HybridAZN's 180 gallon build

Braves Fan · Aug 13, 2015

hybridazn said:
Yaaaay updates! Lol

Nothing major at this time other than I am having a slight outbreak of bryopsis. No biggie in just ordered a gallon of Kent tech m and started dosing tonight. One question though, is it supposed to have a brownish color to it with tiny particles floating around? Almost looks like dirt.

I am a bit behind on your thread

I have a Bryopsis problem in my tank as well, not real bad, but it is starting to get there, I and am also dosing Kent Marine Tech M about 100 ml per day. This isn't my first go around with Bryopsis, I am starting to think once you have this in your tank, you can never rid yourself of it.

The first time, I stopped dosing to early, Bryopsis came back

the last time it appeared in my tank I dosed the same 100ml of Kents Tech M per day until I the Bryopsis started to disappear from the tank then I backed off the Kent's to 50ml per day. I kept this up until the Bryopsis was completely gone from my tank. I then kept dosing 25ml per day for a month or so. I will say here I never had a problem with corals during all this dosing

Now here is what has making me thinking you can never rid yourself of Bryopsis once its in your tank. I had used the Tech M until there wasn't a speck of Bryopsis in the tank and then kept using it,,, Magnesium levels came back down to normal over time from water changes and then the Bryopsis pops back up. As long as the Magnesium levels were up there, no Bryopsis, Magnesium levels come down Bryopsis comes back, I am now back to dosing Tech M again.

My LFS has suggested a Bi Colored Fox Face, he has one in the store,, its a algae eating machine, will eat algae right out of the LFS owners hand

I had a regular Fox Face in the tank at one time, he ate just about my whole zoa collection

so to say I am leary of adding another Fox Face to the tank is a understatement. The LFS owner says the Bi Colored Fox Face that he has in the store tank has never touched a coral, I have no reason to doubt that, but I am still leary of adding one to my tank. I know I am tired of this Bryopsis in my tank though.

Reason I post this,,, when you dose the Tech M to your tank, when you think the Bryopsis is gone,,, it may not be.

Daniel@R2R · Aug 13, 2015

Love the new reservoir, bro! If it goes missing after one of my visits, you'll know it's just a coincidence...probably Steve or Bob will have taken it...

Tek · Aug 13, 2015

I fault bryopsis then it was reintroduced with some new frags. My army of emeralds, tangs, and angel actually eat it now that it is the only algae in my tank besides random patches of bubble. That is dispatched quickly as well. It definitely is more manageable now. I only see it on my frag rack and it hasn't been able to foot anywhere else in the tank.

hybridazn · Aug 15, 2015

Braves Fan said:
I am a bit behind on your thread I have a Bryopsis problem in my tank as well, not real bad, but it is starting to get there, I and am also dosing Kent Marine Tech M about 100 ml per day. This isn't my first go around with Bryopsis, I am starting to think once you have this in your tank, you can never rid yourself of it.

The first time, I stopped dosing to early, Bryopsis came back the last time it appeared in my tank I dosed the same 100ml of Kents Tech M per day until I the Bryopsis started to disappear from the tank then I backed off the Kent's to 50ml per day. I kept this up until the Bryopsis was completely gone from my tank. I then kept dosing 25ml per day for a month or so. I will say here I never had a problem with corals during all this dosing

Now here is what has making me thinking you can never rid yourself of Bryopsis once its in your tank. I had used the Tech M until there wasn't a speck of Bryopsis in the tank and then kept using it,,, Magnesium levels came back down to normal over time from water changes and then the Bryopsis pops back up. As long as the Magnesium levels were up there, no Bryopsis, Magnesium levels come down Bryopsis comes back, I am now back to dosing Tech M again.

My LFS has suggested a Bi Colored Fox Face, he has one in the store,, its a algae eating machine, will eat algae right out of the LFS owners hand I had a regular Fox Face in the tank at one time, he ate just about my whole zoa collection so to say I am leary of adding another Fox Face to the tank is a understatement. The LFS owner says the Bi Colored Fox Face that he has in the store tank has never touched a coral, I have no reason to doubt that, but I am still leary of adding one to my tank. I know I am tired of this Bryopsis in my tank though.

Reason I post this,,, when you dose the Tech M to your tank, when you think the Bryopsis is gone,,, it may not be.

Thanks for the info, I'll keep an eye on this as well. If need be I'll just dose tech m for a really long time ;-)

hybridazn · Aug 15, 2015

Sooooo my ato showed up today. Honestly I never heard of this system but I was talking to mike @sexycorals and he recommended this so I told him to send it over. So here it is

The WR genie, and its a pretty nice setup for the price out the box.

The part im most excited about is the solenoid that wont allow a gravity drip if the outlet is lower than the level in the reservoir. It also has a low reservoir sensor to shut it down so the pump doesnt burn up.

And here is the water level sensor that goes in the sump. When I first saw it I was like, hmmm lol. But it is pretty full proof and should be very accurate.

Ill have it all hooked up this weekend, hopefully tomorrow and I'll of course post up my initial review of it. But the box opening im pretty impressed.

hybridazn · Aug 26, 2015

So the ato and kalk reactor are hooked up. I then pulled the dosing pump offline since I will be dosing kalk via the ato on the frag system.

The more I mess with this system the more I hate how I did all the electronics, so this will be getting redone in the very near future.

Geo's Reef kalk reactor mixing.

kschweer · Aug 26, 2015

Nice towel!! Lol. How are you liking the new ato? Also what's the pipe on the left side that looks like it's going to a cup?

hybridazn · Aug 26, 2015

kschweer said:
Nice towel!! Lol. How are you liking the new ato? Also what's the pipe on the left side that looks like it's going to a cup?

I was getting ready to write a review post, but watching face off with the wife first lol

That pipe was where I had the geos reef reactor plumbed, I am in the process of switching around some reactors. More on this later this week

hybridazn · Oct 30, 2015

No updates lately, I know im sorry

I had a slight problem with my dosing pump on my 180. Woke up to the pump stuck in the on position and it dumped about half a gallon of alk into the tank. Alk obviously shot up but it appears that everything is ok

kschweer · Oct 30, 2015

Wow sorry to see this George. Hopefully everything pulls through. This is why I'm so aprehensive about setting mine up.

slojmn · Oct 31, 2015

Oh Man, I know how this goes!!!

Pinky88 · Oct 31, 2015

oh man, breath taking .....

hybridazn · Jan 14, 2016

Howdy folks!

Super long time, no update. So here it is:

This past October I had the alk dump caused by my doser pump sticking on and emptying my gallon jug into the tank. No harm done from that surprisingly as my sps and other corals seemed fine and we're growing great the last couple months. I figured out that the dosing pump circuit board faulted and stuck on pump 1 and will not shut off. I figured this out because I have a spare dosing pump I keep around for spare parts and swapped the pumps and again, it kept pumping. So I cut pump 1 off and just used pumps 2 & 3 to handle my alk and cal dosing.

All is well until last week, when pump 2 decided to do the same thing and dumped about 3/4 gallon of alk into the tank. Only this time my corals weren't so lucky. Sps that are in my 180 are a complete loss, lost 2 of my rainbow chalices (dynamite is hanging on by a thread).

Soooooo 90 gallons of changed water later (the tank stunk up the whole house because of the death of corals) and lots of carbon I have a practically bare tank of coral. So I will be using this time to remove rock (to chisel off sps skeletons and scrub off some gha), re-arrange my rockwork and I am now setting up my calcium reactor. No more dosing pumps for me thank you very little haha.

After I get the display cleaned up and ready to go I will hook up my Geo's 618 w/milwaukee regulator (I know, not great. But it will hopefully last me until I can get a good aquarium plants one). After that I will be making a new sump and new plumbing for my return and reactors.

Wish me luck, 2016 will be a year of rebuilding and regrowth for my tank. Better than ever!

Here is my recent brs order. 18 lbs of reborn CaRX media, calibration fluid and a new phone probe for the reactor to my apex. I have a quiet one 317gph pump on the way from amazon to be the feed pump.

Singlefin · Jan 14, 2016

Ca. Reactor is way easier once you get it dialed in. Are you running an apex? There's a great video on setting it up. A lot easier than the traditional way. If you have an apex, you probably don't need an aquarium plants regulator.

hybridazn · Jan 14, 2016

Singlefin said:
Ca. Reactor is way easier once you get it dialed in. Are you running an apex? There's a great video on setting it up. A lot easier than the traditional way. If you have an apex, you probably don't need an aquarium plants regulator.

I do have a apex, that's good to know about the regulator. But with the recent problems I've had I might still get one just for peace of mind.

Singlefin · Jan 14, 2016

I'll find the video if you haven't seen it. Basically my apex keeps my ph in the reactor between 6.3-6.5. Turns it off at 6.3 and back on when it raises to 6.5. Doesn't really need a fancy regulator. I have an aquarium plants regulator, and never touch it.