My reef tank (Part 2)

[mervyn yap]

Learned some valuable knowledge from your post.Very nice and detailed documented build.Hope to see more in the near future.Thks.

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[Darren Sim]

These few months my wallet is not very healthy due to the upgrade/prevention equipments that I bought. I find coming into this hobby of reef keeping is not cheap. We need to definitely spend a lot of proper and reliable equipments to ensure your livestocks are protected. I know some reefers don’t have those high end equipments but their tank looks great too. It’s up to individual preference.

I bought an Apex 2016 controller to ensure that I stay up to date on my tank parameters such as temperature, PH, calcium reactor PH. I replaced the original ORP probe with a PH probe to measure my tank’s PH.

Thank you to ReefmarketSg for providing such a good services in delivering all my items on time. If you guys need any equipments I will recommend RMS.

Firstly, I was quite satisfied with the packaging of the controller.



I went to tear down my whole wires to fit my apex controller. A lot of time required to plan for the set up.



I went to get Avastmarine Breakout box instead of Apex Breakoutbox because I find Avastmarine breakout box is very neat and organised. They will indicate all the wires according to 1-6 for easy reference. It’s also cheaper than apex abit but depends on whether you get the plug and play set or a set that requires solder. I gotten the second option and get my friend to help me solder.
 

 

My purpose of the breakout box is

1) Skimmer cup level high = off skimmer
2) Sump water level high = off skimmer
3) Sump water level low = off return pump




All in all, this apex controller is suppose to help me to observe my tank parameters when I’m not home. I don’t want the same thing to happen again like my previous tank.


Prevention measures:

1) webcam to view my tank if my temp on my apex shoot high
2) off my lights using my TP-Link powerhead
3) apex is in place to cut off my skimmer to prevent it from overflowing
4) apex to show my notifications if my gyre, 2 return pump stop working
5) coralbox battery backup to power up my nero 5 if there’s a power trip
6) alkatronic to ensure my DKH don’t go out of place


If there’s any I missed out please kindly advice.


Next up is Quarantine tank!

 

[Jack 123456]

Wow bro, in 4 months you got how many SPS colonies?!, Tank almost full lol!

Looking amazing, am keeping an eye out for updates. 

Cheers!

[Harlequinmania]

Any thing in place in case of your temperature shooting too high or low ?

I had similar issue when the temperature probe of my chiller broke and water was chill to 21 degrees and loss alot of my live stocks.

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[sleexox]

did you get your tank from Da***? thought the side control panel looked familiar haha 

[Darren Sim]

On 9/11/2019 at 7:15 AM, sleexox said:

did you get your tank from Da***? thought the side control panel looked familiar haha 

Yes, I got it from him. 

 

On 9/9/2019 at 12:22 PM, he said:

Any thing in place in case of your temperature shooting too high or low ?

I had similar issue when the temperature probe of my chiller broke and water was chill to 21 degrees and loss alot of my live stocks.

Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app
 

I did factor this into consideration. If my temperature shoot up, my apex will send me a notification. I'll then on my XiaoMi Webcam to check the wavemakers to ensure my compressor stop working and not power trip. If my compressor spoilt, I'll switch off my ATI & LED directly from my phone app (KASA, TP Link smart plug).

 

On 9/9/2019 at 12:28 AM, Jack 123456 said:

Wow bro, in 4 months you got how many SPS colonies?!, Tank almost full lol!

Looking amazing, am keeping an eye out for updates. 

Cheers!

Yup. I stocked up pretty fast but don't follow my method. Haha. Thank you!

[Darren Sim]

Hello ! 

My tank have been running for 4 months and everything have been doing well except some small frags and 1-2 colony STN. Still can't find the actual cause of it. I believed it's due to my low alk, there was a period of time my tank is running on ~4.5dkh for 4-5 days due to my silly mistake. I didn't realised my Skimz Calcium Reactor pump have stopped working. I kept on increasing my co2 bubble count to 2-3bubbles per seconds but to no valid my dkh didn't increase. In the end I found out the root my my problem and went to Aquamarin to get it fixed, so I urge you guys to do your due diligence and check all your equipments because equipments wear & tear quite easily. I was just lucky that I lost only 2 frags during this process. 

These 4 months have been great too, visiting a lot of reefers tank to get frags, a lot of local fish shop also brought in a lot of nice Oz, Tonga shipment with affordable pricing. My tank is pretty full so I'm trying control my spending and watch out of my selection of corals carefully. Below is some snapshot of my corals. Hope you guys enjoy.

 

Full Tank Shot (FTS)

 

 

Meanwhile I'm still battling with Ich in my main tank at the moment so you won't see any fishes on my DT. Trying to undergo proper quarantine with copper for all my tangs before releasing it to my display tank. What I trying to do is to maintain a copper level of 0.25-0.50 for 2 weeks before water change with my old display tank water so I can observe whether my DT is safe to put my tangs in without ich. I understand there're many different ways to handle ich but this is just my method.

Good thing about having a quarantine tank is to:

1) Ensure they're healthy from any parasites.

2) Train them to eat all the foods you prepared (TDO Pellets, Nori, Mysis and etc)

3) Allow them to live in harmony together. (If they have any aggression you can remove easily in your QT as compared to your DT)

TBH last time I don't believe in QT-ing fish but after trying out I feel much safer on the life span of the fishes.

This is my fish list:

1) Achillies Tang

2) Atlantic Blue Tang

3) Hybrid Power Blue or Sri Lanka Power Blue Tang

4) Purple Tang

5) Flame Hawk

6) Golden Midas

7) Couple of Blue eye anthias

8) Pair of Clownfish 

9) Flame Angel

10) Lamarck angelfish

11) Genicanthus bellus

12) Six line Wrasse 

13) Yellow Wrasse

14) Leopard Wrasse

 

That's all I can think about. Any suggestions please comment below! Appreciated it.

 

 

[equiox]

Hi Darren,

We need more SPS photos 

[Mike Stone]

TOTQ in the making !!
Keep it up!!


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[nuclear_fibre]

You need a yellow tang bro. Classic fish for me with that yellow adding that bright splash of colour


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[jacky zou]

hi bro your po4 no3 how many？


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[Darren Sim]

You need a yellow tang bro. Classic fish for me with that yellow adding that bright splash of colour


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Thank you for the suggestion! I’ve bought on over the weekend for my frag tank. Currently my ABT is still yellow in color hope his color can remain longer abit in my display tank.


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[Darren Sim]

hi bro your po4 no3 how many？


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Currently my no3 is around

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[Darren Sim]

Snap some close up shots during waterchange over the week. Snap with iPhone XS Max with DD orange lens along with orphek and blue plus lights.

Hope you guys like the photos!






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[Harlequinmania]

Nice coloration!

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[Darren Sim]

Nice coloration!

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Thank you!


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[Darren Sim]

Major and probably the last upgrade!

I can’t think of anything more to improve in my tank for the time being. As usual ReefmarketSG never disappoint me on their large range of products and swift service/delivery! Totally recommend for anyone that’s looking for a specific product can look for RMS!

Shall post a photo of my upgrade and update everything in the next post.




As for my tank, sps are doing well but the colors are not the best due to my busy schedule. Gonna stay improving their colors in time to come.

Current FTS.
(Orphek led bar, 2blue plus, DD orange lens & IPhone XS Max)




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[Darren Sim]

Some shots !





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[Admiraltian]

Very nice, bro. Lots of gems!!

[Ashtrax]

May i know what the type of sand are you using and where you get your clams from?

[teck4300]

Nice coloration! 

[Darren Sim]

On 12/28/2019 at 11:08 PM, Ashtrax said:

May i know what the type of sand are you using and where you get your clams from?

Hi, I got my sand from a reefer that didn’t want the sand so I’m not too sure what’s the size. I got my clam from Reefing Reality (RR). There’s a lot of nice corals there.

[Darren Sim]

Update abit! 
 

02/01/2020 (Testing)

No3: 5ppm

Po4: 0ppm

Cal: 480

KH: 7DKH

My nutrients still remains very low even with my heavy feeding to my fishes. I believe my skimmer (Nyos 202) really did a great job in removing all the nutrients. 

I also realised that by adding more medias could convert no3 to nitrogen gas (Lower your no3). My Santa Monica spoilt last month and I start adding more medias and surprisingly my no3 went down more than what the Santa Monica can do.

Some of my corals photo! Enjoy! (Took with IPhone XS Max with orphek lens)

[Darren Sim]

Time to update my process on my tank. 

Decided to do a major rescape earlier this month for my tank due to bubble algae issues. Cause of the bubble still unknown, my guess is on one of the frag I bought. After changing, my PO4 and NO3 shoot up and killed some of my precious SPS. I lost around 30% of my collection. 

Borrowed a TG5 from a friend to snap some close up shots. Hope you guys like it.

 

[Darren Sim]