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Blue Z Reef

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Everything posted by Blue Z Reef

  1. Dang! Elegance corals are hard enough to come by, that's a shame they killed it! Definitely leave bad eBay feedback (after you get your money back of course).
  2. Haha just trying to keep up with the Clarkdashians :P Overall the programming is similar to how it was in MyReef, but I did find it a bit less user friendly. I think without previous knowledge of RK programming it would have been much more difficult. If anyone has any questions about a new Archon, I'd be more than happy to help where I can. There are some good helpers on R2R too!
  3. Got my Archon up and running thanks to Eric at DA! Decided it was time to get the spaghetti wireoni out from under the stand and get all my controller bits mounted together. Not fancy by any stretch of imagination but really cleaned up under the stand! Future tanks I'll go the fancy controller box route Here's what the web interface looks like. Overall it's ok but could be better. We'll see how DA runs with it (or the users for that matter, apparently editing isn't too difficult if you know web design).
  4. That's too bad. What did you end up buying? Did anything in the batch make it?
  5. What's your nitrate and phosphate? Mine got really pissed when I was running too little nutrients.
  6. Haha well I guess you have a point there. Just saying, a lot of hobbyists cringe at the initial investment instead of looking at the long term payback. Dosers are a lot cheaper than a reactor, feed pump, co2 tank and reg, ph probe/monitor...however the op cost is definitely a benefit after the investment! Plus there is the "I make my own 2 part" folk swinging the 2 part cost scales...
  7. Looks good so far! Excellent choice on the MW salinity refractometer, I love mine, definitely worth the investment. There are lots of good nano leds these days, just depends on how much you want to spend. I have one diy one I made for about $30 that would work great on that tank. Although, the kessil would be a great choice or maybe a hydra 26 or radion nano. There are also a plethora of Chinese fixtures these days that do a great job too, eBay is your friend lol! Good to see another Couve reefer! Hit me up for frags when the tanks ready
  8. My main reasons are: 1. Easy - depending on the tank load, media can last 6+ months. You don't need to refill anything, just keep the reactor running and life's good. It doses equally so no adjusting alk/cal individually (unless something else gets things out of balance). Also, depending on the size of your co2 tank, one fill can last up to a year or more. 2. Adds extra trace elements not found in 2 part. As I've found from my nutrient stripping escapade, extra nutrients are a good thing if you have a good system to control them (without rapid depletion). 3. If done properly, no rapid swings. Things may drift up or down but it's usually gradual if you set things up properly. Makes it easy to re-adjust and let things come back to normal. 4. Control via probe. I know not everyone uses them, but regardless, you can make easy adjustments to your set points in your controller. Since you run apex, this means you could do it remotely if you were gone. With the current age of testing upon us, I think this could become an even more valuable feature in the future. Cost is not in its favor, but it's really just the initial investment. A bag of reborn media cost like $30 and a co2 fill is about the same. So you can figure after the equipment, that's your operating cost every 6mo to a year. That's my 2 cents, I like mine a lot!
  9. Haha I wish I only had 43 in, ours is 110 on a good day. My resin goes out pretty quick even with a nice membrane. Thanks for the tip on Buckeye, I'll have to check them out!
  10. From what I've read you go from a 1:4 good to waste ratio to a 1:1 with dual membranes. You will still have a 1:4 if you go 150gpd vs dual. The main issue as stated is pressure. I run a single 150 and have to have 60 psi in to the membrane to be efficient. It's likely similar for dial 75s. I was going to go dual 150s but my dang booster pump died so I'm stuck with the inefficient for now :(
  11. Phew...just looked, haven't order in a year or so lol! And who hacks BRS...of all the websites...
  12. Awesome, I was just looking at him the other day, very cool fish! Love the see through fins with black outlines. Nice snag
  13. Tank looks great! Those are cool pics with the yellow, looks like a night time dive.
  14. You sir are very indecisive Looks great though! Can't wait to see it stocked!
  15. Noooooo!!! My dreams crushed!!! Guess I'll have to knock off some old guy to get da permits #reefmafia
  16. Never had a problem growing purple cap and blue stags.... Shagggg Shhhhhhhh!!! Corals growing! Some things I learned along the way: Vodka dosing is not always your friend. It works well for nutrient reduction, however, when you hit 0 you need to back off. In doing this in combination with upgrading to a larger more efficient skimmer plus not having a huge bio load my corals were NOT happy. Colors were very dulled/light. After basically shutting it off and adding more aminos, feeding more, relying more on chaeto and skimming, corals have been coloring up better than before! 2 part dosing must be done equally….noob mistake but I was dosing out of equal and went from a Ca excess to a crashing down in the 300’s and Alk as well. Testing more regularly would have prevented a lot of this. Praying for a day when the tank tests itself LOL And that’s about it! I’ll try and update along the way. If anyone wants to come check it out, my doors are always open!
  17. One of my fav pieces: First chalice I ever bought, never fragged it. Was the size of a quarter when I brought it home.
  18. Here's where we are today: IMG]http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg587/bluezreef/Feb20153_zps483cb8f1.jpg[/img]
  19. I bought a 3 head Marine Magic doser to take care of parameters and “upgraded” the skimmer to a RPS3000 external skimmer. Switched over to Ca Rx instead of 2 part dosing (which I wasn’t doing properly and almost crashed the tank) No pics of it though :( Skimmer upgraded again to Reef Octopus Elite 220…BEAST MODE! Thanks to my lovely wife for letting me buy the most expensive piece of equipment yet! I’ve had a few different fish over time, they include: Blue hippo tang 2 False perc clowns 3 yellow tangs 4 blue chromies Carpenters Wrasse Melanarus Wrasse Orange Back Wrasse Bangaii Cardinal Pink/Yellow anthias (forgetting name, recent add) Some didn’t make it: Yellow coris wrasse (RIP carpet surfer) McCroskers wrasse (RIP carpet surfer) Bartlett anthias (RIP disappeared) Tamarin Wrasse (RIP unknown cause of death) Big Eye Soldier Fish (Taken to LFS, was eating other fish from his large size) 2 fire fish (RIP soldier fish food) The corals have come a long way over the 2 years this tank has been running: ]
  20. Installed Here is the sump, a 40B converted. It is basic and has been modified since but again, due to first time building, this was as big as I could fit (it barely made it in!). At the time was running a bubble mag curve 7. Was pretty undersized but I was on a budget at the time. Got the plumbing all done and started the RODI filling it up! The second tank under the stand was a 20 gal tall remote fuge. I had most of my water from my 90 in rubbermaids with all my livestock. I was hurrying to get everything back to the tank so acclimation wasn’t probably as long as it should have been. Didn’t lose any corals except my large toadstool that never recovered after the move. Lighting consisted of 3X ReefStar 120w (3w) fixtures from his group buys. I eventually added a single t5 to help out.
  21. This is my journey to 210 gallons of fun! A rebuild of my thread since site crash :( I started keeping reef tanks after college (FOWLR only during). My tank before the upgrade was a 90 gallon. Overall a great size tank and I really enjoyed it! Here’s a pic before the teardown. Softies/LPS LOVED this tank! I really wish they could get back to that now but some sacrifices must be made. Here’s the tank when I first got it with a super low crap stand. Needless to say, that wasn’t gonna work! Our roommate at the time was good at woodworking and helped me a TON with building the stand. Poor Z had to sit in the cold for a few weeks while we cut, sanded, stained and prepared the beast! Got the stand inside, looked massive next to the 90! Started to work on the tank, had 2X 2” holes drilled in the top right for drains. CNC cut the overflow box. Weirs were massive…wasn’t thinking at the time but hey, it was my first large scale build so mistakes were made lol!
  22. You and your theme tanks lol! Seems like a better deal than most I've seen. This is why I've always wanted to take a trip to Florida and go diving for them
  23. I would recommend using magnets or a bracket that goes over the lip of your tank. Suction cups are great about losing suction and dumping frags, wave makers, etc and making a mess. Looks good though.
  24. Looks great, will be sweet to see it grow in and cover the rock work. I'll let you know when I get some more stuff fragged up for you ????
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