Bpb

All good fellas. It'll get itself sorted out. Maybe I'll just do an all softie tank, or fowlr. Not. Water tests for today: 9.1 dKH 550 ppm calcium 1.026 salinity 5 ppm nitrate In other news I can't remember if I had mentioned it, but on the 55 gallon, in order to prepare for metal halides I actually set my heater to run a little warmer up at 81 degrees. Nowadays the larger body of water has the temperature much more stable. I turned down the heater to allow a little wider range of temp through the day so now it bottoms out at 78 degrees, but with the metal halides on, it takes them 2 hours to completely top out at exactly 80.0 degrees every time. One fan kicks on and the temp holds right there so I'm actually running cooler now with the new lighting than I was previously. Good stuff. I get to keep them

Definitely in the correct outlets, I think I just may have said to myself that I need to switch the outlet to off, and not actually done it, or pulled up the app on my phone and done it, but possibly before the app established communication and a timeout occurred which actually happens more often than not. Either way. Fixed now. Hope it comes down soon. What a mess. Was hoping to start pulling some sps over sooner than later seeing that my montipora and birdsnests aren't showing any signs of RTN but looks like I'll have to wait it out a few more weeks. In other news, my purple meridiana, red planet, and Hawkins echinata all RTNd in the tank they are being held in in Houston. So incredibly bummed about it, but it was a risk I willingly took. The guy tried to frag off the healthy tips. We will see how it goes. Looks like over half the tissue perished before it was addressed. Almost makes me wish I hadn't gotten rid of angthing to begin with and just went ahead with it on my own

Heard back again today and she is gonna run the ideas by Nick (BML Co-owner) and see what he suggests. I may consider keeping it as is or just replacing a single cool white with another royal blue. Cara is recommending going with more 470 blues as it will appear visually brighter, but having seen 450 vs 470, I strongly prefer 450 nm as it has a deeper more pleasing color to my eyes, even though it is dimmer. I'm ok with it being a little dim. I don't want moonlight dim, but definitely don't need to compare with my radiums in brightness. That would be overkill. I actually would like a much dimmer look for late night viewing. Awaiting response. Today I discovered problem number two. So a couple days ago I got alk reading in the lower 9 dkh area. I cut my alk pump, so I thought. Tested again today. 11 dkh at around noon. I thought. Hmm...that's odd. Left for Houston. Returned just now. Checked my apex...alk outlet still set to auto. Either I forgot to turn it off or it glitched. I'd believe either. Glad I caught it tonight. I think I'll unplug them physically to be safe. Doh! Hopefully my <900 ppm magnesium level will encourage a bit of precipitation in this high light high ph high flow high oxygenation environment. I knew I kept a bunch of Halimeda alive in my refugium for a reason. Also inspecting the Fuge closely yesterday. Saw some very pretty but very large orange and black striped amphipods scurrying around. I really need a copepod pack though. Petco had a dead bag of tisbe pods. I need to hit up someone with a good healthy refugium.

No sour grapes at all here. Thrilled that the folks at BML finally got back to me. Here's our proposed spectrum for my custom single strip. I want something somewhere between a super actinic and a 20k metal halide clone unit. A definite blue/violet dawn dusk light, perhaps powerful enough to add a little pop while the radiums are on. Just enough white to bring out the reds pinks oranges and yellows, but not enough to drown out the intense pop provide by blue an violet LEDs. Something like a super actinic vho or a giesemann pure actinic bulb. Deep dim blue/violet. The red arrows are 420 nm, Thinking about ditching one or two of the cool whites and adding another royal blue and 420, and just running a single 3000k warm white in each 12" section. Thoughts?

Tested alk this morning before work but didn't have time for a calcium or magnesium test. Alk up to 9.2, from 7.4 in 5 days. It's a significant increase in a short amount of time but nothing Lps and softies can't handle. I've been only running my alk doser program for a few days now for 2 minutes an hour. Surprised at how fast that brought the alk up but I guess with very few sps in the tank it's to be expected. I set the outlet to "off" today instead of "auto" in lieu of today's test. I'll dose up my magnesium if necessary and then let it ride. Next goal is to get my Aquarium Specialty order placed for the LEDs and several other small misc things to make my life easier. Also need to load up on pods because my mandarin is getting hungry. I have no doubt that I have adequate rock mass to sustain him, but definitely need more pods so I'll be hunting for a couple bags of tisbe pods. Also been toiling over a new return pump but am picking up victoly's jaebo DC return pump to power my media reactors and will use my Sicce syncra 3 as the return. It's a silent pump and I want to have my reactor pump pulling water BEFORE the refugium making two pumps preferable. Otherwise I'll be pulling pods from the fuge, running them through the biopellets and skimming them right off. No bueno. That's all for now

Pmd

Thanks victoly. Definitely on Team Radium. Though I'd like to try the Ushio 14k bulbs one of these days as Sanjay and Mike Paletta hail them as the current heavyweight king of acropora growth and color power from a lot of reading I've done. I'd need new ballasts for those though so I'll let these radiums run for another year or two before I consider changing. Manny, I've got the lighting situation figured out and will be ordering my super actinic strip tomorrow 100% definitely. Getting the standard model because the XB one only offers about a 10-15% increase in par which just isn't super necessary I don't think for supplements. The only issue I'm having is there are alarmingly few real world pictures and videos of super actinic strips in use alone, and even fewer used in conjunction with radiums, and none (outside of BML website) with white balance correctly adjusted. Would love to see pics of it but I trust the reputation and reports of how good they are and I like the spectral layout of them so I'm willing to grab one and find out.

Thanks buddy! Was awesome coming home from work to see all it's polyps out rocking back and forth in the wave. Tank is a lot whiter in person than in pics. The pics are actually close to what I'm going for which I think a BML super actinic strip will help provide

As promised...debut pics! It's not much to look at, but this is my base line. Sorry some are blurry. Best I can do with iPhone camera. For some reason I get these weird frequency tracer lines going vertically

That seems like a solid pump. Looking into the eeheim 1262. It's pricey but the reputation is stellar. Eheim seems like one of those brands you can't go wrong with. How's the noise level on your 1260?

So the tank upgrade has gone well, but one immediate complaint is the noise. The hum from the pumps is irritating. I'm using the sicce syncra 3.0 as the reactor pump for the BRS dual reactor and the tlf 150, and a MJ4000 for the main retun. The sicce is fairly quiet, manageable, but this mj is louder than a mag drive. I'm even using the rubber feet and silicone tubing. I'd like to run a single pump to achieve 400 gph or so at 5 foot head, as well as power the reactors. I'm guessing something in the 800-1000 gph range would do it. Considering a syncra 4.0, but curious if anyone has any recommendation for something in similar price or performance range. Interested possibly in a dc pump but don't know much about them. I'd like to stay under $200 if possible and be happy to hear any other things I could try to shut this hum up.

Also. Tests today Salinity 1.026 Temp: 78.5 low, 80.1 high Ph: 7.7 low, 8.1 high Alk: 7.4 dkh Ca: 550 ppm So somewhere along the way in the tank transfer, the alk and high calcium have precipitated which is what I wanted. Now I'm actually dosing alk to bring the calcium down, and once I'm at 8.4 dkh and 420 ppm calcium I'll aim to stay there and start bringing my sps back over. Need to show some discipline and give it a few weeks of running and stabilizing. Need more peppermints. Observing closely under the bright lights today I found 4-5 humongous aiptasia, bigger around than quartets. They had been hiding in out of sight spots and are now revealed. My toadstool hates it's new spot but gonna have to get used to it. Being in a corner is the only option at this point so hopefully it comes around.

Canopy shot with the whole set up in the dark. I'm going to try to give BML a call on the phone tomorrow on a lunch break if I get one and ask to get something built so I can enjoy some morning and night viewing if I'm home. This 3 hour photoperiod to start with is rough lol However, as of today, let there be light. Just a FTS for now. I'll take more detailed shots soon but here it is. Man these radiums are bright!!! Single canopy fan and the temp tops out at 80.1 degrees with ambient room temp at 74 degrees. I think it'll work

Thank you sir! No socks or floss or sponges or mechanical media of any kind. Just the skimmer, bio pellets, and rox 0.8 carbon going. Water was crystal clear as if the tank had been running for years, in under 48 hours. No major ammonia spike or even nitrate. Truth be told I haven't tested phosphates. I reused most of my sand and did not rinse it because I wanted to keep as many pods and as much bacteria as I could. So far so good. The purple cap is starting to fade at the edges and that's ok I expected it. Birds nests look good still though. Toadstool snuck about 1/2 polyp extension out in the dark this morning as well. Can't wait till these halides come on this evening. 6pm-9pm

This was first thing the next morning. Removed all the rock from the brute and got it mostly aquascaped since the water had cleared up. Then with the help of fan use and heater swapping I got the fish water and the tank water both at 80 degrees so I added them over and there is where I stopped. Had to go to Austin. Yesterday I moved around some rocks a but and slapped my T5 onto the tank just so the corals didn't get too hungry. In the evening I moved the side cabinet to the other end and did the wiring, as well as put the canopy up. I'll post pics with the halides on later. Only going to run them for 3 hours and will wait till this evening

These were the pics from day one of the change. Worked on it from about 6pm to 2am. Drained the water and mixed it evenly with the new stuff. Most the rock hung out in a brute can with a powerhead, and any rock with coral, as well as the fish and snails went into the storage tote with heater powerhead and apex probes. It remained in there overnight. So far the only faux pas I made was that I plugged the temp probe into the Ethernet jack, so the temp climbed up to about 83 degrees over night but nobody seems effected since I discovered it. Easy corals for the most part.

Tank fully installed now and aquascaped. I ran my t5s for a day so I could get a good look at everything. Took some tweaking but I think I have the rock and softies mostly in their final locations. I successfully removed every shred of Halimeda I could from the display. Nitrate 5ppm, and ammonia 0 pp, with salinity at 1.026. Good all around. Haven't tested calcium or alk yet. Fish all look good and are cruising around. One thing I'll want to do very soon is potentially beef up the cuc. I see more peppermints, emerald crabs, and maybe an urchin in my future. Snails too For the aquascape, probably 70 % of my old rock went at the bottom in the dark and new rock on top. The scape isn't super artistic. Lots of caves and levels of flat area for sps. No intricate towers or epoxy or drilling. Just a big stack with some shelf areas. Once I get the corals in, you won't see much rock anyway after a while. I got the wiring completed today. I intended to have it be super organized but no matter what I tried, I ended up with a huge rats nest behind the stand but it's out of sight so that's what counts. Hung the halides today so I'll begin running them tomorrow on a short photoperiod. I'll find out quick if they're gonna work from a heat standpoint. If not, I'll consider getting some eballasts which should run cooler, and if that doesn't work, back to t5 I will go. I also sold the vho pack to Dustin pedretti. Just didn't feel like messing with diy wiring. I have a phobia of electronics and fire. Matter of fact, I'm slightly terrified these prefab halides are gonna catch fire. I'll post pics tomorrow. Cannot wait to get my sps back. Tank looks so empty. So much rock.

Oh and for Ty...yes I double checked my salinity. Both the new display, and the holding container are at 1.025. Refractometer calibrated as well as confirmed against Mannys refractometer which was also calibrated. Good to go there...and as I'm only dealing with fish, softies, and Lps for now, dosing pumps disconnected and cleaned with RODI. No need to dose till I start bring my sps back over. I honestly wonder how much sponge death I'll have. My entire sump and skimmer were caked with sponges and my rocks undersides all felt slimy because they were 100% covered in sponge life on the dark sides.

Well I'll give a written report of my progress today. First and foremost, for those who were interested...Manny was too late to witness me consume his IPA. I consumed them yesterday before he even made it over. The Sam Adams IPA is actually a tad lower in alc content from other IPAs, but is actually more bitter. Not a bad option, but sorry Manny, if you wanna get introduced to IPAs, that one's ok, drinkable, but not the best. Tonight for the tank build I decided to go with Dogfishhead 90 minute IPA. Actually havent tried this one, but I'm a fan of craft biers, so I'm happy to report it's just delightful. I'll be going with this one again. Plus I like that it comes in a 4 banger, instead of a six pack. Anyhow, this isnt a beer forum, so I'll move forward I went to houston today to purchase some supplemental lighting. I picked up two Workhorse 7 ballasts, A bunch of wiring, some endcaps and standoffs, and 6 new UVL Super Actinic VHO T12's. Some of you saw the difficulty I've had with one of our custom LED sponsors, unfortunately, and this was a decent deal, $70 total, so I decided to pick it up. Hopefully I'll get my custom LED strip built eventually, but in the mean time, When I feel up to it, I'll try to figure out how to wire these VHOs. It's only appropriate that I go with the gold standard in SPS color and growth lighting combo. Radiums, M80 ballasts, and Super Actinic VHOs. What can I say. I guess I'm a vintage kinda dude. I like old school music and instruments as well. I guess I like old school lighting too. So this has been a more difficult transfer than I expected. I've gotten about 6 hours of sleep in the past 72 hours so when I got home from houston this morning, I crashed and took a 4 hour cat nap. I should have spent that time cleaning my skimmer and return pump, and re-routing my wires and plumbing to prepare for the tank move, but I slept. I brought the last of my SPS corals to save over to a buddy's house here locally. And, ARC member Chaosfyre came and picked up the last of the SPS for sale. So...Going into this transfer, I'm largely SPS free. the only things that are making the transfer are my Bird of Paradise, what's left of my purple montipora cap that was stuck to the huge rock, and some random half dead encrusted bases. I literally got rid of 95% of my SPS coral load, which probably makes up a good 70% overall. Sad to see it all go. Good news is, I have lots of frags in lots of tanks that I intend to collect once things stabilize, in addition to those that I've sold. I also made enough cash in sales to afford probably two BML strips if I can sort things out (which I still hope to). Some of these locals got some spectacular deals. Some folks got frags I'd have paid $75 a piece for, but only charged $10a piece. Desperation has a nice price lowering effect. Glad to make fellow local reefers happy though. So Manny was a huge help in tonights transfer. I appreciate the hand sir...even though you did break the door on my stand. It's repairable though. That loud crack we heard was the wood on that door splitting around the hinges. I may not even fuss with it because it's barely noticeable and doesn't affect the stand's structural integrity. It took forever to get all of the rocks and corals removed and into their containers. The fish and softies are now in a 30 gallon sterilite plastic storage tote, with the apex controlling the temp via temp probe and heater, along with a wp25 providing flow. They could theoretically live indefinitely in that environment I guess. I managed to get the Leopard Wrasse into a measuring cup with sand since the move stressed it out, but a mere 30 minutes after putting together the holding container, she left her sand filled cup and took to cruising around and checking out the temporary digs, and the clown quickly found the RBTA and hasn't left it since. I guess they're happy. My favias and acans all have lots of feeders out too, so I think they're good. The new tank got filled without hiccups, no leaks. Right now I am running my Sicce Syncra 3.0 as the pump to run the biopellets and the BRS dual reactor. I am not running the skimmer for now because I added a bottle of BioSpira to help keep from losing bacteria, I know the pellets like a skimmer running, but at this point I'm trying to prevent them from going anaerobic. I'll replace the carbon and GFO in the morning to clean up the water from the move. It's still very cloudy. I've got all the new rock in there, along with my toadstool, and most the zoas. Toadstool actually has all of it's polyps out and the zoas are all open. Water is insanely cloudy though and I'm hoping it settles here soon. I may wait till morning to add the fish and remainder of softies as I'm getting pretty tired. I've got my MP40 running on reef crest on the highest setting, and a WP25 running on W1 high speed so I'm hoping that will help draw everything down into the sump. I still have about 3 gallons of sand I'm going to rinse and add tomorrow morning, but at this point a scape is pointless. I can't see anything. I'm exhausted, and have been at this for 9 hours now. I'm gonna clean up the house now and go to bed. Pics to follow tomorrow

Tomorrow is the day!!!!! You better hydrate, Manny, and being your IPA drinking face with you lol. Finally happening. My new rock is super ready. In the past week I've thrown three cichlid jumbo pellets and half a frozen shrimp in, testing ammonia daily and never get a reading so I think it's ready. I've got a bottle or bio spira I'll use as well though. Today was easily the most depressing day I've had in the hobby...period. Today, I sold easily 70% of my sps mass. Gone. The entire right side of the tank is anemone and softies only. My dinner plate sized purple montipora cap is now 5" across only. Shattered into about 100 pieces trying to frag it and apologizing to the buyer over an over while it was breaking in tiny pieces instead of big neat ones. He was understanding and looked sadder than I did at seeing such a big healthy specimen fall apart. Completely chopped up an apple sized tricolor valida colony, cut up my 8" tall Cali tort colony, red planet colony gone. Cantaloupe sized raspberry cheesecake gone, 40+ 6" long branches of various stags gone. So sad. Tomorrow is exciting though. I think my Saddness will quickly turn to gladness when I see the new tank running. Gonna burn the midnight oil and clean out the skimmer, return pump, move all the electrical over to the new auxiliary cabinet. Will take lots of pics. Wish me luck!!!

+1 on leopard wrasse if you're skilled enough. They're not for novice hobbyists but are beyond beautiful and they're extremely smart fish. Only concern I'd have is they really need fine grained sand to burrow in and most frag tanks don't have sand. My leopard is perfectly happy and comfortable, eats pellets with the best of them an is fat. But she still burrows in the sand to sleep. Like clockwork every day. 5 min after the lights go out. Same spot too. Right under the prism favia. If they can't burrow they'll get real stressed and may have difficulty eating.

It's true, she speaks the truth. Pm'd

Display Alk: 8.4 dKH @ 1.026 30 gallon Brute: 9.3 dKH @ 1.025 45 gallon Brute: 8.8 dKH @ 1.024 Gah! Take forever!!! Need to homogenize the salinities. One would think that's as easy as just adding salt. No so fast my friend. That'll increase my alk in each mixing container. At this point I have to decide. Continue trying 3-5 gallon water swaps every day on the display with the mixing containers? Will that begin to stress stuff too heavily? Dose a ton of calcium chloride in each mixing container, drawing the calcium way up into the high 400's/low 500's in order to draw alk down? HMMMMM.... This is literally the only thing I'm waiting on now. Supplemental lighting for the halides would be nice, but not essential. After not hearing back from multiple emails with BML, and other strip options being lacking in...well...options/power, I'm thinking about just going with a 2x54 watt LET retrofit and running a couple UVL Super Actinic T5HO bulbs to enrich the lacking violet spectrum in Radiums.

Another generous local reefer (not on ARC unfortunately but has a killer zoa dominated 90), let me borrow two 55 gallon capacity brutes so I'm set for water. Made up an additional 40 gallons so now I have 70 gallons of fresh saltwater cooking. For this batch I made today I opened another box of IO and used it so hopefully it won't be buffered so high. I've been trading 3 gallons a day from my display with my new mixing saltwater and in a week of doing that my display has stayed at 8.4 dKH and the new water has gone from 11 dKH to 9.7 dKH today. Progress. My plan is working. The display is consuming the extra alkalinity little by little without shocking anything. Hopefully all 70 gallons of new water will match the old waters parameters within the next few weeks. Halimeda has become out of hand in my 55 gallon. I'm gonna be putting all the halimeda infested rocks in the display into the sump after cutting off all the corals. I expect this will help me lower my alk and ca dosing by as much as half. No new tank pics but here's a coupl pics from the 55 gallon to show how much it's taken over. The corals are fine this halimeda just grows so fast and I physically can't reach in to prune it in many spots. More good news. The magic number today is ONE. After extensive looking that's how many aiptasia I can find in my 55 gallon. This is a massive victory. I've been actively trying to beat aiptasia with every method I had access to for about two years with nothing but failure. Now I finally got a batch of peppermint shrimp that discovered these tastey treats. 3 peppermint shrimp have decimated my aiptasia population from several hundred, down to one (that I can see) in just a couple weeks. So happy.

I'd go with princess toadstool after browsing a bit