Rags2Riches - The Learning Curve. 125g

[RichtheReefer21]

Water change done. Fed the tangs and ff some ogo, with a side of bristle worm.

The bristle worm managed to escape but not before the anthias tasted it on the way down. Poor fella finally had hopes that the clip would finally yield something tasty, not so much. Like the first time I let gizmo try a raw bell pepper

Hit the LFS and he finally got my preference of Frozen Krill.

I use this stuff for everything. Frozen food cubes, cuc feeding at night, target feeding coral, all of it. And hes been out for a month or two. $16 is fair to me.

Also watch one of the small CBB's he has peck at some pellet food. But didnt really go after it. Will wait for the harlequin to decide.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

A couple progression pics...

Both of these started on May 2019, and last picture was taken tonight. So about 8 months or so...

Montipora Spongoid:

Pavona:

Considering all the tinkering and moving around they suffered, between frag racks and yadda yadda, it appears that after a few months on the rockwork and left alone, they are finding their groove.

Feels good to go back and see how things started. Makes the stress, time, and money worth it all.

 

[PanchoG]

A couple progression pics...

Both of these started on May 2019, and last picture was taken tonight. So about 8 months or so...

Montipora Spongoid:

Pavona:

Considering all the tinkering and moving around they suffered, between frag racks and yadda yadda, it appears that after a few months on the rockwork and left alone, they are finding their groove.

Feels good to go back and see how things started. Makes the stress, time, and money worth it all.

Both of them look great and they are taking very cool shapes. ;Woot

 

[Crabby48]

Not sure what one I like better. I never see pavona around here

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Both of them look great and they are taking very cool shapes. ;Woot

Definitely unique and random shapes. Nature is crazy cool.

Not sure what one I like better. I never see pavona around here

I might be able to clip an ear for ya before I head west

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Doser talk...

I have decided to dilute my kalkwasser through the ATO. This eliminates all the space required for the resivoir, as well as the cost of a single micro pump (70-$120) for the ones I found so far. This means I only need to house the doser itself, and the 4 bottles of RS A,B,C,D. A 12x10" footprint instead of a 24x18" as the original plan showed.

Got this big empty space...

This is making me want to tear down the cabinet from the wall and set all the controllers and doser into 1 console below. But then I'm torn back to keep it simple. The cabinet is already up and works perfect.

I am probably going to go the K.I.S.S. route and do a simple "box" that the jb4 sits atop, with the bottles below. And then figure out what I can use all the space for instead. Decisions decisions. The k.i.s.s. is a breeze and costs next to nothing. The other route is likely an all-day affair with a price tag of about $90 in materials.

Humph...

 

[crusso1993]

Simple shelf with doser on it and Voss bottles below it. Done right, it will look neat, clean and still leave quite a bit of space.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Simple shelf with doser on it and Voss bottles below it. Done right, it will look neat, clean and still leave quite a bit of space.

Not sure I want to bother with the voss bottles if I can just drill the tops of the bottles the ABCD come in. That's where I'm torn. Am I going for aesthetics? My ocd is killing me right now. Haha

 

[JoshH]

Not sure I want to bother with the voss bottles if I can just drill the tops of the bottles the ABCD come in. That's where I'm torn. Am I going for aesthetics? My ocd is killing me right now. Haha

You know you don't even want the voss bottles, you want custom acrylic cylinders

 

[RichtheReefer21]

You know you don't even want the voss bottles, you want custom acrylic cylinders

Stop enabling. Mind is made up. K.i.s.s. wins. Headed to my folks for a leg of lamb greek luncheon. Gonna square out a box and call it a day. No excitement here.

 

[JoshH]

Stop enabling. Mind is made up. K.i.s.s. wins. Headed to my folks for a leg of lamb greek luncheon. Gonna square out a box and call it a day. No excitement here.

Unfriended ;Shifty

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Tested ca and dKh to see how the wc affected my numbers before attempting kalkwasser. Ca up to 450 but my alk stayed around 7.8. I tested twice to be sure.

So I just dosed some seachem reefbuilder to get my dKh up to 8.4. Will test dkh and Mg tomorrow to see where I'm at, and then I'll prolly top off the 20g ATO res and going to use the 1/4tsp per gallon ration (on the light side of recomendations) I have about 10g per week of evaporation, so that's why I'm going so light of the ratio for the kalk. Will begin a every-other-day testing regiment for the big 3 to see how the system conforms to my dosing.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Unfriended ;Shifty

Awww sugar come here. Big hugs.

 

[JoshH]

Awww sugar come here. Big hugs.

No. ;Shifty I won't be happy unless my enabling efforts are successful.

For selfish reasons ofcourse, makes me feel less insane if everyone else is spending crazy money on crazy customs things for there reefs

 

[najer]

No. ;Shifty I won't be happy unless my enabling efforts are successful.

Awwww, did someone wake up on the wrong side of the snow drift today?!

 

[JoshH]

Awwww, did someone wake up on the wrong side of the snow drift today?!

No snow drifts today, we've had plus 10° weather these past few days and It's melted just about all of it away.

 

[crusso1993]

Unfriended ;Shifty

I admittedly do not know much about friendship but, from what I do know, in order to unfriend someone they first have to be your friend. So, from my understanding, your unfriending @RichtheReefer21 is a moot point!

 

[Fudsey]

Rich, you may not want to use Kalk in your ato. It will wear out the ATO pump quickly. You really want to use either a gravity drip method or a dosing pump.

 

[JoshH]

Rich, you may not want to use Kalk in your ato. It will wear out the ATO pump quickly. You really want to use either a gravity drip method or a dosing pump.

You could use the ATO pump if it was feeding a kalk reactor. That way the ATO pump isn't exposed to the kalk atall

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Rich, you may not want to use Kalk in your ato. It will wear out the ATO pump quickly. You really want to use either a gravity drip method or a dosing pump.

You could use the ATO pump if it was feeding a kalk reactor. That way the ATO pump isn't exposed to the kalk atall

I figured if I maintain a 3month cleaning ritual I could avoid the pump failing? I only need it to last a year.

What's the time frame you have encountered on motors failing due to kalk exposure?

Dosing box is built, had enough leftover PVC board to complete it at 0 cost. Not what I want visually, but it's functional, which is really all i need at this point.