nano reef cube... apartment build

i have used zip ties repeatedly with great success. mind you these are not the standard brittle bargain store type. I have had more trouble with those plastic clips. soon the chiller will be more permanently installed further from the tank and the plumbing from the chiller to the return redone. i had to put in a few too many elbows to get it installed quickly.

as for fish... I have three fish right now. a cardinal, purple pseudochromis and purple firefish. the 2 clowns and butterfly (not a tang) all met untimely ends. i was very surprised that they did as all were doing very well.
 
contrary to RC standards, I've been Balling Light to supplement cal/alk/mag in my tank. past tanks have done very well with kalk additions only, but I've been reading so many great things about coral growth using the Balling Method I wanted to give it a try.

here is my recipe. this recipe is a modified balling light (very similar to typical 2-part).
jug 1: calcium chloride (recipe 1 1gal kit from bulk reef supply)
fauna marin Strontium Barium Complex
fauna marin Heavy Metal Complex
jug 2: sodium carbonate (recipe 1gal kit from bulk reef supply)
fauna marin Iodine Fluoric Complex
jug 3: Magnesium chloride/magnesium sulfate (again from BRS)
fauna marin ultramin S

dosing is automated by a Litermeter III. i started with 30ml of each Jug added daily. by measuring the cal/alk/mag levels every few days i have adjusted the additions to keep the parameters in range. right now i am adding 70ml of calcium, 40ml of alk and 40 of magnesium. i am still working out the quantity of the magnesium addition, and expect that all the amounts will need to increase as coral growth accelerates.

true balling relies on adding NaCl free salt with the magnesium and the removal of equal part tank water to balance the salinity. for me balling light is easier, and the negatives are countered by weekly water changes. balling light also uses sodium hydrogen carbonate (traditional 2-part recipe 2). the choice of alk additive was for no other reason than its what i had and others have shown it to work fine. although eventually I may go to a true balling and see how it differs.

so far I have seen great color and growth in all corals since beginning Balling. But I would love to hear of others who are using this method to supplement about their practices and results.
 
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What kind of butterfly was that? I loved the colors of him it's a shame he didn't make it. I love the build I wish I had the money to put something like that together.
 
Very nice build! I'm bookmarking it now so I can steal some of your ideas, as I'm looking to replace my Aquapod with something custom built and more importantly. . .glass. Acrylic and I just don't get along. . .scratches everywhere.
 
Shucks I love the color of it and think it would look great in my tank lol. I love the build though Good luck going forward.
 
I can't seem to come up with any good weekend updates.

Thanks for the comments everyone. I'll try to get some real updates soon.

ANC. I will find out the name of that fish next time I make it to my friends store.
 
Its been a while since I last updated. Its a lot of work maintaining a good tank thread... I hope to be a bit more consistent.

Tank has reached the 1-year point. The last 6 months have been mostly good. Lost a few corals that were added, and a few fish while I was away for a long vacation, but things are mostly thriving. Most of the corals that have been in the tank from the beginning have grown a lot, while the newer ones are still acclimating but beginning to grow. check out the growth on the tubb purple polyp birdsnest in the last 6 months alone.

10-0806_FTS.JPG

10-0805_wholetop.JPG


Since last updated I have added 3 significant pieces of equipment. An Apex controller, Deltec skimmer and Acan Lighting LED. The skimmer was more of a want than a need, but the other 2 were things I really needed to do.

The Apex was the first piece added. I have the basic package, controller and single EnergyBar 8. Setup was simple, connected it to my laptop with the network port and through the web based interface to program the basic functions.

main pump program
main-pump.JPG


chiller program
chiller.JPG


Mostly, I use the controller as a monitor. I have it setup to be viewed from any computer through the web. Its great to be able to monitor temp (my biggest issue) from anywhere I am.

Temp graph image before LED.
reef_8-4.JPG


Since adding the Apex, I have also changed to LED lighting. The overall power consumption of the light is significantly less, but also the chiller runs much less. I’ll post an update about the light soon, but the image below give you soke idea of the electrical saving from the LED and chiller running less.

reef_8-6.JPG


stay tuned for detailed report on the LED and skimmer.

10-0805_deltec.JPG
 
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