Eric's 240 build

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ssky said:
you started by spending $800 for the tank and stand. So now how it costed you with everything you did in this project?

Thanks
Sky
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NO! NO! NO!
you NEVER ask a question that will cause us to actually think about how much $$$$ we spend on fish.
you trying to give the poor guy a coronary!?


and you never, never, ever tell the wife the real $$$ amount. :angel:
 
My other half think every coral I've ever bought is no more then £25 I'm glad she never looks at prices or I would be homeless haha
 
A very good question! I actually was thinking about this the other day, so now that it has been brought up I will try to itemize it and see where we are at.

Tank, stand, sump, and miscellaneous stuff that came with the setup: 800
Reeflo return pump: 280
MP 40 : 175 on craigslist (technically I got this when I still had the 90 but it was for this new tank)
mag 18 for skimmer: 125 on eBay
second sump/refugium: 100 craigslist
Sand and rocks: 100 from craigslist (the guy threw in the tomini tang and a pair of picasso clown fish as well!) This was a huge deal, because it was probably like 100 lbs of rocks and two full buckets of sand, plus the fish.
300w heater: I think 35 on drs foster smith
plumbing supplies: 60
Salt (so far): 100 (2 boxes of reef crystals)
Replacement rodi filter media: 75

Total equipment: 1850


I already owned all the other equipment not listed. I will probably get another chinese led panel which should run 100.

Now as for livestock I really haven't gotten much until recently. The fish that I have added are: sailfin tang (25), 2 firefish(12 for both), diamond goby (15), cardinal(10), and one anthias(20). I had a blue tang that died which was 30.

Most of the coral came from my old setup, I just recently started buying new frags (will post pics soon). I also have a couple reefer friends that I trade coral with, so I have probably only spent 50-75 on new coral since this tank was setup.

Snails, crabs, etc was probably about 50.

So that brings the total to right around 2k.

I sold the 90 gallon setup for 400 so Im back down to 1600 net.
 
Well that is a good price point. This will encourage more people in to this hobby. A lot of time fancy names like mp 40, reflo etc gives an impression that they are very costly. By the way the led lighting like hat kessil and likes will cost you another 800 - 1000.

Sky
 
Some updated pics!

LFS had these big Orange sponges that are pretty cool, and in the bottom right corner are three frags of zoas- green, yellow and red, to hopefully colonize on this rock.

img_3344430_0_ac34a892486feb34518b9192886b97e4.jpg


Next, neon hydnophora, pink chalice, green torch. above the torch is an encrusting sps I forget the name, it is pink and orange. On the very left is a bright pink goniopora, but it has not opened up. Also another cardinal photobomb.
img_3344430_1_02a5ca8de99a8e1127950c185469ee1b.jpg


New Favia frag, 2 year old frogspawn and GBTA


img_3344430_2_58090c66f9bf93fcddbfc933c1e24e1e.jpg



Iphone FTS and a couple others

img_3344430_3_77f31086b5b01113598ef4ee682820ce.jpg


img_3344430_4_34f92b2516e25cdf055c68039fb15d6b.jpg


img_3344430_5_41588645f8da737970780c41435ff7bb.jpg
 
Thank you both! On to the next task. The system came with a doser which I will setup with brs 2 part. There is also a media reactor so i figured I will run some carbon in there but I'm a little skeptical. I really don't know much about carbon- I mean I know it will strip away impurities and is also good to mitigate toxins that corals release, but what are the drawbacks or risks?


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Well I have not tested the water in a while- and have also been slacking on water changes, and while it looks alright, I've noticed some suspicious stuff. To start off, a gsp rock has not opened up in a few weeks after I moved it- I thought it was just adjusting to new spot but it should not take this long. Next, an acro that was growing nicely bleached out and died in a matter of days, a green lepto frag did the same thing. A chalice is starting to lose tissue around the edges. Finally a ponape birdsnest has slowly been bleaching and I see some tissue recession in the interior. I did a WC and tested the water yesterday and I was shocked at the results- CA is 300-320, KH is 7, and MG is 1000(first test actually was 800 but I figured that couldn't be right). I tested all twice to be sure. These readings are at 1.023 SG so I could bring that up a little bit but it will still be way below recommended parameters. I am bringing in a water sample to LFS today to confirm the numbers. If accurate, This explains the coral issues. I've also noticed a lot more coralline algae growth recently which, while pretty and all, is competing (and winning) with the coral for the elements. What testing products do you all use? I have api for everything and red sea for mg. the api tests are a couple years old now so I def need some new kits. I like the red sea kit so I was thinking of getting their ca and KH as well.


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Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves lol.

So I took in a water sample to the LFS today, and they use seachem. Calcium was confirmed at 300, which is in line with what my api kit shows. Alkalinity, however, was 1 meq/l, or 2.8 dkh. That is way off from the 7 dkh or 2.5 meq/l my api test shows. I mean, we are talking 60% lower, or better yet, the api kit is showing a result that is 150% higher than the actual level! :eek:

So I am in the market for a new alkalinity test kit, what do you guys use?According to this article: Product Review: Alkalinity Test Kit Showdown — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog
Salifert and seachem yielded results that were within 10-11% of the actual alkalinity level, which the author considers acceptable. Red sea was approx 19% low, but the author admitted that it is subjective as it is very difficult to distinguish the color value. The other kit is Tetra, which the author said was 32% higher than the actual level and thinks the regents were a faulty batch. This article is almost 10 years old, so all of this could be different now, but what I do know is at the fish store today, it took him about 30 seconds to do the seachem KH test, so I am leaning in that direction. I know of the hanna checkers, but everyone seems to prefer the phosphate checker and I have not heard much about the others like KH and CA.
 
Well salifert it is then, eBay had a kit for 12.50. Thanks for chiming in!

Now to rectify the issue. First thing I did was go to the calculator on brs.com to figure out how to get from 1 to 3.5 meq/l alk and from 300 to 420 ca. I need to add a total of 2200 ml of alk and 2702 ml of CA. I then added 200ml of fluval alkalinity supplement that I had lying around. I also mixed up the brs 2 part, waited about an hour then added 150ml of ca. After doing some research I read that mg is the glue that holds ca and KH together in the reef tank, and that if MG is low, it is very difficult to maintain the proper KH and CA. So back to brs calculator which says I need to dose 2082 grams to go from 1000 to 1300 in my tank. So I mixed up 250 grams with some rodi last night and threw it in. I plan to continue this regimen daily until the numbers are where I want them: 420 for CA, 3.5 meq/L for KH and 1300 for MG. then I will monitor its depletion rate over a 5 day period to determine the daily dose amount.


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Well it's been a while but the tank is coming along pretty good. It has been tough maintaining proper levels for calcium and alkalinity but I can't complain because I haven't been able to devote as much time to it as I would like to. It's not terrible or anything, no big die offs, but the coral just doesn't seem to be growing much. I recently got the esv 2 part that comes half full, and you add rodi to it, had great reviews from other users so I figured I would give it a shot. I have been adding 100 to 150 ML per day for about a week and I think some of the corals look better.

As for fish I have had a blue tang and a sail fun tang, both died suddenly after about two months, I added a yellow tang and he has been doing good. A friend broke down his tank so he gave me a nice sized foxface, 3 PJ cardinal fish, and a coral banded shrimp. Ill post pics soon.



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I had a fox face and he was a sneaky coral nipper. It was all I could do to catch him and rehome before he did some damage to my coral.


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TMaier said:
I had a fox face and he was a sneaky coral nipper. It was all I could do to catch him and rehome before he did some damage to my coral.


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Bummer! So far I haven't seen this one munching on any coral, hopefully he doesn't develop a taste for it. Unless he decides to eat Palys, that I am all for!


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