tonkadawg

The sump under my tank fills the cabinet. It’s a pain. Eventually I’ll replace it to free some room up. Go the shorter one and save yourself the trouble

I just picked up an Avast K1 reactor and will be using a dosing pump to dose kalk. Up to this point I've been dosing BRS 2 part - currently 40ml soda ash and 20ml calcium chloride daily. How do I figure out how much powder should I add to the reactor and then how much should be dosed to the tank? Or is there an online resource somewhere to get me close?

nice!!! Be sure to post a build thread!

me? no NEVER

but if you buy it then you'll HAVE to make room

DO IT!!!!! You won't regret it - they're absolutely beautiful tanks - and now you can get an IM sump. I'm already wishing I went with the 200 instead of the 100 but that's a problem for another day

I've been really happy with the Hydros controller. Easy to set up and get going - the app is really nice and so far really stable. It's already prevented cooking the tank when I had a heater go bad.

Things are finally starting to take off!

If you do that with yours please post pictures!

The EXT does have a full acrylic glued to the back glass - the acrylic is all 1 piece and does have the weir cut into it. I guess you could pull the acrylic backing off but honestly not sure why you would?

Thank you! I love the IM tank so far - probably the only thing I would change would have been to go with a bigger tank - but I think that would be the case no matter what size I got The tank is finally coming around - got through the nasties and coraline is popping up on the rocks. I did get a better cuc - more snails and hermits. Also now have a PB Tang and a purple tang. I did lose the first couple of 'test' corals but picked up some more from Hendi and they seem to be doing good Also added a PaxBellum chaeto reactor and have been building out a controller via Hydros Current params as of this morning: CA 460 KH 8.6 MG 1380 PO4 0.03 NO3 7.4 PH 7.9x - 8.1x

Yeah I don’t think the boss will approve new window treatments. Would something like this make a difference? https://a.co/d/7KrjlQz I hear you about patience and giving it time. I’ll also bump up the CUC too

I’ll lower phosphates @ReefdUp ? some great suggestions !!@howaboutme As I was doing my weekly maintenance I realized that since I only have fish, lights aren’t necessary and turned them off. They were running 12hrs. I’ll leave them off for a few weeks and see what that does. I’ll also cut back to feeding 2x while keeping portions the same. Then since I was done with chores I decided to sit and have a cup of coffee. As I was reading your post I look over at the tank and see this: In the morning the sun comes in in the right side of the tank then moves across as you can see now. Not sure how I overlooked this important detail Would adding 1-way window film help with this or do I need to think about moving this to a better location?

Tank is now 7 months old and has hit the ugly stage (maybe 4-6 weeks ago) and I'm trying to figure out if I should continue with the current course or make some adjustments to get through this. Goal is a thriving SPS dominated tank - details are here: https://wamas.org/forums/topic/99623-innovative-marine-100-ext-sps-build/ Tank was started using BA Microbacter7 and Start and pods were added. Current Conditions: Brown algae (diatoms?) covering rock and glass Some red (cyano?) on rock both are easily blown off with a turkey baster or power head Cloudy water No coraline algae Current water params (as of this morning) CA 485 KH 7.9 MG 1410 PO4 0.25 NO3 6.6 Feed frozen 2x day and pellets 1x day Weekly 10 gal water changes I'll bring KH and Mg up while dropping NO3 slightly I've watched the BRS WWC hybrid videos countless times and pulled from them that for my tanks age I should be targeting the following: CA 480 KH 8.6 MG 1440 NO3 2ppm PO4 0.5ppm I'm not trying to chase these exact numbers but using them as a guide with focus on stability. With all this in mind, I'm wondering if I should resume using Microbacter7 and maybe adding Clean? But if adding Clean will that reduce PO4 and NO3? Looking at everything I see a lot of conflicting info and I'm hoping you all can help me straighten it all out. I really just want some coralline algae to start so I can trying adding frags again (I have added some established rock w/ coralline for diversity).

Long over due for an update! Tank has been running since mid April (that's when I kicked off the cycle). Inhabitants: 1 green chromis 1 flame hawk fish 1 orchid dottyback Current Params: CA 490 KH 8.4 MG 1335 PO4 0.0 NO3 4.4 PH 7.4-7.5 (I think - using a ph pen but even calibrated I'm not certain) Cal Alk Mag and Phosphates are all salifert tests. Nitrate is Hanna HR Dosing: BRS 2 part 3oz daily BRS MG 6oz daily Neophos 20mil daily Neonitro 10mil daily * I was dosing microbacter 7 at 5ml a day, but ran out last week. I began dosing at the end of Sept and have been making small adjustments to help bring the numbers to where they stand today Feeding I think I feed heavy - especially for only 3 small fish. I feed 2x day frozen mysis and bloodworms soaked in selcon Other info: Skimmer runs 9hrs over night Filter socks are washed every 1-2 weeks Last water change was about 4 weeks ago Lights run the pre-programmed 'Helios' provided by Orphek Additional changes made in the last week - Added 4 jars of pods from algae barn Added reactor with 1C carbon Feeding phyto 5ml every couple of days Since adding the pods and carbon, the rocks aren't as covered with the brown algae (diatoms or dinos or ??? - I don't know) and the water is a LOT clearer. About a month ago, I added 3 sps frags - for the first couple of weeks they looked good - nice polyp extension and color. But now they're not looking so good and at this point I won't be surprised if I lose them. Tank is definitely in the 'ugly' stage and I know that it being bare bottom will take a little more time, but I'm hoping to hear from the group here that I'm on the right track or if I need to make any adjustments. What do you think?

@WheresTheReef - I owe you a beer!!! Got the lights hung using your suggestion of cables running from the corners to the wall above the rack. That with some additional bracing on the 8020 bars the rack is solid! I'm still going through the Orphek app and seeing how all that works. Right now, when the lights run the default program patches of red and blue bounce all over the rock and tank - I think I've heard this called the 'disco effect'. I'm hoping that by tweaking the settings I can achieve a better blend of each color. Here's a video - hopefully you can tell from it what I'm talking about IMG_7914.MOV

LOL - probably...

YES!!! Perfect solution and already got the boss's approval

2X Orphek Atlantik iCon Compacts. I agree, hanging from the ceiling is clean, but the boss disagrees

so I hit probably the first blocker for this build. For the lights I didn't want anything hanging off the back or side of the tank. So I ended up using some 80/20 profiles and comping up with this 'halo' from which the lights would hang off of. The idea being clean, simple and would hopefully just fade out as the tank grows in. I quickly realized that despite being anchored into 3 studs there just isn't enough support to keep things where they need to be. I know I could just add some 'legs' and throw some 45* pieces in there for support, but wondering if anyone has any better solutions? Oh! It's a real fish tank now!!! used Brightwell fishless cycle, tested 0 Ammonia/Nitrates and .8 Nitrates so I got a couple of green chromis

Lights came in yesterday After talking to wildcrazyjoker81 Aand seeing his setups, then doing some of my own research I decided to go with 2 Orphek Atlantik iCon compacts over the radions. Now to find some time to build the light rack and get these things over the tank

Thanks! Got the ATO set up today '

and started the cycle today

Got the tank filled - one minor leak on the hose barbs connecting to the return pumps. Other than that, so far so good. I'm going to let it run another day or so before adding salt and kicking off the cycle. -- pretend I uploaded a video showing the tank full of water here --