Doostur's Waterbox 230.6 - Mixed Reef Build

[Doostur]

Hello Doostur, I was enjoying your build thread and I have a similar setup. I’m curious how effective you find your refugium? Waterbox has a fairly small Refugium and I noticed that you had both extra circulation in there as well as what looks like an H380. How often are you leveraging GFO to supplement your refugium? Thanks in advance!

The H380 does a great job growing nice clean chaeto. Its hard to say how effective the refugium is or what my parameters would be without it. I never did a before and after, and had to many changes along the way. I do believe it does a great job absorbing excess nutrients and left over food bits. I have a mini clean up crew in my refugium as well with crabs, snails, texido urchin and sea hare. Is it a mind blowing difference...? Probably not, but every little bit helps and GFO isn't cheap lol. I have to be doing something right... i fill a 5 gallon bucket with good quality chaeto every 2-3 months. I had a left over power head so I through it in there to help with the flow. I saw a lot of guys on youtube doing it. Definitely better than not having it.

I run about 2 cups of GFO and carbon. This is more than the BRS calculator based on 200g of water. This amount, with my reactor set to a good tumble rate, results in my phosphates being .02 - .06. I feed a small amount of flakes and pellets in the morning and 2.5 tablespoons of meaty foods in the afternoon. Its a big puzzle based on how many fish, how often you feed, where you want to keep your parameters etc. I change my GFO and carbon out every 6-8 weeks.... by this time my phosphates begin to reach .08-1.0.

 

[Doostur]

People are asking me about the accuracy of my trident. I had issues when the reagents got low. I havent had issues since I installed the guides which a member on here sells. I cut an old container open and used it as reference to adjust tube height.

 

[Sthomp01]

nice trick for the Trident

 

[Doostur]

Anyone else do automatic water changes? What percent does everyone do? Whats the sweet spot from your experience? Anyone experimented with more or less? What did you notice? Made a post here:

Automatic Daily Water Changes - What amount? - Notice Any Differences Between smaller & bigger changes?

If you're doing a daily water change, how many gallons are you changing out daily and what is your total tank water volume? Some say 1%-2% is ideal. My total water volume is around 200 gallons. I change out 3 gallons from 10 pm to 6 am using Apex Dos pumps. I do it while I'm sleeping because...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[SkiCatTX]

Anyone else do automatic water changes? What percent does everyone do? Whats the sweet spot from your experience? Anyone experimented with more or less? What did you notice? Made a post here:

Automatic Daily Water Changes - What amount? - Notice Any Differences Between smaller & bigger changes?

If you're doing a daily water change, how many gallons are you changing out daily and what is your total tank water volume? Some say 1%-2% is ideal. My total water volume is around 200 gallons. I change out 3 gallons from 10 pm to 6 am using Apex Dos pumps. I do it while I'm sleeping because...

www.reef2reef.com

I have mine set to do 6l, so about 1.6 gallons each morning on 200g volume. That lets me get one month out of my 50g mixing container. Mathematically, I suppose that’s equivalent to something like a single 30g water change once a month. At its max (loud) speed it can do it in a little over an hour...

 

[Doostur]

I have mine set to do 6l, so about 1.6 gallons each morning on 200g volume. That lets me get one month out of my 50g mixing container. Mathematically, I suppose that’s equivalent to something like a single 30g water change once a month. At its max (loud) speed it can do it in a little over an hour...

We crank our AC down when we sleep. My water containers are in the garage and are much warmer. It offsets the cold AC, keeping my tank temp at 78-78.5. Couldnt have worked out better. I start at 10pm. Yes they are pretty loud. I just went from a 3 gallon change over 8 hours to 4 gallons. We will see if I can really notice a difference. Thats about 2% which is what BRS recommends I think.

 

[SPSReeferMI]

My tank is 1 year old. I do AWC of 2 GPD on a 150 gallon total water volume system. Feels like the sweet spot for now, but great question - curious to hear other responses.

 

[Doostur]

My tank is 1 year old. I do AWC of 2 GPD on a 150 gallon total water volume system. Feels like the sweet spot for now, but great question - curious to hear other responses.

After spending a few hours reading about it. Seeing what others were doing, i went back to 3 gallons a day for 200g total volume. So about 1.5% A lot of well known reefers are closer to 1%. I'm sure you can go up or down a half gallon or so depending on your feeding habbits and how stocked your tank is.

 

[Doostur]

Can't believe how fast this WWC OG bounce is growing.

 

[Doostur]

SPS Polyp extension makes me smile

Sorry for bad quality pic.

 

[Doostur]

What does everyone dose?

I dose, alk, calcium, and acropower. I have one cylinder empty in my Apex DDR. Might as well fill it up with something and make use of it.

 

[Doostur]

Changed parameters to 8 alk, 440 calcium, and 1400 mag. Upped light schedule by 5%. Very top of rock work during peak hours is 325 par. Most SPS sitting at 225-275. A few around 300. Overall tank seems a bit happier.

 

[Doostur]

Added a Hawaian Cleaner Wrasse. Been on my list for a while. Hard to come by for some reason. Sorry for bad quality pic. Too lazy to clean the glass

 

[Doostur]

What kind of salt does everyone here use? Anyone using Fritz? Curious on long term luck with it and how SPS and other corals are doing.

 

[Doostur]

.03 Phosphates + 7.5 Nitrates = Perky Polyps

 

[Doostur]

Time to mix up some dry food! I mix a little bit of each pellet for hand feeding and topping off the Apex AFS. I do the same for the flakes.

Theory - No one ever starved at the buffet. Keep all fish happy.

 

[najer]

I feed 4 of the ocean nutrition flakes on different days and have probably 15 - 20 foods in the house including frozen, variety is good!

 

[Doostur]

I feed 4 of the ocean nutrition flakes on different days and have probably 15 - 20 foods in the house including frozen, variety is good!

Yep same here. I have had complete luck with all kinds of fish feeding a little bit of everything!

 

[Doostur]

Got one of these guys on Amazon for $8.

Time to pick out a nice torch. It will make for a nice hair-do.

Don't mind my glass. Been too lazy to clean it

 

[Doostur]

I hate cutting filter for my cups but by far the cheapest option. Replace every 4-5 days. Cut into 6x6 squares. Can buy on amazon.