Bipolarbear's new kitchen (with 225gal peninsula)

Bipolarbear · Oct 12, 2022

The next change I have made is to add a grow out rack for frags as I always hated the look of having a frag rack in the display.

I have also hooked up a GFO reactor and have been running it on occasion if I see my phosphate number climbing. I decided to just let it sit in the sump to make it easy to change and not splash water everywhere.

Bipolarbear · Oct 12, 2022

The final piece of equipment I decided to change was to simplify my algae scrubber and use a plastic container from Target with 2 LED grow lights instead of some leftover lights I was using with the glass fish tank. The results have been great and I usually harvest once a week.

Bipolarbear · Oct 12, 2022

And just for some fun here is a recent video of feeding time.

Sltloser · Oct 12, 2022

Looks like lots of positive changes recently, I'm happy to see it's all working so well for you. I've always wanted to do an aquarium with solar tubes, I'd be curious what the PAR looks like throughout the day.

I used to have a pair of genicanthus melanospilos in my 180, they're some of the best angels for a reef tank in my opinion!

Bipolarbear · Oct 12, 2022

Another feeding time

ShepherdReefer · Oct 13, 2022

Great job; any updated pictures?

Bipolarbear · Oct 13, 2022

As requested!

Smite · Dec 19, 2023

How is this tank fairing now? I'm considering going solar tubes now that most of my favorite MH gear is no longer available. Amazing build, looks great!

Edit
Also, what brand solar tubes did you end up going with? Have you done much PAR measurements with them?

Gumbies R Us · Dec 19, 2023

Curious about updates as well!

Bipolarbear · Dec 19, 2023

So here is an updated picture:

The obvious updates are I built a frag rack wall out of tank dividers and magnets and added a clam that was on sale for black Friday.

Over the summer the tank went through a STN event with a swing in ALK after my calc reactor crept the numbers up too far. Put some controls into place to prevent it happening again but I had to frag 3 or 4 acro colonies in an attempt to save them. Most of the acro frags on the wall rack are from that.

I was also able to beat a nasty case of bubble algae during this time. I was depressed about the STN happening and hated the bubble algae so I made the decision to go extreme and went with API Algae Fix figuring that if I lost any acros it was best to do it now.

The great news was that a single bottle of 16oz bottle of Algae Fix dosed over 6 weeks wiped out all the bubble algae and I was able to save all my acros from both the STN event and the chems by fragging.

Finally in October I was in a bad bicycle accident and spent 4 days in the ICU. During that time and for a few weeks after my feeding was reduced to once a day. I think due to the reduced feedings the Powder Blue Tang got aggressive and so I put him on a time out for a month in the sump. While he was in there I shifted the rocks around to make space for the clam and in hopes that he would think it was a different tank. Again we got good news and after we put him back in the tank his aggression subsided. I'm back to feeding 3 times a day now with no aggression from any of them.

Bipolarbear · Dec 19, 2023

Smite said:
How is this tank fairing now? I'm considering going solar tubes now that most of my favorite MH gear is no longer available. Amazing build, looks great!

Edit
Also, what brand solar tubes did you end up going with? Have you done much PAR measurements with them?

These are the brand tubes I'm using. I haven't had a chance to measure PAR.

Solatube Tubular Skylights - Add Natural Light To Your Home

Bring natural lighting into your home with Solatube Tubular Skylights, the world leader in tubular skylights.

solatube.com

Bipolarbear · Dec 19, 2023

Here is a shot of the end of tank I took today

RJT · Dec 19, 2023

Incredible journey. Thank you for sharing. Tank looks incredible, really like the aquascape.

Gumbies R Us · Dec 20, 2023

Bipolarbear said:
Here is a shot of the end of tank I took today

Tank is looking great!

Bipolarbear · Dec 20, 2023

And this is why I spent time in the hospital:

Bipolarbear · Dec 20, 2023

While riding my bike out near Folsom lake a deer jumped in front of me last second and stopped. Went flying over my handlebars and the deer breaking my clavicle and fracturing 3 ribs.

Smite · Dec 20, 2023

I'm so sorry to hear that! That's a nasty break.

Even with the hiccups over the summer the tank is looking great. I'll be tagging along.

I appreciate the links to the solar tubes!

Bipolarbear · Dec 20, 2023

Bipolarbear · Feb 2, 2024

So I decided to pick up an Orphek Osix over the break and it's been a game changer visually. The ability to gradually increase the light in the morning, decrease it at night and the moonlight mode are really impressive. I no longer get a jump from the fish when the lights go completely to 100%.

The buying process on these units are a bit weird though. Right now it seems like you have to purchase them directly from Orphek. What they don't really make clear is that some of the bars are not compatible out of the box with a unit and that you have to purchase a specific unit to match the size bars you have. The OR3 90 or OR3 150 are NOT compatible, but I don't know if that means you have to purchase a replacement or if there is some fix you can make by taking the light apart. I have the OR3 120's and so I needed an Osix 120.

They also don't advertise the price of just the Osix unit. Mine was $320 which I was told is half off for the holidays.

I ended up using their web form to contact a sales person and after a few days of back and forth with my questions I was able to get one ordered and shipped in 3 days which was surprising as it had to go through customs.

If anyone has any other questions about the unit please ask as there isn't much info out there about them and the online info Orphek provides is a bit vague and hard to put together.

Bipolarbear · Feb 8, 2024

So over the last year I have been battling a single aiptasia that was under some rock in a cave that was hard to reach. I had been mixing up kalk paste and trying to inject it into the mouth. Either due to bad visibility and missing the mouth or just the stubbornness of these stupid critters it kept reappearing each time after a couple of weeks. The last few months though I noticed more aiptasia appearing across the tank, roughly a dozen. Every time I killed a few with kalk paste I'd notice another 4 or 5.

So I decided to pull the trigger on some bergia as I had been hearing great things about them. I purchased a dozen from a local reefer and placed 6 on one side of the tank and the remaining 6 on the opposite side.

At first I was concerned that my wrasses might have eaten them as after I added them to the tank I never saw them again. The good news is though that every morning I see one less aptasia. I'm currently down to only one aptasia that I can see.

I will for sure use bergia the next time I start seeing these things crop up in a tank. It's an easy solution with no down sides except the cost.