Carlso63's 225 Reef Build Thread!
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- Start date
carlso63
Reefkeeping since 1977
It's been a long time (once again)...
Alot has happened over the past almost 2 months; all good stuff (pretty much)...
I had such good growth on a few corals that I started to frag them off... I built a "floating frag box" out of eggcrate to house the frags in until they attached (softies anyway)... here's a shot of the "frag box" in the tank:
I fragged my main Pom Pom colony twice already, and am actually getting ready to do it again. Here's a shot of some Pom Pom Xenia frags after attachment:
I picked up 2 cool Long Spined Urchins:
I installed a less restrictive inlet pipe on my skimmer pump. Now I am up to 42 scfh out of this thing!
I gave a tuitorial to some local Reefers on my feeding regimen - here's a shot of all the different foods I feed:
On Oct. 18th I took some local guys out on yet another "Rock & Sand Run" and came home with 600 lbs of rock and 400+ lbs of oolitic sand:
I added maybe 85 lbs additional LBTR to my tank, and sold off the rest to help fund some livestock purchases (more about that later...) I did set aside another 100 lbs of rock & 50 lbs of sand for my 37 Hex FW, soon to be converted to another Reef setup!
I've been keeping up my bi-weekly 18g water changes, once a week or so water testing, keeping the acrylic algae-free, etc.
Last time I tested the water was this past Monday:
Temp: 77.6 - 80.0 (24 hr cycle)
SG: 1.0245
pH: 8.1
dkH: 9.5
nH3: 0 / undetectable
nO2: 0 / undetectable
nO3: 0 / undetectable
pO4: 0 / undetectable
Ca: 470 ppm
Mg: 1350 ppm
A week or so ago I turned the temperature control dial on 1 of the 2 Hydor 400w heaters up 2 degrees in anticipation of the colder weather and, by default, the indoor ambient temperature falling to the level set on the house thermostat. In my house, the first floor thermostat (where the tank is) is programmed to go down to 65F from 10PM until 6:45AM, since all the bedrooms are upstairs and everyone would be sleeping (upstairs stays at 68F). Anyway, the halides shut down at 10 PM as well, so the tank would start to cool from around 80F at 10PM down to maybe 74F by 7AM without having those Hydors kicking in... as of now 1 of the Hydors is set at 78F and the other at 79F; previously the second one was set at 77F. Not saying the setting are 100% accurate, as the actual tank temp does go below the settings on the heaters; but set staggered 1 degree like this I end up with the tank water going no lower than 77.6F @ 6:55 AM; the first floor thermostat jumps to 68F after 6:45, so the ambient room temp rises 3 degrees within 15 minutes and the tank temp then stabilizes at 78.0F until the halides kick in at 10 AM - when it starts the climb back up to 80.0F... I have to say that (so far) I am very impressed with these Hydors; I never thought I would be able to maintain such a tight temp range, even in cooler weather!
Next - On to the fun stuff... new livestock!
Alot has happened over the past almost 2 months; all good stuff (pretty much)...
I had such good growth on a few corals that I started to frag them off... I built a "floating frag box" out of eggcrate to house the frags in until they attached (softies anyway)... here's a shot of the "frag box" in the tank:
I fragged my main Pom Pom colony twice already, and am actually getting ready to do it again. Here's a shot of some Pom Pom Xenia frags after attachment:
I picked up 2 cool Long Spined Urchins:
I installed a less restrictive inlet pipe on my skimmer pump. Now I am up to 42 scfh out of this thing!
I gave a tuitorial to some local Reefers on my feeding regimen - here's a shot of all the different foods I feed:
On Oct. 18th I took some local guys out on yet another "Rock & Sand Run" and came home with 600 lbs of rock and 400+ lbs of oolitic sand:
I added maybe 85 lbs additional LBTR to my tank, and sold off the rest to help fund some livestock purchases (more about that later...) I did set aside another 100 lbs of rock & 50 lbs of sand for my 37 Hex FW, soon to be converted to another Reef setup!
I've been keeping up my bi-weekly 18g water changes, once a week or so water testing, keeping the acrylic algae-free, etc.
Last time I tested the water was this past Monday:
Temp: 77.6 - 80.0 (24 hr cycle)
SG: 1.0245
pH: 8.1
dkH: 9.5
nH3: 0 / undetectable
nO2: 0 / undetectable
nO3: 0 / undetectable
pO4: 0 / undetectable
Ca: 470 ppm
Mg: 1350 ppm
A week or so ago I turned the temperature control dial on 1 of the 2 Hydor 400w heaters up 2 degrees in anticipation of the colder weather and, by default, the indoor ambient temperature falling to the level set on the house thermostat. In my house, the first floor thermostat (where the tank is) is programmed to go down to 65F from 10PM until 6:45AM, since all the bedrooms are upstairs and everyone would be sleeping (upstairs stays at 68F). Anyway, the halides shut down at 10 PM as well, so the tank would start to cool from around 80F at 10PM down to maybe 74F by 7AM without having those Hydors kicking in... as of now 1 of the Hydors is set at 78F and the other at 79F; previously the second one was set at 77F. Not saying the setting are 100% accurate, as the actual tank temp does go below the settings on the heaters; but set staggered 1 degree like this I end up with the tank water going no lower than 77.6F @ 6:55 AM; the first floor thermostat jumps to 68F after 6:45, so the ambient room temp rises 3 degrees within 15 minutes and the tank temp then stabilizes at 78.0F until the halides kick in at 10 AM - when it starts the climb back up to 80.0F... I have to say that (so far) I am very impressed with these Hydors; I never thought I would be able to maintain such a tight temp range, even in cooler weather!
Next - On to the fun stuff... new livestock!
carlso63
Reefkeeping since 1977
Now that the setup is starting to mature, I have begun picking up some more frags, especially SPS pieces:
New Corals
An Acan spp. frag:
Some Pink Palythoas:
Green Duncan:
Trio of Purple Duncans:
Purple Tort Frag:
Green Slimer Frag:
Neon Green Bubble Coral (about 7" in diameter):
Pink Birdsnest Frag:
New Corals
An Acan spp. frag:
Some Pink Palythoas:
Green Duncan:
Trio of Purple Duncans:
Purple Tort Frag:
Green Slimer Frag:
Neon Green Bubble Coral (about 7" in diameter):
Pink Birdsnest Frag:
carlso63
Reefkeeping since 1977
I also have added a few interesting fish:
A Copper Banded Butterfly (he ate frozen from Day One, BTW):
A Christmas Wrasse (sorry, no pic - darn thing won't stay still long enough for a clear shot!)
And a spectacular 7" long Queen Angel, that I actually got for FREE from another local Club Member:
So tame, he eats out of my hand... and (so far) absolutely "reef safe" - has not touched any of the corals!
He gets a
A Copper Banded Butterfly (he ate frozen from Day One, BTW):
A Christmas Wrasse (sorry, no pic - darn thing won't stay still long enough for a clear shot!)
And a spectacular 7" long Queen Angel, that I actually got for FREE from another local Club Member:
So tame, he eats out of my hand... and (so far) absolutely "reef safe" - has not touched any of the corals!
He gets a
carlso63
Reefkeeping since 1977
Finally, to REALLY get you all "up to date" as to how the setup actually looks today...
Here's a VIDEO:
http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc244/carlso63/?action=view¤t=100_2455.flv
About 4 minutes long... the tank, the sump, the equipment...
(Shot on Monday 11/17/08)
Enjoy
Here's a VIDEO:
http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc244/carlso63/?action=view¤t=100_2455.flv
About 4 minutes long... the tank, the sump, the equipment...
(Shot on Monday 11/17/08)
Enjoy
carlso63
Reefkeeping since 1977
Thank you -
My water flow setup is surprisingly simple.
I have 3 Korallia #3 circ pumps; 2 right up near the top of the tank (easily seen in the video) and 1 bottom center of the tank, behind the rockwork. The top 2 are angled directly to the front corners of the tank; the bottom one is actually angled almost straight up towards the water surface.
Each Korallia is rated at 850 gph - so that gives me 2550 gph there.
My return is an OceanRunner 3500, rated at approx 650 gph at the head pressure of my plumbing. My return plumbing has 4 outlets, 2 on each side of the tank.
SO - I figure on approx 3200 gph total flow, or about 13 X water volume.
But only about 2.5 X through the sump.
And that's it...no controllers or wavemakers.
In the future, as corals grow and the fish bioload increases, I may add 2 more Korallias to the display; probably 1 on each far corner, low near the bottom of the tank.
My water flow setup is surprisingly simple.
I have 3 Korallia #3 circ pumps; 2 right up near the top of the tank (easily seen in the video) and 1 bottom center of the tank, behind the rockwork. The top 2 are angled directly to the front corners of the tank; the bottom one is actually angled almost straight up towards the water surface.
Each Korallia is rated at 850 gph - so that gives me 2550 gph there.
My return is an OceanRunner 3500, rated at approx 650 gph at the head pressure of my plumbing. My return plumbing has 4 outlets, 2 on each side of the tank.
SO - I figure on approx 3200 gph total flow, or about 13 X water volume.
But only about 2.5 X through the sump.
And that's it...no controllers or wavemakers.
In the future, as corals grow and the fish bioload increases, I may add 2 more Korallias to the display; probably 1 on each far corner, low near the bottom of the tank.
