Gilroy 425g Build Thread (All Apex, all the time)

[lolgranny]

That gives a new meaning to CC’s needle in a haystack.

 

[Muttley000]

Incredible pic, nicely done!

 

[rlbannon]

To get the thread back on track, here is a snapshot of my Calcium Reactor pH and dosing schedule and how it is going. Measured kH and Ca this morning and they were low so I need to lower the pH a tiny bit on the reactor and up the flow.

Hi Terence, what do your current calcium reactor DOS profile, pump outlet configuration, and ph to pump graphs look like these days?

 

[Ultra Aquatics]

Excellent thread, read through all 94 pages the last few days. Tons of great information and love seeing new ways to use and compare the data from my Apex!

 

[Terence]

I have some catching up to do for sure.

Until then - here is a snap from one of my live cams today.

 

[Terence]

So yesterday was the 3-year anniversary of when water first went in the tank. This memory came up on Facebook. So, I thought it was the perfect time to stop being lazy and catch you all up on the reef. I hope you don't mind all the photos!

Here is what I posted three years ago.

 

[Terence]

and here are some pics I took yesterday:

Unknown Acro given to me from Mark at Tenji

Spainbow from Vincent

This is a colony of Walt Disney that I grew out from a two-polyp-throw-away flake that, on a whim, I decided to try and grow!

Pearlberry from @Brad Syphus

Another flake of a frag from a brush-by accident - growing into a gorgeous coral. Original coral came from Jason Fox - Ignore the cyano

Slimeball Anacropora from WWC

Yellow Tip Acro from Jason Fox - possible originally from WWC

Red Dragon from Robert at Neptune Aquatics

 

[Terence]

Now for some stories...

Foster and Smith had a sale on salt. Couldn't resist. 8 buckets with free T-shirts and four 200g boxes - shipped to my door - $400. Along with the pallet of Fritz salt I picked up earlier in the year, I think I am set. I have about 4500g of salt mix now - should last me for a couple of years!

 

[Terence]

Oh, and the beast on top of the salt you ask? Well, before we went to MACNA in Las Vegas last year, I went out there to help out a friend,. Jimmy Colson, with some Apex gear. He was no longer using that beast of a calcium reactor and it was a little beat up so he offered to give it to me - along with two huge CO2 bottles. Of course I said yes, and brought it home after MACNA the following month. I then sent it out to my friend Serdar at GeosReef to have it reconditioned and outfitted with a COR pump. When it came back, it was gorgeous. Yesterday I ripped out the Deltec and installed the new calcium reactor.

 

[Terence]

And yes, I used the event to clean up a bit of that wiring and tubing to the best of my ability. Emphasis on MY ABILITY.

Of course I need to give a shout out to my good friend Julian Sprung who set me up with some ReBorn and ReMag to fill it - It takes about 50 pounds of media! Rather than send me out a bunch of retail packs, he came up with this ingenious bulk packaging - along with my Acropower, of course - absolutely I give a ton of credit to this product for making my reef what it is today!

 

[ca1ore]

He was no longer using that beast of a calcium reactor and it was a little beat up so I offered to give it to me - along with two huge CO2 bottles. Of course I said yes.

How generous of you .... your pursuasion skills must be better than mine .... I’ve tried suggesting a friend of mine give me his rainbow chalice .... I still don’t have it. Jokes aside, where doesn’t one even find orange thumbscrews LOL. CaRx looks very cool. Do you envision varying the flow of the COR at all?

 

[Terence]

How generous of you .... your pursuasion skills must be better than mine .... I’ve tried suggesting a friend of mine give me his rainbow chalice .... I still don’t have it. Jokes aside, where doesn’t one even find orange thumbscrews LOL. CaRx looks very cool. Do you envision varying the flow of the COR at all?

Jimmy is an amazing person. I can count on one hand the number of people I have met that are as kind and generous as Jimmy. If you are in the Las Vegas area, try and reach out to him and go see his aquariums. Amazing.

Email GeosReef to see where they got those - I too was amazed when I saw them. He did a great job refurbing it and making it a COR-driven CaRx.

I will leave the COR at about 20%. It will not vary. But it is nice to see less power consumption on the CaRx and, not that it matters in my Fish Cave, but it is the most silent CaRx I have ever used.

 

[Terence]

BTW, just looked, my CaRx power consumption went from 39w to 22w. That may seem like an insignificant amount, but here in CA thats about $30-$40/year.

 

[Ultra Aquatics]

Can’t go wrong with a Geo, I love my 612 although it looks like a thimble compared to that beast!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Wow on the GeoReef unit. Thought mine was nice.
Tank looks fantastic! I too tried Live Aquaria salt as a trial of a 100 gallon mix for $30 shipped was a no-brainer and I actually liked the salt. I have all the color in the worls. I cget super slow growth on my acro though.
Any tips??

 

[Panky]

How many WAV’s r u running now?

 

[NY_Caveman]

LOL, your delivery person hates you.

 

[vetteguy53081]

LOL, your delivery person hates you.

Mine QUIT !!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Mine QUIT !!

Laughing out loud!

 

[Terence]

Wow on the GeoReef unit. Thought mine was nice.
Tank looks fantastic! I too tried Live Aquaria salt as a trial of a 100 gallon mix for $30 shipped was a no-brainer and I actually liked the salt. I have all the color in the worls. I cget super slow growth on my acro though.
Any tips??

When flow, light, and chemistry are all on point, Ususally if I see someone having a successful reef tank but just with slow growth it is because the reef-fuel availability is low - in other words food available in the water column for the corals. And I am not nexesarily talking about something that comes in a jar or freezer that you get at your LFS. I am talking fish excrement. The problem is that many of these tanks are in balance for low (usually too low) of nutrients. Tanks I have seen do well have lots of fish, get fed way more than most could imagine, but have great waste export systems to handle it. So there is no build up of nutrients but there is availability for corals to take up fuel for growth.