Kodski's 80gal office lagoon

[Kodski]

My pictures are slowly improving lol

Even though this picture is washed out with blue you can see how beautiful his patterns are as well as his fins. Never knew bristletooth tangs could get such a beautiful shape. His tail fin is so well formed it almost looks like it has streamers.

Both fish are fattening up nicely and enjoying their new home. After a week they now know humans = food and are no longer shy when you walk up to the tank.

 

[Kodski]

Got my Red Sea screen top put together today. Not 100% happy with the netting but it doesn’t look too bad. I may make another attempt at it tomorrow morning. I still have to install my neat aquatics food portal too.

Also, can you spot today’s new addition?

 

[Kodski]

Spent the week getting water parameters int he tank to match my 20gal tank. I was finally able to transfer over coral today. I just transferred my Zoa’s and LPS, the rest is mostly sps with a few anemones so I’ll wait a while before transferring those over as well. Still trying to figure out the flow patterns for the tank and placement of the corals but so far I’m liking it. Some corals are closed yet from moving them around a bit but otherwise everything is looking good. I took the pics under the ReefBright actinics through an orange lense. The 50/50’s really wash out a lot of the color of the corals but I love the color pop from the actinics.

 

[Killingtime]

Got my Red Sea screen top put together today. Not 100% happy with the netting but it doesn’t look too bad. I may make another attempt at it tomorrow morning. I still have to install my neat aquatics food portal too.

Also, can you spot today’s new addition?

Nice build! I'm stealing some of your ideas for the sump area.

Have you tried using a hair dryer on the screen top? Some delicate warming of the netting will tighten it up.

 

[Kodski]

Nice build! I'm stealing some of your ideas for the sump area.

Have you tried using a hair dryer on the screen top? Some delicate warming of the netting will tighten it up.

I did try a hair dryer, this netting is just so stiff it didn’t really do anything. I may try an actual heat gun but it’s been sagging in the water and not has algae growth on it so I’ll probably just replace it anyways. The good news is that they include enough netting to do it twice. Overall I like the kit, the frame is real sturdy, but the netting is lacking. It’s just too stiff. I’ve done a few screen tops before and even I ended up cutting through the netting in a few places trying to get the spline in the groove. I’m Tempted to order some BRS black netting to try that. Plus I think the black netting will catch less light and blend in better.

 

[Killingtime]

I did try a hair dryer, this netting is just so stiff it didn’t really do anything. I may try an actual heat gun but it’s been sagging in the water and not has algae growth on it so I’ll probably just replace it anyways. The good news is that they include enough netting to do it twice. Overall I like the kit, the frame is real sturdy, but the netting is lacking. It’s just too stiff. I’ve done a few screen tops before and even I ended up cutting through the netting in a few places trying to get the spline in the groove. I’m Tempted to order some BRS black netting to try that. Plus I think the black netting will catch less light and blend in better.

I just ordered some BRS black screen myself. If it's anything like the white/clear, it should be good to go. Maybe just Red Sea brand is just a bit too stiff. I'll keep fingers crossed for both of us. Lol

 

[Kodski]

I just ordered some BRS black screen myself. If it's anything like the white/clear, it should be good to go. Maybe just Red Sea brand is just a bit too stiff. I'll keep fingers crossed for both of us. Lol

Yeah let me know what you think of it. I see many comments about the Red Sea screen being stiff and after using it myself I would agree. It’s stiff to the point that when you roll the spline into the groove the center of the netting won’t stretch and it instead pulls the netting in from the outside the frame.

 

[Kodski]

The corals are doing great in the new tank. Goni’s and alve’s are loving the room to stretch out. The red Goni in the center is the size of an orange.

 

[Kodski]

Everything is doing great. After a few days of getting picked on by the orange stripped tang and not eating the coral beauty settled in nicely and eats like a pig.

Starting to see brown stuff on the sand and algae on the glass daily. So I tested my phosphates and Nitrates thinking they were high from the excessive amounts of food I’ve been feeding every night. I found quite the opposite though, 0.03 ppm phosphate and 2ppm Nitrate. Guess that’s what having a huge skimmer will do! I run no mechanical filtration other than the extra coarse aquamesh which doesn’t do anything in terms of filtering out particulates. Gonna have to start feeding twice a day I guess.

 

[pbrown]

I started a construction business, mainly doing bathroom and kitchen remodels. Here is one of the kitchens I just recently completed.

Beautiful!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looking good!!

 

[Kodski]

Looking good!!

thanks! It’s coming slowly but surely!

 

[Kodski]

Beautiful!

Thanks! Here is another kitchen I did. Love this one, it’s one of my favorites.

 

[pbrown]

Very nice! You are very talented.

 

[Kodski]

Very nice! You are very talented.

Thank you very much for the kind words. I was always a firm believer of when you do something you enjoy fora living, it shows through in your work and I always let my work speak for itself.

 

[pbrown]

I have the exact same issue with some algae and brown on sand. Upgraded my tank about 8 weeks ago and it’s in a mini cycle, but not bad. Trying to up my nitrates by feeding. I started to feed moderate brine shrimp meals breakfast and dinner and another light pop at lunch ( I run my business from home and can do that).
It’s not moving the needle much. Had to pull my reef roof feeding for now. Shops up my phosphates. I did one RR feeding and overnight I had light touches of brown on my sand and hair algae tuffets starting.
I will follow your thread to see what advice comes through…

 

[Kodski]

I have the exact same issue with some algae and brown on sand. Upgraded my tank about 8 weeks ago and it’s in a mini cycle, but not bad. Trying to up my nitrates by feeding. I started to feed moderate brine shrimp meals breakfast and dinner and another light pop at lunch ( I run my business from home and can do that).
It’s not moving the needle much. Had to pull my reef roof feeding for now. Shops up my phosphates. I did one RR feeding and overnight I had light touches of brown on my sand and hair algae tuffets starting.
I will follow your thread to see what advice comes through…

I’m used to running with fairly low nutrients. My 20 gal nano has always been like that. It’s pretty stable around 0.03 phosphates and 2-5 nitrates at all times. In fact it did bottom out once and I struggled with Cyano for a short time. I was able to beat it fairly Easily with the advise from my LFS guru. I ended up using Dr. Tim’s Waste Away and Dr. Tims ReFresh and it cleared right up. This time it’s definitely just brown algae though. I’m gonna ride it out for a little while and see what happens. I’m still registering phosphates and nitrates for the time being so I’m not too worried. It’s still a really young system and I see color change in the rocks every day. One reason I wanted to transfer a bunch of corals over right away was to hopefully get a head start on some of the bacterias and what not that help Form a healthy biome. I’ll definitely keep updating as the tank progresses.

 

[Reef Jockey]

what an exceptional build. love the clean build and the cleanliness of your system. You've definitely put a lot of thought into this build.
Great job

 

[Kodski]

what an exceptional build. love the clean build and the cleanliness of your system. You've definitely put a lot of thought into this build.
Great job

Thank you for such kind words! I always try to plan and lay out everything well before I start. The only issue I run into most of the time is my indecisiveness. Lol Like how the sump layout changed 10 times.

I will eventually get around to making controller boards to clean everything up. I’m hoping I’ll have time this weekend to do so. Tonight I’m working on installing a new pump for my saltwater mixing station. I’ve been battling mold/bacteria in my salt mixing brute trash can and I’ve finally had enough after cleaning it out several times now with everything from bleach to alcohol. I’m replacing that particular can with a new one and redoing all the plumbing. Perfect timing because my old pump was super loud and very leaky.

If you look closely you can see that I used color PVC in my office but white PVC in the basement. I will eventually redo all the white PVC in colored PVC and use some nice ball and gate valves. For now I had to go the budget route and it gets the job done. I used unions everywhere I‘ll need to change out the white PVC pipe from. I also figure this will give me time to see if I need to change anything when I redo it.

 

[Kodski]

Yes, another Skimmer update.

I’m not sure why I’m so infatuated with my skimmer but I am. Sometimes I find myself staring at the churning bubbles for 5-10 minutes. Anyone else do that? Lol guess it just feels good to know I’ve got enough filtration for any scenario.

also I’ve started seeing pineapple sponges starting to pop up in the sump rubble. You can spot two here if you look closely.

I dose KZ Sponge Power along with several other KZ products and I really like them. I definitely notice a difference when dosing with them.

So far This is what I dose for additives.
KZ Sponge Power
KZ LPS Amminos Concentrate
KZ Phol’s Extra
KZ Coral Snow
KZ Phol’s Coral Vitalizer
Tropic Marin A-
Tropic Marin K+

for calc and alk I use BRS two part but I haven’t had to dose much on the new tank. Once every few weeks I make an adjustment, there just isn’t a huge up take yet.