The 280 is finally going to get set up.. (1 Viewer)

[NorthSide Reef]

one more batch of saltwater and the whole thing will be on line. I am not sure if I will get it in tonight or not. But this is a very huge milestone. as all I have to do now is the piddly stuff while I wait for the system to cycle.

I forced an ammonia spike last weekend by dosing some Ammonium chloride. I got it a bit high, over 5ppm but it did come down and I spiked it up again and fed the system some more nitrifying bacteria. Nitrites are a bit high now as you can imagine but just a small blip of nitrates so still waiting on that bacteria to kick in. Probaly still 8 or 9 weeks out . Hoping to pick up some cured live rock from a local but our times are not meshing.

I will post some pics tomorrow after the current sandstorm dies down.

 

[NorthSide Reef]

Well not much to see just a couple more tanks with dead rock in them.

the future clown tank. Aquascaping is still a work in progress.

Seahorse tank:

Both

Also replaced the big Hammerhead I had on the systems. It was so powerful I have to really choke the outlet down. That was like throwing money in electricity down the drain.

Old Pump:

New Pump:

Side by side comparison:

That little Blow Hole is amazing. I would like a bit more flow than what I am getting but for the size and cost of that thing I am impressed with how much and how far it is pushing the water.

I have a bit of a micro bubble problem but I think I have a fix for that. We'll see Tuesday when the parts get here. Other than that this portion of the build went really smooth and it is good just to have all of the tanks and filtershed online.

 

[TwinCities Dan]

Still waiting for my water to heat up
%$#&%

 

[eschulist]

So many tanks all plumbed together! And you want to add another NPS tank?!

 

[NorthSide Reef]

I have a short attention span lol what can I say?

Remember in August you're all supposed to recommend that I add an NPS tank to the fishroom. Practice your authoritative voices now.

 

[marty9876]

That pump is so tiny looking!

 

[eschulist]

That pump is so tiny looking!

You know what they say. Its not the size but the motion in the ocean :kackle:

 

[marty9876]

You know what they say. Its not the size but the motion in the ocean :kackle:

says men with small pumps!

 

[eschulist]

Going a little offtopic but someone sent this to me today.

 

[marty9876]

Sweet, used the green thumb for the first time!

 

[NorthSide Reef]

You know I just forwarded that lol

You know I had my doubts about that pump as well. It has three setting the other two do not even move the water. But the the one that does is doing a great job. at about half the wattage of the old hammerhead.

 

[lorky]

Amazing build!

 

[NorthSide Reef]

bored at work so a quick update (one without pictures if you can believe it)

Ordered a bunch of different types of macro algae for the seahorse tank today. Something living!! I had to ask on the RC forums because I was not sure when I could add macro in the nitrogen cycle from the one reply I got I guess macro is not affected by ammonia so I could have added it sooner. Wish I would have known.

The Tank will be lit by a Maxspect Mazarra P-Series and I ordered a Kessil A150 special blend 6700K as a supplement and light source for the macro. I hope that's enough light. I don't plan to keep much more than a few softies and maybe some zoanthids for coral. So we'll see I should have the additional light and macro in next week sometime.

Work starts tomorrow on the QT corner off to the side of the tank, looking forward to getting that done. Brian (90OCT) is holding a few corals for me and once the QT area is up and running I get to pick them up.

I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to just feeding fish, cleaning the skimmer and scrapping algae off the glass.

Does anyone know; is 6700K a good spectrum for macro? the description says for freshwater tanks but I think I remember that being a good spectrum for most algae. maybe I am wrong.

 

[Taklu]

better spectrum is 3000K, but 6500 works just as nicely in some cases better than all other spectrums as it has a bit of everything that plants need. I find 6500 to be better at growing chaeto and 3000k for turf algae (I'm a rocket scientiest.. discover only stuff thats been known for a while lol)

 

[NorthSide Reef]

Thanks, that is kind of what I remember as well I even typoed the Kessil as 6500K because that's the number that sticks in my head.

 

[Taklu]

Wonder what Kessil uses to make it 6700K? most LEDs in that spectrum are 6500K, 200K for being Kessil proprietary?

 

[NorthSide Reef]

not sure but I am curious to see how it looks blended with the Maxspect. I bet real yellow.

 

[marty9876]

Are you going to QT the algae?

 

[NorthSide Reef]

not really, they're coming from an aqua farm. I doubt there are many things that are attached to it fish or coral related.

You think I should?

 

[marty9876]

I have no opinion, just curious to what degree you were going to take it. Some folks do fish, some do corals, some talk about doing crabs/snails/algae etc.

I did fish and screwed it up starting out. First batch in QT broke out with ich, I fixed them up and threw then into DT tank after a week to make room for the next fish to go into QT.... Ended up with 6 months worth of ich hell in the DT from being an idiot with the QT process.

Not trying to preach, derail or steer you any which way it just seems like you are one of the most patient guys here and was curious. Fritz or Li had a good line about ich- Is it possible to keep out of a tank, yes. Is it worth the effort, not really was their gist of a post here once. It would be hard to QT snails...