JDigital's 75G RR. (Updated)

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by JDigital

So this past week has been a bit of a rollercoaster with my tank, mostly all the down part of a coaster.. just not as fun.

I've been having troubles getting my triangle of 3 up (Ca, Alk, Mag) to where I would like them.

Test results from this week past week... I've been dosing Taylored Aquatics Mag, Kent DHK buffer, and Calcium in small daily doses to bring it up and it just won't budge..

03/24/2009 Ca: 380-390 Alk: 6.4 Mag: 1155
03/25/2009 Ca: 370-380 Alk: 6.4 Mag: 1260
03/27/2009 Ca: 370-380 Alk: 6.4 Mag: 1110 NO3: Undectable
03/29/2009 Ca: 330-340 Alk: 7.4 Mag: 1230

Yesterday's tests were done after an all day 20G water change with H2Ocean salt, which I thought would help bring my levels up a bit more, but no real changes.

I also dosed with chemi-clean a few days ago to fight some cyano, and regretted doing it later as I had to shut down my skimmer for a couple days, and all that did was put fear at the back of my mind all weekend. I should have just stuck to siphoning and Pohls Coral Snow.

3rd, and not least, Commensal Flatworms. I spent a good chunk of yesterday in between water changes siphoning and turkey basting as many as I could to attempt to bring down the population, which is large!

Tank was starting to look better last night, water needs to run through some carbon though, it definitely needs a polish.

Unfortunately I am thinking of adding a powerhead As I think I am lacking on flow in my system. Not something I wanted to do, or have in my tank, but going to try it. I've noticed my tang is alot more active when he has a strong current to swim in... He will sit at the Closed Loop outlet and ride the blast of water for AGES... I adjusted the back nozzle on my CL to put more flow thru the front 2 outlet and immediately saw a difference in my Tangs behavior, in a good way, so I think adding a powerhead will be a good choice.

Sorry, no pics this update..

Why dont you add a MP-40 or even an MP-20 to the tank?

The tank looks really good I really love the Copperband. Did I miss it or did you loose the female Hawaiian Percula?

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by Ryan

Why dont you add a MP-40 or even an MP-20 to the tank?

The tank looks really good I really love the Copperband. Did I miss it or did you loose the female Hawaiian Percula?

I thought about the MP's but ended up just adding a Koralia 4 for now.

Yea, I lost the female Perc as well, I won't be trying Perculas in any other tanks in the future, they just don't stay alive for me, yet my Copperband and Powder Brown are doing great, go figure!.. I tried some normal Occelaris and they are doing excellent..


So I am still trying to bring my Ca, Alk, and Mag levels up to where I want them, but it is a taking forever. I am dosing more than the recommended level with Taylored Aquatics products. Mag and Ca are slowing getting closer to what I would like to see, but Alk just won't budge out of that 6-6.4 range... So frustrating, as everything in the tank (especially the SPS) looks great, with excellent color, great PE, and solid growth. Starting to wonder if these numbers even matter...

Test Results:

03/24/2009 Ca: 380-390 Alk: 6.4 Mag: 1155
03/25/2009 Ca: 370-380 Alk: 6.4 Mag: 1260
03/27/2009 Ca: 370-380 Alk :6.4 Mag: 1110
03/29/2009 Ca: 330-340 Alk: 7.4 Mag: 1230
04/01/2009 Ca: 380-390 Alk: 6.7 Mag: 1260
04/14/2009 Ca: 360-370 Alk: 6.1 Mag: 1140
04/15/2009 Ca: 380-390 Alk: 6.4 Mag: 1200
04/17/2009 Ca: 420-430 Alk: 6.1 Mag: 1290
04/22/2009 Ca: 400-410 Alk: 6.1 Mag: 1260

Dosing daily 5 caps of Mag, 4 caps of Ca, and 4 caps of dkH Plus, just to try and bring the levels up... Using all Taylored Aquatics products. I'm looking for numbers around Ca: 440-450 Alk: 8-9 Mag: 1350

[JDigital]

Spent a good amount of time at Red Coral this afternoon, 1) Drooling over some new livestock, 2) debated bringing home this.



After about 2.5 hours of drooling and thinking, I ended up bringing it home. The full package I got consists of the following.

- Aquacontroller Jr Base Unit
- Direct Connect 8 (DC8) Unit
- Temp. Probe
- pH Probe
- PC Serial Interface Cable (which I hope to rig up to hook to my Macbook)

Hoping I can get this setup today and tomorrow before I go back to work for 2 weeks.

Huge Thanks to Kevin @ Red Coral! He really knows how to take care of his customers!

[Lance]

I'm sure you'll be hapy with the Jr. I have one and love it. Jeff @ J/L recommended it and for the price I think it is a pretty good controller.

[Rbacchiega]

mmmmmm aqua controllers.

I'll be adding one to my 50...did you get the one with computer hookups as well? Kevin and I talked about that one today and it seems that's the one I'm getting!

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by Lance

I'm sure you'll be hapy with the Jr. I have one and love it. Jeff @ J/L recommended it and for the price I think it is a pretty good controller.

Good to hear Lance.. I'm sure you will get 1 or 2 PM's from me regarding how you got yours running/setup...

Originally Posted by Rbacchiega

mmmmmm aqua controllers.

I'll be adding one to my 50...did you get the one with computer hookups as well? Kevin and I talked about that one today and it seems that's the one I'm getting!

Yea, I got the Serial Interface cable with it... unfortunately I have to install Winblows as a 2nd operating system on my Mac, as I don't think ACjr is Mac compatible... Not really concerned about computer hooks up as the Jr doesn't support email notification or web server options like the AC3 and AC3 Pro.

[JDigital]

Couple new SPS photos.. Been awhile since I posted any coral pics I think..