighting.
 
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Here’s one I haven’t shown for a while. I got it from Aqua SD years ago. It’s necrosed down to essentially nothing during the year I was trying to get this tank figured out. It’s healthy and growing now. Unfortunately it was so long ago I got it I completely forgot it’s name, and have no way of recovering that information. So it shall remain nameless

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e4865de927dc086a2aa3e928f1d40147.jpg

ORA Baby Blue Stag

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WWC Nuclear Fission
ASD Efflo

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$500 efflo
Raspberry Cheesecake

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Tubbs Mystic Blue stag

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Sunset Millie
BC raging bull
Pink Lemonade
ORA Hawkins

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BC old blue

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RP blueberry limeade nasuta

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Pikachu that never grows

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ORA Pearlberry
WWC aqua delight

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Nicks Purple passion
BC Acroberry

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WWC Kung Pao. Cannot get rid of these stupid hydroids that posted up right by it

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ASD dragon queen

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ORA Red planet

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Fox flame
Paletta pink tip
ASD rainbow Millie

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Working on a name
ORA Laura’s purple polyp

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BC orange fury. Can’t seem to get color out of this, but Adams pictures all look pretty similar so it just may not be a real looker.

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Working on a fun name for this Millie. Because why not.

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Vivid rainbow delight
BC reef ready grape juice
ORA Cali tort

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BigR Walt Disney

Some of them seem to not be growing and it is mainly because I keep fragging them. Some are just sluggish. I’ve gotten rid of the massive stylo colony to someone who can appreciate it more than me. It had become a nuisance.


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U kinda make me wanna write down every coral as I add them. Cuz half the stuff growing in my tank idk what came from which live sale etc. Heh.

Beautiful stones as always sir.

Thanks man. There’s a few I got from aqua sd a while back that I forgot the names or sadly but I try to keep track otherwise.
 
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Amazing! I’m really liking that raging bull. How long have you had it? I can’t find it on his site.

I’ve had it 8 months now. It has been a very slow starter but is beginning to take off now. It’s interesting. Almost has a smooth skin deep water look to it, but chunky coralites rather than fragile.
 
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Im wanting to upgrade but I worry about the move also.

A move all by itself is easy. Just set up and overdose bacteria with some ammonia and vodka if you don’t want to share any rock. Simple. Move stuff over slowly after a couple months. It’s a full on tank swap in the same spot, but keeping zero rock or sand that makes it seem all but impossible to keep any sps alive in the process
 

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A move all by itself is easy. Just set up and overdose bacteria with some ammonia and vodka if you don’t want to share any rock. Simple. Move stuff over slowly after a couple months. It’s a full on tank swap in the same spot, but keeping zero rock or sand that makes it seem all but impossible to keep any sps alive in the process

I’m the poster boy that it’s not possible without experiencing significant losses. I have 1 digi remaining and negative infinity acros lol. But at at least my anemone made it I would have cried if that died lol
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 80 38.5%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 69 33.2%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 26 12.5%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 31 14.9%
  • Other.

    Votes: 2 1.0%
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