Neal's 40g Breeder Reef thread, a place for progress, lotsa pics and some discussion
- Thread starter Pallobi
- Start date
legolas100
New member
Really nice tank dude, very clean all over and just a good eye for aesthetics in general, ill be following along
took a few more pics today, and a couple things...
first my coral beauty angel... hard to get a good pic as he is very swimmy lol
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first my coral beauty angel... hard to get a good pic as he is very swimmy lol
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and i also added a small aquaclear 30 powerhead to my fuge, it has somewhat adjustable flow and i jus wanted a bit for my fuge... hoping it might keep some of the cyano i got goin in there down as i've heard it doesnt like flow... but i do like the powerhead in there... actually it moves the clumps of macro around and rotates them without tearing them all up...
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and another shot, you can see my arrow crab... i always thought they were awesome... especially bigger they get... he should get plenty of food in there...
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and the rock i have in there, you can see some of the bubble caulerpa i added breifly at the beginning and a bit of it attached to the rock, and now its growing out, so thats cool... not sure ill let it grow too much, but its ok for now...
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and another shot, you can see my arrow crab... i always thought they were awesome... especially bigger they get... he should get plenty of food in there...
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and the rock i have in there, you can see some of the bubble caulerpa i added breifly at the beginning and a bit of it attached to the rock, and now its growing out, so thats cool... not sure ill let it grow too much, but its ok for now...
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and a little pic of the 20 long i set up to get some rock goin with some bacteria from rock also added from my sump... its been in there bout 5 weeks (the sump) so i figure it'll have a bit of bacteria on it or at least enough to get it populating... i added a fwe flakes to rot earlier today...
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and a pic of my whole set up so far... i want to add some sort of smaller gallonage, 4' tank right over my 20 long so i may plumb it to my sump and have a few "fish only" fish... and a purple tang cuz i've always wanted one... i will leave the 20 long right where it is... maybe use it for a quarantine or something... i have the wood for the stand, and a temporary light for it so far... i wanted either a 65g 4 foot tank if i can get it... i really jus need the tank, and maybe one bulkhead as i think i got one i need... the flow wont be too much to and from the sump, but the flow in the "fish only" itslelf will be pretty darn good... i have (2) Koralila 4's i can use... should work well for the start of things...
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and i think i need to add a little more of that rock that is now in the 20 long back to my sump for filtering benefits...
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and i think i need to add a little more of that rock that is now in the 20 long back to my sump for filtering benefits...
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ok, so i noticed my calcium was low the other day i tested it to be 380... ive used for the 2nd time, and 2nd day in a row, the Seachem Fusion 1 and 2 calcium and alkalinity builder... the calcium seemed to test bout the same, maybe even a bit lower this time... i guess for the time being ill jus keep with the dosing daily and see if it doesnt start rising... the rest seem good...
Salinity 1.024
nitrites 0
nitrates 0
phosphates 0 - .25 if that
ph 8.4
Kh 12
calcium 360-380 ... this part makes me wonder...
still need to test Ammonia for giggles, but i couldnt find the ammonia reading card lol, darn cat, i know it was her
i use instant ocean regular grade sea salt... do they typically have low calcium levels? and if so, is there a good buffer that will make up for it if the one i have now doesnt work out? any input would be awesome
:beer:
Salinity 1.024
nitrites 0
nitrates 0
phosphates 0 - .25 if that
ph 8.4
Kh 12
calcium 360-380 ... this part makes me wonder...
still need to test Ammonia for giggles, but i couldnt find the ammonia reading card lol, darn cat, i know it was her
i use instant ocean regular grade sea salt... do they typically have low calcium levels? and if so, is there a good buffer that will make up for it if the one i have now doesnt work out? any input would be awesome
:beer:
icycoral
I glue animals to rocks
Hey bud there are a few things that will give you lower calcium levels. One is a lot of corals using it up (not there yet). Phosphates cause calcium to precip out of solution (your levels was undetectible by my test kit but a low range kit will give you a better idea of where your at). And finally a higher mag level will allow higher level of disolved calcium. Magnesium keeps calcium in solution and allows it to achieve higher levels of saturation. I have been told by someone that having calc of 380 or higher won't make a differance that at that level corals won't use it any quicker but I keep my levels at
dkh 8-9
mag 1480
calc 480
IMHO you should check your mag level and maybe suppliment that to achieve a higher calc level with a lower dkh. if you do adj your mag do it slowly and only with a test kit to check your level if you like can bring a sample over and we'll check it. Also there is a great thread in the sps keepers forum on mag dkh and calc levels
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1179702
check it out. Nice coral beauty btw. And about the filter sock collecting your pods not a big deal if you want to put pods in your main dsp just take some macro out of the fuge and shake it in the tank and put it back in the fuge.
Stay cool man :beer:
Bigjoe2531
Premium Member
Very interesting info....This is the stuff i need to learn..before i jump.
Bigjoe2531
Premium Member
What range should dKh be in normally? , and What range should mag be to help keep Calcium in solution longer? Does it depend on how much calcium is already in soln.? It's never easy is it?:mixed:
Bigjoe2531
Premium Member
Hey Pallobi, Did you see the TOTM? Un-freakin-believable....He said he was using ATI t-5's ...I wonder if he just switched from mh. Is it really possible to get that much growth from t-5 lighting? Really?....It's something i've been struggling with for a while, whether to go mh + t-5 or just t-5's for my tank. My dim's will be 72 x 36 x 30. What are your thoughts?
according to alomst all of the dkh recommendations for liveaquaria sold corals according to foster and smith should be 8 - 12... i assume about 10 is ideal, maybe and im sure others know for certain... and from what ive read your mag level needs to be at least 1250...but i havent read the thread icycoral has posted here yet either...
ok, i spent ALOT of time reading up on T-5's or at least wondering and inquiring others for their experience and pretty much the jist i get is that t-5 are really good lights given you buy quality bulbs... i have actual heard a few peeps say that they kinda "break the conventional lighting rules" as far as the whole watt per gallon thing... for example, i have a 234 total watts of lighting for my 40 at 3 feet lights... that would give me nearly 6 watts of light per gallon... what most would say is very sufficient... however if you take the same 4' fixture with 6 bulbs, with them being 54 watts each instead of 39, and put it over a 90 gallon, you would only have a bout 3 1/2 watts per gallon, however the lights are so good, that it is all you would need for that 90g as well... i dont know too mch bout lighting and have hardly any experience with good lights. but these t-5's run ALOT ALOT cooler and see to give off a great amount of light... on top of that, they cost a fraction of the price to run each month...
and not to mention you can completely mix and match the bulbs to make your won look... very cool to me
ok, so i added an auto top off today 
still need to set up a bigger and better reservoir somewhere nearby, but this will work for now... this is pretty cool i think
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should make life a bit easier lol
still need to set up a bigger and better reservoir somewhere nearby, but this will work for now... this is pretty cool i think
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should make life a bit easier lol
add i was playing around with the macro shot setting a bit too
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ok, so i jus took a calcium test of the 30 gallons of rodi i brought up to 1.026... it is what i'll be changing my water with this weekend... it measures bout 400 to 420 ppm... bout 50 to 60 more than what i'm getting for a reading in my reef... i thought maybe the salt was a little low in calcium, guess this is not the case good to know, but the troubleshooting has jus begun lol... anyways, jus wanted to post my findings
good to know, but the troubleshooting has jus begun lol... anyways, jus wanted to post my findings 
