Rebirth

[Alex Costa]

The year began with a..............
Calcium reactor washing and filling!


If there's a job, in the maintenance routine of the tank that I really hate, is to deal with the Calcium Reactor.
It's super big and heavy, and very hard to handle.

I'm using (and liking) Triton media in the first chamber.
It's a very hard and heavy media, and this will keep me away for this job for a bigger time.

 

[Alex Costa]

One thing that I recently changed in my tank routine was the almost coninuous use of GAC.
It improved the clarity of water A LOOOOT....
I intend to change it once a month from now on.

 

[Alex Costa]

One thing that I did a lot in 2022 was ....TO BUY CORALS!!!!!!!!!
I'll show some "new" stuff that is in the tank now.
Lobophyllias and Symphyllias are in the list.

 

[Alex Costa]

 

[GBRsouth]

Sorry to hear you lost your father Alex. Not an easy thing to deal with.

Looking forward to more updates on your tank and what changes you make with it. Your tank is one of my absolute favourites!

 

[Alex Costa]

Sorry to hear you lost your father Alex. Not an easy thing to deal with.

Looking forward to more updates on your tank and what changes you make with it. Your tank is one of my absolute favourites!

Thanks mate!
I have a lot of new stuff to show.
Keep following.....

 

[Alex Costa]

In the equipment side.....
I added two more Radions XR15, one G5 Pro and one G6 Blue.
I have now 5 of them and the G6 Blue is the best, to my taste of color.
The spread is great, the PAR has raised and I hope that from now on I'll have no more issues with dynoflagelates in the sandbed.

 

[Alex Costa]

I switched the skimmer pump, because the older one was running for 8 years or so.
It was weak and was stop working properly sometimes.

I also switched one of my return pumps.
A Reef Octopus Water Blaster 7000 got out for this Mantis 10000l get in.
Untill now, it's all good. It's quiet and strong.
It's now my main return pump, sending water to display, chiller, CaRX, media reactors and frag tank.
My old Water Blaster 5000 is running on its side, pushing water only to display.

 

[Alex Costa]

Plus, my two heaters were changed.
I preferred to change both while they're still working, so I don't have any unpleasant surprises.
I'll keep using the Finnex titanium 500W, controled by a Coel controller.

 

[Janci]

Sorry to hear about your father, Alex. My deepest condolences.

Looking forward to the reefing updates and of course, pictures!

 

[Alex Costa]

Sorry to hear about your father, Alex. My deepest condolences.

Looking forward to the reefing updates and of course, pictures!

Thanks Jan.

 

[quentin17110]

This build is a reconstruction of my previous system, Monolith, that crashed in July 2016 due to a electric failure in the street, while I was travelling.

My first thought after that was to dismantle and sell out everything but passed a few days I just found that was not the way to go.
So......here we are.

The setup is basically the same, with much less sand and rocks.
This time I was able to do what I wanna do on Monolith, but didn't do, due to the fact that Monolith was an upgraded project.
This was a fresh start, so I can plan it more carefully.

The new layout:

Right View

Big Island

Small Island

Some setup info:
Total volume: aprox. 2000 liters
Dimensions: 1,8 x 1,5 x 0,70 (meters). Crystal Clear 15 mm glass with euro braces. Internal overflow box.
Lightining: 2AI Vega + 2 AI Hydra52 over the Big Island and 2AI Vega over the Small Island
Skimmer – SRO Super Reef Octopus 5000 Internal
Calcium reactor - Super Reef Octopus 5000 dual chamber
Cooling - Chiller ¾ HP Gelaqua Chiller
Heating - Two Finnex 500W titanium heater
Controller - Apex Gold
Circulation – 1 Vortech MP40 (with battery Backup), 1Maxspect Gyre XF150
Return – Reef Octopus Water Blaster 7000
Sandbed – 2cm of samoa pink, Fiji pink and crushed coral #1
Sansibar rocks + pacific rocks + natural rocks

Aquascape look amazing

 

[Alex Costa]

Aquascape look amazing

Thanks.
Happily, it evolved very well over the years....

 

[Alex Costa]

With the growth of colonies, some of them are 20" wide, I had to add some more circulation pumps.

This time I choose the Jebao SCP-180.
It's a cheaper option and I hope that it lasts for some years.
Also it's a VERY powerfull pump. I needed to reduce the power to the minimum, and as it get dirty, I'm pumping up the power to keep the flow strong enough.
I found it very quiet. Much more quieter than my old Icecaps 3K pumps.
The problem of the Jebao pumps is well known: durability.
As a friend told me that he's using three of them for some years now, I decided to give it a try. Time will tell.....

With this addition, the circulation of the tank started to be made by 8 pumps, all of them are crossflow type.

The problem is that some time later two of my older pumps, a gyre XF250 and an Icecap 3K, stopped working.
In the case of Icecap, the impeller oxidized.
Coincidence or not, my largest goniopore colony closed in the same period, and a large colony of solitariensis began to lose tissue.

I'm thinking about to get two more Jebao pumps, instead of repair the older pumps.

 

[Alex Costa]

The tank looks well recently
I hope that 2023 is a good and calm year.....rsrsrsrs

 

[Alex Costa]

I'm still trying to figure out how to resize vertical vídeos to make them look better in the post.
For now, I'll post this way:

 

[GBRsouth]

Wow! your tank has really grown in Alex! Beautiful mate!

 

[Alex Costa]

Some top down

 

[Janci]

The flow in the tank looks very well.
8 pumps is a lot.
The WWC shallow reef has only 3 pumps (pretty big pumps).
The price of pumps is of course also a reason to look for more, rather than to get big.

The corals and colours look stunning.

 

[nuxx]

Everything is looking really nice Alex!