Ash's 400 Gallon Reef

[Ashish Patel]

This kid wont let me set up my UV. Its his blaster

 

[Ashish Patel]

This is why my tanks on a 5 yr plan

 

[Ashish Patel]

icecap UV added

 

[Ashish Patel]

The tank is getting free of algae again. I turned the reds to 0% and brightness to 25%. This time gonna take it slow.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I just learned about Jake Adams passing. Like most of you i didnt know him personally but felt so connected with him more so than any other hobbyist next to Ryan of BRS. I feel a great sense of loss and so sad all day. I was planning on getting ahold of him eventually for those beautiful blue staghorns he has.. Jake -miss you like a brother - words cant explain how important you have been to me and the hobby. Rest in Peace

 

[Ashish Patel]

Got 2 65 gallon drums for free but the lids are glued shut so have to cut of lids. Original plan was to get a few 200 -300gallon containers but price is insane now. Only reason i never brought them years ago was my basement door is 32" and has a weird angle inside. Looking back i wish i had gotten 2 110gallon when i ordered my sump and paid $250 for shipping

 

[Ashish Patel]

With the 2 drums, I plan on just making a mixing station on wheels with the pump connected to both and mixing eveningly to the containers. I have most of the parts beside bulk heads but trying to use whatever i have for time being. This way i can do the planned 100 gallon waterchanges every 3 months

 

[Ashish Patel]

Tank clarity is getting very good

 

[sam.veilleux30]

Epic build!
Congrats on the setup, great to see the progress, just went through the 16 pages, this will be a nice reef soon.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Epic build!
Congrats on the setup, great to see the progress, just went through the 16 pages, this will be a nice reef soon.

Thanks Buddy!

 

[Ashish Patel]

No more algae... i guess its a bad thing bc my 12 big snails are clearly hungry. Bumped my red and other chanels to 20%

 

[Ashish Patel]

I tested my PO and thought maybe they would be close to 0 and too my surprise they are ridiculously High. I've never had the Hanna ULR show me a blinking 200 PPB. so PO are above 0.613PPM

I really have to upgrade my return pump and get more turnover through the sump, I think dimming the light got rid of algae but the same algae in my display was the one consuming all the PO in the system. Therefore, I have to make a giant refugium in my sump and increase turnover in my sump. I like PO in the system but prefer it under in the range .1ppm to .2PPM.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I really want to avoid using any GFO and Phosphate E. If all else fails I will have no choice.

I am using a 200 gallon large bag of chemipure blue and that does contain some GFO, but clearly not really impacting my numbers. My DIY scrubber is not working good bc i am not giving it enough flow as i do not want to sacrifice too much flow from my return since I am only getting about 2X turnover

 

[Ashish Patel]

Phosphates up. Ouch. Caused by running low light, dirty rock and overfeeding

 

[Ashish Patel]

Waterchange time, I got these 2 65gallon drums for free. I plan on getting bulkheads and adding a pump between the 2. Have both on a moving wheels and use a backup return pump that will mix the water fast.

I wanted to buy 200 gallon+ containers but the prices, and its time to save money for corals and not the system! IM done spending money on equipment! plus a 120 gallon waterchange (22%) is about what I like to do every 2-3 months.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Doing a waterchange on this system is pretty cool bc I can siphon all the detritus and have it go straight to to the sewer. No more dealing with dirty brown poop buckets of water in my living room.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I turned my spare closed loop outlet into a hose. Pretty cool feature that I don't have to rely on a turkey baster. It pushes all the detritus out of the rockwork and few dead spots under the rockwork to the front, that I can easily siphon. Next time I will do this when there is no waterchange since the pump gets exposed and this can be done anytime since I still can route my siphon to my sump in a filter sock.

This doesn't show but some of the detritus blown with the hose to the front

 

[revhtree]

Looking good and loving daddy's little helper!

 

[Ashish Patel]

Looking good and loving daddy's little helper!

Thanks Rev, More like Daddy's little destroyer

 

[revhtree]

Thanks Rev, More like Daddy's little destroyer

HAHA!