125 FOWLR take 2

[huma-huma]

Learning lesson for the day- my light fixture has 4 ballasts, and it helps to plug them in correctly after removing them for cleaning. Apparently i didnt plug the ballast in right, resulting in the faulty socket. Problem fixed.

 

[huma-huma]

quick update. corals are in the dt and have adjusted rather well. the green acro isn't coloring up during the day so im slowly adjusting it to see what reactions I get. 1 of the 2 bulbs I ordered is pulsing really bad so I emailed marinedepot to get it replaced. other than that tank is doing great! super anxious to get some warm color into the tank

 

[huma-huma]

had my buddy stop over today to check my placement of the coral frags. says that they are all doing good except the chalice. seems I had it a bit too high and it bleached a lil bit. needless to say I moved it down away from the lighting so hopefully itll recover. now if only I can get them to spread onto their rock bases.

 

[Sniperhank]

Once it's happy it will spread. Just be patient with it. They grow slower than montis from what I have been told.

 

[huma-huma]

How big you think itll get?

 

[Sniperhank]

Big as it can in the tank!

 

[huma-huma]

this is a pretty big tank.. guess I can look forward to a decentl sized coral lol. well since im completely obsessed with my sw tank, I decided to spend 4 hours last night just brainstorming and trying to get things figured out for my near future gameplan. ultimately, between now and January, theres the following list of stuff im going to buy. the exact order and time I buy each item has not been determined yet.
JBJ auto top off- $99 (need pump)
WP40- $85
ANS- $99
Taos- $400
Hanna checkers- $99 each
GFO reactor(? necessary for LPS?)- $59 w/o pump
$89 w/ pump
1g BRS GFO- $62
50 lbs. BRS reef saver rock- $125
Apex Lite-$370 + add-ons.

IF the GFO reactor will help with our coral venture, then id suppose it will be the first piece to go in. (I kinda want to just wait till January and order everything at once lol) but I REALLY want to go DIY with the reactor. I thought that this last round of upgrades were going to take care of the majority of the expensive items but WOW. after researching and figuring everything out, I realized I got ALOT of stuff to buy still...fun times

 

[Sniperhank]

Get an aqua lifter to go with your Jbj ato. I use it with great success and it's cheap.

Where are you seeing Hana checkers for 100? I could have sworn they were 50ish on brs...

In terms of gfo, it depends on your phosphate levels. I have to run media for phosphate or I'd have an algae tank...and I still have more than I want. I hated trying to get the gfo to tumble right, so I switched to phosguard and like it so far. Ran out of reagent to check phosphate so I can't really compare too well... Just like the ease of use.

 

[carey]

Yep, hanna checkers are only about $50 eac, and I would stay away from the calcium one, very inaccurate and a pain to do, I actually had one and returned it to BRS. lol

And yep, I used to use an aqualifter pump for my ato and it worked fine.

 

[huma-huma]

Yeah idk what i was thinkin when i typed that. Thank you for the input i think i may try to use my old protein skimmer cylinder to make a diy reactor. Not 100% sure. Who knows. I had a new job opportunity come up unexpectedly so the tank is going to be in a holding pattern til i figure that out. Also, the niger trigger has been hiding for 3 days, he still comes out to eat and looks extremely healthy....already decided if we lose him, we are going full reef and leaving the non reef fish behind.

 

[huma-huma]

alright, what can I say? it truly is an obsession (I personally blame Marine Depot for this specific incident) I got up yesterday and checked the mail....only to find a 143 pg Marine Depot brochure. after a gentle viewing, I landed on the controllers section. ive decided I am going to go with the apex lite unit, which will come with a standard temp probe, base unit (brains), display unit, and the energy 8 power strip. at first glance I seen 2 issues with that. first being theres no pH probe included. secondly, once I switch to leds, even if I double up on the plugs, ill still be using 3 plugs (3 units, 2 plugs each, 6 plugs total) take into account my 2 ph, skimmer, sump light, return pump, 2 heaters, im looking at 9 outlets. normally id say that's not an issue but Im not running any reactors, dosers, or really anything to dose or sustain the tank. so im going with a lab grade pH probe and a secondary energy 8 bar. so now the ouch part, the base Apex lite unit is $369.99, add in the secondary energy8 bar ($160), VDM module ($118), and lab grade pH probe ($70) and im looking at $718 without tax......wow.thats gonna take some explaining. that's not even taking into account that I want to add the apex auto feeder and leak detection modules. ill prob start off without the vdm because im going to mod the Tao fixtures to sync with the apex unit.
now that I got this all down, im of to bed

 

[huma-huma]

did a 25g pwc earlier. trates were creeping up between 30-40 on the bi-weekly water changes so I decided to switch to weekly for a bit to see what happens. also cleaned the glass, overflows, blew off the rock work. cleaned the filter sock, and emptied the protein skimmer cup. I must admite that im not content with my tank at this point. I feel like its come along way since I first bought the setup, however being that I spend just about every night combing through youtube/marine depot/ etc looking at fish stuff, ive realized that I still have a LONG way to go before my tank is finished. lighting upgrade and apex unit are my priorities, but my next big upgrade date isn't till mid-January so im just going to take my time and fine tune it for now, hoping my coral frags start to spread onto their base rocks. atleast I can take comfort in knowing that when the time comes, ill be eyeballs deep in fish equipment again!!

 

[Sniperhank]

That is always the hard part. Stopping yourself from just splurging on the tank. There is always something else or new you can add or try out. Just take it a step at a time and it'll be good. I don't watch videos of tanks anymore unless I'm looking for how a specific piece of livestock is supposed to act. My tank is far from pristine or a ulns and it won't be anytime soon.

 

[huma-huma]

That is always the hard part. Stopping yourself from just splurging on the tank. There is always something else or new you can add or try out. Just take it a step at a time and it'll be good. I don't watch videos of tanks anymore unless I'm looking for how a specific piece of livestock is supposed to act. My tank is far from pristine or a ulns and it won't be anytime soon.

it just sucks in all honesty. I don't feel as though my tank reflects my knowledge and love of the marine world. of course I want to have an LPS-packed tank that's brimming with color, but its hard to accept that there are steps that you must climb, one at a time, to get there.

 

[huma-huma]

just had an entertaining thought, once I have the apex and led lighting installed (and modded to be controlled via Apex) im going to pick up a used Ipad, prob the first or second gen. this will be strictly for controlling the Apex and also running my Aquaplanner app for both tanks. lol I don't know why but it made me chuckle at the thought of picking up an ipad to control the tank.
as for the current activities, I am prob going to take the DT light fixture over to the grandparents to see if we cant replace the burnt out moonlight led. don't know if its easy or not but whatever.

 

[Sniperhank]

Lol I've thought about that too. Mainly because I have an awful laptop currently controlling my radions that takes an hour to boot up. Don't even think about how long it takes to update the radion firmware or light schedule.

 

[carey]

hehe I bought a netbook just for my controller. lol Too bad the controller is shot for now so I have a useless netbook now. It does play warcraft at least, so if my desktop crashes and the laptop i always have the netbook. Boy, can I rationalize a purchase huh? lol

 

[Sniperhank]

SoO isn't that interesting that it needed a new laptop for it...does that help carey? Lol. But I am really looking forward to seeing how the new wireless radion router works out. If it is as effective as I think it will be I need to start saving my pennies...

 

[carey]

sigh, I wish I had a larger fish budget but I am so broke its not even funny. :-(

I would love to have all those bells and whistles but I have to stick with basic stuff. But watch out world if I ever come into money, they'll be no stopping me then! LOL

Florida does not pay very well at all, and my experience with work has always been wall street investments so with no finance district down here i am screwed....

 

[huma-huma]

idk I really don't need the extra features like thunderstorms and cloud covers, but I do plan (at some point down the road) on switching over to mp40's and being that ecotech is releasing the reeflink, I would be able to synch the powerheads with the lights, and control everything through the apex. also I AM getting the apex, so if I go the Chinese led route, id have to open them up and replace the drivers, therefore voiding the warranty. I don't mind voiding warranties but I don't trust the Chinese brands enough to spend $400+ dollars on them and void the warranty. another benefit to the radions is that when we upgrade the tank in a few years, I can simply buy 2-3 more radions and connect them, bam done. hate spending $1,000 on lighting alone but its looking like im leaning that way