The Portuguese Reef - 150 Gallon Reef Savvy Build
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MRodrigues1991
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Thanks! Had a few speed bumps on the plumbing but should be completed and sealed up this weekend to then hopefully get water in it.
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MRodrigues1991
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Update on the tank.
Got all the plumbing done, but what a headache. All the overflow plumbing is all done in 1.5 inch schedule 80 for aesthetic purposes and let me tell you, there is no give or play in that stuff. Cuts have to perfect in length for Union to seal tight. Took a few tries before I was able to get a perfectly sealed leak free system. The return being 3/4 inch was much easier and had a little bit of flex for me to get the unions perfectly sealed. All of which had to be done with the tank in place so about 8 inches of room behind the tank to work with the entire time.
One that was sealed tight, loaded rock and sand in and started filling. Took about a week as I wasn’t comfortable running water into the tank when I wasn’t home.
Pics show wires all in array but wires have since been organized and cleaned up. Will get an updated picture loaded tonight.
Started the cycle with dr tims and ammonium chloride.
Hopefully can start adding fish in a couple weeks after I’m comfortable the cycle has passed.
Got all the plumbing done, but what a headache. All the overflow plumbing is all done in 1.5 inch schedule 80 for aesthetic purposes and let me tell you, there is no give or play in that stuff. Cuts have to perfect in length for Union to seal tight. Took a few tries before I was able to get a perfectly sealed leak free system. The return being 3/4 inch was much easier and had a little bit of flex for me to get the unions perfectly sealed. All of which had to be done with the tank in place so about 8 inches of room behind the tank to work with the entire time.
One that was sealed tight, loaded rock and sand in and started filling. Took about a week as I wasn’t comfortable running water into the tank when I wasn’t home.
Pics show wires all in array but wires have since been organized and cleaned up. Will get an updated picture loaded tonight.
Started the cycle with dr tims and ammonium chloride.
Hopefully can start adding fish in a couple weeks after I’m comfortable the cycle has passed.
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MRodrigues1991
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Will the flexibility of having two six bulb fixtures I can 1) spread the light better across the 36 inch wide tank 2) have 4 channels to run over the course of the day.
The lighting schedule as of now will be as follows:
Morning:
2 Actinics on left fixture come on, one hour later 2 actinics on right fixture come on.
3 hours after the left fixture actinics turn on, the "whites" turn on in the left fixture and left actinics will turn off.
3 hours after the right fixture actinics turn on, the "whites" turn on in the right fixture and right actinics will turn off.
Night: Same as morning but reversed.
Left fixture "whites" turn off, where the left actinics will turn on for 2 hours.
right fixture "whites" turn off, where then the right actinics will turn on for 2 hours.
Then left actinics turn off with the right actinics turning off an hour after the left actinics.
This will hopefully imitate sun rise and sun set fairly well. Will see how it does when I start adding corals. At max only 8 bulbs will be on at once. if the corals show the need for morelight, I can always run the actinics to overlap the whites.
The lighting schedule as of now will be as follows:
Morning:
2 Actinics on left fixture come on, one hour later 2 actinics on right fixture come on.
3 hours after the left fixture actinics turn on, the "whites" turn on in the left fixture and left actinics will turn off.
3 hours after the right fixture actinics turn on, the "whites" turn on in the right fixture and right actinics will turn off.
Night: Same as morning but reversed.
Left fixture "whites" turn off, where the left actinics will turn on for 2 hours.
right fixture "whites" turn off, where then the right actinics will turn on for 2 hours.
Then left actinics turn off with the right actinics turning off an hour after the left actinics.
This will hopefully imitate sun rise and sun set fairly well. Will see how it does when I start adding corals. At max only 8 bulbs will be on at once. if the corals show the need for morelight, I can always run the actinics to overlap the whites.
OP
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MRodrigues1991
Active Member
I did, but I have unions right above them as you can see so they can easily be removed.
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MRodrigues1991
Active Member
Is this cycle done yet !?
Another pic of the sump area after wire tidying
errrr getting an error when trying to upload pics, will upload tonight.
Another pic of the sump area after wire tidying
errrr getting an error when trying to upload pics, will upload tonight.
Last edited:
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MRodrigues1991
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Pics as promised
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MRodrigues1991
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Dont know why but it posted two 0f the same pics of my sump. Just need some doors now...or do I???
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MRodrigues1991
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Tank update:
Tanks is chugging along, cycle has been complete for a month or two now, have a pair of snowflake clowns, yellow corris and a rainford goby to start of light.
received a piece of red monti cap to test the waters on how coral would suffice. Unfortunately, my fritz salt mix mixed up to a very low alk level of about 4.5, so slowly been raising that and getting all parameters in check before putting more coral in. Test piece of red cap was losing tissue so eventually broke a piece and glued to the rock to try and save it but not looking to good. Alk is at about 7.5-8 at this point while I have been slowly raising it.
Running only 8 bulbs max at once, seems to be enough light for now. Having some early tank uglies that I am waiting out to let the tank mature more before I try to do anything. What's interesting is what seems to be dinos are growing primarily only on the rocks in direct flow of the MP40s, otherwise not growing on the rocks.
System and plumbing is running good, skimmer is kicking butt, ATO is working just fine.
Couple things noted though:
-Filter Socks will be the death of me. I am danged if I do and danged if don't. Was using filter socks originally for the first week or so, began to notice my salinity dropping little bit little down to almost 1.22. I went to replace my filter socks and noticed they were dirty enough to slow flow down into the sump that my tank levels were rising ever so slowly so thus my ATO was compensating for the lower levels in the sump and lowering my salinity. Now, the filter socks were probably past due for a changing with my stirring up my sand a couple times and moving rocks around but now i am hesitant as I dont want my salinity to be fluctuating and being quite a debated topic I kind of dont see the value as they just store crap/detritus in them until physically removed, which I feel just causes fluctuations in nutrients in the water. So at this point dont know what to do, run filter socks or not???
-Although I know I shouldn't be chasing numbers and am not saying I am, but my ORP has been sitting at 420-430 range, which to me just seems abnormally high. I could just be paranoid but anyone else run at this level?
-Will need to buy a third heater as the two 125W eheims are not going to cut it if the room falls below 72 in the coming winter. the 125w was the only size that would fit in the sump area so bought two thinking they would be sufficient but going to be tough without a third.
-ATO only lasts 3-4 days, tank is evaporating about 2-3 gallons per day. Don't mind filling when home but will have to put together a contingency plan with a brute trash can for week or longer vacations.
-Need to set up dosing station, have the containers and doser just need to assemble everything. Found some good containers from Target for cheap, will post in pictures.
Will try and upload some pics tonight.
Thanks for following!
Tanks is chugging along, cycle has been complete for a month or two now, have a pair of snowflake clowns, yellow corris and a rainford goby to start of light.
received a piece of red monti cap to test the waters on how coral would suffice. Unfortunately, my fritz salt mix mixed up to a very low alk level of about 4.5, so slowly been raising that and getting all parameters in check before putting more coral in. Test piece of red cap was losing tissue so eventually broke a piece and glued to the rock to try and save it but not looking to good. Alk is at about 7.5-8 at this point while I have been slowly raising it.
Running only 8 bulbs max at once, seems to be enough light for now. Having some early tank uglies that I am waiting out to let the tank mature more before I try to do anything. What's interesting is what seems to be dinos are growing primarily only on the rocks in direct flow of the MP40s, otherwise not growing on the rocks.
System and plumbing is running good, skimmer is kicking butt, ATO is working just fine.
Couple things noted though:
-Filter Socks will be the death of me. I am danged if I do and danged if don't. Was using filter socks originally for the first week or so, began to notice my salinity dropping little bit little down to almost 1.22. I went to replace my filter socks and noticed they were dirty enough to slow flow down into the sump that my tank levels were rising ever so slowly so thus my ATO was compensating for the lower levels in the sump and lowering my salinity. Now, the filter socks were probably past due for a changing with my stirring up my sand a couple times and moving rocks around but now i am hesitant as I dont want my salinity to be fluctuating and being quite a debated topic I kind of dont see the value as they just store crap/detritus in them until physically removed, which I feel just causes fluctuations in nutrients in the water. So at this point dont know what to do, run filter socks or not???
-Although I know I shouldn't be chasing numbers and am not saying I am, but my ORP has been sitting at 420-430 range, which to me just seems abnormally high. I could just be paranoid but anyone else run at this level?
-Will need to buy a third heater as the two 125W eheims are not going to cut it if the room falls below 72 in the coming winter. the 125w was the only size that would fit in the sump area so bought two thinking they would be sufficient but going to be tough without a third.
-ATO only lasts 3-4 days, tank is evaporating about 2-3 gallons per day. Don't mind filling when home but will have to put together a contingency plan with a brute trash can for week or longer vacations.
-Need to set up dosing station, have the containers and doser just need to assemble everything. Found some good containers from Target for cheap, will post in pictures.
Will try and upload some pics tonight.
Thanks for following!
Last edited:
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MRodrigues1991
Active Member
Pictures as promised, definitely need to hone in my photography skills....
Not sure if the bubbles is Dino or Cyano or just early tank uglies. May do a few days with lights off and see if it takes care of the situation. Let me know what you think
Not sure if the bubbles is Dino or Cyano or just early tank uglies. May do a few days with lights off and see if it takes care of the situation. Let me know what you think
OP
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MRodrigues1991
Active Member
welcome aboard!
Uglies are taking their turn for the better, have the refugium set up with some chaeto. May not have enough nutrients yet or things till balancing out but chaeto looks a little weak in some spots.
Had some "test" red monti and a couple other SPS in there and some zoas. Lost the SPS over time, but Zoas are doing great as I have been dialing in my Alk and Calcium. Seemed to have finally balanced out this past week from an Alk and Calcium perspective so will start bring SPS back in to "test the waters".
Definitely need to start monitoring nutrients of some sort (Phos/Nitrates) as I haven't done a single nutrient test yet. At the same time may send in an ICP test to see what I am starting with.
Uglies are taking their turn for the better, have the refugium set up with some chaeto. May not have enough nutrients yet or things till balancing out but chaeto looks a little weak in some spots.
Had some "test" red monti and a couple other SPS in there and some zoas. Lost the SPS over time, but Zoas are doing great as I have been dialing in my Alk and Calcium. Seemed to have finally balanced out this past week from an Alk and Calcium perspective so will start bring SPS back in to "test the waters".
Definitely need to start monitoring nutrients of some sort (Phos/Nitrates) as I haven't done a single nutrient test yet. At the same time may send in an ICP test to see what I am starting with.
OP
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MRodrigues1991
Active Member
So update will get pics up tomorrow hopefully. Need some help here on an SPS issue.
I have tested a few SPS frags over the last few months from a friend to see how the tank is doing and like clock work, a week after having them in the tank RTN/STN begins and I lose the entire frag within two weeks. Looking at parameters everything seems fine and nothing crazy off, RO water is perfect, I have attached my ATI ICP test pics here.
We are thinking it is lighting being too strong. I had the T5s running maximum 8 bulbs at a time. Schedule was 2 hours with 4 actinic bulbs, 6 hours with 8 bulbs whites/blues and then 2 hours with 4 actinic bulbs to mimic sunrise and sunset. Fixtures were about 12 inches off water, tank is 20 inches deep and the frags were on the sand. I have seen people run even stronger than this and not have any issues.
Tested a couple SPS frags from a LFS to see if it was its my friends frags coming from his lighting and also like clockwork the LFS SPS frags started losing tissue within a week and were gone after another week.
I have raised my lights to 24 inches above the tank and am running just actinics for 8 hours a day but am scared to put more frags in at this point to just lose them.
Any ideas out there ?! I may post this in SPS section as well.
-Mike
I have tested a few SPS frags over the last few months from a friend to see how the tank is doing and like clock work, a week after having them in the tank RTN/STN begins and I lose the entire frag within two weeks. Looking at parameters everything seems fine and nothing crazy off, RO water is perfect, I have attached my ATI ICP test pics here.
We are thinking it is lighting being too strong. I had the T5s running maximum 8 bulbs at a time. Schedule was 2 hours with 4 actinic bulbs, 6 hours with 8 bulbs whites/blues and then 2 hours with 4 actinic bulbs to mimic sunrise and sunset. Fixtures were about 12 inches off water, tank is 20 inches deep and the frags were on the sand. I have seen people run even stronger than this and not have any issues.
Tested a couple SPS frags from a LFS to see if it was its my friends frags coming from his lighting and also like clockwork the LFS SPS frags started losing tissue within a week and were gone after another week.
I have raised my lights to 24 inches above the tank and am running just actinics for 8 hours a day but am scared to put more frags in at this point to just lose them.
Any ideas out there ?! I may post this in SPS section as well.
-Mike
DesertReefT4r
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I followed your link from you having trouble thread. First off very nice build! Tanks started with all dry rock seem to have a common issue with keeping sps in the first 1-2 years. All other corals will do well in but the tank just seems to be missing something for sps health that live rock provides or at the very least jump starts things. Either add some live rock or keep adding in other corals that do well and give the tank time to mature. This is the reason I ended up not using dry rock for my build, so happy I used LR.
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MRodrigues1991
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Ya know, I was thinking that for some time now and wondering if that could be a factor. It is just so unknown I had no way of proving it but I would say it is plausible cuase. Let me know if you have any other references for research on this that I can read up on. Thanks for the input!
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MRodrigues1991
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I was always hesitant of putting live rock in my tank because of pests and nuisance algae, etc. Have to find a good source of live rock as my LFS has aptasia here and there.
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MRodrigues1991
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Tank is looking great, parameters have started to stabilize finally and the sand as stopped calcifying which I think goes hand in hand. Going to start testing SPS again and see how it goes.
Some pictures of current view from the couch.
Some pictures of current view from the couch.
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If u need some frags let me know
Good to find this thread
Good to find this thread
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