Sawdonkey’s 210 Rebuild / Redo

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sawdonkey

sawdonkey

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PO4 is at 0.5.....the highest I’ve ever seen in my tank. Got some Rowa going in a reactor to bring it down. I have some strange algae growing and obviously this is a contributor.

I didn’t test, but I’d guess my nitrates are pretty high. No skimmer, no water changes, and a bunch of dying coral for 8 months will do that!

Salt was at 1.031, whoops. I guess I shouldn’t have been “eyeballing it” when filling the tank up. I took out some water and added fresh.

Alk is at 158 ppm which is about 30 ppm higher than I like it. This is simply from the large amount of water I made to fill the tank and because I have nothing consuming it.

Running carbon in another reactor to absorb whatever else accumulated in the water over the last 8 months of dying corals. I don’t typically run carbon because my corals didn’t respond well to it..... but I don’t really have corals right now.

Got a new RO membrane today because my old one was 150 gpd and I just couldn’t dial it in to get 0 TDS water. Went back to 90.

My wife’s bout to have this baby any day, so my progress is likely to slow down a bit, but once I get my water in check, I’ll start adding acros.
 
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sawdonkey

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Two days past the due date and no baby! But....this gave me some time to get my new lights up.

Two Orphek V4s. I already love them! The color when all channels are equal is very pleasant and you can easily tweak from there. The app to control them is super slick. There’s a little disco ball effect, but no different than when your in the actual ocean. The colors seem much more natural than my old lights. The blues don’t give the windex look and the whites/other colors don’t wash things out.

I mounted the lights using aluminum angle iron to the bottom of my canopy and it looks really clean. I thought I might buy some of the Orphek strips to supplement, but I can tell now that they won’t be needed.

I had a little issue getting the lights up and connected to the internet, but the Orphek customer service guys were insanely helpful. I mean immediate response to email. One guy in Germany ( I think) and one guy in Michigan trouble shooting for me at the same time. This really blew my socks off and would make me not hesitate at all to buy more if there product if ever needed.

A buddy hooked me up with PC Rainbow, WD, BC Glowstick, Pinky the Bear, and a couple other frags to get things going....so we’re off to the races!

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bubbaque

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Looks pretty nice! I have been seeing more and more about those lights, so I'm curious on how well they will work for you.

Did you get your parameters back in line?
 
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sawdonkey

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Looks pretty nice! I have been seeing more and more about those lights, so I'm curious on how well they will work for you.

Did you get your parameters back in line?

Not sure. I’m keeping my skimmer tuned up, running GFO, running carbon, and got some macros. I’ll do some testing soon. Don’t want to drive myself crazy testing too often.

The acro frags I got look happy with great PE.
 
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A buddy gave me some “test acros” to see how things go. My tank is going through some uglies right now, so I’m growing these a little in my sump before they go to the DT. This also gives them some time to encrust do they don’t get knocked off the rocks by my triggers.

I’m growing out:

BC Glow Stick (which he got from me a long time ago)
Tyree Pinky The Bear (he also got from me)
PC Rainbow. (Got from me)
WD
Vivid Rainbow (got from me)
Fox Flame
And two no namers

Encrusting and polyps out. In a week or two, I’ll be hitting up a few local guys, buying and buying a few frag packs from vendors an users here.
 

bubbaque

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It seemed to work out well that you shared corals with a buddy. I try and do that with a buddy but he has a small tank so he can't keep many corals.

No baby yet?.
 
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It seemed to work out well that you shared corals with a buddy. I try and do that with a buddy but he has a small tank so he can't keep many corals.

No baby yet?.

Oh, there’s a baby! That’s why I have so much time on here and working in my aquarium. Im not getting any sleep, but I have s lot of free time. I’m off work and working the night shift with the baby. Here’s Selene!

c6f7632b7429ba647ddcb4b48acd7dd3.heic


As for the tank, my ph has been really low, around 7.7. I think it’s because we’re constantly in the basement with the baby and the house is closed up with ac on. I bought some soda lime from a vet store and I’ll be making a diy co2 scrubber tomorrow. I also bought an air pump and wood bubbling stone to micro bubble at night. I normally dose Kalk through my top off as my sole source of alk/cal, but with no real coral to speak of, nothing is consuming alk and it is already at 9.0.

Tomorrow I’ll receive my second WAV pump so my flow will be good (along with a gyre). My algae issues seem to be improving. I’ll probably move my frags to the DT soon and start collecting more.

Really anxious to see what these Orpheks can do.
 

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Oh, there’s a baby! That’s why I have so much time on here and working in my aquarium. Im not getting any sleep, but I have s lot of free time. I’m off work and working the night shift with the baby. Here’s Selene!

c6f7632b7429ba647ddcb4b48acd7dd3.heic


As for the tank, my ph has been really low, around 7.7. I think it’s because we’re constantly in the basement with the baby and the house is closed up with ac on. I bought some soda lime from a vet store and I’ll be making a diy co2 scrubber tomorrow. I also bought an air pump and wood bubbling stone to micro bubble at night. I normally dose Kalk through my top off as my sole source of alk/cal, but with no real coral to speak of, nothing is consuming alk and it is already at 9.0.

Tomorrow I’ll receive my second WAV pump so my flow will be good (along with a gyre). My algae issues seem to be improving. I’ll probably move my frags to the DT soon and start collecting more.

Really anxious to see what these Orpheks can do.

Cute frag! [emoji846]
 

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