First Reef

[Stain]

Still chugging along. Lots of encrusting, and a couple pieces are shooting out branches. Added 3 more pieces today. Sorry for the blue, I have no idea how to take pics of this tank yet.

 

[Stain]

Im up to 10ml a day in mag dosing, by hand, so I think its time to pull the old dp-4 out. System still going great, ph pretty steady, alk, ca, mag right where I want them for the most part.

 

[Stain]

Tank is starting to consume alk faster than calc, so I adjusted the dosing. Using esv 2 part, but dosing slightly more alk (part1) than cal (part2), which I know your not 'supposed' to do, but thats what the tank wants. Pic this morning as lights are coming on. A few corals were moved as im still ramping up my lights. At 60%i 20%c at the moment for 5 hours, 3hr ramp in morning, 4 hr ramp at night.

 

[elorablue]

My 20g uses alkalinity but my calcium and magnesium never change. I'm dosing ESV as well, 6ml per day manually to keep the alk at 9.

 

[Stain]

My 20g uses alkalinity but my calcium and magnesium never change. I'm dosing ESV as well, 6ml per day manually to keep the alk at 9.

Mine only recently started consuming mag, not sure where its going. Up to 10ml a day by hand to keep around 1300. My Alk I run the same as you, 9, but my ca has recently started creeping 515-525, I try and stay 490-500. I dose 15ml a day with the dos pump for mag and ca. I need to hook my old dp-4 up again for mag soon, sometimes I forget how much i've added hahaha. My ph drops to around 8.1 at night, and is usually 8.22ish at the end of the peak photo period of the tank.

 

[Stain]

My alk consumption has been steadily increasing during my photo period. I've been tweaking my dos to try and stay on top of it. Yesterday was the lowest its been in a while at 8.78. Also had to calibrate the trident last week as the reagents were low and the numbers were drifting. Can see that on the second graph haha.

 

[Stain]

Still chugging along. Just shut down my 40b freshwater tank. Going to drill it and upgrade soon.

 

[Stain]

Welcome to reef2reef. Great looking setup.
Is that 20g drilled?

Yes its drilled for an eshopps eclipse s, and a 3/4in return on the right side.

 

[Stain]

So the final spot for the a160we's are at 60% intensity, 25% color. I'll be moving next month, and at the same time i'll be upgrading to a 40b for the extra room. I may start a new build for that tank. Not set on lights yet, but I do have a 3rd 160 kicking around so I may try the three and run higher intensities for the extra 4inches of depth.

The Tank is doing great, up to 19ml esv 2 part a day. I have also been using acropower for the last month. I haven't noticed anything dramatic, but i've only been dosing 2ml a day on a 30gal system. I had to move my rainbow loom to the bottom as it started to bleach. It still has yellow polyps, but the pink base is almost white. I dont have a par meter, but it wasnt far from my WD and Maleficent, so I suspect too much light.
Top down pic, the blueberry wine doesnt know what it wants to do.

 

[Stain]

The tank has officially been moved and upgraded. Major pain in the bottom that was. Everything is in the 40b now, only a couple acro's were damaged during transport. A capacitor exploded on the my third Kessil, so i'm down a light for now. Had little alk swing the first night as the dosing pump wasnt hooked up, the move took hours longer than expected.

She's running smoothly again. The first night, heater wasnt on, and the snails started sperming all over the place, so woke up to that and cloudy water lol (took a video but dont know how to upload it here). Heres how it sits now.

Had to put the two kessils on goosenecks, ad I had welded a stand for three, but im not going to buy another 160we. Wiring is a mess and everything is thrown together so my two year old cant mess with it much. I will start a new thread for this if anyone is interested in following along. Its been a journey for a young tank lol. Cheers

 

[elorablue]

Nice job!! You’re going bare bottom now?!

 

[Stain]

Nice job!! You’re going bare bottom now?!

Going to try. I had been slowly taking the sand out of the 20gal for the last month, figured i'd just jump in with this tank. Not 100% on the look yet, but I love being able to crank the wavemakers up, and its easy to get the detritus to settle in one spot.

I need to add more fish now, as ive been dumping food in to compensate for only having two fish, the sixline and the tomini. Thinking a mini school of 5 springeri damsels, a few chalk bass, or something else. I would like 'working' fish more than 'dithers'.

 

[elorablue]

Very interesting as always. I'm starting up another tank, a 30L that will be Acro only and I'm giving serious consideration to going BB.. I just don't like the look and I want some 'sand fish' so I probably wont but it is tempting for flow and detritus reasons that's for sure.
Those damsels are beautiful little fish, just don't know about their attitude issues .

 

[James_O]

Looking good! Keep up the good work.

 

[Stain]

Very interesting as always. I'm starting up another tank, a 30L that will be Acro only and I'm giving serious consideration to going BB.. I just don't like the look and I want some 'sand fish' so I probably wont but it is tempting for flow and detritus reasons that's for sure.
Those damsels are beautiful little fish, just don't know about their attitude issues .

The look is growing on me slowly. It helps if you paint the bottom black, its not a mirror then. My 40b has the thick center braces. I cut the top one out and siliconed a glass strip in its place (glass wall to glass wall, under plastic trim/brace). The bottom strip where the brace is, I couldnt paint under so it looks silly. I would get an aqueon tank next time, as they dont typically have the center brace.

The 'tudes' on the damsels is whats worring me. I've read contradicting things on them. I like a tank where the fish arent constantly fighting, and I feel a little school of damsels might be like an african chiclid tank. Right now its so peaceful, the wrasse and tang just swim around together scouring the rock work. I would love to add a couple more tomini's, but feel that would be suicidal.

 

[Stain]

Looking good! Keep up the good work.

Thank you, I appreciate it

 

[elorablue]

The look is growing on me slowly. It helps if you paint the bottom black, its not a mirror then. My 40b has the thick center braces. I cut the top one out and siliconed a glass strip in its place (glass wall to glass wall, under plastic trim/brace). The bottom strip where the brace is, I couldnt paint under so it looks silly. I would get an aqueon tank next time, as they dont typically have the center brace.

The 'tudes' on the damsels is whats worring me. I've read contradicting things on them. I like a tank where the fish arent constantly fighting, and I feel a little school of damsels might be like an african chiclid tank. Right now its so peaceful, the wrasse and tang just swim around together scouring the rock work. I would love to add a couple more tomini's, but feel that would be suicidal.

Yes, some people say they're model citizens others not so much...so who knows? I don't like any aggression in my tank so I really want to avoid that, but they are a beautiful fish...
I would stick with the one tomini if I were you.
Don't know if you've checked out my build thread to see what's going on with my tank

 

[LRT]

Impressive. Well done!

 

[Stain]

Still just chuggin along, since I moved it three months ago. Lost my sixline, he jumped out so i need to get a lid figured out, plus my wifes hair always ends up in the tank, so leaning toward a couple glass lids. I had a glass lid on the 20long, and I liked it. Also took the apex/trodent/dos off the tank as I found it not nearly as enjoyable. Back to a jebao dp-4 doser, no controllers. Now to get a filter to take pictures that look decent lol.

 

[Acros]

Oh.. I understand the hair part. It’s mostly my dog’s hair tho.