Bpb
2500 Club Member
Intro:
Hey folks. I've been on here for some years now. I stay pretty active and opinionated. Never afraid to share my thoughts on this subject and that. Maybe a bit much on occasion, but I try to stick to what I know based on experience, and ask questions when in doubt. I've never had a build thread on here though.
Now I'll preface by saying my tank is now 5 years in my posession. It's experienced 2 tank wide crashes in that time, and done one full reset/rescape/start from scratch. So....while the tank has stayed wet with the same fish in it, it hasnt exactly been stable through its duration. As it stands, I introduced the first acropora after resetting it all in May of 2017. So as it is, I'm at about 13.5 months of growth at this point, but I didn't add everything at once.
Hardware/Specs:
Aqueon 90 gallon reef ready with stock plywood stand and canopy (roughly 8 years old I estimate)
ATI Sunpower 8x54 watt
4 ATI Blue+
2 ATI Purple+
1 ATI True Actinic
1 Giesemann Tropic
2x Jebao OW-40 powerheads
Eheim Jager 300 watt heater
Eheim 1262 return pump
PM R36 sump
Lifereef VS 24 Skimmer
Jebao DCP 10000 skimmer pump
Apex controller (Honestly....I'm down to using this as a light timer and temperature controller, I use none of its other features, and when it dies, I will just use my Cobalt temp controller and some wall timers for the lights.)
JBJ ATO (Also...I remember to fill the bucket once a month maybe. Otherwise I top off manually with a gallon jug when I remember to get around to it, or when I see the return pump suck air)
GEO 618 Calcium Reactor
Masterflex feed pump
Air Products dual stage brass regulator with 10 pound CO2 tank (at nearly 2 years now, I still am reading the CO2 tank as full and the media has been half depleted
Livestock (in order of addition):
Clarkii Clown
Azure Damselfish
Pajama Cardinal
Royal Gramma
Tomini Tang
Foxface Rabbitfish
Melanarus Wrasse
Ruby Head Fairy Wrasse
Yellow Tang
Sixline Wrasse
Blue/green Chromis
CUC:
Pincushion urchin
3 trochus snails
1 florida cerith snail
Philosophy:
I'm an acro head. Over time I've struggled mightily with acropora, as many of us have but I just cant give them up. Truthfully I have about a 2% interest level in any other inverts, fish, or coral genus, and about a 1% interest in equipment/technology. I'm as old school as they come for my age in the hobby honestly considering how relatively inexperienced I am.
I've fiddled with LED's, expansive Apex programming, just about all the popular and expensive powerheads out there (yes Ive had my run with Vortechs, tunze, sicce, ect). I've tried many of the fad systems and expensive salts. Ive run a good chunk of the zeovit products, the red sea system, no water changes, DIY food, ect. It's all just cost a bunch of money without giving me the results I expected. I can't blame one product for my struggles, but I can definitively say I know what works for me and my lifestyle. I like equipment that works, and that I dont have to mess with. Period. How in fashion it is, is of zero concern to me.
I like a tank where I can feed the fish, perform a 5 minute water change once a week, and otherwise I simply enjoy it. I don't want to have to dose anything, send of tests in the mail, buy dozens of products on the regular, and have my hands in the water every day. To each their own, but these are the things I appreciate about how I run my tank. Hands off besides the bare essentials.
I test Alk and Phosphate once every few days and adjust the gas on the calcium reactor as necessary. I will typically adjust it up to 7.5 or so, and leave it alone until it reaches 6.5 which usually takes about 4-6 weeks. SO it's not swinging 1.0 DKH in short time, but I'm also just keeping it on the lower end and not chasing it excessively. Trying to keep it at one number every day lead to more swings than doing it this way now.
I test Calcium, Magnesium, and Nitrate once a month. I try to target "normal" numbers:
Alk 6.5-7.5 DKH
Calcium 400-450 PPM
Magnesium 1300-1600 PPM
Nitrate 0-10 PPM
Phosphate 0.03-0.1 PPM
To maintain N&P on such a heavy bioload I dose 4 mL of Vodka per day in the mornings as I walk out the door (literally takes zero time at all), and I will use Phosphate RX (lanthanum chloride) to maintain phosphate as necessary. Even maintaining a GFO reactor is too much effort for me.
I use Hanna checkers for alk and phosphate for their ease of use, and Red sea pro tests for the rest.
I feed whatever frozen mysis the petco is stocking at the time on occasion, but my daily feeding is NLS Thera+ pellets and NYOS algae pellets. I will target feed the acros a mixture of Reef Chili and Coral Frenzy maybe once a week or if PO4 happens to fall too low.
Some Pictures incoming. Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to discuss, critique, question, correct, or even derail my thread if you like. Total Debauchery is welcome here
Hey folks. I've been on here for some years now. I stay pretty active and opinionated. Never afraid to share my thoughts on this subject and that. Maybe a bit much on occasion, but I try to stick to what I know based on experience, and ask questions when in doubt. I've never had a build thread on here though.
Now I'll preface by saying my tank is now 5 years in my posession. It's experienced 2 tank wide crashes in that time, and done one full reset/rescape/start from scratch. So....while the tank has stayed wet with the same fish in it, it hasnt exactly been stable through its duration. As it stands, I introduced the first acropora after resetting it all in May of 2017. So as it is, I'm at about 13.5 months of growth at this point, but I didn't add everything at once.
Hardware/Specs:
Aqueon 90 gallon reef ready with stock plywood stand and canopy (roughly 8 years old I estimate)
ATI Sunpower 8x54 watt
4 ATI Blue+
2 ATI Purple+
1 ATI True Actinic
1 Giesemann Tropic
2x Jebao OW-40 powerheads
Eheim Jager 300 watt heater
Eheim 1262 return pump
PM R36 sump
Lifereef VS 24 Skimmer
Jebao DCP 10000 skimmer pump
Apex controller (Honestly....I'm down to using this as a light timer and temperature controller, I use none of its other features, and when it dies, I will just use my Cobalt temp controller and some wall timers for the lights.)
JBJ ATO (Also...I remember to fill the bucket once a month maybe. Otherwise I top off manually with a gallon jug when I remember to get around to it, or when I see the return pump suck air)
GEO 618 Calcium Reactor
Masterflex feed pump
Air Products dual stage brass regulator with 10 pound CO2 tank (at nearly 2 years now, I still am reading the CO2 tank as full and the media has been half depleted
Livestock (in order of addition):
Clarkii Clown
Azure Damselfish
Pajama Cardinal
Royal Gramma
Tomini Tang
Foxface Rabbitfish
Melanarus Wrasse
Ruby Head Fairy Wrasse
Yellow Tang
Sixline Wrasse
Blue/green Chromis
CUC:
Pincushion urchin
3 trochus snails
1 florida cerith snail
Philosophy:
I'm an acro head. Over time I've struggled mightily with acropora, as many of us have but I just cant give them up. Truthfully I have about a 2% interest level in any other inverts, fish, or coral genus, and about a 1% interest in equipment/technology. I'm as old school as they come for my age in the hobby honestly considering how relatively inexperienced I am.
I've fiddled with LED's, expansive Apex programming, just about all the popular and expensive powerheads out there (yes Ive had my run with Vortechs, tunze, sicce, ect). I've tried many of the fad systems and expensive salts. Ive run a good chunk of the zeovit products, the red sea system, no water changes, DIY food, ect. It's all just cost a bunch of money without giving me the results I expected. I can't blame one product for my struggles, but I can definitively say I know what works for me and my lifestyle. I like equipment that works, and that I dont have to mess with. Period. How in fashion it is, is of zero concern to me.
I like a tank where I can feed the fish, perform a 5 minute water change once a week, and otherwise I simply enjoy it. I don't want to have to dose anything, send of tests in the mail, buy dozens of products on the regular, and have my hands in the water every day. To each their own, but these are the things I appreciate about how I run my tank. Hands off besides the bare essentials.
I test Alk and Phosphate once every few days and adjust the gas on the calcium reactor as necessary. I will typically adjust it up to 7.5 or so, and leave it alone until it reaches 6.5 which usually takes about 4-6 weeks. SO it's not swinging 1.0 DKH in short time, but I'm also just keeping it on the lower end and not chasing it excessively. Trying to keep it at one number every day lead to more swings than doing it this way now.
I test Calcium, Magnesium, and Nitrate once a month. I try to target "normal" numbers:
Alk 6.5-7.5 DKH
Calcium 400-450 PPM
Magnesium 1300-1600 PPM
Nitrate 0-10 PPM
Phosphate 0.03-0.1 PPM
To maintain N&P on such a heavy bioload I dose 4 mL of Vodka per day in the mornings as I walk out the door (literally takes zero time at all), and I will use Phosphate RX (lanthanum chloride) to maintain phosphate as necessary. Even maintaining a GFO reactor is too much effort for me.
I use Hanna checkers for alk and phosphate for their ease of use, and Red sea pro tests for the rest.
I feed whatever frozen mysis the petco is stocking at the time on occasion, but my daily feeding is NLS Thera+ pellets and NYOS algae pellets. I will target feed the acros a mixture of Reef Chili and Coral Frenzy maybe once a week or if PO4 happens to fall too low.
Some Pictures incoming. Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to discuss, critique, question, correct, or even derail my thread if you like. Total Debauchery is welcome here
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