ReefWreak finally got an upgrade!

Congrats on the new tank!

Congrats on the new tank!

I'm looking forward to watching this one grow in!

I'd hang onto the biocube if you have a spot for it, could be a frag tank or a holding tank, backup tank. Whatever you get for it won't be a fraction of the effort you put into tuning it to your liking.

I'd be glad to donate a few frags if you want to make the trip up to Westchester.

Howard
 
And I have enver bothered with QT first. makes no sense to me. Lets oput a possibly sick fish into a QT tank to observe and et eating, Ok understandable, but what happens if said fish is sick? You get them eating them TTM them only to dump them right back into the same QT they were just in. Makes no sense to me.

I have always done TTM, then QT for observation and to fatten them up. At least this way my QT isn't infected.
I assume they would use one of their TTM holding tanks for the initial QT and not a cycled QT tank. Many (like myself) do not cycle any tanks for QT. We just swap out water constantly. Sure costs a bit more on salt BUT I fill QT tanks from DT and put fresh into DT so I do have benefits.

Why Are you worried about a calk reactor for now? Your ways away from needing one of those. BRS bulk chemicals will get you a nice 2 part system that will be good for a while, and be loads cheaper then even a used reactor.

BRS bulk chems dont add various other items like trace elements that you get from a calcium reactor. You also need to monitor levels with dosing in your containers vs. a calrx that will go at least 8 months before you need to even look at it. My calrx media is still going stong as I have lower usage so I should get 18-24 months out of it though my CO2 is every 8 months to be swapped.
 
Hey Eric, just checking in so I could get updated on your build... nice chatting with you last night. Lookin’ sweet Dude! :D
 
BRS bulk chems dont add various other items like trace elements that you get from a calcium reactor. You also need to monitor levels with dosing in your containers vs. a calrx that will go at least 8 months before you need to even look at it. My calrx media is still going stong as I have lower usage so I should get 18-24 months out of it though my CO2 is every 8 months to be swapped.

I totally agree with you on the CALRx, but at this stage of the game with very little coral, 2 part would be cheaper to start with. Specially since he just ponied up for the tank and all the goodie

As far as trace elements, WC's will replace any trace element thats depleted.

You have to remember were talking a fairly new tank with very low coral/bioload.
 
I'm looking forward to watching this one grow in!

I'd hang onto the biocube if you have a spot for it, could be a frag tank or a holding tank, backup tank. Whatever you get for it won't be a fraction of the effort you put into tuning it to your liking.

I'd be glad to donate a few frags if you want to make the trip up to Westchester.

Howard

Thanks for popping in Howard! Honestly, I'm going to try to sell the cube. I don't want a second tank hanging around permanently. I'll keep a filter pad square in my sump, and just use some of the spare rubbermaid tubs I have around when doing QT/TTM, though I won't be needing that for a while anyway (I hope!)

I hope your tank is doing well. I/we do have to get up to Westchester and visit one of these days. I bet your tank has grown in beautifully.

Hey Eric, just checking in so I could get updated on your build... nice chatting with you last night. Lookin' sweet Dude! :D

Hey Leon, thanks for fielding my barrage of CaRx questions. I ended up picking up the GEO 612, a 20lb reactor, and a Carbondoser that doesn't work. I'll take some pics and reach out to the mfg and see if they'll do a rebuild for their $50, but without knowing too much about regulators, it looks like the solenoid is disconnected entirely, so I'm not sure if that's a good break or a bad break. If they can't repair it for $50, I'll just do a custom build.

My wife wants our sodastream back up and running, so I'm debating whether to just disconnect the CaRx regulator from the tank to do SodaStream refills when those tanks run out (every 3 months or so), or do a direct line hookup before the reg, since SodaStream either has a built-in reg, or doesn't need a reg for its setup. But if I do go direct hook-up route, it gets automatic wife approval to buy/build a new regulator.

Also, I found the fishes I've been looking for, QTed and treated from a reputable vendor, so I'm done with fishes until my Sailfin tang down the road. Now I have to figure out how to feed them enough to keep them alive (currently feeding 2x per evening after work - 6:30-7PM and 9PM or so).

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Also, I can't go to a frag swap and not pick up frags... I know I said I wasn't going to litter the tank... But I wanted to fill in the LPS area, as well as found some really nice stuff from Username Invalid (Jay) for a reasonable price, so I have a few SPS to get started with too. Now I have to find some orange/pink/yellow to offset this blue/green

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If you go the custom CO2 regulator route, lemme know. Like I said, I'll be more than happy walk you through the process. I've bookmarked a lot of the eBay links for primo parts from my Matheson CO2 regulator build. I still owe ya one for helping me with welding a few summers ago! :D

*edit - D'oh! :facepalm: Soldering... not welding.
 
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If you go the custom CO2 regulator route, lemme know. Like I said, I'll be more than happy walk you through the process. I've bookmarked a lot of the eBay links for primo parts from my Matheson CO2 regulator build. I still owe ya one for helping me with welding a few summers ago! :D

Thanks Leon, I appreciate it. With your CaRx/regulator help we're even, so don't even worry about it, but we'll definitely keep in touch. Also, make sure to specify that I helped with soldering, not welding. Otherwise someone is going to come to my front door with a pile of steel square tube and ask me to build them a stand, and I don't think my soldering gun is up for the task.

Elegance or torch? Hard to tell from the pic. I'm going with elegance.

Aussie elegance. While I'm still quite weary, it looked very healthy. I'm going to try to keep it well fed and low to the sand bed in the LPS/lagoon area. It seems very sensitive to too much flow, so I have to find it the least flow place I can. I'm still trying to figure out the best place/way to create flow in the tank too. I have a nice gyre going currently with the 2 MP40s maxing out at 40%, which I think is fine for an empty tank, but I know I'll have to make changes before too long.
 
Bah if it's an aussie it should be fine. From my readings it's only the indo varieties that suffer from ecs. It can happen to an aussie if it's ever been in a tank that had one with ecs. I think you'll be fine though. :thumbsup:

Definitely low flow and on the sandbed if it's base is conical shaped.
 
It's amazing that it's been a little over a month since this tank first started. It was really fascinating to see the tank go through the ever-present algae stage (green water!), and then brown algae on the rocks, and now, it's already starting to get the early green/purple/pink hue of coralline too. Very exciting stuff.

As far as livestock goes, everything is so far so good for the most part. The only exception is that one of the anthias got pop-eye pretty bad in one eye. It has only gotten worse over the week. I'm hoping it goes down/goes away, like it did for my female clown, but we'll see. The anthia spends most of the day under a rock hiding, but when food comes out she still eats voraciously, and I've started adding Kent garlic xtreme to the food as well, so hopefully that helps ( :: shrug :: ).

With the regulator for the calcium reactor, I've decided to fix the carbondoser, as well as start building up a custom rig, and whichever one I prefer I'll stick with. I finally figured out what was wrong with the carbondoser. The regulator seems to work just fine and hold pressure and dial-in to lower PSI no problem. The problem lies in the solenoid valve. It looks like it is a Clippard EV series valve. The original valve either was custom for Carbondoser, or was old stock and they've changed their part numbers since this was made. Either way, I'm fairly certain it is the EV-2-12 2 way valve. The reason it doesn't work is because the solenoid must have gotten water in it at some point, or at least humidity, and was pretty heavily rusted on the inside.

It looked beautiful and brand new on the outside, but the valve itself was all rusted. The actuator actually cleaned up nicely, and the interior cleaned up nicely, but the valve that opens and closes was stuck, presumably rusted, shut. I didn't want to see if I could use liquid wrench or anything to get it moving again, so I just ordered a new valve, and will drop it in and it should work just fine since the rest of the setup seems to work just fine.

So I'll play with the two regs and see what I like. LQT and I have been talking a lot, and I've seen mention a few times of the idea of hybrid Carbondoser with a high-end regulator, but I think I'd rather sell one or the other once I see what I prefer.

Next is to clean up/clean out the GEO 612 reactor itself. Some of the plumbing pieces are missing hose fittings, so I may have to put in some John Guest valves, or find other replacement parts for it. Annoying, but not the end of the world. It looks like if I wanted a new main assembly from GEO, I'd have to also replace the lid, so that could get expensive. I'll just work on replacing the incomplete hose connections for now. I'm very empowered in that respect after replacing the leaky 1/4" output hose from my RO system right after moving.

I still have to clean up the nano and get it posted up for sale. I think I'll sell the tank, stand, upgraded LEDs, Reefkeeper lite, and 2 part dosing system as one package and see what I can get for those. They served me well, and it's legitimately a turn-key SPS system, so once I get it cleaned up, it'll feel more worth the value, and hopefully it will appeal to someone around here since everyone is cramped for space but want to grow beautiful SPS.
 
Nice colors flashing around while the tank develops and matures.

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Corals look pretty happy too. I'm feeding 2-3 times per day, 1 cube each of PE mysis and PE calanus that I had since the old tank. I'm cleaning the filter socks once a week, and the skimmer isn't pulling as much as I'd like, so I'm having my friend come by this week to check it out since he's had his Nyos for a number of years now and is familiar with tweaking it.

I put the biocube up for sale in the local forum... We'll see if I get any movement on that. It's really a super setup for someone stuck in a smaller apartment but wanting the full SPS/clam experience. Kept nicely colored sticks no problem. I hope I can replicate it with this new tank too.

This poor anthia got popeye from when I added her to the tank. She's kept eating which is good, and it looks like the swelling/popping is finally coming down, so I thinks she's on the other side of the hill, and hopefully she makes a full recovery.

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Finally, I'm hoping to get the calcium reactor set up soon. I ended up buying a new solenoid for the Carbondoser I picked up, and I bet that will fix it (I hope so!). Also picked up some new parts to do a nice dual-stage reg too, and I'll just figure out which I like more once they're both operational. I still need to figure out a feed pump too. Is it the end of the world if I use a aqualifter? Those Cole-Parmer and other brand pumps are so damn expensive... But I guess it ain't cheap to play the CaRx game...
 
I'd put the carbondoser on dual stage for the best of both worlds.

As for feed pump look at spectrapure ultra precise ato pump. It is what I use and it is able to be set for various feed amounts... it's awesome with 5 year warranty for like 250.

Aqualifter or such will get you going but using needle valve on effluent is not really precise and clogs over time.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 
Rumor has it that BRS will be carrying a variable speed Kamoer peristaltic pump for CaRx use sometime soon. Also Spectrapure is supposedly working on a variable speed CaRx pump as well (heard that while chatting with Serdar from GEO at RAP and MACNA last year). When I had my CaRx set up, I was fortunate enough to pick up a Watson Marlow 505s variable speed peristaltic pump for just $250 from eBay. I was able to dial it in in 3 ml/min increments using size 25 tubing and it was dead silent.
 
Just for another option, pac sun(kore fifth company) is into CalRx now too. No idea how relaible thier stuff is, but they have a peristaltic pump designed for calrx setups for about $350.

I only know because I was on their site last night looking for software for the kore fifth.
 
Just for another option, pac sun(kore fifth company) is into CalRx now too. No idea how relaible thier stuff is, but they have a peristaltic pump designed for calrx setups for about $350.

I only know because I was on their site last night looking for software for the kore fifth.

That is a replacement pump for thier unit and not a standalone unless we looked at different items. They have an optical sensor and such built into their units which the pump uses. Their units are still a bit buggy from what I gather.

Rumor has it that BRS will be carrying a variable speed Kamoer peristaltic pump for CaRx use sometime soon. Also Spectrapure is supposedly working on a variable speed CaRx pump as well (heard that while chatting with Serdar from GEO at RAP and MACNA last year). When I had my CaRx set up, I was fortunate enough to pick up a Watson Marlow 505s variable speed peristaltic pump for just $250 from eBay. I was able to dial it in in 3 ml/min increments using size 25 tubing and it was dead silent.

It's funny as i was put into contact with Serdar from Slief when I was looking at other options of pumps as Slief knew he was working with Spectrapure. He is actually the one who told me to go with the ultra precise pump as it was what they are basing their newer unit off of. They will put in different rollers and remove the water height sensor obviously but it should be pretty similar to current pump. The new rollers will allow for continous duty as opposed to a certain amount of time in a 20 second interval. IE I run for 12 seconds and then off for 8 and so on.
 
I'd put the carbondoser on dual stage for the best of both worlds.

As for feed pump look at spectrapure ultra precise ato pump. It is what I use and it is able to be set for various feed amounts... it's awesome with 5 year warranty for like 250.

Aqualifter or such will get you going but using needle valve on effluent is not really precise and clogs over time.

The spectrapure is on the list for sure, they're just known for being excellent and reliable pumps. I'm not sure why, because when people say they're just the same rollers as the Jaebo or Kore dosers with USA packaging, it makes me a little nervous to spend that much, but I do know they have a fantastic reputation.

I'd love to keep the carbondoser and add it to the dual stage, but if I can sell it working for $150, that wouldn't be a bad call, and would offset most of the dual-stage regulator build.

Rumor has it that BRS will be carrying a variable speed Kamoer peristaltic pump for CaRx use sometime soon. Also Spectrapure is supposedly working on a variable speed CaRx pump as well (heard that while chatting with Serdar from GEO at RAP and MACNA last year). When I had my CaRx set up, I was fortunate enough to pick up a Watson Marlow 505s variable speed peristaltic pump for just $250 from eBay. I was able to dial it in in 3 ml/min increments using size 25 tubing and it was dead silent.

I've been salivating after I read your post from like November on R 2 R about the BRS peristaltic pump, but it still ain't here and MACNA came and went. (speaking of which, where the hell is the Neptune Trident - I know Soul will know more info)

Just for another option, pac sun(kore fifth company) is into CalRx now too. No idea how relaible thier stuff is, but they have a peristaltic pump designed for calrx setups for about $350.

I only know because I was on their site last night looking for software for the kore fifth.

Kore fifth has been somewhat reliable, but for $350, that's Cole Parmer Masterflex territory. Would be nice to have something smaller though. I dunno, lots of options to explore. I appreciate everyone's feedback and recommendations!
 
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