Build Thread 1 Year later.

[dank reefer]

Here are some top down pics of some of the corals.

This rack is about 4-6 inches under the water line, and getting around 375-400 par.

These are some that I have glued down to the rock.

Oregon Tort, Next to it is a Aussie Strawberry Shortcake. Top left corner is the bonsai, and below it is a I don't remember Acro I got from WWC. The one that has a 6 on the plug is named a Aussie Chunkster Acro.

Miyagi Tort

Center shot is the WD frag. And next to it is a Acro i got from WWC, and I dont remember the name of it. When I received it , it was dark purple. Now its a light green, with blue hues, and looks nice.

PC Rainbow

Tri-Color Valida

Paletta Pink Tip, and above the par meter is one of the Acros I got from the Frag Swap.

Some additional frags I have

ORA Pearlberry

RR Firefly

WWC Pink Panther

BC Shades of Fall

Nic's Purple Passion

JF Homewrecker nub

RR Pink Caddy

SC Orange Passion

Tyree Pink Lemonade

 

[dank reefer]

Update on my Daughters Tank

So in July I had to travel a bit for work, and I had installed the Mars Aqua black box light on my daughters tank. I never installed any timers on the lights and I just would flip the switch on and off before going to work, and before going to bed. Well I got tired of it, and wanted to upgrade her light for better control. So I went to the LFS and he had a couple of XR30 G3 in his grow out room. When I asked him if he was selling them, he said sure. Offered a price, and he accepted, and on that day I became a proud owner of a XR30.

I also upgraded her return pump to a Vectra S1, as the Sicce pump was causing me trouble sometimes when the power went out. The Pump wouldn't turn back on, and the wave makers where right at the point where a portion of it was in the water and several times I came downstairs to water being sprayed everywhere.

Some updated pics with the new lights.

 

[dank reefer]

Trace Elements

When doing water changes, I was changing out about 20 gallons of water at a time every 2-3 weeks. My water changes now are about every 2 months. So I started to supplement the tank with Acropower. I've been dosing it for around 3-4 months as of today, and I have noticed the coloration of my corals change. I also tried Red Sea Trace color program, but i stopped dosing it as right after I started I got DINO.

Salt Mix

I also changed Salt mix from RC to Red Sea blue bucket as lowering the alk, cal, and mag seems to make my corals happier. But then again, I do very little water changes. But when I do, it wont spike my tank.

Temperature

I try and keep my tank temp between 77-78 degrees and recently the Air Conditioner stopped working. I also knew something was up cause I was looking at Apex fusion and was seeing the temp creep up to 79.8. Since this is my first year in NC, I did not know what to expect the temp to be in the summer months. And also the addition of the T5 lights did make my temp go up some, but not a lot. I had also turned off the heater since I knew I would not be needing it. So when I got home and opened the door to the house, I felt the heat exiting the house, and I was in a Holy Crap moment. The AC was not blowing any air in the house, and the house thermostat was at 82, when we keep the Temp in the house while we are gone to 74. I started to panic a bit while I was trying to contact the landlord about the AC, and then I remembered I had a chiller sitting in the garage collecting dust.

I brought it next to the tank and got me a 5g bucket full of water, and connected the chiller. I had some old maxijet pumps laying around as well and some tubing. I got it all hooked up and crossed my fingers when i plugged it into the outlet and nothing happened... Then I realized that the temp was set to like 80 degrees. Since this was the first time of me using this chiller, and since it has no name on it, I had no idea how to get this thing to work. But I finally figure this contraption out, and set the temp to the lowest setting it had. And it started to hum, fans started to spin, and it sounded like a small fridge. within 3 minutes i saw the temp of the water in the bucket start to drop, and then it was just steady dropping. I shut the chiller off when i saw it read that the water was at 68 degrees. I then routed the cables into my sump and turned it on. And it was at that point that I was so happy I never sold it, cause I honestly didn't think i would ever use it. By the time I connected the chiller, my tank temp was close to 82 degrees which i know its still an acceptable temp for a reef tank, but not Jose's reef tank.

 

[dank reefer]

I always complained that I wasn't getting good PE before, but I just wasn't patient enough.

 

[dank reefer]

And now I wan't to start tracking the addition of a new Frag Tank I acquired a couple of weeks back.

I plan on plumbing the frag tank to my current setup. I think my sump has about 7-10 gallons of extra water it can handle.

Performing leak test.

 

[dank reefer]

Picked up 2 Maxspect xf250 for this tank, and testing flow patterns.

 

[dank reefer]

Did a bit more plumbing work this past weekend and got the return section plumed out and done. Added a second manifold since I had to redo the plumbing again inside the stand. Went with 1" pipe from return pump to new tank and will be using a ball valve to adjust flow.

As for lighting I will be using 2 xr30 g4 pro's on the frag tank. They should be getting here tomorrow.

The misses wants to doll up the stand a bit, so will be installing wood paneling.


This is where ill be setting up the tank.

 

[dank reefer]

Did a bit more plumbing now, and looking for advice. Distance on the overflow plumbing is a bit over 6ft. This is after the 90 coming from behind the tank. Installed a union on the run, and would like to get some feed back it. I dry fitted the pieces and I'm thinking since it's the overflow pipe, and using sch 80 I shouldn't get to much of a bow.

What do y'all think?

 

[dank reefer]

Received the lights yesterday and tested them out. Added to reeflink and set AB+program to them. I must say that the Ecosmart live app is not so great. And the mobile app is pretty tick poor as well. But after 45 minutes calibrating, and programming they are set.

Will be picking up tomorrow a 48 inch RMS bracket to go.over the tank.

 

[dank reefer]

Finished wrapping the stand today. First attempt and we think it came out good.

 

[dank reefer]

Applied Poly to the stand a couple of days ago and will be applying another coat in the next few days. Had some left over foam and cut some to fit under the tank.

 

[dank reefer]

After some touch up to the stand, she was ready to come in. All hard plumbing has been glued and a minor water test was performed. Now making some RODI to make some salt water then the true water test will be performed.

Once tank has been filled, I will open ball valve just a hair to allow a low flow to come into the frag tank, and allow new water to mix in with old. This is the part that is beginning to scare me a bit, but I must push on.

 

[dank reefer]

Water has been added and tank is mixing with DT exsisting water. So far no leaks, and temp has stabilized. Will be performing a water test for Alk, Calk, and Mag to see where it's all at. Added a elkhorn, and Digi frag to the frag tank as testers to check with the new Radions. Set acclimation mode on the Radions as I didnt want to kill them with too much light.

 

[dank reefer]

Just did a water test and here are the results

Salt 1.0269 Apex
Alk - 8.6 Hanah
Cal - 420 Salifert
Mag - 1350 Salifert

 

[dank reefer]

Moved some corals over and they seem to be doing fine. These pictures are 4 days after they were put in the tank.

 

[dank reefer]

Took this picture on Oct 17th, and I am starting to get what looks like brown hair algae on the plugs, and the tiles. But Not getting it in the Main tank. I think its the new egg crate that I used in the tank that might be leaching some stuff. Just surprised that the main tank ain't getting it. I am using a soft tooth brush to clean the plugs and tiles, and I added a couple of snails in there as well. A couple of days after this picture, I added a lawnmower blenny, and a brown tang.

Also including the light schedule I am using (AB+). And since I am new to the Radions and how to set Max intensity and what not, wanted to post it here and see if anyone sees anything out of wack. I have them set for a 4 week acclimation at 50%.

 

[Silent]

You really got bit by the reef bug. What a transformation of the 90 since you got it. Looking good.

 

[dank reefer]

You really got bit by the reef bug. What a transformation of the 90 since you got it. Looking good.

I sure did. And none of this could of happen with out the help of my better half. She's the one that has encouraged me to get these tanks up and going. And she wants more tanks in the house as well.

 

[dank reefer]

Update

Frag tank has lost its ugly stage and all the brown fuzz has gone. Moved all my frags over from DT over to frag tank within the last couple of weeks and they all seem to be doing great under the Radions. Haven't checked par yet in the frag tank, bit will hopefully this coming week.

Here are some pics of the frags in the frag tank.

Pics are taken from Note 8 and Canon 7i. I'm no pro at taking pictures, so any advice would be appreciated.

 

[dank reefer]

My family came over 2 weeks ago, and my son brought over his Coral viewing glasses. I used my Galaxy Note 8 to take these pics using the glasses as a filter. Radions are set to Deep Blue setting while I took the pics.