EXT 170 Build

BubblesandSqueak

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Not much to report. Tank looks good. All the cleanup crew are doing their job, lol. I am going to get 5 peppermint shrimp this week.
Saw one aptasia yesterday.

The ext 50 has arrived! I put the stand together yesterday. I need to order some 8020 for the frame behind the stand. It will be similar to the 170. The light bar will be holding 2 xr15 gen 5 blues.
Also need to shim one side of the stand to make it level.
Need to order Tunze ato and ato res. Also Aqualogic temp controller, and heater, and a couple ADJ strips.

I may put 2" euro bracing on this system to match the 170. The real reason is I do not like rimless tanks. Yes they look good but the tank is in a corner and past rimless tanks spill alot of water when working in them, at least for me.
Skimmer is pulling some nice skim, lol.
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wow, another IM. I like the white over the black. has a cleaner look. My house it blends in with all the white molding. My doors are a little squeaky now though.
 
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I setup my Lifegaurd reactor with phosgaurd and some carbon on top. Po4 was .47 and this morning was .34 so going in the right direction. Once it gets to .1 I will take it off line and monitor.

All the rocks are almost completely clean thanks to the cleanup crew.
The hermit crabs have eaten many of the astrea snails.
I did add 10 more Trochus as I prefer them, have 20 now.
Found one dead turbo snail and one dead peppermint shrimp.
Fish are just now starting to come out of the rock work.

I put in a fresh cut blue stag as a tester. The frag came off a big piece of a colony a person traded at a lfs. Its a little rough so we will see. This lfs is closed 3 days in a row and turns off all light for 3 days, what?
I put a mad rack in until I can get the frag system up and running.
I also put a nice piece, small colony of Jacko lantern lepto, a little bigger than a golf ball in. The small frags, less than finger nail size, were $40, what.

Orp just hit 300 this morning so I increased shut off to 350.
Eventually I want to get it to 400.
I have noticed my 9430 skimmer is producing lighter skim now that the orp is increasing.
I have not seen any bad algae yet. The cleanup crew is working well.
Did see some brown on the back wall but removed with the scraper.
I have never ran ozone from day one and it looks like its keeping the uglies at bay. Time will tell.
Tank is getting clear but this system may always have some debris visible due to the sweeps and the 6255's. On the lowest setting they move an incredable amount of water.
Im going to get the Calcium Reactor up and running today but no co2 until its needed. Never ran a Geo before but its pretry straight forward as im goimg to be pulling through with the Kamoer.

Alk is starting to go down.
Was 8.2 since startup and this morning its 7.8. I will start dosing esv when it gets to 7.5 which is going to be my target.
7-8 will be my range.

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Just got the 818 setup and running with no co2.
Pulling with the Kamoer sure makes it easy.

The hose you see in the pic is the output from the ozone reactor.

Couple pics with my other filter. This is what the real colors look like

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I did a WC at 10%/15g's one day shy of two weeks.
Po4 down from .5 to .23 using phosgaurd.

Looks like tank is useing .3 alk a day now.
Down ro 7.5. If its down tomorrow I will start dosing esv to keep it between 7-8, 7.5 target.

I removed the 3 orange tree sponge they were getting worse not better.
Blue stag dead, damsel and 6 line stuck in powerhead.
Small fish are going to have a tough time if they get close to a powerhead. One small Falco hawkfish and 4 damsels now.
The 2 red sponge are looking good.
Also have 12 bivalves.

One piece of hard coral that had the top smashed during transport lools like it may recover. Not sure the type. It is in the firs pic getting 280 to 300 par at that spot running at peak, red 30%, white 40%, the rest 60% for 7 hrs.

Couple others showing the good job the cleanup crew is doing to the rock and the red sponge.
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Looking for the spotlight: Do your fish notice the lighting in your reef tank?

  • My fish seem to regularly respond to the lighting in my reef tank.

    Votes: 104 75.9%
  • My fish seem to occasionally respond to the lighting in my tank.

    Votes: 15 10.9%
  • My fish seem to rarely respond to the lighting in my tank.

    Votes: 8 5.8%
  • My fish seem to never respond to the lighting in my tank.

    Votes: 3 2.2%
  • I don’t pay enough attention to my fish to notice if they respond to the lighting.

    Votes: 3 2.2%
  • I don’t have any fish in my tank.

    Votes: 2 1.5%
  • Other.

    Votes: 2 1.5%
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