75 gallon GlassCages build
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BAMatter
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Couple updates:
1) I decided to make mag and cal adjustments in the system. Going to bring mag up to 1420 from 1324 and cal up to 450 from 416. Mag is trending downward and cal is hovering within 10 points. Kalk will likely raise cal over time but will address that with a large water change down the road IF needed to restore ionic balance. Time will tell. I’m using ESV Magnesium and am dosing 116 ml’s 7 times, am/pm through Sunday night for a total of 812 ml’s. For calcium I have some BRS Sodium Chloride that will be 42 ml’s, same dosing as mag 7 times, total of 294 ml’s. I plan on shipping a Triton ICP out Monday morning.
2) Recirculating CO2 scrubber setup is giving me a headache. Too much condensation and moisture in the lines. Media is getting damp and clumping, and really becoming more of a hassle than the results I’m getting and the timeline they’re happening in. I’ve concluded that the ambient room temp is too low compared to system temp, and that’s what’s causing it all, even with a moisture trap, still no good. Im going to revert back to keeping it as a simple CO2 scrubber and will change media as needed*
*3) Due to the scrubber situations, I’ve been looking at my PH chart and trying to find a way to level it out some without dosing kalk PH based. This is my plan, once my mag and cal are corrected:
-Currently dosing kalk 24/7- .5ml/min for a total of 720ml’s. I believe that when my scrubber is working well this helps achieve the higher PH, but it still swings about .16 + daily. In addition, I’m currently dosing ESV B-Ionic 2 part, 11.7ml’s daily over 24 hours. My alkalinity has been 8.9dkh.
-Ive crunched the numbers on a 50/50 split between kalkwasser and ESV 2 part, based off of 85 total gallons, and a .58dkh drop daily. It comes out to 795mls of kalk for a .29dkh maintenance and 11mls of ESV 2 part for a .29dkh maintenance. That said, after looking at my PH charts, im going to dose my kalkwasser from 9:00pm-9:00 at a rate of 1.1ml/min, and will dose ESV 2 part from 9:00am-9:00pm. Im not comfortable with dosing PH based at night and 2 part during the day due to large CO2 level changes in my house that I’ve observed through PH swings (friends over, windows open, etc) It’s my hope that doing it this way will help bring the nightly PH floor up a bit, and lower the daily PH ceiling a bit. Another day of trying to fine tune my reef, I suppose.
(Can see in pic a large valley of PH drop from having some people over last weekend, and also see the downward trend of PH over the past few days after it jumped back up)
-I purchased a 3/8” solenoid to put in line with my CO2 scrubber. By doing this, I will program it to run closed while the kalk is dripping at night to help boost PH, and run it open during the day, with hopes to help further dial down the severity of the PH sine wave I’m getting.
3) Montipora eating Nudi’s. Yep, another pest. An LFS recommended a Melanarus, but my sandbed is fairly shallow. I do have the option to add sand, I have a bag at home. Or, I’ve also read that the Possum wrasses are good hunters. Not terribly sure what direction I want to go, but I’ve been blowing them off my Montis and hoping they end up in the sump for now.
4) Peppermint shrimp are doing work! They’re hiding in caves on one side of the tank and it straying very far. However, they’ve put a sizable dent in the aiptasia where they are apparently domiciled. Hopefully as they become scarce, the shrimp will venture out and do some more work.
1) I decided to make mag and cal adjustments in the system. Going to bring mag up to 1420 from 1324 and cal up to 450 from 416. Mag is trending downward and cal is hovering within 10 points. Kalk will likely raise cal over time but will address that with a large water change down the road IF needed to restore ionic balance. Time will tell. I’m using ESV Magnesium and am dosing 116 ml’s 7 times, am/pm through Sunday night for a total of 812 ml’s. For calcium I have some BRS Sodium Chloride that will be 42 ml’s, same dosing as mag 7 times, total of 294 ml’s. I plan on shipping a Triton ICP out Monday morning.
2) Recirculating CO2 scrubber setup is giving me a headache. Too much condensation and moisture in the lines. Media is getting damp and clumping, and really becoming more of a hassle than the results I’m getting and the timeline they’re happening in. I’ve concluded that the ambient room temp is too low compared to system temp, and that’s what’s causing it all, even with a moisture trap, still no good. Im going to revert back to keeping it as a simple CO2 scrubber and will change media as needed*
*3) Due to the scrubber situations, I’ve been looking at my PH chart and trying to find a way to level it out some without dosing kalk PH based. This is my plan, once my mag and cal are corrected:
-Currently dosing kalk 24/7- .5ml/min for a total of 720ml’s. I believe that when my scrubber is working well this helps achieve the higher PH, but it still swings about .16 + daily. In addition, I’m currently dosing ESV B-Ionic 2 part, 11.7ml’s daily over 24 hours. My alkalinity has been 8.9dkh.
-Ive crunched the numbers on a 50/50 split between kalkwasser and ESV 2 part, based off of 85 total gallons, and a .58dkh drop daily. It comes out to 795mls of kalk for a .29dkh maintenance and 11mls of ESV 2 part for a .29dkh maintenance. That said, after looking at my PH charts, im going to dose my kalkwasser from 9:00pm-9:00 at a rate of 1.1ml/min, and will dose ESV 2 part from 9:00am-9:00pm. Im not comfortable with dosing PH based at night and 2 part during the day due to large CO2 level changes in my house that I’ve observed through PH swings (friends over, windows open, etc) It’s my hope that doing it this way will help bring the nightly PH floor up a bit, and lower the daily PH ceiling a bit. Another day of trying to fine tune my reef, I suppose.
(Can see in pic a large valley of PH drop from having some people over last weekend, and also see the downward trend of PH over the past few days after it jumped back up)
-I purchased a 3/8” solenoid to put in line with my CO2 scrubber. By doing this, I will program it to run closed while the kalk is dripping at night to help boost PH, and run it open during the day, with hopes to help further dial down the severity of the PH sine wave I’m getting.
3) Montipora eating Nudi’s. Yep, another pest. An LFS recommended a Melanarus, but my sandbed is fairly shallow. I do have the option to add sand, I have a bag at home. Or, I’ve also read that the Possum wrasses are good hunters. Not terribly sure what direction I want to go, but I’ve been blowing them off my Montis and hoping they end up in the sump for now.
4) Peppermint shrimp are doing work! They’re hiding in caves on one side of the tank and it straying very far. However, they’ve put a sizable dent in the aiptasia where they are apparently domiciled. Hopefully as they become scarce, the shrimp will venture out and do some more work.
Fish Styx
In Cod We Crust
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Nice build so far. Tagging along!
Fish Styx
In Cod We Crust
Partner Member 2024
Reef Tank 365
RGB
Hospitality Award
Reef Pumpkin Carver
WAMAS
Rock Pool Reef Keepers
R2R Secret Santa 2023
My Tank Thread
My Aquarium Showcase
I believe that name has already been in use by the entirety of this forum's user base for years.
Fish Styx
In Cod We Crust
Partner Member 2024
Reef Tank 365
RGB
Hospitality Award
Reef Pumpkin Carver
WAMAS
Rock Pool Reef Keepers
R2R Secret Santa 2023
My Tank Thread
My Aquarium Showcase
The shared struggle really reinforces the sense of community.
OP
OP
BAMatter
Valuable Member
Pardon the behind the tank mess, but got the solenoid T’d off with the scrubber. Programmed my Hydros to close it at 9:00pm and open at 9:00am. We will see how this goes… these solenoids run hot, holy smokes I had no idea, and only pulling 8-10watts. Had to mount it in a way it won’t come in contact with my acrylic sump or ATO, wouldn’t be surprised if it could melt a hole into it.
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BAMatter
Valuable Member
Had taken Thursday night til Sunday night to make adjustments to both magnesium and calcium, something I’ve been meaning to do since 2 ICP tests ago. Split the dosing over 7 times, am and pm, and was about 116ml of ESV Mag each time and 42ml of BRS Calcium Chloride each time. Sent an ICP test out Monday morning to verify I’m in a better range. Also started getting some cyano on my sandbed, so pulled back on all trace dosing for the time being. Would imagine there’s some imbalance somewhere and the ICP test will help determine that as well.
I feel as though my decision to dose kalk at night and ESV 2 part in the day will bring good things. Since I made the mag/cal adjustments, alk started to drop about .15dkh additional daily, which means more calcification and more growth. I’ll bump kalk up to 1020ml’s, and ESV to 14ml’s and test in a few days. Would really like to maintain around 9.5dkh, but I will bring that up after I get a solid consumption/maintenance dose.
Flow in my tank has perpetually given me a headache trying to figure out. Too much. Not enough. Too unidirectional. It goes on. Think I may have found a good placement for all my pumps last night and tweaked the schedule a bit. Hopefully the tank enjoys it.
I feel as though my decision to dose kalk at night and ESV 2 part in the day will bring good things. Since I made the mag/cal adjustments, alk started to drop about .15dkh additional daily, which means more calcification and more growth. I’ll bump kalk up to 1020ml’s, and ESV to 14ml’s and test in a few days. Would really like to maintain around 9.5dkh, but I will bring that up after I get a solid consumption/maintenance dose.
Flow in my tank has perpetually given me a headache trying to figure out. Too much. Not enough. Too unidirectional. It goes on. Think I may have found a good placement for all my pumps last night and tweaked the schedule a bit. Hopefully the tank enjoys it.
OP
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BAMatter
Valuable Member
My water is absolutely jacked according to my latest ICP. High on multiple trace elements. Apparently been dosing too much “stuff”… game plan- I’ve already stopped dosing everything other than kalkwasser and ESV 2 part. I’ll likely do back to back to back 20% water changes over 3 weekends to help restore natural levels. Cyano started taking hold, and I was going to hit it with ChemiClean, but now I think I’ll just vacuum it out during changes, and see if it subsides naturally when trace element NSW levels return. Moving forward…
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BAMatter
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Been knocking out some water changes and decided to hit the cyano with ChemiClean. Skimmer still going crazy after the 20% post-treatment WC, so I’ll need to change some more water out. Cyano gone at least. Must have had some green cyano in the fuge and the water turned green. I did add some carbon as well as some Purigen. Hopefully my skimmer chills out soon… the corals seem to enjoy the ionically balanced water over the elevated elements after my last ICP.
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BAMatter
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BAMatter
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BAMatter
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Put all 4 pumps on the side glass. 2 are stuffed in the back corners pointed up and towards the center of the front pane as much as possible. The other 2 are pretty much centered on the side panes. Here are my schedules. Gives a nice solid flow without blasting flesh off…
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Sebastiancrab
2500 Club Member
Like your tank! Where did you find your wall decorations?
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BAMatter
Valuable Member
I have… corals seem to be a bit happier, getting better extension, lower part of the tank is better for LPS, and the SPS up top get what they need.
Thanks! Artists name is Frankenburg Art. He’s on Instagram, and also Etsy.
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