20gallon long tranformed into a 48gallon cube! Soon two cubes = 120g

[Miami Reef]

MOAR? What's that mean?

It’s an inside joke for a group of members on this forum. It’s supposed to mean ”more,” but I’m not sure why they spell it like that.

 

[Miami Reef]

Try not to cringe challenge lol

All I did was search “moar”

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Ok so I'm sold on the alkatronic, im setting up one for this system since I've been having a good experience on my 120 with it.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I got this alkatronic set up in half the time lol, and now I have a method for weighing out the reagent, im surprised how close it was to my hanna testers, I still calibrated it to the Hanna, the one on my other tank was so consistent with manual tests I have it correcting alkalinity and consumption has picked up since installing it and adjusting dosing times, I am seeing a difference.

It helps take some work off me and gives me peace of mind if I miss a few days of testing I'll be better off I need to make a shelf inside the stand for the reagent, when the tanks converge it will go by the new sump.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Fts's

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

blue light special top down pics.

 

[Miami Reef]

Lots of pop!

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

New tank and sump are doing good, running a short light cycle(8hr). The light is not as intrusive in person but it does need a light shield, that i will be doing soon. The system has exploded with pods and starting to grow a little coraline algae on the abs. I haven't checked alk or any parameters other than temp and salinity once. Using extremely low dose of kalk dripping 3700ml a day @about 1/4 teaspoon a gallon in a 7gallon bucket.

I got a small mandarin goby from lfs for free about 2weeks ago, he is injured on his gill spike, but he is healing and doing pretty good. I just got him some "mandarin goby feed pods" from algae barn and he had a great feast! When he is all heald up I believe he will go in the main tank to help cut down the amphipod population, fingers crossed for him.

The sump set up is great, so far its working out good for me, I'm excited it's still a work in progress and I still need to "clean things up"

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Paletta pink just looking crazy in blues

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I was trying to be proactive and clear out some sticks that were getting close, and this little mini colony snapped at the base, it was growing bad, allot of growth and a small base, but also the skeleton is on the brittle side so I need to see about that.

I had a very hard time gluing and using epoxy to secure this back to the rock work, hopefully it doesn't die off on me. I didn't want to frag it up because I love the growth pattern. I did take one frag on a plug.

It's hard to tell in pictures but if it grows where it's at on the left side, that would be great.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I haven't thrown enough monkey wrenches at this system yet!

So on the existing tank I haven't been satisfied with the lighting, adding the t5 to the ap9x has helped allot, and the xho helped a little more, and I love the color mix but there's to many shadows and I don't think there's enough light.

I just got the ati straton for the tank to see if it's a better fit for this tank size. Full panel over point source for this tank

I luckily have the new tank set up (both tanks are the exact same for any wondering) and this allows me to get pretty good par points and the ability to tweak the lighting schedule and colors befor doing the light switch, hopefully giving the corals a better chance to adapt. I'm trying to match the same schedule and similar colors.

I've only messed with the light for a couple of hours(lol) its not very user friendly, I need to mess with it more .

I'm looking forward to this light, and the ap9x will go on my 120, which I'm very excited for. I need to get this light working right first. So far from what I can tell it's a nice light I like the colors and spread and it has a little shimmer, at one point I was getting over 500 on the bottom.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Coraline algae is growing fast, actually faster than I've had before, I'd say it's because of the live rock and the abs bottom, but I really think it's because of the kalkwasser. Idk but alkalinity is around 12dkh right now.

Hopefully in a few short months I can tie the tanks together!

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

ATI straton! I'm taking all day to try and match basic color and intensity and adding a little flare to it with color manipulation and adding a little extra par, it's looking like about 9-10" off the water is getting a good spread. It took a while to get this light hooked up on the web interface but now working with it I really like it. It's super sleek and looks good but I'm getting ideas of a floating open top hood maybe idk it's still very bright to the eyes being in the front room, but the diffuser does help.

The coraline algae is growing in good on this new tank, there's none in the all glass 11gallon and none on the glass of this tank, but the abs is getting covered, it may be related.

I think I might add a few fish to help it along in the process, it does have the goby, who is doing much better, the skin is healing over its gill plate, but I think I might go to the lfs today and see what going on

So far the build is on track and having the alkatronic has helped stable out the existing tank it's been on a consumption increase lately.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Just testing it out on this tank making up the schedule

 

[Projects with Sam]

Just testing it out on this tank making up the schedule

Tank looks sharp! I think coralline grows on plastics before glass.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Tank looks sharp! I think coralline grows on plastics before glass.

It does 4 sure, another reason the last 3 BB tanks I've put this abs on the bottom and have seen the difference in time for the tank to get up and running, the kp live rock doesn't hurt either.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

The frag tank is doing great, alk has dropped and is now taking kalk daily. I cut a piece of green slimer last night, just to test the waters and it survived the 24hrs, this will be my canary, so don't worry about the rock or broken tile, it's all good.

This tank had salt added on 12/18/22

If your wondering about the awesome tile frag holders, that even hold a broken tile sturdy on a rock, contact @Projects with Sam

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

48g lately, the algae is starting to die off.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

The frag tank is doing great I'm getting the plumbing closer in preparation, I will be tieing them in soon within the next month or so, fingers crossed!

I will be putting a few more frags in this tank, it had a few dinos pop up, after putting the green slimer in, they are trying to start up so I will see what happens with that.

Also SELLING this zoa rock if anyone's interested, but probably bringing it into lfs b4 2 long.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

man this tank has been on the back burner just getting no attention, I still haven't connected the tanks together yet, the tank has been going through algae and cyano for the past few months, but its still chugging along.

I will be connecting them probably next year lol, good news is the new tank system is maturing along and should make putting them together easier. idk like I said back burner lol