Flip's Reef

[Diesel]

Atta boy! I subscribed to your build over here, too! I don't think people understand what you've done over there, man! Phenomenal work!

On another note, I should be getting my Ca reactor regulator today (the nicer one)! I'm fist pumping right now! :D

Man, I thought that I was a rookie but the put me already at the 180+ big boys.

Becareful not pulling a muscle with that pumping, the DL list is not where you wanna be.

 

[zibba]

Any way, I hate my stand in the garage. I'm rebuilding it.

More to follow!

I need to build a new stand for my QT/water storage in the near future . Are you just free-flowing in your designs or did you get them from somewhere? And, as always, looking forward to seeing more!!

 

[Flipside]

A little bit of both, man. I drew up what I wanted, and incorporated some ideas I've seen in real life. All gravity fed, save the mixing pump on the ATO/Reservoir/Salt Mix station. Pretty easy, but I didn't use any unions on it because I'm ghetto like that (mostly dry fit stuff, where pressure wasn't a concern. :D I guess since this is for the "long haul," I may as well set it up fo' life!

So, tonight I on-lined my Ca reactor. The regulator is phenomenal so far! I set it for 1 "drip" every 3 seconds for now. One thing about Ca reactors is you have to check parameters after a certain period of time. It's obviously not immediate, so I'll check tomorrow evening. Still dripping kalk, too. Kalk has been all I've used up to this point (with an occasional squirt of Alk here and there). It's been amazing on it's own, but now it's time to test something new on the system. This may sound crazy, but my I feel as though my corals have already gotten all happy! Mag looks fluffier, corals are reaching out there! All looks great! Well, except the fact that I didn't rinse the media and it's a bit cloudy right now. LOL!

Oh, did I mention that I'm getting some nice coralline algae growing on the back of the DT now? :D Very happy to see this!!!

I'm still working on pics guys, but trust me when I say all looks great and I'm very happy how things are going so far.

Here's some random phone pics of "stuff."

Li Ion battery on the back for the counter.

 

[Diesel]

Man, Leo this almost looks like your own brewery...........well Coral brewery that is.

 

[Flipside]

LOL! Well, almost there! :) I just have to get the stand in-place, which requires breaking the entire garage setup down. That's going to suck, but ah well... I've had to do it before. I also need to tie in my chiller. I've been working on the electrical runs myself and it should look clean, with a dash of industrial. LOL!

Of course, the final thing I'll do is clean up all the wire runs. I really like how Mark L. set his runs with panduct under the tank. Super clean install, and really keeps the wires where you can get to them quickly. I'm going to have to hit up my Grainger catalog here soon. :)

 

[zibba]

S-work!

 

[Flipside]

Preciate it, man! :)

Just on a sidebar, since I've received some nasty-grams...

1. I used a Cobalt MJ1200 feed pump for the Ca reactor. It's a good pump! I promise! :D
2. The manifold I built was going to be used, but I knew that it might not work out. It was mostly for fun.
3. The rebuild of the stand is just something I want to do. I could have re-braced, reinforced, add "re" word here, but I like building stuff.

No need in getting nasty about it. I'm still learning things and am doing my best with what I have on hand, first. If I need to spend more money to make it better, I will typically just do it (I think this build thread proves that well enough); but where's the fun in that? I've built a lot of things for fun. They may have been ugly, but the numbers never lie (i.e. Dwyer, par meter, etc...).

Apologies, but things are getting redonkulous, back channel, and that had to be said.

Now, as for my numbers this morning. I noticed that the overall "tank's" pH stayed stable to my numbers prior to lighting off the Ca reactor. Something I did notice was that the secondary chamber had really no effect to the pH numbers. What I mean is, the effluent from the main chamber and the secondary chamber is showing no significant flux in numbers, whatsoever. I'm hoping this will change as it settles in. For me to test this, I use a cup with the effluent dripping into it from the main chamber first. Logged that number away. Then I immediately tie that drip line into the secondary chamber, and watch that pH probe. No change so far.

I know for a fact that the secondary chamber is used to help rid of residual CO2 before it hits the system; so that's good enough in itself... but, I was expecting to see the pH values to go along with that theory (well, theory to me at this point). I guess we'll just have to see as time goes by.

That's the bittersweet part of running a Ca reactor, I see... huge changes don't occur overnight.

More to follow and thanks for reading!

 

[Flipside]

My numbers tonight are as follows:

Ca - 487 ppm
Alk - 8.5 dKH
Mg - 1365 ppm
Tank pH - 8.08

All is well, so far. I will do another test tomorrow night to see if this is going to work.

Corals are popping, nems are happy, fish are chomping! :) It looks like I just dosed Prodibio Reef Booster, or AV Fuel (for those that know what I mean). The corals look almost like they are glowing right now. Whatever I did (up to this point), has definitely worked in my favor! :D

 

[zibba]

My numbers tonight are as follows:

Ca - 487 ppm
Alk - 8.5 dKH
Mg - 1365 ppm
Tank pH - 8.08

All is well, so far. I will do another test tomorrow night to see if this is going to work.

Corals are popping, nems are happy, fish are chomping! :) It looks like I just dosed Prodibio Reef Booster, or AV Fuel (for those that know what I mean). The corals look almost like they are glowing right now. Whatever I did (up to this point), has definitely worked in my favor! :D

Numbers are looking good and glad to hear everything looks awesome. My colors are starting to look a little washed out (ever so slightly) so I think I need to cut back on the carbon/gfo. Happy to hear everything is rockin' in your system.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Looks great so far man!

 

[LILBUDDHA]

Ur doing a great job dude . I am on the same train of thought that the ph effluent out of the first chamber would be lower than the second .
I still have a new co2 bottle n some odds n ends .I was thinking of using my RKL to control a reactor since I have a SL-1 . I don't think I see the need for it yet .
Did u tie in the APEX for the reactor system ? Are you using one or 2 ph probes ?

 

[Flipside]

I'm using two, bro. I used a backup Pinpoint pH monitor to dial in my readings from one reactor vs. two, but am keeping two pH probes actively on the Apex. I had to get a PM1 module because I have the Lite version of the Apex, not that it matters much anymore.

I really don't see much of a difference at all in running two chambers vs. one, to be honest. I love the numbers I'm getting, but I almost think that a one reactor chamber would've been more than suffice.

Tonight, I only tested Alk (9.1dKH) and Ca (479ppm). I did some tuning to try and keep it around there. The pH is at 8.04 for the whole tank right now. It's much easier to tune the Ca reactor with the Hanna checkers I have, too.

Any way, thanks zibba, rev and P for the compliments, as always. :) I may have to work on some splice work downtown tomorrow, so I may not get to fiddle with the system too much. :( I still owe a bunch of updated shots on the corals, too. I'm getting some decent, yet scary, growth out of some of them. :D

 

[LILBUDDHA]

I'm using two, bro. I used a backup Pinpoint pH monitor to dial in my readings from one reactor vs. two, but am keeping two pH probes actively on the Apex. I had to get a PM1 module because I have the Lite version of the Apex, not that it matters much anymore.

I really don't see much of a difference at all in running two chambers vs. one, to be honest. I love the numbers I'm getting, but I almost think that a one reactor chamber would've been more than suffice.

Tonight, I only tested Alk (9.1dKH) and Ca (479ppm). I did some tuning to try and keep it around there. The pH is at 8.04 for the whole tank right now. It's much easier to tune the Ca reactor with the Hanna checkers I have, too.

Any way, thanks zibba, rev and P for the compliments, as always. :) I may have to work on some splice work downtown tomorrow, so I may not get to fiddle with the system too much. :( I still owe a bunch of updated shots on the corals, too. I'm getting some decent, yet scary, growth out of some of them. :D

Gotcha . U running mag in one of the chambers too ? Funny that dolomite can't be found now and is relabeled as something else . LOL
It's always fun splicing glass . It does suck if your doing it outdoors though . Keep ur chin up , as I sense u are letting small things irritate u . It's all good . As the saying goes "Don't hate the playa, Hate the game ."
Have a good evening bro . I am being forced to drink ginger/lemon tea (waste of time ) and told to crawl back in the bed .

 

[Flipside]

Yes sir! Neo Mag, to be specific. It works, too! :)

I don't do much of the splicing these days, but I have to babysit guys that do. You definitely are sensing correctly and I need to zen out on it a bit, but things are starting to irritate me more and more each day.

Ginger/lemon tea sounds good right about now. I think I'm going to join that train of thought, my friend. :)

 

[Flipside]

Beyond nice!

Thanks! :D

 

[Flipside]

Added a dragon goby to the refugium to help stir the sand up a bit. :) Looks like I lost a frag too. It must've blew off a rock and was hiding in the back of the tank. All bleached out and everything... Don't remember which one it was.

 

[Flipside]

Here's some pics of stuff from the DT:

This is that brown coral I got for cheap. It's turning out nicely, but it's a fast grower. Going to have to watch this one.

This is a little mille frag that my buddy Robert gave me (maconbits). He said that it wouldn't encrust in his nano. I don't seem to be having that problem. ;)

Oregon

Superman Monti

Cali

My cuke came out to play a bit.

This is the one that we're calling the GARF Bonsai. Another browned out coral that I got for cheap. He's slowly becoming a favorite, and you can see why.

Who doesn't love Purple Monster? :)

Yeah... I don't think this one's going to be a problem. Look at the encrustation going on!

I think I switched to macro here.

The Lokani.

Insane Mille.

 

[Flipside]

Black Mamba Mille.

The Mag has lightened up his colors, and has gotten really big! I never feed him.

Macro fail!

Another shot with the macro. I wanted to crop this one, but I love that little coral on the bottom right.

Macro of this guy, too.

Here's this.

Then this! Same coral.

Macro of the cats paw.

Rainbow Monti.

This is the Red Planet. It's really hard to get good shots of him.

And, that's it for now. I'm not sure if I'll have the time to mess with finishing the stand this week due to work. But, it's not hurting anything the way it is. All I have left after that is getting the chiller setup, and cleaning up the wiring. Then, I'll just sit back and enjoy for a while. Well, I still haven't secured my canopy to the wall yet, either... but, that one I'm not really counting. :)

 

[LILBUDDHA]

9 of 13 is my favorite .
"Macro of this guy too"
Where is the one I picked out of the second batch u got ?

Sent from my Moto HD on Jelly Bean

 

[Flipside]

Thanks bro! That's not all the corals. Just some if them. I still have more I'd like to add too. Mainly waiting to make sure I get the calcium reactor where I want it. Most of the new corals are LPS, but there's a few more SPS I've been eyeballing. :D Wouldn't mind having all dragon pieces and a TDF, that's for sure; but there's a few mille's I want as well. May need a bigger tank. LOL!