Caravan's 165 SPS dominant Reef in Austin
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Caravanshaka
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Rock solid still!
I tried using 10 series on the frag tank, and feel like I would have spent less making it more solid with the 15 series at this point. So I would only suggest 15 series for stands!
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Caravanshaka
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Thanks! LEDs are about 20-24” off the water once mounted. Unfortunately the one Radion I have right now is in-use, so I can’t really test par or spread yet.
lookin good! just curious why you put the center supports for the frag tank stand on the outer perimeter? and i agree with your comment about using the 15 series for framing. i have made stands for smaller tanks out of 10 series and even ez-tube.. they always seem a bit anemic.
how are your blue acro strips holding up btw? still havnt installed mine lol i see he doesnt even offer them on his site anymore either? or atleast last i checked.
how are your blue acro strips holding up btw? still havnt installed mine lol i see he doesnt even offer them on his site anymore either? or atleast last i checked.
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Caravanshaka
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Needed more bracing and didn’t want to break up the original design. In my mind I didn’t think about the tank being acrylic and not holding flat on the bottom, so when I started to fill the tank originally I was getting some deflection in the middle.
The strips aren’t really being used anymore...been sticking to my ATI Powermodule on display, and radions for the frag.
gig 'em
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She is up and running. Started the cycle with some bio-spira. Going to keep some rock up there and grow some colonies on those I think, and also use the tiles. Give some kind of hiding spots for a few fish.
Looks like someone is gearing up to farm some serious frags! Finally a good source around here that isn’t @FarmerTy and his ridiculous demands [emoji12]
I need you to hop on one leg and recite the pledge of allegiance and then I'll sell you a frag.
gig 'em
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That’s the only you make me do that you’re willing to share with the world? That’s the least painful thing you’ve made me done!
I made Caravanshaka drive from South austin to north Austin... That's one of the worst things I can think of making someone do for frags.
gig 'em
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Good Lord, man! Have you no heart?!
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Caravanshaka
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Then he "forgot" to bag the confetti frag and let me leave....
Gave me a chance to swap it with a Pinky the Bear and you were none the wiser! Muahahaha... Queue the diabolical music!
gig 'em
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Caravanshaka
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A couple updates this morning!
Display Tank - I'm finally stable with Alk after switching from ATI Essentials 3-part to ATI Essentials Pro 2-part. It's supposed to be 1/5 of Pro is equal to the original, so my old dosing of 330ml should have come out to about 65ml of Pro. I started out at 55 just to be safe, and had Alk creep up to just over 9 from a stable 8.2. I slowed the dosing down and finally got it stable again at 8.3 dKH using only 35ml of Pro per day. Pretty sure the drop in Dosing was fueled mostly by the Alk spike causing growth to slow, so I am hoping to see that 35ml hit at least 50 within the next 30 days. I also sold some coral that didn't make the cut, as I'd like to make more room for "WoW" corals instead of "that's okay looking".
Frag Tank - So I did a thing....I got an amazing deal on 4x G4 XR15's with Diffusers from a guy in Dallas, and they are arriving today! So instead of 2x XR30's, I'll be running 4x XR15's! Need to sort out how to mount them now, as I had the slide mounts already purchased for the XR30s. I've also decided that since the tank is about 8ft from my chair that I work from all day every day, an AC pump for my skimmer is a no go. I'll be selling the Vertex Omega 150 and hopefully snagging an RO Regal 150 INT to replace it.
Pic updates when lights are mounted!
Display Tank - I'm finally stable with Alk after switching from ATI Essentials 3-part to ATI Essentials Pro 2-part. It's supposed to be 1/5 of Pro is equal to the original, so my old dosing of 330ml should have come out to about 65ml of Pro. I started out at 55 just to be safe, and had Alk creep up to just over 9 from a stable 8.2. I slowed the dosing down and finally got it stable again at 8.3 dKH using only 35ml of Pro per day. Pretty sure the drop in Dosing was fueled mostly by the Alk spike causing growth to slow, so I am hoping to see that 35ml hit at least 50 within the next 30 days. I also sold some coral that didn't make the cut, as I'd like to make more room for "WoW" corals instead of "that's okay looking".
Frag Tank - So I did a thing....I got an amazing deal on 4x G4 XR15's with Diffusers from a guy in Dallas, and they are arriving today! So instead of 2x XR30's, I'll be running 4x XR15's! Need to sort out how to mount them now, as I had the slide mounts already purchased for the XR30s. I've also decided that since the tank is about 8ft from my chair that I work from all day every day, an AC pump for my skimmer is a no go. I'll be selling the Vertex Omega 150 and hopefully snagging an RO Regal 150 INT to replace it.
Pic updates when lights are mounted!
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Caravanshaka
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We have light!!!!
Using my old par meter that isn’t good for LEDs, I’ve got a blanket of light that is 150-200 par through 85% of the tank, and it only drops to 100 in the corners. This is with the lights 24” off the surface, running the WWC modified AB+ schedule.
I think it will be perfect, as I suspect true par is 200-250, but have the option to lower the lights if it doesn’t seem like enough!
Using my old par meter that isn’t good for LEDs, I’ve got a blanket of light that is 150-200 par through 85% of the tank, and it only drops to 100 in the corners. This is with the lights 24” off the surface, running the WWC modified AB+ schedule.
I think it will be perfect, as I suspect true par is 200-250, but have the option to lower the lights if it doesn’t seem like enough!
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Caravanshaka
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Having a bit of a rough patch right now on the display. Finally ran out of the original ATI essentials 3-part and switched over to the 2-part a few weeks ago. It was supposed to be exactly 1/5 the dose and a breeze to change, but that hasn't been the case. I went from dosing equal parts of 1,2,3 at 330ml per day all the way down to 33ml of Pro. I dropped it to 50 at first, and my Alk went from 8.3 to over 9.0 in a couple days. Finally stabilized it back at 8.3-8.4 using 33ml. Since getting my Alkatronic, I've kept a close eye on Alk and checked calcium occasionally, and it had always been spot on with the original. With the switch to pro I didn't think about checking it right away, which wasn't good. I noticed some color loss, and even a couple acro's looking like they might be on their last leg, so I did a full test. Alk was still stable at 8.37 according to Hanna checker, but my Calcium has dropped to 350!!!!!! It's been 440-450 for the longest time on the original stuff. So now I am dosing 33ml of Alk and 60ml of Cal on essentials pro just to keep a stable calcium number. This is WAY off balance, and making me pretty frustrated. I'm correcting calcium with some BRS calcium chloride over the next few days, and watching everything closely as I do.
This has me really thinking about a calcium reactor again. Honestly, I was thinking about one before this, but the frustration has me pricing things out. With the Frag tank getting up and running, I'm going to have a 30"x18" section of my sump unused now, which I could probably stick a reactor in. Here is what I was thinking
Geo 624 reactor - $600
Geo 415 secondary chamber - $120
Kamoer peristaltic pump -$260
Carbon Doser regulator - $350
Reborn Media
This has me really thinking about a calcium reactor again. Honestly, I was thinking about one before this, but the frustration has me pricing things out. With the Frag tank getting up and running, I'm going to have a 30"x18" section of my sump unused now, which I could probably stick a reactor in. Here is what I was thinking
Geo 624 reactor - $600
Geo 415 secondary chamber - $120
Kamoer peristaltic pump -$260
Carbon Doser regulator - $350
Reborn Media
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Caravanshaka
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Regarding the Frag tank, I've moved over a few Zoa frags just to put some color in it...as well as a few throw-away SPS frags just to see how it goes. I'm entering the Diatom stage now, but all the frags seem healthy so far. I also got my Regal 150 INT SSS skimmer yesterday and am in the process of cleaning up the wires and tubing, so will get a pic soon.
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Caravanshaka
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Still waiting on a few cable clips to arrive, but pretty happy with how it is all looking!
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Caravanshaka
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Calcium up to 425ppm as of last night. going to monitor how steady it stays with the current dosing.
Frag system is in full diatom bloom stage, and the zoa's seem to be loving it over there for some reason, lol.
Frag system is in full diatom bloom stage, and the zoa's seem to be loving it over there for some reason, lol.
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Caravanshaka
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Can’t think of anything to complain about with the view from my office chair!
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