My 125 reef journal

[EricB]

I've been in the hobby going on 5 years now and was on my way to having a nice little reef when (about a year and a half ago) my then-girlfriend turned off the A/C in the house which allowed the tank to cook itself. These pics were taken about 6 months before the crash, before I took out all the softies and went SPS dominated

FTS: Left Side: Right Side:

I let the tank sit dry for a while and slowly got back into the hobby over the past year which allowed me to make some changes to the system like getting rid of the noisy Glass-holes overflows and installing a C2C w/ BeanAnimal.

Here is where I'm at today:

125 gallon tank
BeanAnimal overflow w/ C2C weir
Odyssea 3X 250 MH, 4X 80 T5's
2X MP40W ES
1X MP10W ES


40L sump
ASM G2 Skimmer
Mag 18 return
1" SCWD
Tunze Osmolator ATO
Koralia 1 in fuge

30B QT w/
Odyssea 1X 250MH, 2X 96 PC
Koralia 4
Red Sea Prism Pro skimmer

Stocklist in the DT is pretty light right now:
3 yellow tangs
1 mandarin
1 green chromis (coming out of QT in a day or so)
8 peppermint shrimp
1 cleaner shrimp
3 emerald crabs
assorted snails

I won't add any corals until I upgrade my lights to LED's, most likely next month.

 

[Ward9320]

my then-girlfriend turned off the A/C in the house which allowed the tank to cook itself.

Your "then" girlfriend, I am assuming you got ride of her for cooking your tank :tongue:, just kidding.

Real nice looking tank, however I would add some sort of controller to you system to avoid the another tank cooking.

 

[revhtree]

Looks great! Welcome to R2R!

 

[EricB]

Thanks fellas! I've considered a controller. The system is a little automated already: light timers, the ATO and VorTechs. I didn't mention it in my first post b/c it's not running right now, but I also have a Reef Octopus CR-150 calcium reactor w/ pH controller. I might revisit the idea of a controller once I get the LEDs. Heat was a big concern w/ the MH's but I think with LEDs that it will be a non-issue.

There's a few frag swaps at the beginning of the year that I'm looking forward to going to again. There's a few hobbyists around Pgh that sell frags out of their homes also and I really like that I can support fellow reefers and not just rely on LFS's.

I think I will be adding some anthias next month. I try to keep this hobby as simple and stress free as possible and don't really care to be QTing new fish and taking care of a reef at the same time. I'd like to be fully stocked on my fish before adding corals.

 

[EricB]

I haven't posted in a while, mostly because there's not much to update. Two Reef Breeder Photon 32's are on their way and the frag swaps are about a month away. I'm anxious to have a reef tank again. I didn't get around to adding any more fish but it's something I would like to do after the holidays.

I've had this algae growth on my rocks the last few months. It's not hair algae but it's not green calcareous algae either. I'm pretty sure that it's a result of old bulbs so about a month ago I started to only run 2 T5's rather than the total 4 and it seems to be getting better. I'm hoping that it clears up when I switch to LEDs and gets replaced with some coralline algae.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

I don't know how I missed this thread! Looking forward to your progress!

 

[shrimplet]

im loving the rock scape!

 

[powers2001]

subscribed

 

[EricB]

I don't know how I missed this thread! Looking forward to your progress!

Thanks Krista! I'm not going to the TFP swap next week since I'm on call. I have, however, arranged to have the weekend of the LEAR swap off and have already requested 18 frags!

im loving the rock scape!

Thanks! Having only an 18" depth makes aquascaping difficult. I would really like to have more options but for now the two-island look works.

subscribed

Thanks! Things will be picking up here shortly!

 

[EricB]

Here's what I've been promised via fragswapper for the LEAR swap:
Bird of Paradise
Blue Tipped Acro
Bright Green/Orange Milli
Pink Acro
Super Bright Green Poci
Teal/Pink Birdsnest
Blue Tipped Stag
Orange Cap
Green Cap
Green Slimer
Neon Green Stag
Sunset Milli
Tricolor Acro
Pink Birdsnest
Red Planet
Pink Lemonade Acro
Blue Tipped Turaki
Garf Purple Bonsai

Haven't gotten around to playing with the LED's yet. I live in the city and I didn't want them to be sitting on my porch since I've been traveling a lot so I had them delivered to my moms condo. I will have to add some cross braces to my canopy but that's just a matter of drilling a few holes and mounting them after paint and polycrylic.

I've stopped running any lights for the past few weeks and the algae growth on my rocks has cleared up. I turn them on once a day for feeding and inspection but that's about it.

I'm also considering upgrading my Reef Octopus Ca reactor to a GEO 618. The Reef Octopus has given me nothing but problems in the past and I'm not sure I'd trust it out of sump b/c of leaks. At this point I know I don't need a reactor but winter is the time of year that I have the most motivation towards the tank and in the warmer months my hobby money goes mostly to travel and windsurfing.

I saw a 150DD the other day and I've been toying around with the idea of upgrading at the end of windsurfing season. All of my equipment would work nicely on it and it would be nice to have the 36" depth and 3 viewing sides.

 

[EricB]

Since there seems to be a little interest in this thread, here's a few more pictures of the system as it sits today:

Full tank shot:

 

[EricB]

Left (skimmer/ heater) and center (return) chambers of sump

Right (refugium) chamber

 

[EricB]

Electrical cabinet and 33 gallon ATO resevoir:

Inside electrical cabinet (not using much as you can see, lol)

VorTech controllers and ATO controller

 

[EricB]

Side view of external BeanAnimal

From closest to furthest: full siphon, backup and then emergency drain

Also, I know the pictures aren't the clearest, but you can see the internal weir in the last picture. It clears the top trim by 1/2" or so, so it's pretty narrow and it's also slanted from top to bottom to minimize the sound of water splashing.

 

[EricB]

One of my MP40's stopped working this morning. It was whining the other day at higher speeds and the dry side got pretty warm. I lowered the speed and contacted EcoTech. Now that I only have one MP40 and one MP10 running, the room is much quieter, lol. Guess I'll be sending it in for repairs. It's a real shame that I have over $1000 in 3 powerheads and they aren't very reliable. Nice pumps, but a lot of problems.

 

[chefb_5]

Wow looks great! def have some pretty nice stuff!

 

[EricB]

Thanks man. I'm making a push to upgrade my equipment, mainly my lights and calcium reactor, before the weather changes and my financial focus goes towards other hobbies.

Honest to goodness the idea of that 150DD and its plumbing kept me up last night. The equipment from this tank will go onto it so I'm confident that it will be set up with quality stuff, but I really want to plan it properly.

 

[EricB]

Just ordered a bunch of stuff for the tank: GEO 618 calcium reactor, new CO2 regulator, 16 lbs of media, MJ1200 feed pump, Phosban 550 w/ MJ 1200 feed pump, 450grams of media, magnetic frag rack (the magnets on the one I already have have rust on them), epoxy putty, and ReVive.

I'd say between that, the LED's and the frag swap (I'm up to 23 frags) I'll be busy in the next few weeks. I'm also going back and forth on my next fish. I really want a flame angel and I think if I keep it well fed it shouldn't be a problem. Once I get the 150DD I think I'm going to get rid of the 3 YT's and just go with the flame and some nice wrasses. I'd start getting wrasses now but my tank is not jumper-proofed and w/ the C2C and external overflow box I think it would be more trouble than it's worth.

 

[EricB]

I should be able to get the lights tomorrow. Today I went and got some wood with which to make cross-braces in my canopy. I can't install them yet, because I'm not 100% on the bracket spacing on the lights. I did put a coat of paint on them and I'm going to sand the edges down b/c they're just a hair too long. Once I get that done I'm going to put a good coating of polyurethane on them and let them dry over night. Tomorrow it will be just a matter of a dab of wood glue and a few screws and I'll be able to hang the lights.

Hopefully the most local of LFS's has some rubble or small piece of LR w/ coralline on it so I can start seeding the tank tomorrow too. I am so sick of having white rocks!

 

[EricB]

Here you can see the general construction of my canopy. I don't have very good construction skills but it looks okay enough for this tank. It's open top and my old 72" MH fixture sat on the rim. The trim on the top of the canopy comes up about an inch above the frame so you couldn't see the light. The frame has threaded metal inserts in the front rail so that I can unscrew the front panel for easy access for maintenance. The front door is on hinges so I just lift it for feeding and such.

Since I have the canopy off I thought I'd try and take a few more shots of the narrow internal weir.

I got the cross braces sanded and coated so they'll be ready for installation tomorrow.