Jackson's Old School 200 IM Nuvo Ext

[jackson6745]

Made a little lighting change. I had 5 radion xr-30 Blues and a pair of blade grows. Beautiful coverage and sleek look. There were 2 things that I didn’t like. When radions are mounted perpendicular, the overlap par is very high. Par would jump from 450-650 when running the par meter across the same level lengthwise.

As for the blades, I used them to whiten up the spectrum and fill coverage gaps, which they certainly did, however, the overall spectrum was still kind of a glow look, and taking accurate color photos from the front was very difficult. I liked the look of my frag tanks with led/t5 hybrid so I went that route. I ended up with 4 radions mounted parallel in an aquatic t5 hybrid. I love the look and have a much more even par. Acros are responding well.

 

[jackson6745]

So I took steps to reduce stray voltage and I’m seeing big improvements. I ignored a small “burn” to my cuts thinking it was salt for a long time. My hands are kind of rough from years of labor and also from the gym so I am desensitized to small shocks I guess lol. My son touched the water and he pulled his fingers out quickly from the shock. Anyway, i had a small aquanet pump feeding a gfo reactor that was leaking current. I also had a bad power strip leaking current. Now levels are down to .3v and we don’t feel current anymore. I also added a gfi protected titanium ground probe just in case.

Photo dump!

 

[twinreef]

The corals look awesome. It’s crazy—I bought one of those titanium grounding probes and never installed it. I’m about to install it right now.

 

[jackson6745]

The corals look awesome. It’s crazy—I bought one of those titanium grounding probes and never installed it. I’m about to install it right now.

From what info I can gather, and testing other guys tanks, a small amount of voltage is normal. Like .2-.6 range seems to be a common level. When it gets to 1v or more, you can feel it on your fingers and it negatively affects corals from what I can tell.

 

[Z Burn's Reefing]

Amazing colors! They appeared to have bounced back very quickly. Everything looks really healthy.

The gfo reactor… have you always run some gfo? Seems the hobby is anti gfo in recent years. What is your current phosphate and nitrate targets at the moment? I’m have some imbalance (i.e., phosphate a little too high probably…for how low my nitrate is). Maybe it’s time for a little gfo and ammonia dosing.

 

[jackson6745]

Amazing colors! They appeared to have bounced back very quickly. Everything looks really healthy.

The gfo reactor… have you always run some gfo? Seems the hobby is anti gfo in recent years. What is your current phosphate and nitrate targets at the moment? I’m have some imbalance (i.e., phosphate a little too high probably…for how low my nitrate is). Maybe it’s time for a little gfo and ammonia dosing.

Thanks pal. I’m pretty dialed in right now, for now lol. I always ran gfo in the system. People are anti gfo because they use it wrong IMO. They use too much and get that giant reduction in po4 and also strip elements. I use 300g in a reactor for 300 gallons. I start with slow flow, and gradually increase flow over 6 weeks or so until I can’t get the .1 consistent reduction that I’m looking for.

I typically target .1 po4 and nitrates are like 10-12. Clearly guys with much higher phosphate make it work, but you have to smoke them with par to keep the peak colors. In a display tank, only my top layer of corals get high par around 450-550 range, the lower ones get 250-350 which would look dark with higher phosphate. In a shallow tank of corals (frag tank style), with even par across, I could much more easily run higher phosphate and bake with light to get the colors.

 

[That Crusso Kid]

So I took steps to reduce stray voltage and I’m seeing big improvements. I ignored a small “burn” to my cuts thinking it was salt for a long time. My hands are kind of rough from years of labor and also from the gym so I am desensitized to small shocks I guess lol. My son touched the water and he pulled his fingers out quickly from the shock. Anyway, i had a small aquanet pump feeding a gfo reactor that was leaking current. I also had a bad power strip leaking current. Now levels are down to .3v and we don’t feel current anymore. I also added a gfi protected titanium ground probe just in case.

Photo dump!

Rich, my dude, I cannot believe you did not have your tanks grounded. Happy it was caught by your son and corrected. Otherwise, I might have had one less guy to tell, "You and your tanks stink!" (But seriously, I am happy it was caught before anything really bad happened.)

Killer corals, as usual.

You and your tanks stink.

 

[jackson6745]

Rich, my dude, I cannot believe you did not have your tanks grounded. Happy it was caught by your son and corrected. Otherwise, I might have had one less guy to tell, "You and your tanks stink!" (But seriously, I am happy it was caught before anything really bad happened.)

Killer corals, as usual.

You and your tanks stink.

Newbie stuff lol, you know it was one of those things that I was always on the fence about doing for this exact reason. I wasn’t worried about electrocution being that everything is gfi protected and I have a large life insurance policy , my concern was grounding out stray current while the source became worse and worse. I do plan on unplugging the ground probe and testing the water with a multimeter once in a while just to make sure current isn’t building.

On a side note, on my monthly ICP the copper is the lowest it’s been since last year which was .35. On my last 10
Tests it’s been 1.2-1.7 range. Maybe just a testing error, maybe not. If it stays this low, I would think the lack of exposed wire has something to do with it.

 

[Skibi]

WOW! Just found this build thread this is what i hope i can do with my 200 EXT. Your tank is absolutely beautiful and the acros are stunning this is everything i hope mine can look like one day! Cant wait to show my wife your tank its beautiful!

 

[jackson6745]

WOW! Just found this build thread this is what i hope i can do with my 200 EXT. Your tank is absolutely beautiful and the acros are stunning this is everything i hope mine can look like one day! Cant wait to show my wife your tank its beautiful!

Thanks brother! It’s a great tank. Best of luck with it!

 

[JBNY]

Glad you got the stray voltage figured out. I put a grounding probe on my tank a few months ago after stupid Hydros pH probe issues with the UV sterilizer. Before that I pretty much rolled the dice and used the old shock test to find voltage problems. Probably not the recommended diagnostic procedure. lol

The tank is looking great, my friend. Those colors are top notch. The last group of acro frags I got back in July are still doing well and finally showing some real growth, so I may actually be on my way to growing sticks again.

 

[jackson6745]

Glad you got the stray voltage figured out. I put a grounding probe on my tank a few months ago after stupid Hydros pH probe issues with the UV sterilizer. Before that I pretty much rolled the dice and used the old shock test to find voltage problems. Probably not the recommended diagnostic procedure. lol

The tank is looking great, my friend. Those colors are top notch. The last group of acro frags I got back in July are still doing well and finally showing some real growth, so I may actually be on my way to growing sticks again.

Thanks Joe. The shock test works, however, I didn’t even realize that I was getting shocked lol. My 8 year old son touched the water and yanked his hand out with a shock. He’s always helping dad haha.

I’m happy to hear that acros are holding in your tank. I was surprised that I wasn’t a metal. Just goes to show the power of the biome that we sometimes overlook or take for granted. In that aspect, the old school ways have a major advantage. I should be heading out your way soon. I’ll drop off the genesis brick marinated in Australian live rock lol. Can’t hurt