My 50 gallon slice of the ocean

[LEOreefer]

So here’s a better pic of the growth I’m experiencing in the algae front. I will be going tomorrow to see if I can score some chaeto and bring my reactor online

 

[Barrett]

Looks like diatoms you are almost there.

 

[LEOreefer]

Cycle day 22: algae is growing in the DT! It’s coming in fast and has little micro bubbles it’s releasing into the water column. I decided to pick up some chaeto today from the LFS and bring my reactor online. I was also going to pick up some snails but the store did not have the ones I wanted. I read a great post about the clean up crews in the inverts thread it’s a sticky at the top of that forum. So I will be going to another place tomorrow to see if they have anything that suits my interest. Here are the few number that I tested :
Nitrate: 65ppm
Phosphate: 58ppm
Ammonia: <.25 ppm
And my PH is hovering around 8.1. It’s been so nice out I’ve had all the windows open in the house
Theses have pretty much been my numbers all along with expectation of ammonia as I was dosing that for a while. We will see what the algae reactor can do in a few days. I will retest then !

 

[LEOreefer]

Now for the fun stuff ! I added a bottle of trigger pods to seed the tank. I will be placing a algae barn order some point in the next week to get more pods with them. My pop population should really take off as I have absolutely no animals in the tank to eat them.
My LFS has a tank where they keep little glass tiles in and they grow coralline on them then sell them for a $1 a piece. I got 2 tiles with a ton of coralline on them and threw them into the tank. Hopefully that will get it going.
Also next week I will be ordering a doser and BRS 2 part so when the algae starts to grow I can keep up on level. I also still plan on topping off with kalkwasser. Once everything is up and running I will begin to assemble my 10 gallon quarantine tank. I also have not done a water change yet which I hope to do tomorrow also

 

[LEOreefer]

Today’s update : I was able to get my CUC started got a total of 10 snails from the LFS. They are in the tank and working hard. The tank got its first major water change of 20 gallons. I will aim to do at least 10 every other week. The chaeto reactor and carbon reactor are still up and running strong. While at the store today I couldn’t resist the urge to pick up a small frag of green star polyp. I know it might be early in the game but I really want to to the time to see how the coral reacts to my tank at different levels. These corals are pretty hardy and I’ve always been a fan of them. They haven’t done much since being in the tank , they have been in for about an hour now. I’m working a double tomorrow so I will run a full panel of water test and be placing my order for doser and BRS 2 part and kalk

 

[Barrett]

I like Gsp as well I am going to put some on my overflow box, a little movement on the back wall will look nice I think.

 

[LEOreefer]

I like Gsp as well I am going to put some on my overflow box, a little movement on the back wall will look nice I think.

Yea I’ve always read there a great indicator of water quality. I put mine on a small rock up front so they can’t take over

 

[LEOreefer]

So I've decided to purchase the doser coral box wifi doser. There's not many reviews but the ones that are out there are really good! Its a 4 head setup that is controlled totally from your phone. I need to bring my alk up to aroun 9 and calcium to about 450. Between the BRS 2 part and kalkwasser I should be able to bring those levels up in no time

 

[LEOreefer]

Updated for today : did a full water panel and numbers are as following

Alk: 6.6
Calcium:400
Mag: 1320
Nitrate: 25
Phosphate:.01
Salt: 1.027

Alk is very low and calcium need to be brought up also. I placed a order today for BRS 2 part and kalkwasser so I will begin to bring up those levels hopefully by this weekend. Nitrate and phosphate levels are coming down nicely and this is evident by the recession of algae. I still have a slight touch of cloudy water and I’m not sure what it’s from. Here’s a pic of my one and only coral that appears to be happy

 

[LEOreefer]

So today I decided to give @alage barn pods a try. I signed up for a subscription to have the delivered every 2 months. Keep in mind I have nothing to eat these pods right now so hopefully the population will explode

 

[LEOreefer]

Update time ! Everything is going well. The alage bloom only lasted a few days. It didn’t stand a chance once I brought the chaeto reactor online. The little bit of cloudyness is now completely gone, I contributed it to me not mixing my water change water as long as I should have. I got my BRS 2 part and am now working on bringing levels up. My alk last night was 6.2 ! As per BRS calculator I dosed it up to 7.2 and will test in a few mins to make sure I’m sitting at this level. My calcium was sitting at 400 and I dosed that to 420. Eventually I would like alk to be at 9 and calcium at 450. The gsp and green mushroom look happy and open ! I also added pods yesterday from alage barn and have been feeding the tank 15 ml of there plankton a day. Here are. Few pics !

 

[LEOreefer]

FTS

 

[LEOreefer]

Just tested
Alk is at 7.1 up from 6.2
Calcium is at 425 up from 400

I just added another dose to bump the numbers again. So far so good !

 

[LEOreefer]

@Brew12 i have to highly suggest sca tanks. I was reading through my thread and saw your post in the beginning saying you where following along and the sca was on your radar. I waste to update you that I love this tank! The build quality is great and in my opinion the shadow overflow makes it! You can't beat the extra room! It was no extra to have the holes drilled.

 

[usernam invalid]

Looking good man following along [emoji106]

 

[LEOreefer]

Looking good man following along [emoji106]

Thanks ! Glad you stopped by !

 

[Brew12]

@Brew12 i have to highly suggest sca tanks. I was reading through my thread and saw your post in the beginning saying you where following along and the sca was on your radar. I waste to update you that I love this tank! The build quality is great and in my opinion the shadow overflow makes it! You can't beat the extra room! It was no extra to have the holes drilled.

Thanks for the update! They are very high on my radar.

 

[Barrett]

Thanks for the update! They are very high on my radar.

I like my SCA so much I ordered a custom 36x36x24 drilled for the ghost overflow from them, I would highly recommend them.

 

[LEOreefer]

I like my SCA so much I ordered a custom 36x36x24 drilled for the ghost overflow from them, I would highly recommend them.

Can’t wait to see it up and running. Your going to love the shadow overflow

 

[Barrett]

Can’t wait to see it up and running. Your going to love the shadow overflow

It will be awhile, have to finish my basement first and with my work schedule right now it is making it hard to get things done, in another month or so work should slow down a little bit.