- Location
- Long Island
Wow Great Build!
JBNY's 270G tank thread
- Thread starter JBNY
- Start date
- Location
- Long Island
Great build
Fantastic thread Joe! What an awesome system this is! I have been following your work for almost the 13 years I have been at it.
About 11 years ago on Reef Central you helped me turn things around when out of ideas as to why I could not keep acros alive you suggested to change my salt! Indeed that was it! I went from being almost out of the hobby to getting back into it and never looked back! Thank you for that and for all the years you have been sharing your expertise and amazing reefing skills with the rest of us.
About 11 years ago on Reef Central you helped me turn things around when out of ideas as to why I could not keep acros alive you suggested to change my salt! Indeed that was it! I went from being almost out of the hobby to getting back into it and never looked back! Thank you for that and for all the years you have been sharing your expertise and amazing reefing skills with the rest of us.
- Location
- Garden city
Wow amazing system do u keep only sps? I had so many issues with my 220 build just recently able to keep sps again after having beginners luck with my 1st tank 75 gallon
I have been contemplating venting my fish closet with a sm bathroom fan when u fan hrs was it on a timer ? I was worried about co2 if I just exhaust the air not replenish it ?
I don't have issues except in the summer it gets a tad dank in my basement where my tank is I do have Centrel air and added a return last yr which helped
I have been contemplating venting my fish closet with a sm bathroom fan when u fan hrs was it on a timer ? I was worried about co2 if I just exhaust the air not replenish it ?
I don't have issues except in the summer it gets a tad dank in my basement where my tank is I do have Centrel air and added a return last yr which helped
It's all good. You're right things do happen, there is nothing you can do but try and work your way through them. I think one of the frustrating parts about the internet and reefing is that you only read about success, people really don't post about the failures, but everyone has them. I'm glad you enjoyed the build.
Thanks, I really enjoyed doing it. Took longer than I thought it would.
Thanks greenstreet.1, glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks, it seemed to get more detailed as it went on, I don't know if I thought it was going to be so detailed in the beginning!
That's awesome, I am glad I was able to steer you in the right direction! This hobby can be maddening sometimes, and it always seems that it's that one little thing that finally pulls the tank back from the brink of disaster.
Thanks so much for the kind words, I appreciated it.
Thanks, I always keep a few other things other than SPS, a few LPS, Zoas, etc mostly at the bottom of the tank, either on or near the sand bed.
The venting fan works really well, better than I thought it would. I also have a dehumidifier in the sump room, it keeps the humidity under 50% in the summer and I think of it as a necessary evil as it does put heat back in to the room. My fan runs on a timer, every 12 hours I run it for 10 minutes. I also have it set to turn on if the temperature in the room gets over 82d and turn off when it gets back to 78d.
- Location
- Garden city
Ok great thank u for info I will look into installing one this summer
Hey Joe....I think I saw the 180 during a LIRA tank tour. I remember carrying in the new tank...but forgot about those pics, LOL. I also remember when the new tank started to grow out...both tanks were beautiful and are a testament to your commitment to this passion we call a hobby. For me your tanks were something to aspire to. I'm confident you'll get there again and surpass your previous builds.
Frank
Frank
- Location
- Garden city
Joe will u be using Gfo again? I run Gfo grow cheto and do wc every week but I still don't get the ultra clean look that a lot of sps tanks have I'm wondering if I should run more and also I'm pretty passive with carbon do u use it?
- Location
- Amityville, NY
Thanks again for sharing the details of this build. BTW, I really like the LCD display. Is that DIY or from a Controller?
Thanks Frank. I'm confident it will get there too, just frustrating getting it back.
I'm not sure, right now I am trying to do it with only Chaeto and carbon once in a while. GFO is tricking IMO, because the amount varies very much from tank to tank, and you can do some real harm (SPS bleaching) if you use too much. On my 180 tank I only used 1/4 cup and changed it out once a month, on the 270 I used 1/2 cup.
But I have been a big believer in using Carbon, generally run 1/2 cup per 50 gallons and change it out every 2-4 weeks.
Your welcome, I hope you can get some ideas from it. The LCD is really cool. I bought it from http://www.crystalfontz.com/ I have a script that pulls out the vital stats on the tank from my Apex. It uses the telnet interface to get the info. Then drops the info into an ini file that the LCD pulls from.
If you want to use the LCD you need to have a dedicated PC for the LCD to attach to, as it works with a USB connector.
The software to run the LCD is located here.
http://www.crystalfontz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5384
You can install it and it will run a virtual LCD that shows how the LCD will look.
While waiting for my frags to grow out I made some changes.
Added a ph Probe to the first chamber of my MTC Ca Reactor. Previously I had the pH probe in a 3/4 pipe that I had inserted between the first and second chamber. I had been using it that way for years and years, but right now my Ca demands are so low that I was having a hard time dialing in the reactor so I pulled out the drill and taped a 1/2 inch connection to fit the probe. I was crazy worried I would mess it up, but in the end it was really easy to do.
Also put a new light over the frag tank. I had a Kessil a360we on it previously but I couldn't get any decent color or growth out of it. So I put in some good old T5s 3 ATI Blue+ and one KZ Fiji Purple.
Much better.
Added a ph Probe to the first chamber of my MTC Ca Reactor. Previously I had the pH probe in a 3/4 pipe that I had inserted between the first and second chamber. I had been using it that way for years and years, but right now my Ca demands are so low that I was having a hard time dialing in the reactor so I pulled out the drill and taped a 1/2 inch connection to fit the probe. I was crazy worried I would mess it up, but in the end it was really easy to do.
Also put a new light over the frag tank. I had a Kessil a360we on it previously but I couldn't get any decent color or growth out of it. So I put in some good old T5s 3 ATI Blue+ and one KZ Fiji Purple.
Much better.
- Location
- Wallingford, CT
Hi Joe,
Nice comeback
What pump are you using to power the C30?
Nice comeback
What pump are you using to power the C30?
Hi Joe,
Nice comeback
What pump are you using to power the C30?
Thanks, it's getting there.
I have the C30 plumbed off of my return pump.
To the dismay of my reef friends and my wife, I am starting the tank with frags again. I know that lots of people like an instant tank with lots of colonies, but I really like the time when all the corals are just growing. It's sort of a tank of possibilities and what ifs. So as I am waiting for my frags to grow I thought I would update this thread with some changes and how the setup I originally put together has been doing the last 7 years.
So first off, for a setup that has been in place for 7 years, it still runs almost perfect. Over the years, I have had equipment failures (no emergencies) and some parts breaking that needed to be replaced, but for the most part all the failures where equipment that had probably reached the end of its life. So overall, two thumbs for good planning.
Back in March, I added some LED lights under the stand for those times I need to get in there, to add or move something around, I had been using a flashlight but the LED lights were under $15 and works great for providing light.
I also stopped carbon dosing and using GFO and started growing Chaeto like I had years back. This time instead of just throwing it in a tank with some lights I bought a reactor made by Pax-Bellum, the unit is the ARID C30, it's pretty big, but I have a big tank and lots of room so no worries there. I have some Chaeto in it, and have it plumbed off my main pump, it has an inner rod that has LEDs on it to grow the Chaeto. I just have my Apex turn the lights on for 18 hours on a reverse photo period, that pretty much it.
Here is the unit in the sump room.
It grows Chaeto really fast, looking in from the top this is what it looks like on day one.
A week later it is full and I need to thin out the algae. So far it has worked great. There is no algae in the main display, for me it is working out better than when I was carbon dosing. So I'm very happy with this addition.
So first off, for a setup that has been in place for 7 years, it still runs almost perfect. Over the years, I have had equipment failures (no emergencies) and some parts breaking that needed to be replaced, but for the most part all the failures where equipment that had probably reached the end of its life. So overall, two thumbs for good planning.
Back in March, I added some LED lights under the stand for those times I need to get in there, to add or move something around, I had been using a flashlight but the LED lights were under $15 and works great for providing light.
I also stopped carbon dosing and using GFO and started growing Chaeto like I had years back. This time instead of just throwing it in a tank with some lights I bought a reactor made by Pax-Bellum, the unit is the ARID C30, it's pretty big, but I have a big tank and lots of room so no worries there. I have some Chaeto in it, and have it plumbed off my main pump, it has an inner rod that has LEDs on it to grow the Chaeto. I just have my Apex turn the lights on for 18 hours on a reverse photo period, that pretty much it.
Here is the unit in the sump room.
It grows Chaeto really fast, looking in from the top this is what it looks like on day one.
A week later it is full and I need to thin out the algae. So far it has worked great. There is no algae in the main display, for me it is working out better than when I was carbon dosing. So I'm very happy with this addition.
I feel like I have been spending a lot of time with the tank but not much to show for it.
I just switched salts back to IO mid April, what I was using like 10 years ago. I was using RSCP for the last 4 months and while the tank looked pretty good and fish and almost all the coral did well under it, none of my acropora looked good and I was really struggling to keep them. So I switched last week to IO and did about 200 gallons of water changes the first week.
So while I had been doing that I was starting to focus on getting more fish in the tank. I have a decent amount but I am still adding about 1ppm of KNO3 to the tank daily just to keep Nitrates at a detectable level. I figured if I was adding that much N to the tank I might as well have more fish, as I would enjoy that more than dosing Nitrates.
After going back and forth and much discussion with friends, it came down to either buying a group of Royal Gammas or Yellow Assessors (Assessor flavissimus), both are basslets so it was either one or the other. In the end it came down to the chance that the Royal gammas might hide in the rock work and the assessors stood the most chance of being out in the open. So I bought 12 of them from live aquaria, and the next morning a big box showed up.
Floating the bags in the sump
Set up a drip to acclimate them
In the Quarantine tank.
Even though they are captive bread I had still been having some issues getting them to eat. They took almost a week to start eating anything, but finally I got them to eat some frozen brine shrimp and finally frozen mysis which is what I feed the tank. So after about 3 weeks in QT I put them into the main tank. They have been in the tank for about a week and while I can see that they are eating they are staying in the rockwork right now. I hope they come out more into the open as time goes on.
I just switched salts back to IO mid April, what I was using like 10 years ago. I was using RSCP for the last 4 months and while the tank looked pretty good and fish and almost all the coral did well under it, none of my acropora looked good and I was really struggling to keep them. So I switched last week to IO and did about 200 gallons of water changes the first week.
So while I had been doing that I was starting to focus on getting more fish in the tank. I have a decent amount but I am still adding about 1ppm of KNO3 to the tank daily just to keep Nitrates at a detectable level. I figured if I was adding that much N to the tank I might as well have more fish, as I would enjoy that more than dosing Nitrates.
After going back and forth and much discussion with friends, it came down to either buying a group of Royal Gammas or Yellow Assessors (Assessor flavissimus), both are basslets so it was either one or the other. In the end it came down to the chance that the Royal gammas might hide in the rock work and the assessors stood the most chance of being out in the open. So I bought 12 of them from live aquaria, and the next morning a big box showed up.
Floating the bags in the sump
Set up a drip to acclimate them
In the Quarantine tank.
Even though they are captive bread I had still been having some issues getting them to eat. They took almost a week to start eating anything, but finally I got them to eat some frozen brine shrimp and finally frozen mysis which is what I feed the tank. So after about 3 weeks in QT I put them into the main tank. They have been in the tank for about a week and while I can see that they are eating they are staying in the rockwork right now. I hope they come out more into the open as time goes on.
- Location
- Garden city
Very cool never thought of so many basslets will they stay together??
I'm hoping to get the same reactor for my 220 in July so enjoy hearing ur updates about the cheto reactor I actually removed my cheto from my fuge because it became a detritus trap and felt it was counter productive does the cheto in reactor collect detritus ?
After trying few salts I myself never noticing much of a difference also stick to tried and true io !!
Awesome thread!!
I'm hoping to get the same reactor for my 220 in July so enjoy hearing ur updates about the cheto reactor I actually removed my cheto from my fuge because it became a detritus trap and felt it was counter productive does the cheto in reactor collect detritus ?
After trying few salts I myself never noticing much of a difference also stick to tried and true io !!
Awesome thread!!
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