Cool thread! Took me a while to find it and find time to finish it. What return pump are you using? Did I miss it somewhere? Lights? Looks great! I love tominis, they are great algivores so everything stays nice and clean. Have you considered getting a net top to keep jumpers inside? You could get a flasher or fairy wrasse in that case. They are some of my favorite fishes. Keep up the great work!
Ah, you found it. Return pump is now a sicce syncra 2.0 like 560 gph. Lights, Current LED that are NOT up to snuff. They obviously support some corals, but are not ideal. Right now I'm writing in upgrading to the zetlight qmaven 2 LED light, or the red Sea 90w reefLED, or the aquailluminarion Hydra 26. Actually working on getting my alkalinity proper. It was low. I'm adding kalkwasser powder to my top off water with the aqualifter pump. It's still a little low. I switched to fritz RPM salt as it's a better salt than the stuff I was using. Higher calcium, mag, and ALK. I just didn't think that these few frags would such that much alk up. Wrong... I'm so used to the calcium reactor I had on my 200g tank. That was easy. I think I'll eventually get a 2 part doser to handle this on the 60 g cube.
I’m a fan of the sicce pumps, they are nice and well built. If you don’t plan on Acropora colonies, any lights that supply sufficient PAR will do just fine IMO. Just that colonies will shade themselves, whereas almost all LPS and softies don’t. I like all the lights you mentioned, but I’ve not seen the red sea light in person yet. Seems fine, need to get over to my buddies place to check one out he got for a customer. Limewater is a super good way to supplement alk/Ca, I’m surprised you can’t keep up with CaOH saturated top off water. How much powder do you add per gallon top off water? What’s your alk/Ca/Mg? I use limewater on a dosing pump to meet demand, and otherwise only dose MgCl, SrCl, I, MnS, and Ferrous Gluconate. My big systems (72x44x27tall and 72x48x18tall) will use the above plus calcium reactors for obvious reasons. To tie back to FHC, I am trying to find a way to install a high efficiency/zero clearance fireplace near my 375g tank. I hope I can save on electricity based heat, and watch my fire and tank all at the same time!
I know. I'm surprised that this light of coral load with monthly 15g water changes is sucking that much alk. I'll check my levels again tomorrow and let you know. I wonder if my ALK test is out of whack? Do you already have a calcium reactor? I've still got mine from my big system that I'll be selling.
Are you getting any clumping in your sand? I find that a 50ml/min pump is ideal for adding limewater, you could be getting a bit of precipitate somewhere from the slightly elevated limewater flow rate? Where does the aqua lifter send water to in your setup? What test kit are you using for alk? I like salifert and Red Sea, among a few others. I already have my calcium reactors unfortunately. Its fun talking reef on FHC, I find this the most balanced, reasonable and fun forum on the internet that I’ve come across.
My big systems (72x44x27tall and 72x48x18tall) Rush Battle Could you post some pics of your tanks? I used to have a 125 gal reef tank. Its fun talking reef on FHC, I find this the most balanced, reasonable and fun forum on the internet that I’ve come across. Yes it is a great forum.
Mr. Jeff, The two large aquaria of mine are still in Miami, waiting for the builder to get a free 3 day window for delivery. Once I get them in and installed I will try to remember to put up a thread on them. I plan on finishing them out with local hardwood lumber, so it is at least a tiny bit FHC related!
Nice., bet they will be beautiful. Miss out salt tank, but didn't have time to maintain it properly after my dad died. I was working my job, plus working at my dad's woodshop finishing orders. And that area is where we put the wood stove. Still have a 125 gal freshwater tank on the opposite side of the house.
I had some LPS recede from the light I had. I think that the LEDs probably lost output since they were not expensive. So I replaced the Current brand LED with a Red Sea ReefLED 90w unit. It's all WiFi controllable, and even has acclimation mode so I can add coals advd not shock them. Even at 50% on day 2 of the 50 day acclimation where it will ramp up to 100%, eventually, it is much brighter than the old LED light setup. I'll get some pictures up after I do some tank cleaning.
He's a pic with the new red Sea ReefLED 90 light on it. It's a lot of blue, which grows coral very well, but hard to take a picture of it. I'm sure I can adjust the phone camera to make it look a bit more"normal".
Now that I have a proper light on it, I'll need to get more coral, but hopefully I get good growth on the corals I have.
Well, odd thing happened Friday. My wife texted me and said the tank was very loud. Figured I forgot to add top off water to the Auto top off reserve fresh water tank. Drove home at lunch to find that my tank got a hairline crack in the back. So I quickly transferred all contents, minus the sand to a 27g Rubbermaid tote and went back to work. After work, I got home, ate dinner, and promptly went to work getting my 40 gallon breeder tank and stand brought upstairs. I am willing on seeing that up now. I was working on all this from like 6 pm-11pm last night. Good news is I don't think I lost any livestock so far. I even found my peppermint shrimp in the cube tank and put him in the tote with the rest of the coral, rocks and fish. I have to do a little PVC plumbing but that won't take too long and then I can fill the 40g breeder with my existing rock, corals and critters. Then I'll need to figure out a replacement tank. I'll try to convince the wife to let me get a bigger tank. Ideally a 120 g, which is exactly 2x as big as this tank. It's just odd, yes, I drilled the overflow in the 60g. But I've never seen this. They usually just hold up, no issues. Fur it to fail after literally 4 years is odd. It's not like there was an earthquake or anything.
Sure am glad you were home, close, when this happened, and were able to save everything. Before we put in our wood stove, we had a perfect tank set up for you. 125 gallon, twin back corner overflows, custom stand with fans, big sump tank with biowheel. Sold it to a guy that was moving to Ft. Gordon in Augusta.
