Urbanek's ADA Trio
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urbaneks
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May 28th, 2017 - Weekly Update
I made a trip to a couple of the LFS today and came home with a new acro. This was a frag cut from a maricultured coral that was imported. I typically don't buy wild or maricultured pieces but this one had 3 colors and nice contrast so I thought I'd give it a go. It reminds me of the ORA Frogskin but with some blue and yellow to go with the green. Here are 3 shots work out away from the coral. Thanks for looking.
I made a trip to a couple of the LFS today and came home with a new acro. This was a frag cut from a maricultured coral that was imported. I typically don't buy wild or maricultured pieces but this one had 3 colors and nice contrast so I thought I'd give it a go. It reminds me of the ORA Frogskin but with some blue and yellow to go with the green. Here are 3 shots work out away from the coral. Thanks for looking.
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urbaneks
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Aleks - Thanks so much for the view and comment. Love to see comments coming all the way from Russia
No issues up to this point. I ran the tank for a full month without any coral and just a pair of clown fish. At the 6 week mark, I added my first corals and let them be for 4 weeks. After I started to see corals encrust, I started adding more. The tank is over 3 months old now, while that is new, I think it's plenty of time to establish filtration, dosing, etc.
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urbaneks
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May 29th, 2017 - Gonipora Collage
I snapped a couple new photos of the gonipora. While none of them were very sharp, I liked the artistic quality they had to them. These are creating a nice center piece in the middle of the trio.
I snapped a couple new photos of the gonipora. While none of them were very sharp, I liked the artistic quality they had to them. These are creating a nice center piece in the middle of the trio.
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May 29th, 2017 - Full Room Shot
Current status of the project. System has been running for 3 months and 10 days.
I love it man!!
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urbaneks
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Really appreciate that. My current parameters are shown below. Let this be a plug for aquaticlog.com, it's a great site that allows you to track your maintenance, parameters, etc. I love the charting feature of the website. You can see my parameters from tank startup to present. I've been increasing feedings to try and get some nitrate, a perfect nitrate for me is when the test just detects a pink color (about 1-3ppm)
Thanks Rev. Glad to see you've continued to check in on my progress.
Good to hear from you. You were always quick to view and reply on my project 365. Thanks for the view and comment.
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urbaneks
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May 29th, 2017 - Celebrating being a Featured Thread in the R2R email!
I just noticed that Rev included my journal as one of the Featured Threads in today's email. I figured, I should include a few new photos since I may see a few new visitors.
I just noticed that Rev included my journal as one of the Featured Threads in today's email. I figured, I should include a few new photos since I may see a few new visitors.
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Absolutely work of art. Welcome back and as always impeccable pics. Keep em coming
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Beautiful set-up!
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May 29th, 2017 - Celebrating being a Featured Thread in the R2R email!
I just noticed that Rev included my journal as one of the Featured Threads in today's email. I figured, I should include a few new photos since I may see a few new visitors.
I love reading your updates mate! The setup is coming along really nicely. What I really like about your builds is they are so beautiful inside and outside the tanks, really top notch!
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urbaneks
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TSUI - Thanks a million. Hopefully I can get coral to grow in this system like you have growing in yours.
Thanks!!!!
I appreciate the kind words. I love working on the ascetics of the entire system as much as I do the reefing itself.
Thanks for the view and comment. I typically don't QT but I only source fish from two places, Diver's Den and one of our LFS who does a 2 week QT before he sells them. I'm not saying this is the right way to do it, QT is always better than not. I assume the risk.
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urbaneks
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Yes it does. Here are a couple photos that shows how I constructed the shelf. The 2x4's are then wrapped with the barn wood, leaving openings at the top for the lights to vent. It's a pretty slick design and works very well. The biggest downfall is you better like the lights you have.
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urbaneks
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May 30th, 2017 - Maintenance Routine and Parameters
Maintenance
I've been asked for my maintenance routine and parameters a couple times so I thought I'd do a quick summary on them. For maintenance, I follow a pretty basic routine but I'm religiously anal about it. Anyone can log onto AquaticLog.com and view my full routine on that site. If you are not familiar with AquaticLog, it's a great site that allows you to set reminders, track parameters, keep track of livestock, equipment, etc. etc. I use to track all of this with an excel file that I created but AquaticLog is a much better option. The photo below shows my full routine. The only thing that is missing here is my Cal, Alk and Mag dosing which is automated through my doser. I also don't have my skimmer and pump maintenance logged yet. I will complete these at the 6 month mark and create a reminder at that time. I estimate that I spend about 15 minutes per day and then once a week I spend about an hour on the bigger maintenance tasks. I've found that for myself, smaller more frequent tasks keeps the tank looking optimal and allows me to enjoy it more the rest of the time.
Parameters
As for my tank parameters, you can see below via the charts where I like to keep my parameters. The red lines on the graph shows my upper and lower control limits with the dotted lines showing my actual test results over time. I test Alk once a week unless I'm dialing in my doser than I will test more frequently. All other test are done every 2 weeks. I treat Alk as heart beat of the aquarium. Once I've dialed in my Alk dose, I simply set my Cal dose to match. This results in much stable results for both. In the past, I use to chase individual Cal and Alk numbers and struggled to keep them on track. Now, I get Alk where I want it, set Cal to match and let Cal go where the dose takes it. For me, with an Alk of 8.0, my Cal naturally goes to about 450. This is a bit higher than I would prefer but again, as long as Alk is stable, I don't mind so much where the Cal sits as long as it's within my upper and lower control. The handy charts below are also a product of AquaticLog.com.
Maintenance
I've been asked for my maintenance routine and parameters a couple times so I thought I'd do a quick summary on them. For maintenance, I follow a pretty basic routine but I'm religiously anal about it. Anyone can log onto AquaticLog.com and view my full routine on that site. If you are not familiar with AquaticLog, it's a great site that allows you to set reminders, track parameters, keep track of livestock, equipment, etc. etc. I use to track all of this with an excel file that I created but AquaticLog is a much better option. The photo below shows my full routine. The only thing that is missing here is my Cal, Alk and Mag dosing which is automated through my doser. I also don't have my skimmer and pump maintenance logged yet. I will complete these at the 6 month mark and create a reminder at that time. I estimate that I spend about 15 minutes per day and then once a week I spend about an hour on the bigger maintenance tasks. I've found that for myself, smaller more frequent tasks keeps the tank looking optimal and allows me to enjoy it more the rest of the time.
Parameters
As for my tank parameters, you can see below via the charts where I like to keep my parameters. The red lines on the graph shows my upper and lower control limits with the dotted lines showing my actual test results over time. I test Alk once a week unless I'm dialing in my doser than I will test more frequently. All other test are done every 2 weeks. I treat Alk as heart beat of the aquarium. Once I've dialed in my Alk dose, I simply set my Cal dose to match. This results in much stable results for both. In the past, I use to chase individual Cal and Alk numbers and struggled to keep them on track. Now, I get Alk where I want it, set Cal to match and let Cal go where the dose takes it. For me, with an Alk of 8.0, my Cal naturally goes to about 450. This is a bit higher than I would prefer but again, as long as Alk is stable, I don't mind so much where the Cal sits as long as it's within my upper and lower control. The handy charts below are also a product of AquaticLog.com.
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