vickreyreef
New member
here is my tank....
The Reef Central Corner Club Thread
- Thread starter Michael
- Start date
reefscape15
New member
Love the brain corals in there!
vickreyreef
New member
thanks! The big green one gets huge, absolutely stunning...the red ones were just one when I bought it and somehow the animal split in half and there are two now...the green one behind the small clam has 9 lives...about 3 years ago I told my husband to throw it out as it was surely just dead....it was a skeleton and he convinced me to leave it in there because you just never know if it will come back (or if it is really dead)...sure enough it did and has been with us ever since...
Come check out my 54 corner build and welcome me into the club! Thank you guys for some of the ideas that some of you gave me even though you don't know it!http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=15498375
Looks good. I wonder where you got the idea for the canopy????
The only thing I can add is before you get everything done turn on the lights. One of the reasons mine was as large as it is, is those reflectors can really spread the light. On the luminbright mini, it's recomended the light be 18 inches off the water, which looks about what you have. I left about 8 inches between the tank and the bottom of the canopy and I still have some light comming out from the sides.
Put your pics here also if you don't mind. That's all you have to do to join the club. It really helps others getting into this style of tank.
The only thing I can add is before you get everything done turn on the lights. One of the reasons mine was as large as it is, is those reflectors can really spread the light. On the luminbright mini, it's recomended the light be 18 inches off the water, which looks about what you have. I left about 8 inches between the tank and the bottom of the canopy and I still have some light comming out from the sides.
Put your pics here also if you don't mind. That's all you have to do to join the club. It really helps others getting into this style of tank.
As requested here is some pics of my build that I started this weekend
Shot with SCH-i910 at 2009-08-09[/IMG]
Shot with SCH-i910 at 2009-08-09[/IMG]
Shot with SCH-i910 at 2009-08-09[/IMG]
Shot with SCH-i910 at 2009-08-09[/IMG]
Shot with SCH-i910 at 2009-08-09[/IMG]
Shot with SCH-i910 at 2009-08-09[/IMG]
Shot with SCH-i910 at 2009-08-09[/IMG]
Shot with SCH-i910 at 2009-08-09[/IMG]
Shot with SCH-i910 at 2009-08-09[/IMG]
Shot with SCH-i910 at 2009-08-09[/IMG]
Shot with SCH-i910 at 2009-08-09[/IMG]
Shot with SCH-i910 at 2009-08-09[/IMG]
Shot with SCH-i910 at 2009-08-09[/IMG]
Shot with SCH-i910 at 2009-08-09[/IMG]
Hookup
New member
The plumbing is no-where near neat and tidy...
And for info's sake... the sump is not only in the basement, but is also 20feet away from the tank... the water does travel a long-long way to get from the DT to the sump.. Smiley
There are quite a few "mini" clean-up projects that are required, but right now I'm 100% focused on the ultralith system... I have all the parts, i just have not made it 100% automated (lazy)... As it sits, I have to go down 2x per day and "shake" the rocks... ok at least once a day.. anyhow.. that's just waaaay to much effort... so I'm adding blower (air) to the reactor to flood the rocks with "air" and tumble them around and around... on a timer (proflux) and automate the system... I've also changed dosing plans (thanks Pat)...
Now;
Dosing Pump 1 - Calcium
Dosing Pump 2 - ALK
Dosing Pump 3 - Magnesium
Dosing Pump 4 - Potassium
Dosing Pump 5 - MIN-S (ammino acid)
Dosing Pump 6 - BAK (ammino acid stuff)
Dosing Pump 7 - MIN-D (gorg & clam food)
Dosing Pump 8 - FreshWater (tied to the Salinity Sensor)
Power 1 - Fuge Lights
Power 2 - Ultralith Reactor
Power 3 - Ultralith Blower (4xday - once I find a powerful enuf blower)
Power 4 - Heater (on a safety associated w/ temp sensor auto-shut off at 84deg)
Power 5 - Future Ozone Reactor (associated w/ future ORP probe)
Power 6 - ATO Trickle System ( Auto Shut Down the Trickle System if Salinity is *off* , Also Timer controlled On/Off every 4 hrs for #-Min)
ATO Trickle System - 2 BRS 50ml/min Dosing Pumps chaining 1.5 gallon/day over 6 intervals = ~5%/week changes
And for info's sake... the sump is not only in the basement, but is also 20feet away from the tank... the water does travel a long-long way to get from the DT to the sump.. Smiley
There are quite a few "mini" clean-up projects that are required, but right now I'm 100% focused on the ultralith system... I have all the parts, i just have not made it 100% automated (lazy)... As it sits, I have to go down 2x per day and "shake" the rocks... ok at least once a day.. anyhow.. that's just waaaay to much effort... so I'm adding blower (air) to the reactor to flood the rocks with "air" and tumble them around and around... on a timer (proflux) and automate the system... I've also changed dosing plans (thanks Pat)...
Now;
Dosing Pump 1 - Calcium
Dosing Pump 2 - ALK
Dosing Pump 3 - Magnesium
Dosing Pump 4 - Potassium
Dosing Pump 5 - MIN-S (ammino acid)
Dosing Pump 6 - BAK (ammino acid stuff)
Dosing Pump 7 - MIN-D (gorg & clam food)
Dosing Pump 8 - FreshWater (tied to the Salinity Sensor)
Power 1 - Fuge Lights
Power 2 - Ultralith Reactor
Power 3 - Ultralith Blower (4xday - once I find a powerful enuf blower)
Power 4 - Heater (on a safety associated w/ temp sensor auto-shut off at 84deg)
Power 5 - Future Ozone Reactor (associated w/ future ORP probe)
Power 6 - ATO Trickle System ( Auto Shut Down the Trickle System if Salinity is *off* , Also Timer controlled On/Off every 4 hrs for #-Min)
ATO Trickle System - 2 BRS 50ml/min Dosing Pumps chaining 1.5 gallon/day over 6 intervals = ~5%/week changes
Last edited:
tangers
New member
Hook up did you use pond foam for the background? If you did did you use epoxy over it? Just wondering because I was debating about doing the same idea but people have told me if I don't epoxy it I will run into breakdown and phosphate problems. Looking forward to your opinions. Great looking tank!
boret
Premium Member
Holy crap Hookup!! That is amazing. You have put a lot of equipment there!!! Very nice... I love the tinkering part of this hobby, all the toys!! 
What are you using as salinity sensor? How reliable is it? Have you compared results with hydrometer? How do you like the Profilux?
Also, what's behind the dosing? I was giving Vodka a thought, still thinking. Why is it that you went for this dosing system?
300-350 gal total volume?
What are you using as salinity sensor? How reliable is it? Have you compared results with hydrometer? How do you like the Profilux?
Also, what's behind the dosing? I was giving Vodka a thought, still thinking
. Why is it that you went for this dosing system?300-350 gal total volume?
Hookup
New member
@tangers; I made the rock-walls out of Greatstuff foam, eggcrate and zpoxy finishing rezin. The entire "build" of the walls is documented here http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1657919
@Misled & Boret - The total volume is around 240gallons. The sump-room consists of 2 40gallon breeders(upper tanks) and 2 55gallon tanks (lower tanks).
@boret; - here's a walk-around of my sump room.
1- Tank 1 - this is where the DT water enters (above grey line) and is directly fed into the skimmer's input. This tank also holds the ultralith reactor which is mid-progress of a DIY automation.
2- Fuge tank and future frag-rag. Water comes from Tank 1 into Tank 2.
3 - LR tank - From the fuge water goes to the LR tank, which is above the fuge so it gets light, on a reverse photoperiod stabalizing ph swings. It holds about 200lbs of LR at the moment an has a discusting amount of sponge
4 - Level Tank, this is the last tank in the system. It's where the water evap is shown. NOthing going on in there now... Will have the ATO sensor in there
a. Ultralith Reactor - Turned off, with airline hoses coming out.. I want to inject air into the reactor I have to "tumble" the rock every 4 or 6 hours and make that part of the system "automated". That is in progress DIY right now... Need to find a really high-powered pump.
b. 2xTwo Little Fishies reactors - activated carbon and Phosphate Remover (btw my fuge NEVER GROWS between ultralith and this reactor.. Its for copod production only).
c. Tungeston 500w heater & controller - connected to proflux powerbar, linked to proflux temp sensor - auto-power off at 84 deg.
d. 2xT5HO 24" strip with reflectors, good enuf to grow-out frags kept 3-6" below the surface... this is controlled via the proflux on a timer from 12-7am cycle.
e. MRC's MR4 Skimmer. Man I love this thing... IT IS AWESOME!
@Misled & Boret - The total volume is around 240gallons. The sump-room consists of 2 40gallon breeders(upper tanks) and 2 55gallon tanks (lower tanks).
@boret; - here's a walk-around of my sump room.
1- Tank 1 - this is where the DT water enters (above grey line) and is directly fed into the skimmer's input. This tank also holds the ultralith reactor which is mid-progress of a DIY automation.
2- Fuge tank and future frag-rag. Water comes from Tank 1 into Tank 2.
3 - LR tank - From the fuge water goes to the LR tank, which is above the fuge so it gets light, on a reverse photoperiod stabalizing ph swings. It holds about 200lbs of LR at the moment an has a discusting amount of sponge
4 - Level Tank, this is the last tank in the system. It's where the water evap is shown. NOthing going on in there now... Will have the ATO sensor in there
a. Ultralith Reactor - Turned off, with airline hoses coming out.. I want to inject air into the reactor I have to "tumble" the rock every 4 or 6 hours and make that part of the system "automated". That is in progress DIY right now... Need to find a really high-powered pump.
b. 2xTwo Little Fishies reactors - activated carbon and Phosphate Remover (btw my fuge NEVER GROWS between ultralith and this reactor.. Its for copod production only).
c. Tungeston 500w heater & controller - connected to proflux powerbar, linked to proflux temp sensor - auto-power off at 84 deg.
d. 2xT5HO 24" strip with reflectors, good enuf to grow-out frags kept 3-6" below the surface... this is controlled via the proflux on a timer from 12-7am cycle.
e. MRC's MR4 Skimmer. Man I love this thing... IT IS AWESOME!
Hookup
New member
@boret - the dosing is Baling Method Lite. I dose Ca, Mg and Alk to keep those levels stable (I had this shut down and in 4 weeks my Alk fell to 5.4 and well I lost some corals... )
Right now the levels are set quite high to raise the readings to my target...
Ca - 440
Mg - 1350
Alk - 8.0 (Ultralith might mess with this, but more on that later)
I dose 6x a day to create stability....
That however has nothing to do with Ultralith, which like Vodka dosing is a method of getting your nutrient levels to 0ppm. What has always scared me about Vodka is that there are no food-supplements (amino acids)... Believe it or not, the corals use some of the nutrients as food, so vodka dosing is depleting there food source. Over feeding seems to be the solution, but I'm no expert on Vodka dosing.
Ultralith is a competitor/knockoff/improvement of Zeovit. It has popularity mainly in Germany, much like the baling method, but this is just what I've read/been told.
It works by using Ultralith rocks (zeolites) and populating them with bacteria that chews up nutrients... then you maintain the bacteria with food, so that you keep a super-sized population of these hungry buggers always chewing up nutrients, and you feed your corals with amino acids. Then you can layer-on trace elements to burst the coloration of your corals even further.
I built a ramp-up and dosing calculator for getting started in MS EXCEL that I think works pretty well to get people started.
It's not a hard system, though the documentation is poor. It took me some time to get my head around it, now it kind of clicks.. I guess I've been assimilated.
Right now the levels are set quite high to raise the readings to my target...
Ca - 440
Mg - 1350
Alk - 8.0 (Ultralith might mess with this, but more on that later)
I dose 6x a day to create stability....
That however has nothing to do with Ultralith, which like Vodka dosing is a method of getting your nutrient levels to 0ppm. What has always scared me about Vodka is that there are no food-supplements (amino acids)... Believe it or not, the corals use some of the nutrients as food, so vodka dosing is depleting there food source. Over feeding seems to be the solution, but I'm no expert on Vodka dosing.
Ultralith is a competitor/knockoff/improvement of Zeovit. It has popularity mainly in Germany, much like the baling method, but this is just what I've read/been told.
It works by using Ultralith rocks (zeolites) and populating them with bacteria that chews up nutrients... then you maintain the bacteria with food, so that you keep a super-sized population of these hungry buggers always chewing up nutrients, and you feed your corals with amino acids. Then you can layer-on trace elements to burst the coloration of your corals even further.
I built a ramp-up and dosing calculator for getting started in MS EXCEL that I think works pretty well to get people started.
It's not a hard system, though the documentation is poor. It took me some time to get my head around it, now it kind of clicks.. I guess I've been assimilated.
