Hello all,
I've been a reefer for a few years now with various experiments/failed tanks but finally decided to do one right and also document/journal everything so that it's easier to understand. I've had it running for about 2 months now, so will try to post some old journals/updates. The plan here is to set up a mixed reef with LPS, few SPS (Montis, maybe a few sticks) and hopefully an anemone like an RBTA, but we'll see - being consistent with water quality is of utmost importance and I'll see if I can run this stably for a few months first... COVID-19 has ironically been great in terms of providing more time to focus and observe the tank. I've had the ability to test more consistently and just enjoy the tank more which is great.
Gear:
Tank: Red Sea 170 reefer white + sump
Lighting: Radion G5 XR 15 Blue + RMS tank mount
Return Pump:Sicce Syncra 3.0 Skimz Quietpro 1.2
Skimmer: Skimz Monzter SN127
Powerheads: 2x Ecotech Vortech MP-10s
Heaters: 2x Eheim Jaeger 150W
Fuge: CPR In-Tank Refugium with Chaeto
ATO: Tunze Osmolator 3155
ATO Reservoir: IM Hydrofill Ti 5 gallon
RODI: BRS 7-stage RODI System with 2x 7 gallon Reliance Aquatainer storage
Dosing: ESV B-Ionic 2-part with Bubble Magus doser
Livestock:
2x Clowns (1 gladiator and 1 that I don't know the name of)
2x Blue-Green Chromis
40g Clean up crew from Reef Cleaners (mostly snails; a couple of hermits)
Looking for: Skunk cleaner (every LFS I've gone to has none), Midas Blenny, and Longnose Hawkfish
Corals:
1x Toxic hammer
Various Monti Frags
Various Zoas
1x Orange Funghia Plate Coral
1x Chalice
Current Parameters:
Salinity: 1.025 (refractometer) and using blue bucket red sea salt
Temp: 78-79 (Hanna TruTemp)
pH: 8.4 (Tropic Marin)
Ammonia: 0 (Tropic Marin)
Nitrite: 0.02 (Tropic Marin)
Nitrate: 5 (Tropic Marin)
Phosphate: 0.5 (Hanna Phosphate Checker) >> This seems the most out of whack and potentially uncalibrated. I have the Tropic Marin test that indicates I'm in the 0.2 range; time will tell...
Alk: 8.3 (Hanna)
Calc: 420 (Salifert)
Recent projects:
Phosphates: per my testing, the Hanna checker is showing that my phosphates are really high, so I am going to try to reduce my phosphates. However, with new skimmer and fuge not fully 'broken in' I am hesitant to make any big changes until things settle down a bit more. Plan to add a little bit of RowaPhos to see if that helps. Let me know if you guys have any ideas!
Pump: As you can see I already had replaced my starting pump - I had a Sicce 3.0 from before that I thought would be good for this, but the noise from an AC Pump was too loud. I converted to DC with a Skimz DC pump and it's been amazing - the only thing I hear from my tank now is the occasional whirring of my MP10s! My MP10s are 4+ years old so I'm planning on potentially upgrading to a Red Sea Gyre 25 in the near future.
Light: A lot of you guys provided some great feedback on Radion G5s and despite all of the highlighted issues, I took the plunge. My set up is simple with just 1 light but so far, my experience with Mobius has been positive and I have only had 1 issue on connecting to the lights with multiple devices. Otherwise, it's great to be able to have these programmable modes. The blues really do a good job of actually hiding algae so I find that when I do water changes, it's nice to be able to turn on only the white lights to clean out the spots that I'm missing. I don't think I will switch anytime soon BUT I am sort of itching to try the Pros to see if there's more customizability on the spectrum front. The blues are really blue and since there are only 3 white LEDs, it's hard to really 'overpower' the blue with other spectrum. Not sure if I'll ultimately do this, but definitely thinking about testing out a Pro to see if I like something better. Ultimately plan is to use AB+ and maybe just add a bit more white for viewing pleasure. The Pros are probably much better suited for that particular use case.
Aiptasia: I found a few of the little buggers on my hammer coral! I don't have a QT tank set up (potentially in the works) but I did the glue/epoxy method as they were only on the frag plug. Jury is out on whether they will come back as I just did this last night; I ordered some F-Aiptasia to make sure that I have another plan in case they come back.
Calcium: I had been using a Hanna checker for the first few weeks of testing, but a couple of weeks ago, I ran a test and I got a reading that my calcium was 80-100ppm off from the last reading. I re-tested it like 5 times and got the same result, then used a different RO water sample and saw completely different numbers. This didn't give me much confidence in my prior numbers so with this forum's recommendations, went out and got a Salifert test, which gave me more consistent results - I also like that it's titration and not tied to the source water.
Great to meet you guys and while I know that a post like this isn't good without pictures, I'm not able to right this second. I hope to post pictures soon, maybe tonight!
I've been a reefer for a few years now with various experiments/failed tanks but finally decided to do one right and also document/journal everything so that it's easier to understand. I've had it running for about 2 months now, so will try to post some old journals/updates. The plan here is to set up a mixed reef with LPS, few SPS (Montis, maybe a few sticks) and hopefully an anemone like an RBTA, but we'll see - being consistent with water quality is of utmost importance and I'll see if I can run this stably for a few months first... COVID-19 has ironically been great in terms of providing more time to focus and observe the tank. I've had the ability to test more consistently and just enjoy the tank more which is great.
Gear:
Tank: Red Sea 170 reefer white + sump
Lighting: Radion G5 XR 15 Blue + RMS tank mount
Return Pump:
Skimmer: Skimz Monzter SN127
Powerheads: 2x Ecotech Vortech MP-10s
Heaters: 2x Eheim Jaeger 150W
Fuge: CPR In-Tank Refugium with Chaeto
ATO: Tunze Osmolator 3155
ATO Reservoir: IM Hydrofill Ti 5 gallon
RODI: BRS 7-stage RODI System with 2x 7 gallon Reliance Aquatainer storage
Dosing: ESV B-Ionic 2-part with Bubble Magus doser
Livestock:
2x Clowns (1 gladiator and 1 that I don't know the name of)
2x Blue-Green Chromis
40g Clean up crew from Reef Cleaners (mostly snails; a couple of hermits)
Looking for: Skunk cleaner (every LFS I've gone to has none), Midas Blenny, and Longnose Hawkfish
Corals:
1x Toxic hammer
Various Monti Frags
Various Zoas
1x Orange Funghia Plate Coral
1x Chalice
Current Parameters:
Salinity: 1.025 (refractometer) and using blue bucket red sea salt
Temp: 78-79 (Hanna TruTemp)
pH: 8.4 (Tropic Marin)
Ammonia: 0 (Tropic Marin)
Nitrite: 0.02 (Tropic Marin)
Nitrate: 5 (Tropic Marin)
Phosphate: 0.5 (Hanna Phosphate Checker) >> This seems the most out of whack and potentially uncalibrated. I have the Tropic Marin test that indicates I'm in the 0.2 range; time will tell...
Alk: 8.3 (Hanna)
Calc: 420 (Salifert)
Recent projects:
Phosphates: per my testing, the Hanna checker is showing that my phosphates are really high, so I am going to try to reduce my phosphates. However, with new skimmer and fuge not fully 'broken in' I am hesitant to make any big changes until things settle down a bit more. Plan to add a little bit of RowaPhos to see if that helps. Let me know if you guys have any ideas!
Pump: As you can see I already had replaced my starting pump - I had a Sicce 3.0 from before that I thought would be good for this, but the noise from an AC Pump was too loud. I converted to DC with a Skimz DC pump and it's been amazing - the only thing I hear from my tank now is the occasional whirring of my MP10s! My MP10s are 4+ years old so I'm planning on potentially upgrading to a Red Sea Gyre 25 in the near future.
Light: A lot of you guys provided some great feedback on Radion G5s and despite all of the highlighted issues, I took the plunge. My set up is simple with just 1 light but so far, my experience with Mobius has been positive and I have only had 1 issue on connecting to the lights with multiple devices. Otherwise, it's great to be able to have these programmable modes. The blues really do a good job of actually hiding algae so I find that when I do water changes, it's nice to be able to turn on only the white lights to clean out the spots that I'm missing. I don't think I will switch anytime soon BUT I am sort of itching to try the Pros to see if there's more customizability on the spectrum front. The blues are really blue and since there are only 3 white LEDs, it's hard to really 'overpower' the blue with other spectrum. Not sure if I'll ultimately do this, but definitely thinking about testing out a Pro to see if I like something better. Ultimately plan is to use AB+ and maybe just add a bit more white for viewing pleasure. The Pros are probably much better suited for that particular use case.
Aiptasia: I found a few of the little buggers on my hammer coral! I don't have a QT tank set up (potentially in the works) but I did the glue/epoxy method as they were only on the frag plug. Jury is out on whether they will come back as I just did this last night; I ordered some F-Aiptasia to make sure that I have another plan in case they come back.
Calcium: I had been using a Hanna checker for the first few weeks of testing, but a couple of weeks ago, I ran a test and I got a reading that my calcium was 80-100ppm off from the last reading. I re-tested it like 5 times and got the same result, then used a different RO water sample and saw completely different numbers. This didn't give me much confidence in my prior numbers so with this forum's recommendations, went out and got a Salifert test, which gave me more consistent results - I also like that it's titration and not tied to the source water.
Great to meet you guys and while I know that a post like this isn't good without pictures, I'm not able to right this second. I hope to post pictures soon, maybe tonight!