Davy Jones and the tale of the 150 gallon lagoon

[Davy Jones]

This is amazing! Following!

Thank you!

 

[Alexdiaz]

Made sure to hit some black friday deals! Ordered the Icecap 36xl sump, 2 Octopulse2 powerheads and the tunze ecochic refugium lights.

I went with the sump because I wanted the 24" front to back over the standard 15-16" most sumps are. The 7" filter socks will be nice, and the skimmer chamber is plenty big for my skimmer. The refugium has solid panels between it and the other chambers, so I won't have any algae growth in the other chambers (also why I went with the tunze lights!) The ATO chamber is also about 13 gallons which is helpful.

I decided on the Octopulse2 pumps to add to the mp40's. I have never seen/tried these but I have not read a single bad review of them so wanted to give them a go! Also bought 1 for the SR80 as I will be putting the mp40 that's in it in the 150

Also decided that I am going to cut the acrylic panels on both sides out to be able to get the new sump in there, and try to put hinges on the panel to make it a useable door but I'm not the best with DIY so we will see how it goes!

Glad to see you were able to take advantage of some black Friday savings

 

[Davy Jones]

So HUGE shout-out to premium aquatics. They shipped the sump and all equipment I ordered and it arrived today around noon! They had the sump I wanted at their warehouse and didn't need it to be drop shipped!

And although I HATE plumbing, I was able to get the new sump plumbed in!

I also put the Octopulse2 in the tank and they're way smaller than I thought, and still move a ton of water, and silent. If my mp40's die, I'll replace them with the 4.

I put 1 of the 2 tunze refigium lights I bought in the refigium chamber, but won't be running any chaeto until after I put the first fish in the tank.

Anyway, on to the good stuff!

 

[925Reefer]

Jealous of the gaming in the fish room. I also have a 150 INT build that is still developing I’m waiting to set it up. Will definitely be following along with yours

 

[Davy Jones]

Jealous of the gaming in the fish room. I also have a 150 INT build that is still developing I’m waiting to set it up. Will definitely be following along with yours

Thank you! I'm so happy with how this build is going. I spend 8+ hours in the room for work thanks to covid (love working from home!) And if I'm not working, tinkering on the tanks/playing some pc games

Ran into an obstacle with the build. Once I put the new sump in, I realized the return pump is a bit too big in the return chamber, so I bought a varios 8 to replace the leopard pump.

For some reason, the skimmer is going absolutely crazy with the new sump to, so I have to keep it turned off. I'm guessing there must have been some sort of oil or something on the sump that is causing it to go crazy. I'll probably run some carbon next week and just let the sump/skimmer break in. I would like to get the skimmer dialed in by the second week of December so the tank is cycled with the equipment running. I toss in some shrimp and pellets every day/other day, and even dose the occasional red sea reef energy ab+

 

[Davy Jones]

Long overdue updates!

1. All equipment is now in place and running! Varios 8 was added, Tunze Ecochic Refugium led in place and running, skimmer running great and all 4 powerheads. For lighting I put an ATI sunpower 8 bulb over the top as my Giesemann matrixx wasnt turning on. More on equipment later!

2. Added some livestock to the tank finally! So far we have the following:
2 clownfish (my female has been in every one of my tanks, and is around 14 years old!) and got a male for her that is tiny!
1 Midas Blenny
1 Radiant Wrasse
Some clean up crew

3. Got some tester frags from a friend to toss in the tank, have been going well for 2 weeks now (not a long time I know, but trying to take things slow) I did however have to add a torch to the tank, which seems happy but im not an experts on torchs.

4. Thoughts on some of the equipment. Still love the tank, but have a few things I would/might change! First, I would raise the main drain pipe in the overflow up a couple inches. I may do this in the future. The reason is, when the power cuts out the tank just drains so much water into the sump. Second, the stand. It looks nice, was easy to put together, but the doors on the sump are just stupid. Like very stupid. There are 3 doors across the 48" but for some reason, THERE IS NO OPENING THAT IS 2 DOORS WIDE. Either the next door is in the way, or the cross bar is. In order to actually get into the stand for actual sump maintenance, I have to remove a door to fit. and I am a small person. Third, the sump. So far I like the sump, but feel it could definitely be better. The edges of the acrylic are SHARP. If i scrape my arm on the acrylic it definitely hurts and damages the skin. The layout is a bit different from most sumps, but its workable. I had to add some rigid foam in the refugium chamber to keep chaeto from getting all over the sump, and more rigid foam in the return baffle for both bubbles and chaeto.

5. Refugium. I have to touch on this quite a bit because I do not see any one really use or post about the Tunze Ecochic refugium light, but I can tell you it works awesome. I was concerned that at only 9 watts I would need a second so I bought 2, but am only using 1 and not sure I will even use the second. I put a baseball/softball size of chaeto in the tank 12 days ago. Within those 12 days, it grew to fill almost the entire chamber. I removed over a gallon of chaeto, or about the size of a volley ball and still had a decent chunk left over in the fuge. The best part about the light, is i have NO light in any of the other chambers as it is right at the water level! Depending on how things go with this tank nutrient wise, I may put my second one in there but have it facing up instead of down, to light the underside of the chaeto. I have a tunze powerhead in there to get it to tumble, but once it gets large the ball doesnt tumble.

Rigid foam can be seen here! Chaeto is about 3 days after going in the tank.

Unfortunately I didnt think to take a photo of the fuge before removing this, but it was pretty well packed in there. I think it could have gone another week or 2 to really thicken up but I was already in there working on stuff so I pulled some out

Finally the near future! I will be picking up 3 yellow tangs on sunday that have been fully QT'd for me, and next week Some Captive Bred urchins join the crew! They are all less than the size of a quarter so that will be super fun! I am getting 10, but will probably only put 6-7 in this tank and the others in my other tank! I also have the first anemone that will be going in this tank arriving near the end of the month. I picked up a chicago sunburst anemone during the cherry corals sale! Should the anemone not like the tank, I have others I can move it to, but I have had anemones go in as one of the first critters in every one of my tanks in the past and has been successful. This allows the anemone to choose a spot without having many corals to worry about

 

[Davy Jones]

Overdue update!

Thank has had some ups and downs since my last post. First the negatives.
Trident was not reading accurately, leading calcium to be somewhere between 600-700ppm, causing my montipora's to die.
Purple tang got ich after adding the kole/white tail tangs to the system. lasted about 2 weeks and now the fish are all fine. I attribute the recovery to the aquaforest additive fishV which i started using.
Tank now has aptasia and bubble algae, I am guessing It came over from my original tank. None visible in the display thankfully, so I am guessing something is eating the bubble algae and the copperband is eating any aptasia that makes it way into the display.

Now the positives.
Added a kole tang and white tail tang, fitting in nicely with the other tangs in the tank. The purple is definitely the dominant fish, and will chase/nip the other tangs occasionally which is to be expected.
CC 21 tails torch continues to grow very well, tester JB mushrooms are recovering, gorg's growing quickly, elegance has opened up and gained its feelers since going in this tank, and added a bright green with pink tip torch which has been doing very well.
Clownfish layed eggs for the first time in the system about 2 weeks ago, but they ate them all. Expecting a new clutch in the next couple weeks.

System changes
Tank is now running on esv b-ionic 2 part. I can get a 4 gallon bucket for $90 which will last between 9-12 months on this tank, happy with initial results.
Dosing kalk with Versa dosing pump. I set this up but shut it off since trident was not reading correctly to allow calcium to drop. Cal is now at 460 ppm so I will be turning this back on this week.
Added Aquaforest Lifebiofil media to the sump for added biodiversity.
Started dosing Aquaforest Lifesource which is mud scooped up off the reefs in fiji. Seems weird intentionally putting mud in the tank, but anecdotally I feel like it is helping the system as I see better polyp extension on all my lps since I started with it. I am only doing it once a week/every other week however as it clogs the filter sock pretty dang quick.
Reefco plumbed my frag tank into the system today! Ill be pulling rock from the red sea reefer 350 I have setup to put in the frag tank as they are ~4 years old or so and very stable, this is to add biodiversity to the 150, as well as to re-do the aquascape in that tank.
Mixing station is finally going well, so hopefully ill get back to doing waterchanges regularly.

Here are some photos of the current tanks, and the fish room! Excuse the bad quality, my phone seems to be getting worse at photos as time goes on.

 

[Davy Jones]

Hand feeding my copperband some aptasia from frags growing in the frag tank! I can hand feed her larger frozen food chunks as well!

 

[Davy Jones]

The tunze ecochic is still kicking butt! Not sure why more people don't use it/recommend it. It keeps my sump clean and skimmer without algae

 

[Davy Jones]

My CBB eating aptasia from my fingers!