BowieReefer84 October 7, 2025 Author October 7, 2025 At some point over the last year my power went out and when it came back the timer on my all for reef setup went to on position and spiked my alk very badly. Surprisingly some corals lived. Finally getting tank back in order now. Took the all for reef offline and didn’t do any water changes for over 6 months or so. Just made the switch to kalk and getting that dialed in now. Need the ph boost for my basement tank. I finally plucked out what corals didn’t come back. Recently ran a dose of chemi clean for some red slime which worked well. My plan is to start chasing ph and get back to regular water changes. Theres a CMAS fragfest the end of this month at APL where I’ll prob end up buying some stuff. I’ll post pics once I’m happier with how it’s all going.
BowieReefer84 November 8, 2025 Author November 8, 2025 I added a recirculating C02 scrubber and dosing 3ml of kalk per min 24/7 via a dosing pump from a 10gal tank. This results in my ato turning on very little. I refill it weekly. My Ph has been steady at 8.2-8.3 and tank is really looking good. I also added in a frag tank. the reef octopus skimmer has a float valve to turn off automatically if cup fills. This will prevent the c02 media from getting filled with water and back into tank. I also have the media higher than skimmer plus a container to catch any liquid. The kalk pump is plugged into ph controller to turn off if ph hits 8.5. I am pretty comfortable with these two fail safes. The light over frag tank can put out over 1,000 par at 100%. I am running it at 1% white and 20% blue which is plenty. Just rented the par meter to dial it in. Great light for $125. Very white spectrum though for my preference. I have a 3/8” quick disconnect coming so it will make it easier to remove skimmer lid to clean. 2
BowieReefer84 November 10, 2025 Author November 10, 2025 10 hours ago, YHSublime said: Show us the front! good idea. I need to track this tank better. I used an orange filter then adjusted warmth only.
YHSublime November 10, 2025 November 10, 2025 Wow! Looks awesome! the alk spike didn’t set you back too much!
BowieReefer84 February 13 Author February 13 120 leaked. New 120 on the way. Also ordered a bunch of new Marco rock 40lb and 5 different size foundation pieces to do a new negative space aquscape. The foundation pieces are super nice. Having them laser flat on bottom should make the scape look really good. I am going to go with the thinnest layer possible of crushed coral to simply cover bottom glass after rocks are in. Going to use 100gal brute for sump so I’ll keep all my current rock in system as well. right now everything is in a 100gal stock tank doing surprisingly well.
BowieReefer84 February 16 Author February 16 (edited) Ordered a bunch of Marco rock, foundation rocks, Marco powder, and liquid super glue/activator to start fresh with a negative space aquascape when the new tank arrives. I busted up the pieces of rock to get smaller pieces. I started today and got pretty far before running out of glue. Will add more branches when more glue I’m quite happy so far. I need to add some front to back branches and get it a little higher. Edited February 16 by BowieReefer84
AlanM February 18 February 18 Can you post a pic of the current setup while you wait for a new tank? I'm always interested in seeing the recovery stage after a disaster like a leak.
gastone February 18 February 18 I'm liking the rock work. Looks sharp. How are you planning on seeding the new rock?
BowieReefer84 February 18 Author February 18 3 hours ago, gastone said: I'm liking the rock work. Looks sharp. How are you planning on seeding the new rock? I’m going to plumb in the 100gal stock tank and all my current rock will remain in system. I’ll just be adding this new rock as well and hoping for the best.
BowieReefer84 February 18 Author February 18 (edited) 4 hours ago, AlanM said: Can you post a pic of the current setup while you wait for a new tank? I'm always interested in seeing the recovery stage after a disaster like a leak. I basically setup the stock tank next to stand and ran the dosers/pumps/heaters right into stock tank. Everything is doing well. If you click images below it should take you to more of my Flickr photos. I just can’t use my weight bench for the time being. one thing. My nitrates are 16 now. They were under 3-4 before. I think no skimmer hurting. Depending when this new tank comes I may do a water change. Edited February 18 by BowieReefer84 2
YHSublime February 19 February 19 Looking good. have you thought about removing the center piece that bridges the arch, and maybe angling one peak off center so it’s to so symmetrical? might look cool. Might not!
BowieReefer84 February 21 Author February 21 On 2/19/2026 at 12:45 PM, YHSublime said: Looking good. have you thought about removing the center piece that bridges the arch, and maybe angling one peak off center so it’s to so symmetrical? might look cool. Might not! I went through a ton more glue. I’m calling it done. 2
WheresTheReef February 21 February 21 I like it. Is it one large piece? If so, how hard is it to move and add to the tank?
BowieReefer84 February 22 Author February 22 25 minutes ago, WheresTheReef said: I like it. Is it one large piece? If so, how hard is it to move and add to the tank? It’s two pieces I can move individually relatively easily. Each side is one piece and they cross over.
WheresTheReef February 22 February 22 Very nice. When is the new tank arriving? Best of luck with it.
BowieReefer84 February 22 Author February 22 15 minutes ago, WheresTheReef said: Very nice. When is the new tank arriving? Best of luck with it. I’m not sure. It’s coming from CA. I have shipping info but no eta yet. It’s going to need delivery acceptance and scheduling. It’s coming freight.
BowieReefer84 February 27 Author February 27 (edited) I pulled the black vinyl off. I’m putting frosted white vinyl on back this time. Used some suction cups and two buddies and it went quite smooth. I’ll start filling it tomorrow. I really want to keep it bare bottom this time for simplicity. I have purple 1/2” insul underneath. I wish it was only 1/4” to get things to line up better but it worked. It came with some thin black foam but it wasn’t cut quite square and I didn’t want the bottom black Edited February 27 by BowieReefer84
YHSublime February 27 February 27 Let’s goooooo! I like the white bottom. My new UNS has a white acrylic bottom and I like it a lot. frosted white back will look nice too, super bright!
BowieReefer84 Saturday at 03:17 PM Author Saturday at 03:17 PM 18 hours ago, YHSublime said: Let’s goooooo! I like the white bottom. My new UNS has a white acrylic bottom and I like it a lot. frosted white back will look nice too, super bright! Frosted won’t work. Plumbing shows right through. Oh well. Now I have to paint back.
Jeremy Saturday at 10:34 PM Saturday at 10:34 PM 7 hours ago, BowieReefer84 said: Frosted won’t work. Plumbing shows right through. Oh well. Now I have to paint back. Add 47 more coats? Lol 1
BowieReefer84 Monday at 02:52 AM Author Monday at 02:52 AM On 2/28/2026 at 5:34 PM, Jeremy said: Add 47 more coats? Lol I’m tapped out. The acrylic paint I bought was NOT working well. Now I’m waiting on some vinyl to arrive. Hoping 3rd times the charm. 2
BowieReefer84 Tuesday at 11:41 PM Author Tuesday at 11:41 PM One layer of vinyl still had transparency. Luckily the piece I ordered was 10’ long. This is two layers of oracle 651 in deep sea blue. Now I can finish plumbing overflow and adding water. Not too much left to go. The front left gap in rocks is where my clam will go.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now