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madweazl

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About madweazl

  • Birthday 01/10/1975

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    Fredericksburg VA

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Uber Reefer (10/13)

  1. Haven't posted a pic in a while but the tank is still doing well and things are growing out. 20230201_145504 by Aaron Weigand, on Flickr
  2. Red Sea Pro is my go to for calcium; I have shaky hands and always messed up with the dropper bottle on that step. The Red Sea kit is a little more forgiving in that regard. Alk - Hanna (so easy to use) Ca - Red Sea Pro (most consistent for me) Mg - AquaForest (always consistent results but Salifert is a close 2nd) PO4 - Hanna ULR (nothing else compares for the money) NO3 - Salifert (I'm able to read the low range pretty easy with the Salifert kit)
  3. I dumped the calcium checker right after I got it because it was a pain in the butt; looks like this one is even more tedious. I like the Salifert kit; nice an simple to use and the results are easy enough for me to read. I don't care if the nitrate is 1, 5, or 10; it makes no difference to the corals. I have wanted to play with the nitrite checker to monitor nitrates though.
  4. On the mend Yea, that was after the "break in" of sorts. This is the same pump that is on their larger skimmer so it really isn't much of a surprise. Super impressed with it's performance but given the price, it better be impressive.
  5. Getting back to normal. The tank has looked much better over the course of the last three weeks or so. I reverted back to Instant Ocean and once this round of Tropic Marin alkalinity and calcium supplements are exhausted, I'll be switching back to the BRS pharma I was running on the previous tank. I just about killed the hammer coral but it has stopped dying off the past few days and may actually survive. I suspect that was from playing with the lone A360X over the tank because everything else away from that light (the rest are A360WEs) is doing well (messed around with the violet, green, and red channels). I know better and often tell other members not to do it but like many, I was curious. I've lost a few fish - likely due to over stocking and limited hiding places with my aquascape - but the rest are doing well. The hippo has doubled in size and is a porker. It took control of the tank from the yellow tang early on who has mellowed out dramatically since (it used to mess with just about all the fish. The hippo is much less of a bully to the remaining inhabitants (everything seems to recognize he is boss). One of the two emerald crabs that was added to the tank has grown dramatically. When added, one was barely larger than the other but now it's at least double if not triple the size of the other. It's claws have gotten massive and I thought it was a different crab when I saw it pop out a couple weeks ago. I actually captured it just to make sure it was actually a mithrax. Everything checked out so I dropped it back in the tank. The yellow watchman and orange prawn goby have moved into the same burrow where the spend time with both pistol shrimp. The anemones are doing great (all three of them...). The elegance is as beautiful as ever. I am planning to break up some extra larger dry rock pieces that I have and use it to change the look of the large flat rock on the right side of the tank. My intent is to add some hiding places for the smaller fish and to provide some artificial shaded areas for some of the corals over there to provide some flexibility in regard to lighting as I'm currently only using two of the six T5s and the Kessils are running at 25% intensity. The Royal Exclusive skimmer has been pretty awesome. I was blown away by how much larger it was than my Deltec (the cup dwarfs the Deltec). Even though it's the lower end of their lineup, the fit and finish is considerably better than that of the Deltec. Everything is much more robust. It has worked exceptionally well and collects considerably more skimmate than the Deltec was. It also flows exponentially more water. I am a bit curious in regards to the pump for this body though; I have it running at 34 watts (from a max of 60) with the output roughly 50% open. I've tried to increase the flow to cycle more water through the unit but it seems to create too much turbulence in the skimmer and decreases skimmate production. Not sure if this would perform differently in another tank but it seems like a waste of about 40% of the pumps capability on this skimmer body from my experience. I suppose the lower duty factor that I run it at should increase the lifespan so I guess that is a plus (I hope...). The only real down side to this skimmer over the Deltec is ease of maintenance. You can completely disassemble the Deltec with a single thumb screw where the Bubble King has a bunch of titanium screws that need to be removed for disassembly.
  6. Bit of a mess right now. I need to get the wires off the ground and routed appropriately. As for what is being dosed, it is Tropic Marin's Balling ( A, B, and C) along with their magnesium, A-, and K+. Other than the alkalinity (part B) which I think it positively terrible compared to any other alkalinity supplement I've tried, I'm pretty happy.
  7. They have a 20% off deal running right now for orders over $60 with pick-up in store. That puts 3 buckets of Instant Ocean at $101 ($33 each). Pretty good deal if you need salt. Tough pill to swallow when I just paid $100 for single bucket of Tropic Marin LOL.
  8. Today's project was getting the dosing pumps hung, plumbed, and primed. Waiting on GHL to deliver another powerbar so I can get the other three connected and operational but they're still showing a status of processing after three days. I'll start tidying up the wiring while I await its arrival.
  9. They can live in just about any water conditions; I wouldnt worry about the nitrogen cycle at all (especially in a large tank). Check out where they come from naturally, it's pretty incredible what they can endure.
  10. Tropic Marin Balling components came in today but the Part B (alkalinity) was a major pain in the butt. Was mostly a solid brick that I had to beat and kneed for about 15 minutes before I could use it. Took a good 40+ minutes to completely dissolve the 16 spoons in a gallon of RO/DI (had to re-heat the water four times). The Part A was a breeze and the Part C was easy as well. I'll order one more round but if it remains that difficult to dissolve, I'll be going back to BRS Pharma.
  11. Heavy blues/actinics have a huge impact on bringing out yellow coloration; it could easily be a completely different color under less blue (and likely is).
  12. Both pics are under extremely blue lighting so who knows what it looks like in person.
  13. I like wrasse, gobies, pistol shrimp, conch, cucumbers etc. way too much to keep a bare bottom tank. I think the fear of detritus is way over blown; I have a good 3/4" layer of it in the bottom of my sump and have no issues with nutrients. I vacuum the sand once or twice a year.
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