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450 Gallons, My Peninsula build.
- Thread starter wishntoboutside
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wishntoboutside
Snow flake
going into June of 2017 I was just chugging away still fighting with the Cal Reactor
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wishntoboutside
Snow flake
I acquired this nice show piece clam only to find out my blue tangs liked it more then i did.
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wishntoboutside
Snow flake
The next calcium reactor was a new Reef Octo Cal220 Calcium Reactor. a simple design. It had a screw on lid with no thumb screws. Varios DC controllable pump. I used this with a kamoer peristaltic pump. I already had a nice custom built Co2 regulator so this was very easy for me to set up.
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wishntoboutside
Snow flake
OP
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wishntoboutside
Snow flake
it I got my first alkalinity tester Dr Bridge KH guardian. It was pretty cool for its time I think it did work but the app was really not that friendly. I did learn so much about alkalinity consumption from having a device like this. I was also able to connect this to my apex.If i recal I had to get another pm1 module and a shout out to a controller coach and I was able to get things all set up.
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wishntoboutside
Snow flake
OP
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wishntoboutside
Snow flake
One thing with my aquarium that I really notice at this point having a peninsula aquarium was the water flow. There was flow and then the rebound of things. I started off with 2 tunze 6200's. They move water for sure. They were big and to much flow directly and not enough in other spots. I decided to go another direction. I Went with 2 gyre 350's and 2 Reef Octo Octo Pulse 4s. I now have gyre flow up high and the pulse 4's down low where the tunze flows. The water was now moving better and my elegance coral was getting blown around a little.
The new calcium reactor was working well.
The downfall. It was looking more and more like an aquarium with wires all over the place. This has alway been an opportunity for me. I have made good attempts at it, but it is on my current 2024 plan. (to be discussed soon).
The new calcium reactor was working well.
The downfall. It was looking more and more like an aquarium with wires all over the place. This has alway been an opportunity for me. I have made good attempts at it, but it is on my current 2024 plan. (to be discussed soon).
OP
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wishntoboutside
Snow flake
Then it all went wrong. I started losing corals one by one. On test kits all looked ok. I literally lost polyp extension on all my corals. Things were just shrinking, receding and going for a slow kill. I would take corals out of a few clients tanks that I maintained and see them die slowly as well. I was not sure if is the water. salt. something was leaching out. I even went through the troubles of trying to remove every crab and snail to see if I had some crazy predator or something. I was questioning everything at this point. I could nearly keep a leather coral alive in my aquarium at this point. Something was just not right.
I was recommended by a few to do an ICP test. Wow that was very interesting I felt like I went backwards for months only to find out a simple test would show what things were off. It was huge. I had high levels of Aluminum and Nickel in my test. Some other metals were very high. My next issue was how to remove these. I was advised to try the Two Little Fishes Meta Zorb. It was like some type of beads in a small bag and leave in in the aquarium for10 days. It worked my leather that was struggling was looking better each day. I think I went thru about 4 months of torture and this little fix is what it needed to reboot and get things back on track.
I was recommended by a few to do an ICP test. Wow that was very interesting I felt like I went backwards for months only to find out a simple test would show what things were off. It was huge. I had high levels of Aluminum and Nickel in my test. Some other metals were very high. My next issue was how to remove these. I was advised to try the Two Little Fishes Meta Zorb. It was like some type of beads in a small bag and leave in in the aquarium for10 days. It worked my leather that was struggling was looking better each day. I think I went thru about 4 months of torture and this little fix is what it needed to reboot and get things back on track.
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wishntoboutside
Snow flake
NickHolmes
Active Member
Looking great but these spread-out updates are taking a toll on my wellbeing. I can binge watch an entire Netflix series in one night so just be mindful of that ;-)
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wishntoboutside
Snow flake
Thank you.
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wishntoboutside
Snow flake
Hello Nick, I hate to tell you binge watching Netflix series may be much better for you then my build.
I truly wanted to start this thread a long time ago. Many things in live intrupt me from getting things done. As much as I would like to post 6 months at a time to get caught up. I only can only do so much. Believe me this has been a wild ride of some ups and downs. I have lots of pictures to share and some are just amazing. At this point I also realized I should have taken more pictures as some things were overlooked. hopefully the content will be appreciated by all and make this a better thread at the end of the day. For those that are just wanting to see the end here is a tank shot from November 2023. This is the last page of the aquarium. A full tank shot.
Looking great, trying to imagine the frags grown out 
VanDalsenReef
Valuable Member
Why did you discontinue the use of the seaswirls?Hello Nick, I hate to tell you binge watching Netflix series may be much better for you then my build.
I truly wanted to start this thread a long time ago. Many things in live intrupt me from getting things done. As much as I would like to post 6 months at a time to get caught up. I only can only do so much. Believe me this has been a wild ride of some ups and downs. I have lots of pictures to share and some are just amazing. At this point I also realized I should have taken more pictures as some things were overlooked. hopefully the content will be appreciated by all and make this a better thread at the end of the day. For those that are just wanting to see the end here is a tank shot from November 2023. This is the last page of the aquarium. A full tank shot.
VanDalsenReef
Valuable Member
We require more pictures. This is a fantastic read and buildHello Nick, I hate to tell you binge watching Netflix series may be much better for you then my build.
I truly wanted to start this thread a long time ago. Many things in live intrupt me from getting things done. As much as I would like to post 6 months at a time to get caught up. I only can only do so much. Believe me this has been a wild ride of some ups and downs. I have lots of pictures to share and some are just amazing. At this point I also realized I should have taken more pictures as some things were overlooked. hopefully the content will be appreciated by all and make this a better thread at the end of the day. For those that are just wanting to see the end here is a tank shot from November 2023. This is the last page of the aquarium. A full tank shot.
OP
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wishntoboutside
Snow flake
At the end of the day I do not think they brought me any more flow. They looked kind of clunky. I went thru one power supply but that was on my end. For some reason i was expecting to see crazy random flow but maybe my pumps do not run high enough. When I took them off I was running 2 gyre 350's and 2 Octo pulse 4. I took off 4 sea swirls and added 4 more Octo pulse 4s. The corals look much happier now.
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wishntoboutside
Snow flake
So far the new lights have been a great experience. I forgot how much I liked t5. This was my first dimmable set. I just love the ramp up and downs of lights, especially leds. These lights worked better but just not as bright in certain ways. The led pucks were only 95 watts. each fixture had 4 48 watt bulbs so it was a lot of watts. Deep down at the bottom of the 30 inch tank the par was around 100. I like the iights but I thought the software could have been so much better. it was a little challenge to connect at times. So to me this meant set and leave and and not play with it. I also changed all the bulbs at once. those that only change a few at a time you deserve a badge as taking light fixtures down to change bulbs in a pain in the ... .
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wishntoboutside
Snow flake
I the previous post one can see I got an atlantic blue tang. I hardly ever see these fish and there was a guy breaking down a aquarium and I helped him out and got some of the fish new homes and kept him. I still have him to this day. Beautiful fish.
I was still up and down a little with corals at this point and almost considered just calling it a day and going fish only. It was now late 2019. I will admit I lost some interest in this and it show as I hardly have any pictures of things saved. I bought a new car in late 2018 and that was my joy and not the aquarium.
I still did not give up. I bought this gold hammer. I had always loved those and I was at the right place at the right time.
I was still up and down a little with corals at this point and almost considered just calling it a day and going fish only. It was now late 2019. I will admit I lost some interest in this and it show as I hardly have any pictures of things saved. I bought a new car in late 2018 and that was my joy and not the aquarium.
I still did not give up. I bought this gold hammer. I had always loved those and I was at the right place at the right time.
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