Rob’s innovative marine 200 EXT

[RobMcC]

The tank is almost 9 months old. Seems to be going okay. Interestingly, potassium usage seems quite high. I’ve only had this issue in the past when I was carbon dosing.

I should have a GHL ion director turning up at some point (I hope. FedEx appear to be doing their best to not deliver it…) which I’ll use to track potassium and nitrate cycles. In the meantime, here are a few more shots.

 

[RobMcC]

After a 2 year wait my ion director arrived yesterday afternoon (actually two of them).

It was easy to set up, and after letting the probe acclimate overnight I ran it for the first time this morning. Seems pretty accurate. I have run it three times and the results are very consistent. The results match my salifert test kits reasonably well. I’m acclimating the probe of the second unit now and will compare results on the same sample across two machines.

 

[RobMcC]

For those who are interested, I set up my second ion director yesterday and did some tests this evening. I tested water from 3 different aquariums plus some freshly made up salt water. The table below has the values reported from each machine plus the % deviation from mean for each machine. They are well within the tolerances posted by GHL with the exception of nitrate. The nitrate is still better / more consistent than I get with an colorimetric test kits. The nitrate values reported from the two machines are more similar at higher levels. I haven’t seen a nitrate LOQ posted by GHL anywhere. Salifert nitrate kit also reports nitrate in the freshly made salt water. I always thought this an artifact, but it seems not…

Potassium broadly matches my salifert kit (within 15 ppm of value of three repeat tests on kit). The resolution of the salifert kit is only 10pm, so this is pretty good. I also found that the salifert kit is similar to triton (again, mean of three tests).

 

[RobMcC]

I love wild SPS. Often very green looking acros turn out nice. I have a feeling one or two of these may become pretty spectacular.

this one is kind of like a blueish fox flame, but has bright blue blue polyps. I’ve had it about 4 months, but it only started to color up and grow about two months ago.

i have a good feeling about this one: you can’t see it in the photos, it there is starting to be a pink tinge to it.

These two wild tenuis were solid bright green and solid teal when I got them. After two months, they are developing other colors, but the iPhone doesn’t pick them up. I think in two months they might look pretty good (fingers crossed).

I

This A. glauca is starting to turn yellow and orange, It was solid green when purchased.

I have no idea what this is. It is fluorescent orange, but the camera can't pick it up.

Nice mille starting to color up too.

This came in last week totally bleached as it had no heat pack (grrrr). Hopefully it survives.

the A. donei and A.spathulata were in teh same box with no heatpack. They were also bleached but have started to color up after a week in low light.

a mariculture that is starting to color up nicely

some frags from Fraghouse corals, battle corals, and aqua SD.

 

[RobMcC]

I want this tank to be a true mixed reef. LPS wise it’ll be mainly blastos, acanthophyllia, cynarina, indophyllia, euphyllia/fimbraphyllia, micromussa (acans), bowerbankii, and a few chalice.

 

[dustinc]

Your tank is looking very nice. I’m currently in process of building out my 200 EXT as we speak. The tank should arrive later this month. Very excited to get it going.

 

[RobMcC]

Your tank is looking very nice. I’m currently in process of building out my 200 EXT as we speak. The tank should arrive later this month. Very excited to get it going.

Thanks. Fingers crossed it matures okay. I had a lot of issues with fed ex delaying shipment of corals by a day or more. As a result, many of the corals weren't dipped like I would strongly prefer, as otherwise the dip would have finished them off. I really hope nothin nasty made it through, as I've had AEFW and acro eating spiders before and they were a pain to get rid of. I have lots of wrasse to take care of pests but I may get a pair of green/blue mandarins and maybe 4 dragonface pipefish too to do some night time pest hunting, just in case.

I'm sure you'll enjoy the tank. Make sure you have a couple of friends to help move it though, It's a beast. Also, the stand took me over an hour to assemble, so factor that in to the beer and bbq moving-help tax.

 

[dustinc]

Thanks. Fingers crossed it matures okay. I had a lot of issues with fed ex delaying shipment of corals by a day or more. As a result, many of the corals weren't dipped like I would strongly prefer, as otherwise the dip would have finished them off. I really hope nothin nasty made it through, as I've had AEFW and acro eating spiders before and they were a pain to get rid of. I have lots of wrasse to take care of pests but I may get a pair of green/blue mandarins and maybe 4 dragonface pipefish too to do some night time pest hunting, just in case.

I'm sure you'll enjoy the tank. Make sure you have a couple of friends to help move it though, It's a beast. Also, the stand took me over an hour to assemble, so factor that in to the beer and bbq moving-help tax.

Ha ha! Thanks for the update. I have the stand built already (just haven’t posted it in the thread yet) because I paid them a little extra to mail it early. Wanted to make sure when the tank comes I could immediately place if possible and start plumbing, etc. Very ready to get it going! Love the size of the stand, and can’t wait to see the glass on top.

 

[RobMcC]

update on the ion director. Seems to function very well. In line with other test kits and results are consistent. I replaced my RO unit’s pre filter and Carbon block and DI after getting the results posted earlier. Here’s the results of freshly made tropic Marin pro saltwater mixed on Friday and tested on Saturday. Nitrate came way down. Potassium is still low low. Triplicate salifert measurements confirmed reading of 380ppm.

 

[RobMcC]

How? Just how?

 

[Sean Clark]

Crazy.

 

[RobMcC]

There are zero gaps between the netting frame and the bracing. Very odd. But I can see why the anthias might be skittish. I introduced the first new fish in about a year. A rainbow basslet. Although he looks like a mini pike, I had never heard of them hunting anthias, but he blatantly is..

 

[dstockwell]

So I know nothing about this setup. Do you tell it when to red flag nitrate etc. Sorry about your fish loss.

 

[Tcook]

Great looking tank. Did the ventralis and tile make it into this tank?

 

[RobMcC]

So I know nothing about this setup. Do you tell it when to red flag nitrate etc. Sorry about your fish loss.

Sorry for very slow response. You can set alert limits for any of the tested parameters and, if you are brave enough, tie it the result to some sort of automation, for example with the dosing pumps. I was toying with the idea of controlling carbon dosing based on the nitrate reading. That being said, I haven't tied any automated controls to these test results.

 

[RobMcC]

Great looking tank. Did the ventralis and tile make it into this tank?

No, the ventralis were destined for the other IM upgrade (I need to do a tank thread on that one). I've never owned a tilefish. The fish in the second of the other tank pics is actually a golden dwarf moray. Sadly I think he ate the ventralis along with about 4 P. dispar. They had lived together for years with no issue....

 

[Tcook]

No, the ventralis were destined for the other IM upgrade (I need to do a tank thread on that one). I've never owned a tilefish. The fish in the second of the other tank pics is actually a golden dwarf moray. Sadly I think he ate the ventralis along with about 4 P. dispar. They had lived together for years with no issue....

Ouch. Sorry to hear that. Boy you have some nice LPS. These tanks are going to be great.