Getting Closer! The cabinets were finished this week, finally! A miserable construction experience but everything came out good.
I little messy still but getting there.
I got all the equipment in the sump and plumbing completed and hooked the sump up in a closed loop to water test and start cycling some water.
I was going to run an Algae scrubber but once I had it installed I realized that the maintenance was going to suck on this with my setup so went back to my bio-pellet reactor and will carbon dose
So it's been a while since I updated my thread...Still waiting on my tank to arrive. Hopefully, this will be the week and I can start actually putting the aquarium together versus changing my filtration 15 times.
I went full circle from ATS to Bio-Pellets back to the refugium. I was able to pick up a Lifereef system Sump, Skimmer and Refugium so have that installed.
The good news is since I have been trying to get this set up since January, I started cycling the live rock and it's been running now for 6 months! So at least that should be a benefit.
Yea I liked him as well. I think Brenan missed his chance.
I always liked sand to and have some ocean direct live sand here waiting. Chances are that will end up going on. I am going to build it out with nothing and then if I am not happy add the sand. I don't have to move the new tank over immediately I can play around as long as I need and move the fish and coral slowly.
Thats the plan.... it's weird because the waters been like that in my sump. the temperature was running high when it was just the sump (~88 deg). i think that may have caused it to bloom.
I was thinking, since i went through a few iterations of the filtration and setup for the tank, that i would put down a summary of how everything ended up:
Tank:
- 48”x20”x24”. 3/4” star fire glass. (~88 G) from Glasscages
- the tank is drilled for the ModularMarine Overflow and two 1” return ports
Filtration:
- LifeReef CLF2 with VS24 Skimmer
- LifeReef Refugium with Kessle A360X
- BRS Mini media reactor running 1/2C carbon
- Dual Ecotech Vectra M2
- ModularMarinE 1600 GPH Overflow
- I am using some Marine Pure Ceramic spheres in the sump as well as some left over live rock from the previous tank in the Refugium
ATO
- Tunze Nano ATO....I think this might have to be upgraded to the full tunze
Flow:
- 4 Ecotech MP40’s plume the two returns.
- I am running both M2’s at ~25% so estimate about 500GPH turnover
Lighting:
- 3 Ecotech Radion G5 Blues
- I have these spaced at 10” from the side with one directly centered and all turned perpendicular to the front
- I am running the AB+ program at ~65% max
Dosing:
- Bubble Magnus BM-T01
- Kalkwasser - 1800 ml/Day @ 1/8 tsp/gal though 2 heads @ 24 hours set 30 minutes off from each other. This will give me Kalk dosing every 30min through out the day
- All-for-Reef - 25ml/day
- i test ALK weekly and all levels monthly and will adjust this as things grow in
Livestock:
- ocean direct live sand
- I cycled my rock for about 5-6 months from a mix of BRS dry rock types. I used some of the live rock cycle kits early on and when i did water changes from my previous tank would add that water into the cycle tub.
- I used some rock that had corals on it from the previous tank as well.
This tank is all SPS/Montipora with a good amount of encrusting monti’s and Stlyo’s. I do have a single chalice! I am extremely bad with SPS names so not really sure what I have from a branded standpoint. All my corals came from Local reefers in my area.
For fish i have the following
- Starry Benny
- Two Percula Clowns
- Two Blue Reef Chromis
Future Fish
- 3 Blue Reef Chromis
- 6 line Wrasse
- Bristletooth tang
- File Fish
- 1 potential TBD....
Maintenance Schedule:
- Weekly ALK/Salinity testing
- Skimmer empty
- Sump/Tank wipe down
- Refugium cleaning/Algea removal
- Monthly 24g Water change Red Sea (blue Bucket) Salt
- this may go down to 16g depending on how 24g does in my container
My goal was for a long term tank so i hope everything worked out. The biggest concern i have is access to the back of the tank...which is almost impossible due to the stand. I can make it work as long as i remove the overflow and drain some water but am hoping that’s not really needed.
I am hoping that cycling the rock and using rock from the previous tank will help not loose any livestock and not make the tank go through the complete algae stage.
I have about three more corals to put in when they arrive and then from there it will be just letting the frags grow. I will post some progress pics as it goes along.
I thought i'd post a quick picture as this is the start of my tracking.
I was having some serious micro-bubble issues and think I have it narrowed down to the refugium output. I still have some but am getting that worked out. I have my lights all scheduled and Running the AB+ Program, right now they are going through a 30 day acclimation period.
It's that time again! Did my monthly water change and cleaned out the Cheato in the refugium.
I stopped dosing All-For-Reef and went to straight Kalk and have been working on my Alk being stable this month. The All-for-Reef was causing too much of a Carbon dosing effect and I was starting to get some bacterial blooms. After about a week that cleared right up and now I dosed Zeovite coral system and Microbacter 7 on a weekly dose.
Hoping for that to improve growth and color a bit.
The tank is about to reach the 6-month point so I thought I would throw up another picture. Except for some hair algae issues, I think things are starting to settle out.
I switched to All-for-Reef exclusively for dosing and am using the Plus-NP and Baco-Balance with a refugium for nutrient control. We will see how it all goes but so far it's been smooth after the transition from Kalk and just the refugium.
Which LR sump/fuge did you go with? I have an SVS-24 LR skimmer and looking for a new sump that'll fit my new 170, and I found your thread with a tank somewhat similar in size.