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#1
11-04-2014, 12:45 AM
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So much research
Okay, so while I now wait for my rock to be ready to add to tank I have been doing a lot of reading, these are some of my current thoughts, curious if anyone has any feedback
Lighting: To have the tank I want I will eventually need to upgrade lighting, I am impressed with the Evergrow IT2080's and the price point is a little gentler than some of the other options. Reading on the Hybrid light fixtures though got me second guessing, then i realized I have a few T5 fixtures kicking around. Sure they don't dim, but no reason The can not run off a regular on/of timer if i decide i want them for colour on the corals. Dosing: Well if current results on my Calcium levels are to be believed, I should get on this sooner rather than later. I started my first tank with man made rock the seller claimed would slowly leach calcium into the water and for quite a while it seemed to be the case. With changes and a move there is very little of that original rock still in the tank. This along with my admittedly lax tank maintenance for the last year well, lets just say I think i may be lucky my corals are as healthy as they are, also might explain the random loss of a few corals this last year. POint of all that... wondering if anyone has any experience with the Red Sea reef care line, it looks to be slick package of tests and supliments designed to make the process easy. I worry that cost could get a little crazy as reef grows but thinking it may be a good easy place to start with entering the world of needing to dose my tank to keep the reef happy moving to bulk products down the road for cost effectiveness down the road, likely staying with a two part product to keep Ca and alk in line. Living in a world of automation would also need to look into the world of dosing pumps, have not looked into this much at this point, but probably have some time to do some reading, the automation can come after getting things back in line manually if needed. Coral: Okay im thinking when i am ready most of my initial sps coral is going to come from Coral Master here in Calgary, stuff looks amazing and peoples reviews are great. Will always be on the look for great stuff everywhere though. Need to set up a frag tank.... not sure where that is going to go at this point, may need to re arrange my pretty small fish room or get permission from my other half to set it up somewhere else... then i need to frag a few things and find homes for them. I have a lot of zoa's that i just don't need or want at this point, well... really would like fewer of the ones i have and add some more variety. anyway, thats where my head is at as far as my tank goes lately so thought i would share comments thoughts and ideas always welcome
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Electromagician by day, Reefer by night. 
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#2
11-04-2014, 01:11 AM
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I think the most cost effective would be to use some sort of a two part system controlled by dosers. I tried looking around but didn't see anything in regards to an aquarium comp, are you using any?
For example I'm using apex which does the monitoring and in that I have two dosing pumps from BRS and they dose alk and ca. I dose mg manually as it takes quite a bit to dent magnesium. In my new system I'm going to dose zeo products which will be done manually. I've also preordered a apex dos which will take care of water changes so I recommend looking into that as well. Also dosing systems are good although I've never used one, but a bubble magus or vertex or any other reputable brand will do the trick. In regards to lights, that's a huge topic and it all depends on budget and preference so its tough to pick one. The new trend I see is LEDs and t5 although some reefers love their halides so its very debatable.. On my 34g cube I had a 150mh producing a ton of heat, on my 75gal I went with two radions which I liked but hated taking pictures under and on my 120 I'm going to try a ati 6 bulb fixture, would like a ati6 bulb hybrid with LEDs, but that ain't cheap...
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Casual reefer
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#3
11-09-2014, 05:14 PM
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Also just reading on the DOS as well and that looks pretty crazy awesome..... hmmmm.... looks like i need to ask for cash for christmas so i can spend it on the reef. Okay next item. Currently my Ca is lower than I feel it should be (360ppm @7dKH) which would explain why my corals are just kind of hanging out as opposed to growing like the used to, and the lack of Coralline growth as well My thought is that I should go ahead and pick a product for my 2 part dosing and manually bring things up to where i want them and continue with the manual until I sort out lighting options and get around to adding more corals at which point i will need to set up the automated dosing since the tank will likely require daily dosing at that point. Thoughts? Ideas? Product recommendations?
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Electromagician by day, Reefer by night.
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#4
11-09-2014, 03:44 AM
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My 2c on the lighting...
I picked up one of the Evergrow D120 full spectrum LED fixtures a while back and it does a decent job on a small tank but I wasn't overly impressed. You would probably be happier with a DIY if you go LED. If you have a controller you can also pick up some dimmable(0-10V) T5 ballasts. I had a supplier mess up an order of office fixtures and they had to supply me dimmable ballasts at cost, they were only 20 bucks each. Based on your work you might be able to leverage the same kind of deal...
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#5
11-09-2014, 04:10 AM
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Yeah I have been considering going DIY with LED fixtures and funny you mention the dimmable T5's as just yesterday i fired an email off to a few of our wholesalers at work to see what they could do for me. Looking into home lighting automation stuff too... there is some amazingly affordable home automation stuff out there now for lighting, heating, and window coverings... haha but that is a whole different thread.
Back to functionality... what if i went custom sump build... took advantage of being under a 6 foot tank and had a chamber probably mid way through sump to house frags... kind of solves the where do i put it question, but then can't double as QT for new tank additions........
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Electromagician by day, Reefer by night. Last edited by Wildechild_01; 11-09-2014 at 04:19 AM.
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#6
11-09-2014, 05:05 PM
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I'm way happier with the DIY LED, light quality just does not compare. As soon as I bite the bullet and pick up a controller, I'm adding a couple t5's and going with a hybrid setup.
The only reason I wouldn't put a frag tank on your main system is that if you start to have water problems, there is nowhere to put your corals. Our 220G has some larger tangs so we have had problems keeping the phosphates/nitrates low at times. Ended up setting up a separate 45G tank that is way easier to control those levels in, especially through the summer months when these things get a bit neglected.
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#7
11-09-2014, 06:27 PM
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That is essentially my concern with housing frags in sump, if something goes sideways I'm stuck. I may be able to swing permission for a frag tank outside of the designated fish area but may have to trade that for permission to build an arcade machine..... I should have bought a bigger house... hahaha.....
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Electromagician by day, Reefer by night.
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#8
11-17-2015, 03:16 PM
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Well, It has certainly been a long time since I posted anything here. I am going to try and do a better job keeping things up to date here with the newest rebuild. A little over a week ago I came home from work to find my 120ish 6 foot long tank with a water level a little below 1/2, and all of that extra water on the floor in my basement. Luckily(?) the auto top off had timed out and turned itself off, the main return pump had burnt out so at least I wasn't adding water to the problem. Needless to say it was a bit of a panicked evening. I euthanised some feeder goldfish that had spent the summer in my pond and quickly cleaned that tank out and slapped it full of salt water. I moved all of my prized big corals (we are talking Euphyllia with 40+ heads) into some buckets got some live rock in the 40g tank and got the fish along with the BTA's into that tank. The corals and some LR spent a night in the buckets while I tracked down an extra tank to house them in. The next day got the corals moved into another tanks with some LR that had spent the night in a pail with heater and power head, unfortunately something somewhere died in that tank over night and by the time I got home from work on day 3 the corals were done....... I managed to save 1 Hammer Coral head, some GSP, and some Watermelon Zoa's in the tank with the fish. The bright side is I no longer have a mushroom problem in the tank. After panic clean up mode I found that the tank was leaking along the seam between the front glass and the tank bottom, I am not 100% certain what happened but at that point decided I was done with the tank. Yes I probably could have cleaned it up and re-sealed it but I would never trust that tank again. So the decision was made to change things up a little bit. Enter a 150XH, slightly more volume, and better viewing angle for where it is being installed. Ordered up the new tank and stand from LFS only to have it back ordered. The LFS then facilitated having a tank built by Concept Aquariums, so needless to say I now have a beautiful tank. The tank was delivered yesterday but needs to sit until at least thursday before it can hold water. The reality is it will likely sit even longer. The plan is to wait until this weekend to do anything with it at all and that will very likely only be final placement and leveling and masking non viewing angles. If we are feeling particularly ambitious may start some rock placement. We will likely pick up some new dry rock, likely Pukani because it looks so awesome, to work with along with some existing LR knowing that there will then be a cycle process before the fish can move over. This however will let us do the rock placement in a dry tank making things a lot easier and ultimately more stable. The plan is to take this rebuild a little slower now that the corals are all but gone and the remaining livestock is doing great in the 40G sp no need to rush.
The 40 is running a HOB filter with LR rubble and some filter floss to take out some of the gunk, and I have my remaining MP40 in there as well. My second MP40 didn't survive the tank leak, the controller at some point fell to the floor and sat in salt water for at least a few hours and now it is toast, additionally one of the wet side impellers is now seized, so down to 1. Along with the new tank will come a couple pieces of new equipment. Namely a Maxspect Gyre XF150 and a Reef Octopus 150SS skimmer. I will be using my existing sump for now and my existing lighting. Down the road I will likely upgrade both but since this is a forced re-build trying to space out the expenses a little bit. Ultimately though I plan to add upgraded lighting and a dosing system to this setup with the plan of finally housing SPS corals. I will try to get pictures up as the build progresses and hopefully life doesn't get too in the way of updates here.
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Electromagician by day, Reefer by night.
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