The Upgrade Build... From 110 to 180

OP
OP
Dj City

Dj City

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
Messages
3,163
Reaction score
3,405
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I got the Seachem Fusion 2 last night. I boosted my Alk to an 8.3 reading last night. This morning I'm at 8.13.

Alk.......... 8.13 (Trident)
Cal.......... 423 (Trident)
Mag........ 1310 (Trident)
PH.......... 8.04 (Apex Probe)
Salinity.. 35.1 (Apex Probe)
Nitrate.. 0ppm (API Reagent in ReefBot)
Phos..... 0.5 - 1ppm (API Reagent in ReefBot)
Temp.... 77 (Apex Probe)

My nitrates are at zero this morning.
My Sulfur Denitrator is NOT working yet. It has not cycled yet. That usually takes about 3 weeks to a month to start lowering nitrates.
My Algae Reactor is NOT hooked up yet. I have no micro or macro algae yet.
Maybe I got the tank completely cycled the way I planned it out to go from ammonia to nitrite to nitrate to nitrogen gas bubbling out the tank.
If this is the case, I will have to start dosing nitrates pretty soon.

EDIT:
I did a manual test of nitrates and got at least 5.0 (new API reagents). I will put new reagents in ReefBot and test nitrates again.

I broke down and added 2 small damsels to keep the cycle going.
I did not want to add fish yet but I need a constant ammonia source and hopefully add a little bit of nitrates back to the system.

Pics to come.
 
OP
OP
Dj City

Dj City

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
Messages
3,163
Reaction score
3,405
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
20200308_110037.jpg

These Damsels do NOT like getting their picture taken.
20200308_110102.jpg
20200308_110204.jpg
20200308_110206.jpg
20200308_111319.jpg

15836862503166893661954046779821.jpg
15836863472312416099556854696777.jpg

Better pics to come.
 
OP
OP
Dj City

Dj City

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
Messages
3,163
Reaction score
3,405
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I went from alk of 8.13 yesterday evening to 7.92 this morning. with NO coral in the tank.
I added 4 capfuls of Sachem Fusion 2 to bring the Alk back up to 8.2
Also getting small PH swings tied to Alk swings.

It's not major but i'm curious as to where the Alk is going.
 
OP
OP
Dj City

Dj City

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
Messages
3,163
Reaction score
3,405
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I still have not programmed my ReefBreeders Photon 50 V2+ light but I have time. I keep the lights off anyway unless i'm looking at something that needs more than ambient room light.
Having said that, the room gets a LOT of natural light and I have started to get the "browns" on some of the rock that gets the most light.
20200312_102618.jpg
20200312_102654.jpg
20200312_102733.jpg
20200312_102935.jpg
20200312_103011.jpg

It's really more rust/orange color than brown. My skimmer is catching some of it. I would love to know what it is.
15840277100571732155401347353909.jpg


In other news...
Neptune is sending me 2 new Wav pumps to replace the ones that went bad. They should arrive later today.
I've heard not great things about Neptune's Customer Service but they were great with me and my situation.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
Dj City

Dj City

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
Messages
3,163
Reaction score
3,405
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Im having a hard time getting my water as crystal clear as it should be.
I am using a Clarisea SK-5000 filter roller. Can't figure out yet why the display is not as clear as it should be.

I'm still getting a "toilet bowl flush" from the drain every now and then.
I have a lot of microbubbles in the clarisea and the water level is always right to the top just under the overflow opening.
15840280406858441614875252277300.jpg

I'm wondering what I can do about this.
Flow from the return pump to the display is 650gph through 1 inch pvc.
Drain is 1.5 durso.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
Dj City

Dj City

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
Messages
3,163
Reaction score
3,405
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I programmed my Photon 50 V2+ light today. I might have to change it up a bit as I think I have the lights programmed to be on too long.
I'm gonna have to turn the lights on and watch them ramp up in the morning, see what it looks like in the afternoon and watch the ramp down at night.
I used my Seneye par meter to help set up the intensity.

I will post my schedule soon. I want to tweak it a bit before I post it.

My replacement Wav's arrived yesterday and I installed them today. I am happy with having 4 Wav's and 2 Gyres. I don't have to crank anything up and I still have really good flow.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
Dj City

Dj City

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
Messages
3,163
Reaction score
3,405
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Now I see why you were recommending that light to me. More than enough Par to do whatever you want. Looks great.

Thank you.
My tank is 30 inches deep.
I can go up on par if I want to but I need to come down when I'm ready to add coral to the tank.
 
OP
OP
Dj City

Dj City

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
Messages
3,163
Reaction score
3,405
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So...
Today I started the CUC.
I got...
8 VERY LARGE Nassarious Snails
12 small Nassarious Snails
3 Cerith Snails
1 Brittle Star
1 Serpent Star

I've still got a lot of CUC to get. I am trying to start slow and I only got what was available at the lfs. My sandbed is going to be alright but I have to get some CUC for the rocks.

Any suggestions?
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
Dj City

Dj City

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
Messages
3,163
Reaction score
3,405
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So last night my lights decided to do their own thing.
Despite programming, my lights decided to NOT ramp down as they were supposed to. At 11pm, I still had white lights on.
I contacted ReefBreeders (Best Customer Service I've Experienced) Logan suggested I go through my program and change the time, then change the time back.
I am hopeful this will work to get me back to MY schedule for the lights. At 10:08pm, It looks like it is working.
EDIT:
It LOOKED like it was working last night but this morning, I had red, green and white on when they should NOT have been on.
I emailed Logan and will wait for a response.

I would love to know why it lost programming in the 1st place.
It might be due to me having the power off to the Photon instead of it running the program I set. I have had the Photon powered down because I did not really WANT lights on the tank at this time but I have emeregency corals in this tank. I'm trying to save them as they were starting to do bad in the 15 gallon Nano they were in.
If I can get them to turn around, I will blackout the whole tank
20200317_124510.jpg
20200317_124513.jpg
20200317_124524.jpg
20200317_124520.jpg
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
Dj City

Dj City

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
Messages
3,163
Reaction score
3,405
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Update:

Logan from Reefbreeders suggested I adjust the clock by changing the time, then changing it back.
I did that but was unable to see if it worked because I was not home to observe. When I got home about 11pm, the tank looked to have the correct light program run.

I will observe the lights tonight and report back.
 
OP
OP
Dj City

Dj City

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
Messages
3,163
Reaction score
3,405
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I'm going to slightly modified Photon 50 V2+ schedule. I will lengthen the morning schedule up by 1 hour so instead of brighter lights coming on at 7am, they will be coming on at 8am.
 
OP
OP
Dj City

Dj City

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
Messages
3,163
Reaction score
3,405
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
BRS has a video that states "good" Nitrate and Phosphate levels and I agree with them. This was a good video to have run across.
These are the numbers for Nitrates and Phosphates I'm trying to stay close to.

Screen Shot 2020-03-20 at 8.19.09 AM.png


This morning's numbers
Alk............ 8.21 (Trident)
Cal............ 427 (Trident)
Mag......... 1345 (Trident)
PH............ 7.93 (Apex Probe)
Salinity.... 35.7 (Apex Probe)
Nitrate.... 0 - 5ppm (API Reagent in ReefBot)
Phos........ 0 - 0.25ppm (API Reagent in ReefBot)
Temp...... 77.4 (Apex Probe)

Not bad numbers overall.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
Dj City

Dj City

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
Messages
3,163
Reaction score
3,405
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I started dosing Vibrant this morning.
I dosed 20ml for my approximate 200g water volume. The brown algae / diatoms are getting bad looking and I would like to try to nip it in the bud and try stay ahead of it from there.
20200320_095306.jpg
20200320_095314.jpg
20200320_095342.jpg

I will monitor over the next week to see if I need to dose every 2 weeks or every week or if I need to dose at all.

Who knows. I may just go get a Tang or Foxface.
 
Last edited:

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 44 48.9%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 48 53.3%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 21 23.3%
  • None.

    Votes: 23 25.6%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 10.0%

New Posts

Back
Top