JapanReef - 450 gallon In-Wall system

So just finished week 1 of QT and the 2 Foxface and Potters Angel are doing well and eating a variety of food. The quarantine tank started getting a bit cloudy and I couldn't understand it at first. Then I checked the UV and there was no flow going through. But just moving it a bit fixed it and water started flowing. This morning the water was crystal clear. Not sure what is in the tank that gives these algae blooms but without the UV unit I would have a hard time. Can't pimp their usage on QTs enough. The last few weeks of teh last QT cycle with teh Niger Trigger and clownfish the water started going green and a 75% water change wouldn't fix it. My UV lamp was bsuted and I was waiting on a new one and i just managed to scrape through on that cycle with many large water changes. The water was getting pretty bad towards the end though. Before I started this QT cycle I did a 90% water change and the bloom was still coming back. No worries now though with a working UV. Love it. :)

Stared dosing Vodka this week so we'll see how that goes. I started feeding a bit more.

Added another Tunze 6105. The magnets on 3/4" acrylic are seriously weak. The cord wrapped over the side of the tank basically stops it from falling off. The 6205 is supposed to come with a magnet that is good up to 1". Why the hell can't they just put that on the 6105? Makes no sense to me. Is there some kind of magnet upgrade kit so you can get the 6205 magnets on a 6105? Haven't seen them but the instruction manual suggests they exist.
 
Looks like my thread might finally be fixed. Haven't been able to post for a few days. :(
 
I feel the same way about the 6105 on 3/4" acrylic...it just barely sticks. But I must say it's a great powerhead and I like the fact that you can aim them!

Sorry to hear about your Potters...glad the others are doing well. I am really happy you are back in the game. I am learning a lot from your thread.
 
The other Potters is doing well as are the two Foxfaces.

The Tunze thing is bothering me. I have 2 and one sticks okay and the other doesn't really. They provide enough flow in my 6' foot tank - I definitely don't need teh 6205. I'm now trying to figure out flow that doesn't cause bare patches of sand on the bottom but still provides good flow. I have turned off the Hammerhead for now. Provides awesome flow but the noise bothers me. The Tunzes are just silent.

I went fishing in my overflows today, Been meaning to check them for 6 months but never got around to it. I found 3 Banggai Cardinals - 2 in one and 1 in the other. One was pretty large and when I saw it side by side with others that were born in the tank I could tell it came from the first clutch of eggs which was February I think. One is super tiny and must have come from a recent spawn that I didn't see in the DT. That makes 8 in total - 6 kids.

My overflows feed into my Deltec 902 Skimmer so I hooked up a bypass, removed the Dursos and flushed them out into a bucket. Was a bit hectic but my daughter and I managed it. They are in the DT now. One of the adult Banggais is checking them out hard and there is some aggression. The newcomers just have to figure out they need to be on the side where the LTA is and the cave and they'll be safe. By the way, when I redid the aquascape the 3 babies I had then were removed from the protection of the LTA. One of the adults hunted the babies mercilessly but they are found each other again and hang out near the LTA. There has been no inter-Cardinal aggression since.

I really am getting alot of enjoyment out the tank since redoing the aquascape and I'm ready to move onto the next stage. So I'm finally going to get a calcium reactor. On Marine Depot you can get the reactor, regulator and even the CO2 tanks. All I have to figure out is where to get the CO2 from. I'll phone a few places that I get fish from in Tokyo and I'm sure they'll point me in the right direction.

So what I need from the community is recommendations on reactor and regulator. I'll be getting from Marine Depot or Premium Aquatics. PA have GEO reactors and they look pretty cheap compared to many I've seen and they seem popular (prolly for that reason). Any ideas?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15457399#post15457399 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Hop
Welcome back to your thread:D
Click to expand...
Cheers Hop. How things going with your tank?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15458031#post15458031 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NexDog
Cheers Hop. How things going with your tank?
Click to expand...

It's going. actually can't complain... Nor brag, but things are going OK... I've been trying to keep up on this thread, I just don't have much time to post. Glad to see you getting back into things!
 
pH probe/controller. must have needle valve to fine tune CO2 output. Many regulators come with it & a solenoid valve. I controlled my CO2 with the reactor probe as well as the tank probe. For all teh PITA it is, you might also consider a modified/expanded Balling Method.
 
I am using the American Marine PH controller and I love it!

http://www.americanmarineusa.com/phcontrollerfacts.html

I also use the Milwaukee Co2 Regulator w/solenoid,
I have used it for 2 years with no problems. I recently had a small problem with the solenoid, believe it or not it was only a voltage issue, I just plugged it into another electrical outlet and it has has not skipped a beat since.

Don't forget to buy the bubble counter liquid.
 
I don't think you can run a reactor safely without a pH controller. (JMO) Bubble counters are nice for a visual inspection of your feed rate, but not entirely necessary. They are cheap though, and I see no reason not to have one.

Modified Balling (just a term I use) is using a series of metered pumps (dosing pumps) to dose calcium, magnesium, alkalinity, strontium, etc. In my next build I will utilize a series of 6 pumps, but probably still have a Ca reactor. I guess I could surmise the biggest lesson learned from my last project was the difficulty in maintaining alkalinity.

Using a calcium reactor pushes pH down, while using kalkwasser pushes it up. That's why you see so many reef keepers, and especially those with large systems, running both. The issue for me was that the kalk was only running as a top-off, and therefore it was inconsistent because of the light cycle, season, etc.

So I would consider a 6 pump array for my next tank.

-- one for strontium
-- one for calcium
-- two for alkalinity
-- one for magnesium
-- one for iodine

As the reef grows, I would probably have to add another for calcium, but I will consider using a calium reactor as well. I really liked my multi-media reactor, and would probably build one very similar again.
 
Dosing gets expensive as I don't know how to make cheap diy 2-Part. A Ca Reactor and dosing Kalk via Tunze Osmolator is what I need to do.

So is the solenoid on the milwaukee regulator the same as a Precision Needle Valve?
 
no. The solenoid only turns it on and off electrically, based on getting power from a controller, timer, etc. The needle valve is a hand adjustment for the CO2 flow. So yo uhave 3 valves inline. The first is the tank valve. Then the main regulator valve, and then the needle valve.

BTW, losing corals is a LOT more expensive than dosing. (I am just sayin'! :lol: )
 
Jonathan - I didn't find anything like B-Ionic in Japan or I would consider it. I poke to SunnyX a while back and he doses 220ml of Calcium and Alk per day. That's almost 2 gallons. I couldn't ship that much from the US without going broke quickly. It's heavy and costs $150 per 2 gallons if I recall. That's why I stopped years ago and why I need a reactor. Are you saying that a reactor and kalk top-off is not enough to maintain decent levels? Doesn't that fly in the face of conventional wisdom? Surely a reactor and Kalk is the standard way of doing things?

So I will need:

Calcium Reactor
Regulotor with Solenoid
Needle Valve
PH Monitor

Anything else I need to know?
 
well, most of the advanced reef keepers I know end up running a drip anyway, just to keep up alkalinity. You really should be able to make your own solutions fairly inexpensively and primarily out of home products.

I think running a reactor and kalk has its intrinsic risks, and I am looking at mitigating that via dosing. For my system, even though I used evaporative cooling, it was highly variable between 8 - 14 gallons per day, and it still did not keep up alkalinity all year. Quality of kalkwasser used does have a big impact as well.
 
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