Rhodes19's 180 build

[Rhodes19]

Ok,

Here are some random pictures of blurry fish and corals. Noel, the Christmas wrasse is in a few of them.

 

[Rhodes19]

Some more.

 

[Rhodes19]

 

[Rhodes19]

I picked up a carbon/GFO reactor and finally got it installed. I don't have any GFO so I went with Marineland carbon that I have on hand. Once I get some GFO, I'll run that instead.

MJ 1200

Here is the Korellia Evolution (1400gph). It seams to be doing well.

And here are the digital thermometers. One was reading 69 deg and the other was reading 75 deg. The incorrectly working thermometer was reading 75 when the tank was at 81!!! Ok, lesson learned. Digital stuff lies. Time to look for an analog meter.

 

[Krish]

Nice updates Chris!! Things are looking good! That sucks with the thermometers though!! I had one of the exact same ones as you but never had that problem.

 

[Rhodes19]

Nice updates Chris!! Things are looking good! That sucks with the thermometers though!! I had one of the exact same ones as you but never had that problem.

Thanks Krish,

Yeah, my temp kept dropping and I kept turning the heater up and the temp dropped some more and I turned the heater up some more..... When I reached in to place a fallen coral the water felt warm to me so I got my handy dandy digital meat thermometer that I use for cooking and when I saw what it was reading I pulled the other digital thermometer off another tank and it backed up what my meat thermometer said. I'm now beginning to wonder what would happen with controller if it failed like that too.

 

[mojoreef]

Looks good RHodes the tank looks like it well on its way.

Mojo

 

[Rhodes19]

Thanks Mojo. Hopefully it will keep getting better. I just lost my skimmer. The pump has been making noise for a while and now its just not working.

 

[Skimmy]

skimmer troubleshooting in effect!
hopefully we'll get u rolling again soon...

 

[NanoReefer411]

That sucks. I'm sorry to hear that Chris. =( Sicce pumps UGH!!!!!!!!! Hopefully you will get it up and running again. Please know, I have been through the same thing. So have others. =(

 

[Rhodes19]

skimmer troubleshooting in effect!
hopefully we'll get u rolling again soon...

Thanks Mark. I got your pm and sent you some more info. I did see a groove on the ceramic rod.

 

[Rhodes19]

That sucks. I'm sorry to hear that Chris. =( Sicce pumps UGH!!!!!!!!! Hopefully you will get it up and running again. Please know, I have been through the same thing. So have others. =(

Thanks Gina. I hope so. I actually have fun draining the collection cup every 3-4 days. I know, I'm sick. Once I modded the cup with the tube and valve, dumping skimmate is so much more easy and cleaner. Turn valve open, turn valve off, dump bottle, put tube in bottle, done.

 

[Rhodes19]

Ok,

Mark had me flip the ceramic shaft over and that help. The pump started up right away with some rattling but it went away after a while. Its now producing skimmate again!!! Woo hoo. Thanks Mark.

 

[Rhodes19]

Ok, some up dates. I spent some time last weekend taking the ceiling fan down so I could move it about 2'. It was partially hanging over the tank so I could not really put a nice functional canopy on it. So now that I have room, I am running out of excuses for not starting a canopy. My wife asked if I could paint the fan black while I had it down so I did. Doesn't look to bad.

Before

Fan taken apart and painted.

Old hole in back, new hole in front.

Old hole patched

Popcorned over. Not too bad.

Painted, re assembled, and hung back up.

Next project? Canopy, bio pellets and reactor or reactor with GFO, and find good quality test kits. These Tetra tests are driving me nuts.

 

[Rhodes19]

I got a nice package in the mail yesterday. I ordered a Tyree red watermelon chalice and a key lime mango chalice. Joey also tossed in a zoa frag for me too. The frags were boxed up nicely and came with a heater pack. The pics of the frags are just after they went into the tank so they are not fully opened yet. I think I am developing a chalice addiction.

I'll post better pictures of the new frags later on.

 

[Krish]

What is considered a chalice addiction in this part of the world can either put you in jail or in drug rehab! :lol: Congrats on the frags!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rhodes19]

What is considered a chalice addiction in this part of the world can either put you in jail or in drug rehab! :lol: Congrats on the frags!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

LOL!!! Thanks krish. Too late, I already belong to reef aholic's and I have fallen of the wagon many times. Usually on my head!!!

 

[Rhodes19]

Ok, Frankie has been beating me up for the past several months about spending my money on good quality test kits before I buy any more coral or fish. He even has my wife on his side now and she does not mind repeating that mauntra either, sooooo....

I ordered a Hanna Checker phosphate test kit and a Hanna Checker alkalinity test kit yesterday. Both were $5 off on their web site and I should have them by next week. A Salifert or Elos nitrate test kit is next on the list and Frankie gave me Salifert Sr/Ca test kit which I used last night. I messed it up and didn't get the color change the instructions said I would so I'll try again tonight when I get home.


Can I get some more corals now???? Please???? :badgrin:

 

[Rhodes19]

Ok, the Hanna Checkers came in yesterday and I used them last night. That has to be the easiest testing I've ever done and the results are digital so I don't have to play the color guessing game. Here are some pics.

Alk checker.

Phos checker.

Using them was quick and easy. My phos read 0.09 ppm and my alk read 117 ppm. Now I have to go and figure out that that means and what a good range should be. LOL!


On the down side, when I got home Monday night, the bottom half of my table acro turned bleached white. I moved it away from the acans thinking they may have stung it and last night when I got home it was totally bright bleached white. Every thing else looks ok so I hope this is an isolated incident. I've been using zeozym to drop the nitrates and they've come down from what I'm guessing a 10 (using a tetra test and the first color is yellow/0 and the second color is orange/12.5) to what I'm guessing is maybe a 5. I think its time to get a better test kit.

pH 78 down
nitrates 5 down
Ca 400
phos 0.09
alk 117
SG 35 ppm

I'll test for Mg and Sr tonight.

 

[Krish]

They look pretty cool Chris!!! We have a section in our resource library with all of the calculators. Here is the one on ALK SaltyZoo's Alkalinity Reading Conversion (meq/l / dKH / ppm CaCO3) Utility . Just punch in your ppm values, hit convert and it does the work for you. Looks like Alk is a bit on the low side, but check it out. You will want to get your mag results to know exactly how things are.