d2mini's "Essential Focus" Mixed Reef Build

d2mini · May 21, 2017

Slm222 said:
How do you anticipate heat affecting output

Not enough to make any difference to me.

A-A-ron · May 23, 2017

Wow, what a wild ride. I found your build this morning and read through all pages. I found it by searching for some plumbing methods on the elos 70 I just picked up. Over the course of your year or so journey and the 70+ pages I have come up with some ideas for my own build.

I'll be using TBS to stock the tank with thanks to this thread. I also love the new sump you went with and the skimmer.

Hope to see you grow some nice corals out in the future. Thank you for being so detailed and feeling the need to share it with the world. You have already helped me in a lot of ways just by doing so.

Cheers!

melypr1985 · May 23, 2017

Dennis your tank is looking great!

d2mini · May 24, 2017

A-A-ron said:
Wow, what a wild ride. I found your build this morning and read through all pages. I found it by searching for some plumbing methods on the elos 70 I just picked up. Over the course of your year or so journey and the 70+ pages I have come up with some ideas for my own build.

I'll be using TBS to stock the tank with thanks to this thread. I also love the new sump you went with and the skimmer.

Hope to see you grow some nice corals out in the future. Thank you for being so detailed and feeling the need to share it with the world. You have already helped me in a lot of ways just by doing so.

Cheers!

Thanks! Good luck with your build, glad mine could help. :)

melypr1985 said:
Dennis your tank is looking great!

Thanks, Meredith! :)

foxt · May 31, 2017

I am curious, after switching from Triton back to your AWC and fuge-trimming routine, did you also switch salt mixes? I believe you were using Tropic Marin Pro, per Triton recommendations. That salt reportedly has lower alk than others, in keeping with Triton's recommended alk target of 8dkh. Your sig shows your alk still around 8 - still using TMP?

Reefer525XL · May 31, 2017

foxt said:
I am curious, after switching from Triton back to your AWC and fuge-trimming routine, did you also switch salt mixes? I believe you were using Tropic Marin Pro, per Triton recommendations. That salt reportedly has lower alk than others, in keeping with Triton's recommended alk target of 8dkh. Your sig shows your alk still around 8 - still using TMP?

Go back to page 70, your answer is there :)

foxt · May 31, 2017

How'd I miss that? Thanks!

d2mini · May 31, 2017

foxt said:
I am curious, after switching from Triton back to your AWC and fuge-trimming routine, did you also switch salt mixes? I believe you were using Tropic Marin Pro, per Triton recommendations. That salt reportedly has lower alk than others, in keeping with Triton's recommended alk target of 8dkh. Your sig shows your alk still around 8 - still using TMP?

The sig is old. It doesn't auto update here on R2R because of some R2R specific image caching issue. Rev hasn't figure it out.

But, I do keep Alk in the low to mid 8's. Like TM, Salinity has pretty level parameters, all close to NSW and the test results from each batch are listed on the bucket.
No matter how I'm dosing, I want to use a salt with level parameters, nothing elevated.

d2mini · Jun 1, 2017

I'm not a big zoa guy, but here's some Blow Pops and Cantaloupes. :)

Mebeknob · Jun 2, 2017

d2mini said:
Here's a couple updated pics showing the current mixing/AWC station and the new RO/DI.

Wasn't your deck teal??

d2mini · Jun 2, 2017

Mebeknob said:
Wasn't your deck teal??

When it was a deck, yes. ;)

Zaffor · Jun 2, 2017

Blame that on Diesel

d2mini · Jun 2, 2017

Zaffor said:
Blame that on Diesel

Yep, it's all @Diesel fault!

Mebeknob · Jun 2, 2017

d2mini said:
When it was a deck, yes. ;)

I see what you did there...[emoji58]

d2mini · Jun 3, 2017

Installed my GHL flow meter again today, this time with some british straight threaded to imperial slip fittings I found on ebay that upsize from 1" to 1.5" instead of downsizing to 3/4".
My plumbing is 1" so the 3/4 created some restriction and turbulence (assuming) inside the meter before.
I've also installed it on the drain this time instead of the return.
Readings are pretty steady now compared to last time.

Also installed a 25w AquaUV Classic UV Sterilizer last week.
All return flow is going through the UV before heading back up into the tank.
It's the new "Twist" model which lets you orient the input and output in any direction independent from each other.
This opens up more options for installation.

Reefahholic · Jun 4, 2017

D2, have you noticed any elevated PO4 levels with the WS 2.1 rock. I'm still fighting my leeching rock. My tank is still running between 0.20 - 0.40 ppm. It's going on 4 months with LC treatments almost daily. I wonder if I got a bad batch? Haven't heard of anybody else having issues yet.

Reefahholic · Jun 4, 2017

I take that back. Just got a pm about the rock and the guy sold it and went with Marco rock. I just figure at some freaking point it has to quit leeching out. It's just crazy. It has to be the stuff it's made with or something.

d2mini · Jun 4, 2017

Reefahholic said:
D2, have you noticed any elevated PO4 levels with the WS 2.1 rock. I'm still fighting my leeching rock. My tank is still running between 0.20 - 0.40 ppm. It's going on 4 months with LC treatments almost daily. I wonder if I got a bad batch? Haven't heard of anybody else having issues yet.

Both times I've set it up with this tank I've had high no3 and high p04 when first set up. My po4 has been as high as .6 ppm.
But both times it drops like a rock over the course of a couple weeks with some gfo. Last I checked it was under .1 ppm.
Other than some diatoms I've never had a problem, and like I said it was pretty short lived.
I also haven't heard of anyone else having issues with the 2.1. rock. It's actually dry Marco rock that I always hear tends to leach p04 for a very long time.

Did you get yours dry? Or live from TBS? With TBS at least it has had time to cure in the ocean for 6 months or so.

Reefahholic · Jun 4, 2017

d2mini said:
Both times I've set it up with this tank I've had high no3 and high p04 when first set up. My po4 has been as high as .6 ppm.
But both times it drops like a rock over the course of a couple weeks with some gfo. Last I checked it was under .1 ppm.
Other than some diatoms I've never had a problem, and like I said it was pretty short lived.
I also haven't heard of anyone else having issues with the 2.1. rock. It's actually dry Marco rock that I always hear tends to leach p04 for a very long time.

Did you get yours dry? Or live from TBS? With TBS at least it has had time to cure in the ocean for 6 months or so.

I got mine dry from Shane and Tracy over here before they closed shop. It looked normal and nothing out of the ordinary that I could see. I just saw that you could get the 2.1 live from TBS as I was sifting through your thread last night.

Anyway, I'm assuming that the leeching is coming from whatever coating they put on the rock. Since it's man made and never touched the ocean, it can't have any dead organic material. Just really a pain in the rear as the tank seems to be stuck in a state of confusion from the shifting levels and hasn't started to really grow that well yet. I'll list a graph below that shows just how often the PO4 is jumping right back up after I knock it down with Lanthanum Chloride. The was a small stretch where I thought it was gonna equilibrate and then it shot up again. Arrr... lol

d2mini · Jun 4, 2017

Reefahholic said:
Anyway, I'm assuming that the leeching is coming from whatever coating they put on the rock.

I dunno, that doesn't make sense to me.
Reef Rock 2.1 is manufactured by mixing reef substrate, that is a mixture of sand, coral pieces, shells and more, with a cement mixture.
I bet it just needs a curing period.
I just checked mine and it's .055 ppm