offtropic

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Are the 230's dead quiet? no they are not. Are they loud, no they are not. You never run them at 100% but you can hear them mostly when pulsing, when they are on constant the noise is less as it isn't variable. I am happy with them. I have my Computer desk about 7 feet away and it does not bug me at all.

I've been following a guy on Youtube by the name of @pelphrey , same tank as I decided on. Very nice build and great videos. He found a fellow YouTuber named CJ who developed a Gyre program that works very well for his and my tank. You can find it on his website Pelphrey.net

So far the tank residents like the flow I think.

I think the 250's should work well in the larger tank and allow you to not run them near 100% speed.

As far as Apex integration. You (From what I have read) need 1 IceCap Interface Module per pump. So currently I am not integrating it into Apex.

So, here's the dilemma. Run the programmed settings on the MaxSpect controller included or spend another $300+ for Apex Integration.

To be honest I do not know what you would gain by integration as the program I am using from CJ/Pelphrey is working well.

Ah ok...thanks for clarifying how you are running them. How 'Apex-ready' gear integrates seems inconsistent in how they integrate and I've been finding the gyre configuration most confusing. I don't think it costs all that much more (and again, I could be reading this all very wrong) as it looks like you forgo the $180 maxspect controller but add two icecaps at $125 each (for a net cost of $70). Is there a module required for the Apex (such as the WXM for the EcoTechs)? I can't tell.

I guess I am generally struggling with the benefits of integrating everything into the Apex. Critical functions such as main pump, ato/awc stuff, important dosing, water parameter monitoring, and heaters sure (basically stuff I need to know immediately, have action taken on without my being present or want to automate in a synchronized way). But stuff like lighting and powerheads...I'm not so sure. The standalone programs seem to handle all necessary functionality quite well and we can always monitor power use through the Apex anyways.
 
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Raxnar

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Just curious, are you quarantining your fish before adding to the DT? <my first acronym !

I do not quarantine for a long period of time. I acclimate for a couple hours and observe them closely.

I'm friends with of of the LFS and they keep a very clean environment. So there is a measure of trust there.

For the Corals I dip them in a Coral RX for the recommended 5-10 minutes and while in the bath use a turkey baster to blow (very gently) any potential hitch hikers. While soaking observe any debris that comes off them and watch for anything that is moving. If there is, might be a good idea to give them a little longer dip.

If I ever get to keeping really expensive fish I may consider a longer more thorough quarantine method and perhaps a permanent second small tank.

Now, if I were to get fish from a private seller, I would go through the steps to setup quarantine or do a longer acclimation/observation period.

I am in no way advocating against a good quarantine before introducing to a DT. Me personally, even back in the fresh water tank days, haven't had to. (Knock on wood).
 
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Raxnar

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Ah ok...thanks for clarifying how you are running them. How 'Apex-ready' gear integrates seems inconsistent in how they integrate and I've been finding the gyre configuration most confusing. I don't think it costs all that much more (and again, I could be reading this all very wrong) as it looks like you forgo the $180 maxspect controller but add two icecaps at $125 each (for a net cost of $70). Is there a module required for the Apex (such as the WXM for the EcoTechs)? I can't tell.

I guess I am generally struggling with the benefits of integrating everything into the Apex. Critical functions such as main pump, ato/awc stuff, important dosing, water parameter monitoring, and heaters sure (basically stuff I need to know immediately, have action taken on without my being present or want to automate in a synchronized way). But stuff like lighting and powerheads...I'm not so sure. The standalone programs seem to handle all necessary functionality quite well and we can always monitor power use through the Apex anyways.

The Max Spect's come with 1 controller that controls 2 of their pumps. Or you can get the pump by its self.

MaxSpect only control of 2 Pumps is going to run you $429.98 US.

To integrate with Apex you need to spend 2 x $124.99 ($249.98) on top of that. To what benefit? I don't see it, other than controlling them in APEX.

However, Can you just buy the MaxSpect Pumps as stand alone and then get 2 IceCap's? I must admit it DOES look like this is indeed a possibility! Had I read the IceCap's install instructions I would have almost certainly done that... Apex Integration was one of my goals... But now that I think of it, when I placed my order I don't recall seeing the IceCap Interface module as an option. they may have been just announced. I don't recall honestly.

It would be a $250 US (~$321 CAD currently... disgusting...) investment for me at this stage. Heck I may still do it lol... but I have no need to as I have no issue adjusting the Max Spect controller.

Pelphey's site as a link to CJ's video where he talks about setting up the Gyre program as well as a chart to show the phases of the daily program.

Once you start looking at the Gyre's control interface it takes a few minutes to understand how it works. Just be patient it'll come.
 
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Thought I'd post an update, its been a few weeks.

We've added another Coral!

we got a neon Green Candy Cane. Unbelievable colours.

First the Candy Cane picture.
Candy Cane.jpg


Now a Tank Overview.
Tank May 2018.jpg


I need to work on my pictures.

Other additions, 2 more cleaner shrimp but that's about it.

Our Blood Red Shrimp has had a third molt! seems to be one every 3-4 weeks.

Tanks, healthy!

All levels are zero, except phosphates, they've shown up, about .02 so nothing to worry about.

Happy Reefing!
 
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Raxnar

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Tank update End of May.jpg


End of May Update.

Tank is doing GREAT!

Some new inhabitants.
1 - Rose Bubble tip Anemone, front and center.
1 - Candy Cane Coral right side.
1 - Emerald Green Crab (not visible currently)
1 - Pom Pom Crab, also not visible.
-- He didn't have any anemone's :( but I'm getting some more and hoping that over time he'll be able to get a "frag" off of one of the other crabs.

I have my Artfully Acrylic Lid on as well! Amazing product.

Big change to the power heads coming up. I'm switching to a pair of Echo Tech MP40's from the MaxSpect Gyre 230's. They work, they are just too noisy for my taste.

Happy tank! Levels are great and stable!

Seeing lots of green coraline algae on the lower rocks. Also seeing some purple spots here and there!

Slow and steady.
 
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Raxnar

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Got my Artfully Acrylic Lid today! Looks amazing!

I also spotted our Pom Pom crab this evening, was able to zoom in to max on the iPhone X and with a little back lighting from my wife's phone got a decent, albeit, pixelated picture. He is tiny, would fit on the tip of your pinky finger with legs wrapped around. Sadly he doesn't have any Pom Pom's (anemone's at the moment). I am getting a couple more Pom Pom's soon. Apparently they will Share anemone's? or he could steal one and split it? either way he could end up with some again one day. With a little luck.

Also got a decent pic of our Emerald Crab. He's a big one! 1.25" across!

Lid Pic!
Lid 1.jpg


Side View of Lid!
Lid 1.jpg
Lid 2.jpg


Then Mr. Pom Pom!
Pom Pom 1.jpg


And Finally Mr. Emerald!
Emerald 1.jpg


He loves to sit upside down like this and run from side to side under the rock! lol

Happy with the Tank's progress so far!
 
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Raxnar

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Our Fire Shrimp died the other day of unknown causes. Sad day as his colour when he wasn't hiding sure brought a flair to the tank.

We will be getting another one or 2 soon.

We have a Sick Anemone at the moment, afraid she is dying. Started a thread in the appropriate forum: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sick-anemone.401704/

Tank is doing great these days, very stable! Corals are growing slowly I think.

Need to find some new shells for the Hermits!

Just a small update for today.
 
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Haven't posted in a while so here we are!

Finally got the Ducting company to survey our house for a fresh air vent. What did they find? NOTHING! A little ticked to be honest as the house was built brand new 7 years ago (in august) and passed full inspection.... Anyway, 24 hours have passed and for the first time ever, without intervention (Opening a window) PH has cracked 8.0! Now to stabilize it.

Tried to hospitalize our first Anemone, but she didn't make it through the transition :( I probably was lucky she didn't die in our tank otherwise it could have caused all sorts of problems...

Anyway, on to our newest Resident!

We picked up a Ornate Leopard Wrasse last week, such a beautiful fish! We also got a Rainbow BTA, a new Fire Shrimp (Just love these guys and their colour), and a Turbo snail.

Here you can see all but the Anemone in the acclimation chamber. I acclimated the anemone separate. A tiny bit blurry, sorry. He's a big one at already 2.5"!

Leo.JPG


You can see more pictures of my tank journing on instagram under Boostedviking.
 
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Raxnar

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How are the new additions doing? Leopard wrasses are known to be delicate.

Hey! They are doing great!

The Wrasse is thriving. He has his set bedtime already lol, disappears under the sand somewhere lol

He makes a mess of the sand but that's good actually, less for me to have to manually stir up. He's gorgeous.

I do need to post a proper update soon™! I have the CW-50 Algae scrubber to hook up!

Tank is doing really well I think! Hoping to get a couple new coral this weekend as a local guy is tearing down his 120G tank to make room for twins lol.
 
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Big Update time!

I have a set of Camera Filters on Order so the quality of my photography should improve soon™!

First I'll start with an over view shot.
Tank1.jpg


Stability:
The Tank has been very stable since the end of my cycle in Jan/Feb. Quite pleased.

I've been slowly raising Alkalinity and PH up to the 11-11.5 dKH and ~8-8.3 PH and am nearly there for the mixed reef. Thanks go to Aquavitro products Eight.Four and Balance.

I purchased the CW-50 Algae scrubber and have yet to install it. I need to get a small acrylic shelf made to hold it above the sump in the cabinet but I am hoping this will help stabilize my PH swings. Quite an amazingly well built piece of kit!

Corals:
For Coral Nutrition I have been using the Redsea Reef Energy A/B but am switching over to Aquaforest products. The ReefEnergy seems to be a good product but I want to one day use a Doser and the requirement to refrigerate kind of makes that more challenging. From what I see, the AF products can be unrefrigerated as long as the temperature doesn't exceed 24C. With AC we keep the house at 20-21C. Please speak up if someone knows better than my understanding with their products.

Our Candy Cane Coral is on the mend I believe. Not sure what it was that caused them to deflate and stay deflated for the last few weeks.

A local reefkeeper is shutting down his 120G mixed reef tank and I was able to score some nice corals from him.
- 1 Green Wall Hammer, pictured Far Left Bottom.
- 1 Garf Bonsai, pictured Middle Right.
- 2 Wicked Bonsai, Pictured Top Right and Left. During the Fragging process it broke into multiple pieces.
- 1 Red Planet, Pictured Top Middle.
- 1 Gold Tipped Purple Torch, Not pictured... I forgot to grab a picture but I have a short video I can try and share.

We are also getting an Orange Gorgonian from another local reefkeeper this coming friday.

Fish/Inverts:
Our latest resident, the "Leo" the Leopard Wrasse is doing great! He is eating extremely well! All foods! Mysis, Pellets (algae and Marine) as well as taking care of Vermetid snails and munching on pods/algae.

I have some new residents coming this week hopefully.
- 1 Royal Gramma
- 1 Blue Coral Banded Shrimp
- Assorted Snails, Bumble bee, Cowrie.
- Assorted Hermit Crabs, Halloween, Orange Claw, and Left Handed (2 each).

We seeded our tank a week and a half ago with an order from @Copepodsdotcom (Actually Copepods.ca since I'm in Canada) So far I think it has been a successful seed. can see all sorts of activity on the sand at night with a flashlight. Thank you Copepods.ca for honoring the 30% coupon that was recently active!

Now that the tank is seeded with pods, and seem to be doing well we plan on getting one more fish resident, a Green Spotted Mandarin. These guys are just stunning!

Oh and lastly, we've noticed our 2 Tuxedo Cleaner Shrimp are both bearing eggs! Probably just feeding the tank with their offspring unless we can isolate them.

Some more pictures and possibly a video to share.

Tank2.jpg

Here we have our new Green Wall Hammer, Our Zoa (name escapes me), Frogspawn along the bottom, and our 3 headed Green Branching something (proper name escapes me as well).

CandyCane1.jpg

Recovering Candy Cane and one of our Pregnant Tuxedo Cleaners.

GarfBonsai.jpg

WickedBonsai.jpg

Garf and Wicked Bonsai respectively.

BirdsNest1.jpg

Birds Nest doing well.



Little video of our Purple Torch in its temporary spot.

Lastly a question from the following picture.
Worm1.JPG


What the heck is this Spaghetti worm doing? He disappeared shortly after doing this. Is he doing his best Dune impression? lol
 

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Big Update time!

I have a set of Camera Filters on Order so the quality of my photography should improve soon™!

First I'll start with an over view shot.
Tank1.jpg


Stability:
The Tank has been very stable since the end of my cycle in Jan/Feb. Quite pleased.

I've been slowly raising Alkalinity and PH up to the 11-11.5 dKH and ~8-8.3 PH and am nearly there for the mixed reef. Thanks go to Aquavitro products Eight.Four and Balance.

I purchased the CW-50 Algae scrubber and have yet to install it. I need to get a small acrylic shelf made to hold it above the sump in the cabinet but I am hoping this will help stabilize my PH swings. Quite an amazingly well built piece of kit!

Corals:
For Coral Nutrition I have been using the Redsea Reef Energy A/B but am switching over to Aquaforest products. The ReefEnergy seems to be a good product but I want to one day use a Doser and the requirement to refrigerate kind of makes that more challenging. From what I see, the AF products can be unrefrigerated as long as the temperature doesn't exceed 24C. With AC we keep the house at 20-21C. Please speak up if someone knows better than my understanding with their products.

Our Candy Cane Coral is on the mend I believe. Not sure what it was that caused them to deflate and stay deflated for the last few weeks.

A local reefkeeper is shutting down his 120G mixed reef tank and I was able to score some nice corals from him.
- 1 Green Wall Hammer, pictured Far Left Bottom.
- 1 Garf Bonsai, pictured Middle Right.
- 2 Wicked Bonsai, Pictured Top Right and Left. During the Fragging process it broke into multiple pieces.
- 1 Red Planet, Pictured Top Middle.
- 1 Gold Tipped Purple Torch, Not pictured... I forgot to grab a picture but I have a short video I can try and share.

We are also getting an Orange Gorgonian from another local reefkeeper this coming friday.

Fish/Inverts:
Our latest resident, the "Leo" the Leopard Wrasse is doing great! He is eating extremely well! All foods! Mysis, Pellets (algae and Marine) as well as taking care of Vermetid snails and munching on pods/algae.

I have some new residents coming this week hopefully.
- 1 Royal Gramma
- 1 Blue Coral Banded Shrimp
- Assorted Snails, Bumble bee, Cowrie.
- Assorted Hermit Crabs, Halloween, Orange Claw, and Left Handed (2 each).

We seeded our tank a week and a half ago with an order from @Copepodsdotcom (Actually Copepods.ca since I'm in Canada) So far I think it has been a successful seed. can see all sorts of activity on the sand at night with a flashlight. Thank you Copepods.ca for honoring the 30% coupon that was recently active!

Now that the tank is seeded with pods, and seem to be doing well we plan on getting one more fish resident, a Green Spotted Mandarin. These guys are just stunning!

Oh and lastly, we've noticed our 2 Tuxedo Cleaner Shrimp are both bearing eggs! Probably just feeding the tank with their offspring unless we can isolate them.

Some more pictures and possibly a video to share.

Tank2.jpg

Here we have our new Green Wall Hammer, Our Zoa (name escapes me), Frogspawn along the bottom, and our 3 headed Green Branching something (proper name escapes me as well).

CandyCane1.jpg

Recovering Candy Cane and one of our Pregnant Tuxedo Cleaners.

GarfBonsai.jpg

WickedBonsai.jpg

Garf and Wicked Bonsai respectively.

BirdsNest1.jpg

Birds Nest doing well.



Little video of our Purple Torch in its temporary spot.

Lastly a question from the following picture.
Worm1.JPG


What the heck is this Spaghetti worm doing? He disappeared shortly after doing this. Is he doing his best Dune impression? lol


Re the spaghetti worm, I only recently discovered them, never saw one before, I panicked and removed the first one I saw!
No spaghetti worms were harmed in the making of the above post, I popped it in the 55 litre tank I am not allowed to name!
Where was I, oh yeh, I have since seen one of mine leaving trails like that, reproduction?
 
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Raxnar

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Re the spaghetti worm, I only recently discovered them, never saw one before, I panicked and removed the first one I saw!
No spaghetti worms were harmed in the making of the above post, I popped it in the 55 litre tank I am not allowed to name!
Where was I, oh yeh, I have since seen one of mine leaving trails like that, reproduction?

That's what I thought but then he dissapeared quickly so that's why maybe I thought he was doing his "Dune" thing :)
 
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Raxnar

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As I mentioned in a previous update I was planning on switching to 2 x MP40's for the Reefer 250. Many think that's too much power, however, the Echotech pump you choose is based on the thickness of the glass. The Reefer 250 side and front (you'd never put the power head on the front) are too thick for the rating of the MP10's. Many folks claim they have held find on the sides but I didn't want to take the risk. I'm also a firm believer of equipping the tank with more potential power than is bare minimum. So I can run the MP40's at lower speeds and also keep the noise down :) .

I'm quite happy with the 2 MP40's, great flow, great control, nearly silent! Quiet is important in the Den.

I've been playing with different Light programs on the Hydra 26's and haven't quite figured out what is best for a mixed tank. I think everyone is mostly happy.
 

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Hello fellow Canuck, tank looking good! Got a few Q's for you re: the ATO res if you don't mind a PM. How's the reefing scene on the island?
 
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Hello fellow Canuck, tank looking good! Got a few Q's for you re: the ATO res if you don't mind a PM. How's the reefing scene on the island?

Thanks! I should really post another update this weekend!

Tank is doing well. Though a large green SPS I picked up from a friend is not doing well. Not sure if its lights, placement or what but I'm going to try and salvage some of it tomorrow.

Fire away with any Q's, happy to answer best I can.

There are basically 2 shops in Victoria, both do ok for stock and knowledge of live stuff. Not the greatest dry goods selection. JL in vancouver or reefsupplies.ca are my go to's.

There's a fabulous reef keeping community on the island though, tons of people, great resources. Even some folks dabbling in Coral sales.
 

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