Chris' algae farm (ELOS 160)

ChristopherKriens

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Hello I'm new to the forum. I'm beginning my second reef aquarium- I started out a couple years ago with a second-hand 90 gallon mixed reef. After buying a house and moving last fall I had to take everything down as I didn't have the time or money to keep everything going. Now that I'm settled in a little bit I've decided to get started again.


I decided on an ELOS System 160 as a centerpiece for the living room area. The room's layout is such that I had to order a custom aquarium with a left hand overflow. After being delayed by hurricane Sandy, being repackaged after forklift damage, and tipping over during unloading, it's been a rough ride. Luckily everything looks great.


I'm still in the early stages of setup. I went with Pukani Dry Rock from Bulk Reef Supply because of its light weight and large surface area. I also think its some of the best looking rock you can buy. After receiving the rock, I dug out a fairly large crispy critter- I think it was a brittle star- which prompted me to give the rock a 24 hour bleach, followed by a 3 hour acid bath and plenty of rinsing to get rid of the dead stuff.


I have an early aquascape set up, but I have a lot of time to scrutinize during the cycle, so we'll see if it stays. I'm using CaribSea's AragAlive Fiji Pink, which has a nice consistent grain size and some great color. Hoping it won't blow around too much when I get some more flow going. I'm inoculating with Prodibio BioDigest and Bioptim to get everything going.

Salinity: 1.025
Temperature: 86ºF




Cooking it clean
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Sand storm after 8 bags
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The PS2000 Skimmer started up right away- no break in for this guy
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Next morning everything was settled down. Low iron glass is a beautiful thing.
elos-5.jpg
 

revsgirl

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Lookin' forward to seeing how it comes along.
 

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I like how you take photos. :) Keep us updated!
 
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ChristopherKriens

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To keep myself busy while the tank is cycling, I decided to hang the rail system for the lights I don't have. I'm using a 48" rail to cover the length- which is 62", and am planning on three Radions. Since the spacing didn't work out, I reinforced the drywall by climbing up into the attic and adding some wood between the ceiling joists at the four mounting points.


All the kits necessary
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Plumb-bob to create the tank outline on the ceiling to measure against
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Tank outline and mount bases installed

elos-8.jpg


Finished product- will trim excess cable after the lights come.
elos-9.jpg
 
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ChristopherKriens

ChristopherKriens

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Received two of the three Radions in the mail today and started playing with EcoSmart Live. Very impressive system. After almost three weeks, the tank has cycled. I've changed the temperature to a steady 78º and the salinity at 1.023 for now. My Royal Gramma graduated from quarantine a few days ago and he'll be glad to be out of the dark. Planning on letting things stabilize a little and introducing four or five Lyretail Anthias in a week or two.


Everything was well packaged
radion-1.jpg


The puck on the Radion Pro and new TIR lenses
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Hanging 8 inches from the water surface
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Full tank shot with aquascape. Definitely a little dark in the center for now
radion-4.jpg
 

dorky

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wow just simply beautiful will be following this n welcome to reef to reef
 
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ChristopherKriens

ChristopherKriens

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Cryptocarion Irritans has made its first appearance, despite my quarantine! Instead of moving the fish (Royal Gramma) back into quarantine and causing further stress, I'm going to let him fight it off. He is active and still eating, so I believe aggressive feeding and a lack of further changes would be the best route. Because I haven't introduced any inverts, I'm considering taking the system into a hyposalinty treatment and holding off on coral for awhile. I'm worried that all of the stocking I plan to do, which includes a Powder Blue Tang, won't go so well. Definitely open to advice here..

I installed LED strips under the cabinets this evening to make working a little easier. I found some water-resistant aluminum strip lights and wired them with magnetic switches so that they turn off when the cabinet doors are closed.

It looks like the Reef2Reef does some image scaling to prevent large images, so I'll provide zooms to the originals from now on. Here is the Full Tank Shot.


The warm glow of never-ending maintenance..
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The ELOS latch and the magnetic on/off switch.
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The LED Strip mounted in the upper corner- 24 inches and provides 600 lumens.
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Proving plenty of light in the sump side of the cabinet.

elos-13.jpg

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ChristopherKriens

ChristopherKriens

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This week, I hooked up the auto top-off system. This is the first time I've had one of these, what a relief. I might be able to go somewhere on the weekend!

The Royal Gramma seems completely healed (for now) and is defending his turf against the clown that I added yesterday. The LFS had a really nice Onyx Percula come in and I couldn't resist. I also added a small clean up crew. I'll have to add to this as I add more fish, but they should be able to keep up as I'm not feeding a lot yet.


Current Stock List

Fish
Royal Gramma
Onyx True Percula Clown

Inverts
Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (2)
Nassarius Snail (5)


ELOS Osmocontroller mounted in cabinet. Probe uses temperature to determine submersion.
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One of the Cleaner Shrimp, they usually seem to hang out together.
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Onyx Clown- Seems right at home after 12 hours.
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Royal Gramma- still very shy, only comes out to eat.

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Fatmike92

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wow beautiful tank and geat set up!

what camera are you using? ha im trying to figure out what camera I want to get
 

Betroc2

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How did you get that rock to balance on end and stay there?? Can't wait to see this tank fill up, LOL. Keep the pics coming!
 
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ChristopherKriens

ChristopherKriens

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what camera are you using? ha im trying to figure out what camera I want to get
I'm using Canon's 5D MkII. Not the newest, but it's a great full frame body for the price. Their new 6D will pretty much do the same thing and is a little cheaper.

How did you get that rock to balance on end and stay there??
I made a base out of PVC, which gets hidden by the sand. The rock itself has a hole in the bottom that attaches to the base, which is nice because it spins freely and I can still change it. Here's a phone pic during the leak test- you can kind of make it out.

base.jpg
 
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ChristopherKriens

ChristopherKriens

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Tank is currently going through the diatom bloom, it's pretty rough looking. I'm going to get something that will pull out the phosphates and silicates and just wait it out. I picked up a harem of 4 juvenile anthias last night and added them after dark. They were all doing well this morning and bickering about who gets to swim at the top. They've all taken to eating mysis today except one, that is sticking to cyclop-eeze. I'm going to let them settle in for a few days before adding the male so they know where to hide if he's a bully.

The diatoms are nice in that they're showing me where I need to add flow. I added one Vortech MP40 ES near the front, but I think I will need another to push water through the back space.

Vortech is running reef crest mode at 90%
elos-20.jpg

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BFF's during acclimation
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ELOS insignia-
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A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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