Rob's Really Rad 180 Reef Rally

[RobB'z Reef]

Decided to do a road trip on Saturday to new Wave Aquaria in mpls since the old lady had to work (oops). Brought home a hippo Tang that I have sitting in one of my quarantine tanks now and two Starcki Damsels that I'm super excited about! Those I did not quarantine as they went completely through their QT process and we're not in general population there in the display tanks for sale but in a coral/fish grow out system in the back and during a tour the owner mentioned them and I snapped them up. I've always had Damsels in the past and had good luck with them. I know they have an aggressive reputation and are considered a lower quality find but these specimens are amazing and she had a fully mature one in a display tank and I thought it was just amazing! Besides, this genre is supposed to be far less aggressive. I guess time will tell. So far zero aggression between them and the two clowns so far!

I need to think about a modest clean up crew next and a true algae grazing fish. I don't think the hippos are as good as some others for that purpose.

Without filters to remove blue below...

 

[RobB'z Reef]

After a week with my Apex I thought I would also mention I'm super happy with having gone with dimmable T5's! I love the control and ramping up and down to simulate rising and setting. This is exactly what I was envisioning and it's working out perfectly! Not ideal due to the fact that I have a 6' tank and it requires two 3' fixtures but I can make this work in the long run with the right hood.

 

[Reef370]

After a week with my Apex I though I would also mention I'm super happy with having gone with dimmable T5's! I love the control and ramping up and down to simulate rising and setting. This is exactly what I was envisioning and it's working out perfectly! Not ideal due to the fact that I have a 6' tank and it requires two 3' fixtures but I can make this work in the long run with the right hood.

Does a video come with this?? Asking for a friend!!

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Does a video come with this?? Asking for a friend!!

not sure if you're serious or not... I could do a time lapse of the ramp up and down but other than that, there isn't much to see. I don't have my Apex gear mounted in an organized fashion just yet as I'm still thinking about how I want to approach it.

 

[Reef370]

not sure if you're serious or not... I could do a time lapse of the ramp up and down but other than that, there isn't much to see. I don't have my Apex gear mounted in an organized fashion just yet as I'm still thinking about how I want to approach it.

We want to follow your journey, seeing it just makes it that much better.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

We want to follow your journey, seeing it just makes it that much better.

aight... I'll see what I can cook up.

 

[Paulie069]

What size sump are you running with your tank

 

[RobB'z Reef]

What size sump are you running with your tank

it measures 60"x18"x18" (basically 2" wider than the Bashea SS-60 series).

 

[Paulie069]

it measures 60"x18"x18" (basically 2" wider than the Bashea SS-60 series).

How many gallons is it (sump)

 

[RobB'z Reef]

It could technically hold over 80 gallons if completely filled. 60 x 18 x 18 = 19,440ci/231 = 84 gallons. But nobody runs that way. I estimate at operating levels there is around 50 gallons in there.

 

[Paulie069]

It could technically hold over 80 gallons if completely filled. 60 x 18 x 18 = 19,440ci/231 = 84 gallons. But nobody runs that way. I estimate at operating levels there is around 50 gallons in there.

Thank you that info helps

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Thank you that info helps

You're very welcome!

 

[RobB'z Reef]

I made a short video showing how the dimmable T5's from Aquatic life work in conjunction with the Apex after @Reef370 threw down the gauntlet lol. So I decided to have a little fun with it. When implementing this I learned quickly that dimmable ballasts mean just that... a range between low and max power, not on and off! So that being said you can ramp these up to their maximum power and then down to a minimal power but they will always be on. You cannot shut them completely off through the 0-10v channel. This is a design limitation of dimmable ballasts, it's not an Apex thing.

You can compensate for this by shutting off the outlet on your Apex power bar at the start and stop of your light schedule. It's a bit annoying, but how often are you gonna jerk around your light schedules? Not often I hope, but if you do, that's on you haha. This approach has been working very well so far and I love it! So the video to follow shows a start time of 10am power on at zero % to a ramp up to 100% at 12pm. Then at 6pm 100%, there's a ramp down to zero at 8pm. I'm not completely set on this schedule yet as I only have a few fish and I'm sure they could give a rats butt to what the light schedule is but when I get corals I likely will adjust this for their needs. I found the lights to ramp up and down quite smoothly and you could fine tune this even further with a PAR meter if you were seeking a particular output when used alone or with other lights. Super happy with my choice to take a chance on this configuration so far considering I had to use two separate fixtures to cover my tank as they don't make an 80watt dimmable ballast. Hopefully someone out there finds this helpful that's considering dimmable vs non-dimmable T5's. Because I didn't want to invest the time to clip and edit more than I already did, feel free to skip through the middle and jump to the 3/4 mark to view the ramp down unless you want to find the Easter egg.

 

[Reef370]

So after reading your short essay, and with great anticipation on watching the video...... nothing!!!!

The video would not play for me, am I the only one who can’t watch it ? Maybe I have the age restriction button on?? Lol hahaha

 

[RobB'z Reef]

So after reading your short essay, and with great anticipation on watching the video...... nothing!!!!

The video would not play for me, am I the only one who can’t watch it ? Maybe I have the age restriction button on?? Lol hahaha

hmmm... odd, I'm aware of how the age restriction works, that shouldn't be it, I always use the same settings there. Just the standard link from youtube i always do. Maybe the interwebs hate you today?

 

[revhtree]

I can see the video! Nice job!

 

[MERKEY]

Not sure how I missed this one but holy cow what an amazing build thread!

Great planning amd execution with everything. I love the process and documentation of it all.

The videos are great thank you for sharing those. I am definitely following to see what you add next and to see this baby filled up!

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Not sure how I missed this one but holy cow what an amazing build thread!

Great planning amd execution with everything. I love the process and documentation of it all.

The videos are great thank you for sharing those. I am definitely following to see what you add next and to see this baby filled up!

Thank you so much! This is a huge learning process for me, and while I've had a tank before almost 15 years ago, so much has changed and this type of setup is far more than I had my first go around. I wanted to share as much as I could in the hopes that others looking to start out or do similar things could see it first hand while having a bit of fun and not being too serious so the time lol.
Sincerely appreciate you taking the time to view this and I welcome feedback on what I'm doing right and what I could do better. I'm still learning! This is a lot of fun.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Newest member (hippo Tang), I got him at the same time as the starkcki's but I kept him in observation in a qt tank as it came from a different area in new waves system. Even though it went thru their process I still wanted to make sure nothing popped up as things typically do during the stress of moving from store to home. But he/she's been a strong eater and active swimmer for the past week so in we go! Please don't screw me over New Wave lol

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I've been using a pixel 3 for these photos. I love the camera on this thing, but like most, it's ill equipped to deal with the blue spectrum.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

So after reading your short essay, and with great anticipation on watching the video...... nothing!!!!

The video would not play for me, am I the only one who can’t watch it ? Maybe I have the age restriction button on?? Lol hahaha

The irony of this is not lost on me and is quite frankly funny as hell lol