Garage1217's 225G starphire / led / awesome build!

[bif24701]

Originally Posted by TheFishMan65

350ma is way to bright for moon lights IMHO when using XP-Es.

Garage,
How are the firefish? I almost bought some purples the other days, but the LFS said I couldn't mix reds and purples (hey everyone a LFS that didn't push the fish). Was wondering what you thought?

My LFS, well my favorite one is like that, good people. They wouldn't even sell me a fish after I said my system had only been up for a month until I brought in a water sample.

[TheFishMan65]

Thanks garage.

There are some good LFS out there so keep supporting the good ones.

[Roggio]

Garage,

How do you plan to dim the plcc LED's? I have some left over from a dash install. I really like your idea of doing a "moon" as the moon light. I definitly want to take advantage of the moon phases on my Apex; however, the xpe's seem like they would be overkill.

Thanks again!

[Garage1217]

This can dim moonlights
http://www.ebay.com/itm/270605327616...84.m1429.l2649

All going great. All fish are doing great, no losses and all are healthy and eating like pigs daily. Just waiting to pick up the right calcium reactor.

Tank is ready for softies and to start with some corals. Perams are stellar and I finally have floating fish syndrome haha. Water is so clear it looks like they are hovering in the air!

[Garage1217]

SWEET, Just made a deal on a female watanabe angel!! Always wanted one. Very happy about the purchase! Looks like pickup will be Monday I hope.

Not the picture of the fish, but exactly what the females look like. Simply beautiful (fish in the middle)

[110galreef]

That is a sweet looking angel!

[gorally]

What an excellent write up. I don't know if I missed your LED dimming part. I am looking for some hint on how to use Apex to dim the LED. I have a fixture using meanwell gs90-24 driver. I don't think there is input for 0-10v. Is it possible to use the Apex to dim the light still?

Thx,

[Garage1217]

Sorry man, with that power supply, dimming via the apex is not really possible. You would need to get a supply with 0-10V input.


Picked up my BEAUTIFUL watanabe angel early this morning! What a great fish with a great personality. Loves to stare at you with both eyes, nose to nose against the glass. Was larger than I expected which is a bonus. She is about 4"!

That brings my current fish stock to:
- Watanabe Angel
- Lamarcks Angel
- Purple Tang
- White Cheek Tang.... WOW I love these tangs. Not super common but soooo beautiful to me. And he keeps the purple in check.
- 3 female lyretail anthias
- 3 baby, blue streak cardinals. Still working on getting them to eat more. They take a bite every now and again only
- 10 baby, blue chromis, eating with a passion!
- Red firefish
- Purple firefish
- Pair of Ocellaris Clowns

[Garage1217]

Some new photos of my babies.
Lamarcks Angel... Hiding as usual. Seems to be pretty much mated to the Watanabe already. Very odd but they stick within 1/2" of eachother. Must be love.


The Watanabe. Simply beautiful. Has a little damage up along the spinal area from getting caught last night. Will heal just fine


A shot of my fav tang, white cheek AKA gold rim.


Two of my three female lyretail anthias.


Tank raised ocellaris clowns from Bob / Reefstew.


Tried to get another photo of my white cheek, man he is fast!


Shot of my startled purple tang.


Chromis school mixed with some blue streak cardinals.

[110galreef]

Man looking like a sweet fish stock to start. That white cheek is a sweet looking fish!

[aquaph8]

Love those angels man!

[Garage1217]

Thanks! Well have not posted a full tank shot in awhile. Nothing much going on yet but fishes. I also included a video of the fish swimming around. Tank is very active with a lot of movement!

Finally, time for some softies and other basic corals to start their lives in the tank! No more FOWZR (Fish Only With Zombie Rock) I need to TM Zombie Rock / Rock that has come back from the dead

Video of the fishes today:
http://www.garage1217.com/REEFPICS/G...-11/FTSVID.AVI

Wish the pic did any justice to the fish. Very vivid!

[water junky]

Awesome build. Thanks for posting it.

[Garage1217]

Updates!

Well I took a chance with the gold rim tang because he looked healthy and the store said he was eating great. Um... NO. He never ate since day 1 and I made a post looking for help. Anyways, by the power of grayskull I happened to catch him in the 225 and got him into QT.

Long story short, he was treated with erythromycin as a precaution and that did nothing. So I figured it had to be a parasite as his skin to the eye was always pale and not as dark as it should be. One person gave me advice that it could be flukes. I also read that many times, you simply cannot see skin flukes so I decided to break out the sledgehammer medication for parasites which is API general cure. General cure is 250mG of metronidalzole and 75mg of pzaziquantel which is a parasites worst nightmare but also hard on the fishes internals. Thirty minutes after treatment and the poor guys skin seemed to erupt with the parasites dying or exiting the skin. He was covered the poor guy. As it was happening he was so itchy and kept rubbing on the pipe in the QT system trying to itch and get them off.

Fast forward and 7 days after the 1st treatment and he is doing great with no signs of the parasites and is eating to his hearts content. He is still in QT and I am going to do one more followup treatment tomorrow just to make sure. If all is good he will go back to the display.

Being a long time reefer, I know better than to put a fish in a tank in which I do not know the origin or original owner, but I gambled and lost. And boy did I loose! I had to treat my entire 225 just to make sure which cost about $30 in medication and I also have to do a follow up treatment on it.

Here is my QT system which features:
- 10G painted on all sides
- 9W current usa UV
- Microjet 606 for the UV pump
- Aquaclear mini for flow and filtration
- Jager 50W for heat
- Cheap glass thermometer
- 6" PVC T for the fish to hide in
- Quick and easy DIY LED light made from PVC, some acrylic coasters that were leftover from a project and a power supply



Here was the poor guy awhile after treatment with still more parasites exiting his skin. Looks almost like ich, but I can assure you that in person and up close, they were not ick Wish I got a better pic and when they first started coming out, they were maybe 1mm long and he had a LOT all over him.


The good side to it all is that he is eating awesome now and no more pinched belly! WOOT




Further updates:
Some of the last fish were added to my tank and they went through my procedures, not 30 days of procedure but they were well medicated and worked over. They are doing fantastic!

First up, a 2 bar rabbit fish. Wish the camera showed all his awesome scribbles on his head! He is very large, I estimate about 6-7" In another post, this guy did get me good and boy... rabbit fish stings pack a PUNCH. Felt like open flame on my skin. Was not a good night.


Last, my stripped blenny. Fat as a torpedo.




Only other fish that will be added are a trio of bangai cardinals and a bellus angel which I have ordered And possibly a trio of sunburst anthias lol Glad my system is setup for this sort of bioload haha.

[BrklynArch]

I just finished reading your whole thread....amazing!!!!
Dumb question, I see u have a PVC elbow on your wb5000 inlet side, is that to have the pump draw in water from the lowest possible point? Reason I ask is I just got the same pump and was wondering if it's something I should do as well

[Garage1217]

That is correct. It was sucking in enough water to make a whirlpool at the surface and was sucking up air. I ended up putting in larger baffles in the sump so it raised the water level and I no longer had the issue so I removed it. Still makes a whirlpool but not enough of one to draw in air.

[Garage1217]

Pic of my goob Danica in front of the tank with some junk to the lower left lol. No... still not glass doors Have been to slammed with other projects to start on that one. Will be a January thing! All is going great in the tank so far.

[110galreef]

Awesome pic! That rock is still Virgin white! haha.

I always seem to like that look! Looks so clean fresh and pure.....Then the coraline takes over!

When you get a chance snap apic of your underneath as it appears to have changed a tad since way back.

BTW I got my HY 7000 running Sat night:
feeds mt DT thru an OM squirt 2 way & 2 3/4" lockline outputs (~800gph), then to a manifold for my Frag tank ~150gph), Carbon reactor (~50gph) and small fuge for growing pods only (~25gph)

This pump is VERY quiet as well. Even quieter than my smaller Syncra 4.0 that flowed quit a bit less!

[Roggio]

I'm glad he's alright. I hate the helpless feeling you get when a fish isn't doing well.

A friend of mine suggested putting another bag of just RODI water in when acclimating fish. When temperatures are balanced you put the fish in the plain RODI water and let him sit a few minutes; apparently to let the parasites in their gills die off.

Opinions?

I just bought a 150 gallon starphire tank and a SRO 5000int based on your thread/experience.

Is that algae on the rocks? I guess I've gotten lucky and never had an issue with it. Is there a window or something near by that might be feeding it more of the red spectrum? I have macro algae in my tank for my tangs to snack on and can't even get it to grow. I always assumed it was the light spectrum. (there's two 250 MH's on my temp tank)

[diesel444]

looks like fun just did a diy led love it

[Garage1217]

Looks like the seed rock worked! I just noticed today a large qty of micro feather dusters on the back wall as well as in the sump

Will get more pics of the underside soon when the rest is completed and the glass doors are on!

And yes, there is a little algae on the rocks, I started this system with dead rock / acid washed. Takes awhile for coralline and other life forms to take over.

[Fire_Urchin]

Killer build!

Do you have any PAR readings? Or did I miss them along the way.

[girlygears13]

Tagging along, those LEDs are really nice!

[feh]

I'm finally cycling been a few weeks but I'm happy with the pods. Not sure who's more excited about the tank you or the kiddo.

[bellis31]

How the tank coming along Garage1217?? Any new additions?