Innovative Marine 50 Gallon EXT Lagoon

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Mywifeisgunnakillme

Mywifeisgunnakillme

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So putting the kessils inside the canopy, just a few inches higher dropped par on the clams from 500 plus to 350 or so at sand bed.

Tried 33 degree reflectors and that got 425 or so at sand bed.

Decided to lower canopy 4 inches about and use 33 degree reflectors. That got me 500 to 650 par on the clams depending on location. T5's and reefbrites take care of the rest of the tank at 175 to 300 par (at bottom of tank) on the edges depending which edge.

Anyway, kessil 360's do not have much punch and fade quickly on par after say 10 inches into the water. Every inch after that loses substantial par. I would say the 360's have really no better par than 160's, as to punch through water, just better spread.

You can add punch, however, with 55 or 33 degree refectora. Thats super cool in my book. I get purposely varied par in the tank catered to each critter. Clams are toasting at over 600 on the sand bed. Just 8 or so inches away, torchs hang at 180 to 220.

The kessil 360 in all blue have a slighter whiter look than 160s at all blue, but it looks nicer IMO.
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Figured id post this all in case someone is playing around with kessils too and may not have a par meter. My tank is 16 inches high, so use that for rough heights of lights and such.
 
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Mywifeisgunnakillme

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Got phosphates up by feeding more, feeding nori constantly, twice a day on reef roids and live phytoplankton. Also added reef nutrition copodes, and microbacter clean, and purple non sulphur bacteria once a day
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No more dinos or whatever that ugly crsp covering my rock work for a few days :) PH and Alk is dialed in with 1/2 ounce kalk and 12 ml of all for reef morning and night. Another month of manually learning the reef tank needs and ill set up kh director and dosing pumps. Got a little stir bar for the kalk.

Nitrate is up a little to 14 or 15ppm.
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Powder blue went after copperband for about a day. I added a mirror. Powder went after himself for few days. Removed mirror he went back after copperband. But copperband nailed powder blue with dorsol spines. That war is now over.... some after skirmishes but nothing tp worry about, copper band shows dorsels spines and it ends.

New problem, perhaps, is cat found tank, lol:

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Here are par numbers...

tank: 30 long, 24 wide, 16 tall
lights: 6 T5's (5 blue plus, 1 coral plus (in the middle)) (11 inches from surface), 2 reefbrites (edges) (10 inches from surface), 2 360x's with 35 degree reflectors aim at the middle (8 inches from the surface) (running 100% intensity, 20% white).

All measurements from within 3 inches of the sand bed:

reef par bottom.jpg

Anyway pretty good i think. Pretty intense lighting for a mixed reef, especially since par is much more higher in the tank. But only thing off the sand bed really will be SPS.
 

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Sump:

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Went with the EV 180 Aqua C skimmer. Touch of old school is really fun i think and fits well. I have extra Lifereef skimmer, but is a bit bigger. Either is likely over kill, but i love aeration these style skimmers provide moving so much water within the sump.

Eheim pumps for low maintenance and longevity.

Plumbing is coming along. All stainless brackets and T slot connections on the brackets were a little harder to find, but i was able to locate.
Do you know what size / part # you used for the T slot connections? I'm trying to plan out a stand-mounted light solution with 80/20 and trying to make sure the brackets I use are compatible with the IM APS stand.
 
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Do you know what size / part # you used for the T slot connections? I'm trying to plan out a stand-mounted light solution with 80/20 and trying to make sure the brackets I use are compatible with the IM APS stand.
These are listed from another thread and user: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bayarea_reef-innovative-marine-200-ext-build.823315/page-2

"That bracket and the T-slot spring nut that goes in between the gap are below.

Spring Nut for M8 Screw

Corner 4 Hole Bracket

M8 x16mm Bolts"

These look like they fit well.

I ended up going with something slightly different because i wanted all stainless steel or aluminum. I am not sure it matters, but i got:

F14166SM 10S STAINLESS Z-NUT M4 SLOT 6 from "Parco Inc."

I ordered the correct size bolts, stainless, and a stainless brackets off amazon to match the "z-nuts". The stainless z-nuts are not a perfect fit, FYI, you have to tighten them down just right, but they do work. I also just drilled and tap the stainless brackets with two extra stainless screws. I figured why not? These brackets are not moving and they match the plastic pipe holders well.

Stainless brackets:



bolts:

MonsterBolts - M4 x 16mm Button Head Socket Cap Screws, Stainless Steel, 50 Pack

MonsterBolts - M4 x 12mm Button Head Socket Cap Screws, Stainless Steel, 50 Pack

binifiMux 40pcs M4 x 0.7mm 304 Stainless Steel Nylon Lock Nuts Inserted Hex

washers:

304 Stainless Steel Flat Washers Set 580 Pieces, 9 Sizes - M2 M2.5 M3 M4 M5 M6 M8 M10 M12 Suitable for Home Decoration, Factories Repair, Kitchens, Sh

I would go with the other guys stuff if you want a sure thing, easier fit. If you are DIY capable then you get stainless options i used to work as well.
 

Mr.Z

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These are listed from another thread and user: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bayarea_reef-innovative-marine-200-ext-build.823315/page-2

"That bracket and the T-slot spring nut that goes in between the gap are below.

Spring Nut for M8 Screw

Corner 4 Hole Bracket

M8 x16mm Bolts"

These look like they fit well.

I ended up going with something slightly different because i wanted all stainless steel or aluminum. I am not sure it matters, but i got:

F14166SM 10S STAINLESS Z-NUT M4 SLOT 6 from "Parco Inc."

I ordered the correct size bolts, stainless, and a stainless brackets off amazon to match the "z-nuts". The stainless z-nuts are not a perfect fit, FYI, you have to tighten them down just right, but they do work. I also just drilled and tap the stainless brackets with two extra stainless screws. I figured why not? These brackets are not moving and they match the plastic pipe holders well.

Stainless brackets:



bolts:

MonsterBolts - M4 x 16mm Button Head Socket Cap Screws, Stainless Steel, 50 Pack

MonsterBolts - M4 x 12mm Button Head Socket Cap Screws, Stainless Steel, 50 Pack

binifiMux 40pcs M4 x 0.7mm 304 Stainless Steel Nylon Lock Nuts Inserted Hex

washers:

304 Stainless Steel Flat Washers Set 580 Pieces, 9 Sizes - M2 M2.5 M3 M4 M5 M6 M8 M10 M12 Suitable for Home Decoration, Factories Repair, Kitchens, Sh

I would go with the other guys stuff if you want a sure thing, easier fit. If you are DIY capable then you get stainless options i used to work as well.

Gotcha -- appreciate the detailed response! It's hard to find the perfect hardware without extensive research.
 
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Mywifeisgunnakillme

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Aqua C EV-180 is hitting its stride finally. Drier and drier everyday. The Klir is awesome. The refugium grows macro like mad. Been really a quick settling in process nutrient wise on this tank. A few days of ugly are totally gone. Reef Nutrition copepodes are EVERYWHERE. LOL. And live phyto from Reef Nutrition as well as reef roids i am dosing liberally 3 time a day, for clams, an NPS coral,LPS, and gonnies.

Definitely a high input and high ouput tjing going on. But i really enjoy the feeding, watching the critters react, and putting the gear through its paces... amazed nitrates and phosphates are staying lower... but they are...
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Just a little update, and note to myself for the future, on a change in lighting and thing to remember about t5's that i should have been aware of before.

So the par numbers above are lower than actuality by substantial amount. The reason i believe is because the t5 bulbs did not fully warm up when i tested. I don't know why I spaced on that....

I found out when I noticed a couple SPS bleaching that i would not have suspected would do so. I tested par. It was substantially higher than my previous test.

After a couple hours screwing with different bulbs and reflectors on the Kessil 360's, i settled in on 55 degree reflectors with Kessils and swapped out two Blueplus bulbs with a purple blue and actinic. This lower par and spread the kessils light. Much better shimmer in the entire tank.

I also just generally set the kessils to a much more blue dominant schedule.

This all lowered the area over the clams to from over 800 par to around 350 to 500 or so par. The maximas may or may not like this.... I think they can take 1000 plus par from what i read.

But the surrounding area immediately around the clams is now like 250 to 300 and the edges of the tank are around 150 to 240. All of this is high for mixed tank. Some LPS are not super happy with the arrangement, but the euphilias, my other favorites, are happy, so i'll try this for a bit. If any LPS i care about struggles, i'll either shade them more, raise the lights, or move them into the QT until i have the 200 gallon setup which will be soon!
 
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A MESS with dosing tubes right now--but operational!

Clean it up next weekend maybe.

Rolling kalk slurry and all for reef for dosing, on either end of the dosing containers with mag stirrers. KH director solution in the middle compartment.
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Tinkered with coral placement and the MP 40 flow schedule to maximize flow. Also took Jake Adams advice on evening versus daytime flow patterns; high flow in the evening and low flow when lights are on. The vortech app is pretty good for that.

Basically with the MP40's all on the back wall, i put lowest light and flow corals near the back. The MP 40's basically pull water away from and over them and they like that much better than getting hit by flow.

More light demanding corals in the middle and flow loving in the front or middle without any rock cover. Hiding lower flow corals behind rocks, lets me hit 75% flow, even with all three pumps, on the MP 40's for a good chunk of the non-daylight hours. During the lighting period it's more like 15% to 25%, pretty random. Mixing in "feed" periods of 1% all day and all night seems ideal so that 1, 2, or 3 MP40's run randomly at different flow patterns and speeds.

I found that when looking at the vortech app, really helps to concentrate on just a few hours at time. Make sure that in the morning, afternoon, and evening pumps are scheduled so that 1, 2, or 3 pumps run simultaneously, randomly, with periods of lower and higher flow.

Glad i went MP 40's and not MP 10's. The MP 40's, even in the smaller 50 gallon, are much wider flow and just having the extra kick really lets you dial flow in. Totally silent too.

Interestingly, i notice a real drop in phosphates over the last week by increasing flow from a max of 50% to a max of 75%, as i think extra coral food and detritus is having a hard time settling into the sand.
 

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Organized the dosing tubing. Little amazon cable management clips seem to work nicely.
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If i was not a reefer, i think id have no idea why the hell all this crap is under an aquarium, lol!
It’s really impressive how much stuff you’ve got down there and how well organized it is.
 
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It’s really impressive how much stuff you’ve got down there and how well organized it is.

Thanks man, getting that stuff in there is almost a hobby in of itself! :)

Not without some drawbacks, for sure, for anyone starting out reading this, however; it's a tight space to work in. I may incorporate some quick disconnects on the return, skimmer, and reactor pumps as removing them for maintenance is very tight and a bit knuckle busting. Dropping things in the sump is a pain because hard to reach later to remove.... Just have to be aware of limitations in what i am trying to do.

Also, if doing it again, i might have put the GHL consoles in the middle of the cabinet rather than the left side. Better to have access on either side of those devices for cords and pushing buttons, attaching tubing to dosers, etc. Not sure the GHL power bars would have allowed this configuration though.

i'd probably get similar results without all the gear but i have a really high fishload (in part stocking for 200 gallon), feed tons of coral food with the NPS in there, twice a day, so the extra filtration and flow really helps there. So far 2-15 nitrate (sometimes almost zero) and phosphates i am able to keep less than 0.1 (still figuring out the best way to do this). I added some GFO (three table spoons) to the carbon reactor and that seems to do the trick, and may be too much when the refugium kicks in more.

in the end, I really wanted to test and run a lot of gear before installing the same stuff on the 200 gallon, and that goal is definitely being accomplished.

I DEFINATELY look forward to a dedicated fish room for the 200 gallon--but this 50 gallon is more fun to work on than not i can say... just got to be patient and creative on accessing and maintaining things. It's like repairs on sports car. You have work on things in a certain way and order and sometimes remove other things before you can access what you really want to get to.
 

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I've got an SCA 50G and I definitely underestimated how little space I'd have coming from a custom built freshwater 240g stand, haha. Your stand is like a little life factory! I agree - sometimes the bells and whistles and chaos below can be fun but in a different way. Love the build. Following as I am interested in keeping clams eventually.
 

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LOVE the torch garden! that is my dream coral. & the sun coral
I'd love to know how to keep it long term.
 

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Three months since 20 gallon transferred to 50 gallon. Most of the fish will be headed to the 200 gallon.


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MP 40's run at 5 to 20% or so during the day and 10 to 90% at night. Changed out a lot of sand with calcium reactor media and like the look and function :)

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Added gfo reactor with the carbon, but shut it off because phosphates too low...
 
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