Reefcowboy’s 150 gal SPS System

[marco fish]

Man! I cant immagine leaving everything behind...what a gut wrenching feeling for sure! Ive caught a few hurricanes myself while at Miami, before Katrina, we had Wilma come through and it was VERY scary to say the least! I lived on the 17th floor of a building in north miami beach and woke up with the building swaying with the wind...

Luckily I didnt have a tank then, but we had no power for 2 weeks. I remember eating canned food with candle lights for days

Wow really nice tank, very clean and awesome frag system. Do you have a build thread? Your tank looks bigger than 100 gals, the scape is awesome with the rock nooks and cool structures. Lots of fish and cool selection...

The way you set up the frag tank is very sharp loking as well. Would love to see more of it.
If I came down there would def hit ya for a beer, but I remember going to the Keys and when I came back home would feel depressed as life is just so chilled and beautiful there! Just another reality!

We are heading out to the sandbar for beverages and good times, I’ll hit your thread later or tomorrow, lol

 

[Reefcowboy]

We are heading out to the sandbar for beverages and good times, I’ll hit your thread later or tomorrow, lol

Thanks for twisting the knife!

 

[marco fish]

Thanks for twisting the knife!

Ok I promise no more knife twisting lol, but what a great afternoon we had lol...

There was a recent change on R2R for people who have a build thread badge, they took them away but its a good thing because you get it back, all that you have to do is put your URL of your build thread on your home page and you get it back. So now to go to anyone’s build thread you hit the badge icon on there name and it takes you to it. Pretty cool ! You could do the same with yours .

 

[Reefcowboy]

Ok I promise no more knife twisting lol, but what a great afternoon we had lol...

There was a recent change on R2R for people who have a build thread badge, they took them away but its a good thing because you get it back, all that you have to do is put your URL of your build thread on your home page and you get it back. So now to go to anyone’s build thread you hit the badge icon on there name and it takes you to it. Pretty cool ! You could do the same with yours .

I didnt know, but just checked and you are correct! Wonder why they took it away?

 

[marco fish]

I didnt know, but just checked and you are correct! Wonder why they took it away?

Let me see if I can find the thread that it’s in ! Rev put it up and it’s for the simplicity of finding anyone’s build thread, all that you have to do is hit the badge and it takes you to it.

 

[Reefcowboy]

Time for a little Friday update!
Tank has been doing great. The refugium has been keeping No3 at stable 2ppm and Po4 has been undetectable, because ive been running Phosfiltrum(seachem).

I plan on shutting GFO off, just wanted my chaeto to grow to a size able to stabilize nitrate between 2-5ppm.

Issue is my chaeto has plateaued and I'm suspecting is due to low phosphates and not enough tank feeding. Since the nitrate spike/tank crash I reduced feeding to 3-5 mysis frozen cubes, and now I'm slowly adding more food back to 8 cubes a day.

The Prime fuge is an awesome light, I'm very happy. As the chaeto grew I've noticed the bottom portion lost some green turning into white patches here and there. I'm wondering if the increased feeding alone will suffice or if I'm lacking some needed traces.

I decided to get some of this product which adds iron and some needed elements for the chaeto to keep thriving in low nutrient tanks. I'm keeping an eye as iron overdosing has really bad side effects such as algae growth

 

[Reefcowboy]

Here are some pics of the refugium. I plan on cleaning the glass, but it looks like it is thriving with life so I try not to disturb it as often.



Best of all, keeps my Ph right where I need it

 

[Reefcowboy]

Some tank shots. Some of the frags and small colonies I got after the crash are fully encrusted and showing growth tips. Some of them were aussie wild pieces that have been adapting really well, already coloring nicely.

I got some crappy phone camera orange lenses so it is hard to see colors, I plan on investing in some good ones so I can take better pics... Tank looks like it is filled with gatorade

 

[Dan I]

I have read through the whole thread and you got an amazing tank! I am in the planning stage of my new tank at the moment with your tank being one of the few inspirations.

Quick question, being a new tank would you recommend an ATS or refugium?

I am currently running an ATS and it does work, but was wondering if the benefits of a refugium is greater than an ATS.

 

[Reefcowboy]

I have read through the whole thread and you got an amazing tank! I am in the planning stage of my new tank at the moment with your tank being one of the few inspirations.

Quick question, being a new tank would you recommend an ATS or refugium?

I am currently running an ATS and it does work, but was wondering if the benefits of a refugium is greater than an ATS.

Lol, dont we all inspire each other constantly? This is a beautiful hobby

Being you read my whole thread, youve probably noticed how much I liked the ATS before I set up the refugium.

The ATS grows an extremely aggressive type of algae, that preys on nitrate and phosphate very efficiently and would outcompete chaeto easily.

My only issue with it was I could not control the actual algae growth, even when my wife overfed the tank and nitrate was high, the algae didnt seem to grow the same way as when I had first set up the tank. Reasons aren't yet clear to me.

In my tank it did have times it grew to dark, lush green and others melted to brown slime. The LEDs I had were built for ATS, and the photoperiod remained the same.

For my tank, I was able to set a big enough refugium, being 30 goals is plenty for my 150. The refugium tank is 12 inches tall so removing algae is easy, I dont have to wet my arms. I like the fact that refugiums allow for microfauna and that is beneficial. My Ph is also more stable with the refugium.
I think in my case, the refugium is being a better alternative, but the ATS is just as good.
I think regardless of the type, the trick and challenge is finessing the trace elements for strong, green algae growth while keeping a low nutrient system for the corals. I'm at the point I'm trying to learn what the demand from my chaeto is and I'm sure running GFO is a big part of it why I'm scratching my head

 

[Reefcowboy]

I wanted to take a break from all this virus going on so heres a little update for those who followed this tank since the beginning. Its been 6 months since the last update and lots have changed.

My struggle with this tank from the start has always been managing nitrates. It has been difficult to find a level of nitrates +alk levels+PO4 that allowed color to settle. If youve followed along you have learned I've ran an algae scrubber and had pretty good results.
The issue for me was the scrubber algae was not consistently growing, and at times it declined my nitrates rose and sps rtnd.

IMO I've failed to use some type of fertilizer and the algae struggled with only no3 and po4.

Moving on to the display refugium was a great move however over the first few months I had a hard time with red slime algae and an ugly nasty fuzzy algae that grew on top of the chaeto bunch, common on most refugiums.

I decided to bite the bullet and try caulerpa mexicana. Many people discourage this type of algae due to it going sexual, but so far after many months I've been very happy with the results. I make sure I prune it every 2-3 weeks, taking away large bundles from the tank and also trimming its leaves with scissors. It grows very fast and anchored its roots on the sand bed improving the look of the refugium.



Another benefit is I can increase flow in the refugium as caulerpa stays put at the sand bed, and it allowed me to reduce the red slime issue. The big chaeto basketball moving around did not allow for as good of flow.
Caulerpa leaves moving with flow add a nice ocean look to the fuge for sure!
I added some chaeto to diversify the algae content as it has been working great. A few more pics. I removed the reds from the prime fuge for better pics. A single unit lights a 24x24x12 perfectly.

Every three weeks I remove about half of a 5 gal bucket of caulerpa, and some big chaeto chunks. I feed my tank 8 cubes of mysis a day and nitrates have stayed stable at 10-15 ppm.

 

[Reefcowboy]

I removed phosphate media completely and keep my alk levels at 9dkh. In the past I believe my mistake was attempting to keep the so desirable 4ppm nitrates. I always kept my tank too clean and sps never had a chance to develop coloration. I also used to think 15ppm nitrates was nuts but the corals have thought me as long as I keep the numbers stable with alk and nitrates, corals will adapt and start developing good coloration.

I also stopped messing so much with ph. Increasing kalk seeking higher ph numbers messed my alk consumption often and didnt allow the stability needed. Today corals grow slower with ph at 7.6 to 7.8(winter here in NY with windows shut 24/7) but color being better largely satisfies the first one IMO.

With spring approaching and a warmer weather with fresh air in the house ph will naturally climb to the 8-8.2 needed so I hope corals will get back growing fast.

A few shots

 

[drawman]

Following!

 

[Reefcowboy]

One thing to note is I upped flow over the past months. LPS such as zoas, hammers did not quite like it while sps were thriving.

Zoas would relocate and disapear. Hammers would tolerate but never inflate as they once did. I removed them even though I enjoyed their colors and think overall the tank looks better.

Another bummer was I got an asterina star infestation for months now. I read they dont bother corals but I beg to differ. The ones in my tank have a big appetite for high end zoas/palys. Ive followed them move from polyp to polyp, leaving death behind. Theyve wiped out lots of zoas which is a shame being Ive had them become large colonies at some point.

They dont bother sps so Im ok I guess. I thought of adding a harlequin shrimp but my wrasses will make ceviche out of him in seconds

 

[Reefcowboy]

More pics

 

[Ultra Aquatics]

Awesome tank, great seeing other Long Islanders on here!

 

[Sdot]

Hi my name is Carlos and I live on Long Island, NY. I moved here from NYC last December and finally have had time to set up my tank. I have planned this build for a few years, and seeing it now come together has been very rewarding.

I have been reefing for many years and although I like anything tank related, sps are my main passion in the hobby. Not saying Im not also crazy for nice colored lps and softies!
Here are pics of my two previous tanks.

Orphek for the WIN!! Every reef i see with Orpheks are amazing.....

 

[Reefcowboy]

Crappy camera as usual

 

[Reefcowboy]

Little update, doing a water change...refugium rocking solid no changes, tank doing really well.
Seeing growth everywhere, having to move/trim colonies around because of size.
Having my best results not dosing anything, no aminos, nothing besides water changes.

 

[Reefcowboy]

FTS 7/2020