Pete's 210 build

Almost had a tank disaster last night. I set my LM3 to dose 0.50 daily for alk and calcium... That's .5 Liter, when I meant to does 0.05 or 50ml a day. It went one day and dosed the snot out of my tank, raising my alk from 9-10 to just over 13. Good thing I check the ph readout every night. At 8.66 I was a little worried (normally 8.2-8.4).

Anyway, I've fixed the configuration and all appears to be well. We'll see if there is any long term damage over the next few days.
 
Pete,

Been following your thread and great build out. How're the T5s going for you though and how has growth rate been or how does it seem, even though it's only been a few week(s)?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14136387#post14136387 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by amay121
How're the T5s going for you though and how has growth rate been or how does it seem, even though it's only been a few week(s)?
Click to expand...

Growth rate has been what I expected. Very good. The PAR is at or above what I was seeing with my 250w MH on the old tank. My only complaint is the color of the light and the lack of shimmer lines. I'm working on getting a few more bulbs so i can mess with the color, and I have some ideas for the shimmer. I'm not sure I'm going to add the last 4 x 39w bulbs, as the 12 on there already seem to be doing a fair job.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14137127#post14137127 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kevin95695
I forgot to ask you last night how the tank reacted since the LM3 uberdose. What's up?
Click to expand...

Kevin, the .5 L dose of calcium and alk 2 part doesn't seemed to have phased the tank. I just dialed the LM3 back quite a bit for 2 days and let the alk fall on its own. I think the only saving grace was the 24 hour slow rise, rather than a huge dump of soda ash all at once.

This did bring to mind a great control I need to program into the AC3, "If ph > 8.45 then LM3 off"

Just as a safeguard.

I did a 30 gallon water change yesterday and really couldn't be happier. My skimmer and UV are keeping the water really clear. The carbon is helping do its part and the cyno is on the retreat. I'm getting good to phenominal PE out of almost every piece of SPS in the tank and a few of the brownies I had in the old QT are starting to color up their polyps and the bases are getting some pigment.

On a side note, I got a few frags from a local reefer friend, and since I no longer "trust" anyone's tank and dip the snot out of everything that goes in, I got some ORA pearlberry, put it through the paces of a 6 hour interceptor bath, 5 minutes in double strength Coral Revive and 5 minutes of TMPC. Eh, the coral doesn't look so good. The tissue has come off in a number of places. I'll try to get a picture later in the week if it holds on long enough. I give this piece 50/50 odds as of this morning.

The other acro I got, unknown name, pulled through just fine, and was a much smaller frag.
 
You crazy man! What a great build. I kept waiting to see some crazy closed loop system or a Dialyseas in this thread. But it has everything else! I can't imagine working with the amount of space you had. Unbelievable job!

I would kill to have this kind of traffic through my build thread. I don't have near the bling this system has! What an impressive job.

It is a crazy amount of work, but you made it look easy. The inside of that stand is insane! Look forward to seeing this system progress.
 
I had the opportunity (no, pleasure) to go tank touring and fish shopping with Tony Vargas last weekend. Tony helped me pick out this Carpenter Flasher Wrasse (Paracheilinus carpenteri). It's been hiding until very recently, so here is the first decent picture I've been able to snap.

CarpenterWrasse-Flashing-012209.jpg
 
Yeah, it was cool. I forgot to thank you for getting old, and having a birthday party. BTW, I'd be happy to do it again if we need a host and a room for future speakers.
 
Hello Pete,

nice tank and corals;
but believe me the vlamingii was the wrong selection...
I know a friend who had one in a tank similar size to you - it outgrew it within one year and he had to give him to a large public aquarium (not everyone has this posibility)
And I am taking care of a 660g tank where we had two ones in (one unfortunately got blind) and even in there the fish is now at the limit... - about 14 inches long

this picture was taken one year ago - the fish is larger now
160006k-Alpenrose5.jpg


regards

Markus
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14221104#post14221104 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MarkusII
believe me the vlamingii was the wrong selection...
Click to expand...

The Vlamingi was a gift, and will not be a long term inhabitant. Once he gets to 6 or 7 inches, he will be finding a new home.
 
Saturday, January 24, 2009 - Back to Metal Halides

Well, I feel like a failure, or a looser, or something like that anyway. Darcy and I toured a number of local tanks 2 weekends ago and walked away saying "bring back the shimmer, bedamned the need to run a chiller!"

So, after a little searching, I found a used Maristar from a quasi-local reefer at a fair price, got up in the attic with the help of my friend David, and hung the light. Pictures to follow shortly, but aside from a little light in the eyes when sitting on the couch, we're in love with the Helios 20k bulbs, and the tank no longer towers so tall in the room.

I'm really glad I made fish netting before, as I now need them. My only hope is that I can keep the cats away...
 
What I find interesting is that the power draw is almost identical between my two setups, and the PAR is dang close (T5s being better from about 6" underwater on down. Very different looking light, however. And everyone that held their tongue on the I told you sos... Thanks, you were right, I'm back in the Halide camp. Anyone need some IC660s? :D
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14246272#post14246272 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by amay121
Pete, you just killed me with that last statement. :( I was so looking forward to your whole T5 setup.
Click to expand...

I tried! I wanted to work, but the looks just never compared. The performance was AWESOME! If you're looking for performance, and want better temp control, then I'd go with T5s all day long. With 16 bulbs, messing with the color became a VERY expensive proposition, and not one I wanted to deal with.
 
Hi pete,

it took me a full day to read your thread, lets just say i wasn't productive today in the office, locally im the boss here :)

You have some skills when it comes to documenting!!

Well keep it up with the posts i'll definitely be using you as a cheat sheet when i built my large tank .

Cheers!
 
Couple of updates:

Corals
The color of corals continue to improve across the board. I had to toss one acro that was RTNing and I couldn't save it. It was never happy after the move. I also have had to do some trimming on my setosa. This is the 2nd time in a year that the setosa has started to STN, and the only way for me to solve the problem was the cut out the offending area. Hopefully this will work again.

Fish
The new wrasse is doing great, but my target and psychedelic mandarin are trying to kill each other. Or more aptly, the target it beating the snot out of the other, but I've not been able to get either out.
 
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