Reef Savvy Retirement Build

[Clarkjw2002]

One thing I forgot to add, and I can't believe I'm saying it:

I'm seriously thinking of switching out the CoralCares for T5s or adding halides. Wattage wise I'd be pretty close with a 60" 8 bulb sunpower. Would need to figure out how to still use the kessils for the shimmer if I did that. Halides would give me the shimmer but not sure I like the idea of only running 5-6 hrs a day and not sure on the heat--already can't shut the fish room door or the dehumidifier will heat up the room.

I like the CoralCares but there is just something missing for me and I think it is the visual strength of the light in the tank that T5s and halides give. Par is just fine but the tank light looks weak to me. Maybe I just grew up cutting my teeth on that technology and am old fashioned.

Surprised to find that almost nobody is even selling ATIs anymore. Thought about getting a powermodule (what I had on my last tank) but can't find it anywhere. Did find a site with four 8 bulb sunpowers left in stock though.

Was also considering reefbrite hybrids too and could wait for a Black Friday deal on that.

May start by selling my 3 extra CoralCares, two still NIB and one on my standby tank, so only used for a week (along with the controller). Still have a 36" 4 bulb sunpower I could put on that tank.

 

[BurgerFish]

After using Jebao Led 60w over 12g, I was surprised how much 8 bulb sunpower over 90g tank is more bright.

Maybe its because of LED's shadowing.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Yeah. I had a 4 bulb powermodule over my last tank—a 90 gal Red Sea 450–so I bet the 8 bulb was crazy bright.

With the CoralCares the shadowing is not that bad. I think with LEDs there is a good bit of PAR contributed by wavelengths that are less perceptible to our eyes. So they just look dimmer. Also why some people fry corals when switching to LEDs—they are trying to match their visual brightness perception and not actual PAR numbers.

I miss that visual brightness. My PAR numbers are great, just looks dimmer to me.

 

[Jimbo327]

I would stick with LEDs. The T5 and MH bulbs will be phased out soon. T5 is already banned in the EU and MH bulbs are very hard to source.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

I would stick with LEDs. The T5 and MH bulbs will be phased out soon. T5 is already banned in the EU and MH bulbs are very hard to source.

Yeah, that's what hoarding is for.

T5s are still allowed in the EU for the aquarium trade and ATI will continue to produce for the time being (minus the true actinic bulbs--I bought their last 8 60" bulbs). However, it is a numbers game. If sales decline enough they will stop producing.

Thinking to go the hybrid route. Just discovered the illumagic x4s that have me intrigued but I will have T5 as a component just for the spread--36 inch tank width. Not sure if I want to use a Giesemann stellar or make a retrofit with LET. It's the 60" fixtures that are getting hard to find and the four Sunpowers I thought I found was a mirage.

 

[Jimbo327]

I hear you. I have a shed full of reef stuff that I have collected. Hoarding will be the way to go if you want to go T5/MH.

Love the T5's. But I see T5's going to be similar to MH bulbs...EU already banned it, and slowly you will see US states ban it. Aquarium trade may be a very niche market. Then the major bulb manufacturers will slowly close up shop as it becomes less profitable. And the T5 fixture makers will be going away too since their will be almost no market or money in it at scale.

Might look into Reefi and Kessil for the LED shimmer. Or closer to it.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Already have Kessil 500x's with my CoralCares. May keep the Kessils with the T5s. Or try the Illumagic. Haven't decided yet.

Pretty sure the 80 watt T5s will be gone in a couple years as you really can't find fixtures anymore. Even the LET retrofits are harder to find in the 80W version.

I really should have planned for the need to swap things out when I hung the lights. Gonna be a real PIA to remove now since the power bricks (Kessils) and the coral care controller are up near the 10ft ceiling and there is stuff in the way now. Originally mounted everything before the tank was even here and in place. Didn't really think about the need to replace stuff in the future.

 

[nickm]

I would stick with LEDs. The T5 and MH bulbs will be phased out soon. T5 is already banned in the EU and MH bulbs are very hard to source.

Yeah, that's what hoarding is for.

T5s are still allowed in the EU for the aquarium trade and ATI will continue to produce for the time being (minus the true actinic bulbs--I bought their last 8 60" bulbs). However, it is a numbers game. If sales decline enough they will stop producing.

Thinking to go the hybrid route. Just discovered the illumagic x4s that have me intrigued but I will have T5 as a component just for the spread--36 inch tank width. Not sure if I want to use a Giesemann stellar or make a retrofit with LET. It's the 60" fixtures that are getting hard to find and the four Sunpowers I thought I found was a mirage.

I have a spare sunpower 8x80 just sitting in storage. It needs some love but I bought 2 of them and refurbished one.

 

[hatfielj]

Just read your entire thread for the first time. Quite a journey you've had getting this tank! I can't believe you had to wait 4 YEARS to get the tank! I know it was because of the pandemic and your house build, but still, that must have really tested your patience, lol.
My thoughts on your lighting...Try adding some reefbrite or AI strips if you're looking for more par or coverage. They are surprisingly bright and add great spread to the edges of a tank.
MH is definitely not worth it IMO, especially if you're just looking for aesthetics/shimmer. The cost of electricity these days is far higher than it was 20 years ago when I started reefing. It just doesn't make sense financially to spend that kind of cash on it, not to mention the heat issues that will end up requiring you to buy a chiller. T5s are nice and were my go to lighting for the last several tanks I've had. But, my current tank is all LED and I'm loving the colors I'm getting from the corals. I was going to supplement with a single T5 bulb fixture, but ran out of room in my hood. A lot of the coral growers supplement with T5s because they seem to help corals grow a bit faster and eliminate some of the shading effects of LEDs. I would consider adding a couple of T5 bulbs for supplemental lighting if you feel you need a change. But, they won't give you the shimmer look you like of course.
I'm able to run my entire tank on a single 15amp circuit thanks to the LEDs. And I have no issues with heat that a simple fan can't take care of. LEDs take some getting used to for us old school reefers, lol. But, I do think they are better overall.

 

[Jimbo327]

Already have Kessil 500x's with my CoralCares. May keep the Kessils with the T5s. Or try the Illumagic. Haven't decided yet.

Pretty sure the 80 watt T5s will be gone in a couple years as you really can't find fixtures anymore. Even the LET retrofits are harder to find in the 80W version.

I really should have planned for the need to swap things out when I hung the lights. Gonna be a real PIA to remove now since the power bricks (Kessils) and the coral care controller are up near the 10ft ceiling and there is stuff in the way now. Originally mounted everything before the tank was even here and in place. Didn't really think about the need to replace stuff in the future.

I would love to see what Illumagic would look like if you get them. And I think that is why the Orphek type light bars are gaining popularity because that will replace the T5's in the future.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Yeah, the wait was a little longer than I expected (expected about 3yrs) but the tank was well worth it. I could throw a brick at this thing and it would not break.

Pretty much made up my mind to go with adding some T5 supplementation and maybe replacing the coral cares with X4s. I do have 2 reefbrite 72" 50/50 XHOs I may throw on there. Always liked their look and do have a dual channel dimmer for them laying around somewhere in the barn/attic.

Not in a big hurry to make changes so will probably get to it once I'm ready for winter here--food is put up, hay is in the barn, etc. Not that it really matters because my emperor will probably eat any SPS I put in there. So far all of my LPS are untouched--the exact opposite of everything I read about their coral appetites. He has also started to eat my blue sponge--which I figured he might do. This sponge originally attached itself to a rock in the refugium so I have a second one growing in there where a piece was left behind. Love it's bright blue color.

 

[Yanir34]

I would stick with LEDs. The T5 and MH bulbs will be phased out soon. T5 is already banned in the EU and MH bulbs are very hard to source.

That is not true.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Well, lots of changes to report and a tragedy.

I finally got around to replacing the coral cares with 3 LET 80w retrofit kits. Love it! running 2 coral plus, 2 blue plus, one actinic and one tropic 6500k. Have the kessils in the center but may eventually replace with a Stratton Flex 153 as it will fit perfectly in the middle. Getting a little more par than with the coral cares and the total wattage is the same--just can't dim.

I am in the process of turning the 125 refugium into an SPS tank since my emperor seems to eat SPS. May use as a grow out tank and see if I can have better luck with large colonies in the display after I've added more live rock for him to graze. I did try an illumagic x4 on this tank but wasn't really fond of it so will probably sell. I picked up and 8 bulb 54w giesemann to use on this tank.

I am also setting up a permanent QT tank for corals. The weekly water change water will go through this tank first before dumping down the drain. It's a 40 breeder so the water change per week will be 50% or more. Hoping this will be enough that I shouldn't have to worry about alk, cal, mag levels in this tank. Will post details when I set up.

And before anybody chimes in about the death of T5s, I already have 10yrs worth of bulbs for both fixtures. continuing to collect more and will also get some extra ballasts.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Now the tragedy:

A few days ago I forgot to turn my fleece roller back on and, over the course of a few hours, dumped a bunch of Kalk into the tank! Had a feed pump on order but thought I could manage running through the ATO until I got it set up--bad mistake.

When I got home the tanks were milk and the pH 11.64. I immediately did a 64 gallon water change--all I had--and dumped about 3 liters of vinegar into the tank to bring pH down. As soon as I hit the appropriate level the milk just disappeared instantly.

But it was too late. Only the emperor, two clowns. one chromis and an aptasia eating filefish survived. Interestingly, most of my crabs and shrimp survived and even one urchin I thought was dead. He had lost all his spines but today is up on the glass.

It's been about 4 days and the pH finally stabilized (it dropped down to 7.8 the day after) and is at 8.05. Lights are off and a skimmer is running (I replaced my skimmer with a surf4 algae scrubber). Measured today and alk is 10.1, Ca 450. Much better than I expected to see.

Things were going great and I was just about to start ordering frags but now I'm back to square one. Tank smells like curing live rock.

So heartbreaking that I didn't even take pics.

 

[hatfielj]

Aww man so sorry to hear. Yeah, you gotta figure out a safer way to dose if you're gonna use kalk. I personally use a Versa to slowly dose kalk continuously (around 2 liters/day) and I only have a 2.5 gallon reservoir, so there's no way to actually overdose the tank. I have to refill it every 3 days. I check KH daily so if my pump were to accidentally pump too fast, I would catch it before it got too bad.

I personally think using an ATO for Kalk is too risky. My Tunze ATO sometimes overdoses RO/DI when I'm running filter socks and they get clogged. That would be a disaster if full of Kalk, but no big deal if just a little RO water.

Luckily you didn't have any frags yet. That would have hurt way more.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Got a litermeter pump coming. I had quite a few nice frags that I cut before moving here but the emperor had already taken care of them—except my yellow porites.

Forgot to mention, the reason I switched to kalk was because my dastaco reactor controller bit the bullet. Stopped controlling the CO2 solenoid. Will set up a new reactor eventually and run kalk at night for the pH boost. I had a 5 gal bucket of CaOH sitting around so figured, why not?

Just FYI, I knew the risks but took the chance anyway instead of waiting for my dosing pump (was waiting for the holiday discounts to buy). Alk had dropped to 6 when the dastaco went out.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Other changes I forgot to mention:

Removed the UV and swapped the Abyzz A100 for a Sicce SDC 9.0 and am now using that as a closed loop. The Abyzz would weep around the o-ring seal from time to time (usually when our husky/corgi mix would go under there to hide from thunder and rifle shots). Figured I'd fix before that blew as it would empty half the tank if it did. The UV appears to have not been needed and the tank was diverse enough that I was not having any Dino/algae issues. I extended the outlet pipe to the bottom of the tank so now it sweeps flow under the rocks.

Also replaced the three MP60s with two Tunes 6255s on sea sweeps. The are run at 40% and are producing way more flow than the 3 60s did. And the sea sweeps vary the flow--another fine product probably disappearing since Eddie is close to retirement himself.

Last change was swapping the 100w RD3 return pump for a RD5 200w. Still running at 100% but now I'm getting adequate turnover in both tanks. I think the GHL flow meters really add some head pressure to the set up. Removed the one that was on the UV closed loop and the Sicce is pushing much more water through now--guessing by feel. I had to make a goofy deflector for the outlet as it was splashing too much--no laughing at my handy work.

Here is a pic of the tank from a few weeks ago after I swapped the lights:

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Turned the lights back on last week and had to start dosing 200ml/day again yesterday--Alk dropped to 6.7. Was 9.1 Last Saturday before turning lights back on. Everything seems to be bouncing back faster than I expected. Only fish survivors are the emperor, two chromis, and the two clowns. Duncans and a Micromussa are still hanging in there--though the emperor started picking at the Duncans before the crash so they may not last. Also found a tuxedo urchin that made it in addition to the long spine in the refugium tank.

All I can say after turning lights back on is that I love my t5s even more. So glad I made the switch back. Don't know why but, aesthetically, they are much more pleasing to me.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Since it's been so cold I finally got around to setting up my permanent QT system. This is for frag QT and fish observation after prophylactic QT in temporary tanks, but mainly for coral QT.

I set up my other Genesis reef systems auto water changer to achieve this. The 20 high on the left is a holding tank. The main system change water empties into this tank and then the second water changer system runs this water through the QT and then the drain. This means this tank will be getting 50% water changes per week with tank water so I shouldn't need to worry about separate dosing systems and such for the corals.

I also have gotten my refugium ready to serve as a coral grow out tank. Found an 8 bulb matrix for the light (and thanks to MFinn for the 6 bulb Sunpower over the QT). Plan is to use this tank as my main coral tank and then move larger colonies into the display to see if I can find some that my emperor does not like to munch on. This pic is with morning sun and 4 of the 8 T5 bulbs on.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

The system as a whole has recovered quite well from the Kalk crash. I am still waiting for my liter meter pump to get the Kalk back on line so I'm still dosing. Switched to ESV B-Ionic last week from balling salts as I was going through a gallon of alk every two weeks or so and I usually need at least that long to get the alk component to fully dissolve. Dosing 72ml/day of ESV currently.

I also added an order from into-pacific sea farms as my sand bed never really took off they way I expected with the live sand from TBS--the worm diversity just did not seem to be there in the batch I got. Finally got some of those big fat red bristle worms that everybody seems to want to kill these days.

Surprisingly, my Duncans are still kicking and the emperor seems to be mostly leaving them alone now. Wonder if it's because he is basically the only fish in the tank now (plus 2 chromis and 2 clowns). Gonna be a pain when my Dr Reef fish order comes in and I need to get them acquainted. he is definitely turning into quite a beautiful fish.

You can see here I still have a little bit of yellow Porites holding on. Also have one Monti digitata that seems to be coming back and a red Acan lord that has never been bothered by the emperor or the Kalk crash. Everything else was lost.