Keoni Coral Flat Build

[Keoni]

Aloha.

I've been a member for almost a year now and I've posted here and there on other member's thread but I haven't taken the liberty to start a thread on my piece of the reef. Best timing is probably now since I'm in the middle of a move and tearing down my old cube and building a new coral flat at my new condo. Sadly to say that this new build will only be up for less than 12 months as we are currently shopping the market for our dream home which means to all us reefers "ANOTHER BUILD"......in my case "MY DREAM 210G RIMLESS SPS BUILD".

Anyways, I am currently breaking down my 30g rimless.

Sorry for the crappy pics (i'm the serial iphone pic-taker and can't manage the blues on this phone camera)

I've had series of setbacks with equipment malfunctions these past 3 months (which is really my fault for not being diligent enough to double check the working order of my equipment). The latest being that after my return from a snowboarding trip with the wife and kids, the heat exchanger on my chiller didn't kick in. You know what that means......water temp dropped to 70.4 degrees. I slowly brought up the temp when I got back but nonetheless, l had some major sps colonies succumb to STN over a period of time. Lost a huge Turaki, tabling Cytherea, huge stag and still keeping a close watch on my tabling Clathrata.

Had some major tears going on here but I managed to frag a piece of each here and there to keep it going in the Coral Flat Build....hopefully.

I'll start the build on the next post.

 

[bige]

Sorry about your troubles but your pics are nice. Cant wait for the rest of the new build.

 

[Keoni]

Here we go.

Build
Tank: Coral Flat 48 x 24 x 12
Stand: Standard 2 x 4 wood frame
Light Housing: Wood frame overhang attached to 2 x 4 members at back of tank

Lighting
Primary: AI Sol Blue (3) running parallel to tank length
(4) T5: Working on the combo to supplement primary (for sure fiji purples)
Ballast: 660 Icecap
Timers: 2pm ramp up - 11pm wind down

Filtration
LR: 25-30lbs in DT, 20lbs in sump
Media Reactor (1): NPX bioplastic pellets inoculated with MB7
Media Reactor (2): BRS ROX carbon 24/7
Skimmer: SWC BMK150 (Thanks Luke....great suggestion)

Substrate: Caribsea Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand
Standard Sump with Baffles: 20 x 18 x 15 Advance Acrylics

Water Movement
Return Pump: CA 2200 (850 gph), it's been a reliable worker for me but upgrading to a 1500+gph shortly
Sicce Voyager 3: 1200gph
I will be adding a Vortech MP40es with backup battery to take place of the Sicce. However, I may keep the Sicce depending on the water movement

Dosing
Triple Dosing Pump: dispensing BRS 2part during reverse lighting
BW: MB7 (once a week)
BW: Reef Biofuel (3 times a week)
BW: Restor (after water changes, once a week)
BW: Coralamino (daily except when dosing Restor)
BW: Magnesion (when needed)
BW: Strontium (when needed)

I"ll try to post some pics of the very basic stand build......let's see if it works!

 

[Keoni]

cool it worked. sorry about the 1st pic, can't figure how to turn it clockwise. i'll post more updates later as I move along. thanks for tuning in.

aloha -

 

[Reef Breeders]

Nice dimensions, that tank was packed!

 

[Keoni]

Sorry about your troubles but your pics are nice. Cant wait for the rest of the new build.

Thanks Bige. Can't wait for the aquascaping. I'll post pics of the sticky build.

 

[Keoni]

Nice dimensions, that tank was packed!

yeah tell me bout' it. the upgrade was definitely needed.

 

[Noahp]

Thats an awesome tank! Keep the pics up while putting it together.

 

[Keoni]

Thats an awesome tank! Keep the pics up while putting it together.

Thanks Noah. Will do. More pics in the morning.

 

[Keoni]

Just got up this morning and did a few things before heading to work. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time on this rebuild probably doing an hour a day at most because I'm still packing up the old place while transferring reef stuff here and there to the new place. I gotta kick it in gear as the actual breakdown of my cube with everything transferring over has to be complete by Wednesday night. Movers are coming in Friday morning.

Anyways, the dreaded WATER TEST!!!!!!!!!!!!! Crossin' my fingers!!!!

 

[Keoni]

couldn't sleep last night with the hectic move schedule and work so i got outta bed and built a LR structure for the new coral flat DT. I used 3 LR pieces for this structure that was in my old sump. i wanted to build some flat real estate for some incoming SPS. this is structure one of maybe 3 more. keeping this DT clean and manageable this time.

 

[Keoni]

seeing that the water test was successful despite a minor pipe leak (easy fix), i dumped the substrate in. I've always been a big fan caribsea seaflor special grade, however, washing the sand is a B__TCH!!!!!!!! I picked up 40lbs and washed it lastnite. Started the wash at 11pm, finished around 12:30am. After washing only 40lbs for that long, still came out super cloudy but that is what to expect. should clear up in a few.

finished the paint job on the overhang canopy. icecap ballast resting on top away from view. the rest of the AI Sol power adapters will rest on top as well.

 

[Keoni]

i haven't kept up on the build updates but here are some pics of two of the LR Structures that i placed in the tank a few days ago. sorry for the dark pics. the tank is in the garage and lights were not up yet.

 

[Keoni]

ok, fast forward to a day later after the previous post pic shots. was a tough coral transfer. it was particularly cold that night that i did the transfer. i placed the sps colonies and frags in an insulated cooler. the acans were bagged individually and transported in a smaller cooler. though the drive was only 15 minutes, the time to bag, load, drive, unload was just over an hour on a 45 degree night.

i usually drip acclimate my corals but under the circumstance of a cold garage and cold transfer water, and no backup heater,..........the corals suffered. i dispensed with the drip method and bagged the smaller corals floated them. didn't have bags large enough for my sps colonies so i dumped larger amounts of DT water into the transfer water to slowly bring up temp rather than plunging them from 62 to 79 degree water. it was somewhat of a mess. at the end, all the corals did the plunge into the new DT.

Everyone wass Teed off! and browned out.

i didn't even worry about placing the corals or the aquascaping. i just kept my fingers crossed for the best

 

[Keoni]

by the way, if it seems the water line is off, ..........it is by 3/16". the stand is perfectly even but wondering if i should drain the tank this weekend and shim the bottom of the stand so the water line is even. Thoughts anyone???

 

[Reef Breeders]

You should be okay if the tank is a little uneven, I have 2 40B tanks in my garage, and since all garages are sloped, the water level is not exactly even.

 

[bwoodward0012]

Nice tank, I love the dimensions. About how many gallons does it hold, around 75 maybe?

 

[Keoni]

Nice tank, I love the dimensions. About how many gallons does it hold, around 75 maybe?

Thanks! They call that standard size tank a coral flat. holds 60. when looking the tank in person, it looks like it holds more because of the footprint of 48x24. its the height that brings the volume down.

 

[Keoni]

I'm back on this build thread of mine. Work has been out of control and I haven't captured the rest of the build. Believe me folks, I wish I could have posted every step of this build since the beginning but I just had to settle with the abbreviated approach due to time contraints.

Still working on the aquascape. I'm more concerned with the remaining SPS colonies that I have after a terrible tank move last month. Nonetheless, some are miraculously recovering, others not.

Sorry about pic quality. Courtesy of IPHONE. I can't control filters with the camera phone so blues take over. It's frustrating as sometimes the blues are dominant and sometimes not. What can I say accept that the IPHONE is not meant for good coral pics.

The Survivors............


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Still trying to ID this Acro, was completely browned out in the move but purple colors coming back with green polyps

Bali slimer from PK. Had STNed to only 20% tissue left but a little over a month later, the champ is fighting back!!!!

Picked up this deepwater acro awhile back at PK. Started out a pale yellow and tabled nicely. Survived the move and is now a brighter yellow.

Aussie Pink tabling Clathrata from LA. The blues washed out this pic. I'll try another shot later. Bought this wild colony awhile back but was a little smaller then. Grows quick but didn't do well in the move. Completely browned out but slowly and surely fighting back. Not sure if this is a true clathrata as they are hard to come by in colors other than green and tan plus the branches are starting to grow upward . It could still be one as the branches are fusing together horizontally.

ORA Neon Green BN from Brian (drainbammage). Got this as a little frag (1") from Brian over a year ago. Made it through all the drama and is a mini colony now. Fast Grower.

 

[Keoni]

A couple of new additions from PK. Post move

Prostrata from PK (local LFS). Nice piece that completely encrusted the disk. This is still a mystery to me as to what color this is going to turn out to be as it is still coloring up. Right now it is a reddish purple with hints of green

Pastel Yellow Mille from PK. Nice color with great PE. Should grow out nicely.

GARF Bonsai from no other than Ron's (reefrf) amazing colony.