ReeferFulton's most SPECTACULARLY AWESOMEST tank build(s) EVAHHH!!!!

[Duker]

sweeet ghl mitras, i would love to see it. from what ive been reading they are the ****
seems as though everyone is selling their radions and aqua illuminations to get these. Hmmmm glad i waited to go LED. new builds are fun hey? and jon i too still have some sweet zoa frags for sale and quite a bit of sps frags that are ready to go too, to help u fill up ur tank.

[reeferfulton]

Originally Posted by Duker

sweeet ghl mitras, i would love to see it. from what ive been reading they are the ****
seems as though everyone is selling their radions and aqua illuminations to get these. Hmmmm glad i waited to go LED. new builds are fun hey? and jon i too still have some sweet zoa frags for sale and quite a bit of sps frags that are ready to go too, to help u fill up ur tank.

I think i will still take you up on a zoa frag . thanks . And I would like to check out your setup as well . everytime i meet a new reefers tank i always learn a bit more . everyone does things a little different ..

So I am due for a little update ..

Ok so , I got my second Vertex Libra .. This one is top notch out of the box . so all is well.
So I gathered up the apex , the libra and quickly realized that i had literaly nor where to put this stuff . lol ..
OFF to the garage to build a mini cabinet to hold the equipment . I wanted something that looked like it kind of was ment to be there . And i wanted it to hold all aquarium electronics . To save them from moisture etc

Took 5 hrs from wood to stained .



Then i rushed to drag it into the house too show off to the wife .. Well it let vapours into the air for 3 days lol not cool .

but i got started the next day on wiring everything up .



then once everthing was in place .. my struggle began with the APEX networking into my house.
I stayed up till 4 in the morning trying to get the wireless game adapter too even hook up to my router. I gave up ..
Next day went back to future shop .. Bought a netgear wireless adapter and bam .. was hooked up in minutes. I spent the rest of the morning tinkering with the apex online .. I love it so far .. Was so happy i went and picked up and additional ep8 power bar.. For expandability etc.. so far so good.

Then my Mitras came in ... ran to Blueworld at 5 pm to get them.. Got home and had them hung in a matter of 20 minutes ..



But my hapiness was quickly met by more software frustrations.. the Mitras will NOT connect via usb to a windows 8 pc .. I tried every darn trick on the net to no avail.
So the next day i sourced a differnt laptop and quickly got into tinkering with the lights .. so far i have no idea what im doing lol .. But i uploaded a light program from Rice Reef .. THANKS buddy for emailing that to me soo quick!

I then moved on to complete wire organization.. i spend hours trying to zip tie and route wires in a clutter free manor , I cleaned up everything under the sump .. I also installed some under counter mount LED lights to the cabinet and sump area so i could see something for once.
Got tired of holding the blackberry in one hand over the water to see lol..


well I have a whole wack of coral in the tank now .. So figured i should do my first water tests for the big 3..

ALK 7.5
Mg 1050
Ca 350
salinity 1.025

Guess i have work to do !
Will get on a few water changes here to try and raise that .. then decide what and how to dose ! and quick im guessing ..

All the corals are doing great .. Thanks RICE ...

off to bed ..

[daplatapus]

Looks slick, good job! Is that HLG driver for the Mitras?

[reeferfulton]

Originally Posted by daplatapus

Looks slick, good job! Is that HLG driver for the Mitras?

yes that is the power bar thing that came with the mitras . Do you recognize it for other things ?

well . My wife was tired of seeing wet dish towels all over the place , So i mounted to handles on my stand for hanging them .. Her idea but i like it .


So did another 10 gallon water change this morning . Then two hours later did a
check of the water parameters .

temp 78.5
ph 7.85
alk 6.5
Ca 350
Mg 1150
Salinity 1.024

So got the doser set up .


Decided with some guidance to use Randy's Receipe 1. think that in the long run this could save alot of money !.
After about 1 hr of having programming troubles/ finger troubles with the libra i think its finally set up .
Set to dose 24 times in 24 hrs .
for a total of
120 ml of CA
72 Alk
240 Mg

will do this for a few days to play catch up then likely adjust from there .
If anyone has any pointers on this , Would be greatly appreciated . as this was the area I was the most affraid of ..

Sure would be nice if I could find ANYTHING on the net in regards to actually programming and using all the features of the Vertex Libra . All i can seem to find is vertex's own video .. which is not helpfull.

Does have some neet things though .. Tells you when the next dose will be . tells you how much it has dossed etc . kinda neat .

Got my first fishes too .!!! very happy about that . Thanks Wayne !!



Beautiful Sail fin tang about 4 inches .. I love it !
A couple of 1.5inch long clowns that always hang out together
and a 4 inch long Lawnmower blenny .. Named JABA ... lol

I would like to hear thoughts on when and how i should run Carbon (GAC) in my tank . thoughts on using a media reactor or just media bag it ..

thanks

[freezetyle]

vertex has not yet released their stoichiometry software yet. i think they are waiting to release their own set of bulk additives and recipe to take some of the guess work out of dosing.


to hammer down how much of each additive to dose (using Ca as an example)
1)test your Ca level
2) add 20ml of Ca additive
3)wait 2 hours and measure how much that raised your Ca.
4)then you can choose to either dose enough Ca to bump your tank up to the appropriate level or just let it be.
5) the next day measure your ca again around the same time to see how much Ca your tank uses in a 24hr period. Dose accordingly.

usually takes about a week to get the doser dialled in properly.

build is looking awesome so far! going to be a stunner for sure

[Rice Reef]

Jon,
Tank looks great and glad to see the fish are doing well! The sailfin looks even better in your tank! Sigh, gonna miss him but I know that his new parent will be treating him well!

The two clowns are a couple so don't be surprise if you find eggs on the rocks soon!

Looks like Jaba is liking his new home too!

About that doser, you would have figured after spending that much money they could have at least provided instructions. Vertex can spend the money on a fancy box but could not afford few cents more in printing a page of instructions? That is why I used GHL! ( lol just teasing ya)

[Skimmerking]

Wow looking really good man well done