DangerDave’s 160 gallon reef in wall build

[DangerDave]

So what’s living in the reef so far...

Not pictured...
6 small chromis
Another cardinal
Cuc - assorted snails and hermits
A reclusive sea cucumber

Dave

 

[DangerDave]

 

[Daniel@R2R]

That bangaii pic came out great!

 

[Rolrod39]

Great build. When you do it yourself you make the maintenance access to your liking.

 

[DangerDave]

That bangaii pic came out great!

Thanks, I know if I tried for it, it wouldn’t have happened [emoji23]...

 

[DangerDave]

Great build. When you do it yourself you make the maintenance access to your liking.

Yeah man, definitely. It’s funny though, the grass is always greener on the other side. I’ve been looking at tank builds recently thinking how much easier having the tank in the house would make accessing the tank for cleaning and placement. But it would make maintenance much worse....

 

[DangerDave]

But it would make maintenance much worse....

Well sump maintenance anyway...

 

[revhtree]

Looking good!

 

[DangerDave]

Hi all! I’ve been working on the tank, but not doing the best job posting about it. So...

The water parameters have been great, with not many corals it’s been easy to do with just the auto water changes. I’m changing 10% of the water volume each week, split evenly through the day/week.

With such small increments, each change doesn’t effect the temp. I was a bit worried with the cold spell we just had that it would be an issue. The garage is heated, the temp hovers around 60. It’s a ventless heater, which led to a PH issue. When it gets very cold out, the co2 levels rise from the heater. I’m running a co2 scrubber, but that has struggled to keep it up. It dropped as low as 7.7 with the heater running 24-7 when temps were hitting negative degrees outside at night. When the heater isn’t running much, I was able to get up to 8.1. Just another reason to miss summer (and Florida). I think I’m going to run an air hose from outside to the co2 scrubber.

The only algae I’ve experienced is a heck of diatom outbreak, but I’m almost through it. Cuc is working well so far.

I’m trying to figure out how to take good pics, I used the aquarium cam app, but it doesn’t always work out.

Dave

 

[DangerDave]

 

[DangerDave]

 

[DangerDave]

 

[DangerDave]

The branching hammer actually feels really good. I got a great price from lfs, they were almost fully bleached, it got all that color back in 24 hours! [emoji16]

 

[Erick Armanii]

Following

 

[DangerDave]

We have (had) an iPad for the house. It was dropped and cracked the screen. I put a glass covering on the screen, and repurposed it for the tank build. It is now a 12.9” apex screen!

 

[revhtree]

Nice job Dave!

 

[DangerDave]

Nice job Dave!

Thanks revhtree!

 

[DangerDave]

Happy Sunday folks! I’ve made some new additions.

The new Duncan’s, Gonis, and octo went in last night. The Duncan’s opened almost on command. The gonis have extended about half way, and same with the octo.

I’m really excited about the octo. I have an area of the tank I’m going to use for euphyllia, the flow and rock placement keeps it mostly isolated from others. I want to add some crazy looking red and blue torches I saw a lfs. Well once they frag them up, they were $$$ in colonies.

Still working on getting good pics.

Dave

 

[DangerDave]

The bigger goniopora sure looks cool when eating.

 

[revhtree]

Looking good!