Bubbletip2's 200 Gallon system

[bubbletip2]

This tricolor I got a couple months ago. It was brown with semi purple tips when I got it but is now coloring up nice. Looks great under the T5's.

This green poci is one of several pieces I have grown over the last to years from a .5" two headed stem. This piece is about baseball size, I have another that is softball size(pic to come) and have given out a couple golf balls and some other frags. Bland as far as coral go but one of my favorites in the tank.

This was an ice blue Acropora convexa that turned green pretty quickly as expected. Never seen these stay ice blue for long. It is doing well. The polyps are always out.

 

[melev]

Jim, every picture is perfect. Glad to see you posting more images finally.

There is an elkhorn montipora out there. ORA sells one too.

 

[bubbletip2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13273335#post13273335 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
Jim, every picture is perfect. Glad to see you posting more images finally.

There is an elkhorn montipora out there. ORA sells one too.

I would not go that far but thanks for the complements. Perfection is not obtainable Sr. Melev. Definitely some nice shots. I need to take some with the pumps off to get them sharper and stopped down to f8. Some are a bit oversaturated too. I spent little time fixin these up. Probably spent 20 minutes on these RAW files. There is a lot more to come...

Enjoy MACNA Marc! Hopefully we will get a reefcast or two from Atlanta

 

[bubbletip2]

A few weeks ago I purchased a new Reeflo Orca 200 skimmer. The Octopus was working just fine on the tank. I was not thrilled with the pump on it and figured why not plumb in this beast:

It has a very nice Reeflo Orca Gold Dart Pump that comes with a 5 year replacement warranty. I love items that come with warranties like this because it tells you how much the company values the product with a guarantee on operation for 5 years :eek1: Nice!!!

This skimmer is probably overkill for this 200 gallon system. I know I want to go to a bigger tank - probably one of those new Marineland 300g tanks and this skimmer will definitely be able to handle that tank. At that time I may get the upgrade cup only offered here for even more efficiency:

http://www.reefspecialty.com/product_info.php?cPath=21_45&products_id=285

I am really happy about the purchase so far. Definitely the best skimmer I have ever used. Here are a couple more shots:

 

[bubbletip2]

Yep a few weeks ago the tank got replumbed thanks to Mike(acropora nut) and Jeremy(JRaquatics) assistance. I can plumb things just fine except for every time I do there is always one fitting that leaks. It drives me crazy. I can get 20 fittings to be perfect and just that one causes a mess on the floor. I think I may have to change my name to Mr. Leaks. :lol: Thanks Mike and Jeremy for your help!!! I learned a lot about plumbing and manifolds while you guys were out. I just don't trust myself to do this kind of thing. I would hate to have my whole tank drained for me to come home and see. Just one part of reefkeeping that I am not comfortable doing on my own. I can do small jobs like plumbing in the Geo 618 or the phosban reactors but crucial elements like plumbing the return pump or this beast of a skimmer is not one of my strengths for sure.

So here is the original plumbing that was done a year ago:

And here is the plumbing now:

Here is the skimmer in place: Pretty amazing we fit this beast in with another Reeflo Dart and this 37g sump under this 5ft stand: I need to take some pictures of it running soon...

Here is the manifold that Jeremy put together. nice work Jeremy but I wish two ball valves were pointed towards the back of the tank. I think it would have been more functional that way. All in all a great job though. It is running my phosban reactors and my new GEO 618 that I will get to later.

Here are a few shots off the manifold to the Phosban reactors and the Geo 618:

 

[bubbletip2]

Here is a shot of the dart plumbed with the two returns and the start of the manifold. It was a tight fit but Jeremy and Mike managed to design and fit this in to place and it works fantastically. I actually have my Dart turned down to 50% right now as there is so much flow already with the two vortechs.

I also plumbed the 30g cube sitting in my garage into the main display.

I will have to get some nicer shots of the cube up.

I have not yet decided how this tank will be used. Currently it is a holding tank for frags. I am thinking either a large magnifica or giganta anenome, a clam tank, and I threw around the idea of a sea grass refugium. It is so hard to find anything but turtle grass though.

I am leaning towards the large anenome...or maybe just sticking the large bubbletip from my main display as it is the size of a basketball right now.

 

[mcliffy2]

Looks very cool. Where in IL are you? I'm in downtown Chi.

 

[bubbletip2]

I also picked up this new GEO 618 calcium reactor. It is getting to the point that B-Ionic is not going to keep up with alk/ca demand. This is the first calcium reactor I have run as I have had typically smaller tanks that did not require one. I got everything up and running and the nut that fastened to the CO2 intake was surprisingly too big. The effluent nut was just fine and had no leaks. Anyway George from GEO replied on a Sunday to let me know he would send me new tubing and got me tracking information Monday morning for it. Pretty nice customer service. In the meantime I siliconed the seal on the nut and the reactor has water running through it for now. No leaks That is why you see a stream coming out of my effluent in a previous post. I am purging the reactor of air bubbles and building the biofilm coating. I am running 13lbs of Tropic Eden Coarse media through here:

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...D&Product_Code=TE-TECRMX&Category_Code=cmedia

Here is the CO2 tank I bought filled real cheap along with this new electronic controller available here:

http://www.aquariumplants.com/product_p/t.htm

http://www.aquariumplants.com/AquariumPlants_com_s_Electronic_Co2_Regulator_p/co2.htm

They actually have a digital read out controller that tells you how many bubbles per week/month/etc. I talked to the owner yesterday and he explained that people requested the digital read out. He said it is a lot more to design and manufacturer so it is sold for $100 more. Not sure at this point if that is worth it. He did say that people will be able to swap the old housing for the unit with the new one for a fee - possibly $100 or more. He also told me that it literally costs them $180 to manufacture the original electronic and currently they are not making any money on it. They may be raising the price as I think the $189.99 is an introductory offer. So get one now if you are interested. The red led light on the original actually counts the bubbles per minute for you by blinking. Pretty cool.

I am waiting until this weekend to get his totally hooked up and start running the reactor. I want to be around to see what is happening especially since this is my first reactor.

 

[bubbletip2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13319727#post13319727 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mcliffy2
Looks very cool. Where in IL are you? I'm in downtown Chi.

Thanks man! I am in Glendale Heights. West suburb about 40 minutes from downtown. Less with no traffic. Are you downtown downtown or some other part of the city?

 

[mcliffy2]

I'm downtown downtown. Right on the river across from Merchandise Mart.

Are you near Mike (acro nut) and JRAquatics? I've been meaning to make it out to check out their tanks at some point, need to add another to the list.

 

[bubbletip2]

Mike and Jeremy are more on the South Side by midway airport. Jeremy being a bit further south. I am directly west of you down 290 and a bit north after you get to the bottleneck.

 

[mcliffy2]

Cool, I'll shoot you a PM next time I'm out that way. If you are ever downtown, you are welcome to stop by, grab a beer and a frag, and check out my tank.

 

[melev]

What does the new skimmer cost, and what size tank was it rated for?

Nice update.

 

[bubbletip2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13321260#post13321260 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
What does the new skimmer cost, and what size tank was it rated for?

Nice update.

Thanks Marc! Skimmer costs $849 and is rated 100-400 gallons. With the extended skimmer cup and new needlewheel people feel it can do a 500 gallon tank no problem. But many people feel it is overkill on anything under a 180gallon system I also think it would be too much on a 120g tank - it would run too sterile. It would do great on your 280g.

http://www.reefspecialty.com/product_info.php?products_id=229

 

[bubbletip2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13320680#post13320680 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mcliffy2
Cool, I'll shoot you a PM next time I'm out that way. If you are ever downtown, you are welcome to stop by, grab a beer and a frag, and check out my tank.

sounds good man. I can bring you some frags too...

 

[melev]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13321407#post13321407 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bubbletip2
Thanks Marc! Skimmer costs $849 and is rated 100-400 gallons. With the extended skimmer cup and new needlewheel people feel it can do a 500 gallon tank no problem. But many people feel it is overkill on anything under a 180gallon system I also think it would be too much on a 120g tank - it would run too sterile. It would do great on your 280g.

http://www.reefspecialty.com/product_info.php?products_id=229

I'd need it to use a waterproof submersible Dart first.

 

[bubbletip2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13321702#post13321702 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
I'd need it to use a waterproof submersible Dart first.

I did notice you like to keep everything in a sump just in case of leaks so a Reeflo obviously won't work for you. Do you still run your Euro Reef?

 

[bubbletip2]

Some new pics:

Got this baby Dussemeir tang about 9 months ago. Mike(acropora nut) gave her to me. He was going to throw her in a long frag tank. Hey Mike when is that frag tank going up? Anyway beautiful fish and I plan on keeping her a long time. It will be a while before this Dussemeir shows the bright blues and yellows. Over the last couple weeks she has been showing some yellow. I was not sure if this tang would turn out to be a Deuce because she came at the same shipment that a large Blochi tang did that was purchased as a Deuce. They look very similar but now I am sure seeing the yellow color that this fish will morph in good time.

 

[bubbletip2]

This is another beautiful fish that I had never seen before. It is a grey headed wrasse. Don't ask me why they call it that since it actually has a blue head. A big bastard that is not being very cooperative with other wrasses. He was introduced with a Christmas wrasse that lived with him peacefully for 8 months. A couple months ago I lost that christmas wrasse. It was kind of crazy. The christmas wrasse was doing fine and an hour later I come back to the tank and it was swimming like it just drank a bottle of Jim Beam. It almost seamed like it was seizing. I don't know what happened but if I was to guess it either got bullied by the blue headed bastard or it accidentally swam into this big bubbletip anemone and got shocked. He was dead in a day. I will probably stick with the prior possibility. Funny thing is he does not bother the six line at all.
He is a really nice fish but I might have to get him out and have someone watch him for a month or so so I can get some other wrasses in here. I would like at least two more with him. From time to time he will turn his body bright green and his maroon spots will glow brighter.

 

[bubbletip2]

Some other fish in the tank:

There are ten of these x-large chromis in the tank. I like them. They eat a lot of small particulate so I know they are helping with my water quality and regular feedings. They long tang poop. They add a nice splash of color to the tank.

My six line that has been a model citizen at least for now. I got this wrasse a couple years ago and it was less than an inch. It is now a couple inches.

A mandarin goby I put in a couple months ago...