My 6 xr15g4's, my reef link, and the controller for my cabinet fan.
Chefs Official Red Sea 750 XXL Build Finally!!!
- Thread starter Reefchef
- Start date
So today I finally did the 50 gallon water change, scraped the glass, soaked my return line and pumps in citric acid. I also tested nitrates and phosphates, which looked really good. Im only running the ads from 10pm - 6am, I may drop this down to only 4 hours each night. We'll see how that does, if it continues to do good I may go ahead and get a smaller skimmer and start an actual refugium. This week I also added a single spot fox face rabbit fish, lawnmower blend, sea hare, and a bottle of pod bombs from Heisenberg. I also finally picked up a hannah phosphate checker while at pure reef I love it already. Please don't judge, the glass was a disaster! My 2 year stayed with me while my wife took our 6 year old to his allergy appointment. He helped me for a bit, until he said its nap time! The warden also had me clean the garage and reorganize all of my stuff and put into a cabinet.
Nitrates - 0-5 ppm
Phosphates - 0.05
Nitrates - 0-5 ppm
Phosphates - 0.05
So today I finally took the dive and bought our first frags! Thanks to @jessezm for taking care of us. I can truly say he he's a beautiful set up, its defiantly something to am for thank you for having me. Lucky for me he isn't too far from me with everything going on. While I was actually at his house one of my lovely fish decided to take a bite out of my Zoa. With that being said I will have to keep an eye on them I think it might be the melanurus wrasse. He's already been put on notice!!! I bought the following frags, and will observe them for the next few weeks to see how they do and go from there. I finally have my alk up to about 7.71by adding buffer. My temp is high right now at about 78 so I have the doors off and a fan in front of it to help cool it down a bit. I don't have a filter for my phone yet, so I did that just to show a bit of the size and placement. I bought the following...
Walt Disney
Calicali tort
JF Fox Flame
Blueberry Nasuta
Tri Color Vadilia
PC Rainbow
Walt Disney
Calicali tort
JF Fox Flame
Blueberry Nasuta
Tri Color Vadilia
PC Rainbow
Attachments
Today I did another 30 gallon water change, just to stay ahead of it plus to give me something to do during the rain. I did that after being a good husband and cooking dinner! II'm getting ready to place a small order from BRS for a few things like a sicce 1.5 for my carbon reactor, new filters for my rodi, a poly lab filter for my phone, and some reef roids. I'll be removing the 2 di resign cartridges and upgrade it to a triple di canister. I plan to start running anion, cation, and mixed bed resin. Right now I only run 2 canisters of mixed bed resin. After this I will be running a 8 stage 150gpd rodi system!!! I'll have 5 micron sediment, 1 micron sediment, 5 micron carbon block, 1 micron carbon block, cation, anion, and mixed bed resins. Probably a bit overkill but Im trying everything to keep from feeding any algae! Im also still using Buffer to try to get my all up, slowly but surely!!!
On another note has anyone ever used a maxi jet for blowing off the rocks and such? If so how did you like it and does it work. Thanks
On another note has anyone ever used a maxi jet for blowing off the rocks and such? If so how did you like it and does it work. Thanks
So today I also received a special package from BRS! I got a sicce 1.5 for my carbon reactor, poly lab lenses for my phone, and new filters for my RODI. I went a little over board on the RODI, its like 11 stages now!!! At least I know the fish will have clean water. I really like the poly lab filter, I understand now! I'm going to try to hook up my reactor tomorrow.
RODI
1. 5 micron sediment
2. 5 micron sediment
3. 1 micron sediment
4. 1 micron sediment
5.1 micron carbon block
6. 1 micron carbon block
7.RO Membrane
8. RO Membrane
9. Cation Resin
10.Anion Resin
11.Mixed Bed Resin
RODI
1. 5 micron sediment
2. 5 micron sediment
3. 1 micron sediment
4. 1 micron sediment
5.1 micron carbon block
6. 1 micron carbon block
7.RO Membrane
8. RO Membrane
9. Cation Resin
10.Anion Resin
11.Mixed Bed Resin
Ya thats a little overboard on the RODI but I have to say I am jealous.
Today I finally added my carbon reactor, I have to contact BRS to replace my inline ball valve as the one that arrived is broken. The tank is really starting to look good, the algae is finally clearing up. I think we may be finally coming upon a smooth patch!!!
How are the trochus snails you picked up from me doing?
Their doing ok, I have some a hole fish though! I feel sorry for them between the cleaner shrimp, the long nose hawk fish, and the crabs they have a hell of a life in my tank! Im actually going to have to order some more soon, those and the cerith snails. I will probably not order anymore crabs, @Adam was 200% correct they are murders!
I was looking at my tank tonight as I was feeding and cleaning my socks and skimmer. It has come a long way, I'm very proud of it right now. It's probably looking the best that it has ever looked. I still have a bit of turf algae but its getting taken care of pretty quickly. The frags that I got are doing pretty good, I'm only worried about 1 as it has a bit of bleaching but not really bad. I'm still trying to get my alk up, but I won't dose anymore buffer until about the end of the week. I don't want to continue adding buffer and jacking up my other numbers. Even with the alk being low everything is still stable. As you can see the skimmer was pretty bad this time, that was about a week. Im going to check my nitrates tonight, if their still at 0 I may cut my ats back to 5 hours from 8. I really appreciate all of the help that you all have given me so far on my salt journey.
Move the crabs to the sump. Let them keep it clean.
nice skimmate!
have you tested your alk, CA, mag by hand?
i find that my trident readings are off somewhat.
alk (hanna) 9.1dkh Trident 9.5, not bad
CA (salifer) 450 Trident 472, not bad
Mag (AF) 1450 Trident 1373,.....maybe off?
this is after running for a couple days and calibrating using the calibration fluid.
have you tested your alk, CA, mag by hand?
i find that my trident readings are off somewhat.
alk (hanna) 9.1dkh Trident 9.5, not bad
CA (salifer) 450 Trident 472, not bad
Mag (AF) 1450 Trident 1373,.....maybe off?
this is after running for a couple days and calibrating using the calibration fluid.
Thanks, you should know how well that skimmer works!
I hadn't tested them by hand lately. I went ahead and calibrated my trident and tested my alkalinity using my red sea foundation pro test kit. It was about .02 off so not too bad. I plan to go ahead and order the hannah alkalinity and calcium testers.
I hadn't tested them by hand lately. I went ahead and calibrated my trident and tested my alkalinity using my red sea foundation pro test kit. It was about .02 off so not too bad. I plan to go ahead and order the hannah alkalinity and calcium testers.
So today was a pretty lazy day around the house, not like we had anywhere special to go anyway!!! So I went ahead and did a few little things for the tank, I tested the nitrates on my tank which are at 0. So for the time being I am going to take my ATS offline and test nitrates weekly, I'll reconnect the ATS if needed. I also tested my all to match it up with my trident which is right on par. I still may go ahead and order the Hanna All checker, as I don't like the Red Sea Titration tester. I had to sue this frag rack for now, I'm going to order a 30 hole zen reef rack from aquarium specialty tonight or tomorrow. I also finally did a couple things to my water station, added a 1/4 inch bulkhead so I could run the line through the tank and close the lid properly to keep damn nets out and I also ran my heater cords and such through a bulk head for my mixing bin so I could put the lid on also. I'm making water now, so I may mix some later to do a 20 gallon water change. I did my last change on the 31st of March, I plan to do 20 gallons every two weeks. My corals are looking pretty upset right now, that's why I went ahead and squeezed that frag rack in there to try to make them happy. I changed my light program to Ecotech sps AB+ from 11am until 9pm, I also plan to change my hybrids from 2-6pm so only 4 hours. Please let me know if you guys have any other suggestions for this. I also seem to be getting a few small specs of coraline nothing major yet!!! As you can also see I've finally gotten my algae issues under control. I may be looking for an adoption home for my sea hare soon, him and my turbo snail has been rocking along with the lawn mower blenny and fox face grazing algae!!! I also have to order some all for reef, as I plan to start using it. I'm still dosing buffer trying to get the all higher, but didn't want to dose a lot all at one time. My calcium is also a bit high its usually at bout 470 on average. Would buffer effect calcium in anyway. Thanks and Happy Easter everyone!!!
I got a few more gifts for the tank this week, my wife is starting to get suspicious of my spending!!! I finally ordered a maxi jet 1200 with the vca 3d printed vacuum attachment for vacuuming the sump, some aminos for the corals, finally a hanna alkalinity checker, and a bottle of Heisenberg pods. I was also finally able to get my hands on a hanna calcium checker thanks to @chuck, great guy and he really should open a store right out of his trailer! I haven't been doing much to the tank, just cleaning it and trying to maintain. I did finally mount my fan and hook it up to my apex for it to cut on at 78 degrees. My parameters are looking really good right now, I finally got my alk up to almost 9dkh still getting there don't worry. All of the sticks that I bought are looking good and even starting to get some color back. I was lucky enough to get one of the montipora packs from @vtrom30 which I plan to pick up on Friday. I may end up getting some euphyllia this week or next, and hopefully try to get our tang gang next month. I've been very patient thus far but now starting to speed up quite a bit with frags! Have to be careful and mindful not to get in over my head!
