SuncrestReef

My tap water ICP test shows zero arsenic. That's a relief! Must be something I'm putting into my tank that introduced it. I'm sending in a sample of RO/DI to test next. Tap water results:

Thanks! Yes, I'm pretty obsessed with my planning and design process. I just recently discovered HomeDesignerPro software, and when I saw you can rent it for $49 per month rather than buying it for $495, I figured it would be a good way to put my plan together. I was able to reproduce my entire house (down to the trim moldings and furniture fabrics) in one day, then used that base model to design the room addition. https://www.homedesignersoftware.com

Ha! Speak for yourself! The rubber lattice will leave a nice pattern on my face when I'm passed out drunk on the floor of my fish room after enjoying too many drinks in my new in-home cocktail bar. 😵

Definitely a good, low cost option. Added bonus for choice of colors. Thanks!

Yes, the video @TheClark posted above showed a floor drain with plastic membrane underneath a raised fiberglass grid for drainage and non-slip surface. I'm definitely considering this!!!

I already have two 75 gallon water tanks in my garage mixing station that are set up to do auto water changes on my current tank. I won't have a ton of space available in the new fish room, and the mixing station would take up at least 1/3 of the space, so I plan to leave them in the garage and just run new plumbing from the garage to the fish room.

Here's the view from the new addition, with the fish room behind the wall with the TV: Current exterior: New exterior:

The reason I want a peninsula sticking out from that wall is so I can see the whole tank from both the kitchen/living room side and from the new billiards/bar room.

Here's a rendering of the new floorplan looking from the kitchen into the new addition, with the peninsula tank and fish room as a divider into the bar and billiards room:

I saw this while snorkeling in Belize:

I'm currently in the planning stages to add an additional room onto my house and want to include space for a dedicated fish room. My current design has room for a long narrow fish room (4'6" x 13') with a new 6' peninsula display tank just outside the fish room, so basically the fish room and display tank will be a long divider between my current living room and the new addition. I'm looking for ideas on how to best utilize the fish room space. My current ideas include: keep the existing mixing station tanks and RO/DI in the garage and run tubing to the fish room long countertop & cabinets along one wall sink sump plumbed through wall to display tank frag tank QT tank storage cabinets for all aquarium related supplies desk space for microscope and test kits tiled floor with drain If anyone has a cool fish room set up, I'd love to see photos or hear what works and doesn't work for you, or things you would do differently next time. Current floor plan: New floor plan:

I agree it's a spendy glorified test kit. However, I already have a DOS for 2-part, so I won't incur that extra expense. I currently test my ak and calcium daily, and magnesium every few weeks. I'll be glad to have these tests completely automated and running a few times per day (I'm thinking every 6 hours) to see what's really going on in my tank. Since corals really need stability, it might be nice to see what the alk swing is over a 24 hour period and adjust the dosing to try to keep it more stable. As for my current tank status, things have stabilized a bit, but I'm still seeing a few more corals with browning at the tips (including my CNC growout frag) so I'm not out of the woods yet. On a positive note, my LPS and softies are thriving. I also zapped 3 more aiptasia today with the laser. I seem to find 2 or 3 new ones per week, but I'm able to keep them in check.

My tank only gets a few minutes of direct sunlight each day in December and January when the sun is low in the southern sky. It makes for a great fish shadow puppet display on my wall!

Yes, I agree they screwed up this launch with unrealistic release dates. But at least this recent update shows progress with actual test units being delivered. It's the best we've seen from them since the initial product announcement.

I got my ICP test results today. It shows high Arsenic, low Iodine, and low Strontium. The arsenic is concerning, both for the aquarium and our drinking water. The EPA acceptable level is 10 ppb (or 0.01 ppm), so my water was over 3x the limit. Apparently RO/DI filters out certain types of arsenic, but not all without a pre-oxidizing it first to go from As (III) to As (V). I'm going to test the tap water next to see if the water going to my RO/DI is the source, or if something else I put into the tank caused it. My last test back in July showed low Silver, low Bromine, high Copper, and low Iodine:

I'm in a difficult position to answer that question because I started my tank from day 1 with the UV sterilizer, so I can't say how much (if any) improvement it makes. When I was researching how to set up an aquarium, I ran across many articles discussing the benefits of UV (along with other articles disputing any benefits) so I decided to incorporate it into my plans from the beginning. Hopefully others can chime in with before/after experiences with UV.

I'm using an AquaUV Classic for my Reefer XL 425. I like the AquaUV product line because they offer both 3/4" and 2" fittings, and spare parts (bulbs, quartz sleeves, power supplies) are readily available at a variety of vendors. They have models suited for 70 - 1800 gallons. https://aquaultraviolet.com/products/uv-sterilizers/classic-series/

Would there be any public interest in having a microscope available at the meeting? I'd be happy to bring my microscope and clean slides if anyone has something they're trying to ID. Diatoms, dinoflagellates, ich, pods, and many other things are easy to ID under magnification. This microscope can view samples at 40x, 80x, 100x, 200x, 400x, 800x, 1000x, or 2000x. The view can also be recorded on video on your own smartphone since I have a universal adapter to hold a phone up to the eyepiece. Let me know if anyone is interested.

Cheaper than 100 lbs of sand.

Thanks, but can you answer the question: Is it an Acan, or Micromussa?

In case you missed it, Neptune just posted a video on their official Facebook group where they showed off a production version of the Trident and gave out the first two to a couple of their favorite reefers to begin testing. They said NSI testers should get notified in a few weeks about receiving their test units. Still no official launch date, but this seems like the most progress in over a year. Here's a link to the video: (you can skip to 20:00 to get to the Trident details)

I'm not sure. Perhaps we can get input from the recently published expert: Jeff @CuttleFishandCoral

I probably went a bit overboard, but I bought spares for most of the critical parts for my system, including my return pump, powerheads, and utility pumps. Rather than just keeping the spares on a shelf, I rotate them each time I do maintenance. This allows me to just swap out a pump quickly and then take my time cleaning the removed pump. i still need to get a spare Apex 2016 though. I’ve been hoping to find a used one.

My acan colony is doing really well, with great coloration and polyp extension. Take a look at how it moves in the water flow:

So where's your update Brian???