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jlanger's Reef Build: Episode II - The 120gal Strikes Back (1 Viewer)

jlanger said:
My lighting is mounted inside my floating canopy and I used the same mounting system from the previous set up.

I made a custom mounting frame that holds the Radions and the T5 strip lights. The Radions are attached with longer machine screws that allow the fixtures to slide back and forth into the position that I want them to be.
This is a pic from three years ago with the two XR30W fixtures; just replace those with three XR15W fixtures.

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The mounting frame sits inside the canopy and has about a couple of inches of play front and back; and the whole canopy moves back also.

Your custom mounting frame looks great and would work perfectly with my setup. Where did you get the T5 fixtures and what was the cost? Any other build advice on this setup you would pass along?

I really appreciate your experience and inspiration for this hobby.
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Juskr said:
Your custom mounting frame looks great and would work perfectly with my setup. Where did you get the T5 fixtures and what was the cost? Any other build advice on this setup you would pass along?

I really appreciate your experience and inspiration for this hobby.
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Thanks.

The T5 fixtures are SunBlasters with the reflector that I purchased from Amazon. They're great little T5 fixtures for supplementing LEDs or halides. They're about $35-40 each; just make sure you get the reflector add on. One of the great benefits of these strip lights are the ballasts are inside fixture so you just need to plug in the power cord. You can daisy-chain multiple fixtures to use just one power cord; not sure on the limit.

I would recommend that you lay out the fixtures to make sure the cords are long enough for whatever spacing you're mounting the lights at. With my fixtures, the cord is just barely long enough to make the connection; easily comes undone when tampered with.
 
Juskr said:
I did a quick search on Amazon and found this Sunblaster light. Is this the one you would recommend?
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Yep. Those are the ones.
(My fixtures are only 3ft, hence the lower cost estimate.)
 
With the first act just about completed, it's time to enter the second act.
(The first act consisted of setting up the system and getting it ready for livestock; the second act.)

I stopped by Tim's (@zoolan70) house last night to bring my old corals home. Tim handed me the set of bone cutters and it my job to try and remove the corals as well as I could. Since the corals had been in his system for half a year or so, all of them had encrusted onto his reef and made removal a bit of a challenge; not to mention how high the top of his tank is in the first place. All anxiety aside, the process went fairly smoothly and most of the corals were removed with minimal damage; and not one of them fell to the bottom of the tank.

I want to take this moment to acknowledge Tim's generosity and willingness to foster my corals while I set up the new system. This is what the club is all about and I cannot continue this post without recognizing Tim's contribution to the club and, especially, this build.

Once I was home, I acclimated the lot of corals, inspected for anything unwanted and just randomly placed the corals in the display.

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Sixteen of my old corals have finally come home. It's a great feeling to see and recognize some of the corals that have survived many issues in the past. I do have to admit, there are a couple that I forgot what they're called so I'll have to go back and look at old pictures to figure out what they are.
One coral I could never forget came back home as a hitchhiker. I'll probably have to end up fragging the acropora out of the colony and find a new home for the hitchhiker.

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Over the next few days, I'll start thinking about where I want to mount the corals. I some ideas, but it will be a challenge for me to overcome my OCD to get them placed in the perfect spot. I do have a deadline, though. I would like to have them all mounted somewhere by Thursday night. I have a package arriving on Friday with some special new additions, and having the corals mounted prior to their arrival would be best for them, and myself.

Once I get corals mounted and things in place, I'll begin a new coral catalog with photos documenting their new start.

Side note; the LPS and montipora frags are doing well since adding them.
 
Tim is running black boxes over his tank, right? The colors he was able to keep with your corals is insane. Goes to show it isn't all about lighting!
 
Come get your stuff out of my tank! I'm siuc
DarkSky said:
Tim is running black boxes over his tank, right? The colors he was able to keep with your corals is insane. Goes to show it isn't all about lighting!
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Yup. I'm as surprised as anyone about the way SPS are growing under these lights, and to be honest, a lackluster maintenance routine as well. I just wander past it most days and toss in food. I am bummed about how much the monti's encroached on his corals, but I'm blaming him since that is where they came from in the first place. They just wanted to go back home.
 
As mentioned in the teaser thread, yesterday was a good day, a very good day.
My first order of fish arrived!!!

I knew I wanted to have another Harlequin Tuskfish (my all-time favorite fish) someday. I've kept a handful tusks in various tanks throughout the 90's, but those were always kept in FOWLR tanks. I felt like this new set up was the perfect time to give one a shot in a reef tank, but it also had to be the right fish for this tank. From past experiences, I knew that larger specimens were much more of a threat to the clean-up crew and smaller fishes and juvenile specimens were sometimes difficult to survive long term based on collection area and diet. I wanted a fish in the 3" to 4" range; no exceptions. When it comes to the Harlequin Tuskfish, I don't have a preference between the Indo-Pacific or Australian collected fishes. I actually like the darker backs of the Indo-Pacific tusks, but the lighter blues on the Australian tusks are hard to pass up.
During my visit to Rhinelander last month, they had a number of larger specimens but none small enough for this tank. Kevin told me that he would keep an eye out and order in some as soon as they appeared on the availability lists. He did state that the fish showing up on lists were either juveniles or medium/large specimens, so he'd try his best to get some in.
Sometime shortly after Thanksgiving, I was notified that some juvenile Australian Tuskfish were coming in to Rhinelander. When I heard that they were about 3.5" long, I was thrilled. I'll take one!!!
This fish is perfect!!! It still has it's eyespots but it's overall coloration has shifted to the adult coloration; bright white with bold oranges and blues. Even the little tusks are there if you look for them.

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At that same time the tusks came in, I was watching another wrasse on the Diver's Den page; an Eight-lined Flasher Wrasse.
Knowing that adding multiple large wrasses can be a compatibility adventure, I asked how the tusk and flasher would get along. If they're added together, it shouldn't be much of an issue but then again, wrasses can be fickle. The Eight-lined Flasher Wrasse is a gorgeous fish once they grow into terminal males; big flapping flags for dorsal and anal fins. I've seen a couple of them in the past that were definite showpiece fish in their tanks, so I added the wrasse to my order.
This fish is slightly smaller than the tusk and has a lot of growing to do, but it already has the attitude of a strong male and flashes his fins quite often; even for just being introduced into a new tank.
This fish never sits still, so it'll be a challenge to get nice focused photos of this guy.

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And then the big surprise...
I was to remind Kevin of when I would be ready for my fish to be shipped. Since I have Fridays off of my real job, I always place my orders on a Wednesday so they will arrive on Friday when I can be home. Like most nights at 5PM, I check the Diver's Den webpage on Wednesday and see a nice looking Pintail Fairy Wrasse (another top favorite of mine). Seeing that wrasse reminded me that I forgot to message Kevin about shipping out my order. I send Kevin the message and told him that if I hadn't seen the pintail, I would've forgotten to remind him about my order. Of course, the listed pintail wrasse sold immediately. On Thursday, I get a message from Kevin stating that my order was packed and shipped for a Friday delivery... and... they had a couple more of the pintails in stock and one was added to my order. Since I was adding wrasses together, I might as well add a third.
This guy is amazing!!! Even while in the shipping bag, you could see how brightly colored he was. He's a little longer than the tusk, so he's the biggest fish in the tank. His fins are fully developed and filled in and the red back and black dorsal patch are richly colored. They only issue, for now, is that he's quite shy in the new tank. He has found a favorite little nook to curl into under a ledge he has claimed for himself. He does come out periodically to explore the tank and he'll chase after the food, so I'm not too worried about him.

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As of tonight, the three fish are doing well adjusting to their new tank. It seems that the smallest of the bunch, the Eight-lined Flasher Wrasse, is expressing dominance over the other two; flashing at them during feedings and when exploring the same area. The tusk doesn't mind much and it ventures wherever it wants to without much care of the other two fish. For a fairy wrasse, the pintails are quite laid back and don't come across as aggressive as many of the other fish of the genus.

So there it is, the first fish in the new reef.
As they settle in, I hope to get better photos of them all. Wrasses... they never sit still!!!

As for the corals, as I expected, some corals are not adjusting to well to the new tank; some RTN on some of the more delicate corals. UGH!!! Maybe large montipora colonies weren't so bad after all.
I still have some corals that need to be mounted. I was waiting on some coral gum to be delivered and that also came in late yesterday. Once those are mounted, I'll get the first updated FTS with corals and fish.
 
Love it. I saw some DD Tusk juvies come through recently, was tempted. One I think was under 2”
 
Give it a few weeks, the Eight-Line will take over the Tusk as your favorite fish :)

My first Pintail was pretty timid too. Hid most of the time. But the current one in the tank stays in open water.
 
H2OHOH said:
Love it. I saw some DD Tusk juvies come through recently, was tempted. One I think was under 2”
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The very small ones that still have the subdued coloration can be tricky. I tried a couple in the late 90’s and had trouble getting them to add weight and they would perish. (But the quality and variety of available foods has improved greatly in that time also.). It seems that once their body colors changed to white, they did much better. The false eyespots are another indicator as far as age goes. Mine still has the eyespots, but has the white body.
There has been another 3.5” tusk listed this week, so stayed tuned for more. Ten specimens about that size came in the shipment, so there’ll be plenty more.

Just do it!
 
nox.rupaw said:
Give it a few weeks, the Eight-Line will take over the Tusk as your favorite fish :)

My first Pintail was pretty timid too. Hid most of the time. But the current one in the tank stays in open water.
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Add a tusk to your reef, give it a few weeks and then get back to me! ;)
 
You should let those corals grow together. They both look like they are doing fine. I think it looks cool! Plus, a year from now you can cut a frag off of each to keep and sell it as monti/acro grafted for 10X the price. Who else is selling those?
 
VikingsCrazy said:
You should let those corals grow together. They both look like they are doing fine. I think it looks cool! Plus, a year from now you can cut a frag off of each to keep and sell it as monti/acro grafted for 10X the price. Who else is selling those?
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Nope!
Montipora corals grow faster than acropora corals so the monti will smother the acro in short time. If there is one thing I’ve learned from the previous setup, it’s not to let montipora corals grow anywhere you don’t want them to be. (The GSP of SPS corals.)
But I could keep the chunk of monti for you; if you’re interested.
 
jlanger said:
Nope!
Montipora corals grow faster than acropora corals so the monti will smother the acro in short time. If there is one thing I’ve learned from the previous setup, it’s not to let montipora corals grow anywhere you don’t want them to be. (The GSP of SPS corals.)
But I could keep the chunk of monti for you; if you’re interested.
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NOW you tell me!!!
 
As the new fish settle in, I took some time this morning before the lighting schedule turned on to install the diffusers on the Radions.

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When it comes to the visual appearance of lighting a reef tank, I'm not a fan of ripples. For me, the viewer, it's a distraction.
Adding the diffusers onto the LED fixtures made a distinct difference in the appearance of the display. The light is well blended and creates a more peaceful mood with the tank. I can still see some general ripple shadows on the rock and substrate that is caused by the water's surface, but it's no longer the isolated colors of certain LED diodes.
The real test will be when I start taking photos of the reef; especially the top-down photos. Hopefully, the colors are blended enough that the camera doesn't pick up on certain color spots.

Fish update: All are swimming about and eating very well today.
Coral update: No change; some more RTN and nothing was mounted today.
 
BEAV9900 said:
Clean light set up. I though you went with the XR15’s? Those looke like the 30’s...
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Those are the XR15W fixtures; maybe the perspective of the photograph makes the fixtures look wider.
 
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