My 150g SPS Dominant Tank

[cprice]

I have caught the SPS fever and I dont see any cure in sight!

I started out with a 29 gallon reef tank about 5 years ago that had mostly LPS and softies but I tried my hand at SPS right before I broke it down last year. My wife and I moved to Florida in October of last year and bought our first home two months later. After coming to an agreement with my lovely wife, I set up my 150g in our living room with a 130g sump/refugium/life support system in the garage! Here it is today:

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So i'll share a little more about how I got here over the next few posts, but I'm at a point where my own knowledge and experience is no longer enough. I'm looking forward to gaining more knowledge from the fellow SPS-addicts in this forum!

 

[cprice]

SPS List

SPS List

So, here is a current list of the SPS in my tank that i know the names of:

Generic:

Green Slimer
Strawberry Shortcake
Red Dragon
Blue Monster
Red Digi
Forest Fire Digi
Garf Purple Bonsai

Collector:

ORA Oregon Tort
ORA Pearlberry
ORA Hawkins Echinata
ASD Sunset Milli
Scripp's Milli
Palmer's Blue Milli
Paletta Pink Tip
PC Rainbow
BC Sky Doppel
BC Hyperberry Shortcake
TSA Pink Lemonade
TSA Purple Haze
TSA Rainbow Milli
SC Orange Passion

(there are probably 15 more that I have gotten here or there but dont know their names, ill post those up later for ID help)

And coming in the mail at the end of the week from Triton Corals!!!!!

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RR Rainbow Loom
RR Wolverine
RR Kandari
TGC Starfire
TGC Dragon Slayer
PC Superman
TCSB Kryptonite Spear
TCSB Cadillac Margarita
TCSB Redhead
TCSB Chili con Carne

 

[cprice]

Equipment list

Equipment list

So here is a litte more information about my system!

My display is an old Oceanic 150g "Brick" 5'x2'x2'. I have all drain and return lines all plumbed through the wall behind it into the garage where I keep all of the life support systems. I wanted to keep all of the noise out of the house and leave under the tank available for storage. The stand is a custom built 2x4 base with birch plywood skin and canopy. I keep most of my Apex equipment under the tank with two additional EB8s in the garage. Custom built light rack over the tank with T5s and Radions.

Full Equipment List:

Apex Gold System: 3 EB8s, Dual Point PH, Salinity, WXM, Breakout Box, AFS
Deepwater DC12000 Return pump
(2) MP40wqd in the main display
(4) ATI 54W T5s: (2)C+, (2)B+
(3) Radion XR15w PRO G3s
GEO 618 Calcium Reactor
Bubble Magus Curve9 Skimmer with Automatic Neck Squeegee
Avast Skimmate Locker
Avast K2 Kalk Reactor
BRS Dual Reactor with Carbon and GFO
4 Stage 90gpd BRS RO/DI
JBJ ATO with backup float switches wired to the Apex for redundancy
75g Custom Sump
80g (48"x24"x16") Frag tank/Refugium
Mag18 Return for Frag/Fuge
(2) Chinese Box LEDs over Frag/Fuge
(2) 250w heaters and (2) clip on fans for temp control


Apex cabinet under the Display:

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Garage life support system:

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Plumbing under tank:

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And the custom light I just added about 4 weeks ago!

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[patekphilippe]

Nice set up

 

[kevlow]

Everything looks like great workmanship and planning. I will look forward to watching as your tank matures.

The pieces in there now look like they are encrusting and the new frags on the way appear to be stunners.

Have you got an idea of your lighting coverage and par? Are there low par areas between the Radions or is the spread sufficient to give adequate lighting?

 

[cprice]

Everything looks like great workmanship and planning. I will look forward to watching as your tank matures.

The pieces in there now look like they are encrusting and the new frags on the way appear to be stunners.

Have you got an idea of your lighting coverage and par? Are there low par areas between the Radions or is the spread sufficient to give adequate lighting?

Thanks for the compliments! I started with a used system that I got as a package and have slowly switched components over the last 8 months. I would probably be much further along had I started with this setup.

Its funny you mention that about the lights, I'm currently sitting next to my tank with a rented Apogee PAR meter testing it for the first time. I will post a picture with the readings I find tomorrow. The one thing I am curious about it how much PAR I lose with the center Radion having to pass through a 12" wide 1/2" thick center brace right in the middle of the tank. I currently run that Radion about 20% higher than the outer ones because visually it makes it look the same.

 

[kevlow]

I currently have 2 Radions over my shallow display. To get get the spread I need, I have them about 15" above the water line in addition to using the wide angle lenses. This reduces par. My blues and violet channels are at 100%, with white, green and red at 75%. Overall power is at 100%. I still only get about 350 par in my hot spots.

I will get another LED unit for coverage sake. Only the center 1/3 of the tank is getting multi directional light.

I like to follow other LED based set ups to learn what I can. Please post your lighting results with the meter. Will look forward to seeing your results.

 

[cprice]

PAR Readings

PAR Readings

Will look forward to seeing your results.

After some testing, it looks like about 60% of my PAR comes from my Radions and 40% from the 4 T5 bulbs. In the image below, with the PAR numbers overlaid, I am running all T5s and my Radions at their mid-day highest strength. The fixture is about 10" off the water. The 3 Radions are set at White 50%, UV 100%, Royal Blue 100%, Blue 100%, Green 20%, Red 10%. Overall intensity is 80% on the two side Radions and 90% on the center one.

I was SHOCKED that the simple 10% boost in the middle Radion gave me virtually no PAR loss (in relation to the two side Radions) anywhere under the glass center brace. I am currently running the narrower lenses but may go to the wide lenses and boost overall intensity up to 90% and 100% respectively to get a better spread as well.

My Radions ramp up starting a very low blue at 7am to full peak from 2:30pm to 4:30pm and then back to a low blue and off by 11pm. My two Blue+ come on from 11:45am to 5:45pm and my AquaBlue Specials are on from 2pm to 5pm. So im only getting max PAR for about 3 hours a day (or less since my radions only "peak" at 3pm and immediately start to ramp back down). I may start to run my T5s or keep the Radions at peak levels longer now that I know where I stand with my PAR readings. Thoughts anyone?

Here is the layout as I read it last night:

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[ARVERLY]

Those PAR numbers are perfect!! Everything is growing so fast!

 

[Arkayology]

Good job on that light rack.

 

[cprice]

Those PAR numbers are perfect!! Everything is growing so fast!

I was surprised how good they were on the first try haha. I'll post up some 3 month growth pics tomorrow. It's crazy how much things grow when you compare from 3 months ago. You still need to come over and see the tank. Maybe this Saturday?

Good job on that light rack.

Thanks! I was pretty pleased to be able to put my jigsaw to good use (wife bought a nice Makita for me, she's awesome!). I'll post a pic of it over the tank tomorrow.



I understand that you have certain SPS like red dragon and a few other deep water acros that prefer lower light. My questions is, for all other types of SPS, how critical is placement in the tank with respect to light exposure? I am trying to decide if I need to rearrange a few frag plugs before they fully encrust to the rocks.



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[fcmatt]

Very nice looking tank. If things stay stable for the next year it will be even more amazing! Rock work is very cool.

Need more fish???

 

[cprice]

Very nice looking tank. If things stay stable for the next year it will be even more amazing! Rock work is very cool.

Need more fish???

Yeah I'm excited to see the tank grow!

I definitely want more fish, but I was dealing with ich that kept killing any new fish. I'm still deciding on whether to go fallow for a few months or just add a UV sterilizer and make sure I stay on top of feeding the fish.

I would really like 8-10 anthias, 2 more tangs (probably hippo and powder blue), one or two dwarf Angels (potters/flame/eibli), leopard wrasse, a few gobies and a mandarin pair. I'd also like a few more types of crabs/shrimp/random inverts to fill out the livestock.


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[Arkayology]

I understand that you have certain SPS like red dragon and a few other deep water acros that prefer lower light. My questions is, for all other types of SPS, how critical is placement in the tank with respect to light exposure? I am trying to decide if I need to rearrange a few frag plugs before they fully encrust to the rocks.

All SPS love light. "Deepwater SPS" is misleading, as it refers to smooth-skinned acros usually and doesn't carry the same meaning as deepwater fish.

 

[cprice]

All SPS love light. "Deepwater SPS" is misleading, as it refers to smooth-skinned acros usually and doesn't carry the same meaning as deepwater fish.

Will most SPS react differently to PAR levels of 250 and say 500? Or is there more of a threshold that you should meet for optimum growth and any number over that there dosent produce much difference?

 

[cprice]

As promised, here are some growth progression photos of two of my corals. I know that green slimer is a fast grower but I still think its great progress for 3 months. And my tank parameters have only really stabilized in the last month due to finally installing my CaRx.




Anyone know the name of the second frag? Bought it at the end of Reefapalooza and the guy couldn't remember the name.

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[C.Eymann]

Sweet growth time lapse, that PAR map looks primo!
nice setup !

 

[cprice]

A few pics I snapped last night as my lights were ramping down. Love watching the tank during this time of day.

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[reefmutt]

Nice set up! Your corals look very happy they are certainly growing well.
Nice clean light..
Most corals will adapt just fine to the light you have. Certain light loving corals will look better when placed up high and and some of the 'deepwaters' will probably look their best lower down. However, there are always exceptions to the rule. Sometimes it takes a bit of adjusting certain corals that look not their best. If you can get par numbers from your suppliers as to what the frags were under at their facility, that may help you in deciding where to put them.
Good luck, you have some very nice pieces coming (or recently arrived) looking forward to seeing them grow out.

 

[tunedtank]

nice set up!!! please post pics once the pack from tritom corals sb settles in would love to see how they progress...