An Update of my 40Br Mixed Reef Tank
by
, 09-17-2013 at 01:56 PM (3916 Views)
Tank: Aqueon 40BR
Stand, Canopy, and Light Canopy: The stand is a nice entrance piece of furniture and the "half-canopy" and fixture cover was made by me. The actual Light Canopy was also made by me.
Controller: Apex Jr. (Without Display, I use my iPhone 5/Computers to monitor the tank) + Apex VDM for LED dimming + EB8 + PM1 (pH monitoring)
Light: RapidLED parts giving me 20 X Royal Blue, 14 X Cool Whites, and 2 X Moonlights (royal Blues on low voltage).
Sand: Marine Gravel (NEW!)
Rock: Reef on the Rocks
Water Movement: 2 X Vortech MP10 (Yellow mode at about 1/2 power, Yellow Mode at 1/8th power)) + AquaClear 110 with magnetized overflow + MJ900
Filtration: - Reef Octopus BH-90 Skimmer + 10% weekly water changes via I.O. Salt
Fish Feeder: Used when on Vacation, hand feed when I am home.
Fish Feeding: APBreed medium pellets daily (2nd feeding with Mysis shrimp every two days)
Coral Feeding: Every two days, at night I randomly use Coral Frenzy, two diff. sized Golden Pearls, or Reef Chilli.
ATO: BRS Doser (50mL/min) used in custom set up (7G tub that is hidden). (I use Kalkwasser)
Dosers: 2 X BRS 50mL/min for both Calcium and Alkalinity (Via Apex Controller)
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Changes:
- Added back second Vortech, but at much lower power.
- Redone rock work in tank out of personal preference.
- Removed quite a bit of corals to allow others more growing room.
- Added Red/Green Acro and Blasto Welsi
- Switched to I.O. Salt. Red Sea Coral Pro angered me as I hadn't realized you could overly mix and aerate it. I got a bunch of "stuff" left in the bucket for the past two years, but ignored it as the tank was happy. I now find out it was precipitated out calcium, etc... thrown out money basically. I adjust to lower Calcium and Alkalinity via the dosers.
- Added two Dosers for two part (Calcium and Alkalinity). Much more accurate and consistent than I, and a lot less work.
- Added a "High Noon" program to the LEDs.
- Started using Prodibio about a month ago (I am about to dose for the third time). The reason? I wanted to use the bacteria regimen, but did not want to add more equipment to my already cramped tank, via Bio-Pellets. Prodibio is easy and costs me about $6/month. I only have to dose it every 15 days.. which is fine by me. I only use the BioDigest and Bioptim (Bacteria and Bacteria Food).
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