Jump to content
Premium Aquatics Aquarium Supplies

TJ's Bust'em Up Custom Reef - Big News!


TJ_Burton

Recommended Posts

34 minutes ago, metrokat said:

THis reef just went to wow. I like your choices of colors and corals.


Thanks Kat!

I will have to bust out the real camera soon and take some proper photos... My phone just doesn't cut the custard.

:)

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Doing a water change and figured I'd snap a shot of my (getting very full) frag rack. Need to take some softies back and start picking permanent homes I think!

20170317_194937.jpg

  • Like 8
Link to comment
11 hours ago, got2envy said:

Looks great so far TJ! nice stuff on the rack simmering :)

 

Thanks! I'm pretty happy with how things are starting out. Getting my hands on some nice pieces again is going to be a slow process, but it's a start!

 

I managed to get to my LFS and return those softies and grabbed 3 browned out SPS mini colonies while I was there. I actually really like getting mystery sticks like that and watching them develop! Hoping for one really nice purple colony, one bright blue, and then a green. The green is the best looking of the three to start, but green acros usually brown out slower than the other colors, I find.

 

I'll post some pics tomorrow.

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Did some testing on the weekend and found my pH, Alk, and Cal oddly low considering I do weekly 5 gal water changes and have been dosing Reef Fusion 2 part every other day. I did notice however that the Reef Fusion 2 was precipitating out quite a bit more than I expected, which may be an issue with the batch or the age of it (it is potentially a couple years old). I tested Mag as well just to rule it out as a potential issue, and it came in where I wanted it.

My readings were:
pH 7.8
Alk 7 dkh
Cal 350
Mag 1400

I picked up my preferred Aquavitro products (Calcification, 8.4, Ions) and dosed accordingly.

Theses were my readings the following morning:
pH 8.2
Alk 7.5 dkh
Cal 400
Mag 1400

 

So long story short something was wrong with my Reef Fusion 2 part. Going to get my trusty old SWC triple doser operational again and automate the dosing for a more consistent environment, and see if I can't supercharge the growth and color of my sticks. Not going to be adding any more coral until I get these params nailed down and see some progress with the SPS that are currently in the system.

Testing really does make all the difference.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
2 hours ago, zoapaly said:

I remember ..i was at reefraft canada store ..you bring with $500 cash get some nice acro frags? Are you that guy from Naigarafall?

Not me :P

But I have been to Reef Raft many times. Jay always has nice corals in that shop.

Link to comment

Well, seeing as Dave finished the light and posted pics (which I am so glad he did!) I feel like it is about time to reveal my custom sump details and overall color theme.

I decided I wanted to utilize Grey and Purple primarily, and add some orange for flare. I basically melded the Nyos and Neptune color schemes into one, because they look amazing, but also because my stand is light grey and conducive to these color schemes.

Staying true to all my previous builds, I decided to mock things up in MSPaint (Yep... still using it!) so I could get a rough idea of how I wanted the sump and plumbing to be laid out. I contacted Nick at Pro Clear and sent him a drawing of a modified 4-in-1 sump and he new exactly what I was after. Essentially changed the position of their water flow entry system, added an auxiliary drain, added bulkheads to all drains (rather than their standard plumbing), changed the optional wet/dry refugium section into a frag/refugium section, and played with the dimensions so that the sump would perfectly fit an 8" x 4" MarinePure Bio-Media block. It will also still hold their media cartridges and feature flow control through the frag/refugium section.

I am going to hit up BRS for colored plumbing to match as well. 

So hopefully, if all goes according to plan, it should look a little something like this:

58d16794e7d87_SumpDesignAll.thumb.png.cc4fbd4da03b5790a5b53df31bda178c.png

 

58d167a7171ae_SumpDesignMinimum.thumb.png.9b2095c4fa046c6ea9103bdd7a5b5ebd.png

  • Like 8
Link to comment
1 hour ago, Bella's Reef said:

Dude not only does the tank look amazing that is going to be a killer matching light, plumbing and sump set up!! Just WOW!!


Thanks! Really hoping it comes together as planned. Gotta say, Dave did an incredible job with the light. I am drooling over it and it isn't even in my hands yet!
 

1 hour ago, Christopher Marks said:

Wow how cool, matching plumbing and all! The Nanobox light turned out great, very eye catching.


That is the plan! :D and yeah, Dave builds some really slick lights. Finally splurged on one for myself! Been eyeballing'em for years...

  • Like 1
Link to comment

man that Nanobox looks amazing, but will it be enough though for your deep tank? Your tank is similar to my tank Fusion 40. Is it built with stronger light than the standard Nanobox? Even my Duo that is up for sale right now (in case anyone else in following this thread is looking for one :P) does not produce high enough PAR. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
46 minutes ago, Canadianeh said:

man that Nanobox looks amazing, but will it be enough though for your deep tank? Your tank is similar to my tank Fusion 40. Is it built with stronger light than the standard Nanobox? Even my Duo that is up for sale right now (in case anyone else in following this thread is looking for one :P) does not produce high enough PAR. 

The Nano Box is for the frag section of the sump! It's only 8 x 8 x 6 so it is going to be perfect by my calculations. Should easily hit 200 par on average.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
14 minutes ago, TJ_Burton said:

The Nano Box is for the frag section of the sump! It's only 8 x 8 x 6 so it is going to be perfect by my calculations. Should easily hit 200 par on average.

Ahh I see. It will be okay then.

Link to comment
4 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Fun project! Do you think you'll wrap it with LEDs or submerge something? Have you picked them out yet?


For the sake of keeping it simple, I am wrapping it with a simple 'grow' LED string. They are waterproof and cost about $30 CAD, so it will be a relatively inexpensive little project. I want to get something much fancier in the future, but I am trying not to completely blow my budget for this build. I am going with a chaeto reactor because I intend to use my 'fuge' section in the sump as a frag section instead. No more frag racks in the display! :D

  • Like 3
Link to comment
3 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Great plan! Take some photos along the way, it might make for a good DIY article for our library (hint hint)

 

:D 

Haha sure, I can do that!

 

I think my diy frag rack walk through thread is still somewhere on the forum :)

  • Like 2
Link to comment

Looks awesome! I'm thinking about doing a similar chaeto reactor because I don't have room in my sump.

 

The geek in me is totally impressed you did all those drawings in mspaint :lol:

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...