Carey's Final Reef Upgrade- 180g

[carey]

Here is a link for the instructions

2014 New Version Jebao WP 25 Wavemaker for Nano Marine Coral Reef Aquarium Tank | eBay

I use the else mode with the knob turned halfway. I also have my controller shut down the whole pump after 9pm but the little wire thingee if inserted on the left side of the controller you have will shut down the speed of the pump to about half what you have it set for.

Hope that helps. BTW you got the second gen controller which is good, more settings and options on that one versus the first gen which I had on one pump but I went and bought the second gen one so I would have all the extra settings.

 

[Darylb]

Awesome I got it for $50 I was happy I might try the else mode out I had it on the wave setting and it just pissed my corals off :/

 

[carey]

Yeah, I prefer the alternating flow myself, more natural at least in my opinion. lol

Good deal too!

 

[Darylb]

I just put it on else mode looks really good now the way the corals away a bit

 

[Darylb]

How many do you have in the 180?

 

[carey]

I have had nothing but trouble with corals in this tank due to the lighting being too much or too little. I currently only have leathers and some cinnamon palys. I have a pretty large toadstool, another leather, finger or soemthing like that, 2 huge colonies of palys and those cinnamon grande ones. I also have a singularia, a nice large one from MrX in there too. They all are doing well now, well except for the toadstool, he has never been able to accept the new lighting, he was a monster huge thing under my 12 bulb t5's but the leds, he doesnt like at all. lol

I will be posting some new pictures of the fish, including the new tangs as soon as they finish uploading.

 

[mr_X]

What's over it now?. the tao panels?

 

[carey]

Yepper, 3 panels. I have them at about 50% and the toadstool is still not happy. The other corals seem fine though. The singularia I got from you opens most of the way, looks ok but the other one that is in the 40b looks phenomenal! lol

 

[mr_X]

That sinularia colony grew to about 2' x 2' under tao panels at 100%. It was only under T5's for a short time while I kept it in the back tank. I have a piece in the front tank now under Tao's doing fine. Are you sure it's the light?

 

[carey]

Well, the water parameters are good, been doing really large water changes...no algae or cyano, nothing is bothering it either. I kinda just go with the lights as thats the only thing thats changed really. In fact, the water quality in the 125g where the toadstool came from was not very good to be honest. Nitrates were always over 40. The 180g they seem to hover around 10 or so. No ammonia or trites of course either..
calcium is always high and alkalinity has been stable as well. Magnesium is running a tad high if I remember correctly from the last time I checked. Phosphates are kinda high though, maybe around .50 . Theonly thing that is different is the led's and i am running a biopellet reactor. I know people have had issues running pellets with their corals but the other corals, the few that i have dont seem to mind it.
Any thoughts?

 

[carey]

Some shots of the new tang and a few others.

 

[mr_X]

Didn't Greg have a problem with those bio pellets?

 

[carey]

I believe he did. So not sure if thats my issue or not. I guess I can stop running the reactor and see where that gets me, just hesitant since I am relying on it to help with the nitrates....

 

[mr_X]

How are you feeding now? Maybe too many fish?

 

[carey]

I feed heavily, as I always did. lol
I also do extremely large water changes, like 50g at a time.....

 

[redsea]

Some shots of the new tang and a few others.

As usual, I love the pictures and the new additions! Were these taken with your iPhone or camera?

 

[carey]

The iphone, pictures arent that great but I did get some shots of the new guy. lol He is really eating like a pig and I cant even put into words what he does to algae sheets, he is crazy!!! More than pootie tang too, which is saying alot. lol

I am hoping he continues to do ok, no one bothered him in the least, in fact he even evicted the poor tomini tang from his rock home. Never thought I'd see the day!@

 

[carey]

Mustard and yellow tangs are still doing well, I think I have found the prefect combination of tangs finally.

Only bad thing is the filefish ate the three cinnamon paly grande polyps I had in this tank. :-(
I still have five polyps from that batch in the 40b so its not totally lost but still didn't make me happy. i never thought they would eat polyps that were so big, but I was wrong. lol No more polyps in this tank. lol

 

[redsea]

Woot for the perfect Tang combo! Would you say the tank is done now for stocking? Oh, I think you wanted to Dd a few more Chromis, right?

 

[carey]

Yep, was thinking a few more chronis or some anthias. lol BUT I have another chromi in the overflow so we are down to 5 that can swim around and one who is trapped. But yeah, I am gonna wait awhile and see where i'm at in a few weeks and go from there.
My next priority is figuring out whats wrong with the corals, I think i will take the biopellets off line before i go back to t5's, just to see if its the lights or pellets. They just dont look as good as they did under the t5's I had for the 125g and the water is like 100% better as far as parameters.

Thanks for reading red, I appreciate it!!