Reef Central Online Community

Go Back   Reef Central Online Community > General Interest Forums > Tank Journals & Builds
Blogs FAQ Calendar

Notices

User Tag List

Reply
Thread Tools
Unread 09/19/2016, 07:52 AM   #76
jemw
Registered Member
 
jemw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Star, Idaho
Posts: 99
Quote:
Originally Posted by juanm2592 View Post
Tanks looking great man, I have a question so are you just covering your tank at night with that stuff you got from home depot? I have a 120 and i lose a ton of water from evaporation have to refill 5 gallons like every other day. Thanks!
I only put the cover on at night when the room cools down and is subject to higher evaporation. It is very opaque and doesn't allow much light through it. When I take it off in the morning, I find that there is a light film of evaporated water on it which I remove with a couple of paper towels. Hope it works as well for you as it does for me.


__________________
Jim
_____
Red Sea Reefer 300 XL

Current Tank Info: Red Sea 300XL
jemw is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 09/22/2016, 04:27 PM   #77
jemw
Registered Member
 
jemw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Star, Idaho
Posts: 99
More additions

Replaced my SailFin tang which didn't make it. Also added an Emerald Crab, Cleaner Shrimp (the tang really likes to be cleaned), more Trochus Snails and finally some corals.

Making a Zoanithid colony on the right side, and Florida Ricordea Mushrooms on the left side. Added a large colony and two 3 polyp frags of the Zoanithids and a 4 mushroom colony of the Ricordea.


__________________
Jim
_____
Red Sea Reefer 300 XL

Current Tank Info: Red Sea 300XL
jemw is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 09/22/2016, 05:30 PM   #78
jemw
Registered Member
 
jemw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Star, Idaho
Posts: 99
Noticed beginning of Coraline Algae today

When cleaning the glass this afternoon, I noticed spots of Coraline Algae starting to appear on the rocks. I will take this as a good sign.


__________________
Jim
_____
Red Sea Reefer 300 XL

Current Tank Info: Red Sea 300XL
jemw is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 09/22/2016, 05:36 PM   #79
GfordQC
Registered Member
 
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 79
All sounds good. Hopefully getting my 90 cube next week. Enjoying following your build.


GfordQC is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 09/23/2016, 04:09 AM   #80
jemw
Registered Member
 
jemw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Star, Idaho
Posts: 99
Quote:
Originally Posted by GfordQC View Post
All sounds good. Hopefully getting my 90 cube next week. Enjoying following your build.
Be sure to let me know where you post your build so I can follow.


__________________
Jim
_____
Red Sea Reefer 300 XL

Current Tank Info: Red Sea 300XL
jemw is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 09/23/2016, 04:32 AM   #81
GfordQC
Registered Member
 
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 79
Just did a few days ago...nothing major at the moment just prepping stuff.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2600702


GfordQC is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 09/24/2016, 01:11 PM   #82
jemw
Registered Member
 
jemw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Star, Idaho
Posts: 99
UV filter timing change

I have my heater in the center chamber of my sump, and wanted to get some additional water flow around it to disperse the heat better. Was thinking of adding an additional low flow pump, then it dawned on me that I already had the beast there in the form of my UV filter. I had been running the filter for 1.5 hours in the AM and 1 hour in the PM but changed it to coincide with the heater turning on and off based on the temp censor of my Apex. This has worked out great as the heater isn't on as much and the temp doesn't spike as a result of the poor circulation in the center chamber. AND my water is clearer.


__________________
Jim
_____
Red Sea Reefer 300 XL

Current Tank Info: Red Sea 300XL
jemw is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 09/25/2016, 07:07 PM   #83
Marcus71
Greenfield Wi
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Greenfield WI
Posts: 400
Following


Marcus71 is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 09/27/2016, 07:15 PM   #84
GfordQC
Registered Member
 
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 79
Jemw, would you mind measuring the size of the overflow? Trying to plan my rockscape and would like to have that verified.

Thanks!


GfordQC is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 09/28/2016, 08:41 AM   #85
jemw
Registered Member
 
jemw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Star, Idaho
Posts: 99
Quote:
Originally Posted by GfordQC View Post
Jemw, would you mind measuring the size of the overflow? Trying to plan my rockscape and would like to have that verified.

Thanks!
It's 11.5" x 5.5"


__________________
Jim
_____
Red Sea Reefer 300 XL

Current Tank Info: Red Sea 300XL
jemw is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 09/28/2016, 10:27 AM   #86
GfordQC
Registered Member
 
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 79
Thanks!


GfordQC is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 10/01/2016, 10:53 AM   #87
jemw
Registered Member
 
jemw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Star, Idaho
Posts: 99
Latest water params

The corals I added are happy and starting to grow. Did my water tests yesterday with these results:
Temp - 77.7º
Salinity - 1.025 - down from 1.026 which may be a result of the dosing
Ph - 8.08 - again may be a result of the dosing
Amonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Phosphate - 0.04 - borderline would like to see lower
Alk - 7.6 dKH - down, don't understand since I am dosing. Changed dosing from twice daily to every hour at 1/24 the daily dose. Will see next week.
Calc - 435 - Up as a result of the dosing.
Magnesium - 1160 - down, don't understand as I am also dosing for this

Added mysis shrimp to the reef frenzy for feeding, fish don't seem to care for it.


__________________
Jim
_____
Red Sea Reefer 300 XL

Current Tank Info: Red Sea 300XL
jemw is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 10/01/2016, 10:58 AM   #88
jemw
Registered Member
 
jemw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Star, Idaho
Posts: 99
Stirrer for Kalsawater

As stated earlier, I have limited space in my stand and was constricted for the dosing reservoir. I did a post here for a suggestion for a magnetic stirrer and received a reply pointing me to the GHL Magnetic Stirrer. It fits perfectly under my reservoir in the confined space. It requires 24Vdc to drive it, so I ordered the DC24 to Bare Wire Accessory Cable - Neptune Systems from BRS and will modify the connection to the GHL to use it.


__________________
Jim
_____
Red Sea Reefer 300 XL

Current Tank Info: Red Sea 300XL
jemw is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 10/05/2016, 09:21 PM   #89
jemw
Registered Member
 
jemw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Star, Idaho
Posts: 99
Had an opportunity to test my electricity failure mode today. Although I did cheat a little by turning the heater, lights, mp40, and skimmer off. Wanted to see how long the system would run with the mp40 running on it's backup battery, and the return pump on my UPS. We received notice of the power down on Monday, so I finished the installation of my airstone system yesterday to test it's working.

As the power was off for six hours, I was able to see the final results. The UPS lasted for around two hours, at which time the airstone kicked in to provide additional oxygen to the tank. The MP40 battery backup was still functioning when the electricity came back on.

It is worth noting that the state I had set the equipment to (off) with the Apex, was how it was when the power came back on. I had to manually go back in and set them to auto. It is also worth noting that I had to do a physical reset for the Apex to start communicating over ethernet.

Interesting note that since I am dosing Kalsawater hourly, my PH has raised to the 8.2 arena and is more stable. My ORP has also risen to the 39x to 40x range as well.


__________________
Jim
_____
Red Sea Reefer 300 XL

Current Tank Info: Red Sea 300XL
jemw is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 10/06/2016, 08:42 AM   #90
jemw
Registered Member
 
jemw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Star, Idaho
Posts: 99
Nutrients

In my last tests I found "Phosphate - 0.04 - borderline would like to see lower"

In reading articles on nutrients, I'm not so sure that a zero level is best for corals. I think I will not make any further steps to reduce the phosphate and see if the few corals I have like it. I don't have much in the way of algae in the tank as the tang/crab/snails keep it clean.


__________________
Jim
_____
Red Sea Reefer 300 XL

Current Tank Info: Red Sea 300XL
jemw is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 10/15/2016, 02:41 PM   #91
jemw
Registered Member
 
jemw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Star, Idaho
Posts: 99
Fighting a brown hair algae problem. Added a Lawnmower Blenny, but he doesn't eat much. Ordered and received Vibrant Reef Aquarium Cleaner this morning. Added the recommended dose will see how it looks tomorrow.

Also finally received the Apex cable for the 24V connection to the GHL Magnetic stirrer I've had for over a week. My order for the cable was delayed because of the hurricane on the east coast. I dose at the top of the hour, and set the Apex to give it a six minute stir before the dose. If anyone is interested, here is the code I used:
Set OFF
OSC 054:00/006:00/000:00 Then ON

I may have to adjust beyond six minutes, but will monitor. As a side note, when I cut the GHL cable and did some testing I found that their red wire is the minus (-) connection, not what I expected.


__________________
Jim
_____
Red Sea Reefer 300 XL

Current Tank Info: Red Sea 300XL
jemw is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 10/16/2016, 10:51 AM   #92
jemw
Registered Member
 
jemw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Star, Idaho
Posts: 99
I'm happy with the results of using the Vibrant Reef Aquarium Cleaner, it has eliminted almost all of the brown hair algae overnight. So far no ill effects on the corals or the fish. When I went to clean the glass this morning, there was nothing there to clean.

Modified the port to increase the kalsawater stirrer to 10 minutes before dosing time. New code below.

Set OFF
OSC 050:00/010:00/000:00 Then ON

With my kalsawater dosing in place, I am beginning to see more coraline algae throughout the tank.

Hopefully I am on the road to a stable tank now.


__________________
Jim
_____
Red Sea Reefer 300 XL

Current Tank Info: Red Sea 300XL
jemw is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 10/18/2016, 06:58 AM   #93
jemw
Registered Member
 
jemw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Star, Idaho
Posts: 99
It appears that the Vibrant Reef Aquarium Cleaner doesn't kill off the coralline algae. As mentioned in a prior post, I was beginning to see coralline growth on the rock. Once the brown hair algae had cleared, I found a lot more of it than I thought was there. It would appear that my kalkwasser dosing is finally bringing the levels up.


__________________
Jim
_____
Red Sea Reefer 300 XL

Current Tank Info: Red Sea 300XL
jemw is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 10/18/2016, 07:26 AM   #94
jemw
Registered Member
 
jemw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Star, Idaho
Posts: 99
I have also opted to remove the lighting from my sump. I was using it to maintain PH levels during the lights out, but it is yet another source for unwanted algae. I'm only running my heater, UV filter in the center chamber with a huge size of ChemiPure Elite. The PH level drops from 8.3 to 8.19 during the night. As long as it remains in this window I think I can leave the light off.


__________________
Jim
_____
Red Sea Reefer 300 XL

Current Tank Info: Red Sea 300XL
jemw is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/17/2016, 06:00 AM   #95
GfordQC
Registered Member
 
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 79
Any updates Jemw?


__________________
Current Tank: 90 Gal SCA Cube Mixed Reef (Build Stage)

Build Thread:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2600702
GfordQC is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:40 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Powered by Searchlight © 2025 Axivo Inc.
Use of this web site is subject to the terms and conditions described in the user agreement.
Reef CentralTM Reef Central, LLC. Copyright ©1999-2022
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging v3.3.0 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2025 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.