Bringing the 125 back to life build thread

[P-Dub]

I truly had no idea that was a source at all thank you again. Would prefer Coral skeletons for a whole lot of reasons mostly because I feel they work the best for biofiltration and I know anything that could brake down from co2 etc would be good but probably pony have enough for one or two tanks.i am going to get a test kit for iron from the hardware store as soon as I can so I can get to the bottom of this.

I think that a hardware store test kit may be insufficient. Red Sea makes one.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

There are only three methods of iron testing all of which use a reagent to brake down iron compounds into testable iron and give a ppm by color. The difference is that only one method brakes down all of the compounds present into testable iron. Chances are here I would be lucky to find a test at all much less a choice in preferred methods. did not know red Sea had one thank you much you have probably saved me some time and headache.

 

[P-Dub]

There are only three methods of iron testing all of which use a reagent to brake down iron compounds into testable iron and give a ppm by color. The difference is that only one method brakes down all of the compounds present into testable iron. Chances are here I would be lucky to find a test at all much less a choice in preferred methods. did not know red Sea had one thank you much you have probably saved me some time and headache.

We are here for you.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Been a long time. Must thank P-dub for spotting the iron issue waiting to happen. It gave me the nudge I needed so I had time to get some Coral skeletons active and cycled before to much damage was done. First my cheato Growth started to Slow to a crawl and eventually only alge was able to get anything out of the iron in the water column. Didn't get to bad but my poor bleached out long tentacle which I nursed back to health over six months died because the shifting chemistry. Just hated and shrunk to nothing all of a sudden. Finally have good skimmer (bubble Magus se100 10th anniversary) and all the iron out.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Sump

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

New Anemone

 

[P-Dub]

New Anemone

OMG! That's beautiful!

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Sorry it has Been such a long time. Really there was not much to say or show. Was having the typical battle with hair algae (not rampant but little Tufts here and there)after I took the macro algae reactor off due to inconsistent flows needing constant adjustment. Not something you could trust more than a day or two and in my book not ok.i refuse to put a single piece of Coral in a tank showing any signs of nutrient problem so not much has happened with exception of adjusting flow direction and increase via wall mount pump. It ate an Anemone when I was out of town and a friends kid jerked on the chord sending the fan flying around the tank for who knows how long.So took out fan as I plan to breed clowns in it eventually and solved flow another way. The final change which should take care of these issues for good (which I really knew I should have used to begin with) is a microalgae waterfall turf scrubber. Long story short macroalgae can only outcompete microalgae when supplied with a larger light than display or with a large enough mass to take up so many nutrients it out competes the micro even though the micro feeds faster. This is the reason I didn't just fix flow problem in the macro reactor.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

some pics of the first 125 and the fish room

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Still have to put an optic ATO and algae scrubber on the 125 frag system.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Some chemicals and glass for future tank builds.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

10 tanks ready to be siliconed.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Algae Scrubber in action

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

You can see white rows where algae isn't growing yet. That is because I failed to clean the cut on the inside of the pipe well enough. Just pointing out my mistakes. Nothing major as algae will cover it eventually but we all know channeling in filtration is not good.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Now chemistry is finally perfect and stable due to micro algae scrubber I am finally building enclosures for the 40.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Will remove duct tape add self tapping screws to side panels on bottom and corner trim and magnets to front panel on bottom. Will paint it all black. Will be painting wall behind it in chalkboard paint to kill the glare on white wall because it is in living room and killing my vision. Other than that Coraline algae is growing and it is finally ready for some actual Coral. Have to get a generator, new rodi, and new optical ATO and then it's Coral time.

 

[JustinSmi86]

Following. Looking good

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Enclosure almost done

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Finally doing some real reefscaping for the tanks

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

In tank