Choppers 80 Gallon Deep Blue Rimless SPS dominant

[chopper320]

I’ve always wanted to keep a build thread going on my system but I could never keep up with getting pictures on my DSLR. I finally got a lens filter for my iPhone which hopefully allows me to get good enough pics quickly without having to do a bunch of post processing to get them to look decent.

Here’s a quick shot with my iPhone.

Here’s a video. I need to figure out how to fix the compression that YouTube is doing which is causing pixelation.




This system has been up and running for about 4 years. Some of the livestock was transferred over from a previous 40 breeder I had setup but very little of that remains.

Here is a rundown of my equipment
Lighting: 2 AI Hydra 26 HDs
Flow: 1 MP40 and 1 MP10
Filtration: BM Curve 5 Skimmer
Return pump: Jebao DCQ 5000
Heater: Eheim Jager 200w
Dosing: 2 BRS 1.1ml/m dosers
Controller: Apex EL
Sump: 27 gallon Elite Aquatics

System Specs:
Alk: 9.3dkh
CA: 420ppm
Nitrates ~20ppm
Salinity: 35 ppt

Dosing:
B-ionic 2 part

Maintenance:
-Weekly
- clean glass
- empty skimmer cup
- test alk

-Bi-weekly
-10 gallon water change with Reef Crystals. During every water change, I siphon all of the detritus I can reach on the bottom.

-Monthly
-clean pumps
-test nitrates
-trim corals(I have a separate frag tank which I will cover later.

This tank is really pretty simple. I started with good live rock. Some of it came from a previous system and some of it was fresh.

On my previous 40 breeder, I experimented with going barebottom and quickly found the benefits way outweighed my aesthetic preference for sand. When I started this current tank, I went barebottom and haven’t looked back.

I attribute that choice to making this tank so simple. Every water change, I just siphon out the detritus and blow the rocks with a turkey baster. This gets it all back into the water column and a lot of it settles back down to the bottom and I siphon it out on the next water change. Maybe every 6 months, I use a shop vac to suck out the detritus that has settled in the sump.

I have used filter socks on this system in the past but I decided to stop using them about 2 years ago and I’ve not seen any issues.

I like to run a higher nutrient system. I’ve had ULN systems in the past and wasn’t ever as happy with my coral. The pastel look just isn’t as attractive to me. I feed pretty heavily with a mix of NLS pellets, nori and LRS Reef Frenzy. If I start to notice my nitrates dropping, I add another fish and just feed slightly more.

Livestock
Fish:
*2 true percs- this pair is 4 years old and they regularly lay eggs
*Yellow tang - 4 years
*Yellow tail damsel - 8 years old- This is the only fish I brought over from my old system. It is a model citizen. The only damsel that I’ve had that I would recommend.
*Lawnmower Blenny - 3 years
* 2 Lubbock’s fairy wrasses - 2 years
* Firefish - 1.5 years
*Filamented Flasher Wrasse 1.5 years
* Pintail Flasher Wrasse 1 month

Corals
California Blue Tort
Frag Farmers Red Robin
Montipora Spongodes
Red Montipora Cap
Pro Corals Rainbow
ORA Tri Color
Garf Bonsai
Tyree Blue Matrix
Jason Fox Fox Flame
Reef Raft Orange Passion
Walt Disney Tenuis
RR Pink Cadillac
Tyree Pink Lemonade
Montipora Setosa
Appleberry Montipora
TCK picachu
ASD Rainbow Mille
Coops 24k Mille
Frogspawn
Miami Hurricane Chalice
Pink ******* Chalice
Yellow scroll
Orange ricordia
Rainbow ricordia
Purple gorgonia
Dragon soul favia
Green Star polyps
Poker stars Monti

I’ll add more as I think about it and try to keep this thread up to date.
Thanks for reading!

 

[jsker]

Wow, you have a nice system!!

 

[chopper320]

Wow, you have a nice system!!

Thanks!

 

[chopper320]

My project this week is going to be to improve my water mixing station.
This is the current situation

My frag tank is plumbed separately and it is about 40ft from the mixing station. It gets old hauling buckets of water back and forth for water changes and top off water.

On a video that BRS posted they had setup an automatic hose reel to get their water to different locations and I thought it looked cool.
I found a video by YouTuber eat sleep reef on building this so I’m going to give it a shot.

Just got these today

I have a Panworld Pump and plumbing on the way so I should be able to get this started and hopefully finished by this weekend.

 

[chopper320]

Got the plumbing and pump so I’m ready to start the project.
I always get extra fittings to make sure I have enough. I think I will need one more ball valve but otherwise I should be all set.

 

[chopper320]

Getting ready to start working on plumbing for my mixing station upgrade but I thought I’d snap a few pics of the reef tonight. I will get the dslr out soon and get better shots

fts

Little ASD Rainbow Milli that I’m anxious to watch grow out

RR Orange Passion has started taking off after a slow start

JF Foxflame and Copps 24k Milli

TCK Pikachu frag with PC Rainbow and some Tyree Blue Matrix in the background.

 

[chopper320]

Progress

 

[chopper320]

Got most of the hard plumbing done. Just need to add my hose and auto rewind reel now.

Just have to hope for no leaks now.

forgive the sloppy pvc priming. No matter how hard I try, I can’t stay neat with that stuff.

 

[chopper320]

I’m pretty much finished with my mixing station update. I just need to add a ball valve to the end of the hose so I Can shut the flow off when I’m at my tank.

I ended up scrapping the auto rewind hose reel. I couldn’t get it to rewind properly and after a couple of hours of messing with it, I threw in the towel and will just manually wind the hose up for now.

I have the Panworld Pump plugged into a wifi outlet so I can start it and stop it while I’m at the tank. I think this is going to make life much easier.

Excuse the messy garage. I’ve got to get it all cleaned up as soon as the temp gets back out of the single digits here.

 

[chopper320]

I also wanted to post an update on the tank. I added an orange hammer this weekend. I typically stick to sps but I wanted a little more movement on the bottom right side of my tank. I was trading some frags with someone who had a nice head of this orange hammer so I couldn’t pass it up.

FTS

Here’s a quick video update of the tank with a good shot of the new hammer

 

[chopper320]

I did a little trimming tonight. I’ve started contemplating the idea of removing a few of my colonies to make room for new ones.

I’m pretty much out of space to add more frags right now and I have some corals that I added along the way that aren’t necessarily my favorite.

 

[mdb_talon]

Beautiful tank and coral. Thanks for sharing updates with us. Just let me know if any of that coral needs a new home...Indiana is not that far

 

[chopper320]

Beautiful tank and coral. Thanks for sharing updates with us. Just let me know if any of that coral needs a new home...Indiana is not that far

Thanks!

 

[chopper320]

Did my first water change tonight with the new mixing station and it was so nice just being able to open a couple of valves and pump the new water into the tank.

This was for sure worth the effort and expense. I just wish I could have got the auto hose winder to work but I’d still rather wind up 50 ft of tubing than haul 5 gallon buckets of water.

 

[chopper320]

I tried taking some pics tonight without the lens filter and instead adjusting my lights to be more white for the photos.

 

[chopper320]

Just picked up a 3rd AI Hydra 26HD. Now I just have to figure out a new hanging solution to accommodate 3 lights.

 

[FREAKINRICAN69]

Beautiful setup chief. I love my 80g deep blue setup although mine isn't rimless I'm still tweaking to see if i keep it as a display or grow out for my soon to be setup WB6025 & a 200g after that ones setup and running.

 

[chopper320]

Beautiful setup chief. I love my 80g deep blue setup although mine isn't rimless I'm still tweaking to see if i keep it as a display or grow out for my soon to be setup WB6025 & a 200g after that ones setup and running.

Thanks! The dimensions of the 80 gallon are really nice. I’ll keep a watch out for your new tank setups!

 

[chopper320]

Just a quick update: I’m still waiting on hanging my 3rd Hydra 26HD. I really wanted to use the EXT rails like I have been using but I needed 2 6” rails. These rails have been discontinued but I finally found a place that had 2 in stock. They are black and I needed silver to match the white hydras that I have. I went ahead and ordered them and I’ll just spray paint them when I get them.

Some exciting news is a Battlecorals Bonfire grow out contest starting soon and I got in it. I also took the opportunity to order my first BattleBox so I can’t wait to see what I get. It’s going to be a few weeks before shipping while Adam at Battlecorals let’s the new Bonfire frags heal.

I have no expectations of winning but it will be fun participating and it was a great excuse to place my first order from Battlecorals!

 

[zukihara]

I think the sick part of your aquarium is knowing what some primo photography would really do for the pics.

The huge monti caps are set in beautifully against the other SPS and the entire thing is exactly what I think most noobs like me are shooting for. Congrats to you, sir.