Long Overdue Update:
I lost the itch to do anything with my tank. I got red bugs even after dipping any new corals and lost 95% of SPS to stress and treatment. A/C went out while we were at work during the summer and the house got to 95 tank was around 87. And then after qt’ing all my fish with hypo salinity and leaving tank fallow ich popped up again. It wasn’t an outbreak just a couple spots of it on my powder blue and regal tang. Kinda bummed me out so I just let the tank do it’s thing and just did water changes for most of the year.
Then a month or so ago I got the itch to put some effort and money back into the tank. I had an Apex, supplemental t5 kit with a workhorse 7 ballast that would power 4 39w T5’s and a new pump waiting to be installed sitting on the shelf for around 6 months. SO I finally got around to installing everything. I wanted the T5 retro to look clean and finished so it took a lot of thinking/sketching and rework but it's done and I love the way it turned out.
And now this is where the money comes in. I redid my Dad’s 220 DD sump and plumbing. After seeing how clean it looked I had to do it to my tank. I took advantage of Black Friday sales on T5 bulbs and pulled the trigger (no pun intended) on a trigger emerald 39 after installing the tide line series in my dad's tank. I am going to do a manifold and use the dcs1200 pump to power everything. Then I was randomly on Coral Vue’s page and under their closeouts was a Reef Octopus 200 INT Prime Skimmer brand new for $200. Pulled the trigger quickly and boom I had an upgrade to my NWB150INT I was using previously.
Now on to what every wants to see....
Pictures!
This was the all-day affair at my parent's house completely redoing his system that got me back into the game. I didn't take before photos but it was a mess and he had a small sump and separate refugium in a 20 gal.
Now it was time for Operation peninsula renovation after doing my dad’s sump and plumbing.
First I retrofitted the supplemental T5’s to my canopy.
Next:
I built and glued as many pieces in a modular way outside the stand to minimize tank downtime and allow for majority of glue to cure fully.
Before/Current shot of sump and equipment. It was a mess as I have been selling old parts or temporarily installing reactors knowing my renovation was coming. Just sold my skimmer. Everything was just kind of pieced together at random times and was never thought out or diligently done to look good.
New equipment while I was waiting for all the parts to arrive
Plumbing begins
After looking at it mostly done I caught the drive to get it installed yesterday evening. I was up till about 1 and it's not finished but at least the system is back up and running. It was nice having it modular with only a few pieces to glue once I broke down the old setup. Gotta tie up some loose ends (ATO and Algae scrubber) and clean up wiring. But here's how it sits now.
I am debating getting a bio pellet reactor. I just got the BRS reactor for GFO/Carbon and I am interested to see how it performs as Avast’s Spyglass reactors have caught my eye. I previously had MR1’s which i gave to my Dad to use since he had room in his sump. They were a chore to change media and I liked the space saving BRS reactors offered.
Thanks,
Austin
