Alan's 180g Reef

[alanmorehead]

The initial thread I saw was pretty specific about the ability to remove PO4 with phosban in a FOWLR tank. I think you would be surprised. You still have a reactor right? I would assume with both reactors running it would get in check rather dramatically.

I wouldnt do blue life unless you gave GAC and a skimmer in the 300 now.

I have the skimmer in the 300g and also have had carbon running for about a week. I still prefer GFO though because of the ability to physically remove all the bound phosphates with the media. I think a lot of the issue I had after dosing the Blue Life was simply from lowering (or helping to lower) the nutrients even further from levels that were causing starvation. I have a 50% water change ready. Maybe I'll do that first, then run GFO, and see where I'm at.

 

[alanmorehead]

I did a water change last night of 40-50% on the 300g.

Phosphates:
Last night (before water change): 0.80 ppm (measured twice)
Last night (1 hr after water change): 0.55 ppm and 0.51
This morning: 0.51

It looks like the phosphates in the water dropped from 0.9 to 0.8 even before the first water change, so not sure what is going on there. Maybe absorbed by algae? Water change dropped the levels by 0.25 immediately, but no signs that the rock has started leaching anything after 12 hours. I'm going to start the GFO tonight. I'll retest before adding the GFO and then probably again tomorrow.

The HK8s arrived earlier this week too. They are rated for 3250 gph @ 18W. I put my hand in front of the Dart and it feels very comparable to the HK8, so the 3250gph seems accurate. I took the Dart off the 300g and I'm now just running the pair of HK8s for circulation. 36W for ~6500gph vs 140W for ~3600gph!

Sohal tang is doing well. It's eaten out of my hand a few times and loves frozen mysis. First day or two it hid in the rockwork, but seems to be a lot less skiddish now

 

[alanmorehead]

Started the GFO last night:

7:30pm - 0.52
Added GFO
* 5 1/8 cups of BRS pelletized GFO in about 250g of water
10:30pm - 0.44
10:30am - 0.32

Looks like it has dropped a bit over night. Hard to tell at this point, with the photometer's error margin, if the absoption rate is slowing down or not. Doesn't look like I'll be able to move any corals over yet though

 

[huskerreef]

mine tested at .56 last week, maybe a race to see who hits .02 first. lol. loser buys lunch.

 

[bohlke]

I think the Hanna meter is pretty acurate above .1 ppm it's when you get below that it's a little hard to trust

 

[alanmorehead]

mine tested at .56 last week, maybe a race to see who hits .02 first. lol. loser buys lunch.

Ok, sure
I think the GFO could be spent now though and I need to order some more. I'll be a lot happier when I start getting readings under 0.1ppm

Here are my most recent readings:
Sat @ 7:30pm: 0.52
Sat @ 10:30pm: 0.44
Sun @ 10:30am: 0.32
Sun @ 6pm: 0.27
Sun @ 11pm: 0.18
Mon @ 7am: 0.16

Looks like levels were continuing to drop through yesterday, but slowed down last night. It's possible with the error margin that it could actually have dropped 0.22 -> 0.12. I'll have to see what they are later tonight to be sure.

 

[huskerreef]

Holy crap you have a head start on me,lol. I better get my reactor plumbing finished and up and running tonite or a trip to Lincoln with lunch money will in short order.

 

[alanmorehead]

Looks like I hit a wall and my GFO is exhausted now. I just tested it and got 0.18, same as it was last night. I'm placing a BRS order tonight for some more.

 

[alanmorehead]

Just talked to AJ and put in an order for a 300g Marineland Deep Dimension tank!
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16600232

 

[huskerreef]

When did this come about? Sounds like a cool dimension. I guess a simple re-aquascape didn't do it for you. I can't wait to see the starfire glass front pane, I have yet to see one in person.

 

[huskerreef]

I see that you haven't decided on the exact skimmer, Jeff at PCP has a big Reef Octopus that was on Matt Houlten's tank. I am not sure how big his system was total, But he loved the skimmer and its the new generation and only a few months old. Just an FYI.

 

[alanmorehead]

When did this come about? Sounds like a cool dimension. I guess a simple re-aquascape didn't do it for you. I can't wait to see the starfire glass front pane, I have yet to see one in person.

It's something that I've had in mind since they first came out. It was more of a dream tank idea though. I guess the opportunity to upgrade was too hard to resist 6'x3'x27" should be pretty nice with the 3' depth and give me some more aquascaping options (and of course more fish and corals). It will fit into the 6' opening I already have, which will save me from having to do any major remodeling. I haven't seen a tank with Starphire either.

 

[jd474]

Just talked to AJ and put in an order for a 300g Marineland Deep Dimension tank!
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16600232

Wow, talk about an impulse buy! I'm not going to ask how much, but did they come down in price any? Last time I checked, they wanted a pretty penny for them. Definitely cool dimensions!

 

[alanmorehead]

Wow, talk about an impulse buy! I'm not going to ask how much, but did they come down in price any? Last time I checked, they wanted a pretty penny for them. Definitely cool dimensions!

Well, I have been thinking about it a lot over the last 2-3 weeks. The idea has been brought up a few times in the last year, then more since the beginning of the year, and seemed to be the time to do it in the middle of this rebuild. I'm not sure what a custom tank like this costs, but I think these tanks make a good alternative. I haven't checked prices locally until this week and don't remember what you said they were running when we talked about them before.

 

[lvpd186]

Wow Alan, that is going to be a sweet new tank! I've been debating getting a bigger tank for awhile too, I just haven't pulled that trigger yet..

 

[huskerreef]

Wow Alan, that is going to be a sweet new tank! I've been debating getting a bigger tank for awhile too, I just haven't pulled that trigger yet..

How about some peer pressure:beer:

 

[huskerreef]

I really love the extra depth you get with a deep tank, it really opens up your scape possibilities to create a more natural look. It also gives you more room to set up your rock work to allow flow around the backside and not sacrifice space so much. I think you should put the 180 in the twins room, its never to young to turn into fish geeks, you could house Conspic Angels and other non reef safe fish. So whens the tank moving and set up party?

 

[jbob]

i'm jealous!! i've been looking at alot of DD threads lately, they're awesome!

 

[BennyFrank]

Is a 180gal more than 30" long? :lmao:
Can't wait to see this... definitely willing to help out too, let me know.

 

[alanmorehead]

I see that you haven't decided on the exact skimmer, Jeff at PCP has a big Reef Octopus that was on Matt Houlten's tank. I am not sure how big his system was total, But he loved the skimmer and its the new generation and only a few months old. Just an FYI.

I talked to Jeff and he said that he was going to run that one on his tank, so it wasn't for sale. I think he said it might have been a 6000 model too.

Wow Alan, that is going to be a sweet new tank! I've been debating getting a bigger tank for awhile too, I just haven't pulled that trigger yet..

How about some peer pressure:beer:

+1 - Do it!

I really love the extra depth you get with a deep tank, it really opens up your scape possibilities to create a more natural look. It also gives you more room to set up your rock work to allow flow around the backside and not sacrifice space so much. I think you should put the 180 in the twins room, its never to young to turn into fish geeks, you could house Conspic Angels and other non reef safe fish. So whens the tank moving and set up party?

Well, the girls' room is directly above the fish room, so......
It should be here in 2-3 weeks. I'm not sure how the whole moving and setup thing will work out. I need to clean out the 180 and build a new stand.

i'm jealous!! i've been looking at alot of DD threads lately, they're awesome!

Me too There are a few 300g DD builds here. Here is one that was inspiring (emilio c):
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16124822#post16124822

Is a 180gal more than 30" long? :lmao:
Can't wait to see this... definitely willing to help out too, let me know.

Yeah, not sure if it's going to fit in there :idea: