Scrapz's Ultimate Gamble 3x3 SPS Cube

[scrapz]

Don't know if I mentioned in a earlier post but I picked up a calcium reactor from a old reefer buddy for practically free. Basically he just gave me a box of old gear and said have at it for $100. In the box, it contained 2x lumenbright refelctors, 2xlumenmax reflectors, some icecaps 250w ballast, radium bulbs and a MTC MINICAL calcium reactor. :dance:

The only thing missing was a regulator so I decided to splurge a bit. I ordered a Linde stainless steel built by Alanle and it arrived on new years eve, This thing was as expected, solid and overbuilt. Setup was quick and painless. Hooked it up to the co2 tank, tuned the second stage regulator to 20 psi with just a few turns. Bubble count has been accurate even after plugging and unplugging many times.

Parameters before CA Reactor hookup.
PH: 8.2
ALK 7.8
CA: 480
MAG: 1270
NIT: 0
PHOS:0


Alkalinity was a bit lower then I wanted so I added about 90mls of ALK over the next 12 hours. ALK tested at 9, good enough. Tossed the reactor and set it for a drip every 2 seconds. We'll see what we test at tomorrow morning.

Happy New Years!!

 

[sahin]

Nice score with the $100 goodies :thumbsup:

 

[rburns24]

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Great score. Like Christmas all over again .
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[Djturna4thakidz]

How's it going with the Ca reactor?

 

[mhucasey]

Don't know if I mentioned in a earlier post but I picked up a calcium reactor from a old reefer buddy for practically free. Basically he just gave me a box of old gear and said have at it for $100. In the box, it contained 2x lumenbright refelctors, 2xlumenmax reflectors, some icecaps 250w ballast, radium bulbs and a MTC MINICAL calcium reactor. :dance:

The only thing missing was a regulator so I decided to splurge a bit. I ordered a Linde stainless steel built by Alanle and it arrived on new years eve, This thing was as expected, solid and overbuilt. Setup was quick and painless. Hooked it up to the co2 tank, tuned the second stage regulator to 20 psi with just a few turns. Bubble count has been accurate even after plugging and unplugging many times.

Parameters before CA Reactor hookup.
PH: 8.2
ALK 7.8
CA: 480
MAG: 1270
NIT: 0
PHOS:0


Alkalinity was a bit lower then I wanted so I added about 90mls of ALK over the next 12 hours. ALK tested at 9, good enough. Tossed the reactor and set it for a drip every 2 seconds. We'll see what we test at tomorrow morning.

Happy New Years!!

Woot! You scored big time! FYI a lot of people and a lot of systems run lower Alkalinity than you may have been used to - between 6.5 and 8. The lower Alkalinity doesn't slow down growth and the corals do better with Alk closer to NSW.

 

[scrapz]

@mhucasey

Good to know. I just swithed to RSCP, which has a slightly higher alk value(11-11.5) then what the DD(9) that I usually use. Basically trying to get my values closer in preparation for when I move the corals over to the main tank, reducing any shock.

I never had a problem with DD, the store was just out of stock.

 

[scrapz]

So last night while playing some video games, a loud thud can be heard from the garage. I figure my cat just is doing her thing as usual, knocking stuff off the shelf so i keep playing for about 30 mins. Went to the garage to check to what happened and saw a puddle on the floor. Weird.... look at the tank and my ati is partly dipped into the water, skimmer kicked ove and my cat completely wet. Reach for the water and shock the hell out of myself, because Im a very smart guy, i touch the wateragain to double check lol.

So my livestock eas getting their brains fried for 30 mins or so, hopefully they make it out alive. Corals are sliming up and the water looks like a mess. I'm up until 5 am cleaning up the mess.

Woke up and everything looks fine. Dodged another bullet. Quite surprised that I havent lost a single thing so far.

 

[Fredfish]

Bad Kitty?

...
So my livestock eas getting their brains fried for 30 mins or so, hopefully they make it out alive. Corals are sliming up and the water looks like a mess. I'm up until 5 am cleaning up the mess...

Your fish are not grounded, so they should be OK. Just tell them not to reach out of the tank.

 

[lynchmob3000]

So last night while playing some video games, a loud thud can be heard from the garage. I figure my cat just is doing her thing as usual, knocking stuff off the shelf so i keep playing for about 30 mins. Went to the garage to check to what happened and saw a puddle on the floor. Weird.... look at the tank and my ati is partly dipped into the water, skimmer kicked ove and my cat completely wet. Reach for the water and shock the hell out of myself, because Im a very smart guy, i touch the wateragain to double check lol.

So my livestock eas getting their brains fried for 30 mins or so, hopefully they make it out alive. Corals are sliming up and the water looks like a mess. I'm up until 5 am cleaning up the mess.

Woke up and everything looks fine. Dodged another bullet. Quite surprised that I havent lost a single thing so far.

I got a kick out of this! Glad everything survived but did the light make it?

 

[mhucasey]

So last night while playing some video games, a loud thud can be heard from the garage. I figure my cat just is doing her thing as usual, knocking stuff off the shelf so i keep playing for about 30 mins. Went to the garage to check to what happened and saw a puddle on the floor. Weird.... look at the tank and my ati is partly dipped into the water, skimmer kicked ove and my cat completely wet. Reach for the water and shock the hell out of myself, because Im a very smart guy, i touch the wateragain to double check lol.

So my livestock eas getting their brains fried for 30 mins or so, hopefully they make it out alive. Corals are sliming up and the water looks like a mess. I'm up until 5 am cleaning up the mess.

Woke up and everything looks fine. Dodged another bullet. Quite surprised that I havent lost a single thing so far.

Sounds like one of my adventures I'm glad you and the inhabitants are ok. One more piece of evidence that cats are pure evil wrapped in fur....

 

[cFloor]

I've come very close to adopting a kitten so many times. Your story is basically why I haven't yet. My sump is 4'x4' so all kinds of stuff could go wrong with a cat. I've seen too many youtube videos of them doing crazy stuff, haha.

Nice pickup on the calcium reactor and the new apex! I just got one myself, very pleased with it so far.

 

[scrapz]

@Fredfish.
Bad kitty is sick today after cleaning herself up from all that saltwater. Came into the garage with a couple vomit spots. ughhhhhh


@lynchmob
Yeah, light made it out ok. It got turned sideways and dipped only an inch to the water, none of the reflectors even got wet.


@mhucasey

But I love her so much! I actually just got her a few months ago from my sister. She could no longer house her so I adopted her instead of taking her to the pound, shes about 12 years old.

My weiner also loves her so much too but she won't have none of him. Gives him the old 1-2 everytime he gets near :facepalm:

@cfloor

Anticipated this but not this soon. It's why I'll need to frame the stands asap.

 

[scrapz]

Looks like I'll have to dial back the calcium reactor just a bit, the PH was running a little too low @ 6.2 and melting too much media. I don't have a cup to measure effluent right now so I'll have to rig something up. The funnest part is tinkering right?

The rest of the corals are quickly gaining their perspective colors. Polyps are starting to extend nicely from my mother of pearl, look at those blue polyps! Hopefully my charger comes in soon so I could get some nice detailed pics.

The main tank is coming along nicely. It passed it's diatoms stage about 2 weeks ago and the turbo snails are quickly making work of any hair algae that shows up. Coralline is beginning to spread to nearby rocks from the small seed rock I placed. Haven't tested the values but I just blindly dose 30ml a day since there are no livestock. This tank is so crisp and clear I'm starting to wonder if the tank was made of starfire....

LOUD VIDEO - Make sure you turn that volume down
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9IytlRaI0_w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[reefmutt]

Nice progress.. Still love the scape.
Our neighbors' cat often comes knocking when he gets locked out next door. He comes in, drinks and cleans himself in our toilet and then walks all over the kitchen table.... At least he leaves my tank alone!
Nice score on the ca reactor. MTC makes the best ca reactors in the business, imo..

 

[Myka]

Seems like we think alike. I don't think it's paranoia, more like strategically planning for when the problem arises, because it's not a matter of if. With all setups, redundancy is key. Simple things like not hooking up the main return pump to a controller, using multiple heaters or hooking powerheads on different outlets can save a tank.

Exactly! Imo, putting everything onto a single controller gets rid of the redundancy we try so hard to achieve!

Reach for the water and shock the hell out of myself, because Im a very smart guy, i touch the wateragain to double check lol.

Sounds like something I'd do! I'm glad things look ok.

 

[sahin]

Glad you're ok buddy.

Watched the video...thats some crazyass flow. What you using to get that sort of flow?

 

[glaukos]

wow,that was a really good deal for the CR!!!

Tank looks good and i like your aquascape too!!
What's that frag doing on the sand?

Glad to read nothing bad happened after that ati incident!

 

[Fredfish]

@Fredfish.
Bad kitty is sick today after cleaning herself up from all that saltwater. Came into the garage with a couple vomit spots. ughhhhhh...

The good news is kitty won't do that again. I had a kitten go swimming years ago after I removed the back part of a glass cover from a fresh water tank. She never went near the tank after that.

The tank is looking good. I like your open branch work. It will be interesting to see how it fills in as you add corals. Should make for lots of caves and hiding places for fish.

 

[mhucasey]

The good news is kitty won't do that again. I had a kitten go swimming years ago after I removed the back part of a glass cover from a fresh water tank. She never went near the tank after that.

The tank is looking good. I like your open branch work. It will be interesting to see how it fills in as you add corals. Should make for lots of caves and hiding places for fish.

I have a cat who became fascinated with the refrigerator. She would try to jump in to investigate when it was opened. One day she got locked inside. For over a half hour she was stuck in there, in the dark. Luckily for her someone opened the door before she died. She rocketed out, yowling and shivering.

In about an hour, she was trying to get in the refrigerator again:facepalm:

 

[Myka]

My weiner also loves her so much too but she won't have none of him. Gives him the old 1-2 everytime he gets near :facepalm:

I just wanted to take this out of context for a minute and smile. :smokin: