Alexjoha`s divider aquarium - 190gallon mixed reef

[alexjoha]

So after getting some different encrusting montipora Frags i decided to make some larger discs for the Corals so that it would be easyer to fragg them later on
I used Nyos reef cement for this. I could have mixed in some sand to make it more corse but i didnt have any at hand so this will have to do

 

[alexjoha]

I also got a shipment from the US some frag plugs and a Nice frag shelf from Oceans Wonders
Finaly some Space for Corals that break off

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Cool! How are you liking the tester?

 

[Pola0502ds]

Do you any pictures or details on how you attached your panels to the metal frame? I would like to do the same

 

[alexjoha]

Cool! How are you liking the tester?

I love the tester it maks the testing easyer and more fun, and anything that makes it easyer and more fun is welcome!
I have had some People in the Club saying "thats just a wast of Money, if Your not Abel to shake Your test you shouldent be in the hobby"
But after testing the kits they came and asked for one

 

[alexjoha]

Do you any pictures or details on how you attached your panels to the metal frame? I would like to do the same

Since this tank is based on the fram from woha hawaii i just used the same Method of attaching the panels as they did.
They have stratigic hols in the Box metal to put screws in to. This makes it easy to attach them.. but it could be a potetial for rust problems Down the line i Guess :/
but havent seen any yeat and it has been running for 8 months now..

 

[alexjoha]

Still haven’t been able to mount more plats on the tank, since my friend have been working way too much. We completed the top cover though so it looks much better now but still need to fix the doors.

The tank itself runs quite well I have some problems with to high MG since every place you read about balling you should dose equally of all 3 containers..
this doesn’t work for me at all so I have had to turn off the MG and just dose CA and ALK for a while.
The problem I ran in to is that my test kit (redsea pro) only goes to 1600 for the MG and it topped out at the point.
I Don’t like to run outside of the parameters of my test kits so I had to get it down. Large water changes didn’t do the trick so…

I noticed that when my MG was above 1600 my ALK was dropping faster than my CA so I had to start and dose more of the ALK to keep it “stable”..
I am quite new to balling so after a lot of reading I found out that if you run at the high end of the MG your corals would take up some of the MG instead of the CA and your parameters would be way of.
So I am trying to get everything in line again. Not too easy when I leave for longer periods of time though.. but my corals are doing great and growing so doesn’t seem like its to bad

 

[revhtree]

Nice job!

 

[alexjoha]

So, a few months ago, I made a refugium in my sump compartment instead of having a separate system to keep them in.
I don’t like having frags all over the tank and wanted to hide them… I got myself an AI prime light and mounted some egg crate.
Did some PAR measurements and found out that on average it was 250 on the top and 130 on the bottom shelf.
I have had problems growing Hysterix in my main display so I wanted to test this out in the sump.
I grabbed a few frags of the hysterix and put it in the “frag” system.

The conclusion after a month was that it’s not the parameters in my tank that is the problem with the hysterix it is the lights on the main display.
It doesn’t seem like hysterix like the radion g3 pro light. I had great growth in the sump and I have also had frags in the main display at the same par levels.
So, I guess I’m not going to have hysterix in the tank J

I also ran into a problem in the sump sins there are no algae predators down there the frag area got overgrown with algae quite fast.
The space is way too small for me to have a Tang down there without getting the tang police on my door so I guess I will have to come up with a solution.

 

[alexjoha]

Oh, and btw if anybody have a good tip on how to battle bubble algae I would be for ever great full!

I have 2 emerald crabs, foxface and nothing is eating the bubble algae. I know its hit or miss with all of them.
I use lysmata kukenthail for aptasia control and they work great but bubble algae is a pain… :/

 

[mixer911]

Look into hydrogen peroxide dosing for bubble algae control. It works great! Here is an article by Justin Grable. He has spent years testing and dialing in the proper dosages for algae control.
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?ur...0&share_tid=193280&share_fid=491&share_type=t
Any Questions about Peroxide dosing or dipping?

 

[alexjoha]

Look into hydrogen peroxide dosing for bubble algae control. It works great! Here is an article by Justin Grable. He has spent years testing and dialing in the proper dosages for algae control.
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=https://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/showthread.php?t=193280&share_tid=193280&share_fid=491&share_type=t
Any Questions about Peroxide dosing or dipping?

Thank you! I’ll look it up haven’t heard about using hydrogen peroxide for algae control before Just not shure how to get it in Norway..
need to do some Research only thing I have found out is that its heavily regulated since it’s a component in bombs… :/

 

[mixer911]

Thank you! I’ll look it up haven’t heard about using hydrogen peroxide for algae control before Just not shure how to get it in Norway..
need to do some Research only thing I have found out is that its heavily regulated since it’s a component in bombs… :/

Wow. I could see that. In the US we use it as a rinse for wounds ect. Every local pharmacy carries it here. It works great and will even take care of that hair algae in your frag area. Good luck, I hope you can find some.

 

[alexjoha]

The algae in the sump is taken care of now

I ended up with shutting down the refugium/frag area since I don’t have the time to manage it when I am away so often..

There were a lot of coralline algae in the skimmer and all over the place too… so it was a pain to clean it all… :/

Since the entire sump area was covered in algae I decided to clean it all and throw away the LS that was down there.
I will replace it with Siporax instead of live rock I think. Just to keep the sump area clean.
The light will be sold off since I won’t have time for the main tank and a frag tank anymore. But I will still have frags in the main display so won’t be a problem

I was a bit disappointed in the Nyos quantum 220 skimmer I have.
It’s so brittle that the pump had a broken bit on it even before I started the disassembly.
And it’s also a pain to clean since they have glued more or less every part together..
So, I didn’t get it as clean as I would have liked.
Too bad though because the skimmer looks great and functions good…

I left the frags on the sand bed for my fish to clean.. they went crazy for all the algae

 

[alexjoha]

Well I needed to clean the sump off all the debris build up so needed to mix up some new saltwater for the tank.
The local shop has just gone bust so we don’t have any local shops selling salt or equipment any more so I needed to order some from another town.
So guess I’m going to try out Aquaforest pro bio salt from now on then since that’s what they have in Stock

I got a few buckets since it’s a 3 hour drive both ways to the shop that sells the salt



It looks good though



There even is a quality certificate in the bucket! Nice touch



And a nice little scooper to measure the amount of salt even though I use a scale for that

 

[alexjoha]

Well as I said earlier the skimmer was a pain to get clean.
The defuser plate has some tiny channels that’s hard to get into and scrub.
The adjustment screw for the water hight couldn’t get disassembles and the air muffler couldn’t get disassembled so I didn’t get inn to all the places I would like to..
but all in all, I think it looks good again

The skimmer really looks bad.. that’s just 2 months with a light in the refugium area.. should have had a custom sump with dark baffles



Well there is need for some elbow grease here



And here



Some salt creep build up



This is as good as I got the adjustment Tower.. I couldn’t get it open anybody know how to?



I had to fill the air muffler with fresh water and shake it good to get the salt creep to loosen
would have liked to open it up and clean the inside better but it looks ok



This part is the part that was the most challenging I didn’t have anything small enough and hard enough to get the algae loos but it will have to do

 

[alexjoha]

So, this is how the sump looks now a bit fogy but its clean

Some smaller patches of algae that I’ll take next time I’m doing a water change

Guess I’ll have to order some siporax to fill the sump With

 

[Ljaus]

Nice and clean now. Shame about your lfs closing down

 

[alexjoha]

Nice and clean now. Shame about your lfs closing down

Yeah that’s a real shame they had a lot of good quality equipment in the shop, but they lost all of the employees that had knowledge about the hobby and started as a normal pet shop more or less, so the people that did normally go there stopped. The owner himself didn’t work there either he was there 6-8 times a month maximum :/

 

[alexjoha]

After a lot of research and help from you guys on reef2reef I have more or less determined that I have flatworms..
The type I have seem to be the smaller variety called acoel. So I had to shop in some carbon for the treatment nice to buy in bulk