Syn's 850g.t.v Deep Brain system

[SynDen]

A little update.
Have started stocking CuC in the tank. Added more margarita snails, astrea snails and one very tiny cute little tuxedo urchin. Snails have been doing a great job getting the crazy amounts of diatoms under control
Nitrates starting to come down a bit but still at about 20ppm
Moved my mangroves that have been cramped under my 75g for quite sometime, hopefully I managed to get them in without killing them, since they are obviously well established in the 75g. Although this basically spells the beginning of the end for that tank, as this is the first, but not the last, to get transferred over to here.

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[SynDen]

Pod cultures been doing well so giving them a small upgrade. Should work pretty good I think. Should make it pretty easy to add or remove without touching the culture directly. Just a few mods to the lid for 2 air lines and we are in business.
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Changed the bulbs over the mangrove tank. It had had old reef bulbs in, so I switched them out for geismann tropic bulbs, and wow what a difference. Loving theses full spectrum bulbs

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Sent from my Nexus 6 using MASC mobile app

 

[SynDen]

Yes, I think that will do nicely. Pod factory activated. Lol
Gonna take a while to build up the pod culture though, but I'm not in any hurry, and I will be dumping quite a bit more phyto into them in the coming weeks View attachment 17640

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[MuralReef]

Tank is looking awesome. And I love the phytoplankton and pod cultures.


Sent from my iPhone using MASC - Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado

 

[MuralReef]

Be careful with cross contamination!


Sent from my iPhone using MASC - Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado

 

[SynDen]

Nitrates finally dropped below 10ppm, and coraline starting to grow on all the rocks. So it was time for the first water change and then I added the first fish.
First water change was so nice too. Couple knobs turned and flip a switch. Fastest and easiest 100g water change ever. Did it faster then I can change 20g on my 75g, that I still have to use buckets for.
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[SynDen]

Been crazy busy with work lately, but have managed to get a little tank time in. Tested nitrates today and was very happy to see that they have dropped to 2 ppm. Coraline starting to grow all over everything and algae growth has slowed considerably. So that means. TIME FOR CORALS!

First in, are a few from 10g nano tank, that is still up and running. I moved over my multi colored rics, gonzos golden dragons, a duncan, a favia and a fungia. Will see how these do for a few weeks and then I will slowly start moving the more from the 10g and my 75g.

I am also setting up the coral QT and frag system. Cute little 30g cube a fellow reefer gave me, so I built a simple stand for it and a sump. The sump i made from some scrap glass I salvaged off another busted tank I had built years ago. Took a ton of cleaning to get the glass back to new since it was sitting outside for many years, and it had quite a bit of silicon to clean off but once I got it apart, and cleaned, I started Cutting pieces for a 13x13x13 sump.

Although as I was cutting one of the pieces it did not snap along the score line correctly and snapped in curve. Since this was salvage glass I had to make do with what I had, so I cut the opposite side with a matching curve. First time I have cut a curve in glass but came out perfect, and actually works much better that way. New achievement unlocked!!!! lol

Anyway sump turned out great, not bad for a freebie Now I will work on getting everything all plumbed up.

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[Haddonisreef]

Looks like the QC officer is making sure your on task!!

 

[SynDen]

Looks like the QC officer is making sure your on task!!

Haha, ya he is a tough boss. Nothing gets past his attention

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

I saw the curved top in the picture, before I read your description....and I was like "Damn that Angel is so artsy, did he seriously make a sump with curved tops?" Yup! Nice work! Did you just score a curved line and snap it?

 

[SynDen]

I saw the curved top in the picture, before I read your description....and I was like "Damn that Angel is so artsy, did he seriously make a sump with curved tops?" Yup! Nice work! Did you just score a curved line and snap it?

haha yep. Used the one that accidental snapped in a curve as the straight edge for scoring the line for the second.

 

[scmountain]

I have tried cutting glass a few times now, no way I could replicate a curved cut! Bravo1 looks good

 

[SynDen]

Quick update.
Frag/Coral QT tank has been up for a month or so now, and I have been steadily pulling coral out of my 75g to move into the big tank. More pics to come on that
Been steadily increasing cleanup crew but still need to add more as the algae is starting to grow faster and getting a little cyano too. Nothing major but will need to get it under control soon. Speaking of which I will likely be doing a fairly large order to reefcleaners.org after the new year, if anyone wants to tag along we could split shipping.

Did the first full round of tests on the tank today, just to get a baseline and so I can start thinking about dosing. Numbers came in as:

Ammonia 0.0
Nirates 2ppm
Phos .03mg/l
CA 385mg/l
Alk 8.0 dkh
Mag 1200
Salinity 1.024
Ph 7.8

Need to get the Mag up but overall pretty much right where I expected everything. Will need to find a inexpensive but reliable CO2 regulator for my CARX soon though.

Have been slowly but steadily adding livestock to the tank. I have a Scopas and purple tang in QT that will be added next week along with the foxface and engineers from my 75g.

Currently in the main tank there is
4 Pajama Cardinals
2 Bangaii Cardinals
Firefish
Hifin goby
Very large engineer goby
2x Tiger Pistol shrimps
Clown goby
Chromis

In the 85g Fuge tank I have a mated pair of Ruby red dragonets.
I bought the female off a MASC member awhile back and was lucky enough to be gifted a male by @High Plains Reefer (along with the large engineer goby).
They took to each other right away too. At first the female just followed the male around the tank for several days, and then a few more days of the male following her everywhere. Now they both do their own thing during the day but a few hours before lights go off in the evening they now do a nightly courtship dance, which is pretty neat to watch.

http://instagr.am/p/CIugRnnAoud/

 

[JodiI]

In the 85g Fuge tank I have a mated pair of Ruby red dragonets.
I bought the female off a MASC member awhile back and was lucky enough to be gifted a male by @High Plains Reefer (along with the large engineer goby).
They took to each other right away too. At first the female just followed the male around the tank for several days, and then a few more days of the male following her everywhere. Now they both do their own thing during the day but a few hours before lights go off in the evening they now do a nightly courtship dance, which is pretty neat to watch.

http://instagr.am/p/CIugRnnAoud/

Sounds like the same course of a developing human relationship. Ha!

So very cool!


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[SynDen]

Lol ya, now that I think about it, it is.

 

[High Plains Reefer]

how did using the pex and hot water heater to heat water turn out?

 

[SynDen]

how did using the pex and hot water heater to heat water turn out?

Works great and havent had any issues with it at all. Temp never deviates much, and very little energy used to run it. Once I move my apex off the other tank ill start monitoring exactly how much energy its using though.
Currently holding at 76 degrees and that part of the sump is vented directly to the outside , so it has very cold air coming into right now, but water temp is rock solid

 

[High Plains Reefer]

Works great and havent had any issues with it at all. Temp never deviates much, and very little energy used to run it. Once I move my apex off the other tank ill start monitoring exactly how much energy its using though.
Currently holding at 76 degrees and that part of the sump is vented directly to the outside , so it has very cold air coming into right now, but water temp is rock solid

what did you use for valves pump and controller? did you just return the used hot water back to cold a water line?

 

[SynDen]

Pump I used something similar to this https://www.vevor.com/products/npt-...3bV9HdIEphGOnWELLo92w_vDjXOdz1MwaAnNzEALw_wcB
and that is wired directly to a Ranco. The pump is only hooked to the tank heating system so it acts as the valve for it. Water is returned to the cold water supply going back into the hot water heater
Although with the cooling system, that is hooked to the cold water line in the house, and I am using a standard sprinkler valve, hooked to a ranco for control. The water from the cooling system is hooked up to my sprinkler/drip system in my front yard, so that every time it runs, it waters my yard

 

[SynDen]

Starting to look a bit like a reef tank
Scopas and purple tang cleared QT this weekend and I moved the 5 fish (foxface, clown pair, engineer goby pair) from my 75g to here as well. The 75g is almost entirely moved into the big tank and the frag tank now. In fact frag tank is a bit stuffed, so I will have to clear some of that out in coming weeks. Just 2 big rocks left in the 75g and a couple rock flowers I havent been able to get out yet.

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