Rick's Ulitmate Build

[Troylee]

It's just a Vegas thing Rick.... You haven't seen the worst yet with my sps..:sad: found a penny in my storage jugs...:(

 

[VegasRick]

It's just a Vegas thing Rick.... You haven't seen the worst yet with my sps..:sad: found a penny in my storage jugs...:(

Bummer hate to hear that, carbon should pull copper out pretty fast. Lose anything?

 

[nixer]

Haven't checked it, not sure if the hanna tester will work on fresh water, and my old hach test kit reagents have all expired if it would even work.

thats a good question as i dont see that hanna said saltwater only so i would assume it would work on both

It's just a Vegas thing Rick.... You haven't seen the worst yet with my sps..:sad: found a penny in my storage jugs...:(

oh man i think i would clean house if that happened around here!

Bummer hate to hear that, carbon should pull copper out pretty fast. Lose anything?

this also supposedly, but i have not tried it. might be snake oil
Seachem Laboratories CupriSorb Copper Remover

the good news is that pennys are not made of much copper anymore, but zinc isnt much better

 

[VegasRick]

I just got in a box of reagents for the Hanna last Thursday so maybe I can do some tests now. They came in with new bulbs and a change in lighting.
I changed to 250w fixtures, still 20k radiums. I also took one MH out and went with 72 3s Crees over one end. The reason I dropped wattage was because most of the lps, favias, wellso and chalices had to be shaded. I moved most to one end, the end with LEDs but still a few wouldnt squeeze in and I want them all over not just one end. I also plan on changing the vho to LEDs, 144 to replace 4 6 fts, should be around the end of the month when I order the parts.

 

[waterhog69]

i have never seen a tank with no sand but i like it, looks great!!!

 

[VegasRick]

i have never seen a tank with no sand but i like it, looks great!!!

Thanks! It's not really at its best yet. Have had sand in tanks before but have better control without

 

[VegasRick]

Lighting changes

OK so originally I had 3 400w with 4 6ft VHOs.

About a month ago I started making changes and this is where its at now.

I just ordered heat sinks yesterday six 4.23" x 23" and two 8.5" x 12". I have 24 RB and 24 W 3w Cree XPGs still sitting here and plan on adding those to the array in the middle and will order 144 3w RB to replace the VHOs. The 6 heatsinks should be big enough to add more white or UV should I want to do so in the future. This is what the plan is going to look like

Any thoughts?

 

[skinz78]

Looks like you have a good plan there!

 

[Reefer831]

Great tank!!! any updates?

 

[VegasRick]

I guess it's time for an update.
Some of you may know I have been fighting water quality since I set it up. At first I thought it was all the dried rock I used. Then as it progressively got worse I figured out it was co2 in my well water. I built a degassing tower, modified it, modified it again, relocated my RO system. Finally last week I ordered a co2 test, built a recirculating de-gassing tower and now have solved the issue. I just wish I had ordered it 8 months ago instead of hoping my mods would solve the problem. About 3 months ago I started changing my DI resin every 50 gallons, that really improved the water quality but not enough, I was changing out gfo on a weekly basis and that was getting expensive.

On top of that it seemed every time I went out of town my return pump would fail. The ATB is finicky about ca build up on the impeller and required regular cleaning. I decided to go with something less efficient but less likely to stop. Reeflo hammerhead. When the return fails I have plenty of flow in the tank, but no ca alk, so I would come home to alk around 5 or 6. Lost quite a bit of stuff, I haven't add anything except a few zoas since last fall.

 

[VegasRick]

On the LED build, I went with as pictured above except I haven't added the 48 in the center. I took some par reads and they are as follows.
The set up is for those who don't remember its 24b 12w on the 36 led and along each side is 3 fixtures of 24 blue
The leds are 16 inches above the tank with the 20k MH bulb at about 20


36LED MH MH 36LED
800 410 420 820 at the surface at 100 percent
580 370 490 580 at the surface running 50 percent (which is where I run them)
at the bottom of the tank along the center it runs about 200- 240, at the edge it drops to 120

At 9 inches down in the water beneath the LEDs at 100 percent it was 580
At 60 percent it was bleaching chalices

Looking at the numbers I might move the leds to the middle and the MH out to the end

Oh beneath the blue it was 580 at the top of the tank at 80 percent

 

[VegasRick]

Took a few top down pics today because I was bored.

 

[VegasRick]

 

[VegasRick]

 

[VegasRick]

 

[VegasRick]

 

[nater]

Lookin good. Looks like your working the quirks out. Keep it up. Thank s for sharing

 

[VegasRick]

Lookin good. Looks like your working the quirks out. Keep it up. Thank s for sharing

Thanks for looking. Slowly coming around, but everything is slow with a reef

 

[VegasRick]

Been awhile since I updated so I thought I would post a few pics. Still have issues with phosphates leaching from rock but close monitoring keeps it in check. Sorry they are not the best pics but I don't have a fancy camera or photoshop

 

[VegasRick]