what a tease 
Chris' Elos 160 (1 Viewer)
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The sump reorganization is pretty close to being complete. I purchased a ZeroEdge Series 7 sump back when the original ELOS sump cracked, but it sat on a shelf until recently. Most of the ELOS sump was partitioned for the freshwater reservoir, and so this one increases overall volume. Still, there ends up being less usable equipment space because of the covered overflow/filter sock section. It will be nice though to have a filter sock that's sized more appropriately for the system.
The overflow run is much shorter, and is just a drop with a 90º to keep things from gaining too much speed from a free fall. I enlarged the bulkheads to fit the 1½" pipe, but am just using the second as a spot to drop in the heaters. Still have to get the dosing lines hooked up, but I added a pair of bulkheads after the skimmer chamber to keep things in place.
In order to get some room back in the sump, I decided to pull the return pump out and plumb it up outside since the Reef Octopus are submersible/external. This frees up the return pump chamber for the biopellet reactor, which has been offline for quite awhile; I've been vodka dosing in the meantime.
The protein skimmer was a tight fit, and the outlet needed to be adjusted to wrap around to the other side so that it expels water before the baffle. I had to dig up metric PVC to make this work. The skimmer is one of only a few remaining pieces of original equipment from the ELOS System AIO.
The overflow run is much shorter, and is just a drop with a 90º to keep things from gaining too much speed from a free fall. I enlarged the bulkheads to fit the 1½" pipe, but am just using the second as a spot to drop in the heaters. Still have to get the dosing lines hooked up, but I added a pair of bulkheads after the skimmer chamber to keep things in place.
In order to get some room back in the sump, I decided to pull the return pump out and plumb it up outside since the Reef Octopus are submersible/external. This frees up the return pump chamber for the biopellet reactor, which has been offline for quite awhile; I've been vodka dosing in the meantime.
The protein skimmer was a tight fit, and the outlet needed to be adjusted to wrap around to the other side so that it expels water before the baffle. I had to dig up metric PVC to make this work. The skimmer is one of only a few remaining pieces of original equipment from the ELOS System AIO.
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New setup looks great Chris! The external return pump is a tight fit. How's the sound and drain detritus? Any improvement since you chatted with me a week or two ago?
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The return fits with no extra room at all. I originally planned on running the biopellet reactor externally, but this is a little more spill-proof. The sound is more quiet than the open top sumps, but pretty much is what it is as I don't have much control with a single overflow.
The detritus still builds up a little on one side (bottom left corner), just something I'll have to siphon during water changes.
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I've kept a single Bicolor Anthias until recently, adding a trio of females a couple of months ago. I've been watching him transform and display in the evenings and he's overtaken the Lyretail as the most dominant male :censor:hole in the tank.
I'll be trying to get some more photos, but it's difficult as this is strictly dusk behavior and coloration, and he's pretty active. The typical Anthias line on the face extends through the body up to the anal fin. The pelvic, dorsal, and anal fin develop dark blotches. The display itself involves swimming aggressively with the pelvic fins fully extended, and the three dorsal fin rays extended with the rest of the dorsal folded down. I haven't observed any spawning yet, but I'm sure it's not far out.
I'll be trying to get some more photos, but it's difficult as this is strictly dusk behavior and coloration, and he's pretty active. The typical Anthias line on the face extends through the body up to the anal fin. The pelvic, dorsal, and anal fin develop dark blotches. The display itself involves swimming aggressively with the pelvic fins fully extended, and the three dorsal fin rays extended with the rest of the dorsal folded down. I haven't observed any spawning yet, but I'm sure it's not far out.
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Added a pair of Helfrichi Firefish to the display this weekend (Technically, they added themselves as they slipped through the holes in the accilimation box) The Powder Blue lost his mind from the change, so I caught him and threw him down in the frag tank. I was worried they would be shy with all the activity, but they spent the whole weekend out in the open, albeit near the sand bed. They seem to be sticking together for now.
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"The Powder Blue lost his mind from the change."
I just had the same thing happen with my Black Tang complete anarchy reigned for three days. One day I will have a 1000Gal + tank and Tangs will just be a cooler self. I was @ Stone Aquatics in Colorado last week, and they had several 1000 gal tanks with schooling groups of Achilles tangs (10-15) and dozens of other tangs. I am curious did you buy the Helfrichi as a pair?
I just had the same thing happen with my Black Tang complete anarchy reigned for three days. One day I will have a 1000Gal + tank and Tangs will just be a cooler self. I was @ Stone Aquatics in Colorado last week, and they had several 1000 gal tanks with schooling groups of Achilles tangs (10-15) and dozens of other tangs. I am curious did you buy the Helfrichi as a pair?
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Yeah, I'm starting to think that he just needs a bigger tank. He was much more calm when younger, and there was a time where he would settle down after a thorough cleaning of all the panels - probably felt less confined? Nowadays, he just doesn't calm down; I'm honestly surprised that my leopard wrasse can take the abuse. Might have to trade him in for a younger model...
I bought the Helfrichi on a whim, because they were 80 bucks together and I've never kept any of the Dartfish. They came in to the vendor as a large group, so I'm sure I'm not dealing with an actual mated pair. I've read that they can eventually grow tired of each other and start fighting, but I'm not sure what to expect as it's uncharted territory for me. :book2:
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Sad update..
After about a week of the Powder Blue being downstairs, he suddenly developed some lethargy and heavy breathing. I immediately acclimated him back to the display, but he could barely swim, so I placed him inside the acclimation box. He fought for about 30 hours and passed away this morning. Not feeling great about it, and wish I had found a larger home for him about six months ago when his aggression started to become a problem. Tough to lose some of these fish after having them for years. :frown:
I'll probably be steering clear of Acanthurus in this system moving forward.
After about a week of the Powder Blue being downstairs, he suddenly developed some lethargy and heavy breathing. I immediately acclimated him back to the display, but he could barely swim, so I placed him inside the acclimation box. He fought for about 30 hours and passed away this morning. Not feeling great about it, and wish I had found a larger home for him about six months ago when his aggression started to become a problem. Tough to lose some of these fish after having them for years. :frown:
I'll probably be steering clear of Acanthurus in this system moving forward.
Very sad. Such a beautiful fish
RIP PBT
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acharpenter
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Sorry to hear this - try not to be too hard on yourself, been there, done that : (
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It's that time of the year again where the sun hits the tank in the morning.
Still need to order rock, I keep putting it off waiting for a sale or group buy and then forget. :brick:
The silver lining of losing the Powder Blue is that I have a little more freedom in fish selection. I picked up a small Copperband during a trip out to LiveAquaria, which was recently came out of quarantine and is doing well. He did develop a minor case of lymphocytis, but seems to be recovering and is doing a great job not eating any aiptasia.
Still need to order rock, I keep putting it off waiting for a sale or group buy and then forget. :brick:
The silver lining of losing the Powder Blue is that I have a little more freedom in fish selection. I picked up a small Copperband during a trip out to LiveAquaria, which was recently came out of quarantine and is doing well. He did develop a minor case of lymphocytis, but seems to be recovering and is doing a great job not eating any aiptasia.
Davy Jones
Senior Member
Amazing photography as always!
As for rock are you going live or buying dead? I may have missed it and if i did im sorry
As for rock are you going live or buying dead? I may have missed it and if i did im sorry
Greentree
Senior Member
Every spring for a couple of weeks, sunlight passes through the front window and hits the tank on sunny mornings. It only lasts about 20 minutes, but provides a unique view of things and the fish seem to enjoy it. I wish there were a way to have the Radions mimic this with a sunrise mode, but I don't think they can reproduce these nice gold tones.
This is my favorite, thanks for sharing. I always love when the morning sun hits my tank too, reminds me of diving
oh how I wish I wasn't in Minnesota right now...
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I'm planning on going with Pukani again. I love the texture, it's light (cheap), and easy to work with. I also feel like it's easier to create organic aquascapes with Pukani because a lot of pieces have that growth pattern from whatever it used to be. I'll definitely have a significant period where there's some new and old rock in the display at the same time so things can get seeded properly.
Davy Jones
Senior Member
I agree that the pukani has the best look. I think If I set up another tank in the future I'll get it again but I also would make a small order from Tampa Bay saltwater for seed rock and sand, they come so full of life!
good luck with the reboot! Can't wait to see the progress!
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The build started with the 2nd generation Radion Pros. I swapped out the lenses to the wide angle TIR, and then switched to generation 3s when they were released, which is what I'm still using.