20 // UNS // SPS
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OP
OP
fissues
New Member
I've been editing in front of the tank all day, so I took a break and snapped a proper photograph of the new additions...
Got 'em from a Chicago local who sells out of his apartment. I realized when I showed up that he used to be a customer at the shop I was a photographer at a few years ago. Awesome dude.
I was also getting a lot of salinity/pH swings that corresponded with temperature fluctuations, so I took the time to recalibrate my probes for temperature compensation. Worked like a charm, and I highly recommend it if you're seeing the same swings. Also decided to rethink my chosen temp and go back up a couple degrees to the standard ~78°F, especially with the higher summer temps and the preference to keep the windows open with nicer weather.
I'm starting to run out of things that would bother me being away from the tank for extended periods of time. Stoked about that.
Got 'em from a Chicago local who sells out of his apartment. I realized when I showed up that he used to be a customer at the shop I was a photographer at a few years ago. Awesome dude.
I was also getting a lot of salinity/pH swings that corresponded with temperature fluctuations, so I took the time to recalibrate my probes for temperature compensation. Worked like a charm, and I highly recommend it if you're seeing the same swings. Also decided to rethink my chosen temp and go back up a couple degrees to the standard ~78°F, especially with the higher summer temps and the preference to keep the windows open with nicer weather.
I'm starting to run out of things that would bother me being away from the tank for extended periods of time. Stoked about that.
OP
OP
fissues
New Member
I figure I should have a baseline of my water before the coral actually starts growing, so I did my first first actual set of tests on this setup.
Reef Crystals - I know it's pretty basic salt and there are tons of "better" designer salts out there now, but I've had poor experiences even with high end salts in the past, so at this point in my career I adhere to the "pick something and use it" mentality. Even my old shop, which grew tons of SPS, used Instant Ocean after a terrible batch of Tropic Marin nuked a bunch of our coral (Alk tested > 15 dKH out of the bag) . After the switch we didn't have a single issue the following 4 years I was in charge of testing our systems. More importantly RC is available at any generic pet store nearby.
Red Sea Test Kits - I was always a Salifert guy, but I was able to snag these for free from a friend. Brand new in box.
Calcium: 440 ppm
Alkalinity: 10.5 dKH
Magnesium: 1300 ppm
I think my long term idea is to spend the extra money and send samples out to get lab tested once every month or 2 to cover my a##.
Also, is there some sort of profanity clause on here?... Or... ? Lol
Reef Crystals - I know it's pretty basic salt and there are tons of "better" designer salts out there now, but I've had poor experiences even with high end salts in the past, so at this point in my career I adhere to the "pick something and use it" mentality. Even my old shop, which grew tons of SPS, used Instant Ocean after a terrible batch of Tropic Marin nuked a bunch of our coral (Alk tested > 15 dKH out of the bag) . After the switch we didn't have a single issue the following 4 years I was in charge of testing our systems. More importantly RC is available at any generic pet store nearby.
Red Sea Test Kits - I was always a Salifert guy, but I was able to snag these for free from a friend. Brand new in box.
Calcium: 440 ppm
Alkalinity: 10.5 dKH
Magnesium: 1300 ppm
I think my long term idea is to spend the extra money and send samples out to get lab tested once every month or 2 to cover my a##.
Also, is there some sort of profanity clause on here?... Or... ? Lol
Devaji
5000 Club Member
love it!
I agree about a well built plywood stand. curious how you are or did build the door for it.
I have thought about a UNS tank and glass over flow how often do you clean it? I think it would get full of coralline algae once the tank get rocking?
keep the updates coming!
oh nice photog skills I dabble myself, yet another expencive hobby :/
I agree about a well built plywood stand. curious how you are or did build the door for it.
I have thought about a UNS tank and glass over flow how often do you clean it? I think it would get full of coralline algae once the tank get rocking?
keep the updates coming!
oh nice photog skills I dabble myself, yet another expencive hobby :/
OP
OP
fissues
New Member
Thank you!
I actually still have not done the door yet lol. I had the perfect hinges, and then I realized that if I put the door on hinges the space rug in front of the stand would prevent me from swinging the door open... So I'm thinking I'll use magnets instead of hinges and fully remove the door when I need to look inside. I'm totally fine with that concept, but I have way too much other non tank-related stuff to do before I care too much about the stand having a door.
I love the concept of the Mame glass overflow, I just haven't quite gotten it to auto start the siphon just yet. I'm fairly certain I got a slightly defective unit, so I've got a fix I found in another thread somewhere, I just need to find a couple small parts first. It's been really good about holding siphon on its own though and I have leak detectors in the apex... As for cleaning, I'm gonna give it a really heavy bleach bath once every 1-2 weeks or so before any of the heavy algae starts growing. I used to bleach quarantine tanks all the time, so I know how to neutralize it quickly so I can toss it right back on. I'll have to do that for the first time in a few days. It usually takes care of algae really easily.
And yeah, photography is definitely expensive... Doing it full time always has me waiting for the next gear purchase, but I've been good at holding off until I really need something. I've got plenty more where those shots came from. Maybe I'll post some of my previous macro work sometime.
Devaji
5000 Club Member
I have a 40br and I used cold rolled still to skin a metal stand and used magnets to hold it on. it works pretty well. there are some epoxy coated rare earth magnets that are thin but strong I'll look into finding where i got them from might help you?
yeah bleach or vinegar bi weekly was my plan if I was gonna use a glass over flow.
do let us know how it goes!
Very nice. Looking forward to watching this progress. 
Steven Garland
Valuable Member
So much #winning. Definitely following along. This is perfect.
OP
OP
fissues
New Member
That sounds like a cool stand. Actually I found some small magnets that you can drill for each of the corners and they have an inner and outer section that sit inside each other. It's hard to explain but I'll find the package. They should support the weight just fine.
Thanks! I'm excited to start sticking more fish and acros.Very nice. Looking forward to watching this progress.
Thanks! You should totally go for it. That dimension is awesome.
Thanks man! Hourly I don't screw it up
Thanks! Right now, I've got Hawkins Echinata (my personal favorite), Tyree Pink Lemonade (for sentimental reasons, cuz I nursed a tiny frag at my previous employer into a giant mother colony), and I can't remember the name of the third one. I'm gonna message the seller and get the name/lineage.
The plan is to go with increasingly more rare pieces, color varieties that follow the color scheme I'm after.
Thanks man! I'm gonna try
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OP
OP
fissues
New Member
So I'm back from my 8 day trip... Stoked to say everything worked awesome and the tank is doing great. It was so nice to be able to check up on the Apex and verify everything was working properly.
I was also able to keep a close eye with this Foscam wifi camera... I chose it because it was the only one under $100 to have 4x optical zoom so I could get a little more detail if I needed.
You can probably see that the corals are all starting to lighten up a bit...
I saw this beginning to happen just before I left, so I lowered the lighting intensity to ~30% at max for about 5 hours (down from 40%). I also tested for nitrates and was delighted to see that they're almost not even registering on my Tropic Marin test kit.
I'm definitely not trying to keep them that low, but this means the 8x8x4 Marinepure block is actually housing some denitrifying bacteria that's helping consume nitrates. So now I can start feeding some coral food regularly and I shouldn't have to worry so much about nitrate levels (though even if I do get too much nitrate, I have a plan for that as well).
I think I'm gonna go pick up some Oyster Feast and LRS Reef Frenzy and start feeding switching off with a little every day or so. That's been my favorite combination for years now.
I also added a couple Scarlett hermits and Trochus snails to help with the new algae growth, but my older red leg hermits have already eaten a couple snails whatever though.
Next up, more fish.
I was also able to keep a close eye with this Foscam wifi camera... I chose it because it was the only one under $100 to have 4x optical zoom so I could get a little more detail if I needed.
You can probably see that the corals are all starting to lighten up a bit...
I saw this beginning to happen just before I left, so I lowered the lighting intensity to ~30% at max for about 5 hours (down from 40%). I also tested for nitrates and was delighted to see that they're almost not even registering on my Tropic Marin test kit.
I'm definitely not trying to keep them that low, but this means the 8x8x4 Marinepure block is actually housing some denitrifying bacteria that's helping consume nitrates. So now I can start feeding some coral food regularly and I shouldn't have to worry so much about nitrate levels (though even if I do get too much nitrate, I have a plan for that as well).
I think I'm gonna go pick up some Oyster Feast and LRS Reef Frenzy and start feeding switching off with a little every day or so. That's been my favorite combination for years now.
I also added a couple Scarlett hermits and Trochus snails to help with the new algae growth, but my older red leg hermits have already eaten a couple snails whatever though.
Next up, more fish.
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