45g Corner Journal

[hellfish01]

This is my current setup, after a few hiccups and help from some awesome people I can say I have a reef tank!
setup:
45 Display tank
hard plumbing with 1.5 drain 1 in. return.
8 gallon sump with small refugium
nac 3 skimmer
mag 12 return pump slowed down by about 3/4 its power.
Nova Extreme 4-Lamp T5HO with ati bulbs Coral Plus+, Atinic, 50/50, 10,000k (but will soon end up as Coral Plus+ Aqua Blue Special+ Actinic/Blue+ Coral Plus)
Kalkwasser dosing


This is what i have so far about a month after cycling was complete.

 

[Copper miner AZ]

Looking great, good job

 

[aquaph8]

Looking good, love the rock work. What is your calcium and alkalinity running? You should be OK without the kalk at this point, small water changes should be plenty to meet your demands at this point. As you add corals they will consume cal/alk and that is where kalk will come in to play. Hope this helps and I'm not telling you stuff you already know. Glad to help in this department if you'd like to hear more though.

 

[hellfish01]

Thank you Copper miner AZ and please do tell aquaph8, I can never know to much about anything. If I remember correctly ( based on testing done by CReyes350 thank you much ) my levels were:
salinity 1.024
alk 130-140 (10dKH)
cal 240 ( I'll have to doble check with CReyes350 )
temp 78˚F

Based on an article from Reefkeeping I'm about were I need to be, although my alk may be a bit low due to me only dosing Kalk for cal and nothing for alk, but I was planning on setting that up soon. Should I stop dosing in general for a bit?

I do have a few frags of sps: Green Slimer, Blue Tip Stag, Acropora, Montipora. There all about an inch to 1 1/2.

 

[aquaph8]

Your mistaken on the Kalk, it actually adds calcium and alk while also giving your PH a boost. That's the miracle of kalk, it really is a useful tool as long as it's not overdosed. Problem is it provides the two in a balance, what that means is your not going to be able to raise your calcium without also adding alk with kalk. You need a separate two part product so you can just add the calcium half by itself. Your calcium should be in the 400-450 range but I'd imagine if you get it up where it needs to be that kalk won't be needed until you have a heavier stocked tank. Let me know if that makes sense.

 

[hellfish01]

I think I may be confuted then. What I'm doing I believe is called limewater? Using Pickleing Lime, Vinegar, and RoDi for Calcium, and I was going to do recipe for Baking soda + RoDi for Alkalinity. Please explain what I should or shouldn't do.

 

[hellfish01]

I do have a question and I don't know if I'm opening a can of worms here but I do have some Magnesium Sulfate ( or MGSO4 ) as well as Calcium Sulfate ( CASO4 ) left over from my freshwater dosing. Wouldn't that be essentially what you would add for supplement? Is there a reason reef keepers don't do this vs plant keepers?

 

[aquaph8]

I'm not a chemist or even close so I don't know the difference between them but I can tell you the hobby norm. We use calcium chloride for calcium and most use a mix of magnesium chloride and sulphate for mag. Your mag sulphate can be used but I don't know the mixing amounts or ratio to water. Baking soda works great for alk as half of a two part system with calcium chloride. Kalk by itself will supplement alk and cal at the same time balanced. So if one of the two get unbalanced kalk will continue to add them balanced and never really correct the problem.

Here is a great article on kalk
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.htm

And a couple others that should help you
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-06/rhf/index.php
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

 

[hellfish01]

Amazing aquaph8, thats one hell of a read. Im about halfway done with the first article and I love how detailed it all is. Im sure it can be simplified, but the detail in the chemistry and explanations there of are very well written out. Thank you.

 

[aquaph8]

No problem. randy Holmes Farley (the author) is crazy smart and has a Dr. From Harvard. He's over my head on a lot of stuff but has taught me a lot with his articles over the years. Check out the archives in the chemistry forum (sticky at the top of the page), lots of good stuff in there.

 

[hellfish01]

Thank you I will do that.

 

[CReyes350]

Alk was 140ppm on the Hanna Checker so its like 7.84 dKH and the calcium was at 440.

A boost in Alk should bring the calcium lower and you should be all set as long as you test on a regular basis

 

[aquaph8]

A water change with a high alk salt mix (reef crystals) should take care of that. Nothing wrong with either of those numbers where they're at though.

 

[CReyes350]

Yeah, its pretty close to natural sea water... Plus, the system isn't very demanding YET...

 

[hellfish01]

Thank you guys, and yes I'm shooting for a 5g water change this weekend.

 

[hellfish01]

I've been looking into the T5 bulbs from API as I had mentioned and found these videos to be very helpful. Carlos recommended I should get Coral Plus+ Aqua Blue Special+ Actinic/Blue+ Coral Plus for my fixture. For anyone looking to see what your tank may look under different lights (those of you not using LED's anyways) this will give you a great idea of what to expect.



Bulb Difference



Mixed Bulb Combination


A few notes about the bulbs as mentioned in the first video:
True Atinic-----------------absorption peak for corals
Coral Plus------------------blend of blue+/purple+/aquablue special (abs with added blue and red and less green)
Blue Plus-------------------fluorescence/clean blue
Purple Plus-----------------purple combining red and blue
Aquablue Special-----------closest to full spectrum/blue crisp

 

[hellfish01]

Updates: 2weeks since 09/02/14
So I did some test and I know things will be somewhat off because its so new, but keeping in mind new tanks tend to swing till the tank ages this is were I stand.
Ph- 8.0
Nh- 0 ppm
No2- 0 ppm
No3- 5 ppm
Po4- 0.25 ppm
Ca2- 280 ppm
Kh- 6dkh or 107 ppm
Salt- 1.023 s.g
New updates, purple firefish, hulk zoas, fire and ice zoas, leather, torch, candy cane, hollywood stunner, purple green star looking coral (Carlos,?). Added a 10w 445-455 atinic range, 300lm-400LM multi led chip.

Blue multi chip led

Led alone at 50% power

Full tank

New fish

Zoa garden start

 

[hellfish01]

Rest

 

[EmeraldReef86]

Your atinic led sure does at a new "pop" to your corals and the tank as a whole. It is looking great, keep up the good work.

 

[hellfish01]

yeah its a real nice chip. the wavelength looks like this.

so its right after the uv spectrum. I was considering getting a multychip with uv on it with a wavelength a bit more like his.

but I think the one I got is just fine. I have it turn on with the day lights and turn off after the actinics shut off and the corals are going crazy for it,the torch, frog spawn, and my hammer ( that didn't want to come out ) are almost 2 times their regular size, the mushrooms have bumps extending from them and are also 1.5 times the size they were. Its only been running since Monday so I cant wait to see how things react within a week or month. I cant find a picture online but the soft part of the torch is fanning out from the base and extending in width to about 3 inches before the tentacles expand. Ill have to take a picture.