Reefcowboy’s 150 gal SPS System

[Reefcowboy]

Took a few pics of the refugium today as I was finishing what my wife calls the "fish room" lol.


Finally finished the room the way I wanted. I remember thinking about a room for my tank when I was shopping for a house.
I guess all of us dream of having a room dedicated to our hard worked hobby.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Took a few pics of the refugium today as I was finishing what my wife calls the "fish room" lol.


Finally finished the room the way I wanted. I remember thinking about a room for my tank when I was shopping for a house.
I guess all of us dream of having a room dedicated to our hard worked hobby.

Very nice. I must say, I love a display refugium.

 

[fishybizzness]

So no ats in the future, just the refugium?

 

[Reefcowboy]

So no ats in the future, just the refugium?

Im not sure. I'm curious as to how my nitrate levels will stay in the tank. As the chaeto grows and gains a "minimum" size which I will keep at all times to maintain ph stable at night and bioload nutrients acceptable, I will be able to compare to my ATS and decide.

The AI prime fuge led has been shown to do well as the chaeto is sprouting lots of new strings everywhere. I'm running gfo now and hope to slowly remove it as the chaeto grows and notice po4 not going up.

 

[Reefcowboy]

And WE’RE BACK!

Contacted a fellow reefer here on long island that had gotten me frags when I first set the tank over a year ago. He fragged me the same mother colonies and I was able to restart with most of the same corals I had lost in the crash.

Params are on point, chaeto keeping No3 down at 2ppm, polyps are extended, soon I hope to have the tank in order again.

 

[Reefcowboy]

Wanted to update this thread. Have changed a couple of things, hope to get to them later today.

I want to add some wrasses to police the sps for pests and anthias for more color in the tank, but with the open top rimless I had to find a solution for them possibly jumping out of the tank

I looked into acrylic cover/lids, but for my tank size it would cost $350, which is way too much for a cover. They do look very nice but I noticed they build salt creep where the water evaporates around the edges. It would end up being another maintenance item so I looked into DIY screen cover kits...

The Red Sea one seemed ok, but looks cheap being made of plastic and the screen also had bad reviews for breaking off easily.

I looked into the D&D's Jump Guard, it is better built with great reviews and looks very sleek.


The kit comes with black painted aluminum rods and the screen is very nice and flexible. I got the PRO version which comes with a black screen
The build process is not something that can be done quickly, one has to pay attention when cutting and placing the net so the end results are good. Tightening the screen with the spleen is no joke as it has to be perfectly straight and taut(I have ocd!) Do not take on this project in a hurry thinking you will do it in 20 mins, take your time as you can mess up things easily!

At the end I couldn't be happier with the result. It looks very sleek and one can barely notice it when looking straight at the tank.
I thought I wouldn't be happy with a screen being the acrylic ones look so cool, but gotta say with all honesty this screen serves the purpose at $70 and looks awesome. Definitely recommend

 

[najer]

Nice, tank looks great.

 

[Reefcowboy]

Nice, tank looks great.

Thank you Najer,
I'm replacing my led bars tonight with reefbrites(orphek OR died after 1 year ), and replaced my Gyres with the OctoPulse 4...man, that pump rocks!
I'll update today after I get home from work

 

[najer]

Thank you Najer,
I'm replacing my led bars tonight with reefbrites(orphek OR died after 1 year ), and replaced my Gyres with the OctoPulse 4...man, that pump rocks!
I'll update today after I get home from work

Really, after one year, did you speak to them?

 

[Reefcowboy]

Really, after one year, did you speak to them?

I did. So one bar works, the other doesnt now. It went dead for half of the LEDs at first, and now the whole bar is out. I tried swapping power bricks to see if that was the issue, but the actual bar is toast.
To be honest I was ready for a change, I kind of missed the royal blue pop from the reefbrites so I went for it.

 

[najer]

I did. So one bar works, the other doesnt now. It went dead for half of the LEDs at first, and now the whole bar is out. I tried swapping power bricks to see if that was the issue, but the actual bar is toast.
To be honest I was ready for a change, I kind of missed the royal blue pop from the reefbrites so I went for it.

Probably my best England reefing mate runs reef brights as a supplement too an ATI 8 tube hybrid, he loves them, never missed a beat.

 

[JJ440]

Beautiful aquarium! Very nice work!

 

[Reefcowboy]

Probably my best England reefing mate runs reef brights as a supplement too an ATI 8 tube hybrid, he loves them, never missed a beat.

Yeah, I looked into the new Orphek OR2(gen 2) also. They changed the spectrum, combining violet, royal blues, and blues for broader range of spectrum. I've had many orphek fixtures before, and know they are good lights, this one failing so soon was disappointing.
Their price is also great which in enticing, but I gotta admit my current one seemed to have too many of a cyan colored leds, which made the tank a bit green/blueish.

I asked the rep and he said they cover the 490nm range, but I got a bit tired of the green look.
I recently saw a reefbrite and the pop due to mainly royal blue a like LEDs made the colors pop so much more than mine...
Reefbrites are so expensive though.
I luckily have a member who owns a store, Jay who always hooks me up with top quality reef stuff. He helped me get a killer deal I couldn't refuse.

 

[Reefcowboy]

Beautiful aquarium! Very nice work!

Thanks! Tank is still a bit shabby if you read the thread I lost lots of corals and just now restocked. Hoping to keep things stable so they can color up again!
Once they do I'll probably have another business trip so my wife can destroy them one more time

 

[lcj2046]

What type of sand re you using?

 

[Reefcowboy]

What type of sand re you using?

Crushed coral, all covered with coraline lol.

 

[count krunk]

Just read over your whole thread this past week. What a journey!

Did you lose any fish when the SPS crashed?

 

[Reefcowboy]

Just read over your whole thread this past week. What a journey!

Did you lose any fish when the SPS crashed?

Thank you!
No losses, but I noticed my blue tang developed ick! These same fish had been in my tank for over a year without any signs of disease. As soon as I got the water params back to normal, the ick slowly disappeared. Luckily all tangs kept eating through the issue period.

Today all fish are fat and healthy. Ick is a funny thing, in my honest opinion ick is always there fighting the fish's immune system. Trying to keep a sterile tank is a very tough thing to accomplish.

 

[count krunk]

Yes a sterile tank is a fool's errand to me. Obviously, some are quite good at that method. It's just not for me.

I think you played it correctly with your tang. Did not remove and once things stabilized the tang's health improved.

 

[Reefcowboy]

Ok so finally had a chance to update this threat again. After the crash I wanted to change a few things and check if I would notice any improvements.

I ran MP40s then changed to two Gyres XF250's. I loved the flow of the gyres, however I could never run them past 40 percent as they became extremely noisy. I could hear their hum from another room.

I decided to change to something else but wanted to get a pump that had the ability to direct flow. As sps grow, it can become difficult to get strong flow with vortech pumps without hitting the corals straight on. I wanted a pump in which I would most likely direct flow towards the surface for a gentler, larger wave across the tank.

I also felt would want this time a single larger pump, and free one of the sides of the tank for better viewing. The MP60qd is an awesome pump but at 700 bucks I decided to look elsewhere.

I started looking into Reef Octopus' OctoPulse 4 and soon realized it was the perfect pump for me.
It is extremely quiet and powerful. At full power my 150 gal tank looked like a washing machine. I pointed it up, dialed it to 40% and a single pump does an excellent job. The controller has a "random" setting which allows pulse, constant, tide, etc. I am very pleased with this pump. Its price is also very good for a pump that easily pushes as much water as an MP60.


No need for another pump on this side of the tank! Plenty of flow on this 60" tank