Erics red sea xxl 750

[ESH]

Alkatronic is here!
Couple of things I noticed setting it up:
-Dosing pump for Alk is automatically enabled. For setup and calibration, this isn’t a good thing. I think I put in a lot of Alk solution tonight .... I only figured out how to stop it when I saw on the LED it was dosing 100+ mL.
-watch your calibration levels! This can really impact the accuracy of your readings. Mine started off reading 4.56 or so, and then the doser was trying to auto correct and was pumping in way more than I needed. I’ll have to keep an eye on the tank after this.

With that said, even though there’s a ton of pages for setup, the details are pretty good and it’s actually pretty easy to set up! Looking forward to getting this up and running correctly!

 

[ESH]

Alk on the Apex! What more can I ask for? Time to go calibrate all the other sensors, been a while.

 

[ESH]

Found a draft, hopefully this prepares my house for the extreme cold!

 

[AJsReef]

Awesome build! Really hate not having a basement. My tank is relatively silent but still enough to bug me.

Set up is legit. Alkatronic looks legit! This Trident wait is getting insane.

 

[AJsReef]

Awesome build! Really hate not having a basement. My tank is relatively silent but still enough to bug me.

Set up is legit. Alkatronic looks legit! This Trident wait is getting insane.

 

[ESH]

I know! Right after I caved and got this, pictures of those who are testing it started popping up. I would bet that at some point there will be an add on for Cal and Mag measurements.

 

[ESH]

Full tank Sunday!

Left Side

Center

Right Side

all the corals and live rock are from my 90 which was just over a year old, or recently brought over from my frag tank.
This tank is just starting to show coraline growing everywhere.


and one of my tangs lives inside this rock, thinks it is a flounder

Alkatronic is doing well. Initially I set it up to measure every hour, and currently have it at every 2. Red Dots are when it doses to correct my kh, black mean there was a reading out of whack so the system automatically did a second one to verify. Initially I had it going without dosing, just to see how it reads. Then once I saw how it was operating, I slowly raised the levels up about .5 each day until I got it up to my range of 8 - 8.5. I have not put my calcium reactor back online yet. I use Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt, and last time I tested freshly mixed water, I believe it was somewhere in the range of 8-8.5.

 

[Blackice615]

Looking great, thanks!

 

[ESH]

Met GugsJr today, picked up some sick frags!
MattV Rainbow Envy

PC rainbow

Rocky Mt Frag... something red.... lol sorry I forgot the name already
edit: RMF Diablo Milli - couldn't get the best pic here, need to up my camera game!

Can't wait till these grow out!

 

[dholic]

Nice build. I have a 180 gallon SPS tank on the first floor, parrallel to the 2 x 12 floor beams. I drilled the floor too but much lazier, one larger hole w flexible tubing to the 50 gal sump in my unfinished basement. I didnt like the bounce in my floor so supported the floor under the tank half butt by just placing a 1x3 from basement floor to beam. Im gonna fix properly someday. I love having my sump in my basement, maintenance and clean up are so much better. Plus i cant put a price on noise removed from my office to the basement. Water spills from buckets or skimmers stay in the basement where they belong. Guessing im just up rte 31/Randall Rd from you.

 

[ESH]

Nice! Yes that’s relatively close to me.

I actually added a pole to support in one spot. Hard to keep a toddler from jumping around and when he did I was seeing the tank shake. The floor support from homedepot seems to have stopped this.

 

[dholic]

OMG, Im the same. I have 3 kids under 10 who would run and jump in the office in front of my tank and id watch the water ripple and the tank bounce slightly and think, "this cant be good". My contrator buddy told me in the short term to add the wood joist but make sure it doesnt push the beam up too much. Support joist eliminated the bounce and i breathe easier. My plan is to build a 3 level stand/support that has 3 tanks from ground up, sump, then frag/fuge and then FW top off tank. 3 level tank stand would double as a floor support. Saw someone do something similar with a 1st floor w unfinished basement build. Isnt dumping water down the maintence tub so much better than lugging buckets or having the family complain about spills on the hard wood floors? Here is the other major bonus to your sump in the basement, tank temperature is never a problem in summer. I have a blue spot jawfish going on 3 years and i attribute its survival to a 76-78 temp in all seasons without a chiller. Impacts SPS growth rate though.

Im having problems keeping nutrient levels high enough so not sure about a fuge unless its just a pob nursery. I have 24 fish and cant keep LPS.

What's your secret to LPS? I started dosing nitrates a couple weks ago.

 

[ESH]

No real secret for the LPS. My focus is on keeping my SPS alive, and doing so I seem to be taking care of the LPS just fine. I can't figure out cyphastrea well, not sure why, but for others, this is whats been working for me. Lower flow, feed them 1-2 times each week, and lower light. I wanted a mixed SPS/LPS tank, so I did not center my lights and kept them slightly off center towards the back of my tank, so that the front of my tank could be lower light, and along with the sides. That is where I've placed most of my LPS, and I give them enough space to spread out and for some send out their sweepers. Scollys and Welso's seem to like lower flow. Watch them, and if they expand a lot then you likely have them in a good spot, if they don't puff up consider finding a spot with lower flow. Though I have 1 croc island scoly that seems to do fine in some decent flow. Believe they come from turbulent waters so I figured it's fine where its at. Only issue Ive been having with this tank is now that I've bare bottom, the flow and snails tend to move them around a bit so once a week Im pushing things back slightly in place.

 

[ESH]

Got my Q tank cleaned up, so I made my rounds to some LFS today, and got all the styrofoam from the tank crate to the local recycling center. More garage space!
No pictures yet, but today
-Picked up a Scopas tang from Reef Plus in Aurora IL that looked fat, and is half black half yellow. Awesome price too!
-Found 6 more healthy looking dispair anthias from Reef Wise in Lilse IL. Funny story with these. A while back I ordered 10 from liveaquaria, and only 2 made it. Then, I got 6 more from a local shop, and none of them made it more than a few days. Too scrawny, some got sick, others wouldn't eat. So I had two that moved from my 90gallon. These new ones looked pretty healthy, Ive already seen them eat frozen. One is hiding in the corner away from the pack, so not sure if I'll have 5 or 6 swimming in the morning. fingers crossed I can get these through quarantine. Also, for anyone local thats been to ReefWise, it looks like they are redoing their coral flats again and their SPS system is pretty much cleared out, and moved over to the other flat.
-Last, stopped by Gingerbread Coral in Naperville, and picked up a sailfin tang they had in one of their frag tanks for over 3 months. Major props to them working with me to lift some of their frag racks out of the way to catch this little guy. This tang is currently hanging out in my frag tank for observation. Of note, if anyone is looking for a fairly unique Tang, they do have a Brown Koi Tang in one of their tanks. It's pretty big, pricy (I think it was 6 or $700 - not as much as what you might find from TSM corals, listing $999+ for theirs). I wasn't sure if they were treating their tanks today or not as many had a yellow tint to them. Either way, cool store, lots of high end shrooms too! If it wasn't 45min away I'd stop by more often.

Makes me wonder, why don't more LFS do online sales? I know of one locally that does, BlueLine Coral in Naperville. Gingerbread has ebay sales too. There is also a big importer in the area, Global Reef Supply, that only does wholesale, yet I see hundreds of pics up on their site with some incredible live stock and yet half the local stores don't have nearly anything as nice. This place is maybe 20-30 min from me in Elgin. I'm wondering if I should create my own LLC or Corp so I can shop there.

 

[ESH]

more pic's
From the Q tank - everyone made it through the night! The tang is being a bit shy

Juvenile sailfin. Everytime I take the camera out it turns its tail to me or the clowns see me and peck at the glass. I'm not 100% sure if its a indo or red sea sailfin. Store only had it listed as a sailfin. If I were to guess I'd say red sea based on that the tail has more of a pattern in it.

I feel like the guys from top gear trying to take animal photos as I can't get the photo that Im trying to get

 

[ESH]

more coral close ups
Croc Island Scoly, picked up at a frag swap back in Oct/Nov. Doing well in some decent flow

I think this is a decorator crab. Came in with the live rock shipment when I setup the 90 and has managed to make it over to the new tank. Always surprises me when I find him.

Frag tank needs some love. No matter what I do, I can't seem to kill off the annoying algae. Bubble algae, Ulva, and bryopsis. At least Its been staying in this tank. I've tried chem treatments, which seems to work initially with the byropsis, but then a week or so after its gone it keeps coming back. Maybe the tang will help control the Ulva. Most of my SPS frags have been moved over to the display, though I still have a few left I need to move.

 

[ESH]

Cleaned up the frag tank tonight, but it is still going to need some work to get it back in shape. Too much problem algae that even though I cleaned it up today, it still needs some work as I know it's going to come back.

I also moved all but 1 last Acro up to the display. The one that is left has been growing a wide base so I'm just going to see where it goes. I didn't realize how many frags I had in that tank. I kept a pretty good record from all the sales I've ordered from here on reef2reef, now I just have to figure out what is what. Its sort of like I went on a free shopping spree, and now my display is starting to look nice and full. hopefully I've given them enough space to grow out. Not counting what I already moved from my 90, I think I moved up around 23 different SPS in the last week alone. I'll have to go through my lists to figure out what what was. Some I remember the names, others I'll have to look at the wysiwg photos I saved.

Next up, I need to go through some of the zoa fragging videos as I have some thats spread out I need to move up. WWC superstars, magicians, WWC Ao's and a bunch more. Even though these spread like wildfire, I am seeing that as some of my SPS grow they push back and get their space back. Birdsnest corals on the other hand seem to be great zoa play grounds. They just grow right over the branches.

 

[ESH]

A little bit ago my eclectus mushroom floated away. This evening I found it on the other side of the tank, hiding in a corner in between some tank rock work. Seems to be doing ok. I should be able to slide some rocks out of the way and get it in a better spot.

 

[Indiana Reefin]

Gorgeous!!!
It just seems like all Red Sea reefer tanks all look amazing! I will join the club someday....

That alktronic looks like a winner. Any issues with it?

 

[ESH]

Gorgeous!!!
It just seems like all Red Sea reefer tanks all look amazing! I will join the club someday....

That alktronic looks like a winner. Any issues with it?

No issues so far. Im currently doing readings every 2 hours just so I can get a feel for consumption. I will likely move those out to every 3-4. I like how it automatically calculates how much solution to dose to correct my levels, and it keeps it within a .5 variation max. Red dots mean it dosed, black means the reading was very different than the previous one, so it automatically does a second test to verify the reading accuracy.

 

[SaracensRugby]

How much are you spending on their reagent testing that often?