Blue Z Reef

Well if you rip it apart you can give me all your cool zoas lol! I hear ya with the small grain sand, I regret it in my cube, hard to keep flow rates up without starting sand storms.

I would worry about getting this equipment: 2 part dosing, carbon/gfo reactor, ATO with 100 gallon RO/DI storage, efficient sump/ref

before getting the flashy things like MP40's and LED's (well expensive ones anyway lol).

Good luck, i've been slowly collecting gear over the years to make my way to where I want and i'm still looking for more

PM'd to get added to the list. Thanks!

I am weighing options between the time of curing cement, aragonite, CaCo3, and maybe corn puffs for hollowed spots -(it melts away very quickly with very limited residuals as opposed to rock salt) and dry pukani rock.

Pukani is a more expensive route (trying to stay within a nosy lady-friends watchful-eye budget), but one I have had success with in the past. Plus it looks good. I have a fine art background and sculpting a whole reef sounds like a real-deal challenge...but time consuming even before curing times...like I said weighing options.

I am very wary of a crappy algae or (worse) dreaded aiptasia blooms from used rock...a couple of bad experiences in the past... Then seed coralline from Indo-Pacific Sea farms

Corn puffs is an interesting idea lol

I wouldn't worry that much about other rock, apstaisa is easily handled with peppermint shrimp. I had some once, put in 5 shrimp, they were gone in less than a month with no return. If you think using all dead rock is going to produce some sterile environment, your wrong and things can still bloom and grow from single algae spores on new corals or from any outside water (lfs or other). I would use seeded but do whatever you think is best. The pukani looks like fun to shape from the BRS videos. What are your stocking plans for the tank?

I made some a while back from some "recipes" people had online with Portland cement and rock salt. They seemed to be ok but I've gotten rid of all them over time. They have potential to leach some bad stuff (forgetting exactly what...maybe it was lye or something in the Portland cement mix) over time. You also have to cure them in fresh water for a long time if you use salt to make porous, which is a pain unless you don't make much.

Personally I'd keep my eye out for someone closing a tank down or something and try and snag a deal, not sure if I found the hassle to be worth it. There are also good deals on dry/dead rock all the time. I have some nice pieces to seed with if you go that route.

Might want to try 10% up per week...not a day, thats too fast. Dial them back a bid and see if you get any PE.

Saw this on CL, glad someone snagged it. You should definately put a clown and some gobies in there like on the website lol! (laugh)

Will be cool to see it up and going!

Very clean setup, looks great!

What did red and green do that's so bad? Green is just for color usually, but red shouldn't hurt anything, I've read mixed things on needing red in the spectrum. I haven't noticed anything bad yet.

The controllable unit is pretty cool, it ramps in 5% increments, not gradual, but the coral wont be effected by that. I think the ramping up and down is nicer while letting things adjust until you can just turn them all on and off together. Regardless of what you get, I'd get dimming so you can start your white channel off lower and get things adjusted up.

They are 90 degree but its layout is different with the controllable fixtures, they will likely have better spread.

Check out these:

http://www.chesteraquaria.com/LED.html

The one for $260 with 3 channel would be great for coverage. I want to do these on my 90 but waiting for my budget to build up again lol

I have my light on a 30 cube. Coverage isn't very wide due to optics and having it at water level (literally its like 1" off surface). Would have better coverage at about 8-10" but my hood won't allow it.

Those specs on the LED unit Blue Z linked are what I would shoot for if I was doing a DIY, my units are very similar but spaced out over a 8.5" x 24" heatsink.

 

Wish there were units like that when I built mine, LEDs have come a LONG way in just the last 3 months, heck a year ago there were hardly any options.

 

My guess is that unit will cover a 2sq ft area nicely, maybe a 30sq inch area, but I would not count on it

This is why I was saying rapid kits and diys are nice. It's much easier to spread the light out for coverage. I'd say 2x2 is probably max for my fixture if elevated at 8". Less if lower. It's probably covering about 2/3 of my tank with high par light and the rest is lower. There is a similar fixture with the 4 disks inline that would help with spread more but they run about $275 iirc

Look up reef breeders blue z reef has one from them I have been checking in to them reasonably priced

I like my reefbreeders unit, but most all of these budget units are chinese made and come from the same factory. I found the same light for $25 less than I paid at $225 here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/120W-NOVA-A4-Full-Spectrum-LED-Aquarium-Light-48x3-BRIDGELUX-Coral-Reef-Dimmable-/290771643863?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43b3572dd7

Overall, you will be most happy if your fixture has royal blue (not just regular blue, makes the windex look ppl talk about) and a mix of colors (red's and UV's make things really pop). The rapidled kit lets you tune it to your personal color wants. I've seen noob's rapid also and like it too. Just do your reading on what people are actually using and getting growth with and don't impulse buy. So far i've been impressed with my fixture (high par tested) but i've only had it for like 2 months now, so not sure on reliability just yet. Warranties are nice, also something to consider.

That works for me, I work till 5, so can meet after that too. PM me specifics.

What would shipping be on the 2 reactors?

Can the hole be re-opened? What size bulkhead is it drilled for?

Mine host my wellsos, toadstool, and elegance coral pretty much on and off randomly. I'd say you could probably get them to stop by putting it up on a frag rack and making the rbta more accessable for them. Once they get into hosting the rbta, take the wellso down from the frag rack.

same works if it's apstasia like noob posted, there is also apstaisa X that works the same way (spay in mouth)

Are you sure it's not the ric doing the stinging? I suppose if it is the brown polyps (i'm assuming palys or zoas of some kinda, which is odd for warfare), you can mix up some concentrated kalkwaser solution and spray it in their mouths. They will die off in a few days from this. You could also just pull the rock out and scrape the polyps off with a razor blade or knife.

Eventually you should probably isolate the ric or it will sting the xenia if it gets close enough.

ya, i agree but thats what it is testing. I wonder if it has anything to do with PRIME water conditioner, as i have had to top off my tank twice and PRIME binds ammonia, so maybe i should show a higher ammonia result. i dont know im confused

 

edit: duh, im using tap water and i test really good for basic test but i didnt test for nitrates. I bet ya im getting some from the water, going to TPA to test my water will post when i get back...

Watch your skimmer, whenever I use prime mine goes ape for a while and overflows the collection cup. Definitely don't use tap water if at all possible. Usually has high phosphates which will start random algae cycles and such you don't want. I'd suggest a bio pellet reactor to get rid of your phosphates. I'm just using a modified two little fishies one and its working great!

i was wondering that' date=' from the info i have read they said that if you see them on any coral then get them out asap. But they can also be beneficial, so i will wait and see if they are naughty or nice:)[/quote']

 

I have tan colored ones in both my tanks, never had an issue in several years. If they concern you, there are shrimp that will eat them.

 

They split rapidly and take over. Only the black ones eat coral from my readings

 

Take over is not the term i'd use. They do split and survive only being a single leg and such, but I've always had them and I wouldn't say that they have ever reached "excessive amounts." Realistically, I see maybe 3-5 on my glass on my 90 gallon and rarely see them on rocks/corals.

Oh and thats a way better choice on the sand. I have finer sand in my 30 gallon and its always blowing all over the place. Heavier stuff is nice to keep the flow rates up.

Oh snap...I thought you were still posting in here because things were getting better! CRAP DUDE! If you need any cycled seeder rock or water, let me know and i'll get ya some from my tank.

I still say exotic all zoa tank! there are some epic ones out there and i'm sure they would look uber nice under the LEDs!

I'll take them off your hands. If you want to come by ill give you some corals if you like (and the $1 lol) PM me.

I will get a update going soon...I just set up my quarantine system so now I can start adding some fish. At the moment I have zero.

I did get 3 Vega's to light up my frag tank, freakin sweet.

Update update update! You've been buying too many corals to not show pics!!! (naner)

Just got back from the Orchards one....gross lol! Algae and cyano fiesta up in there. I always feel bad for the random corals that get thrown in there too with their "great lights"

I saw the filtration, looked like a wet dry with no skimmer on that one. Really grungy looking. I would never buy livestock there unless it was like 1/4 the price of any nice LFS and that would likely be out of pity for the fish :(