240g in wall shallow reef build

[jpa0741]

Originally Posted by King_Neptune
http:///forum/post/2963972
Do you have a kalk drip? I was sifting through your build, mabee you do and I missed it.
No. Kalk alone would not be able to keep up with the demand in this tank. I am using homemade 2 part solution on dosing pumps. I make up 5 gal. of each at a time. I also use mag flake to boost my mag once a month.

 

[jpa0741]

Picked up a gem today at a LFS.
A crazy colored Aussie Lobo. It will open up double this size. This pic was taken 5 min. after putting it in the water.

Also picked up,
ORA Purple plasma
ORA Borellis
ORA Purple and green stylo

 

[cmaxwell39]

That is one awesome brain coral. Got any updated shots of the display? How are all your SPS colonies doing in there?

 

[redsea]

Originally Posted by jpa0741
http:///forum/post/2954329
Pics of my new frag tank keeper. I'm adding a Kole to keep things nice and tighty. I will keep him in there until I feel he out grows it. He is only about 2" right now.

he looks awesome!

 

[jpa0741]

I started my vitamin c dosing today and will document it here incase anyone has been interested in it.
Here is break down.
For every 100 gallons
5 ppm

[hr]
1892 mg vc
10 ppm ---- 3782 mg vc
15 ppm ---- 5677 mg vc
20 ppm ---- 7570 mg vc
25 ppm ---- 9496 mg vc
30 ppm ---- 11355 mg vc
1/4 tsp = 1112 mg
Dose 2x/day
I am only dosing for zoa growth and to help newly fragged zoas. So I am not sure yet how high I will go with the ppm. I will work my way up to 5 ppm in a couple days and decide from there how high I want to take it.
Here is a pic of the buffered vc I am using. This will not effect the PH much.

 

[nickz24ninja]

is vitamin c supposed to help noticeably?

 

[jpa0741]

Originally Posted by nickz24ninja
http:///forum/post/2967002
is vitamin c supposed to help noticeably?
There are alot of othher reefers claiming it helps for coral growth and all around health. Many people have had zoas just melt away for no reason. This is alsp supposed to help this problem. I am going to try it to see if I see any improvement with growth and newly fragged zoas. I have noticed that my zoas and any softies in my tank grow pretty slow. I believe it is because I run a low nutrient system for my SPS. I have also noticed that a lose 20-30% of newly fragged zoas.

 

[jpa0741]

Controller has arrived. I hope I have everything is hooked up right we will see if everything comes on as planned tomorrow. Right now it is running my 4 MH, 4 VHO, heaters, fan, moon lights, return pump. I have it set to turn the heaters on below 79. Turn the fan on over 80. I also have a backup set if the temp hits 85 it will turn off the MH. It also has a PH probe. I am using it just to monitor it.

 

[jpa0741]

Well thanks to the new controller I have already found a few concerns in the system.
1. My PH is running low. Although not that uncommon in MI winter. It dropped down to a low of 7.8 last night. I am going to watch it today and see how high it gets after the lights have been on. I did run a hose outside to get some fresh air to the skimmer.
2. Only 3 of my 4 heaters are ever turning on. I am using the stealth heaters and they don't have an on light. The controller will read how many amps are being used, so I can tell only 2 or 3 are ever on. I am trying to keep my tank between 79-80 and with only 3 heaters it would only keep it up to 78.5. Going to replace them all today.
So hopefully I can fix a few problems before they got worse.

 

[jpa0741]

Put some new heaters in and now my tank stays perfect between 79-80 all the time. Heaters come on below 79. Blower comes on above 80. I am looking into to maybe running a kalk reactor for my PH but not sure if I really want to mess with it. My PH is 7.8 at night and 8.0 during the day. I do still have the skimmer sucking air from outside. I am going to see if after a while this will help bring it up a little.
I am now dosing 1 1/2 tsp of vitamin c twice a day. I will probably work my way up to 3 tsp twice a day and maintain that for a while.

 

[jpa0741]

I am really loving this piece. Here is another pic of it in the display under the radiums.

 

[jpa0741]

New pickup. I think it is a gem.
Red Pavona

Don't mind the algea. Pics were taken from the back of the tank with the backing off.

 

[startrfish]

this tank is above amazing. ive followed this thread from the start. i especially like your custom setup for the plumbing etc.

 

[wangotango]

Don't see a red pavona everyday.
Nice find

-Justin

 

[gmflex]

very nice tank..
wow!!!

 

[humblefishie]

nice setup i wish i could do something like that

 

[jpa0741]

I am up to 5 ppm of vitamin c dosing. I dose 1 1/2 tsp twice a day. I most say everything looks good right now. I am not sure the VC has anything to do about it. I have noticed many of my new zoa frags have a lot of babies popping up. My purple honets have 4 new heads. My candy apple reds that has 2 polyps have 6 new babies growing. I am going to continue uping the dose and hold around 10-15 ppm. The only reason I plan to stop there is because I will be going through too much VC if I go any more then that.

 

[blazehok68]

I dont mean to be ignorant, but what is the purpose of dosing vitamin c?

 

[jpa0741]

Originally Posted by BLAZEHOK68
http:///forum/post/2975517
I dont mean to be ignorant, but what is the purpose of dosing vitamin c?
It is used for overall coral health (growth, color). It is supposed to help zoa growth in particular. It also has been used by reefers experiencing their zoas melting and has turned them around. There are many people getting good results using it. I can not say if it works either way yet. It will be a while before I can say if my results are positive.

 

[mr.reef]

hey i have been looking at the pics can we see some full tank pics now???