Gilroy 425g Build Thread (All Apex, all the time)

[Terence]

Tank looks amazing!!! what rainbow milli is that? (Sixth picture from the bottom)

I have no idea. People give me corals - sometimes they tell me the name, sometimes they don’t. Even if they do, there is a 50% chance I will forget.

maybe someone else can chime in.

 

[Terence]

Talk about a mic drop 1 yr update!. Good stuff, the tank looks amazing.

Thanks!

 

[Terence]

@Terence Happy Birthday man !!!! Have a great one.

Thanks

 

[Tyler Bullock]

Terence, Thank you for the update. The pictures are amazing, and I hope you had a wonderful birthday. Funny thing is my birthday is on the 19th, and....well.....The wife and my mother picked up an apex el for my birthday!!

 

[Rabidgoose]

Very nice tank, loads of info. Following. After a 5 year hiatus I believe it is time to jump back into the addiction and reading a thread like this certainly does fuel the fire.

thanks.......chuck

 

[dca22anderson]

What an update! Your tank is remarkable (worthy of attention; striking) !! Well done buddy!!

 

[DarthSimon]

OK, so it has been over a year since a real quality update. What better day than my birthday to finally do one. Things on the Fugazzi Reef have been going pretty well. Hope this update does not jinx that! This might be a long post so all you TL;DR folks can just bail out now - the rest of you, well, I hope this update satiates you for a while.

So let me start with an update on the gear that makes this reef tick - and maybe some feedback on these key components and how they have been doing for me.

• Reef Savvy Tank. What can I say except that this is one bullet proof, gorgeous aquarium. And it has held up great. And I expect it to do so for 30 years at least the way it is built. Key feature - what Felix calls "Armored Seams". These are the strips of glass in the corner which allow me to, without concern, scrape my glass with a Flipper, side to side, slamming away, without ever being concerned about the silicon seal getting torn up or damaged. They also give the tank extra strength. The overflows work well too. I still have a hard time tuning the noise but have got them more or less dialed in most of the time. One of them has sprung a slow drip leak if the water level rises too high. Need to tighten the bulkhead where the overflow connects to the tank - or have someone else do it for me
  
  
• Philips CoralCare lights. These have been amazing for me - the tank has fully filled in on one side and the coral is still growing away. Amazing to have a wide-paneled light that has not shadowing at all and no disco. I think I could use one more of them - but maybe there is an upgrade in my future. The only thing I really hate about these is they are obtrusive and super heavy (20-something pounds) which makes the hinged canopy difficult to lift (two of them in each side). Their new, yet-to-be-released v2 ones would help a little bit with this, but they still weigh in at over 14 pounds each. If only they made one that weighed less than five pounds and could be mounted more easily - I think I might be ready for an open top tank...
  
  
• ReefBrite XHO strips - I still have one of these on each side. They really add that little extra pop missing in the v1 of the CoralCare. Maybe a future upgrade might make those unnecessary as well...
  
  
• Tank Stand - Much to my own dismay - and the scorn of my loving wife, I still have not yet wrapped the stand. If it were not for the incredible beauty and success with what is inside, there is no way I could have gotten away with this for so long. I really want to match the furniture in our dining room, but I just cant seem to connect with someone that I trust nor am I excited about laying down the $. Maybe the drop in cost if/when i go open top will push me over the edge - or Nancy might the next time we are out on the water!
  
  
• The WAV powerheads are amazing. I am pretty lazy when it comes to cleaning them - sometimes to the point where they end up stalling before I do it. Full transparency here people - do as I say, not as I do. Also, I have had one of the six in the tank fail after 4+ years running. Considering my maintenance schedule and the flow to cost ratio of the WAV, I am good with that.
  
  
• Alkatronic - yes, you read that right. I did run an Alkatronic on the tank for about 10-12 months. Wanted to run it along side the Trident during development. It is now offline. It did give decent numbers and is probably the only other device out there besides the Trident that will operate consistently - abeit noisily and with a lot more nits in the setup and software areas. Also, probably some sort of evil spirit payback got me when I forgot to empty its 7g waste container (it makes a lot of waste) and came home to water all over my wood floors. Oh well. Not too much damage. Life of an aquarist. It now is out of operation, still sitting next to the tank two feet from the Trident, sadly watching, but not hearing, the Trident do its duty 8 times a day - hahaha.
  
  
• Abyzz A400 return pump. This thing is a beast. Can't hear it run. Uses just 200w to push >1100gph against 18+ feet of head pressure for years now. Don't tell Alex but I have not had this out of the water for a cleaning since I put it in (go back quite a number of pages for that date - i cannot remember). Nothing else to say here - it is the duracell of return pumps!
  
  
• Reef Octopus Regal Skimmer with Next Extension and Wiper. I think for now this is the best value middle-big range skimmer out there. The pump seems like it could probably do a bit more air, and the needle-wheel does get clogged with debris from time to time, but I love this thing. I only go down to the fish cave every 7-9 days and it has about 2" of skimmate in there and a paddle full of goo. I have had to replace one power supply and one motor controller in the last four years. CoralVue took care of me and sent replacements no charge - even though it was out of warranty. And quickly. Great service.
  
  
• Geos Reef Calcium Reactor - a few pages back you can read about me changing my Deltec piece of crap CaRx over to a reconditioned and refit with COR pump version from GeosReef. This thing has been a champ! No issues at all with the COR pump running it. That was a total unknown how it would do in that tough environment with all that calcium, low pH, and calcium fines swirling through it. No problems at all. The reactor is on its third filling now since installing it. I have let it get down to about 1/4 full before refilling. I take all of the media in there out, rinse it several times, and then mix it back in with the new stuff. I only use Two Little Fishies ReBorn coarse and ReMag in my CaRx. The pH level in the reactor is now controlled by the Trident. Basically it fluctuates between 6.65, 6.85, and off depending on the level reported by the Trident as well as time of day. This has allowed me to have about a +/-0.15-0.23 dKh. I try to keep my level at 8.5dKh. I feed the reactor with a DOS that is using a custom profile and set of virtual outlets. I rarely change the flow rate. This is not recommended unless you have a low flow rate need on your CaRx. Mine is not low so I do have to change heads about every six months, and it is noisy (but it is in my fish cave so I dont really hear it).
  
  
• Triton "Other Methods" - for about two years I had run the Triton method along side my CaRx. I ran out of Triton about three or four months ago and have not yet resupplied myself. I did have some of 3a still available (wont get into why as it was just an accident on programming once) so I keep (kept) that on the ready with one of my DOS pumps. Or so I thought. Turns out when it was needed a few weeks back when I was in Vegas and CO2 went out - I found out from Chad (who came to bail me out) that it was actually #2, not 3a, and the tube was clogged. But, having something like this for standby is super helpful as it kept my tank from crashing until i could get home, get some CO2, and get the CaRx back online. For now, I am going to take a hiatus on the Triton stuff and move to something else to supplement my reactor - maybe a little more on that in a later post - suspense...
  
  
• AquaMaxx Sulfur Denitrator - This, along with my "little" patch of macro-algae is my key to getting nutrients out of the reef. I have this automated using the Apex, but not in any way I would officially recommend. Properly running a sulfur denitrator is not for the amatuer aquarist and certainly not for someone who does not understand what is going on. I am not trying to be snobby here - its just that running one of these means if you do the wrong thing (and there is more than one "wrong thing") you can kill off everything. However, run it correctly and it really is the secret sauce engine of a great SPS reef. I still run this the same way. I have an ORP probe in the top, plugged into the Apex, and because I am lazy and math conversions are easy for me, I have it running as pH as opposed to swaping the wires around to make it read negative ORP. So, I just know that somewhere around 10-11.5 is the sweet spot for it for me, watch it every day, and tweak the flow (again using the DOS) to keep it in that sweet spot. I make very slight adjustments and then watch the curve so as not to over or undershoot. More art than science. Two weeks ago I had to break it down, clean it out, and add new sulfur media. It had been offline for a couple of weeks (sicce circulation pump could not push enough water through it due to tiny beads clogging the grates - and other goo). This is exactly one of the ways though that you can kill the reef - if you have one of these that goes offline, and then you push that "rotten egg water" right into your tank. Most people that run these either give up, have a catastrophe, or are running it incorrectly with no harm and no help either. If you dare - and you want to learn - give it a shot and you will have a great tool at your disposal to allow you to put tons of fuel into the reef knowing it (and your macro) will help pull out the nasty byproducts.
  
  
• Water Changes - I still do these pretty manually. I know I know. But with the closeness of the tanks, and the easy of getting stuff to the drain, it just hasnt been a priority to do some cool thing. Maybe one day, @dca22anderson will finally come out and do it up right for me. Until then I do them pretty much manually (RODI does go into the tanks automatically) waterchanging every 8-12 weeks doing two 100g changes in one weekend (~33%) - right now using Fritz (and LiveAquaria - same thing) salt for the last couple of years. Seems to be fine for me. I know salt is a personal thing for a lot of people but I just care that it mixes close to params, mixes clean, and mixes pretty fast - did I say I am lazy?
  
  
• Heating - I recentluy have switched from using electric heaters to using circulating hot water from my existing house hot-water loop (natural gas water heater). I first used a really nice, "titanium" heat exchanger. The welds leaked in two weeks. So, I switched over to using 100' of Pex pipe instead. I have save a ton of $ on electricity by going this way. Net Net looks like at least $150 a month in savings. Maybe I will document how it was done later in this build thread if I find the time. There are other posts here on R2R about doing it. In my case, I found a 24v DC controlled valve that is NC (normally closed) and has a capacitor in it to make that happen during power outages. I wired this to my Energy Bar 832 DC24 connection and then have that outlet controlled when the Apex temp drops and the Apex calls for heat. Then, my electric heaters are still in there as a backup in case there is an issue.

Well, that is all I have time for now - I will try and make another post about livestock within the next week - and also answer questions - and try to keep this thread on track. Until then, here is also some eye candy to look over. Oh, and check out www.skimmate.com - a podcast Rich Ross and I do - try to do a new episode every two weeks - though we are behind right now.

Terrence,
Which model AquaMaxx Sulfur Denitrator do you use?

 

[Terence]

Terrence,
Which model AquaMaxx Sulfur Denitrator do you use?

The big one. Don't remember the model number. Pic is a few pages back.

 

[Dxpert]

Fantastic update! Nice work on the cost savings for the heat, a great idea indeed. Looking forward to the update on how you got it working, specifically more details around the solenoid. Why do you think the titanium block failed so quickly? (Assume the harshness of the environment, but that seems quick!)

Now that you are spending more time working in front of the tank, what else are you planning for it?

 

[Mike&Terry]

Gorgeous reef and GREAT update!

 

[Daan Hijmans]

So, for coral stocking in this tank. I have a plan. I hope to be able to stick to it because it will make flow and lighting intensity adjustments much easier. I created the branching for the acros to fill in all the space. Then on the right, I have lots of room for many types LPS like Euphylia of different varieties. The Zoanthids place is nice because it comes right up close to the glass (and the thick glass magnifies a lot too). Also, I think it will just be fun to see how long I can stick to it. Already I have one chalice piece that is out of place. But thats all. Everything else is according to plan.

Wow, going through this build from the beginning is a great read! I love how you've sectioned off the tank. I do it the exact same way. Everything has to be put in their own little area, makes dealing with coral warfare easier too.

Can't wait to read further and see how it turned out in the end haha.

 

[JimWelsh]

It took me two days, but I just read through this entire thread. Thank you, Terence, for all that you shared here!

 

[Bob Tiffany]

Where have you gone Terence? Any updates?

 

[Yanos]

He’s apex failed

 

[Mjl714]

It’s unfortunate this thread appears to have ended, nothing in over a year.

 

[bcmm]

double tap

 

[bcmm]

I wonder if there will be a tank moving thread?!

Hope you, (and your tank) doing well.

I have to thank you for turning me on to Outwater Plastics, and the square aluminum tubing. That made my hood design for my 4’x6’ peninsula tank soooooo much easier.

 

[Terence]

So we are coming up on 7 years for the tank. I feel guilty. SUPER GUILTY. I have not been doing my part keeping up this thread. So, I just went and snapped these quick pics - not the greatest quality - so we could get the conversation restarted! I am keeping it real. This is how the tank looks right now. I have not completed my stand. My wife is super understanding. I have cyano - have had it for a long time - don't really care as everything else is doing great. Today is just about a year since I completely trimmed back the tank - I will have to go dig up those pics so we can do a before and after.

Thanks all for following my journey!

 

[Joe Rice]

I feel guilty. SUPER GUILTY. I have not been doing my part keeping up this thread.

Because it's not like you have anything else going on

I am keeping it real. This is how the tank looks right now.

You see all the things you want to get to but I see a bunch of gorgeous, huge corals. It's a beautiful tank just as it is.

 

[revhtree]

Even with neglect and cyano your reef is still 100 times better than mine!