Ben A

Added a 10 gallon clownfish breeding tank to my system. The female is a Bali Aquarich Helmet Onyx Picasso, the male is a Bali Aquarich Onyx Picasso. Female: Pair:

With a 6 Bulb T5 setup, adding MH is overkill IMO. I run an 8 bulb over my 120 and actually keep two of the bulbs off. I added a actinic reefbrite to give the corals some pop but that's it. The nice thing about a multi-bulb t5 fixture is you can really control the light spectrum with your choice of bulbs. I have a lot of LPS and zoas, so I run almost all blue spectrum bulbs and a very small amount of red. With MH, your options are much more limited. If you feel like you really need that extra lighting then id do the 6 T5s with one 250W MH. A 150w wont be enough to cover the entire tank and a 400w would be way to much IMO. Most MH with T5 accent setups Ive seen just have the T5 for Actinics, which LEDS are better at, so if you go with MH as your main lighting, Id get a XHO reefbrite to supplement the MHs.

PM Sent black and purple tangs

They are just basic LED lamp bulbs from Home Depot, I believe they are 60 watt replacements

Skimmer is really well made and works really well. Very easy to clean, the cone body is detachable from the base making it easy to clean the body and get access to the pump. The screws attaching the body to the plate are titanium, and the air intake has its own control. My only complaint is that when it is brand new, it can be a little difficult to remove and reattach the skimmer cup because the tolerances are so tight. Once you do it a couple times though, it smooths out nicely.

So last July my wife and I moved out of our 900 sqft condo in Oakton, into a single family home out in Warrenton, VA. Needless to say moving the 120 gallon display and all the corals/fish pictured below was not easy. The move required me to empty the tank into a Rubbermaid, move the tank to my parents house, set it back up only to find that moving it cause the tank to spring a slow leak, re-empty the display into the Rubbermaid, move the Rubbermaid with all fish/coral into my new house in one day, and find a new tank to replace my old 120. All of this while trying to close on the sale of our condo, close on the purchase of our new house, and moving everything else we owned into our new place. Surprisingly after all the moving, I only lost 2 fish in the entire process. Both of which were wrasses that managed to jump out of the Rubbermaid in the process of all the moving. Not sure how many corals I lost, the ones I can say for sure that I lost were my gold torch, orange monticap, purple monticap, and button coral. So once we settled on the condo and purchase of our new home, I started looking for a new tank. Lucky for me, YHSublime decided he didn't want his DSA105 setup anymore, so I jumped at the opportunity. I purchased the tank and stand from him and with the help of epleeds, moved it into my new house. The new tank went into the finished portion of our new basement, and thankfully, I had a large unfinished portion on the opposite side of the wall. THis allowed me to plumb my filtration threw the wall, giving the entire system a cleaner look, and allowing me to increase the size of my filtration system without any complaints from the wife about looks/noise. So, this is the start of my new build thread. Tank: DSA 105 Sump: ADHI Acrylic 36" sump Refugium: 150 gallon stock tank Equipment: Neptune APEX (WXM Module, B/O Box) ATI 8 Bulb 48" SunPower T5 (3 Blue+, 3 Coral+, 2 Attinic) Two MP40wES Vortechs 48" Reefbrite XHO (Blue) Quantum NYOS 160 Eheim Return Pump Apex controlled ATO Jager 300 Watt Heater FINNEX 800 Watt Heating Element AquaFX Media Reactor 3 Home Depot Reflectors with LED Bulbs (Refugium) Fish: Yellow Tang Flame Angel Gold Nugget x Gold Flake maroon pair Bali Aquarich Onyx Picasso x ORA Onyx Picasso Pair 2x Lyretail Anthias Blue Chromis Flame Hawk Anemones: Red Carpet Purple Long Tentacle Rose Bubble Tip Corals: 2 x Ausi Elegance Splatter Hammer Branching Hammer Duncan Torch Lots of different zoas/palys Blue Ridge Coral Total System Volume = 235 Gallons of water (290 gallon capacity) Display: Filtration: You cant see it in the photo, but the sump drains into the 150 gallon refugium to the left. The emergency drain on the main display drains directly into the refugium so that it doesn't overflow the sump. Gold Nugget x Gold Flake Pair Current Issue -Bubble Algae, lost all my emerald crabs during the move and waited to long to get new ones in the tank. So now I will be fighting bubble algae for a while -Hair algae, lost to much of my clean up crew during the move and waited to long to replenish. My refugium is just getting going, andI don't have enough macro algae to really help me fight the algae in my tank yet. So between adding clean up crew, my refugium macro algae catching up, and running GFO, its only a matter of time before I get these issues under control. I have plenty of other photos on my phone that are to big to upload to the forum. So once I get those on Photobucket, I'll link them to this thread. Future Changes: I will be adding a clownfish breeding system consisting of one 10 gallon breeding tank and one 20 gallon grow out tank. This is a new venture for me in the hobby so it will be interesting to see how it goes. This will not be a large scale breeding system, it will only consist of 2 pairs of clowns at most and will only be starting out with a single pair. I have an order of fish currently being filled by ERC. Fish I will be adding are: -Burgessi Butterfly -Mystery Wrasse -Yellow Corris Wrase -Couple Blue Chromis -2 Female Lyretails My Maroon Pair is starting to get a little bullish towards the Onyx Picasso Pair. Once I have the breeding tank set up, I will probably move them into it with a divider between them and the pair that I will be breeding. There is a good chance I try to find a new home for the male and find a new Bali Onyx Picasso to pair with the female. I've also considered moving the maroon pair into the breeding system instead, but they are just so beautiful hosting their RBTA in the front of my tank.

Also, the APEX is a piece of equipment that will grow with your tank. You can move it to any size system and add things like salinity monitoring, water on the floor sensors, and who knows what else they will add in the future.

Get a foam MP wet side cover on that right vortech before that bubble tip ends up in small pieces all over your tank and nukes your beautiful tank. Such a cheap item that can save you hundreds. Also, get a tunze Osmolater Nano, more than worth the money and one of the most reliable ATO systems on the market. You haven't skimped on this setup, so I would suggest you not skimp on the ATO, especially with such a small system that really needs to stay stable. For cheap filter socks, check out McMastercar.com and search filter sock. You can get a huge variety of different sizes and micron filter sizes, and bulk discounts. Also highly recommend an APEX. Can control the entire tank. You can also get a WXM module and control all your vortechs and Radions. It was also give you a better idea of PH swings, and nothing ruins a setup like a heater that gets stuck in the on position. An APEX will make it so that even if that happens, you can still use the heater because it will automatically turn the heater on and off. Not to mention you can control, and monitor your tank from your computer of cell phone. Plus, APEX units hold there value really well because they are so popular and reliable.

And while it is true things can be overpriced in this hobby, have u ever known a $150 piece of equipment to work as well as a $1000 piece of equipment? Has that really ever been true for anything in your life? Yeah maybe a $300 skimmer works as well as a $400 skimmer, but not all skimmers are equal. I mean, why get an expensive Nikon camera when you can use a disposable camera, they both take pictures?

It's worth it. I've had SRO cone skimmers, beckets, vertex, and this. The price is the build quality ANDY consistency. If your not going to run a becket, NYOS is one of the best. They don't charge more for the H-E-double hockey sticks of it, they charge more for better materials, meaning more reliable and longer lasting, and more precise cuts and shapes, giving u the consistency.

Or 150

Quantum NYOS 120

This skimmer is awesome. Much better than the SRO 2000int I owned a year or so ago. Very easy to put together and take apart to clean. The body is attached to the base by 4 titanium screws, makes it one of the easiest space saver skimmers I've seen to access the pump for maintenance. The air and water level tune knobs are smaller adjustments which makes it easier to tune than a gate valve. Fit and finish is top notch, which you would expect from a German made skimmer. The only time I've had some trouble with micro bubbles is when the skimmer valve is completely open, which I believe is cause by the low level of water in the body which doesn't give the bubbles anywhere to go. My only complaint is the neck to body connection is a little tight, but some silicone grease fixes that very easily. The skimmer does come with a drain for the cup, which I havent used but would assume it works well.