My 90g Oceanic TECH build

Reeflogic said:
My velcro's are stuck like Chuck! But you're right, thank you for bringing it to my attention. I will add a zip-tie collar near them for plan B, should the tape fail! Awesome tip. Thanks!!
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If you're using the OE that came with them they will for sure fail. I had 2 units fail on me and both times they manage to fall into a bucket of water that I placed near it. Had to buy both new units :/. How they managed to score 4 points from the spots I had the buckets at is beyond me since it happens during work hours, But I would get that Heavy duty Velco they sell that sticks like Glue and will never come off I think it's sold by Scotch. I replaced mine with those and I haven't had a problem yet going on a year strong.. knock on wood
 
Herbie said:
mine too. The glue is really freaking sticky, but they fall off after about 2 days. (I'll be using that power strip trick on them once I get off my but)
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I have this irrational fear that if drill inside of the stand with the full 57g over my head that I'm going to push the stand hard enough to buckle and drop the tank on me so I Velcro and use those plastic clips with adhesive on each side everywhere. Lots of zip ties too.
 
Yeah, I used the velcro that came with the units :sad: I'm working up something to keep them out of the sump! Thanks for all the input guys, saving me dollars already!! :top:
 
Dave,

Sorry, work has had me super busy of late, nothing much going on with the tank , still waiting things out. Setting up a 40g breeder QT tank, going to pull the 3 fish I have for a bit, run it fallow and treat the fish. Should have done this first, got impatient... I did add a reef Octopus bio-pellet set up and finally got in my red sea test kits. Trying to sweet talk my wife into letting me spend even more cash and invest in a frag / coral QT as well. The fuge macros have taken off, doing very well. Seeding is going well, tons of pods and microfauna showing up. Other than that, just testing my patience really.

James, I did start with dryrock. Kind of mixed feelings about it. On one hand I'm glad I have little to no pests / hitch hikers, but then again, I miss seeing sea squirts / sponges etc. I'm sure they will eventually make their way into the system via corals / frags, but I do miss the extra cool stuff you see on live rock. I promise I'll get some photos ASAP, also working on getting a newer camera to help me improve my tank photos. Any personal recommendations for cameras would be fantastic!

Sorry for no follow ups and thanks for looking for more!! Coming Soon!!!
 
So, I purchased a new DSLR camera and need to figure this bad boy out! Soon as I do, I will post more close ups of the slow growing coral collection. In the mean time, here is my front view, along with my newly acquired 40g breeder QT / Medicine tank. Took the rock out and moved the 3 fish I had over, treating with cupramine and a researched diet, allowing tank to run fallow for a month.

I will be adding another 40g below for a frag QT as well. Can't wait to figure out this camera!

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Reeflogic said:
Elaborate sir!
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looking good doug. I just saw your request (sorry). I had seen an idea where you put the equipment with keyholes on the back of it on a photocopier and then use that paper to mark your holes for drilling. Make is a bunch easier to mount everything in exactly the right spot.
 
Herbie said:
looking good doug. I just saw your request (sorry). I had seen an idea where you put the equipment with keyholes on the back of it on a photocopier and then use that paper to mark your holes for drilling. Make is a bunch easier to mount everything in exactly the right spot.
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Awesome, I need to do something lol... playing roulette still... and thank you sir ;)
 
I'd sell your chiller, since you really don't need it running led's. Even though it's not "on", seems you could cut down on some of the plumbing you got going! Get some money for some upgrades!
 
gomery12 said:
I'd sell your chiller, since you really don't need it running led's. Even though it's not "on", seems you could cut down on some of the plumbing you got going! Get some money for some upgrades!
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Yep!! I rarely get to 79 degrees and even though it's still some what early in the summer, I wanted to see how the temps hold up as it does get hotter, my house stays at 68-70, so should be fine, but just making sure!! I would like to eliminate the pump and chiller and just get a larger external pump. I do run the chiller directly to the tank, so the extra flow is nice.

It will probably be for sale soon, haha. ;)
 
IMO I say just keep it u never knw with Chicago weather u will need it when it gets to the 100s and it's nice to have to just incase
 
jeppun21 said:
IMO I say just keep it u never knw with Chicago weather u will need it when it gets to the 100s and it's nice to have to just incase
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Yeah, I think you are right, erring on the side of caution is always a good thing. I do like new upgrades though... ;)
 
Just a quick update. I will load some new photos soon, been so busy with work and every spare moment trying to tweak the tank! I took the bio-pellet plunge too quickly after not being in the hobby since 2008 and reading some misleading info on the interwebz. I thought this was a miracle cure to no3/po4, which I could easily see it being so on a larger, heavy bioload system, but my not so heavy bioload quickly got out of balance, within just a few weeks I had a terrible outbreak of a brown stringy algae that really pissed me off.

I read hours on three different algae problems: Dinoflagellates, Lyngbya and diatoms. I really could not determine which of these issues I was having, since it was spreading so quickly and covering EVERYTHING, but the corals, it had characteristics of all 3, which was weird. I upped my snail population, which helped, but did not rid the ugliness. I finally started googling "downside to BP reactors" and BINGO.... I had never seen algae like this in years past, so I figured it had to be something new I was doing and the only thing new was the LED set up and the BP reactor. After reading the "negatives" of BP reactors, I decided to take it offline.

I immediately noticed that areas i scrubbed with a toothbrush were staying clean and after roughly a week of it being offline, I do not see any new nasty algae growing and the favia and a few other LPS were looking better. Sad thing is I read quite a bit on these BP reactors prior, but I was only getting the good side of things in ultimately keeping a LNS, maybe it was select reading, I do not know, but I am happy to state that I have a better "hands on" experience with these pellets and will use them with MUCH more caution in the future, if the need should arise. I installed it early on, because I read several posts around the webz that stated to not install one on an established system, or it could crash.... Now I see why, these things strip nitrates FAST and leave me with .04 po4 (red sea test), which i guess is just enough imbalance to cause the nuisance algae to go nuts. So, my guess is that folks who have success with them have a pretty heavy bioload of fish and feed pretty heavy, this , I assume, would in essence leave enough traces of nitrates to keep things in balance.

I'm sure everyone has had different experiences and I am by no means knocking the ability of the BP reactors, just chalking up my experience with them. So don't bash me lol. I did start with a small amount of BP and only slightly increased it after the first week, was well under the recommended dosage of BP. I purchased a reef octopus reactor and had an adjustable eheim pump dialed down to the recommended flow to keep the pellets churning / tumbling. I did not, however; add a bacteria additive,a s some folks have suggested and this may have led to the algae outbreak, I really do not know. All I know is my tank looks better now without it running and I still do not have a trace of nitrates (red sea test) and my po4 remains at .03-.05.

I am about to set up a media reactor and try out Brightwells Extrax phos, which seems to be a cheaper, cleaner, easier way to deal with po4, as opposed to GFO. Does anyone have any comments on the Brightwell X-phos?
 
Ok, so... rearranged my aquascape, love it. Unfortunately the photos do not show the depth, shimmer or true color, but best I can do for now. Still trying to figure out this new camera (when I have the time!)

The tank is pretty much on cruise control currently, especially after the BP reactor was removed, only a small amount of brown crap algae on the back remains, no new algae on rocks or sand. Yay. I have been adding a few fish and corals along the way and now that she just turned 2 months old, time to start buying up sticks! If anyone has some cool branching SPS they would like to sell me to be a part of my tank as it continues to grow here on CR, please PM me with info!

Here are some photos, and as always, thanks for viewing!

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Hey Ben, it is a yellow tail tamarin wrasse, super cool fish so far ;) And yeah, I will take one of your party frag packs ;) Would be a great start for my stick collection!
 
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