Jackie and Glenns 180g Reef Build

[prsnlty]

Here is a picture of the overflows with a little ribbing on them and a couple of shells to be used as frag/coral holders. I'll be adding more ribbing and shells tomorrow and call these finished other than taking the blue tape off and curing them

That's it for tonight. Gotta get up early to pick up my frag tank in the morning

 

[prsnlty]

My 4x Jebao doser arrived! Looks nice

 

[prsnlty]

The frag tank is done! Though I have to lower the light another 6"-8".

 

[prsnlty]

Filling it up

 

[prsnlty]

I dropped the light to 12" off the water, filled it with DT water and it's up and running! Drip acclimating my acros that just came from Adam of Battlecorals (beautiful acros btw!) for this tanks first additions

I am wondering which 250w mh bulb is better, 14k or 20k? I put the 20k in and am hoping it isn't too much. Next on my list is to try and catch one of my fish (preferably the 6 line) and put him in there. I'll take a picture when the acros get added.

 

[TJ's Reef]

Very nice Frag Tank setup Jackie, and will serve you well down the road. IMO would go with the 14K especially if it's a Phoenix lamp as is my personal favorite and what I based the spectrum off of for my DIY LED fixture. Diggin' the DIY Overflows as well, what a great job in creating them.


Cheers, Todd

 

[prsnlty]

Thank you Todd I love it! I'll change the bulb out tonight after it cools. Man this gets hot. For now I'm going to put an mj600 in the tank for added flow untill I get a Jebao rw8 or wp10. Tomorrow I intend to dip and clean all the frags in the DT and put them in the frag tank as well. It's so I have 1 less thing to do while switching tanks over. I really like the overflows too, thank you It really is a lot of work and quite time consuming but I believe it is worth the end results. The return column is just about finished too

 

[prsnlty]

I don't know why that fixture looks high but is is only 12"....

Anyway, here it is, complete with my qt tank below it. Altogether in one place, yay I changed the 20k to the 14k bulb also. The HOB filter is making micro bubbles and I am annoyed with that. Any idea how to stop it?

The tank is a little hazy too. I'm wondering if it's due to the egg crate. If I can get one of my oll mjs working I think I'll hook up the reactor with some chemipure elite. I think that should do the trick.

 

[prsnlty]

Side note: I really love my freebie clear sticky notes from Reef Geek! It's supposed to be for reminders but I'm using them to tag and date the frags by row

 

[prsnlty]

A few things happed today. 205lbs of live sand arrived. Poor mail lady... if she would've rung the door bell I would have helped her. I got all the rock finished and put this batch in my cure tank. Then turned on the hob filter and it quit. Too dark out there so I'll try and fix it in the morning. Added a tlf 150 reactor with chemipure elite and a powerhead to the frag tank. The frag tank is a little bit cloudy and that's the reason doing so. Hope my acros will be ok. Then all the heaters and digital thermometers came too. It's now 4:30 am, think it's time for bed....

 

[joekool]

What kind of help do you need Jackie with you dosing pump. Do you need dosing times and ratios or just how to program it. Reef breeders has a instruction manual thats helpfull. I can help with mil to dose and what times.

What type of stirrer do you have. I do need to get this going on my tank.

 

[prsnlty]

I have the TLF Kalk Stirrer/Reactor. It works really well and it is maybe 9mo old.

.

I bought the Jebao 4x doser from Reefbreeders sale because my Ca and Mg haven't been able to stay stable. My kh is around 9.5 untill the reactor begins to run low then drops to 8. Can't have this of course. I can't find dowflake here so I haven't tried to set up the doser yet. But I am also not sure which ones I need from brs. I don't want the kh over 9.5-10 but want it stable and ca @ 450 & mg @ 1400

Jackie

 

[joekool]

Okay well you will want BRS 2part. I would buy the kit that includes everything to start. I would go ahead and get the gallon containers of mix and then you will be able to make more batches before ordering again. Calcium chloride and soda ash, magnesium chloride and sulfate.

I would think that you would want to keep alk in ratio with Ca at 450 and Mg at 1400 you should be in the 12.5dKH range for alk

I can help you figure out how much to dose daily with doser. Make sure you pay attention to how much water you add when filling the tank in exact gallonage. This will make for most accurate dosing.

 

[prsnlty]

Ok. Question. I have a brand new 2L bottle of brightwells concentrated magnesion. Can I use this also so I don't waste it?

Jackie

 

[prsnlty]

Isn't 12.5 really high?

 

[joekool]

Ok. Question. I have a brand new 2L bottle of brightwells concentrated magnesion. Can I use this also so I don't waste it?

Jackie

You can use this. If you want to only buy the Ca and alk you could do that. We just need to know concentration of that Mg so that it is dosed properly. Good thing Mg goes a long way.

 

[joekool]

Isn't 12.5 really high?

Alk is an important part of the growing of and strength of the skeletal structure of the growing coral. Look through my thread some where in there I have a list with the ratios for Ca and alk.

TJ keeps his around that with Ca in the upper 400's we both try to keep it at 455 Ca or close and 4.45meq/L or 12.5 dKH

I will try to find the ratio list and post it here for you

 

[prsnlty]

If im reading the bottle correctly it looks to be 26ppm

 

[joekool]

If im reading the bottle correctly it looks to be 26ppm

Okay

 

[joekool]

Here is a ratio list which I go by.

Calcium (ppm)

Alkalinity (meq/L)

360

0

-------------------

-------------------

390

1.5

400

2.0

410

2.5 (seawater)

420

3.0

430

3.5

440

4.0

450

4.5

460

5.0

-------------------

-------------------

600

12 (possible CaCO3/CO2 Reactor Effluent)