Denise's Halcyon Red Sea Reefer Protobuild 3/25/17

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How's the AB+ working for you? I was trying it for a while on my G4 XR15's but corals were struggling. I think I was running the lights wayyyy too bright as I swapped to the radiant spectrum setting and did like 44% vs. 61% and tank has been looking much better.
 
PiscesPower said:
You didn't have to modify the drains? I don't really want to mess with that :)
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It was a really tight fit but I got them in. I can show you up close pics if helpful. But, Synergy can also flip the design of the sump etc to accommodate. They've done a bunch for 250 owners. See @mrvn build thread too
 
Deltec
North Borders said:
How's the AB+ working for you? I was trying it for a while on my G4 XR15's but corals were struggling. I think I was running the lights wayyyy too bright as I swapped to the radiant spectrum setting and did like 44% vs. 61% and tank has been looking much better.
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It's such a difficult thing to get dialed in, isn't it?!?! These have only been running on this program about a week but things look good so far.
 
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North Borders said:
I'm currently running a pair of mp10's. I see you have the left one up quite a ways on the glass. What sort of % do you run them at?
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I have one up and pretty centered. The other is lower and farther back bouncing some water off the overflow. They alternate for randomness and I run them both under 50%.

How'd you get the MP10s to stick? Mine would not stick for love or money!!!
 
I would press and hold the wetside to the glass with one hand and the drive side with the other right as I turned them on the first time. Also would press the wetside against the glass and slide it back and forth slightly to get all trapped air out, kind of like a suction cup. Once they get a good seal without jumping around, they stay put it seems. After a few seconds I'd take my hand off the wet side and just hold the dry in place to make sure it didn't fall off the tank to the floor. I have had them fall off once or twice, but it's usually when I bump them or right after a wet side cleaning and I forget to hold them in a place for a sec. If they don't line up perfectly, you get micro vibrations from the motor and eventually it's going to fall off of the glass.
 
WWC
dmw913 said:
OMG, you'll pry 'Em out of my cold, dead hands! Love them!
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I've been going back and forth on ordering a pair...I have 2 eFlux 660gph, I like them, nicely programmable but I am thinking they are not quite powerful enough. (I put them in my cube, but bought them knowing I would upgrade tank). I was going to wait and see what I could see next weekend at Reefapalooza before making a final decision.
 
North Borders said:
What lights did you end up going with?
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So, I had a moment to snap a quick pic now that the Hydras are set up. What do you guys think? To weird looking to do the 26 and the 52?

IMG_8070.JPG
 
www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com
It would drive me insane, but I have a weird thing for symmetry. No really...I have a dual monitor setup at work and I drove our desktop team crazy because I insisted on having identical monitors, when one crapped out they tried to replace it with one that wasn't identical and I almost lost my mind. That being said, I LOVE your scape!
 
PiscesPower said:
It would drive me insane, but I have a weird thing for symmetry. No really...I have a dual monitor setup at work and I drove our desktop team crazy because I insisted on having identical monitors, when one crapped out they tried to replace it with one that wasn't identical and I almost lost my mind. That being said, I LOVE your scape!
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LOL! I hear you! It was a really tough call for the symmetry reason alone. The thing that put me over the edge to try to deal with it was the BRS review of the AI Primes in a grid. I couldn't stand the idea of the rail and doing 4-5 Primes in a series. Hooking up the rail would have also required adjustments/hacking of my beautiful Artfully Acrylic top. Additionally, I didn't want to overpurchase and pay more for light I did not need but I was utterly unwilling to underpurchase as I'm finally getting somewhere with my SPS. Hence, the blend which is giving me some appropriate PAR readings at all depths across the tank. The look isn't my first choice but I think the results will be. :)
 
I completely agree and the bottom line is to get what's best for the corals. :)
 
Tidal Gardens
It's been a while since I've updated. Hope everyone is doing well! A few things have been going on with the tank.

1. I'm still quite happy with the Hydras. I'm seeing growth from most pieces and still finding my groove. I would like them to be a little more blue when I'm home from work but I've just done easy setup for right now. I'll have to dig in and figure out how to set them manually as I'd also like to throw in a couple of zig zags Mike Palletta mentioned in his latest video.
2. Dave from Nanobox hung in there with me after some shipping problems on my end and got me a new power brick for my Quad Plus and it fired right up. This means I now have a very nice set of spare lights. I know you'll understand when I say my first thought was to look around and see where I could put another tank!!! :) I'll keep you all posted.
3. I've added a split return random flow generator setup from @Vivid Creative Aquatics . To me, if you have a Reefer, this is basically a no brainer. It took all of one minute to unplug the other dual loc line return I had installed and push the VCA RFG on the return. It visibly randomizes flow and the entire thing was $50. No heat, no moving parts, clean lines and you get random flow from something that is traditionally static. Winning from VCA!
4. I'm dealing with a little bit of brown algae ATM which is pretty annoying. Nitrate and phosphate are pretty low and I try to blow off the rocks and clean the back of the tank daily to keep on top of it. I had stopped running carbon for a while and added some back in so I hope that might make a difference. It could also just be a newish tank going through its stages.
5. I bankrupted myself on the Halloween live sale from @CherryCorals. Looking forward to a host of fire coming my way!!!
6. Tank is starting to consume a little more by way of Ca, Mg and Alk.

All in all, things are going well and progressing as expected.
6677F3D3-35EF-4EE0-BAB7-E9F2102C18D5

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  • Media owner dmw913
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Hello, I just read through your entire thread simply from a post you made about your skimmer in another thread. You are progressing quite well. One suggestion I have is about your lights, you might want to look in the D-D, the Aquarium Solution (sponsor forum) and look at Tony@D-D' saquarium, https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-aquarium.287241/ . He has some presets for the AI Hydras that might work for you. The cool thing is you can download the presets to your lights through dropbox. I think his aquarium is going to speak for itself when you see it. He aslo have presets that Dave Saxby ueses on his aquarium. Please see, i think this one will speak for itself as well. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/david-saxbys-reef-aquarium.298093/.
On anothe note, how do you like your Deltec skimmer?
 
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lilchris_357 said:
Hello, I just read through your entire thread simply from a post you made about your skimmer in another thread. You are progressing quite well. One suggestion I have is about your lights, you might want to look in the D-D, the Aquarium Solution (sponsor forum) and look at Tony@D-D' saquarium, https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-aquarium.287241/ . He has some presets for the AI Hydras that might work for you. The cool thing is you can download the presets to your lights through dropbox. I think his aquarium is going to speak for itself when you see it. He aslo have presets that Dave Saxby ueses on his aquarium. Please see, i think this one will speak for itself as well. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/david-saxbys-reef-aquarium.298093/.
On anothe note, how do you like your Deltec skimmer?
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I have AI primes on my RSR 250 and I use the My AI app with them. I'm trying to figure out how to save my Prime settings to a computer file, there's a way to do it in my ai app. This app is tough to learn and there's an easy mode that makes it easy. The guys at BRS say just set AI lights and forget them it bothers the tank inhabitants to keep adjusting. There's really no one way to adjust AI lights other than use a lot of blues colors. I got so frustrated with my AI lights and had to call AI. He sent an email with instructions and the last time they sent instructions I couldn't figure it out. I asked him if I couldn't figure out the instruction this time could he walk me though it step by step personally and he said yes. Well he sent the instructions and it took me an hour to do something that should've only taken 15 minutes. I almost gave up and called this guy but after trial and error the instructions worked this time. It's too bad some things in this hobby are so darn technical. But then there wouldn't be any need for forums like this!!
 
lilchris_357 said:
Hello, I just read through your entire thread simply from a post you made about your skimmer in another thread. You are progressing quite well. One suggestion I have is about your lights, you might want to look in the D-D, the Aquarium Solution (sponsor forum) and look at Tony@D-D' saquarium, https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-aquarium.287241/ . He has some presets for the AI Hydras that might work for you. The cool thing is you can download the presets to your lights through dropbox. I think his aquarium is going to speak for itself when you see it. He aslo have presets that Dave Saxby ueses on his aquarium. Please see, i think this one will speak for itself as well. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/david-saxbys-reef-aquarium.298093/.
On anothe note, how do you like your Deltec skimmer?
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Thanks so very much for taking the time to go through my thread! I really appreciate it! I will also go check out the Hydra presets. I think the side with the 52 is getting a little too much light so I would love some comparisons as opposed to trial and error.

As for the Deltec, I couldn't be happier. I spent an embarrassing amount of time at the inception of this build trying to decide between the Deltec and the Nyos. At the end of the day, I could not find a single negative review of the Deltec whereas I found a few (just a few) on the Nyos. They were almost exactly the same price and it really felt like I couldn't go wrong either way but the folks who went Deltec were DIEHARD fans so that put me over the edge. I've been totally happy with the skimmer. Clean design, easy to set up and to clean. It pulls nasty stuff that actually even makes my sump a little smelly sometimes because it's so nasty if I don't clean it every few days. I bought mine from @Battlecorals and also received exceptional service to boot. Hope that helps!
 
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IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%

  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%

  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%

  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
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