Rob's Really Rad 180 Reef Rally

RobB'z Reef · Apr 2, 2021

Quiet in here...

Mjl714 · Apr 2, 2021

Rob.bucek said:
Quiet in here...

Hey wake up, TGIF.

RobB'z Reef · Apr 2, 2021

Lol TFG! Work has been seriously getting in the way of my reefing goals lol. Never mind work pays for my reefing goals. I'm choosing to be illogical about this.

Oberst Hajj · Apr 8, 2021

On another note, do you know how you got the image at the top of your build thread?

RobB'z Reef · Apr 10, 2021

Oberst Hajj said:
On another note, do you know how you got the image at the top of your build thread?

It didn't get there on accident lol. I can send send some screen shot steps if you still need help. Your build thread is the bomb btw

RobB'z Reef · Apr 16, 2021

Added one of these yesterday, just got the dosing portion running today. I'll do a more in depth review/write up in a couple weeks once I've had time to learn more about it. Pretty excited! Only downside so far is it has to be within 3 feet of your water source which kinda chaps my @55 because I hate putting electronics under my stand next to water, but oh well.

Mjl714 · Apr 16, 2021

Hey how’s the phytoplankton rearing going? Thinking of starting a process myself, what would recommend?

RobB'z Reef · Apr 16, 2021

It's going great honestly. Would be going even better if I was home ever. I keep having to shut it down constantly due to travel. It's easy to restart from previous cultures tho. Guidelines say to use cultures less than 30 days old however. I've not tested the limits on this yet and all the ones I've restarted have been less than 30 days old and have been very successful. Harvested phyto is stored in the refrigerator and shaken approximately once a week or two and this seems to work well.

I was lazy and grabbed Poseiden's system because it let me be flexible in not having to designate a space for it. I.e. you don't have to mount lights and it can be set up literally in any available space that has access to power. To date I've produced 6 cultures (approx 1 gallon per culture) with zero crashes and 3 pod cultures. I'm hoping travel gets a break so I can run this wide open for a while as I'm chomping at the bit to get a pair of mandarins and a clam soon.

This system really works well!. You can be fancy and get their pouches or you can be cheap and store it in empty diet coke bottles (my girlfriend has a serious addiction to it so they are plentiful here).

jk_s124 · Apr 20, 2021

Rob.bucek said:
It's going great honestly. Would be going even better if I was home ever. I keep having to shut it down constantly due to travel. It's easy to restart from previous cultures tho. Guidelines say to use cultures less than 30 days old however. I've not tested the limits on this yet and all the ones I've restarted have been less than 30 days old and have been very successful. Harvested phyto is stored in the refrigerator and shaken approximately once a week or two and this seems to work well.

I was lazy and grabbed Poseiden's system because it let me be flexible in not having to designate a space for it. I.e. you don't have to mount lights and it can be set up literally in any available space that has access to power. To date I've produced 6 cultures (approx 1 gallon per culture) with zero crashes and 3 pod cultures. I'm hoping travel gets a break so I can run this wide open for a while as I'm chomping at the bit to get a pair of mandarins and a clam soon.

This system really works well!. You can be fancy and get their pouches or you can be cheap and store it in empty diet coke bottles (my girlfriend has a serious addiction to it so they are plentiful here).

Anthony Scholfield · Apr 23, 2021

Rob.bucek said:
It's going great honestly. Would be going even better if I was home ever. I keep having to shut it down constantly due to travel. It's easy to restart from previous cultures tho. Guidelines say to use cultures less than 30 days old however. I've not tested the limits on this yet and all the ones I've restarted have been less than 30 days old and have been very successful. Harvested phyto is stored in the refrigerator and shaken approximately once a week or two and this seems to work well.

I was lazy and grabbed Poseiden's system because it let me be flexible in not having to designate a space for it. I.e. you don't have to mount lights and it can be set up literally in any available space that has access to power. To date I've produced 6 cultures (approx 1 gallon per culture) with zero crashes and 3 pod cultures. I'm hoping travel gets a break so I can run this wide open for a while as I'm chomping at the bit to get a pair of mandarins and a clam soon.

This system really works well!. You can be fancy and get their pouches or you can be cheap and store it in empty diet coke bottles (my girlfriend has a serious addiction to it so they are plentiful here).

mmmmmm Phyto! Its so electrifying! I'm hungry! haha

Flameback Pair · Apr 23, 2021

@Rob.bucek I’ve read conflicting statements regarding the use of phytoplankton to feed corals, although I’m convinced pods will eat it. How are you sure your corals are eating the phytoplankton?

ArmyReefer · Apr 29, 2021

How are the KLIR units working out for you? Do you have the Y cable and them linked together or are you running them independently?

RobB'z Reef · May 1, 2021

powers2001 said:
@Rob.bucek I’ve read conflicting statements regarding the use of phytoplankton to feed corals, although I’m convinced pods will eat it. How are you sure your corals are eating the phytoplankton?

I've read those as well. We know for sure copepods take advantage of phyto, and certainly clams (looking to get one at some point), perhaps some corals do a bit of filter feeding? I don't have solid answers or evidence there. I have also read that the phyto could potentially compete against unwanted algaes for nutrients tho I need to do more homework on this theory. It's certainly a foundational food in the chain for all ocean life and I view it as generally beneficial and interesting to pursue. Hoping to keep a healthy pod population at a minimum to eventually support a mandarin or two.

RobB'z Reef · May 1, 2021

ArmyReefer said:
How are the KLIR units working out for you? Do you have the Y cable and them linked together or are you running them independently?

Hello, yes the Klirs are joined with a 'Y' cable and are slaved together via one controller. I can't express how happy I am with how these units have been working for me so far. Been running them since last September now and they've been consistently reliable for me. I'm getting 45-60 days out of a roll, closer to 60 on average and have only had to change them out a handful of times so far. Takes about 15 minutes a unit between pulling them out, changing the roll and putting it back in. Every other roll I thoroughly clean the unit of any films or calcification deposits that can accumulate over time.

RobB'z Reef · May 1, 2021

Small update on the Alkatronic, WOW!! This thing is the bomb! Only downside is it's quite noisy when doing it's thing. Other than that this unit really delivers and since installing it my alk has been on point between 8-8.5. Prior, dosing just kalkwasser my alk would eventually slide over a two week period down to 7 or so.

I'm using the dosing head included in the unit to supplement Sodium Carbonate as needed and the unit does a great job at keeping it inline. It's programmed to not introduce huge swings and will only dose about .7dkh max at one time but tries to ease it in depending on measured difference and the set point. Once dialed in that wouldn't happen anyhow. I'm measuring every 6 hours at this point and I'm still using the included reagent from the initial purchase. I've bought a gallon of .1n Sulfuric acid to mix my own on the cheap once I run out of the reagent provided by Focustronic. I just have the unit dump the waste water back into the tank after it's done testing.

The app is super easy to use and quite intuitive for the most part. The blue points in the screen shot below indicate where it went over the upper set point. That was me dorking around with my tank doing maintenance and water level dropped and I forgot to shut off my ATO and it over dosed a little kalkwasser but not a terrible amount as you can see by the graph.

I got a cable and will eventually purchase a Neptune PM1 unit which will allow me to get Alk readings directly from my Neptune App!

RobB'z Reef · May 13, 2021

I was sick of looking at my titanium heaters laying on the bottom of my sump because those cheap butt suction cups they include would never hold them up for longer than a couple days. Found this nifty little device at Octo Aquatics for $50 and it's powerful enough to easily hold up two 600w heaters. Looks great, and quality construction! Not a must have but just one of those things that makes you feel good about organization.

RobB'z Reef · May 15, 2021

He's just not the same anymore...

RobB'z Reef · May 15, 2021

Finally got my PM1 module in place today and the reading from the alkatronic came right in with no issues! Loving this capability as I can see everything I need to in one spot now.