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04/20/2018, 01:12 PM | #176 | |
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04/22/2018, 06:19 PM | #177 | |
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04/22/2018, 07:36 PM | #178 | |
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04/22/2018, 07:39 PM | #179 | |
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04/22/2018, 08:28 PM | #180 | |
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I have been hearing some have issues with heat transfer to the reactors.. Have you had any issues and if not how did you prevent it? I have reactor and I have ordered some led grow strip lights.
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04/22/2018, 09:22 PM | #181 | |
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04/22/2018, 10:12 PM | #182 |
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Thanks for picture of the sea swirl, appreciated. I'll have to do something with mine. They are using just the elbow at the moment. Your picture is giving me some ideas.
I also have pukani rock and you are right - phosphate holder. I had the rock outside in a bit and dosed LC daily rinsing in between and it is still reading .25 on my Hanna checker this am. I thought most of it would be gone but I guess the rock doesn't want to let it go completely. I'm going to do a water change this week so will measure again after that and see if it stays down. If not then I'll have to find a way to dose in the display. Which brings me to a question if you don't mind. Are you dosing in the display and if so how are you capturing the residual? I don't have any filter socks so not sure how I can dose if so and contain the white film or whatever it is that occurs after. Oh - one last question, sorry. It may be stupid at that. Does the reactor with cheto in it actually help at all? I mean is it pulling nutrients or enough I mean based on the flow rate though it or am I not understanding how it works? I'm guessing it works along the lines of a algae / turf scrubber.
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04/23/2018, 07:26 AM | #183 | |
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With the Pukani there are two things to keep in mind. Having crashed two tanks with it already the key is to be patient and don't rush....lol. Depending on the brand of LC you are using it may seem like it is taking forever. I like SeaKlear its a little more expensive but the concentration is higher. If you are using a trashcan like I was get a 10 micron filter sock to catch the particulate that will be created. I dosed 10 ml in a 30 gallon trash bin. Straight LC no diluting since it was not in a tank. The water will turn milky white for sure. Wait 4-5 days measure phosphate then do a 100% water change. When the phosphates starts to hold for a few days you are making progress. I found out that the once I did this a few times the levels started to equalize. When the phosphate held at a low level for more than 5 days I knew I was close. When I brought the ultra low tester and it stayed at 7 for a week I was very happy. The last water changed I did it think it was at 5 or something and i was cool with that. So far in the display my old tester still reads 0.00 ppm and based on past experience this is great. I am not currently dosing anything in the main display. I am running the chaeto reactor and that the other reactor has the GFO in it because I was scared from past experiences...lol. So to recap be patient...lol. Once you put it in your display (if it's not ready) it's a pain with algae and other issues if you rush it. I will dig up some old pictures to show how fast it goes downhill. If you choose to dose in your display I would suggest you use a 10 micron filter sock. I used a filter sock in conjunction with the Two Little Fishes reactor filled with cotton and that stuff still was present in the water in the trashcan. When I moved to main display I actually rinsed the rock off with fresh water to make there was not residue on the rock. I think the reactor is doing something it is similar to an algae/turf scrubber. I have a DIY version I may put on my frag tank that I had on my old 180. I am messing with the LED's to light it now. The Cheato reactor is just another nutrient export mechanism so you guessed correctly . Based on some of the videos BRStv Investigates videos (I love this series) it can have some impact. I do not know how much of an impact it has currently, but I think its a good addition to the tank. I think once I start getting stuff in the tank and feeding heavy I will quickly find out. Also no question is stupid except the ones you don't ask. Part of the reason RC is so great is that we can share information with each other and its FREE .
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04/23/2018, 07:28 AM | #184 | |
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i am planing on running mine reverse of my main light to help with ph. Thank you very much, i am enjoying your build and it is giving me some ideas on my new build.
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04/23/2018, 08:12 AM | #185 | |
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Since nothing is in my tank currently and I have not been running the lights I am just running every four hours. I did turn on the lights this past weekend when I picked up some new critters for the display. Did not take long at all for the pretty white rock to start turning brown...lol. Eventually with kalk I hope to keep the ph elevated. Once the tank is packed with corals I think I will try a calcium reactor. Glad I could help!
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04/29/2018, 09:27 PM | #186 |
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Main display is coming along. I have been running the lights a few hours each day to get some algae growing to feed the snails I picked up recently. The chaeto reactor is humming along pretty nicely. The pods are doing well and the Ocean Magik is almost gone so once that is gone the pods should have been weened off of it. I can see them on the glass in both the display and the frag tank. My QT tanks tank needs to be plumbed and I am waiting on a glass drill bit to arrive. I will have a new update tomorrow but in the meantime here is what has happened in the last week or so.
General Updates 04/21/2018 - Critter Run/Frag Update So I have been looking at my tank daily to see if anything is changing or growing and decided I wanted to go on a little critter run. There were a few LFS's I wanted to check out to start getting a lay of the land on who has good healthy fish within a reasonable driving distance. I hoped in my truck and Checked out Reef Escape, Centreville Aquarium, and Supreme Reef. I picked up a few things on my trip. All critters were placed in the main display. I also had a package arrive on Saturday with an Iron test, Magnesium supplement and some two part.04/24/2018 - QT Tank Stand Since my back table has limited space I wanted a smaller footprint for QT. I have two 10 gal tanks I want to stack to use as my QT. My goal was to be able to break down the set up when not and use and have it not take up too much space. So I went to my workshop and played around with a few ideas until I sketched something that I thought would work. My first revision is pretty sturdy. I was able to stand on the stand and it held my weight. I am kinda happy with the results. I just need to paint/seal it. I needed some plumbing parts and ordered those as well. Below is my two part stand that folds to save space. Using a combination of pocket holes and dowel joinery I made a pretty sturdy stand.
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04/30/2018, 07:23 AM | #187 |
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You got some pretty good carpentry skills.
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04/30/2018, 09:06 AM | #188 |
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Thanks man! I just like building stuff. I sit behind a desk most of the day so it's my way to relax and be creative .
Here is a teaser of what my next update later to night will be about IMG_2873 by LifeThrough_TheLense, on Flickr
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04/30/2018, 09:05 PM | #189 |
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Frag Updates
04/29/2018 - Frag Tank Updates
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05/13/2018, 04:44 AM | #190 |
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Awesome build....definitely following!
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05/14/2018, 02:37 PM | #191 | |
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General Updates Not too much has been going on. I have been killing more corals. I am giving up on them for a while until I can figure out what is the root case besides me...lol. My Seneye arrived and I will use it sometime this week to figure out a light intensity that is not going to kill my corals. Currently I am just running the lights on a very low blue. I am excited to try out light meter based on the BRS review its pretty accurate so this will help with me getting the color and intensity I want. 05/13/2018 - Triton Water Results Frag Tank
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05/22/2018, 12:47 AM | #192 |
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Thank you for doing this! Your build quality is inspiring!
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05/29/2018, 09:40 AM | #193 |
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Any updates?
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06/03/2018, 05:51 AM | #194 |
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Took me a few days, but finally read every post in this thread! Your attention to detail and craftsmanship is astounding! Now I’ll be waiting for updates!
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06/12/2018, 05:49 PM | #195 | |
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AOmegaX - Thanks for the kind words.
shred5 - I have been a little behind but slowly making progress. Quote:
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06/12/2018, 07:18 PM | #196 |
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Looking very good!
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06/12/2018, 09:48 PM | #197 |
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biecacka - Thanks for the kind words!
It’s been a while and it’s that time of the year where things are pretty hectic so things may be a little slow but I am still plugging along. I have been keeping up with water changes on the frag tank and monitoring the water quality. I have been fighting elevated levels of Alk in the frag tank and can’t figure out why since regular IO is so low. I have stopped dosing daily amounts of Alk, Cal, and Mag and recently the Alk levels have subsided. Also for any reefer using LEDs the Seneye is the best thing since sliced bread for accurately finding your par readings and for only $200 its way more accurate than the Apogee meter. Like I mentioned before BRS did a head to head test with a very expensive meter and it held its own. Frags in the frog tank are sorta in a limbo state where they are not dying but not thriving. Coralline algae is starting to appear on the bottom of the tank and some of the corals are encrusting. Everything is very pale but it has been weeks since I created a new soldier to the arm. With the help of the Seneye I have brought the par down to a reasonable level. The main display is plugging along as well. My LC treatment really helped with the Pukani rock. So far I have not had a huge algae outbreak. In the past with the amount of light I am using the main tank would have been a great green mound by now. I keep testing the phosphate levels and when they rise a bit I swap out the GFO to bring them back down. The rock must not be leaching as much anymore because the Cheato is not really growing much and I feed the tank daily. So a few updates… 05/05/2018 - Used MP10 Wireless and Bubble Magnus Doser 05/15/2018 - 748S911 Stopped By
05/23/2018 - QT Set-up IMG_3047 by LifeThrough_TheLense, on Flickr I will update more tomorrow..
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06/13/2018, 01:17 PM | #198 | |
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I understand completely. My new system has been set up since January. I didn't even turn the lights on for two months. I still have only a few fish and do not think I will get to it till fall now. Was worried though something went wrong with your system.
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06/13/2018, 07:48 PM | #199 | |
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General Updates 05/29/2018 - Water Defectors I am still tweaking the water levels in the main display. I have not figured out the exact water level but I plan to keep tweaking until I get to where I feel there is not an excessive amount of water draining back into the sump when I turn the pump off. The issue presents itself when I try to create a syphon break above the lowest point on the weir. It keeps the water from draining back into the sump but when the water comes back on there was too much splashing. To combat that I created some water deflectors to go on top on the returns. I will try to get better pictures of the deflectors. The ones I have were way too blurry. They are basically large triangles that allow me to keep the two returns closest to the weirs out of the water without splashing too much. I glued them in place and hopefully they will stay on since I only used some super glue gel. 06/01/2018 - BRS Order Arrived I “needed” a few things for the main tank so for Mother’s Day I placed and order . I’m sure there are some mothers in the tank that would be very happy I cared enough to think of them…lol. BRS Investigates gets the credit for me switching to multiple stage DI resin. The water in the area of MD where I am is very hard on filters and resin. When I used just the standard mixed resin my machine would burn through the resin much faster. Now that I am using three stages I am seeing much better results and my TDS meter is still reading 0. I am really happy I decided to try the new approach. I ordered some new filters, resin, Amino Acid, Hanna Cuvettes, Hanna Alk Reagent, a Potassium Test, tips for the doser I picked up, and an Avast Marine Works Kalk Stirrer. I plan on using the Kalk Stirrer on the main display and repairing my old one for the Frag tank.06/02/2018 - First Fish Arrive
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06/14/2018, 09:56 PM | #200 |
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General Updates
06/03/2018 - Lunch and Field Trip 06/11/2018 - More Projects and Critter Transfer to Display
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