Build Thread 1 Year later.

dank reefer

IG: dankreefer_IG
View Badges
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
2,214
Reaction score
2,571
Location
Concord, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
It’s taken me a little over 1 year to get the spirit on writing up my build thread. So, I am going to take a stab at it.

About March of 2018, my son and I started talking about saltwater tanks, and how much he wanted one. I had a saltwater tank when I lived in Big Pine Key about 20 years ago, and as I had the resources right in my back yard, it was not an easy hobby to say the least. He talked so much about reef tanks, saltwater fish, blah blah blah… Well… he lit the fire in me to start my own tank. So off I was looking at the cost of building a new tank and what equipment I would need. I lived in a small apartment with my fiancé and her kids, so space was an issue, and size on tank was an issue as well since we lived on the 2nd floor. So, I spent countless days on Facebook Market Place looking for an ideal tank.

Initial Build
I found the tank that would fit our space constraints, and also was in pretty good shape. It was a 36g Bow Front with stand, and came with a bunch of freshwater filtration. The price was right, and I purchased the tank. Got rid of all the freshwater filtration since I knew I wasn’t going fresh water (underwater filtration, bio wheel filtration) and went on the hunt for the other items I needed. BTW… I had a 15-20 year old RENA XP2 (known as API now) canister filter laying around and used it for filtration. Went to the LFS, and bought some caribsea oolite sand, and a couple pounds of live rock. Bought 3 5 gallon buckets and made several trips to the LFS to get saltwater. I didn’t want to mix my own at the time, and it was cheap per gallon. And the below pic was the start of my reefing journey.

1567617593893.png


Initial purchase was a light as I knew the light that same with the tank wasn’t going to work. So my first major purchase was an Orbit Marine LED light. I didn’t want to spend the money on a high end light as I didn’t know how far I was going to take this hobby. I was in awe with that light. It came with a remote control….The blues where super nice blue, and the white was… well white. I said to myself, I have a BA light. I can sit on the couch and switch the lights around when I wanted. Cool huh…

1567617655259.png


I wanted to cycle the tank as fast as possible (first mistake) so I went ahead and purchased my first set of fishes, 3 green chromis, and 2 clowns. After the first day, I was down to 1 Chromis, and the 2 Clowns (Still have them till this day). We named the Chromis Sneaky Pete, and the clowns were named Pee Wee, and Herman.

1567617690466.png


Next major purchase had to be a skimmer, and since the tank was so small and I had no sump, I was on the hunt for a HOB skimmer. After doing research, I settled on buying an Aquamaxx HOB skimmer. Heard great things about them, with very little negative feedback. I was able to find one on eBay for dirt cheap. Its not the 1.5, but an older model that works great (still using it). Skimmer went online about 3 weeks after I got the tank full of water. Took some time for me to figure out the HOB since it wasn’t creating a siphon and wasn’t getting any bubbles. After several YouTube videos, and drinking about half a cup of saltwater, I was able to get the skimmer to skim. LOL.
So, between the time I purchased the skimmer and the picture shown below, I got rid of the Current Orbit Light, and purchased a Hydra 26HD. Overkill for such a small tank, I know. But I already knew that this tank was going to evolve, just didn’t know how much. I purchased some more rock since the tank was lacking rock. I really don’t like the look of a tank for of rock to start off, so this was good enough for the time being.
Took water to LFS for testing as I had no test kits, just a cheap hydrometer to check salinity. LFS said that my water was in good shape. Salinity was good, Alk, and Cal was good. Nitrates were undetectable, and phosphates were undetectable as well. So I thought the tank is ready for corals.

1567617775387.png



First Corals

Here are the first corals I put in my tank. And after about 1 month I lost them. I was so mad that I said no more corals. Yeah Right!

1567617812084.png
1567617822941.png


After my initial losses, I wanted to know why they died since the LFS said my water was good. After this massacre is when I found R2R. And what a blessing it was. I read and read and read, and saw that it was just a new tank, and even though I had live rock and live sand in there, my tank was not ready for any type of hard corals yet. So I waited a bit, and went the Zoa route. Bough several frags between my son and I and they took off in both of our tanks. I was like “YAY” I have coral in my tank, but in the back of my mind it wasn’t hard corals.

1567617875784.png
1567617883189.png

1567617903284.png
1567617913467.png


1567617941126.png


Zoa’s in my tank were doing great, and was happy to see that some of them had little babies popping up. After a couple of months, I had another go at some hard corals (Acans, Duncan, Montis) and the only thing that survived that time was the a couple of Acans. In June of 2018, I was having a conversation with my fiance, and told her I would like to have a bigger tank, and I heard the worst thing come out of her mouth.

I don’t blame you, this tank is way too small!

So on the hunt I was for a bigger tank.

We were planning on moving to a house after the lease ended where we were currently at, so a bigger tank was going to be doable.

I found a deal on a 90g tank with a custom made stand. Came with eshopp r100 sump, Reef Octopus skimmer, 2 Mars Aqua lights, canopy, return pump, TLF kalkstirrer, 5 gallon ATO, all the live stock and rocks, and some other stuff for $650. Tank had been running for a while from what the guy told me, but it didn’t matter to me since I was taking the tank down and storing it till we moved. Live stock was a Sailfin Tang, 2 green Chromis, a toadstool coral, and a leather cabbage coral. Some rocks had some button polyps and he had some zoas on them as well. What ever rocks had something attached to it, I threw it in the 36g.

1567618017100.png


Here is the new to me tank emptied out and ready to be moved into our apartment on the 2nd floor. My baby making parts stopped working after this move.

549501810.jpeg


Since I knew it was going to be a while before we found a place to move, I started to acquire other pieces for the new tank. I contemplated buying a Apex controller as I read that it made keeping up with the tank much easier. I bit the bullet and purchased the Apex 2016. I also knew that the current wave makers in the current tank were not going to be enough, so scoured the internet and found an IceCap 3k for cheap and bought it. Bought Instant Oceans Reef Crystals 200 gallon mix on special from Amazon.com, a 300w heater, and some other stuff. and through out all this time reading as much info as I can on the forums.
 
OP
OP
dank reefer

dank reefer

IG: dankreefer_IG
View Badges
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
2,214
Reaction score
2,571
Location
Concord, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Fast forward a couple of months and instead of house hunting for a house in S Florida, we started house hunting for a house in North Carolina as I was offered a really great job that we couldn’t refuse. In August we moved to North Carolina. I saved as much tank water from the 36g since I was not going to have an opportunity to cycle a tank in NC. 8 5g buckets later and a cooler full of coral frags in Pee cups, our Journey to NC began, and 14 HR later we made it. Had a air bubbler in the fish bucket, and all the fishes, and CUC survived.

First order of business was to set back up the 36g tank.

Resized_20180808_231404_4138.jpeg


I kept a majority of the rock in bucket as the 90g was going to be setup within the next few days.

After unpacking the UHaul, and getting everything settled as best as possible. A trip to home depot was in order to purchase some 44g brute containers to start making water.

Not going to lie, but I was so bleeping excited!

And here she is getting filled up at our new home.

Resized_20180812_113153_1298.jpeg


IMG_20180812_121809_825.jpg


Day 1 of tank filled up Aug. 12 2018
Resized_20180812_141629_6689.jpeg


Tank Cleared up substantially on day 2 Aug.13 2018
Resized_20180813_070911_6222.jpeg



Resized_20180812_184746_7046.jpeg

Current hardware at the time. This was purchased for $600

Rio Hyperflow 17
Reef Octopus Diablo Skimmer (unsure of model)
Eshopps r-100 sump
TLF kalkstirrer (never ended up using)
Ehiem Jager 300w heater
IceCap 3k Gyre.
Unknown chiller as I cant find a brand on it. (But works great. More on it later)
Eshopps 5 g ATO res
2 Mars Aqua led fixtures.
Custom Stand that allows you to view the tank eye level, and matching hood. (Don't use the hood as we like the open look).
And a bunch of smaller wave pumps, and Maxijet pumps.
 
OP
OP
dank reefer

dank reefer

IG: dankreefer_IG
View Badges
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
2,214
Reaction score
2,571
Location
Concord, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Let the tank run for a few weeks to let everything settle in, and then decided to purchase a ATK, and a DOS. I know i didn't need to dose the tank as I had no corals in it yet, but I already knew I was going to be dosing ESV 2 part in the long run, so why not buy it.

Resized_20180829_182104_9778.jpeg


Resized_20180829_205453_5844.jpeg


Resized_20180830_190443_7182.jpeg


Next thing on the list was an RODI system. BRS to the rescue again...lol. The initial fill of the tank i used tap water with API water conditioner.

Resized_20180831_192803_5011.jpeg
 
OP
OP
dank reefer

dank reefer

IG: dankreefer_IG
View Badges
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
2,214
Reaction score
2,571
Location
Concord, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The next thing I wanted to do was upgrade the return pump to a DC pump. Issue I had was that the sump I was using return section was too small for any of the pumps i was wanting to get. I wanted either a COR-20, or a Vectra M1 and if it would of fit, it was going to be a real tight fit. After talking to the misses, which by the way is very supportive of my addiction suggested I look for a bigger sump. After researching many sump on the net, I decided to purchase a Bashsea Smart Series sump. At the time of all the research, this was only one of the few sumps on the market that would allow me to run the Triton method which I thought was cool, and thought I would run in the future. I went to my local LFS, and they purchase a lot of stuff for their operation from Bashsea, and I got a good deal purchasing it thru them (Nemo's Reef located in Indian Trail, NC). 2 weeks later this bad boy came in. BTW, I ended purchasing the COR-20 pump when iw as given the green light to purchase the new sump.

Resized_20180928_181853_7799.jpeg


Resized_20180928_181859_8112.jpeg


Resized_20180928_181910_9430.jpeg



Resized_20180928_183614_1146.jpeg



And the swap out started, and here is how it ended. First time hard plumbing as well. Used 3/4 pipe for the return, and 1' for the drain.

Resized_20180929_194450_6885.jpeg
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
dank reefer

dank reefer

IG: dankreefer_IG
View Badges
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
2,214
Reaction score
2,571
Location
Concord, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Next on the list were lights.

I had the 26 HD still on the 36g keeping my Zoas and fish happy, and was trying to figure out what I was going to do with the 90g. I had the Mars lights handy, but they were mounted on the canopy, and I really didn't want to use the canopy on the tank.

And since we had gotten to our new home, we really hadn't gotten any time to venture out and see parts of NC. So we decided to take a trip to Asheville, NC. over the weekend to see the sites. By this time R2R market place became my everyday goto to see what was up for sale. And I was also a avid Craigslist stalker (which is were I found the 90g setup) and came across a post of someone selling there tank in Asheville, and they were using Hydra 26 HDs to light up there tank. Sent them a message if they were interested in selling the lights alone, and after a long conversation, he decided to sell me the lights with the HMS mounts. SOLD!

Not only was the trip to Asheville very relaxing, and a site seeing experience, but also managed to pick up the lights. Didn't take very long to get everything setup when I got home since I was used to the app, and the painful WIFI issues these units have if they are far away from your router.


Let there be LIGHT!!!

Resized_20180825_214027_566.jpeg


I little rig I setup for the lights using the HMS mount on a rimmed tank was I used plastic wine corks and used them as spacers. Shaved 2 sides of the cork so that it would sit flat on the glass, and the HMS mount. This will also work for the snake mount AI sells as well as its how I have it mounted on the 36g

20180904_211522.jpg


20180904_211601.jpg


First fish I moved over were Sneaky Pete, Pee Wee, and Herman
Resized_20180826_211209_7069.jpeg



Side shot of the tank. Went with a minimalist rock rock as I didn't want to have a wall of rock.

Resized_20180822_205452_3924.jpeg
 
OP
OP
dank reefer

dank reefer

IG: dankreefer_IG
View Badges
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
2,214
Reaction score
2,571
Location
Concord, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
September and December, I moved a majority of my corals from the 36g over to the 90g. And I will admit that I lost some corals that were in the 36g. I chalked it up from the move, and I had some corals that looked like crap as well.

20180617_135306.jpg
20180912_174103.jpg


Heres a Gold eye Chalice that I thought was a goner.
20180912_174142.jpg


And another Chalice (Pink Lemonade I think) that I thought was a goner.
20180912_174210.jpg


20180912_200956.jpg



To the left our a couple of Acans that looked like crap as well and had 1-2 heads left.
20180912_201008.jpg


A better view of the Acans, and some Blastos
20180912_174024.jpg


I also brought over the rest of the fish and CUC over.
20180912_174705.jpg



20180912_174625.jpg


20180522_204403.jpg 20180617_135324.jpg 20180530_232047.jpg 20180912_174631.jpg
 
OP
OP
dank reefer

dank reefer

IG: dankreefer_IG
View Badges
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
2,214
Reaction score
2,571
Location
Concord, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Attended my First Live sale on R2R

New corals added to the tank.

In December I went a little bit over board buying corals from several vendors. I shouldn't have, but the 90 looked too empty.

WWC Grafted Monti
20180926_172645.jpg


Deep Purple Acro from WWC
20180926_172542.jpg


Bonsai
20181102_182208.jpg


Green Elkhorn. Glued a couple of pieces that broke off during shipping to some extra plugs I had from some frags that didn't make it.
20180927_191636.jpg


Fire Island Bounce Shroom
20181102_182330.jpg


Tri-Color Valida
20180927_191649.jpg



Don't remember the name Acro from WWC
20180926_172510.jpg


Forest Fire Digi
20180926_172331.jpg



Sunny D zoas (I think)
20181107_214412.jpg



Aussie Shortcake, JF Bugout Stylo, and another I forgot the name of Acro from WWC.
20181031191146_IMG_0232.jpg


Also wanted to show some recovery of the Pink Lemonade, and the Golden eye chalice
Golden eye
20181031191202_IMG_0233_LI.jpg



Pink Lemonade
20181111_191558_LI.jpg


Jason Fox John Deere Leptastrea (Another coral I thought was a goner)
20181102_214152.jpg
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
dank reefer

dank reefer

IG: dankreefer_IG
View Badges
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
2,214
Reaction score
2,571
Location
Concord, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
First Frag Swap

Attended my first Frag Swap in December of 2018 and picked up some more corals.

By this time the DOS was up and running and dosing Alk, and Cal to the tank, and also doing water changes every 2-3 weeks.


JF Rainbow Stylocoeniella
20181201_182929.jpg


Sold tome as Oregon Tort
20181201_183139.jpg

20181212_194829.jpg


Mystic Sunset Monti, and a Milli to the left of it
20181201_183058.jpg


Rose Milli?
20181201_182955.jpg



Birds nest, and a Pocilipora? on the same plug
20181201_193131.jpg



Sold to me as a Strawberry Shortcake
20181208_125109.jpg


And some updated pics of those Chalices I though were goners
20181214_191443.jpg


Zoa Rock started to take off

20181031_214936.jpg
 
OP
OP
dank reefer

dank reefer

IG: dankreefer_IG
View Badges
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
2,214
Reaction score
2,571
Location
Concord, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
After Christmas Sale

So right after Christmas @BRS had a sale going on (dang you @BRS....JK as you guys Rock).

So I bought me some Reef Chili

20181225_145856.jpg


And a AquaticLife 4ft Hybrid :)

Love the addition of the T5 to the tank.
20181229_134509.jpg


20190127_182957.jpg


20190127_183013.jpg


On a side note, I acquired a pair of WAV pumps to the tank as I was lacking in the flow department. So the tank now has the IceCap 3k, and 2 WAV pumps. Took me some time to get the pumps adjusted so that there wasn't a sandstorm in the tank. Ended up putting the WAV pumps ear muff style on the tank, and the IceCap is vertical on the right side of the tank. All of my SPS were situated on the left side of the tank and wanted as much flow on that side as possible.

Also made some frag stands with Egg crate and a heat gun.
 
OP
OP
dank reefer

dank reefer

IG: dankreefer_IG
View Badges
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
2,214
Reaction score
2,571
Location
Concord, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So all this time i have been doing water changes using RC, and though all was good since it has high ALK, CAL, and MAG. Corals weren't dying, BUT they weren't growing. And I was also having issues getting my dosing correct.

I initially wanted to keep my big 3 around these numbers

ALK -11
CALC -450-500
MAG - 1450

So I would test water before and after water changes, and it never failed but the numbers were all over the place. So after me getting more white hair, I decided to do several changes.

First change was I would stop doing water changes for a while. I knew that RC was causing my parameters to shoot up and I wanted to get a handle on the dosing so that I can try and keep it as stable as possible.

Second thing i did was I started feeding more food to both fish and corals. I don't have a tank full of fish but I was feeding every other day pellets and frozen food and for some reason in my mind that wasn't enough. I'm a fatty and I cant go 1 day without food. I now feed pellets 3 times a day, and frozen once a day, and alternate using Rod's food, and LRS Reef Frenzy. For corals I feed Reef Roids, Benepets Coral food, and Reef Chili on alternating days.

Through all this time as well I couldn't get cheato to grow for the life of me. In my mind I thought i was starving it since i was feeding every other day and the cheato was being starved.

The mount for the light in the fuge broke, so I glued it back together until I could get a different light as the glue was a temporary fix, and didn't want it falling into the fuge/sump. I ended up getting a Kessil H80 to replace the Fuge light, which then i upgraded to a H380.
 
OP
OP
dank reefer

dank reefer

IG: dankreefer_IG
View Badges
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
2,214
Reaction score
2,571
Location
Concord, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Here are some pictures taken in Feburary of 2019 of some of the corals. My Acans, and Blastos started to make a comeback. and it seemed like a Zoa colony I have started to bounce... if that's even possible.

20190113_094357.jpg


20181225_152617.jpg


20181225_152606.jpg


20181214_191910.jpg


20181214_191922.jpg


20181214_192001.jpg


Starting to encrust
20181225_153135.jpg


20190109_213332.jpg


20190109_214937.jpg


20190111_213912.jpg


20190109_214038.jpg



Bought some more coral from a Live sale here on R2R

Red Planet
20190115_191151.jpg


PC Rainbow and Miyagi tort
20190115_191205.jpg


Paletta Pink Tip
20190115_191602.jpg


POTO Orange Mojito Chaloce
20190115_212950.jpg


Poto Papa Smurf


20190115_194526.jpg


Walt Disney
20190115_191513.jpg


Red Robin Stag
20190123_191445.jpg


Victoria Secret Chalice (Which I'm sure it goes by many other names)
20190123_191408.jpg


BC Rainbow in Spain
20190123_191507.jpg


POTO Fairy Tale
20190123_191529.jpg
 
OP
OP
dank reefer

dank reefer

IG: dankreefer_IG
View Badges
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
2,214
Reaction score
2,571
Location
Concord, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
After noticing that I was going SPS dominate on this tank, I moved all my zoas and softies over to the 36g tank. I ended up removing the almost 15-18 year old Rena XP2 canister filter and installed my old eshopps r-100 sump. Got a hold of a Sicce 2.0 return pump, and a CPR overflow box.

This became my daughters tank. All the rock work you see from both tanks were designed by my wife.

20190202_144222.jpg


20190203_184943.jpg



20190213_185018.jpg


20190427_110925.jpg



Moved the Hydra I had on this tank over to the 90 and built a DIY light hanger and used one of the Mars Aqua lights i had laying around

Resized_20190224_162115_6989.jpeg
 

Hemmdog

10K Club member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 9, 2018
Messages
11,681
Reaction score
44,772
Location
Silicon Valley, CA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Lookin’ good man, nice choice of acros! My only suggestion would be maybe lower your hybrid a few inches. I started mine off as high up as you have it, now it’s about 8 inches off the water, much better results.
 
OP
OP
dank reefer

dank reefer

IG: dankreefer_IG
View Badges
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
2,214
Reaction score
2,571
Location
Concord, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Sorry that i have mainly posted pictures, but it sucks trying to recall from memory steps you took till this point.

Cheato

After changing the light over to the H380, and also removing the filter socks, my cheato is non stop growing now. The increase feeding, and removing the filter socks kicked the cheato into overdrive. My first major harvest was about at the 1 month mark of the feeding, and removing filter socks. Now, I have to harvest it every 1-2 weeks as it fills my fuge area. The H80 i had laying around was installed in my daughters tank, and hers grows cheato like crazy as well. So if you are in the Charlotte Area, I can hook you up with some might fine green.... Cheato that is!


Testing

So a couple of post back i had said that I was going to stop the bi-weekly water changes so that I could get the dosing right in the tank. Well it was about 5 months that both tanks didn't get a water change. I honestly don't test the 36g tank anymore, cause I just don't. And on the 90 I was testing ALK, and CAL once a week, and also testing Nitrate, and Phosphate 1 every 2 weeks just to see where they were at.

I use the API Nitrate test kit cause its what i have, and I bout the Hanna ULR checker for phosphate.

Nitrate reads at 10-20
Phosphate reads at .06

I am now shooting for using Hannah ALK checker, Salifert for Cal, and Mag testing.
ALK 8
Calc, 420-450
Mag at 1350-1400

And I am keeping up these numbers with same feeding regiment, and 2 part dosing using ESV. I check mag once a month, and raise it if it needs it.
 
OP
OP
dank reefer

dank reefer

IG: dankreefer_IG
View Badges
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
2,214
Reaction score
2,571
Location
Concord, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Lookin’ good man, nice choice of acros! My only suggestion would be maybe lower your hybrid a few inches. I started mine off as high up as you have it, now it’s about 8 inches off the water, much better results.

I have contemplated that same thing, and the only reason I haven't is because of maintenance of the tank. But I have thought about lowering it about 1 more inch, and backing off on the intensity of the hydras.
 
OP
OP
dank reefer

dank reefer

IG: dankreefer_IG
View Badges
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
2,214
Reaction score
2,571
Location
Concord, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So in this post im going to try and explain some issues I started to run into.

GHA

I started to get GHA on my rocks and frag plugs in the 90g, and I mean a lot. I read where people took out there rocks and rinsed them with H202 and it killed the GHA. Issue I had was it was going to be a pain in the tucuss to remove the rock in the tank primarily on how it was glued together. So searching through R2R I went to the rescue, and decided to does vinegar. I followed the schedule below with some variations.

I followed the first week of dosing to a tee. Where I started to deviate was on the 2nd week and after, as I dosed every other day. In about 3-4 weeks, the GHA was gone. I also added 1 turbo snail, and a lawnmower blenny which kept it at bay once the outbreak was under control.

vinegar_sm.jpg



Dinoflagellates

Once I defeated the green hairy monster I started to get red stringy snooty stuff growing on my sand. From the sand, it then started growing on the rocks. And then it started growing on the frag plugs. what the heck!!! what now.

Put some filter sock in the sump, and started to blow off rocks with a turkey baster and it cleared up. Victory!!!

2 hours later that red snooty crap was back! No way Jose.

I fought with it for 2-3 weeks. I though water changes were a good start, but then read that water changes makes Dino stronger in a sense. I took a chance and bought a UV sterilizer as I read that certain strains of Dino would get nuked with UV. And I just prayed that they type I had was nukable with UV.

So back to @BRS stie, and ended up getting a Pentair 25 watt UV

20190525_224246.jpg


20190526_174031.jpg



And in 7-9 days, I beat DINOS!!! All i did was help keep it suspended in the water column by blasting off as much stuff as I could and let it run into the sump. I removed filter socks before doing this as I wanted everything as much as possible to run throw the UV.
 
OP
OP
dank reefer

dank reefer

IG: dankreefer_IG
View Badges
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
2,214
Reaction score
2,571
Location
Concord, NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Lighting

I wanted to talk about my lighting for a bit.

I started off with 2 hydras n this tank, then i added the Aquatic Life T5 Hybrid back in December. With the Hydra's i played around with schedules in the beginning to see what would do best with the current inhabitants that were in the tank. I finally decided to stick with the AB+ schedule, and added a lunar cycle to it. Ive had this setting running for about 7-8 months and the corals love it.

As for bulb selection on the T5, I went with 3 Blue+, and 1 Coral +. I also have the Atinic bulb laying around in case I didn't like the coral +.

1 1/2 hr ramp up, and down with a 9 hr peak.

Screenshot_20190903-152442_myAI.jpg



FLOW

As mentioned before, I am running 2 WAV, and a IceCap 3k on this tank. I downloaded several programs from the ones other users have shared via the Fusion App, and although they were some that were great. I really wanted something was totally random in the tank. So I came up with this program, and its total chaos in my tank, which is what I was aiming for. These WAV pumps will put out some serious flow, and what I like about these pumps is that they are easy to adjust and that it will reach the other side of my 4ft tank with no problem. I might add 2 more in the future and remove the IceCap.

The IceCap has been moved around to see where it would work out best. I've had it in a horizontal position for a bit. And although it gave me good surface agitation, I was getting a lot of dead spots behind the rock. So I moved it vertically and set it towards the back wall so that the stream banks off the back glass.

My Review on the WAV pumps are they are monster pumps with lots of power. They are also quiet pumps and are easy to clean. Only bad thing I have to say is that they are too bulky.

My Review on the IceCap is that it is a loud pump when its ramping up and down. More so if it needs a cleaning. Cleaning them can be a pain in the butt at times. I've never been able to take the center motor apart as I feel like I'm going to break it.

1567771463358.png


1567771605470.png


Here is what Fusion says my Cor, and WAV pumps are.

1567772626279.png
 
Back
Top