Ninja's Red Sea Reefer 350 - still here!

[ninjamyst]

On 1/3/2018 at 8:30 PM, Andreww said:

Very nice!!

For a cyclist like me , Chiang Mai  Doi Inthanon is a bucket list item for sure . One of the steepest out there, along with the European climbs that are more popular.

Again, very nice pictures !

Didn't get a chance to go to doi inthanon because I was all templed out but will definitely go next time!  There are lots of biking tours from easy to hardcore.  You should look into biking to Pai too.  

 

18 hours ago, Indiana Reefin said:

Really wonderful tank build! I read the entire thread last night! I love your pictures of your dogs and your trips along with your reef. You have a very good life! 

 

Hang in there with the Dino’s. You can get through it. You may want to look into hydrogen peroxide dosing. 

 

I am going to look into an arid algae reactor. I like to take a natural approach to nutrient export 

Thanks for reading through the thread!  I should do that one day to look back...haha.  I may get the chaeto reactor from BRS but so expensive...

[ninjamyst]

Quick and dirty FTS.  On going battle with Dino.  Acros mostly brown or STN.  Bubble tip lost most of its color.  Zoas smothered by dino / hair algae.  LPS doing great.  Ricordeas doing great.  

 

Dino covers the sandbed 2 days after a water change.  I scraped off as much dino as I can from the backwall but there are places I can't get to.  The scraping removed most of the coraline from the backwall too.  Got some fluconazole coming in the mail to take care of the hair algae problem on the rocks.  

 

[jack1978]

5 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

Quick and dirty FTS.  On going battle with Dino.  Acros mostly brown or STN.  Bubble tip lost most of its color.  Zoas smothered by dino / hair algae.  LPS doing great.  Ricordeas doing great.  

 

Dino covers the sandbed 2 days after a water change.  I scraped off as much dino as I can from the backwall but there are places I can't get to.  The scraping removed most of the coraline from the backwall too.  Got some fluconazole coming in the mail to take care of the hair algae problem on the rocks.  

 

I wish my tank looked as crappy as yours.  Maybe I need some dinos? 

 

 

[Andreww]

Haha that’s funny! Looks good from here!

Ninja, have you seen this video? Maybe you need to start a serious macro grow station to defeat the dinos  ...

 

[ninjamyst]

45 minutes ago, jack1978 said:

I wish my tank looked as crappy as yours.  Maybe I need some dinos? 

 

 

I took a far away shot on purpose so you dont see the uglies =P

 

 

40 minutes ago, Andreww said:

Haha that’s funny! Looks good from here!

Ninja, have you seen this video? Maybe you need to start a serious macro grow station to defeat the dinos  ...

 

Very nice video!  My chaeto is not growing in the sump under the Nanobox Tide.  I am very close to pulling the trigger on a chaeto reactor from BRS.  But $230....so expensive.  

[Indiana Reefin]

Go for the Arid. Only 449 

the skimz do look nice.. why don’t you just build one yourself? 

[Andreww]

Before you get a reactor get a regular 5000k Philips LED bulb 12W...home Depot has them.

. I’ve pulled out my grow full spectrum bulb that’s supposed to grow plants but seriously all it did is melt my chaeto cuz it was too powerful. Played around with diffusers and such but no luck.

Put back the old Phillips bulb and now I see growth. Go figure...

It doesn’t hurt to try that before you invest in a reactor. Here’s a picture with the exact bulb.

[Andreww]

Maybe my next step will be to get the Kessil H80 , I  like that it is smaller and dimmable.

[ninjamyst]

7 minutes ago, Indiana Reefin said:

Go for the Arid. Only 449 

the skimz do look nice.. why don’t you just build one yourself? 

I like that the skimz one, the light is INSIDE the reactor and not wrapped around it.  I also like the integrated pump.

 

1 minute ago, Andreww said:

Before you get a reactor get a regular 5000k Philips LED bulb 12W...home Depot has them.

. I’ve pulled out my grow full spectrum bulb that’s supposed to grow plants but seriously all it did is melt my chaeto cuz it was too powerful. Played around with diffusers and such but no luck.

Put back the old Phillips bulb and now I see growth. Go figure...

It doesn’t hurt to try that before you invest in a reactor. Here’s a picture with the exact bulb.

 

My chaeto grew awesome when I was using the IM Magnafuge light.  I swapped that out recently for the Nanobox so I can grow frags in my sump too.  

[Andreww]

Ah I see. Yeah then a reactor is the way to go if you’re growing frags with the same light.

[Andreww]

I’m sure those ARID reactors are of high quality but who in their right mind would pay that much to grow chaeto ? Wow

even the Skimz ones are somewhat expensive.

I have a couple grand invested in my nano, but that’s taking it to the next level lol

The biggest one they make for up to a few hundred gallons tank, is around 1500$ for a reactor lol. 

I guess if you find hundred dollar bills in your laundry basket or under the couch regularly then it’s worth investing in one of these otherwise buy a big 100 gallons + tank from Petco when they run the 1$/gallon sale and make a refugium out of it ,plumb that into the main display and you’ll come out cheaper even after buying lights to grow the chaeto?

[ninjamyst]

3 minutes ago, Andreww said:

I’m sure those ARID reactors are of high quality but who in their right mind would pay that much to grow chaeto ? Wow

even the Skimz ones are somewhat expensive.

I have a couple grand invested in my nano, but that’s taking it to the next level lol

The biggest one they make for up to a few hundred gallons tank, is around 1500$ for a reactor lol. 

I guess if you find hundred dollar bills in your laundry basket or under the couch regularly then it’s worth investing in one of these otherwise buy a big 100 gallons + tank from Petco when they run the 1$/gallon sale and make a refugium out of it ,plumb that into the main display and you’ll come out cheaper even after buying lights to grow the chaeto?

hahaha i am getting the skimz one.  $230 is a lot but in the grand scheme of things, that's like a couple of high end zoa frags =P.

[Andreww]

Let me know how that’s going to work for ya. I might go for one instead of buying the Kessil A80 if it works good!

[ninjamyst]

1 hour ago, Andreww said:

Let me know how that’s going to work for ya. I might go for one instead of buying the Kessil A80 if it works good!

had the reactor in my cart then checked the dimension and it's 7" by 7".  That's bigger than my skimmer!  No room for it in my sump.  Sigh.

[Andreww]

Wow that’s big. 

[DaveFason]

10 hours ago, ninjamyst said:

had the reactor in my cart then checked the dimension and it's 7" by 7".  That's bigger than my skimmer!  No room for it in my sump.  Sigh.

Try to turn the light down for the macro. It should grow it stupid quick but maybe receiving way to much light. Also do you have the light on a reverse schedule from the tank?

[xiaoxiy]

Hey Ninja,

I was having issues growing chaeto too until I started dosing iron in my tank. Food for thought.

[ninjamyst]

I saved myself $230 by rearranging the sump and moving the chaeto to the return pump chamber and reusing the IM Magnafuge light that grew chaeto great before.  Should have done this earlier!  But I didn't want loose chaeto to clog up the return pump.  For now, I added a big sheet of filter pad to separate the return pump and chaeto.  This is going to be great.  I can now run the chaeto light reverse of the main and frag tank lights.  

 

 

 

[ninjamyst]

6 hours ago, xiaoxiy said:

Hey Ninja,

I was having issues growing chaeto too until I started dosing iron in my tank. Food for thought.

do you test iron regularly to make sure you don't overdose?  what's a good range to be in?

[xiaoxiy]

4 hours ago, ninjamyst said:

do you test iron regularly to make sure you don't overdose?  what's a good range to be in?

Randy Holmes Farley says it's super hard to overdose on iron and the hobbiest test kits are too low resolution to test levels we need. So I do 3-5ml a week of Seachem Flourish Iron in ~50 gallons of water volume.

[Andreww]

34 minutes ago, xiaoxiy said:

Randy Holmes Farley says it's super hard to overdose on iron and the hobbiest test kits are too low resolution to test levels we need. So I do 3-5ml a week of Seachem Flourish Iron in ~50 gallons of water volume.

Interesting stuff, I just read his article and I’m willing to give it a try. I did stumble upon this in his article:

”I'd also advise using only iron supplements that have the iron chelated to an organic molecule. The iron sold for freshwater applications is sometimes not chelated because free iron is more soluble in the lower pH of freshwater tanks. I'd avoid those products for marine applications. It will likely still work (as many of the studies in the scientific literature use free iron in seawater), but probably not as well because it may precipitate before it has fully fortified the system with iron.”

 

What’s your experience with the Seachem iron since it’s made for freshwater ? Do you think Kent will work better? Just thinking out loud...maybe I need to read the label ...

[Berlibee]

You can check ATI Elements Iron Supplement for Reef Aquariums as well, I was just looking as well to add iron.

[ninjamyst]

wont iron also increase the BAD algae?  

[Andreww]

Don’t know, if you read the article that doesn’t seem to be the case if macro grows faster than the other BAD algae...., I just ordered a bottle of Kent iron and manganese.

Should start dosing in a couple days and see how that works.

[xiaoxiy]

8 hours ago, Andreww said:

Interesting stuff, I just read his article and I’m willing to give it a try. I did stumble upon this in his article:

”I'd also advise using only iron supplements that have the iron chelated to an organic molecule. The iron sold for freshwater applications is sometimes not chelated because free iron is more soluble in the lower pH of freshwater tanks. I'd avoid those products for marine applications. It will likely still work (as many of the studies in the scientific literature use free iron in seawater), but probably not as well because it may precipitate before it has fully fortified the system with iron.”

 

What’s your experience with the Seachem iron since it’s made for freshwater ? Do you think Kent will work better? Just thinking out loud...maybe I need to read the label ...

Flourish iron is Iron Gluconate. Basically one of the forms Randy recommends.