sammy113 Posted December 1, 2011 Author Share Posted December 1, 2011 Last saturday, some friends from our local forum made a tour to visit some of the aquariums from our club. My great friend Luisgo took some pictures Link to comment
Saul 1 Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Sammy great progress pics...its interesting to see we are running very similar setups. I was debating on buying that Octopus skimmer and also fabricating my own led, but opted for the vertex illumina instead. Your light fixture looks nicer than the vertex illumina imo, that speaks volumes about your fabrication skills and attention to aesthetics. I was curious if you are still running bio-pellets? I see a phosban reactor but cant tell if its gfo or the pellets? I increased the lighting intensity on my leds to 80% blue and 20% white and noticed more hair algae growth. I am going to dial it back down to 10% white and 50% blue. Your tank looks to be doing really well, have you had any algae experiences at all since starting your tank? I noticed you also said you are now growing coralline. I have not yet started growing any in my tank but my tank is about 5 weeks old. How soon did you start to see coralline? Just so I can get an idea. Thanks again and great build. I will follow your progression. Link to comment
sammy113 Posted December 1, 2011 Author Share Posted December 1, 2011 Sammy great progress pics...its interesting to see we are running very similar setups. I was debating on buying that Octopus skimmer and also fabricating my own led, but opted for the vertex illumina instead. Your light fixture looks nicer than the vertex illumina imo, that speaks volumes about your fabrication skills and attention to aesthetics. I was curious if you are still running bio-pellets? I see a phosban reactor but cant tell if its gfo or the pellets? I increased the lighting intensity on my leds to 80% blue and 20% white and noticed more hair algae growth. I am going to dial it back down to 10% white and 50% blue. Your tank looks to be doing really well, have you had any algae experiences at all since starting your tank? I noticed you also said you are now growing coralline. I have not yet started growing any in my tank but my tank is about 5 weeks old. How soon did you start to see coralline? Just so I can get an idea. Thanks again and great build. I will follow your progression. Hi Saul, thanks! I'm still running biopelletes in that two little fishies reactor. Running lower than the recommended. My LEDs run right now Blues 50% and whites 20% and I've noticed that is more than enough light. If I go higher I will start to bleach corals. What I've been doing is increasing 5% every week or so till achieve the desired %. I haven't really experienced much of a hair algae problem. Not other than the normal for a new tank but was easily controlled with water changes. Right now, my floor is getting a lot of coraline and the rocks have some pretty nice spots starting to grow. I noticed some started as soon as 1 month after set up. Just make sure you Ca, Alk and Mg levels are consistent and stable and coraline will come. I did had a piece of rock that had coraline in it. Also all my snails had their conch full of it so I'm guessing that helps too. Thos vertex ilumina lamps are sweet man! I love your ADA tank. Is coming along nicely Link to comment
Saul 1 Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Hi Saul, thanks! I'm still running biopelletes in that two little fishies reactor. Running lower than the recommended. My LEDs run right now Blues 50% and whites 20% and I've noticed that is more than enough light. If I go higher I will start to bleach corals. What I've been doing is increasing 5% every week or so till achieve the desired %. I haven't really experienced much of a hair algae problem. Not other than the normal for a new tank but was easily controlled with water changes. Right now, my floor is getting a lot of coraline and the rocks have some pretty nice spots starting to grow. I noticed some started as soon as 1 month after set up. Just make sure you Ca, Alk and Mg levels are consistent and stable and coraline will come. I did had a piece of rock that had coraline in it. Also all my snails had their conch full of it so I'm guessing that helps too. Thos vertex ilumina lamps are sweet man! I love your ADA tank. Is coming along nicely 1 month after setup you had corraline? Wow, thats is really good. I have yet to see any. I am hoping it starts kicking in soon. I seeded my tank with an established tanks corraline algae. Hopefully this helps start it. My alk, mg, ca have been pretty stable and on par for the last month. It took me about a week to get it dialed in. I really like the programming of my vertex lamps, I think this one aspect where led lighting really shines. Link to comment
sammy113 Posted December 24, 2011 Author Share Posted December 24, 2011 Small update. Tank went way to low in Alk (5.5) SPS corals faded almost white Keeping up with water changes weekly like always. Been using Red Sea's Reef Pro salt for a while now. Actually almost from the beginning. Now decided to go with Red Sea's Coral Color program which looks pretty promising to me. Also have a friend who is breeding clownfish and ran out of space to keep new babies so he told me to take care of some of the oldest babies. These are still about 1" or so. I set up my old 20g cube for them and in exchange he is giving me two of them for me Here's the ones I'm getting (waiting till the grow a bit more to move them to my tank) These two guys Super cute This is the whole setup I'll be back once I get my tank stabilized and buy some new corals cause I may have some dying already Link to comment
sammy113 Posted December 25, 2011 Author Share Posted December 25, 2011 Merry Christmass to all!!! Just a pic of how my bare bottom looks so far. For a 4 months old tank not so bad coraline growth Link to comment
Justind823 Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Is this tank still running? Link to comment
sammy113 Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 Yeah! I just haven't updated anything cause I have a serious algae problem. It just sucks. I found out my R/O was giving me 110 TDS so probably that was one of the causes. I ordered new filters, waiting for them to come anytime this week. Plans are to make at least a 20% WC, rise Mg to 1400 and mantain till I see algae die off. Then a 2 or 3 days "lights out" to weaken and manually remove if there's still any. Also got a RKL in a trade for a 5g tank I had without any use so I'm pumped to get more modules to automate the tank. Another future plan is to get a dosing system cause my Alk is dropping too fast and manually dosing everyday have me crazy Link to comment
uma_cura Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Hey! Esos payasos estan en la madre! Te los cambio por los mios! Link to comment
sammy113 Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 Hey! Esos payasos estan en la madre! Te los cambio por los mios! I know right! Unfortunately they died even before i transfer them to the 40B. I was waiting for them to grow a bit more Today was a stressful day for me and my tank. I had a massive algae problem and I was attacking it by raisin Mg. Also changed all my R/O filters which was mainly the problem with a 150 TDS. I spot treated some of the algae and yesterday I took down the whole tank. I did this because my starboard bottom was leaking water between plastic and glass. The silicone doesn't bond strong to it so I cannot allow to store detritus and water under the plastic. Emptying dry the tank for more than 24 hours waiting for silicone to cure (and hope it works this time) was not an option so I went with a thin sandbed. I purchased caribsea 15# "live sand" bag which I rinsed a couple hundred times with tap water and then a few more with R/O befor introduce it. Also took the change to spot treat with pure H2O2 the algae spots and let it burn for 5 minutes. Then rinsed the rocks and back to the tank. Did a 8 gallon water change and now is up and running. A neighbor gave me 2 urchins that are now taking care of some remaining algae spots and grabbing all non secure corals for a ride lol. I saw it hanging with a fragspawn on the back. Still need to glue a lot of corals but I'm holding them now in my frag area in the sump to see if they recover well. Most of them were dipped for 3 minutes in a 50/50 peroxide saltwater mix for algae. I PROMISE pictures today when I get back home from work. I forgot how nice a tank with new white sand looked like. I love it so far Link to comment
Paigee Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Hope you get all your algae problems worked out! Battling it sucks. Did you ever get any response about your skimmer that was broken from a few pages back in this thread? Can't wait to see some pics Link to comment
sammy113 Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 Hope you get all your algae problems worked out! Battling it sucks. Did you ever get any response about your skimmer that was broken from a few pages back in this thread? Can't wait to see some pics Thanks man! Yeah I got an immediate response from coralvue and 4 days later I got in my mail not the impeller, but a whole new Bubble Blaster XP1000. Those guys are freaking awesome Link to comment
Paigee Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Thanks man! Yeah I got an immediate response from coralvue and 4 days later I got in my mail not the impeller, but a whole new Bubble Blaster XP1000. Those guys are freaking awesome It's WOman to you sir. Haha just kidding I'm glad it all got worked out! That's great Link to comment
uma_cura Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Sorry to hear that. Know that you have my help for anything do not hesitate to call or leave message. Link to comment
d'Espresso Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Sammy, I'm glad thing is working out on your impeller and hopefully get your tank 110% back to good! I am also think and itching to get on the 40g breeder bandwagon pretty soon! Gonna try to follow your footstep. Lol Link to comment
sammy113 Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 It's WOman to you sir. Haha just kidding I'm glad it all got worked out! That's great Soo sorry lady yeah thanks!!! Sorry to hear that. Know that you have my help for anything do not hesitate to call or leave message. Gracias amigo! Sammy, I'm glad thing is working out on your impeller and hopefully get your tank 110% back to good! I am also think and itching to get on the 40g breeder bandwagon pretty soon! Gonna try to follow your footstep. Lol Thanks! Come to the dark side! haha if you do, you're gonna pull out an amazing tank, just like all yours Uploading pictures!!! Coming in a few minutes Link to comment
sammy113 Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 Alright, here what I had: Its now dying. Currently very white and weak. Gonna follow up with a 2 days lights out to help even more View from my couch Detailed pics in a couple more days once the algae has gone Link to comment
sammy113 Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 pictures of the algae as of now after 24 hrs of peroxide spot treatment: Link to comment
disaster999 Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 glad your taking control in the algae problem. hope thats the end of it. Link to comment
d'Espresso Posted March 24, 2012 Share Posted March 24, 2012 Sammy how did you take off your 40b brace without cracking the tank? I am nervous to try, is there an easy way to do this? Any advice? Thanks I would like to take both off and paint it white also? Do u recommend taking the bottom off or should I just tape the bottom and spray it white? Link to comment
sammy113 Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 I did it without breaking it. You need a few utility knifes and a lot of patience. All you need to do is score both outside and inside the tank (be careful not to cut the plastic after you cut the silicone). Then you need to pull on a corner and then you could use a thin guitar string to run all around. or even the same knife cause there is a line of silicone in the top of the glass. I just did that with the top frame. The bottom is covered with the stand. Spray paint and tape sounds pretty safe to me though Link to comment
Criley7 Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 sammy113 said: View from my couch Detailed pics in a couple more days once the algae has gone nice view Link to comment
Angelynn Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Beautiful Setup! Gonna following along as i can pick up some ideas from you if you don't mind. Trying to get everything ready as this tank will be my first ever reef tank before my last one that had never had touch water in it. what type of sand are you using? are you dosing anything? Link to comment
sammy113 Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 Angelynn said: Beautiful Setup! Gonna following along as i can pick up some ideas from you if you don't mind. Trying to get everything ready as this tank will be my first ever reef tank before my last one that had never had touch water in it. what type of sand are you using? are you dosing anything? Thanks I'm using Caribsea sand but can't remember the exact name. Got it from petsmart. I'm currently adding kalkwasser to my RO/di water. Also dosing Alk, Ca and Mg (brightwell) and RedSea's Coral program kit which includes Potassium, trace elements, Iron. Brightwell aminoacids once weekly. Planning on getting an automatic doser with at least 3 heads for Ca, Alk, and Mg which are the most used Link to comment
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