Calling all Wisco Reefers

[Jon's Reef]

If the chaeto doesn't end up reducing nitrates enough I may switch to a GFO reactor

GFO will reduce phosphate, but should not affect nitrate. With a new tank you just have to be really careful about how much you feed since there is not a lot of biological consumption.

One tip you can try is to do a 1 gal per day water change with TM bioactif salt. It has a little bit of carbon dosing in it, so that helps to get the denitrifying bacteria going. Just get 2 1 gallon buckets, make 1 gal of RODI, throw in 1/2 cup salt, mix for a min. Siphon out 1 gal with bucket 2 and dump in the new. Takes like 5 min a day.

 

[Jon's Reef]

Finally finished the side cabinets (Menards stock cabinets FTW) and got the little WB 15 set up ( plumbed to the big one)

 

[Zach B]

Looks awesome!

 

[JayRozzer]

How’d you plumb it to your main tank ?

 

[Jon's Reef]

My return pump is 1” through UV then goes to a Y. One leg goes to 3/4” and on to the DT while the other goes to 1/2” then to the frag cube via a hang on return. For the drain, I used an EShops nano hob overflow connected to 3/4” with a gate valve that dumps into the fuge.

I have a 1” flowmeter after the return pump, then a 1/2” in the frag line. With a Cor 20 running at 90%, I am getting about 530 gph to the DT (680 total - 150 frag) and 150 gph to the frag cube. High flow to the cube keeps the hob siphon clear of air and also ensures the temp/ Params stay in line.

I thought about drilling the cube, but if I upgrade to a bigger frag tank it would hurt the resale (plus I can transfer the same connections to a different frag tank in the future)

 

[JayRozzer]

Very nice.

 

[cwerner]

That's a nice clean setup. I'm considering adding an algae scrubber to my sump since I didn't really know what I was doing at the time and made it too small. Have you guys used any of the manufactured ones and did they work for you?

 

[Jon's Reef]

I would strongly consider instead of spending $$ on an algae scrubber, change out the sump.

The fuge should be ~10% of the system volume with 5-10x flow through it. For 5-10 gal fuge, an A160 works well, 10+ go with H380. Chaeto type seems to also be important. The thin, hair like stuff grows much faster. If you get a Triton config, you can go sockless as the chaeto acts as a filter sock.

In the first 6-9 months, you are going to have algae in the DT. It sucks. You can pull the GHA out to help... it will come back. Once the rocks are mostly covered in coaralline, then it will recede.

In the meantime, add some fish slowly. Get a good CUC (shrimp, snails, emerald crab) Add some hardier corals (Zoa, blasto, duncan... avoid sps and lps with base skin (torches, hammer, frogspawn)). Do the 1% water change per day to keep things in balance. Start investing in control (apex, ghl, etc). Get an auto-tester (trident, alkatronic, etc) and start dosing when you see things dropping.

 

[JayRozzer]

Well I’ve tested my nitrates three times with a Red Sea kit and they came back 0. My P04 is .05. Not sure if the fuge is doing too good of a job or what but I’m still battling some GHA. (Don’t mind the lone cardinal, he was being bullied by the other two). I’m doing a quick test with Nyos to see if I get a different reading.

Update: Nyos was 0 as well. I’ve got a decent fish load so I’m not sure how that happens.

 

[cwerner]

Well I’ve tested my nitrates three times with a Red Sea kit and they came back 0. My P04 is .05. Not sure if the fuge is doing too good of a job or what but I’m still battling some GHA. (Don’t mind the lone cardinal, he was being bullied by the other two). I’m doing a quick test with Nyos to see if I get a different reading.

Update: Nyos was 0 as well. I’ve got a decent fish load so I’m not sure how that happens.

I'm curious what your lighting schedule is. If you're getting a true zero you could dial the lighting back.

 

[JayRozzer]

After 3 tests (2 Red Sea/1 Nyos) I was unable to get any color change in the water. Fuge had been on for 12 hours. Just cut back to 8.

Plan is to increase my CUC a bit to try and clean up the GHA. I currently only have a couple snails. Hopefully once I get rid of more GHA the numbers will climb. Right now I think it’s just sucking up all the nutrients.

 

[Jon's Reef]

The gha is sucking it all up.

 

[Richardsonic]

Hi to the group from Viroqua. I've been researching and slowly acquiring the necessary gear for a little over a year now. There's water and the first fish in the 220 gallon tank. Reef Brite Lumilite Pro and XHO strips installed in the canopy today. I have cooling fans arriving on Tuesday which should mostly complete the set-up for now. I'm trying to set up a low maintenance mixed coral tank.

 

[JayRozzer]

Hi to the group from Viroqua. I've been researching and slowly acquiring the necessary gear for a little over a year now. There's water and the first fish in the 220 gallon tank. Reef Brite Lumilite Pro and XHO strips installed in the canopy today. I have cooling fans arriving on Tuesday which should mostly complete the set-up for now. I'm trying to set up a low maintenance mixed coral tank.

Welcome. Post a few pictures.

 

[Weasel1960]

Hi to the group from Viroqua. I've been researching and slowly acquiring the necessary gear for a little over a year now. There's water and the first fish in the 220 gallon tank. Reef Brite Lumilite Pro and XHO strips installed in the canopy today. I have cooling fans arriving on Tuesday which should mostly complete the set-up for now. I'm trying to set up a low maintenance mixed coral tank.

Hi, and welcome. @WIReefer is the moderator for us. He is in the process of getting settled into a new house so he should be reaching out to you soon.

 

[cwerner]

Welcome to R2R and 608!

 

[JayRozzer]

I’ll be posting a specific thread soon. But I know a local Reefer who needs to rehome a yellow tang. If you’re interested LMK.

 

[cwerner]

He could probably post it on the Marketplace and sell it for like 300 bucks. Prices on Yellow's are crazy right now with the export ban.

 

[JayRozzer]

He could probably post it on the Marketplace and sell it for like 300 bucks. Prices on Yellow's are crazy right now with the export ban.

It’s posted. I think there’s a fine line between making a little $ and doing what’s right for a fellow reefer/ fish that needs a bigger tank but yes, nows certainly the time to sell a yellow tang.

 

[Richardsonic]

Welcome. Post a few pictures.

I'm a photographer so I hate to post anything that isn't considered. But if I wait to set up a tripod and do what it takes to get a beautiful shot you may never see one. So here's my modest reef tank offering...shot with my phone.