HTown Reef - 200g Waterbox Reef LX 270.6 (SPS Dominant)

[Ugin]

I am now trying to silence the tank. Have you figured out the secret sauce? Do you start with the main drain fully open? Any hints would be greatly appreciated.

I've just been able to silence the tank (mostly). I close off the secondary drain completely and slowly closed the primary drain till the water level in the overflow box was above the primary drain but below the emergency drain. It's very quite now except for when my power heads spin up to max.

 

[Brett Miller]

How high is your sump level to minimize the waterfall noise coming from the removable baffle? Seems like it needs to be pretty high. Thx

 

[jhook]

Awesome thread! Everything is coming together nicely. I especially like the place that quarantines the fish prior to shipping. I'm going to give them a look before I put anything in my tanks.

 

[Ugin]

How high is your sump level to minimize the waterfall noise coming from the removable baffle? Seems like it needs to be pretty high. Thx

Pretty high in the first 2 chambers.

Awesome thread! Everything is coming together nicely. I especially like the place that quarantines the fish prior to shipping. I'm going to give them a look before I put anything in my tanks.

Thanks man! Like i said i haven't used them before but I'll leave a review here as we progress!

 

[Ugin]

Lights / Cycle Update!

After grabbing some wood screws, the lights are officially installed! I took the picture @ 10,000k temp so it wasn't pure blue, but the color configuration is really enjoyable.

I've also run all of my light power cables through my APEX and switched them all to off. No reason to run lights just yet..

 

[Sean Clark]

That looks really sharp. Clean lines. Does your stand height line up with your chair rail molding? It looks pretty close.

 

[Ugin]

That looks really sharp. Clean lines. Does your stand height line up with your chair rail molding? It looks pretty close.

Haha, I never thought about that. No, it's off by 3-4"~, and now I'm going to see that every time I look at tank... maybe we raise the rail molding up for the whole downstairs?

 

[Sean Clark]

Haha, I never thought about that. No, it's off by 3-4"~, and now I'm going to see that every time I look at tank... maybe we raise the rail molding up for the whole downstairs?

Talk about unintended consequences. Sorry about that. I didn't mean to transfer my OCD onto you like that. I am sure the wife would appreciate the complete remodel though.

 

[Crabby48]

Top lids in the pass did me great. Won’t use anyone else that doesn’t machine around brackets. I hate big square generic squares lol.

Looking forward to your powerhead location. Most overflow boxs seem to get little noise if your powerheads fluctuate a lot. After some time I don’t hear it as much.

Tank and rock work is looking great

 

[Ugin]

Top lids in the pass did me great. Won’t use anyone else that doesn’t machine around brackets. I hate big square generic squares lol.

Looking forward to your powerhead location. Most overflow boxs seem to get little noise if your powerheads fluctuate a lot. After some time I don’t hear it as much.

Tank and rock work is looking great

My current configuration (pictures on page 5) doesn't seem to be causing any issues and all 4 MP40's running on Mobius with alternating currents.

Question for you! I'm looking at picking up a PAR meter and was curious if you had any thoughts on the APEX par meter. I've only ever borrowed PAR meters from local clubs, but I want to have one on hand but have no experience with the APEX version.

 

[Crabby48]

I looked very little into apex par meter. It seemed best left in an area so figured it may not be great on a stick for quick measurements. I haven’t found anyone with one for info.

 

[Sean Clark]

I own an Apex par meter and I say hard pass. Pick up an Apogee.

 

[Ugin]

I own an Apex par meter and I say hard pass. Pick up an Apogee.

Do you know which Apogee? I remember something about various version chips having issues with T5 or LEDs, but its been a hot minute since I looked into them.

 

[fishguy242]

i heard somewhere,there is a new upgraded version ,either available or coming soon.

 

[Sean Clark]

I want to say the Quantum MQ-510 is the one that people say to get that has a better sensor for reporting blues more accurately. But I have not looked into them in a while. Any dedicated par meter is going to serve you better than the Apex PMK. It is super slow to respond and not return repeatable values like the Apogee ones do. Also if your friend doesn't have an Apex then you can't let them borrow it while you drink their nice Japanese whiskey.

Realistically if the par is 250-275 or 400-440 it is not going to make or brake that part of your tank. So plus or minus 10% on the blues doesn't make much difference to me.

 

[Ugin]

I want to say the Quantum MQ-510 is the one that people say to get that has a better sensor for reporting blues more accurately. But I have not looked into them in a while. Any dedicated par meter is going to serve you better than the Apex PMK. It is super slow to respond and not return repeatable values like the Apogee ones do. Also if your friend doesn't have an Apex then you can't let them borrow it while you drink their nice Japanese whiskey.

Realistically if the par is 250-275 or 400-440 it is not going to make or brake that part of your tank. So plus or minus 10% on the blues doesn't make much difference to me.

I'd gladly share my japanese whiskey to borrow a PAR meter

I'll look into. I'm just curious about various readings with my lights at various heights. My light fixture is about 12"~ off the water line at the moment and I want to know the values I'd see 7" to 12". With my ATI Sunpower (8x80w) + 2 reefbrites, I'm sure my PAR is high enough but ... I gotta know.

 

[Ugin]

Cycle Update

Day 10:
Ammonia: .2ppm
Nitrite:1+ (Maxed out on Red Sea test kit)
pH: 8.1

So ammonia is going down (slowly) and Nitrites are above 1ppm and maxed out from my Red Sea test kit.

Do yall think I should continue to dose bacteria? (Microbacter 7) I'm not sure if it's adding anything of value or if it matters.

 

[fishguy242]

honestly never used,but thinking hold off ,see where it goes...

 

[Ugin]

Oh another update I figured I'd share.

Refugium Progress

I've decided on placing my refugium after my skinner chamber. The skimmer will help filtering out as much crude as it can before it can get into the refugium chamber.

The flow of the refugium chamber now hits the rock + biobrick and creates a nice circular flow where the cheato will sit

 

[Sean Clark]

Is that Brightwell brick a standard one or the one with sulfur in it?