REEFMASTER's Breaking down, leaving hobby for a while

[AJ_Tsin]

Yeah it is really annoying me, I'll see of I can order a bucket from work at wholesale price or buy it online, funny because I'm sure AJ is running the same salt, thanks for the tip, I was thinking the same thing.

 

 

I'll look into the airgas thing, so after all the carbon media won't be overly expensive for me.

I run reef crystals. Keep calcium at like 445-450 I dose about 7ml of brs calcium daily as well.

[jedimasterben]

My calcium has always been a little high with reef crystals. I'm running the redsea blue bucket now and it's right around 420-430 on a fresh batch. Lots of zeovit people run this salt. A lot closer to nsw than reef crystals.

I can never justify almost $80 for a bucket of salt. I'll take Instant Ocean over pretty much anything, if it's good enough for public aquaria that can't use NSW or aren't mixing their own, it's good enough for me.

[Reefmaster1996]

Maybe I have a bad batch, idk but I'm about to test what a fresh batch reads for cal, and other params, if not I think I can get a Red Sea blue bucket from work.

 

I agree with Ben, but if I can get it wholesale, I might as well try something new out, you never know what the results could be sometimes.

[Alex B]

I can never justify almost $80 for a bucket of salt. I'll take Instant Ocean over pretty much anything, if it's good enough for public aquaria that can't use NSW or aren't mixing their own, it's good enough for me.

To each his own right...I got tired of waiting for my salt to mix and getting batches that were off. I get my blue bucket for $60 so not much difference. I'll gladly pay the extra $10 to have a salt that mixes up cleaner and closer to what I keep my tank at. I used reef crystals and instant ocean for a long time. I actually go trough less salt now also. I guess it's all preference at the end. I like making my water and mixing it the day of water change. The Red Sea salt is ready to use in minutes. Makes my life easier.

 

I run reef crystals. Keep calcium at like 445-450 I dose about 7ml of brs calcium daily as well.

Surprised you are keeping it that high in a zeovit tank. Don't they recommend lower? I'm shooting for around 400. Your tank is doing great though. Don't change a thing lol...

[Reefmaster1996]

Yeah I ran reef crystals on my last/first tank, and then switched to the coral pro Red Sea and I fell in love with their salt, it is so fine and easy to mix, the quality is much better, plus if. Can get it cheaply why not.

 

 

I did test the water after about 3 hrs of mixing

At a salinity of 1.025

cal:460-480ppm

Alk:9dkh

Ph:8.2-8.3

No detectable phosphate or nitrate

API test kit was used,I know is not the most accurate according to some, but it has worked for me in the past, and it is what we use at work.

The cal is higher than I would like but, not as high as I expected, I do not know why the tank is at 500ppm. I am not dosing cal, just alk and Red Sea coral colors program.

 

I will reduce my salinity from 1.025-1.026 to 1.023-1.024, hopefully this will lower my params enough to be acceptable while I look out for a deal on Red Sea salt.

Any thoughts on why it could be so high, I did slightly overdose about three weeks ago to 540ppm, and I guess it's only gone down to 500ppm in three weeks, with weekly water changes?

[Alex B]

P

Yeah I ran reef crystals on my last/first tank, and then switched to the coral pro Red Sea and I fell in love with their salt, it is so fine and easy to mix, the quality is much better, plus if. Can get it cheaply why not.

I did test the water after about 3 hrs of mixing

At a salinity of 1.025

cal:460-480ppm

Alk:9dkh

Ph:8.2-8.3

No detectable phosphate or nitrate

API test kit was used,I know is not the most accurate according to some, but it has worked for me in the past, and it is what we use at work.

The cal is higher than I would like but, not as high as I expected, I do not know why the tank is at 500ppm. I am not dosing cal, just alk and Red Sea coral colors program.

I will reduce my salinity from 1.025-1.026 to 1.023-1.024, hopefully this will lower my params enough to be acceptable while I look out for a deal on Red Sea salt.

Any thoughts on why it could be so high, I did slightly overdose about three weeks ago to 540ppm, and I guess it's only gone down to 500ppm in three weeks, with weekly water changes?

 

If you don't have a lot of mature colonies sucking up calcium, it's possible it just hasn't gone down yet. Remember a water change of 10% in a tank will have very little affect on the overall parameters. I've been sitting at about 430 calcium with the redsea blue. It's pretty close to zeovit parameters so I like it. I'm not even dosing calcium or anything yet. Nothing wrong with reef crystals at all, but something else might help keeping lower parameters. Nanotopia also runs Red Sea blue and recommends it for zeovit tanks.

[Reefmaster1996]

I agree, I'm trying it when my reef crystals runs out.

[AJ_Tsin]

Surprised you are keeping it that high in a zeovit tank. Don't they recommend lower? I'm shooting for around 400. Your tank is doing great though. Don't change a thing lol...

 

I keep it a bit higher generally I aim for anywhere between 430 and 450.

 

I actually am not 100% on Reef Crystals, It leaves a brown residue in my mixing tank and agree takes forever to mix. I even raise the RO to temp before adding salt to avoid any precipate but I still get some brown film or something if I leave it mixing for a few days... Have been thinking of changing to something else after this bucket runs out.

[Alex B]

 

I keep it a bit higher generally I aim for anywhere between 430 and 450.

I actually am not 100% on Reef Crystals, It leaves a brown residue in my mixing tank and agree takes forever to mix. I even raise the RO to temp before adding salt to avoid any precipate but I still get some brown film or something if I leave it mixing for a few days... Have been thinking of changing to something else after this bucket runs out.

Well if u try the Red Sea blue, I promise you won't be disappointed. I've never had a salt that mixed up so clean and fast.

I drop about 3 cups for 10 gallons of water. I have a mj 900 in my mixing container. In 5 minutes the water is clear. I mix it for a hour just because, but it's not even needed. When I'm done, my mixing container is clean as can be. It's white so I would see anything left over. No film, no undissolved salt. Nothing. I used to mix my reef crystals for a whole day, and still have undissolved stuff everywhere.

[Reefmaster1996]

Yeah I noticed the same, and the vat that we mix it in at work has tons of brown gunk too.

 

I will update tommorow, I'm calling it a night after a long exam week.

[Reefmaster1996]

led details (the classified until now build lol) AKA "halide slayer" or "My EVIl CLUSTER"

Leds used:

Heatsink: Heatsink USA 1/4 thick (2x(6"x10")=one 12"x10" heatsink)

2xBXRA-40E0950-B-00 (no Longer manufactured, replaced by the following led)

2xBXRA-40E0950-B-03

12x Luxeon M Royal Blue

8xRebl ES Cyan

8xRebel ES Cool BLue

8x Led Group Buy Hyper Violet

8x Led Group Buy True Violet(still need to order, position indicated by blue tape on heat sink)

8x Rebel ES lime (still need to order, position will be in evil cluster next to True Violet, not indicated)

Consumption@100%: (forgot to add limes) so like 328watts

Intensity@100%:99,472mw

Lumens output at 100%: 10,498

The basic layout is shown below, along with my 350w power supply, an optics for everything. I still need to order a lot of stuff to make it look pretty and to make it all work, will share that info in future post as I organize my plans.

[Reefmaster1996]

Almost forgot, these are my drivers, mounted on the coralux Ldd board, pen is used for size reference, already ordered one for the limes to go on just need another coralux board, acrylic, a stormx controller, some wire, wire sheath, heatshrink, 60mm cooling fans(6),and industrial Velcro. Ill let you guys imagine what will come from these materials, soon my small model of the sun will be complete.

[Reefmaster1996]

FTS

FTS

[jedimasterben]

OH DAYUM

[Reefmaster1996]

Does the mini sun get the Jedi stamp of approval?

[jedimasterben]

[Reefmaster1996]

lol, means a lot jedi. Now if Evil himself gave me thumbs up, I would fall backward in my chair, lol!

[jedimasterben]

You've basically taken his original cluster and thrown it on its head lol

[Reefmaster1996]

Vid update

[NirvanaandTool]

 

OH DAYUM

 

This.

 

Impressive build. Even more impressive Cluster. Nice work!

[Reefmaster1996]

Thanks, I really want to get it up and running soon, and maybe get a par Meter and see what she can do

[jedimasterben]

Make sure you have an extra pair of pants to change into.

[Reefmaster1996]

Thanks, I really want to get it up and running soon, and maybe get a par Meter and see what she can do

 

Lol I'm in the mood for a good tan

[NirvanaandTool]

Make sure you have an extra pair of pants to change into.

 

And a welding mask for that first test. Don't blind yourself with that beast!

[Reefmaster1996]

I have a couple , I'll make sure not to hurt myself, you only lose your eye sight once lol