drummereef's 180g in-wall build

[cromedogg33]

I have 2 clams and 20 or so corals. Mainly acroporas, with some birdnest growing insanely fast.

The 2 derasas are growing faster than I had anticipated as well. Everything came in as frags too, I have 0 colonies at this point. I was just dosing baked baking soda to try and keep up while my probe came.

I will say this....If you order a neptune probe they don't fit in the rubber/screws that many CA reactors use. Mine is the life reef and I think GEO uses the same holder. I had ordered some of the holders and a buddy tapped tap some acrylic and they don't fit in them correctly either.

I finally have some of my cyano under control so I might feel obligated to post some pics.

 

[drummereef]

I have 2 clams and 20 or so corals. Mainly acroporas, with some birdnest growing insanely fast.

The 2 derasas are growing faster than I had anticipated as well. Everything came in as frags too, I have 0 colonies at this point. I was just dosing baked baking soda to try and keep up while my probe came.

I will say this....If you order a neptune probe they don't fit in the rubber/screws that many CA reactors use. Mine is the life reef and I think GEO uses the same holder. I had ordered some of the holders and a buddy tapped tap some acrylic and they don't fit in them correctly either.

I finally have some of my cyano under control so I might feel obligated to post some pics.

Interesting note on the Neputne Probe. I always buy Reef Fanatic probes as they are cheaper than the Pinpoint equivalent. Jeremy at PA says they are just as good. Don't know about the size though. Definitely send some pics my way, I'd love to see your tank.

 

[drummereef]

UPDATE:


Good news to report tonight. Although not completely gone the Dinos are receding significantly. Either the no water changes, dosing kalk, 3 days lights out, hydrogen peroxide or a combination of all four have really done a number on them. They have significantly reduced. Even the sand bed looks cleaner and brighter tonight. I still have a little to go but I believe the addition of Kalk is really putting a damper on the Dino party. I'm hoping in the next few days to see even more of a decrease. Thanks for all the help guys!!

 

[110galreef]

That would be the million dollar question, well... actually only about 5 bucks but that's OK. :lol: At this point I just need to deal with the Dinos and make sure they go away for good. The 3 day lights out period really helped but there's a few sticking around. I'm only running the lights about 4 hours right now, so hopefully with the reduced light cycle and dosing Kalk they will go bye bye.

At that point, once the dinos are gone for good, I'll address the bio pellet situation and see what the nutrient levels are looking like before making a decision.

Here's the CRAZY part... I haven't done a water change in well over 3 weeks and have been feeding the chromis (and other fish) somewhat heavily. Just tested PO4 with the checker and it's 0.00!! Seriously? :fun5: What's with my tank...? LOL.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

As you know I took the BP offline for myself now about 10 weeks back now and went with the Basics.
I have pretty avg load now:
5 chromis, 4 lyretail anthias, 3 Med Tangs(yellow, blue, & naso), 2 occy clowns, 1 tomato clown (frag tank), 1 six line (fragtank), 1 coral beauty angel, 1 firefish goby.

I have about 300g total net water volume (250g DT, 40g frag tank, 60g sump). I have been skimming moderate, doing 2 week WC's of about 15%, and just running 2 cups ROX.08 carbon swapping out 3-4 weeks. Stirring sand weekly and vaccuming every 4 weeks at a WC. I have been feeding pretty good, not real heavy but definity not light. NO GFO & NO BP's!

Nitrates have stayed at 0 and PO4 was .0092 yesterday (10days since WC) and has been in the .01-.02 range steadily. So about perfect for the corals.

OH & nice white sand & no algea, cyano, DINO's:twitch:, or anything of the sorts.

Also my setup is mostly frags, but I have at least 100 total and like 6 med colonies of SPS, and like 5 small coloies. 6-8 Med LPS, 2 clams, and some zoo's. My 2 part has been at 70ml/day for the ALK & CAL the last 2 weeks now. Has come up some from 50ml/day about 6 weeks back. CAL:420 & Alk: 9.2

I really love the 2 part and is very cheap and easy to dose. 1 full year of 2 part will have cost me less than $60. And that includes the mixing jugs & stuff from the BRS kit, which I won't need next go around.

So my only costs aside from the electrical is:
basic fish food, 2 part, and carbon.

I did order up some ELOS Omega's to try, but a bottle should last me 4-6 mos and only cost like $35. But I am just going to try & see if I notice improved PE or colors. If not off the $$ train it goes. And off to find something new to tinker with!!

Hopefully you will find the same and SIMPLE has worked wonders for me. I am sure weekely WC's of about 10% will help coral colors, but just too busy! But the key is 2 week WC's and the basic setup has produced perfect water params

 

[drummereef]

That's great to hear 110g. :thumbsup: I have dosed DIY 2 part for the better part of 7-8 years back when I had my 40g set up. I'm digging the Kalk stuff right now, maybe because it's new to me and I've never dosed it before. I dunno... But the ease of dosing and the pH benefits vs my coral demand has really got me thinking it's a good additive for my tank all around. I'm highly considering adding a Kalk stirrer to the tank and let it do it's thing. That cuts down on even more maintenance as far as dosing goes, at least for me. I'll probably end up having to dose baking soda in some form to boost Alk once my demand is higher but right now it seems like the Kalk is keeping up with what the tank needs.

 

[cromedogg33]

Brett,

If you continue to use pellets you'll eventually stick with kalk. You'll use it more than your Ca reactor if you have one.

 

[tegee]

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

As you know I took the BP offline for myself now about 10 weeks back now and went with the Basics.
I have pretty avg load now:
5 chromis, 4 lyretail anthias, 3 Med Tangs(yellow, blue, & naso), 2 occy clowns, 1 tomato clown (frag tank), 1 six line (fragtank), 1 coral beauty angel, 1 firefish goby.

I have about 300g total net water volume (250g DT, 40g frag tank, 60g sump). I have been skimming moderate, doing 2 week WC's of about 15%, and just running 2 cups ROX.08 carbon swapping out 3-4 weeks. Stirring sand weekly and vaccuming every 4 weeks at a WC. I have been feeding pretty good, not real heavy but definity not light. NO GFO & NO BP's!

Nitrates have stayed at 0 and PO4 was .0092 yesterday (10days since WC) and has been in the .01-.02 range steadily. So about perfect for the corals.

OH & nice white sand & no algea, cyano, DINO's:twitch:, or anything of the sorts.

Also my setup is mostly frags, but I have at least 100 total and like 6 med colonies of SPS, and like 5 small coloies. 6-8 Med LPS, 2 clams, and some zoo's. My 2 part has been at 70ml/day for the ALK & CAL the last 2 weeks now. Has come up some from 50ml/day about 6 weeks back. CAL:420 & Alk: 9.2

I really love the 2 part and is very cheap and easy to dose. 1 full year of 2 part will have cost me less than $60. And that includes the mixing jugs & stuff from the BRS kit, which I won't need next go around.

So my only costs aside from the electrical is:
basic fish food, 2 part, and carbon.

I did order up some ELOS Omega's to try, but a bottle should last me 4-6 mos and only cost like $35. But I am just going to try & see if I notice improved PE or colors. If not off the $$ train it goes. And off to find something new to tinker with!!

Hopefully you will find the same and SIMPLE has worked wonders for me. I am sure weekely WC's of about 10% will help coral colors, but just too busy! But the key is 2 week WC's and the basic setup has produced perfect water params

VERY WELL SAID 110gal.....

I went back to basics (KISS) roughly 5 months ago and I am VERY happy I did. Weekly WC (15%) have done wonders for my sps tank. My parameters have been died nuts since going to weekly WC back in early February. I do not subscribe to Bio-Pellets and my only supplements are Reef Nutrition foods and SeaChem Iodide. And like you, do very minimal dosing with Elos's Omega.

I feel strongly that keeping it simple has worked as planned and been very cost effective too. If you really read through most of the TOTM winners, most do very little with supplements IMHO.

Well....back to Brett's build thread.....:beer:

 

[sponger0]

Omg wow....so I just spent the last 2 days at work reading this thread. Its great. Granted some of the chemistry im kinda like huh??.....considering Im new to the hobby. Have only had my tank for 1 and half months and blew up immediately with life due to my live rock.

But you def gave me some great ideas for my new 75 gallon thats already in the works. Currently working on collecting alot of the equipment and I will be building a new tank

And you got me to decide on the blue background....I know you didnt like it but I like the open ocean feel and the bubble thingie feeding into the sump. i will be stealing that.

Also I love the chromi school. I am hoping I can have one in my new tank.

Mine wont be as grandose as in size but it will be something unique.

 

[henrystyle]

Hopefully you will find the same and SIMPLE has worked wonders for me.

You might want to start growing some cheato in your system. With feeding alone your p04 levels will start to raise up. That will also stunt your coral growth.
I have been saying this from the middle of this thread....Keep it simple..IMO

 

[henrystyle]

If you really read through most of the TOTM winners, most do very little with supplements IMHO.

Feed your fish!
I add iodine and potassium occasionally. Thats it.
Remember good fish food has vitamins, minerals, amino acids etc in it. What the fish eat and don't eat get broken down in the tank. Your corals will utilize that stuff.

 

[drummereef]

Omg wow....so I just spent the last 2 days at work reading this thread. Its great. Granted some of the chemistry im kinda like huh??.....considering Im new to the hobby. Have only had my tank for 1 and half months and blew up immediately with life due to my live rock.

But you def gave me some great ideas for my new 75 gallon thats already in the works. Currently working on collecting alot of the equipment and I will be building a new tank

And you got me to decide on the blue background....I know you didnt like it but I like the open ocean feel and the bubble thingie feeding into the sump. i will be stealing that.

Also I love the chromi school. I am hoping I can have one in my new tank.

Mine wont be as grandose as in size but it will be something unique.

Good luck to you and your new tank sponger0.

 

[justin_g]

KISS--who woulda thought that one. I forget Brett to you have a CA Rx?

 

[drummereef]

I forget Brett to you have a CA Rx?

No Ca Reactor. I was originally dosing DIY 2-Part but have recently switched to dripping Kalk. Seems to be working good so far.

 

[cromedogg33]

Shoot, I think Brett is the definition of keeping everything simple. He knows what he wants his tank to be and has the right equipment/husbandry to get there.

Keeping it simple means different strokes for different folks. One thing I've learned is there is always someone that is the exception in this hobby. For every 100 people who had one way work for them, another hundred didn't have it work.

 

[huckphinn894]

sorry that I have nothing important to say but i had to say something brett your sump room looks great so clean. I only just became a member and sense then I have been reading this thread everyday and FINALLY made it to the end. I really learned a lot.

 

[110galreef]

Kalk....enlighten me here.

You were dosing 2 part...about how much? Now you stopped 2 part & went the route of KALK. Kalk adds calcium & alk and raises pH? Any other benefits?

I have been interested in the pH rasing abilities of Kalk, and have pondered it's use very slightly to raise my pH a tad & at night as well. I know have my ATO working perfectly and only running in the nightime.

My pH typically is 8.0 (night) - 8.14(eve). So not really sure the Kalk is gonna make a big difference as my pH isn't really low, but maybe a tad higher would help? My 2 part demands are only 70ml/day right now. I don't want to stop this.

But can one dose 2 part & dose a little Kalk with Top off?

 

[cromedogg33]

Kalk....enlighten me here.

You were dosing 2 part...about how much? Now you stopped 2 part & went the route of KALK. Kalk adds calcium & alk and raises pH? Any other benefits?

I have been interested in the pH rasing abilities of Kalk, and have pondered it's use very slightly to raise my pH a tad & at night as well. I know have my ATO working perfectly and only running in the nightime.

My pH typically is 8.0 (night) - 8.14(eve). So not really sure the Kalk is gonna make a big difference as my pH isn't really low, but maybe a tad higher would help? My 2 part demands are only 70ml/day right now. I don't want to stop this.

But can one dose 2 part & dose a little Kalk with Top off?

Kalkwasser doesn't add calcium....it maintains it I believe. It has a PH of 12 I think as well but my numbers may be off. It's why running both ca/kalk is a good match. Like I had said earlier for Brett....he will get the need for both Ca/dKH and he will use his Kalkwasser drip/stirrer more than the Ca reactor/dosing to maintain levels.

 

[dzhuo]

Kalkwasser doesn't add calcium....it maintains it I believe.

Actually it does. Kalk adds both alk and cal in balanced unit. That's why we use it. I believe the "myth" that kalk does not "add" but rather just maintains it comes from 2 facts:

1. Kalk is a very weak solution compares to Randy or BRS 2-parts. It's roughly 40x less potent.
2. Under normal circumstance, most people's tank do not have enough evaporation and combine that with a weak solution, it's normally not enough to add enough kalk to raise alk & cal substantially without drastically impact pH. You only need 1.25% (of total tank volume) of saturated kalk to raise 0.6 pH. Another undesired affect of using lots of kalk driving pH up high is abiotic precipitation. It can easily stop your pumps because of calcium deposit.

It's very rare to see a large tank with lots of SPS grow can be maintained with kalk alone because of that. In a smallish tank, kalk is about perfect.

 

[drummereef]

Shoot, I think Brett is the definition of keeping everything simple. He knows what he wants his tank to be and has the right equipment/husbandry to get there.

Keeping it simple means different strokes for different folks. One thing I've learned is there is always someone that is the exception in this hobby. For every 100 people who had one way work for them, another hundred didn't have it work.

I'd like to think I'm part of the KISS society.

sorry that I have nothing important to say but i had to say something brett your sump room looks great so clean. I only just became a member and sense then I have been reading this thread everyday and FINALLY made it to the end. I really learned a lot.

Thanks for reading through the thread huckphinn. I appreciate the kind words.

Kalk....enlighten me here.

You were dosing 2 part...about how much? Now you stopped 2 part & went the route of KALK. Kalk adds calcium & alk and raises pH? Any other benefits?

I have been interested in the pH rasing abilities of Kalk, and have pondered it's use very slightly to raise my pH a tad & at night as well. I know have my ATO working perfectly and only running in the nightime.

My pH typically is 8.0 (night) - 8.14(eve). So not really sure the Kalk is gonna make a big difference as my pH isn't really low, but maybe a tad higher would help? My 2 part demands are only 70ml/day right now. I don't want to stop this.

But can one dose 2 part & dose a little Kalk with Top off?

I think there are other benefits to dosing Kalk but are somewhat unknown. Pete is a believer in the stuff and thinks there's something else to it that the corals really like. I tend to agree. I was dosing around 15-20ml of DIY 2-Part for Alk, Ca, and to raise the pH. Since the dosing was so minimal the increase in pH was nominal. It wasn't until I started dosing Kalk that I saw the pH rise significantly. Chromedogg is correct, depending on the strength of the Kalk solution, the pH can be upwards of 12.0. So you can see how it would impact a tank's pH even at a slow drip. The coral demand is so low in my tank the Kalk is able to keep up and then some. I'm sure at some point the demand will overcome the Kalk's abilities and I'll have to supplement 2-Part.

You can always try a slow drip like I'm doing and see how it effects your pH and Alk. Just try 1 drip per second and see how it goes over the course of a day. You might find it will positively effect pH and allow you to cut back on the amount of 2-Part you have to dose daily.

 

[drummereef]

Hey guys, not much happening here. Still trying to get rid of the last of the Dinos. Been a struggle getting the pH over 3.5 but still keep the dkh under 11. Hmmm. Windows have been open last few days, dripping Kalk, 4 hour light cycle, etc... A couple of the corals have receeded from the Dinos but I'm hoping they will grow back. Amazing how aggressive those things are. If all else fails over the next week I'll do another 3 days lights out period. :headwallblue: