Apcoleman

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on a AE ACR. At the beginning I said there was no way I was going to buy from them based off of what I saw but after doing some digging and chatting with some people I figured I would give it a go. I spoke with Bill, he answered all of my questions and I had my unit within 3 days. This thing is a beast. I went with the 8” dual chamber because I know my next tank will be larger and I wanted to future proof myself. His new controller has a peristaltic pump on it rather than a solenoid or pinch valve so that concern was also removed. I just did a leak test in my basement bath and all seems well so this should be plumbed in by the weekend when I can make sure I have an hour or two to get it how I would like it.

Ugh that sucks. Running the carbon cant hurt in the sock. I have done that in a pinch. The BRS ROX is very effective so a little goes a long way

Thanks! I saw his thread and was really hoping to be able to make it on Sunday but my schedule dictated otherwise. His stuff is always good.

Thanks! I will have to see if I can swing up that way soon to take you up on that. I learned my lesson with RD on my last tank and it definitely needs stable parameters and will grow like a weed.

That is such a nice nem and clown pairing! Very jealous as my clowns just look at my nems and go back to their corner.

FTS and the side view when you first see the tank. I still have a few spots where I want to place some corals. Three I am going to be looking for are Red Planet, Hawkins Echinata and Red Dragon and have a few spots in mind. I also have the dome rock on the front left that is bare. There is a test group of zoas and the angels have stayed away from them so I may go for a zoa garden on that.

Thank you sir! Looking forward to lots of bottle feedings in front of the tank haha. Ill snap one tomorrow and post up. The bimacs have definitely given a nice splash of color in the water column.

The Colins has settled in very well and is such a cool fish. It does do a little picking at corals but no damage and I still have great polyp extension. I have been very slow to add anything else but last week I did add 7 bimacs that I got from Adam at Ocean Devotion. Anthias are a pain to QT and I had no problem letting someone take on that responsibility. He is a humblefish vendor and trust his protocols. My rabbitfish will need to be rehomed soon. Even though he is the largest fish by far, the majestic has hit major diva mode and just beats him up. Its not pretty and not fair to the fish at all. Other plans are to add a multicolor angel, melanarus wrasse in the short term. I am also going to be moving to an automatic calcium reactor shortly because my consumption has taken off and with a baby due next month I am trying to make my life a little easier. Six liters of kalk a day and my calcium reactor going strong are having a hard time keeping my alk stable.

That is awesome and I remember that FS thread. Nice snag indeed! Ill have to go through that thread. There is another ACR from a small USA shop but the only thing I have read is good luck if you have a problem because the guy never responds so that one is out even with a much lower price point. You nailed it, I am trying to remove a few variables from my setup (CArX and Kalk) so these really have me leaning the automatic reactor direction.

What made you go with the Deltec? I have started looking that these. I know @epleeds is running a DeStaco and Im between the two. Great looking tank and cant wait to see this grow in.

https://humble.fish/marine-velvet/ https://humble.fish/bacterial-infections/

You are probably battling a few things. My first thought after you said the hawkfish was added was velvet. Velvet acts fast and when they drop off the infected fish they become very susceptible to bacterial infection. Thinks lots of little cuts all over. The other reason my mind went to velvet is all the pictures show the fish under rocks. Velvet makes them very sensitive to light. The sailfins color looks off to me as well. These are all just best guesses but I have battled velvet before and dealt with those symptoms. I added a fish that was fine and never had any symptoms. Humblefish is a great resource and I would look on there too for some guidance

Vet wrote a script and I got the pills because they were the quickest I could get my hands on. The compounding pharmacy was an option but the delay was days and I needed it asap.

When I used T5s with Radions I didnt bother to turn down the radions when the T5s were on. The radions would ramp up, T5s were on for a couple of hours, T5s off and radions ramp down

I almost thought about going down a very similar route. it will be fun to see this little guy grow.

This update has been a long time coming. I ended up losing 8 of my 14 fish. The Kole eye, Gold Spot Rabbitfish, Bali Majestic, Azure and two clowns ended up surviving the bout. The tank was run fallow for 90 days and the fish went through a CP treatment. Velvet is no joke and moving forward I will QT every fish period. I dont really care where it comes from I will be making sure I never have that happen again. I luckily have plenty of CP left and a few refills for when I add new fish. The other day I pulled the trigger on a big time wish list fish. Bali Colin's Angelfish. This guy is really tiny and I will be keeping him out of gen pop until he completes QT and can grow a bit.

I think its hard to go wrong with the vortechs. They put out a ton of flow and all of mine have lasted a good while. The ability to control them is great and I think their support/customer service is great of you ever need them. My current setup has a mp60 at each end.

I would personally go fishless and add ammonia and some bottled bacteria to get everything going https://store.drtimsaquatics.com/Ammonium-Chloride-Solution-for-Fishless-Cycling.html

I have always played with fire by not quarantining any new additions and it finally caught up to me. I had an ich/velvet outbreak and pulled all the fish and started treating with chloroquine phosphate. I was able to get a script from my vet quickly and I am fortunate that all of my fish are very healthy and have continued to have a good appetite. My heart sank as soon as I noticed the symptoms because like most of us in this hobby, I care deeply for the animals I have chosen to put in my care. Lesson learned. I blame no one other than myself because without doing something yourself, it is impossible to verify. Before anyone asks me, this was not caused by a member or a local vendor.

Thanks. I am a huge fan of tangs but I had a yellow tang turn murderous which turned me off. I still want to give one a shot again and would go captive bred through Biota. They are producing a lot of great fish. The only one that wasnt in my last tank was the hybrid blueface/majestic. I purchased that one in december so it was in my temporary setup with the rest until this tank was setup. The regal is the boss followed by the majestic then the hybrid. The bellus just keep to there own. My kole eye tang is a model citizen and is always just cruising the tank picking at the rocks.

on my last build I found a kit on eBay for my 40 breeder. There are a ton on there and this is just one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fiji-Cube-Sump-Kit-Refugium-Baffle-Kit-40-Gallon-Breeder/123982980975?hash=item1cddf6276f:g:2mQAAOSwrk5fXvSU

You are welcome. I have been very happy with the decision to use them. I was worried about how I was going to set up dosing, whether that be kalk, two part or a calcium reactor again but I was able to pick up two versa pumps that will be able to handle whatever I end up with an still not need an apex.

This is the second ink bird I have run. I have had zero issues with this one or the other one.

that looks really good!

I have been very happy with it. The dimensions are really nice. Its a solid tank and well built. The valve that alot of people complain about was pretty easy to dial in starting from wide open from my experience I have a L2 return running at 75% and my MP60s max out at 50%. I have one run in constant at 45% and the other at 50% reef crest for six hours each and then they switch. At night they dial down to 20% each then back up for the day.