The Panic 220 SPS and 270 Mixed Reef

panic · Mar 16, 2020

I’ve been enjoying watching everything grow and color up over the last year. All my new little frags from 6-12 months ago are branching out, some already getting trimmed. I slowly brought my nitrates up to 10ppm, my calcium reactor is finally stabile since adding the peristaltic pump, and have increased the whites to a higher intensity. All this stuff has caused the corals to grow like mad. This week I added another Kamoer peristaltic pump to pull water through my kalk stirrer for a more even ato. The GHL just couldn’t keep up.

I have been looking at getting a “frag photo booth” but I decided to just make one. I ordered a 12x12” piece of 3/16”black acrylic and, 2 sets of rubber coated neo magnets, and some #4 acrylic adhesive. Made a few cuts on the table saw and blammy! A frag photo booth of my very own. I can pull it up so the edges are over the top of the water for smooth water for taking some top down pics without turning off the flow in the tank.

i_declare_bankruptcy · Mar 16, 2020

You have some nice looking tanks! What are the dimensions on the 270? I really like it

panic · Mar 16, 2020

i_declare_bankruptcy said:
You have some nice looking tanks! What are the dimensions on the 270? I really like it

thanks! It’s 3’ tall x 2 x 6 eurobraced

Pmez · Mar 16, 2020

Wow nice build. I can’t wait to upgrade my 100. I wanna go 300 so I can fit everything I want.

panic · Mar 17, 2020

Paul Meza said:
Wow nice build. I can’t wait to upgrade my 100. I wanna go 300 so I can fit everything I want.

I think my dream tank size is 2 tall x 4 x 6. I like the 4’ cube but don’t think I could fit everything I want in there, so the 2tall x3x6 will probably Be what happens. Being able to see the overflow is really distracting to me so external overflow with black back glass and starphire front and sides are also on my list

panic · Mar 24, 2020

I’ve been eyeballing the Aquatic Life hybrids for a year or so and finally put one over my 220. Mostly I wanted just a little bit more PAR without changing the color. I got there by increasing the whites on the Radions, but the colors weren’t quite as vibrant. Now I have both. Also I wanted better light spread, which it does big time - spreads it out halfway across the room.

panic · Apr 8, 2020

panic · Apr 17, 2020

I’m having a growth explosion after adding the t5 hybrid to the sps tank so I found a used one for my grow out tank for sale on the site here for a great price.

My calcium reactor has been stabile so I have trying to ween off of dosing soda ash for Alk. Well, I can’t. The reactor just can’t keep up. 100ml is about the minimum I can dose and dKH stays below 8. I prefer to stay at 8.4. I searched around and found that DaStaco and Aquarium Engineering both make an “automatic” calcium reactor that have a controller that does all of the gas mix and drip rates for the perfect mix. I ended up going with the Aquarium Engineering 8” stacked reactor that has a separate chamber for magnesium media, holds about 40 pounds of media. I emailed with the owner and designer, Bill Wann. I enjoy being able to by products from “the guy” and also supporting small business owners, especially during times like this when the earth is on lockdown. He’s constantly updating and improving his products and they are all built heavy duty. Basically it’s a tiny version of an industrial sized reactor. Next week I will share some pics when it arrives!!!

ethridge78 · Apr 19, 2020

Glad I found you on here nice to see local people.

panic · Apr 20, 2020

ethridge78 said:
Glad I found you on here nice to see local people.

hey! The local group is starting to grow again finally. I’m excited to have some people to trade corals with.

ethridge78 · Apr 21, 2020

panic said:
hey! The local group is starting to grow again finally. I’m excited to have some people to trade corals with.

ethridge78 · Apr 21, 2020

panic said:
hey! The local group is starting to grow again finally. I’m excited to have some people to trade corals with.

Finally got that orca 250 going now I just to get it on a tank.

panic · Apr 21, 2020

ethridge78 said:
Finally got that orca 250 going now I just to get it on a tank.

You’ll love it once it’s dialed in. There is one for sale in the classifieds and I almost bought it for a spare

ethridge78 · Apr 21, 2020

panic said:
You’ll love it once it’s dialed in. There is one for sale in the classifieds and I almost bought it for a spare

Was that the one in Wichita?

panic · Apr 21, 2020

ethridge78 said:
Was that the one in Wichita?

I’m not sure. I didn’t look too close for the sake of my bank account

ethridge78 · Apr 21, 2020

panic said:
I’m not sure. I didn’t look too close for the sake of my bank account

Haha I seen one and they only wanted 100 bucks for it I tried to buy it but he never message me back

panic · May 13, 2020

My calcium reactor has been struggling to keep up so I have been dosing BRS soda ash, which I never really had to do before til the last year or so. So I got a new toy: the Aquarium Engineering 8” stacked ACR - automatic calcium reactor. A guy named Bill Wann makes these things along with all sorts of other MASSIVE reef products. This thing is made out of PVC and is built like a tank. 3 boxes of ARM in the top and 2 bags of mag in the bottom chamber. Just set it up tonight so here we go. Wish me luck getting it dialed in without killing anything.

I tapped in to my return line for the feed line to the reactor

TX_Punisher · May 13, 2020

Let us know how the ACR works. I’ve seen his wait times are quite long. Maybe he’s gotten better as of late, though. That is a beast for sure

panic · May 13, 2020

TX_Punisher said:
Let us know how the ACR works. I’ve seen his wait times are quite long. Maybe he’s gotten better as of late, though. That is a beast for sure

My wait was a few weeks, but I bought it sooner than I planned because he told me he’d ship it the next day. So that irritated me. But I like that I can call him on his phone and he answers it and is there for me when I have questions. It’s a boutique product, and there are typically some quirks that go along with them. Kind of like boutique high end audio...don’t get me started!

panic · May 17, 2020

I have the new calcium reactor set up and running - this thing is awesome. I’m still dialing it in slowly, but It’s simple to operate. It’s as easy to adjust dKH by pushing a button on the controller. I have been dosing about 100ml per day of soda ash with the old reactor to be in between 7.7-8. I tried to increase it to the 8.3-8.5 range but it was unstable, ph would drop, I’d get increased algae growth, and I just don’t like having to dose anything that could potentially nuke my tank if the doser went rogue on me. The old reactor was great until I started back in with sps and doubled water volume. Within 3 days of setting up the ACR, I’m able to eliminate dosing alk and dKH is hovering around 8.3. I’m making fine adjustments to the controller and I think it will be solid within the week at this rate.