Triple-S Fish Ranch - 1700gal 164” x 48” x 56” SPS peninsula build

[Gig 'em]

Hey hey! I still have Nordic blood, Ty was the one making all the comments about shaking knees! It was a pleasure to be part of such a monumental moment in this tank build. Ty and I were both worried about the skittles granulosa being so close to the source of the hydrowizard flow, hopefully it isn't too far gone and will be able to make a rebound.

While the pictures certainly are impressive, the tank is more exquisitely grand in person Paul. What an amazing setup and impeccably designed system/room you have. The only things you need now are more corals and a trophy Heteractis magnifica anemone!

-John

[AkoAung]

That looks great! nitrates at 5 doesn't sound so bad if you can keep it in that range. Some people have trouble raising it to that level. A lot of tanks with great color SPS have single-digit nitrates.

[delmo]

Looking good! Glad to hear you're making progress.
I don't know what I would do without my methanol denitrator, but I have never heard of one being used on a tank over 500g. I have too many fish, and overfeed the fatties, and my denitrator keeps the Nitrates at or below 2.5!
PMROGERS. If you have a need for another LMIII and Remote pump, I have a freshly rebuilt set on the cheap. Pm if interested.
Great job on moving in the new tenants!

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[kciN]

Love this tank build. Anymore updates?

[Darthv247]

Amazing build and tank!

My only suggestion would be to add more places for bacteria to populate. The reason for the socks clogging is insufficient places for them to populate so they are having to overpopulate the socks. Definately need more.rock or lots of blocks. may as well do something with that massive sump. No sand bed and sparse rocks in DT is leaving no room for denitrification.

regards

[ReefKeeper64]

I just found your build thread and it's an amazing journey to say the least. Your DT and the room it exists in are beautiful. The furniture and tank go together very well. A great setup for entertaining. Ok, I'm really jealous, I admit it. LOL!

[Lowefx]

Any updates???

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[FLSharkvic]

@pmrogers - do you have your UVlights hooked up to your saltwater container or do you have it hooked up to your fresh water container?

[Maverick1]

So, if they fart in the tank, will you have to do a water change?


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[fishdip22]

Originally Posted by Maverick1

So, if they fart in the tank, will you have to do a water change?


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Just don't pee in the pool

[webersole]

Wow and Impressive! Just read this whole thread. I love the detailed updates on both the successes and failures. Very informative! Thank you for creating this thread for us.

[Lowefx]

@pmrogers Please take some pictures and update us with information. Thank you.

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[pmrogers]

Originally Posted by Lowefx

@pmrogers Please take some pictures and update us with information. Thank you.

Hey @Lowefx, I will update with pictures next time I'm in Austin in October.

Short update is that not much has changed as I put the system into 'suspend' mode about 3 months ago. I decided to delay retirement and go for one more turn of the crank in startup land. We are still keeping the Austin house and planning to retire there, but now there will be a roughly 4 year delay while I build out the new company in NYC. I'm now living mostly in Manhattan, with only 5 days a month in Austin. My husband very generously agreed to take on most of the system maintenance, but it would be unreasonable to ask him to also deal with growing the system, so all quarantines are shut down except for the Coral QT, and it is not taking any new additions.

Quick update is that the fish are all doing wonderfully well, and chemistry has been very stable on the Alk, Ca, and Nitrates front. Corals still are not thriving in the DT, but have been doing okay. Pics in a few weeks.

Best Regards,

[Lowefx]

That's fantastic! Thanks for the quick update! PM me if he needs help growing his businesses.

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[Chrisrush]

Great update Paul. Best of luck in NYC. Hope to catch up with you at some point when you are in Austin next. Please don't hesitate to call Ty, John or I if you need anything.

[jkwick]

Thinking of getting back into the hobby of reefing after 20+ years away. I was told by a few professionals that the technology has improved dramatically since that time, making the maintenance and resource commitment more doable and enjoyable. Reading Paul's thread begs the question whether the myriad of problems he has had is typical or atypical of marine aquariums. This from a guy with a wealth of personal experience and $$. Welcome any feedback

[Gig 'em]

Originally Posted by jkwick

Thinking of getting back into the hobby of reefing after 20+ years away. I was told by a few professionals that the technology has improved dramatically since that time, making the maintenance and resource commitment more doable and enjoyable. Reading Paul's thread begs the question whether the myriad of problems he has had is typical or atypical of marine aquariums. This from a guy with a wealth of personal experience and $$. Welcome any feedback

That's a very good question. I can't answer for Paul, but I've toured his tank set up in person and I've researched and talked to an academic researcher about the issues he's facing. We're currently hypothesizing microbial disease causes. Totally a hypothesis at the moment and there are many tests to be run to determine that, but I can personally attest to the tremendous success I have had in the past 5 years with corals compared to what I was dealing with 15 years ago when I first started. So yes, technology has certainly come a far way in the past 20 years and we can more successfully keep corals now than we could before. I think the situation with this tank is unique and we're still working to figure out exactly what is hindering coral health at the moment.

[jkwick]

Thanks Gig 'em. I am quite relieved to hear your answer. I had always heard that larger systems were easier i.e. more stable conditions, fewer fires to put out etc., but for Paul quite the opposite. I applaud his herculean effort to turn lemons into lemonade!

[iced98lx]

Originally Posted by pmrogers

Hey @Lowefx, I will update with pictures next time I'm in Austin in October.

Short update is that not much has changed as I put the system into 'suspend' mode about 3 months ago. I decided to delay retirement and go for one more turn of the crank in startup land. We are still keeping the Austin house and planning to retire there, but now there will be a roughly 4 year delay while I build out the new company in NYC. I'm now living mostly in Manhattan, with only 5 days a month in Austin. My husband very generously agreed to take on most of the system maintenance, but it would be unreasonable to ask him to also deal with growing the system, so all quarantines are shut down except for the Coral QT, and it is not taking any new additions.

Quick update is that the fish are all doing wonderfully well, and chemistry has been very stable on the Alk, Ca, and Nitrates front. Corals still are not thriving in the DT, but have been doing okay. Pics in a few weeks.

Best Regards,

The entrepreneurial drive isn't easy to get rid of. Better to dive back in vs sitting in retirement trying to figure out what to do with yourself. Glad your husband is willing to keep things steady for a few years until you're ready to dive back in.

[pmrogers]

As promised, an update with some pictures. No time to write my usual novella, but also not that much has changed. Highlights:

• Stable Chemistry: Water chemistry has been relatively stable. Salinity between 1.023 and 1.026, Alk between 6.5 and 9 never drifting more than one point in one week; calcium 440 to 500; Nitrates at 4 in the Coral QT, 6 to 8 in the DT; Phosphates 0.0 in both tanks; pH ranging from 7.95 to 8.2;
• Corals continue to struggle for the most part. You can see burnt tips, muted color, erratic bleaching in the pics. On the bright side, a yellow scroll coral that started bleaching in the DT has reversed its trend and started to regain color.
• Coraline algae still not thriving. Calcareous algae has yet to take off. I even introduced a few rocks with 15 years of thriving coraline in thick plates to each tank. Those rocks are maintaining, but nothing has significantly colonized elsewhere in the tanks.
• Fish are mostly thriving except for the yellow tangs. All of the 'delicate' fish are doing wonderfully well, but the school of 9 yellow tangs has dwindled down to 5, with only 2 of the remaining looking healthy. A double shame given the recent Hawaiian law; I wish I'd started with 20 or so and could have stabilized to 7 or 8.
• A beautiful 18" H. Magnifica that I introduced to the coral QT shortly before leaving for New York has not helped matters with the corals as it decided to be itinerate and loop the tank once a week, stinging everything along the way. It did finally settle down about 6 weeks ago and, knock wood, hasn't moved since then.

[Mishri]

Hmm.. I wonder if it's the lights? Your PAR might be fine, but the spectrum could be off.... -sps grows best under actinic lighting, high blues.. could be getting burned from too much white light... easy enough to test if someone can loan you an 8x T5 actinic setup for a section of your tank for a few weeks

[McPuff]

The vlamingi is incredible! How are the softies doing? Perhaps you just have to go with what you're given. Not a great insight but maybe it'll lead to something pretty great.

[kalkwasser]

This is what I call " Go BIG or Go Home.." Impressive! I love the systems layout.

[mike810]

Originally Posted by Mishri

Hmm.. I wonder if it's the lights? Your PAR might be fine, but the spectrum could be off.... -sps grows best under actinic lighting, high blues.. could be getting burned from too much white light... easy enough to test if someone can loan you an 8x T5 actinic setup for a section of your tank for a few weeks

Exactly what I was thinking!

[Lowefx]

@pmrogers Happy New Year. Hopefully you got that tank back on the correct path. It's been a few months, so we're curious about the fish, any changes, and see the progress on the coral! Keep us updated! Thank you.

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