Anakin Reef Walker's 40B Adventure

[AnakinReefWalker]

Sounds good. I have been really happy using a temperature controller. I have two full sized heaters on it, so triple redundancy means one less parameter I have to worry about. (LOL, I still check the temperature readout at least once a day).

Nice, with this tank I'd like to get into more SPS, specifically Acropora and I want to make sure i've got stability in my parameters

 

[AnakinReefWalker]

Alright, it's update time, figured i'd show my lighting fixture and how it is mounted. As I mentioned earlier I run two Mars Aqua 165w LED fixtures, here's how I have them hung

I bought shelving racks from Home depot, the smallest one I could find, then I bought 20 inch brackets. I found that this setup is pretty simple and effective, and somewhat low profile.

Here is a closer look, using black chains connecting to a mountain hook.

 

[AnakinReefWalker]

Also for the past week i've seen hair algae pop up here and there, in my 120 I ignored little patches and it turned into a nightmare, not in this tank. As soon as I saw it I started hitting the tank with doses of AlgaeFIx and No3Po4x, as well as manual scrubbing. One week later and it seems that a lot of it has died off, I just need to get in and scrub it off. Still working on getting algae off my coral bases.

 

[AnakinReefWalker]

The Curve 5 is a beast, pulled out all of this nasty gunk today

...Much better

 

[AnakinReefWalker]

So today was testing day, the first one i've done in a while and boy do I have some adjusting to do

Here are my params (it's not looking too good)

Calcium : 345
Alk : 5.2
Magnesium : 1260

Anyway I got to fixing right away, I raised Alk by 1 DKH and will continue to do so daily until I hit 9 DKH, I raised Calcium by 50 PPM and will raise it another 50 tomorrow, I raised Magnesium by 100 ppm today and I think leaving it at 1360 should be fine. I will be re testing tomorrow

 

[AnakinReefWalker]

Also pretty sure I'm playing with fire here but... I noticed Aqua SD had a live sale going on this weekend and some of the corals were too good to resist so I went ahead and picked up some pieces. Super excited because this is the first time I'm ordering livestock online, and I definitely do not think it will be my last. I only had to pay 25 dollars for shipping because I am a CA resident so yay to that. Everyone has excellent reviews regarding Aqua SD so it seems they will be my go-to online retailer for corals. Shipment is arriving Thursday

I am a bit nervous though, because my tank params are in a bit of a mess right now, I'm scrambling to get them in track before Thursday, the good news is though all the coral pieces I ordered are hardy so I reckon it'll be okay

 

[dgruic0712]

Hey man, Im setting up a 40 BR coral QT just wondering how that curve 5 is doing for ya? You don't feel its pulling too much nutrients from the tank? following along, love 40 breeder builds!

 

[AnakinReefWalker]

Hey man, I'm setting up a 40 BR coral QT just wondering how that curve 5 is doing for ya? You don't feel it's pulling too many nutrients from the tank? following along, love 40 breeder builds!

I'd say it depends on whether or not you're gonna run a slightly dirty tank or not, I assume in your coral QT you won't have many fish correct? If so it might be a little too much, but not if you plan on running a ULNS. If it turns out to be too much I think you'd have to end up dosing nitrates. For me, it is my main source of filtration in my reef and as I showed earlier with the pictures it is a beast at pulling stuff out. Hope that helps a little

Thanks for following along, appreciate it!