New MONSTER AquaMaxx ConeS CO-3 Protein Skimmer

So, I have been pretty happy with my Bubble Magus Curve 7 Skimmer: it was easy to set up, quiet, skimmed well and I liked the wine-glass body design a lot. However, I have horrible feeding habits and my nitrates are consistently high. My high bio-load and my over-feeding was just too much for the Curve 7 to handle. I figured that it was time to go big or go home.

After looking over all the skimmers on the market, I decided to go with the AquaMaxx ConeS CO-3. What sold me was the huge 8" diameter body, the nice Italian Sicce pump, the great reviews and the cool "conical diffusers" that look like little rocketships.

I thought (and still think) the Bubble Magus is a nice skimmer, but this new AquaMaxx is definitely on another level. The nice cast acrylic, all the heavy-duty CNC machined parts and the sweet Sicce pump. Having the two skimmers side-by-side, you can definitely tell the difference between a "nice" and an "AWESOME" skimmer. The Curve 7 is like a Honda Accord, while the CO-3 is like a fully-loaded Mercedes S-Class with laser cruise-control and messaging chairs.

The skimmer is breaking in and is doing a great job. The little diffusers do seem to reduce the amount the turbulence in the reaction chamber: which is suppose to improve skimming. Thus far, I'm definitely glad that I went ahead with the upgrade!

Reefapalooza 2013

So, I was looking forward to RAP to take pictures of new equipment, nice display tanks and cool corals... however, I couldn't help myself from picking out sweet frags from all the livestock vendors. Some of these include Chucky's Bride, Pink Elephants, Bam Bams, Orange Mauls and Naked Clowns... ooh la la. Had a great time there and left with my wallet feeling a lot lighter, lol...

So purrrddyyyy... can't resist

Being a reef addict, I'm always looking at my tank for spaces that NEED to be filled. As I'm sure you all know... corals these days are sold as either tiny frags on little frag plugs, or outrageously-priced colonies that you need to take out a loan for. When I saw these pieces, at very affordable prices, I just couldn't resist...

MaxSpect Nano Razor LED.. and my new Solana

So, I guess I'm just not meant for pico reefs. The temperature always fluctuated too much and water quality was just never as good as I liked. While browsing on www.SoCaliReefs.com, I found a tank that was perfect: an used 34-gallon Solana AIO (all-in-one).

The Nano Razor I had was perfect for this 20" x 20" x 20" cube: seemed like it was just meant to be. While the tank was in great shape, the stand that came with it needed some work. After a long afternoon in the garage, the stand was chopped down to a comfortable 27" height and was sanded and repainted to look as good as new! Water and sand was taken from my 150-gallon aquarium and some cured liverock was placed into the back chamber for filtration to minimize the cycling time.

 Current inhabitants include 2 tank-bred ocellaris clownfish and 2 tank-bred "Maine Blizzard" clownfish.

Innovative Marine HydroFill Review

So.... I have been using my trusty OLD float switch for the longest time. However, somewhere in the back of my mind, I was always worried that a snail would get on it or the float would somehow get stuck and I'd come home to a flooded sump with all my fish and corals dead.

Finally, I decided it was time to upgrade to a fail-proof and reliable top-off system. Three ATO's that I considered were the Tunze Osmolator, the Elos Osmocontroller and the Innovative Marine HydroFill. After much consideration, I decided to go with the IM HydroFill. Although it was the most costly, $199 for the controller and $99 for the pump, it also seemed the most durable and the most reliable. 

 

 

The system came complete with EVERYTHING needed for the installation. They IM HydroFill uses two sensors to detect the water level: one for the high-point and one for the low-point. Each sensor has two graphite electrodes. You are able to set your own high-and-low points by positioning the two sensors: which are attached to the sump with nice magnet mounts. Advantages of having two sensors and a total of four non-mechanical electrodes are that it's pretty much impossible for it to fail and small waves in your sump will not affect the ATO. The IM HydroFill pump is also quite impressive. It feels nice and sturdy and can pump up to 15 feet! Definitely a nice upgrade over the cheap AquaLifter pump that I am currently using.  The pump also came with 10 feet of high-quality silicone tubing as well as a couple of brackets (one for the pump and one for the return tubing), three clamps and other parts for installation: they sure thought of everything.

Installation was extremely easy and only took about 20 minutes. It took so long only because I had to remove the old top-off system and was watching Miss Hong Kong on TV while installing the top-off. lol... Simply mount the two sensors at your desired levels (it does not matter which sensor is high and which sensor is low), clip the pump to the side of your reservoir, mount the HydroFill module somewhere in your stand, connect all the tubing and plug everything in. It is just about as simple as it can get. Kudos for Innovative Marine for making it so easy!

With the new top-off system in place, I can now sleep easier at night and no longer have to worry about snails in my refugium/sump getting to the float or worry about the float failing or getting stuck. I definitely would not hesitate to recommend the Innovative Marine HydroFill to anyone else looking for a high-quality, dependable top-off.

It IS all about the size!

Well, my little 4-gallon aquarium was not as healthy as I like. Unfortunately, due to the small volume of water, the parameters were just not as stable. Temperature, especially, was quite difficult to control and had a negative effect on the inhabitants.

So, back to the drawing board I go. I decided to go with a larger aquarium to achieve for greater stability.... here comes the CAD Lights low-iron glass 10-gallon. While I was at it, I decided that I'd upgrade the lighting as well. Back to the old trusty MaxSpect Razor: this time a Nano Razor. I really like the spectrum and the ease of programming on these so it was an easy choice. At 60W max power, it also provides enough light for whatever I may decide to keep down the  road.

The current inhabitants include a large rose bubble anemone and a valentini puffer. Pair of designer clowns will be coming soon :)

Fuzzy Wuzzies

Now that the tank is starting to mature, I'm finally ready for some fuzzy sticks. Most of these SPS come from tanks with different lighting (either metal halides or the sun, mari-cultured), so have lightened in color or have browned-out somewhat: as expected.  Hopefully,  they'll acclimate to my awesome AI Hydras soon and start coloring up: )

AI Hydra versus Vega

The long-awaited AI Hydra LED lights have finally arrived. Was able to borrow an AI Vega for comparison. The Hydra's LED mix has a wider spectrum with violet and UV LED's added while losing the  couple of higher-spectrum blue LED's and a couple of royal blues. Additionally,  the center white LED is a 3W on the Hydra versus 5W on the Vega. The lens on the Hydra is also textured for better color blending. There are numerous other differences as well... including a $100 cheaper price tag; which I definitely like.
From my understanding, the Vega better simulates a shallow reef being that it's brighter and has higher-spectrum LED's: which makes the it better for SPS tanks. The Hydra with it's violet and UV LED's better simulates a deeper reef and should work great for mix-reefs.
On to the review... I really like these new lights. Being one that LOVES blue-color lighting and fluorescing corals, I am really enjoying the addition of the deeper-spectrum LED's. They sure do a great job making the corals GLOW! The Vega's lens does give the light a sharper look, but I must say that I have a strong preference for the Hydra's LED mix. Both lights do cause a noticeable 'disco effect' on the sand bed
: even with the lights being about 11" above the water level. I think my strong surface agitation contributes quite a bit towards that issue. Personally, I don't really care for the red and green LED's: they will never be used at more than 25% and I think it further worsens the 'disco effect'. Instead of having white/red/green LED's, I would have preferred a simple mix of warm and cool white LED's (like what are on the MaxSpect Razors). It has only been a few days but so far the corals are responding very well and I am very happy with the new lights. Time will tell how they fair with the more sensitive acroporas.
The AI Rail Kit is a great idea, but poorly executed. The short legs included were fairly useless. With 3 fixtures over a 5-foot tank, I was getting A TON of shadowing and very poor coverage. I guess they don't really expect anyone to use the legs. Since I didn't want to hang the lights, I decided to fabricate a set of mounts to elevate the fixture by about 8". I am pretty happy with the way they turned out: aesthically and functionally.

Oldie but a goodie

Finally had time to set up my auto top off. Can't believe my 10+ year-old Ultralife float switch still works like a charm. No more adding water to the tank EVERYDAY...  yeah! The 10 gallon reservoir is hidden inside a Lane Chest along with all the stuff I can't inside the stand. An AquaLifter handles the duty of pumping the water from the reservoir to the sump.

Some have rose gardens...

I have flower beds..  Here's Christine's garden of flowerpot (goniopora) corals.. Regular target feedings of Reef-Roids and Goniopower are keeping them happy and growing.

My Growing Euphoria of Euphyllias...

The field of euphyllias is start to fill up nicely... frogspawn, hammers, anchors, torches.... love how they sway back and forth with the water. I would have to say that my favorite is the Australian Gold Torch: fortunately, their tentacles are not as long as other torch corals so they are less likely to sting nearby corals.

 



CoralChopping...

Chopped up a few zoas and palys today... I guess I should have grabbed my camera earlier... in a week or so, I'll have some nicely healed frags to trade : ) Here is how I'm "motivating" my mushroom to split so I can frag it. The rubber band works like a charm for mushrooms.

The "Mooosh" Pit

Amazing how many different colors, shapes and sizes mushrooms come in.. here is just a tiny selection of yumas,  ricordia, rhodactis and others. Would love to have a 'jawbreaker' one day.

DIY'd and transformed...

The EcoPico is a great little light.. at 3W, it just didn't cut mustard. With a little work of the soldering iron and $15 in parts, the little scrawny light has been transformed in to a 12W par monster... yes, my supervisor was on hand to make sure the workmanship was up to snuff.