YHSublime January 28 Author January 28 46 minutes ago, WheresTheReef said: Yea I remember. My wife nicknamed it Tina (Turner) when I had it. Looking at your tank it definitely still fits. I tried to quit the hobby. Lasted 10mo lol. I bought a used SCA 120 from another member. I am just waiting for good weather to build a stand. My “workshop” is my backyard. Collecting equipment atm. It will be a slow process. Yeah, I remember! Welcome back! I'm seeing a bit of a pick up again in the hobby, so that's exciting.
YHSublime February 6 Author February 6 Here's the frag tank. It got absolutely overrun with hair algae, and despite a huge CUC every couple of months, nothing was able to keep up with it. I finally did a huge series of water changes, manually pulled out as much as I could, and started moving rocks/coral back into the DT for the purple tang. It does an amazing job, usually less than 24 hours. I'm going to use this experience to really clean up the frag tank, and turn it into a display Big momma! My Platinum clownfish are laying eggs again, not that they ever stopped. I should put a tile in! Anybody want to raise ORA Platinum Fry? Clam is getting close to 8"+ pretty cool! These firework cloves are beautiful, but I've not been great at trimming them up. I need to get after it. Aquaman Monti, finally gaining some traction on the bottom glass. I was hoping you wouldn't be able to see the wood by now! This Bill Murray sprouted out through the zoa patch, this is an SPS that is like a weed in my tank! A little SPS treat from @wildcrazyjoker81 Clearing up some space, this XXL Aussie Elegance is in the FS section!
YHSublime February 26 Author February 26 Some of you might have noticed I've been sizing down a lot of reef related things! It's not because I WANT to, but in big news and life changing events, I'm expecting a (hopefully) real, live, human child baby in July. I'm under no impression that I'll have a ton of time, at least at the very beginning. I also foolishly offered up my office as a guest room so we can turn the guest room into a nursery. If it was any other tank, I would push it up against the wall, keep it running, and call it a day. However, I spent so much time designing this as a dedicated peninsula build, that it would be a complete disservice. I'm picking up a UNS R60 this weekend, and with the sacrifice of the peninsulas current space, I've negotiated a living room setup. This will hopefully end up being a win for everybody, as it's the portion of the house that we spend the most amount of time in. Luckily I won't have to downsize too much , and believe I have a plan to get *almost* everything into the UNS footprint. Anyways, onto the next stage of constantly evolving life (mine & the tanks!) Please enjoy this last, or one of the last, videos of my "not so nano office build" 1
menglish February 26 February 26 wow, big changes. You are going have a human frag! Congratulations to you. 1
YHSublime February 26 Author February 26 6 minutes ago, menglish said: wow, big changes. You are going have a human frag! Congratulations to you. Thanks, Milton! Just doing as much prep as a I can, I get obsessive.
WheresTheReef February 26 February 26 Congrats! Better get that new tank up before you hit zombie mode with less sleep.
YHSublime February 27 Author February 27 50 minutes ago, WheresTheReef said: Congrats! Better get that new tank up before you hit zombie mode with less sleep. Thank you! And that’s the plan, even though that’s my life anyways!
YHSublime February 27 Author February 27 1 hour ago, roni said: Congrats! That's awesome news, excited to see how your new build goes Thanks, Roni. Honestly, the new build won’t be terribly exciting. I’m just moving stuff I currently have into a smaller tank. Fish wise I’m down to my ORA platinum pair, and a tank raised cardinal from @DaJMasta any suggestions for a few more small tank mates? I thought about sand again, but I think that’s more trouble than it’s worth.
nburg February 28 February 28 If you do sand, a Links goby from biota does an amazing job keeping the sand clean. They stay on the smaller size and sift all day long. I’ll be getting another soon 1
YHSublime March 1 Author March 1 I've flip flopped back and forth on moving the TV onto the other wall above our fireplace. It's probably going to stay there, so I think it's about time to get the cords routed through the wall and clean it up a bit.
roni March 1 March 1 I love On 2/27/2025 at 1:32 PM, YHSublime said: Thanks, Roni. Honestly, the new build won’t be terribly exciting. I’m just moving stuff I currently have into a smaller tank. Fish wise I’m down to my ORA platinum pair, and a tank raised cardinal from @DaJMasta any suggestions for a few more small tank mates? I thought about sand again, but I think that’s more trouble than it’s worth. without sand, a couple of smaller fish that can thrive are tailspot blennies and geometric hawkfish. The little biota neon gobies are also fun. i've always liked the pygmy angels in small tanks too. 1
YHSublime March 1 Author March 1 29 minutes ago, roni said: I love without sand, a couple of smaller fish that can thrive are tailspot blennies and geometric hawkfish. The little biota neon gobies are also fun. i've always liked the pygmy angels in small tanks too. im still debating sand. I’ll have a lot of flow, so it’ll have to be heavy. I like the black sand, but I feel like I can grow stuff to cover the bottom in a smaller tank faster. It’s also got a painted white bottom baked on… the tanks pretty clean, now I gotta figure out what light I’m going to put on it.
YHSublime March 5 Author March 5 I added a bubble king mini 160 to the 80 gallon. It’s been just over 48 hours, and I’ve probably done about 50% water change with all the space getting cleaned up, and it’s still pulling coffee colored skimmate. I’m also suddenly getting a fast coating of coraline, I thought the tank was happy before, but now it’s really happy! 1
YHSublime March 10 Author March 10 18 minutes ago, monstamich said: Looking good! How’s the flow in that little box? with the return, its enough. With X2 MP40's at 2%, it's definitely enough 1
YHSublime March 13 Author March 13 TL;DR 1. Where should I mount my Apex? 2. What should I do about my ATO situation? Please read below for options (maybe you have another option to present?) Alright, alright, alright. So first, I have been doing a ton of reef stuff, almost like a full time job, it's kinda crazy. In between the cat we picked up last year, and all the Spirorbid worms cleaning out of the 80s plumbing, I've got scratches and bites all over my hands. Not only is it very painful when in saltwater, but last week I had cut (very mildly) become infected. As it turns out, keeping your hands out of the tank, especially a new one, is pretty tough. I'm going to try and go for a week. This is especially tough, as I'm not in love with the placement of some of the corals, but there will always be time. I'm finally starting to see some algae pop up on the glass, the CUC population of 80 gallons in 30 now has an (albeit small) mission. Before moving them over, I cleaned my MP40's in a citric acid soak, they've never looked better. Up until tonight, they were rumbling audibly, turns out just a slight adjust on both and I have silence again. You may be thinking, "wow, two MP40's on a 32 gallon tank sounds like overkill." You'd be right. I don't know if MP10's could actually handle the glass thickness. I'm ready to move my Apex over. I do have a DOS, I'm going to swap it over from the Bubble Magus, but it's intimidating, as the Magus doser is super intuitive, and I know how to use it to get from point A to B. I'm also unsure of how & where to mount the Apex. Ideally I'd do it on the wall behind the tank, but my concern is the plumbing being in the way, maybe that's not a concern? You can see the layout of the entire bottom in my black and white photo. The MP40's are hooked up on the outside of the control panel box. Each stand of the UNS R series has 3 removable panels and an open back. On the left hand side (on the R60) there is pretty limited space for ballasts, and then controllers. The way the MP's are wired, there is no squeezing the outer parts of the unit through the holes in the box, so they were mounted inside the sump outside the box. Currently the Finnex Heater Controller, and the pump controller are in there, so I need access to remove the left hand side panel if need be. I mention this because right now, the left hand side of the tank is the only place my 10 gallon top off container really fits. Other than that, the layout is pretty standard. Water drops down the pipes (Herbie) and hits the filter socks. Moves into the skimmer section, into a refugium area, and then into the return. In all of this, there is a 2ish gallons or so ATO box that sits on top of the 'fuge' area, and uses a gravity fed drain to a float valve. While I love this idea in theory, there's a high chance of failure on my part. I know this because 1. I'm not going to refill a 2 gallon box manually at what will probably be every second day 2. I will inevitably forget to open up the drain line again, or close it, or whatever it might be, there's a high probability I will F it up. I've got a few options: I can continue using my 10 gallon top off box and my Tunzee ATO. I could potentially drill my 10 gallon top off box and place it higher than the sump. I have an RO line run right below the tank, I could bring it through the baseboard and connect my RO/DI directly to the float valve, but I'm sure I would need something to make sure the water isn't constantly running? This also seems like it might have a colossal risk aspect as well? Last but not least, I ordered a new pinwheel for my Reef octopus 110 INT skimmer. I love this thing, but some of the needles were cracking and falling off. The part was $40 plus, which seems expensive, but I'll be happy to have it back at 100% again. I also bought some titanium screws to replace the nylon ones that hold the skimmer body together. If you've made it this far, I'm shocked, thanks for reading!
WheresTheReef March 14 March 14 I wouldn't connect the RO line directly to the float valve. I feel like it's a recipe for disaster should the float valve fail. TDS burst will also exhaust your resin fast. If I were considering plumbing in the RO line, I would plumb it into the resovior and have some safety mechanisms in place with the Apex. For example, use a level sensor or high/low float switches/optical sensors in the reservoir to control when a solenoid opens/closes the RO line. Maybe a pan under the reservoir and sump area with a leak detector as a back up to shut off the solenoid and alert you. You can even program a max time the solenoid can be open while filling the reservoir with an alert/shutoff. 1
YHSublime March 18 Author March 18 On 3/14/2025 at 12:27 PM, WheresTheReef said: I wouldn't connect the RO line directly to the float valve. I feel like it's a recipe for disaster should the float valve fail. TDS burst will also exhaust your resin fast. Great point on the resin, I didn't even think about that. And I agree, a recipe for disaster. On 3/14/2025 at 12:27 PM, WheresTheReef said: If I were considering plumbing in the RO line, I would plumb it into the reservoir and have some safety mechanisms in place with the Apex. For example, use a level sensor or high/low float switches/optical sensors in the reservoir to control when a solenoid opens/closes the RO line. Maybe a pan under the reservoir and sump area with a leak detector as a back up to shut off the solenoid and alert you. You can even program a max time the solenoid can be open while filling the reservoir with an alert/shutoff. Sounds like I need to get a little more savy with my Apex, and I think those are all good ideas, thanks! Actually, the best ideas I've gotten yet. I have an old 30 gallon water container that I think would be perfect for this situation. I think I'll hook it up in my office closet, which sits directly behind the tank wall in the living room. That way it can feed both my frag tank and DT. I'll drill the wall and thread my RO lines through to my new display tank.
YHSublime April 1 Author April 1 2 hours ago, Pedro said: How's the tank doing? I want an update! Tank is doing great. i replaced the pinwheel on my RO skimmer and it’s dead silent, and performing wonderfully. Never saw a cycle, and I’m starting to get algae every few days, so cleaning the glass more frequently. hooked up my ATO and top off box, evaporation on this tank is way less than on my 80, which was essentially open (tank and sump) so this makes sense. i installed the Apex and DOS, and have been keeping rock steady numbers at 9.1 dKH and 450 for calcium. First time ever I’ve been able to consistently hit the same number every day for a month, so that’s a W for the DOS. There’s x2 new wall hammers, a golden one, and a yellow one. I’m maxed on space already, so letting growth happen and trimming back is the only way forward. Looking forward to growing out the SPS. thrilled the Gig stays in the corner, hope it continues to do so. iPhone 14+ photos 1
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