Wolf-Head Mountain Reef Tank- 200 gallons

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Shawn_epicurious

Shawn_epicurious

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So... not everything is a success story... This isn’t a complaint... this is a journal entry... a reminder : )

Covid is kicking me in my nether regions! Then again, it’s getting reefer the same way. ...patience...

sidebar: why is patience a god thing? I am not a doctor.... I don’t need patients! (Silly grin)

I just bought a calcium reactor, a Neptune, a Trident, an Apex DOS dosing system with the reservoirs... yeah, almost none of it has been turned on yet... only the Neptune really. I’ll come back to that.

it’s not just equipment that’s hard to get right now.... the supplies you use with that equipment are equally difficult to obtain. Reagents, dosing liquids.... calibration fluids!

And to top it all off.... after almost two weeks and $40 worth of calibration fluids, I still can’t get my PH probe to calibrate! Makes me wanna chew on nails and spit out staples!

again... not every entry here is a success story! Lol
 
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Shawn_epicurious

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I almost didn’t add this... It’s a little difficult to say this is a part of my tank build. But the reality is, I mostly bought this to take pics of my tank. Yeah, I know... I’m bad

I am having a blast with it!

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SPR1968

No, it wasn’t expensive dear....
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I almost didn’t add this... It’s a little difficult to say this is a part of my tank build. But the reality is, I mostly bought this to take pics of my tank. Yeah, I know... I’m bad

I am having a blast with it!

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That’s a simular camera set up to what i use as well. I’ve got the EOS750D and I think the same or similar macro lens
 
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Shawn_epicurious

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It’s time I added something about the critter I found in my tank... after 4 months. It was just a very little rock that fell off my live rock... landed in the sand under one of my caves. He sat there for a week before I tried to vacuum it up with no luck. But, it ended up right up front, next to the glass. That night it was luminescent... glowing almost. That got my attention : ) I ended up glueing his very small rock to a bigger one... size of a golf ball and I have been nursing him since. We still don’t have a positive ID on what it is, but it has become my pet project. This is the best pic I’ve taken of it so far. ...it’s the size of two peas.

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The other day was not a success story! Lol... the world just got in the way : ) oh well...

Couples of things For the build. My Trident is now turned on! I am supposed to do a calibration after it runs for 2 - 3 days. I ended up fiddling with all the Neptune probes today. PH probe was proven to be a lemon. I have a new probe on the way. The ORP probe doesn’t really have a calibration. I did re-calibrate the salt probe and did a real calibration for the first time on the temperature probe. I feel good about those three probes. I am not going to put a pic of from the Apex Fusion app yet. I just messed with all the probes and all that showed up in the graphs and history. My lines no longer “look” stable lol
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I want an controller but I don't think I ever want to monitor salt or ORP. What are you doing with ORP? Sorry if you have covered this already!
Good question : ) Honestly...? Lightly reading about it. Has to do with Ozone and conductivity of the water...? I don’t know anyone that actually gets it. My tank is staying within acceptable levels for ORP. It fluctuate... quite a bit. What I am hoping is this... This ORP number seems to be like a “high level” how is my total ecology working .. as a whole number. I am hoping, over the next few months as I learn to stabilize my water.... the ORP number swings will lessen.

or in other words... yeah... ain’t doing anything with it lol
 
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Cool thread. What is your plan with your DOS and CaRx? typically you run 2part dosing or a CaRx, not both. Interested to see how you set this up.
I am getting the Carx up and running this week.... then watch the numberS... see how they evolve with a few tweaks. I am not expecting to need the dosing at first. Once my bioload starts shifting to actual SPS.... I think I will end up having to add Magnesium for sure.
 

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So... I thought I’d write this down before I forget it. I “jokingly“ named my tank “WolfHead Mountain”. I’ll say this first... scotch was involved. : )

The highest rock on the right side.... like a shape in a cloud... you can see a wolf’s head... it’s facing to the left.

That dang rock! I bet I picked it up 50 times when I was doing my scape. I could find a place for it. Too thick, too thin, to short... it just never fit anywhere. It was literally the last rock I put in there. A few hours later.... te tank was full of water for the first time and yes, I was no longer on my first drink lol

Ot was late... dark in the house... lights very blue and saw it. I have not been able to unsee it since : ) I even put a coral on it.... now it has hair!
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I find that scotch always helps in making important decisions.
enjoying your build.
:cool:
 
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Shawn_epicurious

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I have to write this here. I hope it does not sound like bragging : )

I just got picked for Reef Tank 365! ...got the badge : )

i have seen the other winners of this... their tanks, yeah.. wow! I am not sure mine is one their level but I am very proud right now.. ( very happy and enjoying a nice scotch to celebrate it)
 
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So, I have not been doing much lately; been to busy at work and my Granddaughter is here for an extended visit. : ) she and I are having fun, but she just isn’t into my tank.

Bad news first... I lost the little guy that I have been writing about. He came off his rock on his own and I can’t find him. (Fingers crossed, maybe he is still in there somewhere)

I am putting in a new batch of copepods tonight. I have 4 jars of the 5280 Pods from Algea Barn. Just waiting for the lights to go out.

I finally decided to hold off on starting up my calcium reactor. It just doesn’t make sense to dose heavy calcium when I have no SPS yet. I bought the basic 2 Part dosing kit from BRS. I am going to start manually dosing to get used to maintaining stable water parameters for SPS. The dosing amounts will be so small at first. Once I see how much (or little) I have to dose at first, I’ll fire up my APEX DOS and have the Neptune run things until I start really running thru dosing liquids.
 
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So, I just dosed My tank for the first time ever. 1.5 ounces of soda ash and 3 ounces of a two part magnesium mix. I used the stuff below : ) I bought the pre-measured packs from BRS

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Shawn_epicurious

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Wow it takes a lot of that Magnesium mix to move that number Up! It is going to take at least half of that gallon mix to move up 100 points. I am bringing it up slowly... a little each.
 

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

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