drummereef's 180g in-wall build

[Reefahholic]

Nice Brett! Good luck with the Pukani! Can't wait to see if you'll have phosphate issues or if you'll have to start skimming it.

Hey, what kind of Anthias do you have in your DT?

 

[MilkWeed18]

I have been debating on which rock to get for my 180. Would you recommend the Pukani rock in the display?

 

[110galreef]

I have been debating on which rock to get for my 180. Would you recommend the Pukani rock in the display?

i would suggest mostly pukani, this stuff is light porous and awesome looking. However a little fiji, tonga and even some shelf make for some great additions for variuos textures and rock work!!

Brett,

Thanks for the sump shot. I am looking to redo my sump, just not sure what I want to do.

 

[drummereef]

Nice Brett! Good luck with the Pukani! Can't wait to see if you'll have phosphate issues or if you'll have to start skimming it.

Hey, what kind of Anthias do you have in your DT?

Thanks Jared. Oh I already have PO4 issues - just 2 days into the cycle I'm showing some leaching. Crazy. I hope the SeaKlear will precipitate it out and I won't have to incorporate a skimmer since I don't have a spare skimmer. Hoping a month in the tub with some diligent dosing will prep the rock enough for the fuge tank.

Those are a harem of Dispar Anthias.

I have been debating on which rock to get for my 180. Would you recommend the Pukani rock in the display?

The Pukani is really nice as long as you prep it appropriately. You definitely get more for your $$$ compared to the Marco rock that's in my display.

i would suggest mostly pukani, this stuff is light porous and awesome looking. However a little fiji, tonga and even some shelf make for some great additions for variuos textures and rock work!!

Brett,

Thanks for the sump shot. I am looking to redo my sump, just not sure what I want to do.

You are welcome. What are you planning on doing? Are you going to reuse your sump or build new?

 

[110galreef]

You are welcome. What are you planning on doing? Are you going to reuse your sump or build new?

Not sure: My DT has grown out quite a bit, i plan to upgrade my frag tank to like a 90g 60x 30x 12 (yeah its big) but i seem to have outgrown the 40g (36x30x10). Plus the extra water volume can't hurt.


With this change i probably should go with a larger sump 55x 24x16?? or what I have room for under my stand. 48x18x16 currently. I am thinking of going to an all in on with some sort of fudge to replace my current little CPR 3.5g HOB of my sump fuge. I am only using it to try and grow pods to continually feed my wrasses and mandarain.

So maybe a larger 10-15g fudge section will be nice. Probably not lit either. Just a spot for LR and pods! It will get enuf light from my frag tank but not enuf for growing stuff. Not sure I want light down there anyway as it makes more to clean and scrape!

Also this will all entail replumbing, do I use filter socks or not, or just create a dam to trap detritus.....I am getting tired of washing socks! :deadhorse1:

Lots to figure out. Also do i keep my external skimmer or go bigger and or go internal??? Hmmm depends on what goes where and what I have room for!

Oh yeah and I will also need a slightly bigger return pump than the Bubble blaster HY-7000. So to do I get a internal or external pump?? I am feeding my manifold with the return pump now: ~750gph DT, 125gph Frag tank, 60gph Carbon, 10gph fuge....

Also my CLS pump DART GOLD probably is going to need upgraded or add some tunze/vortech's

 

[drummereef]

Not sure: My DT has grown out quite a bit, i plan to upgrade my frag tank to like a 90g 60x 30x 12 (yeah its big) but i seem to have outgrown the 40g (36x30x10). Plus the extra water volume can't hurt.


With this change i probably should go with a larger sump 55x 24x16?? or what I have room for under my stand. 48x18x16 currently. I am thinking of going to an all in on with some sort of fudge to replace my current little CPR 3.5g HOB of my sump fuge. I am only using it to try and grow pods to continually feed my wrasses and mandarain.

So maybe a larger 10-15g fudge section will be nice. Probably not lit either. Just a spot for LR and pods! It will get enuf light from my frag tank but not enuf for growing stuff. Not sure I want light down there anyway as it makes more to clean and scrape!

Also this will all entail replumbing, do I use filter socks or not, or just create a dam to trap detritus.....I am getting tired of washing socks! :deadhorse1:

Lots to figure out. Also do i keep my external skimmer or go bigger and or go internal??? Hmmm depends on what goes where and what I have room for!

Oh yeah and I will also need a slightly bigger return pump than the Bubble blaster HY-7000. So to do I get a internal or external pump?? I am feeding my manifold with the return pump now: ~750gph DT, 125gph Frag tank, 60gph Carbon, 10gph fuge....

Also my CLS pump DART GOLD probably is going to need upgraded or add some tunze/vortech's

Well dang, might as well upgrade the display while you're at it!! :lol: Just kidding. Sounds like you got the work cut out for you on that project.

 

[110galreef]

Well dang, might as well upgrade the display while you're at it!! :lol: Just kidding. Sounds like you got the work cut out for you on that project.

Haha...I know right! Luckily i can't go bigger on the tank due to physicalities!

I will first upgrade the frag tank and leave everything else as is. The sump swap is probably not necassary, nor is the skimmer upgrade. I have the SRO XP 3000E and it skims great. I really am not adding much if any more load just water volume.

 

[drummereef]

Haha...I know right! Luckily i can't go bigger on the tank due to physicalities!

I will first upgrade the frag tank and leave everything else as is. The sump swap is probably not necassary, nor is the skimmer upgrade. I have the SRO XP 3000E and it skims great. I really am not adding much if any more load just water volume.

Yeah, as long as your sump won't overflow from the extra volume there most likely won't be any increase in bio load by just adding a larger fuge or more rock etc... You know you could always just sell your frags off quicker to keep your 40g more available. :rollface:

 

[drummereef]

Josh, where do you get your 10 micron filter bags?

 

[drummereef]

It's here! Debating on whether or not I should upgrade to a Hanna Phosphorous photometer now... I keep getting readings of 0 on the display tank so I'm wondering if the low-range meter would be of benefit to really see where my overall PO4 stands. Thoughts??

 

[prop-frags]

Hey Brett - looking good as always.
If I was to need surgery, I would hope they would take me into the OR, I mean your sump room, so I didn't risk any infections

But seriously, we are still very jealous of your immaculate planning and execution. You set a very high bar, sir.

On the topic of live rock and seeding biodiversity - I am going to take the opposing view of most here. I think the whole story of "you'll get evil pests" is overstated. If you really are worried about unwanted hitchhikers, take some TBS or Sea Life Inc and put it in a QT tank for a while, then transfer it over. We are big fans of introducing diversity from various sources...it can be done in a low-risk way.

 

[JeffSauer]

Wow, it took me nearly a week to read through everything! But man, you're just as anal about setting stuff up as i am! I just lack the funds and the space! Everything looks great and looking forward to new posts

 

[drummereef]

Hey Brett - looking good as always.
If I was to need surgery, I would hope they would take me into the OR, I mean your sump room, so I didn't risk any infections

But seriously, we are still very jealous of your immaculate planning and execution. You set a very high bar, sir.

On the topic of live rock and seeding biodiversity - I am going to take the opposing view of most here. I think the whole story of "you'll get evil pests" is overstated. If you really are worried about unwanted hitchhikers, take some TBS or Sea Life Inc and put it in a QT tank for a while, then transfer it over. We are big fans of introducing diversity from various sources...it can be done in a low-risk way.

Ha, thanks Mike. Great info on QT'ing the live rock. Why didn't I think of that! I've got this Pukani cooking right now but I will definitely look into that as an option in the future. Thanks Mike.

Wow, it took me nearly a week to read through everything! But man, you're just as anal about setting stuff up as i am! I just lack the funds and the space! Everything looks great and looking forward to new posts

Thanks Jeff. You and me both buddy... A true reefer is always looking for spare scrilla to get their fix. :lol:

 

[drummereef]

Quick update on the Pukani cycle. One week in - Ammonia is 0, Nitrite is now 0.50. I have a Hanna 736 Phosphorous Checker coming tomorrow so I should be able to get a baseline where the PO4 is to start dosing. I also have some 10 micron socks coming so I should be able to dose the display as well. I'll keep documenting the progress as we go.

 

[drummereef]

UPDATE:


The Hanna Phosphorous Checker came today. Here's the results...

As suspected, the Pukani rock is testing above the range of the meter. The meter will blink 200 ppb when the result is above it's upper range. So, I added 10ml of SeaKlear to the curing container to start. The water turned slightly cloudy after adding the solution.

What's the suggested frequency and amount of SeaKlear to dose in this situation??

The display is testing out quite well. The result was 2 ppb on the meter. After converting, the PO4 is 0.006 ppm.

So that brings me to this pic. If my NO3 is <5 and PO4 is 0.006, then why does my sand constantly look like this?? I'm guessing it's diatoms which is a silicate issue... The TDS of my RO/DI water is 000 so I'm not really sure how to address this. If I siphon the sand it just comes back within a couple days. Hmmm

And finally, the Emerald Crabs have literally decimated the bubble algae in the tank. The little guys occasionally come out and beg, and since I have a soft spot for crustaceans...

 

[cromedogg33]

Holy CRAP 10ml.

I would have loved to be there to see that. That is so much. In the future for reference, you probably wasted a good portion of that binding itself to things other than phosphate.

If I was you to get the best results and to leach as much as possible as quickly as possible, I would set up a dripper of diluted solution. Get a gallon jug and put 5-10ml in it and drip it throughout the entire day. This should give the lathanum time to bind the phosphate rather than eating up your alkalinity.

I believe for a future warning as well. Lathunum can put a haze/craze (whatever you want to call it).... almost like scratching the glass if overdosed or dosed extremely fast.

I would dose daily.

 

[drummereef]

Holy CRAP 10ml.

I would have loved to be there to see that. That is so much. In the future for reference, you probably wasted a good portion of that binding itself to things other than phosphate.

If I was you to get the best results and to leach as much as possible as quickly as possible, I would set up a dripper of diluted solution. Get a gallon jug and put 5-10ml in it and drip it throughout the entire day. This should give the lathanum time to bind the phosphate rather than eating up your alkalinity.

I believe for a future warning as well. Lathunum can put a haze/craze (whatever you want to call it).... almost like scratching the glass if overdosed or dosed extremely fast.

I would dose daily.

Oh haha, whoops! :rollface: I added this to the Pukani rock in the Rubbermaid container, not my display - just for clarification. I was referencing tkeracer619's thread on how to dose SeaKlear when curing rock in a separate container (link below). He was dosing upwards of 12-18ml of SeaKlear at a time! But seemed to get good results either way. I suppose it's best to dose slow like you suggest Josh, to get the maximum contact time.

But you are suggesting 5ml dripped slowly every day? How many days do you think it would take using this method to see a significant reduction in PO4? I don't want to burn through my Checker reagents is all.

Here's tkeracer's thread if you haven't seen it already...
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2145395&highlight=pukani

 

[psteeleb]

Looking good Brett :thumbsup:

As for the diatoms or cyno (not sure from that picture) I still get them in my system but they seem to be confined to the refugium and sump area where I have lower Kelvin lighting and slower flows (or good news not in the display)

IMO, despite some popular belief that they can be avoided, the more primitive forms of algae, cynobacteria and bacteria' are going to get in your system regardless of efforts. Certainly leaching or other sources of Po4 and No3 feed and accelerate their growth until other life forms (usually macro algae's, micro fauna, pods etc) take root in the system and can compete for even the slightest amounts of nutrients. I sincerely believe once you get your refugium up and populated you will find that the battle against these nuisance life forms will become much easier.

 

[cromedogg33]

I meant liters not gallons sorry Brett. I would do any version of 1l per 1ml of lathanum. Wether than be 1-5l of solution a day. At that rate since you aren't adding any phosphates other than what is leaching I would test maybe once a week. You aren't in a hurry...I don't think (since it's cycling) so I would just drip everyday for a week then see what it's reading at.

 

[drummereef]

Looking good Brett :thumbsup:

As for the diatoms or cyno (not sure from that picture) I still get them in my system but they seem to be confined to the refugium and sump area where I have lower Kelvin lighting and slower flows (or good news not in the display)

IMO, despite some popular belief that they can be avoided, the more primitive forms of algae, cynobacteria and bacteria' are going to get in your system regardless of efforts. Certainly leaching or other sources of Po4 and No3 feed and accelerate their growth until other life forms (usually macro algae's, micro fauna, pods etc) take root in the system and can compete for even the slightest amounts of nutrients. I sincerely believe once you get your refugium up and populated you will find that the battle against these nuisance life forms will become much easier.

That's good to know. I'm excited to put it online for sure. I plan on adding some macros etc as well with the rock to help with the nutrient export that it seems my system is lacking.