400 Gallon Starfire Build - Mixed Reef

melev · Nov 15, 2013

Do I spy a Christmas Tree is already up in your home? :angel:

flyingfish · Nov 15, 2013

Yeah, Xmas lights up already? They look awesome! Very well done!

AJsTank · Nov 15, 2013

melev said:
Do I spy a Christmas Tree is already up in your home? :angel:

Haha yep. We actually have all 6 of our trees up. It takes us forever to decorate, so we have to start now

monkiboy · Nov 18, 2013

aj, keep us in the loop on the dc10500 pump. one of my two dc10500 failed yesterday @ 3 months of use. thankfully it wasn't the return to the display but the return to the frag and macro tanks. happened in the middle of the night. i think it's the same heater circuit failure on the pump itself that was reported failing in huge numbers on the gen 1 wavelines. mine were both run submersed. i replaced it with a waveline gen 2 dc12000 just to avoid any further issues with the gen 1 or any of the copycats and can swap out the apex-controllable controller when it is released. i hope you don't run into any issues with yours or running them external. jeremy @ coralvue has been easy to work with, though, if something does happen. g'luck and awesome to see christmas decorations up already, haha!

AJsTank · Nov 18, 2013

monkiboy said:
aj, keep us in the loop on the dc10500 pump. one of my two dc10500 failed yesterday @ 3 months of use. thankfully it wasn't the return to the display but the return to the frag and macro tanks. happened in the middle of the night. i think it's the same heater circuit failure on the pump itself that was reported failing in huge numbers on the gen 1 wavelines. mine were both run submersed. i replaced it with a waveline gen 2 dc12000 just to avoid any further issues with the gen 1 or any of the copycats and can swap out the apex-controllable controller when it is released. i hope you don't run into any issues with yours or running them external. jeremy @ coralvue has been easy to work with, though, if something does happen. g'luck and awesome to see christmas decorations up already, haha!

Yeah, he sent me new volutes because I broke the 2 replacements that I paid for. lol

I will keep my eye on them. That's kind of why I did 2 returns. In case 1 goes down...

Rozdab · Nov 18, 2013

The planning you have done and all of your hard work is really showing. Your build is amazing and very clean.

I need one of those apex boards that is very nice.

Keep it up and good luck!!!

Thank you for sharing this with us.

AJsTank · Nov 18, 2013

Rozdab said:
The planning you have done and all of your hard work is really showing. Your build is amazing and very clean.

I need one of those apex boards that is very nice.

Keep it up and good luck!!!

Thank you for sharing this with us.

Thanks man!

rdevoe11 · Nov 19, 2013

I've been lurking on this thread since you first posted and I have to say, your build is incredible. It's builds like these that got me interested in the hobby in the first place. Hopefully one day I'll be able to afford something on this scale, until then I'll stick to my 40b plans lol.

427HISS · Nov 19, 2013

I have a question about the Radion Pro Series. I was listening to Mr. SaltWater Tank" and he has these for his tank and said that their so bright & can burn corals. With his 90g he had them at 60%-70% and if he still had it, he would turn them down to 40%-50%. On his 375g, turned them down to 20%.

Here's his link on youtube-

Mr. Saltwater Tank's Review of EcoTech Marine's Radion Generation 2 and Radion Pro LED Fixtures - YouTube

I'm learning about LED's and would like to know your plans on your wonderful tank ?

AJsTank · Nov 20, 2013

rdevoe11 said:
I've been lurking on this thread since you first posted and I have to say, your build is incredible. It's builds like these that got me interested in the hobby in the first place. Hopefully one day I'll be able to afford something on this scale, until then I'll stick to my 40b plans lol.

Thanks for the compliment. I appreciate it

AJsTank · Nov 20, 2013

427HISS said:
I have a question about the Radion Pro Series. I was listening to Mr. SaltWater Tank" and he has these for his tank and said that their so bright & can burn corals. With his 90g he had them at 60%-70% and if he still had it, he would turn them down to 40%-50%. On his 375g, turned them down to 20%.

Here's his link on youtube-

Mr. Saltwater Tank's Review of EcoTech Marine's Radion Generation 2 and Radion Pro LED Fixtures - YouTube

I'm learning about LED's and would like to know your plans on your wonderful tank ?

Since my tank is 32 deep, I'm going to try running them at 70% right now. I'm going to be doing mostly SPS, so I'll play it by ear and turn them down if I have to.

knights061 · Dec 16, 2013

Any updates or new pictures of the tank?

TheGrimmReefer · Dec 16, 2013

This entire build is incredible. Quite possibly one of the best I've ever seen. Very well organized and executed. Elite Aquatics makes an awesome product. That sump is NICE! Can't wait to see this one fill up.

revhtree · Dec 16, 2013

Yes updates!

AJsTank · Dec 17, 2013

Alright... Little bit of an update here.

It took about 5 weeks before I saw Ammonia. That week, I added about 1/3 of the Bio-Pellets I needed, added a TON of Chaeto to my refugium and started up the reactor and Skimmer. Later on that week I had a huge Diatom bloom. It took about 10 days before Diatoms were gone and then I had a green hair algae bloom. The last 7 days, green hair algae is about 80% gone and for the last 3 weeks, I've been dialing in Alk, Cal and Mag.

Livestock that has been added the last week - Small frags of Green Birds Nest, Green Hammer, Gold Hammer, Oregon Tort, Red Robin, Red Setosa, Reef Tech Cap, Strawberry Lemonade, Ultimate Frag Rainbow. Fish, I got a platinum and Wyoming White to pair up and threw them in, 4 Queen Anthias, 2 Lyretails, 1 Dispar, 1 small Kole Tang and an 11 inch Male Hawaiian Naso with Streamers and 1 sand sifting star fish.

This weekend, I will be adding Carberryi, more Dispar, Reslendent and Randalls to the mix of Anthias - Over the break I will try to throw in some Central Pacific Anthias and Ventralis as well.

I plan on heading up to Rocky Mountain Frags and picking up a bunch of things as well during the break. With all the algae blooms, I've been avoiding pics because I have not really been doing anything except waiting. Will not be adding crabs or snails if I can get away with it.

monkiboy · Dec 17, 2013

wow, that's an update! do you qt and/or treat your livestock, have someone do it for you, or not at all? were did you find resplendents this time of year? i'm trying to round out a harem for my build and have had 0 luck. thanks!