Ryujin (210gal) and Wee Wetboy (15gal) builds

[danreef55]

Thanks! My first adventure in reefing in 2008 was all cobbled together pieces that picked up as I could afford them. This time around I am sparing no expense and trying to leverage technology to do some of the work for me and keep everything as stable as possible.

Though I do have to say that the relentlessness of this algae bloom has me feeling a little down. I was totally expecting "The Ugly Phase". I just wasn't expecting it to come on so hard.

Starting a tank with dry rock is a new experience for me. I didn't have anything this severe back in the "live rock" days of my original tank. I had also planned on having more utilitarian fish in the tank by now. I was hoping my order from Marine Collectors would be closer to the two weeks than the six weeks in their two to six week window.

It is probably for the best though. My custom lids from Toplids are also taking longer than I had expected since they switched to a new process for the UV reactive strip and I am one of the first customers getting the new process.

I have a Midas Blenny and a Melanurus Wrasse in that order that would probably be on the floor by now if they had arrived two weeks after I ordered them.

I will be starting off with dry rock as well. I have a plan to avoid the uglies completely so how confident am I NOT AT ALL. Have you added pods yet?

 

[ScottF]

I will be starting off with dry rock as well. I have a plan to avoid the uglies completely so how confident am I NOT AT ALL. Have you added pods yet?

Yeah. I added like six jars of galaxy pods along with chaeto from Algae Barn. I can see them covering the front of my little tank from here.

 

[ScottF]

The ugly...

 

[danreef55]

Reduce your light cycle?

 

[ScottF]

Reduce your light cycle?

I don't think my SPS would enjoy that. I am hoping that expanded CuC and manual removal and patients will eventually prevail. We'll see how bad it gets.

 

[danreef55]

Hey Scott
are you using a vacuum pump after the ozone?

 

[ScottF]

Hey Scott
are you using a vacuum pump after the ozone?

No. For the ozone I just have the dryer hooked to the Poseidon. The I took the muffler off of my Red Sea Reefer DC Skimmer 900 and attached the muffler to the ball valve.

The muffler has four ports on it. The big 3/8 port that was attached to the skimmer I have attached to the ball valve. The small port on the bottom I have plugged. One of the 1/4 inch ports on the top is attached to the ozone generator. The other 1/4 port I attached to a small rodi ball valve.

The small rodi ball valve lets me tune the amount of air that is being pulled through the ozone generator. Without it, when that port was just open I felt like it wasn't pulling enough air through the generator and with it plugged, my skimmer pump would stall.

Then from the large electric ball valve that the muffler is attached to, one prong goes to the skimmer air intake where the muffler was attached and the other prong goes to the CO2 scrubber.

In the picture below:
Big tube top goes to CO2 scrubber.
Big tube right goes to skimmer air intake.
Little tube left is to tune air flow from ozone generator.
Little tube right goes to ozone generator.

 

[ScottF]

It's not pretty, but it seems to work pretty well.

 

[danreef55]

It's not pretty, but it seems to work pretty well.

Nicely done

 

[ScottF]

Two days ago I brushed my rocks with a toothbrush and the alk stopped precipitating out and my normal part 2 dosing pushed my dkh from it's normal 9 to 9.7 before the apex shut off the pump for exceeding 9.5.

I brushed the rocks again yesterday, but not today. For two days my dkh was dropping very very slowly, but still hadn't made it back down to 9. I had the dosing pump off the whole time.

Now tonight suddenly it is plummeting again. It went from around 9.2 to around 8.6 between Trident tests this evening. Hopefully I have it stabilized again. I don't like it jumping around like this.

 

[danreef55]

Two days ago I brushed my rocks with a toothbrush and the alk stopped precipitating out and my normal part 2 dosing pushed my dkh from it's normal 9 to 9.7 before the apex shut off the pump for exceeding 9.5.

I brushed the rocks again yesterday, but not today. For two days my dkh was dropping very very slowly, but still hadn't made it back down to 9. I had the dosing pump off the whole time.

Now tonight suddenly it is plummeting again. It went from around 9.2 to around 8.6 between Trident tests this evening. Hopefully I have it stabilized again. I don't like it jumping around like this.

best of luck

 

[ScottF]

Time for bad pictures of my baby corals. All taken with a crappy yellow amazon filter on my phone. I may replace these with better pics. Right now I am just trying to put names to faces.


Vino Montipora

Jingle Bells Cyphastrea

 

[ScottF]

Artic Ice Cyphastrea

Superman Stylocoeniella

Pink Flamingo Laptoseria

Hell Rider Favia

 

[ScottF]

24K Leptoseria

Ultra Micromussa lord

Blue Pavona

Avatar Chalice

Dreamsicle Chalice

Supernova Hammer

 

[ScottF]

Sunburst Micro Goniopora

Contraband Grafted digi

Miyagi Acropora tortuosa

Kermit the Frog Acropora

 

[ScottF]

Rainbow Monitipora

Burning Banana Stylocoeniella

Platinum Halo Montipora

Fire Drake Favia

 

[ScottF]

Sour Patch Montipora

Slow Burn Montipora

Forest Green Acropora

2 x Aquaman Montipora

 

[ScottF]

Darth Maul Porites

Sunburst Montipora

Bali Green Slimer Acropora

Sand Dollar Porites

 

[ScottF]

Sato Toguchi Acropora tort

Flame Boi Favia (need to replace pic for sure)

I have 3 zoas and 1 paly. I think these may be the Fiji Solar Flare Zoanthids. Most of them seem angry that I was working in the tank and are currently closed up. I will get them sorted and photographed later.

 

[ScottF]

City Lights Psammocora

Red People Eaters Palythoas?

Sun Eater Zoanthids?