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Here's my Big Office System

Baxreefs

Baxreefs

I know it is sad, but all things come to pass.

AND!!! ... On the sunny side of this development, I get to build the system at home I have always wanted! 8)

You'll just have to come by the house for frags in the future!

It also means I'll be selling off the TONS and TONS of extra gear I have in my shop. OMG! I can't believe how much stuff I've collected! I need to take an inventory and lay out exactly what I will use and what has to go! My new work digs will be all the way down in Parlin, so I won't be keeping any reef related gear down there.

Here's the trailer for the new system:

A DeepBlue 150g 48x24x31h display with a 1,500 gph GH overflow
I'm going to expand on my LED lighting with MH supplementation lighting scheme for this tank. At least to start circulation will be a VorTech MP40, MP20, and 4x Tunze 6100s, I may change this to some other more power efficient combination of PHs.

My remote, support will be in the garage in a vented cabinet. The sump, fuge, frag and QT tanks will all be in this cabinet. Dart return pump through my chiller. An Octopus SRO XP3000 will do the skimming. I will still be running my MTC ProCal calcium reactor along with UV, Ozone, GFO and GAC.

The focus will be on ease of maintenance, power efficiency, and a clean look for my wife's sake! ;D

Look for a new thread coming soon!
 
Baxreefs

Baxreefs

I do have an old school Euro Reef ES 5-3 that would rock that puppy.

But, it was my first "real" skimmer & I am emotionally attached to it!

You should look at the Bubble Magnus line, great "inexpensive" skimmers for this size range of systems.
 
Baxreefs

Baxreefs

So, In keeping with my policy of full disclosure of the good, the bad, the ugly of my reef keeping, and since my AEFW thread got blown away in the crash, I have to report on an incident in my system.

As I mantioned above, about mid last week, I found out that I need to move my offices by the end of the year, my system is in my office. So I came up with the bright idea of dosing the system once a month until that move as a insurance policy against seeing any AEFW rebound once I transfer stock to my new system that I will be setting up in my home (What is to be my last system! At least , that's what I tell my lovely wife! ;D

So, I pulled my GAC and shut down my skimmer. Mixed up about 6 grams of Levi and dosed my roughly 320 gallon system. As has been the case with every dose, mini brittles and pods where getting trashed my clam did not look happy, and my fish began feeding like crazy on the bounty that floated into the water column. I went home planning to return in sixish hours to restart the skimmer. Life being as it is in my house, I did not get back till early the next morning, nearly twelve hours after the dose was dropped....

I really was not worried, not pleased about the delay in restarting the skimmer in particular, but not really concerned. After all, I have a huge amount of in tank flow and, I OD'd my system with 15 flippin grams of Levi and every motile critter survived. Right!!!????....

.... Not this time! :mad: My seven year old (1,000% reef safe) coral beauty and my six year old fox face (A bubble algea eating machine) were belly up. I am devistated by their loss! A few corals have shown some tissue loss but the majority are fine. The remainder of the critters seem OK. I am baffled by this system responce given the history of my previous treatments. I would add that a check on all params showed evrything else was within normal ranges.

Despite this loss, I am adamant that Levamisole is a critical tool in overcomming an infestation of AEFWs. I am now 100% convinced, that if you have a significant infestation, you are screwed, and you need to take the scoarched earth path to irradication. Aggressive fragging, disposal of bases, and heavy dipping along with isolation in an SPS only QT using Levi is the only route out. Your live rock must be left 100% acro free for at least 90 days (even cooked if you will) and Levi may be the way to assure its purged as well.

The best way to "treat" AEFWs remains not getting them! Establish an acro QT procedure now! Never add a coral that has not been QT'd and dipped, aggresively!

While fish and dipping may control them, my experience tells me these means will not irradicate the pests. At least not in my case, and my heniocus butterfly and coral beauty were avid FW eaters. Lesson is, be careful with Levamisol, while a good tool in fighting AEFWs, the "cure" may be problematic.

What really needs to be done is a properly controlled study on Levi and AEFWs, in a lab setting. Maybe there's a young marine sience major out there looking for a senior project?

Anyway, trial and error, it is the only way we learn.
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

Man what a bummer Bax. Sorry to hear your problems and your losses.
Everyone of us should pay attention to what you are saying though that is for sure.
It is easier to stay clean of problems then fix them.
 
Baxreefs

Baxreefs

The heniocus is fine. I lost the CB abd the fox :-\

Thing is I don't have FWs, I thought is was a good idea to continue dosing to be safe and sure that I take nothing bad into the new system.

Great idea! ::)
 
howze01

howze01

NJRC Member
Wow Bax, that really stinks! I know that Coral Beauty was one of, if not your favorite fish. Glad everything else is OK though. Hopefully it'll all be worth it once the home tank is up and running.
 
Baxreefs

Baxreefs

howze01 said:
Wow Bax, that really stinks! I know that Coral Beauty was one of, if not your favorite fish. Glad everything else is OK though. Hopefully it'll all be worth it once the home tank is up and running.
Click to expand...

Definitely a fav, my oldest fish since getting back into SW in 2004! :'(

blange3 said:
Hang in there Bax; did you ever know that you're my hero? ;D
Click to expand...

Bill, you just so sweet! If you weren't a man of the cloth and I wasn't so damd hetero ... ;)
 
Baxreefs

Baxreefs

So I've really been enjoying my LED/MH combo lighting and feel it's the best of all worlds in the available lighting that we have.

So,why not kick it up a notch! I just committed to buying one of Paul's Orphek LEDs, these puppies are SAAAWEEET! 8)

I really want my 150 project to be top shelf and energy efficient, so this is another step in that direction.

Hopefully once my daughter heads off to college in few weeks, and I'm done shedding tears for my baby leaving the nest, I can turn my attention to building the sump room/closet in my garage and get things cycling in there until the display is complete. I'm building the display stand and it has to be "drop dead gorgeous" as per the Mrs instructions, so it will be a project in and of itself.
 
Baxreefs

Baxreefs

Hehehehe

Framing should start in about 2 weeks. And pics will follow! I'll start collecting materials this weekend. ;D
 
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