Devoted Reefer 250
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Hey Pelphrey, been following you since the beginning as I have the same tank as you, but in black. I'm finally getting around to making a light mount for mine like yours, but I was going to use 2 legs instead of the 1 with a tee. I think I'm overbuilding mine, so I wanted to see how you're liking yours. Does your mount deflect downward much due to the weight of all that equipment hanging off of it, or is it super solid? I've got a Reef Breeders 32" light I want to hang off 2 bars, so I'm thinking I could just copy the L part of your mount. For the 90, did you use the 2 hole inside corner, or the 4 hole larger one? I saw you didn't put any brace plates on the outside, so I was hoping to get away without using them also, but wanted to make sure my light won't deflect down as I'm going to bolt the light right to the arms. Thanks for your help.
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OP
Thanks for following along! It has been a journey! haha There may be slight deflection but not much, even with the t5 fixture on the frame it isn't much weight at all. I used this bracket to connect the long span to the piece going over the tank, except I used black - https://amzn.to/2wVFxCS
This stuff is really strong, if you use 2 months I don't see any need for the brace plates.
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Top 4 pictures of the new @Cultivated Reef corals. Last is a @BoomCorals acro.
Nitrates been steady at 4, phosphates have been out of hand. Last Hanna phosphorous test came back at .27 test one day before that was .16 - I think it’s time to get som gfo, rowaphos or phosban.
Which of tjnphosphate media would you recommend?
This is exactly why I kept the RAIN2. If push come to shove i’ll Add it back to my sump and run a short light schedule. I do feed pellets twice a day and frozen one a day. Add reef Roids to the frozen food twice or three times a week.
Nitrates been steady at 4, phosphates have been out of hand. Last Hanna phosphorous test came back at .27 test one day before that was .16 - I think it’s time to get som gfo, rowaphos or phosban.
Which of tjnphosphate media would you recommend?
This is exactly why I kept the RAIN2. If push come to shove i’ll Add it back to my sump and run a short light schedule. I do feed pellets twice a day and frozen one a day. Add reef Roids to the frozen food twice or three times a week.
Agreed...I run my phosphates anywhere from 0.08 up t0 0.24 depending on feeding during the week. Avoid GFO, those swings are not good for your corals, especially sps. Your sps may brown for a while, but that is fine- once they establish and encrust the colors will return in time as things are maintained stable.
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OP
Try to resist the temptation to run gfo or rowaphos... not the end of the world, and may even be good . Here are my phosphate numbers
Thank you! I'm also wondering if the phosphate spike was due to the 6 chromis that died in the tank. I suspect that could have something to do with the numbers.
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Hey Pelphrey. I feel your frustration. I've been following since I started my tank. I went through a lot of the same issues. I finally realized that I had to let the tank run a specific way that helped my parameters remain stable and just maintain from there. I kept adjusting my lights, adding supplements and changing methods every time I saw my corals suffer and I finally just left it alone and kept it simple. I kept my parameters stable and now my tank is doing well. I try to be consistent and do a 15 gal water change biweekly and that's pretty much it. I use a skimmer, chaeto, doser (Ca, Alk, Mg) and carbon... nothing else. I use tropic Marin salt, which contains the trace elements that I need and very close to where I keep my calcium and alkalinity. I guess less is more. i don't think there is anything wrong with using GFO as long as it's used correctly but the RAIN2 may be the better choice. I wish you luck going forward. You deserve it.
I agree with above...Try to stay from using any type of gfo... Every time I try to use it nothing but problems out of my sps. Even cutting the recommended dosage down to 1/4 of recommendation from maker
It’s funny - a year ago, my instinct would have been to add gfo anytime I saw detectable phosphates... this idea that detectable phosphates is a big problem that must be managed is so ingrained in the reefing community... it’s almost like gospel...
but I think we are going to see a paradigm shift soon. While my tank is far from ideal, I’ve been running no3 > 5 ppm and po4 > 0.1 ppm for nearly a year now with no adverse effect on sps, and surprisingly, no noticeable algae in the display. These figures should have spelled disaster to my system according to the ‘old wisdom’ of eliminating nitrates and phosphates... which makes you wonder if the ‘old wisdom’ is really all that useful
but I think we are going to see a paradigm shift soon. While my tank is far from ideal, I’ve been running no3 > 5 ppm and po4 > 0.1 ppm for nearly a year now with no adverse effect on sps, and surprisingly, no noticeable algae in the display. These figures should have spelled disaster to my system according to the ‘old wisdom’ of eliminating nitrates and phosphates... which makes you wonder if the ‘old wisdom’ is really all that useful
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One of the Carrolls says:
S=Stability
P=Promotes
S=Success
S=Stability
P=Promotes
S=Success
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Came home to this mushroom holding on my a thread and fighting with the hammer. It did break away and is now floating around in the tank.
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Took the t5 Fixture off the tank today, since I won’t be venturing into sps anymore I won’t need all this light.
Also cleaning the anything acrylic filter cups and running some filter socks for the first time in a long time!
Also cleaning the anything acrylic filter cups and running some filter socks for the first time in a long time!
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Missed this! It finally broke away, it’s now hiding behind the rock work! Nothing fancy about the pictures, iPhone 8. No editing.
It looks much better without the t5’s, not nearly as busy!
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