BPB’s 150 gallon

[Bpb]

Long time no update. Sps have settled in and are showing active noticeable growth. Aiptasia have populated to make the tank look like a field of grain flowing in the wind. They’re even sprouting up out of the sand everywhere.

Don’t want to risk future problems with coral predation so peppermints and filefish are out. Looks like I’ll have to break down and try some berghia. I’d wager I have more to keep them fed than most berghia breeders keep so i anticipate growing a sizable colony of them. No new corals added until I get ahead of the aiptasia.

Just staying on top of maintenance. Basic stuff. Kessil cleaning day today. I’ve got it down to about 15-20 minutes for all of them total.

 

[flyfisher2]

Feb 2022 under Kessil Ap9X. Tank was set up in July 2021 with dry rock. I used couple bags of seeded Seachem Matrix in the sump from an established tank. Lighting has been two Kessil AP9X from the get go running on a very white schedule. I've since added two Orphek OR3 blue and just took those down and replaced with 4 T5's (two ATI Blue Plus,1 Actinic,1 Coral Plus).

 

[Bpb]

Feb 2022 under Kessil Ap9X. Tank was set up in July 2021 with dry rock. I used couple bags of seeded Seachem Matrix in the sump from an established tank. Lighting has been two Kessil AP9X from the get go running on a very white schedule. I've since added two Orphek OR3 blue and just took those down and replaced with 4 T5's (two ATI Blue Plus,1 Actinic,1 Coral Plus).

I think you’ll be real happy with that combo with t5’s. If I didn’t already own the reef breeders from a previous build, I’d have absolutely done 4-60” t5ho supplements for this tank

 

[flyfisher2]

I think you’ll be real happy with that combo with t5’s. If I didn’t already own the reef breeders from a previous build, I’d have absolutely done 4-60” t5ho supplements for this tank

Absolutely loving the change and I think the corals are loving it even more so. I'm seeing more polyp extension, good growth, and the browns are coloring up. It's always so difficult to pin anything on any particular change but as it stands I really feel that the T5 bulbs have made a positive difference.

 

[Bpb]

It’s been some time since I’ve given an update.

I’ve been in the throes of the worst aiptasia outbreak anyone has ever had anywhere. I am convinced anyway. Every bit of every surface coated. Even three sand and back glass. This would drive most people to attempt a full reboot. Not me. I am at the 2 month mark since adding about 20 berghia nudibranchs. I see one or two occasionally in the dark. I hope they start working soon. I try to hit the bases of my sps with kalk paste and the majano wand just to keep them from getting too stressed and allow them to continue to encrust.

I’ll give it another few months and if the berghia can’t seem to get ahead, I’ll be forced to try peppermint shrimps. I hate to resort to peppermints because I know their propensity to dine on coral of every kind once they run out of aiptasia, or just because.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is I feel like I’ve hit the growth stride where I left off my previous tank. That alone keeps me from shutting down or rebooting. It was such a journey getting back here I’m running with it. I haven’t purchased any new coral in some time because of the aiptasia issue, but I am ready to.

I have been gradually working my lights in a different direction. Long before the new BRS lighting recommendations of lowering royal blue, I had already been on that wagon. I’ve been reducing my royal blues on the reef breeders, and cranking the violet, light blue, green, and white channels. The white contains royal blue, and increasing those other channels is widening and balancing the blue and violet band all the way up through green better. It has given the tank a truly 10,000k appearance. Very different from a typical led lit tank. It’s been a slow and gradual process. Corals have responded swimmingly. The pictures included are true hue to what the eye sees.

I oddly still don’t have any alkalinity drop. It holds steady with water changes despite my snail growth, acro growth, and coraline algae. I have gotten to the point to where I rarely even test anything anymore though. My kalkwasser reactor is ready to go once the need arises

 

[Manny’s Reef]

Great progress pics. Glad to hear about things getting back to normal.

 

[icedgxe]

It’s been some time since I’ve given an update.

I’ve been in the throes of the worst aiptasia outbreak anyone has ever had anywhere. I am convinced anyway. Every bit of every surface coated. Even three sand and back glass. This would drive most people to attempt a full reboot. Not me. I am at the 2 month mark since adding about 20 berghia nudibranchs. I see one or two occasionally in the dark. I hope they start working soon. I try to hit the bases of my sps with kalk paste and the majano wand just to keep them from getting too stressed and allow them to continue to encrust.

I’ll give it another few months and if the berghia can’t seem to get ahead, I’ll be forced to try peppermint shrimps. I hate to resort to peppermints because I know their propensity to dine on coral of every kind once they run out of aiptasia, or just because.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is I feel like I’ve hit the growth stride where I left off my previous tank. That alone keeps me from shutting down or rebooting. It was such a journey getting back here I’m running with it. I haven’t purchased any new coral in some time because of the aiptasia issue, but I am ready to.

I have been gradually working my lights in a different direction. Long before the new BRS lighting recommendations of lowering royal blue, I had already been on that wagon. I’ve been reducing my royal blues on the reef breeders, and cranking the violet, light blue, green, and white channels. The white contains royal blue, and increasing those other channels is widening and balancing the blue and violet band all the way up through green better. It has given the tank a truly 10,000k appearance. Very different from a typical led lit tank. It’s been a slow and gradual process. Corals have responded swimmingly. The pictures included are true hue to what the eye sees.

I oddly still don’t have any alkalinity drop. It holds steady with water changes despite my snail growth, acro growth, and coraline algae. I have gotten to the point to where I rarely even test anything anymore though. My kalkwasser reactor is ready to go once the need arises

I’m glad to hear the tank is doing better, it looks great!

Do you mind sharing the settings you are running on your Photons? I am thinking of upgrading from 3 old A360we’s to a V2 pro and also prefer a whiter look to the tank.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Any updates?

 

[Bpb]

I’m glad to hear the tank is doing better, it looks great!

Do you mind sharing the settings you are running on your Photons? I am thinking of upgrading from 3 old A360we’s to a V2 pro and also prefer a whiter look to the tank.

So without getting too super scientific, and speaking hypothetically today I can tell you what I’d do if I wasn’t also running kessils.

I would first (and honestly if I had the time and inclination to do so, I would make this change myself, now) take the lenses out completely. Logan from reef breeders has talked for a couple years about an add-on diffuser being in the works and to be released “soon”, but with the reef breeders meridian fixture nearly ready to start shipping, I doubt he’s still working on a diffuser for an older generation and the idea has likely been shelved. I would/need to remove the lenses for better spectrum blending.

Secondly, for my peak daytime photoperiod, I would simply run all channels equal intensity and use a par meter to set those specific levels. If you fall in the “red is evil” camp, that’s probably the only color I would reduce to taste.

For my ramp up and ramp down I have kind of configured a less typical arrangement to try and mimic the color of the old super actinic vho tubes. Where 420-430nm is kind of the dominant spectrum, and there’s a little green in there. A shooting from the hip estimation for that would be
Red: 5%
Green 20%
Royal blue: 30%
White: 0%
Light blue: 30%
Violet: 100%

It’s a very different look than your typical sapphire blue 450nm heavy program that has dominated the hobby for the last 15 years or so. I like it, and the corals seem to like it as well.

Hope that helps

 

[Bpb]

Any updates?

No photographic updates as of now. I hesitate to say the tank is on the back burner, but realistically speaking, it is. I’ve got a special needs adult child we are trying to help through community college at the moment, as well as two elementary age kids in extracurriculars, on top of both my wife and I working full time. I’m sure many of you can relate to the time demands of family life impacting reef focus. Outside of feeding the fish daily and trying to keep the glass clean, I’ve let the tank just do its thing. I try to remember to fill the topoff and carbon dosing bottle but I slip on that occasionally and will find the return sucking air or the bacto balance bottle bone dry. I haven’t been able to get excited about new livestock or coral shop in a while. I find myself talking shop a lot less with friends in the hobby as well. I’m sure most people can relate with hobby interest levels experiencing an ebb and flow.

Down to 6 anthias, One of the females turned male and the previous male wasted away from stress, Same stress situation happened with the chromis and I’m down to one. My royal gramma recently passed from old age, but it was an 8 year old fish, far exceeding its typical lifespan. No cause for concern. Tank is looking scant on fish stock.

The berghia are plugging away at the aiptasia. You’d have to see it daily to tell the difference, but they’ve generally thinned out the population. Not working as fast or dramatically as I’d have hoped starting with 20 of them…perhaps the bristleworms and amphipods are predating on the eggs, as I have heard can happen.

Sps are growing very well. No plans on doing any regular fragging like I used to do on my last tank, until it is necessary. For now I’m just going to let them grow big until they become a problem.

Nutrients have come way up, with phosphate being up in the 0.3 range. I have curtailed testing for the most part and just letting the tank run. I imagine the several fish dying and breaking down have caused the nutrients to climb. Sponge, coraline, and feather duster growth are tremendous. The tank is as lively of a biomass as I’ve ever had which is showing in the coral growth. The acropora are as happy as I’ve seen in my care.

I’ve got some odd alkilinty creep going on, with my last reading being 9.5, up from the usual 7’s and low 8’s on the last testing which was maybe 6 months ago. Not sure what to make of that other than either a bunk meter reaching its end of life, or salt stratification. Either way, just letting it run as is, It’s all very happy so I’m not changing anything. Enjoy the tank, don’t chase measurables.

My skimmer pump broke down again recently. I’ve about had it with this skimmer. Skimmate-production and overall aesthetic-wise it is a work of absolute art when it actually functions…but one design element is an absolute disaster and that is how the pump articulates with the body (screw on, hard wired to controller). Also going to sling some mud here…Tunze has been the most disappointing brand I’ve ever owned in this hobby. Every pump has felt cheap, light weight, and brittle. Not a single electrical tunze device has lasted beyond its warranty period, and while the local rep is by no means rude or unprofessional, they’re not terribly helpful either, with most emails simply ending up as a website redirect to order a replacement at full price. I will never purchase one of their products again, as I’m batting 0 for 4 now on them. 2-6105 powerheads, the 9430 skimmer, and the auto topoff. All the least rugged and cheaply made products I’ve owned (minus the skimmer acrylic work itself which is nice). I’ve had greater reliability out of maxspect, jebao, skimz (all Chinese brands) than the vaunted German engineering of tunze that has been a perpetual letdown. I am not trying to deter others from them, and I know they’re a sponsor and well loved brand. It has been beyond frustrating to own their products personally and as this is an update on my own hobby, I feel entitled to share my opinion.

Due to life being what it is, and the absurdly rising costs of this hobby, I have opted against replacing the pump at all, nor am I going to replace the skimmer. Just going to keep letting the tank run as it is and see what happens. I know many people would consider it patent blasphemy to try to run an sps tank skimmerless and with no refugium. But watch me. Perhaps it will crash and burn, perhaps I’ll change my mind and cave, buying a replacement something. But today. Just have bigger concerns than a skimmer. I’ll see about taking some pictures at some point. May sound like a downer of an update, but this is where we are at today

 

[icedgxe]

So without getting too super scientific, and speaking hypothetically today I can tell you what I’d do if I wasn’t also running kessils.

I would first (and honestly if I had the time and inclination to do so, I would make this change myself, now) take the lenses out completely. Logan from reef breeders has talked for a couple years about an add-on diffuser being in the works and to be released “soon”, but with the reef breeders meridian fixture nearly ready to start shipping, I doubt he’s still working on a diffuser for an older generation and the idea has likely been shelved. I would/need to remove the lenses for better spectrum blending.

Secondly, for my peak daytime photoperiod, I would simply run all channels equal intensity and use a par meter to set those specific levels. If you fall in the “red is evil” camp, that’s probably the only color I would reduce to taste.

For my ramp up and ramp down I have kind of configured a less typical arrangement to try and mimic the color of the old super actinic vho tubes. Where 420-430nm is kind of the dominant spectrum, and there’s a little green in there. A shooting from the hip estimation for that would be
Red: 5%
Green 20%
Royal blue: 30%
White: 0%
Light blue: 30%
Violet: 100%

It’s a very different look than your typical sapphire blue 450nm heavy program that has dominated the hobby for the last 15 years or so. I like it, and the corals seem to like it as well.

Hope that helps

That helps a lot, thank you. Do you think mounting them at 16”-18” off the water surface helps the blending enough? I don’t know how I feel about buying a brand new light and then taking it apart haha. A diffuser sounds nice. I wonder how difficult it would be to DIY something. Coming from halide days, I do lean towards whiter light and don’t have issues with red light necessarily. I prefer a full spectrum over blue heavy lighting.

 

[Bpb]

That helps a lot, thank you. Do you think mounting them at 16”-18” off the water surface helps the blending enough? I don’t know how I feel about buying a brand new light and then taking it apart haha. A diffuser sounds nice. I wonder how difficult it would be to DIY something. Coming from halide days, I do lean towards whiter light and don’t have issues with red light necessarily. I prefer a full spectrum over blue heavy lighting.

Me as well. I crank my whites. People just don't fully understand how LEDs work. I see all over the place on social media and on here that "white light is for looks and not for growth". White leds used in the lions share of reef fixtures ARE blue leds with added phosphors to create white light. By cranking whites you aren't depriving the tank of blues, and I dont understand what people cannot grasp about that (not you, just what I constantly read).

Mounting up at 18" would be absolutely ideal and eliminate any benefit from removing optics. I use the standard mounting legs to get mine 12" off the water. Had I installed the ceiling mounting kit from the get go, I would have absolutely mounted them higher. Look into Adam with @Battlecorals and @therman and their use of the photons. They run theirs full tilt and they do real well. Of course over time the corals tend to get happier and happier with full spectrum. There is an adjustment period for those grown under blue heavy lower par lighting.

 

[dwest]

No photographic updates as of now. I hesitate to say the tank is on the back burner, but realistically speaking, it is. I’ve got a special needs adult child we are trying to help through community college at the moment, as well as two elementary age kids in extracurriculars, on top of both my wife and I working full time. I’m sure many of you can relate to the time demands of family life impacting reef focus. Outside of feeding the fish daily and trying to keep the glass clean, I’ve let the tank just do its thing. I try to remember to fill the topoff and carbon dosing bottle but I slip on that occasionally and will find the return sucking air or the bacto balance bottle bone dry. I haven’t been able to get excited about new livestock or coral shop in a while. I find myself talking shop a lot less with friends in the hobby as well. I’m sure most people can relate with hobby interest levels experiencing an ebb and flow.

Down to 6 anthias, One of the females turned male and the previous male wasted away from stress, Same stress situation happened with the chromis and I’m down to one. My royal gramma recently passed from old age, but it was an 8 year old fish, far exceeding its typical lifespan. No cause for concern. Tank is looking scant on fish stock.

The berghia are plugging away at the aiptasia. You’d have to see it daily to tell the difference, but they’ve generally thinned out the population. Not working as fast or dramatically as I’d have hoped starting with 20 of them…perhaps the bristleworms and amphipods are predating on the eggs, as I have heard can happen.

Sps are growing very well. No plans on doing any regular fragging like I used to do on my last tank, until it is necessary. For now I’m just going to let them grow big until they become a problem.

Nutrients have come way up, with phosphate being up in the 0.3 range. I have curtailed testing for the most part and just letting the tank run. I imagine the several fish dying and breaking down have caused the nutrients to climb. Sponge, coraline, and feather duster growth are tremendous. The tank is as lively of a biomass as I’ve ever had which is showing in the coral growth. The acropora are as happy as I’ve seen in my care.

I’ve got some odd alkilinty creep going on, with my last reading being 9.5, up from the usual 7’s and low 8’s on the last testing which was maybe 6 months ago. Not sure what to make of that other than either a bunk meter reaching its end of life, or salt stratification. Either way, just letting it run as is, It’s all very happy so I’m not changing anything. Enjoy the tank, don’t chase measurables.

My skimmer pump broke down again recently. I’ve about had it with this skimmer. Skimmate-production and overall aesthetic-wise it is a work of absolute art when it actually functions…but one design element is an absolute disaster and that is how the pump articulates with the body (screw on, hard wired to controller). Also going to sling some mud here…Tunze has been the most disappointing brand I’ve ever owned in this hobby. Every pump has felt cheap, light weight, and brittle. Not a single electrical tunze device has lasted beyond its warranty period, and while the local rep is by no means rude or unprofessional, they’re not terribly helpful either, with most emails simply ending up as a website redirect to order a replacement at full price. I will never purchase one of their products again, as I’m batting 0 for 4 now on them. 2-6105 powerheads, the 9430 skimmer, and the auto topoff. All the least rugged and cheaply made products I’ve owned (minus the skimmer acrylic work itself which is nice). I’ve had greater reliability out of maxspect, jebao, skimz (all Chinese brands) than the vaunted German engineering of tunze that has been a perpetual letdown. I am not trying to deter others from them, and I know they’re a sponsor and well loved brand. It has been beyond frustrating to own their products personally and as this is an update on my own hobby, I feel entitled to share my opinion.

Due to life being what it is, and the absurdly rising costs of this hobby, I have opted against replacing the pump at all, nor am I going to replace the skimmer. Just going to keep letting the tank run as it is and see what happens. I know many people would consider it patent blasphemy to try to run an sps tank skimmerless and with no refugium. But watch me. Perhaps it will crash and burn, perhaps I’ll change my mind and cave, buying a replacement something. But today. Just have bigger concerns than a skimmer. I’ll see about taking some pictures at some point. May sound like a downer of an update, but this is where we are at today

Sorry about skimmer. I just got a 9430 this spring and am hoping I have better luck. BTW I can’t keep berghia very long. I’m pretty sure my mp40’s eventually get the adults and very few young survive due to my amphipods.

 

[icedgxe]

Me as well. I crank my whites. People just don't fully understand how LEDs work. I see all over the place on social media and on here that "white light is for looks and not for growth". White leds used in the lions share of reef fixtures ARE blue leds with added phosphors to create white light. By cranking whites you aren't depriving the tank of blues, and I dont understand what people cannot grasp about that (not you, just what I constantly read).

Mounting up at 18" would be absolutely ideal and eliminate any benefit from removing optics. I use the standard mounting legs to get mine 12" off the water. Had I installed the ceiling mounting kit from the get go, I would have absolutely mounted them higher. Look into Adam with @Battlecorals and @therman and their use of the photons. They run theirs full tilt and they do real well. Of course over time the corals tend to get happier and happier with full spectrum. There is an adjustment period for those grown under blue heavy lower par lighting.

You are 100% right. I think people are afraid that white light leads to algae, but it’s not just a spectrum that contributes to that. The natural look just can’t be beat imo.

I’ve spoken to Adam a couple of times about the Reefbreeders. It’s one of the reasons I’m leaning that direction.

 

[Bpb]

Sorry about skimmer. I just got a 9430 this spring and am hoping I have better luck. BTW I can’t keep berghia very long. I’m pretty sure my mp40’s eventually get the adults and very few young survive due to my amphipods.

I loved the skimmer when it works. Really do. The footprint is just perfect, it’s quiet, and produces a lot of skimmate. Better performance than any other I’ve owned. Shame it hasn’t worked out. Just can’t bring myself to keep dumping money into new pumps for it. I’ll likely try to sell it eventually but to do that requires a full sump tear down and removal which is a 3-4 hour job so that won’t be happening any time soon. I just have water circulating through it via my return manifold so it doesn’t get stagnant in there

 

[Bpb]

These were taken shortly before lights out so it’s blue city which I don’t do as often. But despite my best efforts, everything seems to be growing. Major progress over the last couple months.

This is actually under my experimental blue programming on my reef breeders panels in an effort to get closer to actual actinic tube spectrum.

Violet cranked 100%
Royal blue 30%
Light blue 35%
Green 30%
Red 5%

Quite different from your typical all royal blue nothing else thing that has been so popular

Yes the aiptasia are there. Berghia are slower to control them than expected. I haven’t bought any coral in over a year. Hard to invest in coral when the tank is doing what it’s doing with aiptasia and equipment breaking down left and right.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

These were taken shortly before lights out so it’s blue city which I don’t do as often. But despite my best efforts, everything seems to be growing. Major progress over the last couple months.

This is actually under my experimental blue programming on my reef breeders panels in an effort to get closer to actual actinic tube spectrum.

Violet cranked 100%
Royal blue 30%
Light blue 35%
Green 30%
Red 5%

Quite different from your typical all royal blue nothing else thing that has been so popular

Yes the aiptasia are there. Berghia are slower to control them than expected. I haven’t bought any coral in over a year. Hard to invest in coral when the tank is doing what it’s doing with aiptasia and equipment breaking down left and right.

Coral is looking great!

 

[Bpb]

Ignore the aiptasia as usual. Or don’t. I always like seeing how sps corals change under different lighting. I run white heavy lighting. My kessils are on 100% color setting and my greens and reds are up at 75%. My reef breeders greens are up at 50%, whites at 25%, and royal blues at only 18%.

Conventional wisdom says that will brown out everything and be horrid for color development. The tank has somewhere between a 6500k and 10000k appearance to the naked eye. Just how I like it. Very reminiscent of my old XM10,000k overdriven on m80 ballasts.

Point being. Put them under blues and the color is absolutely there. They just look natural under the daylight.

 

[Bpb]

Im at about the 4 month approximate mark since removing my protein skimmer. Nothing took an immediate hit, and now 1/3 year into the “experiment” I still don’t see much difference at all. PH is unchanged. No explosion of nuisance algae. Phosphate kind of spiked and got up to 0.34, but I let it happen and I’ve basically seen no impact whatsoever. I scrub the glass with the magnet once every 3 days or so.

I installed a Neptune gro fixture and have tumbling ball of chaeto going now. This method actually appears to be the lowest maintenance of them all. Po4 in 2 weeks fell from 0.34 to 0.3. That’s still pretty close to rounding error range of the kit so I don’t put that much stock into that absolute number. Corals still growing and happy all around.

Finally seeing more berghia than I started with when I check in the dark. They’re not eradicating the aiptasia but they’re creating large bald spots where colonies once were. They move on and the aiptasia refresh where they were cleared. Might be the bristleworms or amphipods eating the eggs and preventing a population explosion of berghia. Because I DO find their egg clutches all over constantly. They’re in there and they are breeding. I only ever see the massive ones though.

Pics under full daylight spectrum. Left the pumps on so there is some obvious shimmer in the images

 

[Manny’s Reef]

You’re inspiring me to update my thread.