Return to the Hobby 34g Solana

Thanks, ya I can't wait to get coralline algae over everything specially the pumps (will regret saying that later) but right now they stand out like sore thumbs.

here is kinda a quick ps comp of what i'm thinking in terms of coral placement.
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Very nice! how many pounds of sand did you use?

Hi Med, I used around 15lbs I guess. I used a bunch of it to glue to the rock wall and I probably have 1/4 to 1/3rd left in the bag.

Updates for the past couple days.

Last nite, I did a 10 gallon water change so today I tested everything. I also decided to keep it all in a google spreadsheet. You can check out and follow it here. Ph and alk is a little down after the water change but not to bad, and I'm seeing a reduction in phosphates and nitrates.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub...ZFhsTXBGTUFZellSWTZ3QkhiLVE&hl=en&output=html

Water, change or EcoBak not sure how much did what, but I'm glad to see the reduction regardless of the cause. In order to take advantage of the pellets and gfo, I decided to order a BRS dual chamber reactor.

In terms of ATO. I was fed up with the the maximini jet. It sucks for ATO somebody suggested it some where. It's a terrible idea. I switched to one of my Drews dosing pumps, but it's slow. So I sucked it up and also ordered a 50ml/m dosing pump from BRS for the ATO.

So, with all the upgrade stuff out of the way.. here are some photos.

Full Tank Shots. - Thinking of moving the slimer

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Top down shots

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Acans (thank you austinreefs!)

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-Lakers Acan!
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Thanks, I'm getting some new frags on thusday! Can't wait.

Plenty of progress this weekend on the equipment end. Installed the BRS 50ml/m doser in place of my maximini jet for my ATO.. MUCH better choice. ATO is now just a clean drip instead of a splurge of kalk. I'm not getting huge spikes, and it works all the time, every time. It's also a smaller line, and I believe it runs less and uses less power which is nice.. but anything I saved with that was counter acted by the installing of a BRS dual chamber media reactor. I moved the biopellets/rowa into the reactor but since it's sitting a bit lower then my (sump aka tank) I had to use a maxi jet 1200 to make sure there was enough flow threw the reactor to tumble the pellets and the rowa. On the plus side I was able to move the return for it to the intake of the skimmer as suggested for biopellets. I initially planned to put it under the stand for a clean look, but decided to first put it outside so I can easily keep an on in it, and also so I don't make a mess in the stand where all my power outlets are when I need to change the media in the reactor. I also was able to put it higher up on the stand by putting on the outside. it's an OK compromise for ease of use.

Another big improvment (if not the biggest of all). Was I decided to move my Tunzee 9002 up higher in the water column. I basically moved it to the top of the inTank collection cup sits maybe a 1/4" below the top of the tank. This made a HUGE difference in the skimmers performance, the size of the bubbles changed as well as my ability to adjust it. I was having the same problem it seems alot of people have on here where it's either not skimmer (outside of collecting skimate in the neck) or pouring out and filling up the cup in front of your eyes. Moving the skimmer higher in the water column allowed appears to have allowed me a higher degree of adjustablility out of the skimmer. Where before I was make tiny turns and seeing huge differences now I can tune it with 1/2 turns and 1/4 turns. I also had to tighten it up a fair bit. I'm going to watch it over the next week as things may change with fluctuation in my water.

Next, I ran the gambit of water tests (before all this), coming back with signs of improvements. alk stabilized at 8.50, mag still at 1350, calc at 430. Salnity at 1.024, ph moving up to 8.04, nitrates appear down closer to 0 but still "5" according the crapatastic api test kit, and finally phosphates are down to .21 from .4.

Hopefully a few more water changes, and some improved perforance from the biopellets/gfo and I'll be down to 0/0 on the "trates".

After all was said and done, I did a 5 gallon water change and used the BRS reactor to drain the water and filter out the first 5 gallons threw the media.

Coming up this week:

Thursday my gf is coming back home with some sweet frags from a socal reefer, and 20 gallons of NSW from scripps!

Can't wait to get my first piece of 500$ efflo. I'm not a "named" coral guy, but I really dig efflos!

Tuesday my new light should be showing up. Picked up a used AB 250w DE w/2x24w T5s from a fellow RC member. The bulbs that come with it are pretty new.. I'm not sure if I'm going to like the colour but I will give them a shot before I go back to my old faithfull 20k Helios, blue++ and pro coral.
 
what reactor and how much of the biopellets are you using?

I'm using this

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http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store...reactors/dual-brs-gfo-and-carbon-reactor.html

As far as the pellet amount when I started (in the media bag) I used 100ml or so but I added a fair bit when I put them in the reactor so they wouldn't float with that few. If I had to guess I would think about 200ml-250ml I um..sorta knocked it over when I was filling it, and dropped some and then added some more so I don't have an exact measurement. What I like about these pellets verses vodka is you can't really OD like you can with vodka. I'm just using the reactor as is. I tried to find those little "sewing" things that alot of people use to replace the foam but had no luck.
 
nice... i'm considering the pellet thing. I've seen some people have bacteria blooms with pellets.
 
nice... i'm considering the pellet thing. I've seen some people have bacteria blooms with pellets.

It can happen, I've had it happen with vodka, and even with over feeding a NSW tank, but I've only had had bacteria blooms give me issues on skimmerless tanks, otherwise tank looks cloudy for a couple days then it clears up cleaner then it's ever been with no ill effect.
 
I was looking at that one to, it's the optimum choice for pellet reactors. I just wanted to run GFO as well, or if I ever need to stop running GFO I'll put carbon in the second chamber. In terms of brand, I just picked one randomly that they had at the shop I was at. I read good things about them online (WM ecobak) supposedly they don't clump as easily as biopelllets but so far it's to early for me to tell how effective or even if they are effective at all. There is just to much going on in my tank between water changes and still being a young tank to be able to attribute the reduction of N/P's to the pellets. I haven't used any other brands so I can't compare. I do know however that in the past I dosed Vodka, ZeoBac, ZeoAA, and Phols. I'm thinking of adding MB7 or the same cocktail as before.

In terms of pump size, if you are going to have it right next to, or inside your sump you won't need as big of a pump. I'd probably get a maxijet 900, you might be able to get away with a 600 depending on the amount of pellets.

In terms of how much to go with, I'd start with recommended or a little less and then add from there. It seems to be working out for me. Although I guess it depends on what state your tank is in to begin with if it's overly nutrient rich you may end up with a bacteria bloom no matter what you do.
 
Got my "new for me" Halide setup today. It's a 24" 250w DE w/2x24w T5 Aquamedic Pendant. It came with a new 14.5 G-man bulb, and 2 UVL UV bulbs. It's is BRIGHT Can't say I'm a fan of the colour, so I went ahead and orderd some different combo ATI t5s, and a reeflux 20k which came pretty highly recommend when used on an eletronic ballast like this.

Here are a couple quick shots I took that I think show a pretty good idea of the difference between the 150w setup, and 250w setup (I apologize for the mess gf is out of town and I've let the place go to hell.. cleaning up now before she gets home shhh don't tell her ;) )

So both shots I took on Aperture priority, and I exposed the first one to the 250w light
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The second shot, I went ahead and exposed to the 150w light inside the tank.

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Needless to say.. the difference is mighty impressive. I had to drop the iso just to get the 250w to expose. To the eye when I put the gman 14k over the tank even with the supplemental light everything looks yellow/green/white and all the reds kinda turn the the same shade of red. I'm not sure why this bulb is so highly praised. Maybe it' needs to burn in..but I'm not a fan. The current phoenix 14k 150w bulb seems to have been loosing it's "pop" the last week, it came with the fixture I don't know how old it is, but it's looking very drab so I welcome the new setup that should be here on Thursday. Although maybe it's just the addition of all the rock wall which is so white, vs the black backdrop I had before.. Looking forward to growing some coraline to get some more colour in the tank.

Oh ya you can also see how I mounted everything for the pellets.. meh it's not terrible but not great either.
 
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I liked it when I first got it, but I'm not sure whats going on it just seems washed out this past week. I never used to be a big fan of 20k's then I got hooked on helios, and the AB 20k. I went to the XM and wasn't a big fan although it worked. From what I understsand the reeflux 20k isn't washed out like the XM. I'm hoping with the addition of Fiji Purple, and a Blue plus it will give me a good mix. If not I also bought a blue special (which isn't very blue from what I understand) to lighten things up.

To give you an idea, here is my old 90 gallon. I believe I had the AB 20k over it in a 250w DE PFO pendant.

This is when I first setup it up

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and this is after the bulb burned in

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Man I miss those efflos.. and that nutty blue stick. heh.
 
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Thanks guys!

I really liked the dimension on that 90 3x2 is really friendly to aquascaping. One of my all time favorite tanks was a 3x2 setup. Sadly I can no longer find the post it was from 2005, but I think one day down the road if/when I upgrade I will go back to a 3x2 setup. Maybe a little shorter though like a 3x2x20" vs 3x2x2
 
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