Cali Kid Corals

Derek's 225g - Magnifica / SPS Reef

Alexander1312 said:
Cleaning the glass Every.Single.Day would be might my nightmare. I am up to twice a week which bothers me already.

In a recent German youtube interview a LFS owner commented on this issue and said they are using either Zebra or Mexican Turbos only for this purpose, and almost never have to clean the glass - so there are surprised why people bother cleaning the glass at all.

However, I am not sure if any snail - or an army of them - can help you given your specific setup. Also, good flow only helps in my opinion with cyano, but not your glass algae. You are running a growth race in your tank with super high par and very high nutrients. How could any method outcompete algae growth in your tank unless you cut back on what makes your tank successful?

Ozone does not work with acryl, I believe?
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100%, its just a side effect of how I run my tank. I already have an army of trochus snails, there’s no way. Maybe someday I’ll slow things down, or more likely swap out this tank for a glass one.

Alexx said:
wow really and is not moving to your sps to sting them?
I wonder how it looks in real life. Are they expensive?
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It’s pretty much isolated on its own rock. It doesn’t move around much these days, but requires a lot of light and flow to stay put - it’s sort of the baseline for my tank in terms of that. They aren’t expensive really, just hard to acclimate to captivity. Success rates are low - I got mine from @Krak256 and don’t even remember what I paid or traded for it - maybe he does. It’s my favorite thing in the tank though, and very low maintenance once established (I don't feed it - though I think the clownfish do).

tribbitt said:
S. magnifica are every bit as magnificent as their name suggests. Derek’s is no exception, it looks super healthy.

I want to see a video of it waving one day :)

As for the algae: that’s maybe 3 days of film for me. In hours? That’s pretty crazy.
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I posted one a few pages back, here’s the link again. Maybe time for a new video soon though!

 
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Thanks for sharing your Reefi settings! I'm wanting to play around with mine and get something closer to a more daylight look, but I'm afraid of angering my corals. Maybe I will try something like that.
 
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I got these cool 3d printed legs on etsy to make frag racks with my egg crate. They snap right in - modular, cheap, and like 3 different heights.
 
derek_SR said:

These - I am sure there are nicer options, but these are only 8 bucks! I bet someone local could even 3d print them. Mainly I just like that I can change/modify the setup as long as I have egg crate laying around.
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We need to get some of these printed up for our events to give out as freebies. I like these fsr better than trying to cut and glue crates to make legs. LOL
 
I got these and then cut the squares out. Looking back definitely alot of work but the legs are stackable so you can adjust the levels. Maybe someone that is tech savvy can make the 3D ones stackable as well. I originally got these for my skimmer to get it off the ground and then had extra.

ALEGI Plastic Grid Divider Tray Egg Crate Louvre Aquarium Fish Tank Bottom Isolation with Bracket (4pcs Black) https://a.co/d/0yZb3Xg
 
derek_SR said:
Partially cleaned glass still needs cleaning, so I just don't see a world where animals can reliably do the job.
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The film algae definitely became a bigger issue when I added the Quantas, yep - like Thomas implied it's really more of a problem with spread than absolute PAR, and those bars added a ton of spread and spill onto the glass, which is driving the issue. But like I said - it's kind of by design and just something I have to live with I guess.

I have experimented a bit with vertical gyres, @Alexander1312 has success with it. But when I do that the "gyre" pattern kind of circulates around the Mag instead of crashing right through it, so I just can't get it right!
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@derek_SR You have a very impressive tank! I have an acrylic tank and need to probably clean the glass every day, but I don't because I want to minimize the risk for causing scratches. I use magnet cleaners but don't find them effective on the brown film algae that sticks really strongly. I hate putting my hands in the tank to clean the glass but that seems to be the most effective way.
What's your glass cleaning regimen everyday?
 
dochou said:
@derek_SR You have a very impressive tank! I have an acrylic tank and need to probably clean the glass every day, but I don't because I want to minimize the risk for causing scratches. I use magnet cleaners but don't find them effective on the brown film algae that sticks really strongly. I hate putting my hands in the tank to clean the glass but that seems to be the most effective way.
What's your glass cleaning regimen everyday?
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Thanks doc!

I use mighty magnets for every day cleaning: https://mightymagnets.com/
The regular scrubber pad works well, and you can use the "algae cutter bags" to get the tougher stuff off if you have a strong enough magnet, and they sell some super strong magnets. Not cheap, but far stronger than any of the mainstream ones available.

But when things get really bad, I gotta stick the arm in the tank and use Scotch Brite dobie pads from Amazon, which I learned from @Kensington Reefer . They work great (same material as the algae cutter bags above, but you can apply more elbow grease with your arm obviously than a magnet).

Scratches seem to be inevitable - I have some nasty ones, and I've been pretty careful really. One of these days I'm going to try to sand and buff them down inside, will definitely post the results here.
 
derek_SR said:
Thanks doc!

I use mighty magnets for every day cleaning: https://mightymagnets.com/
The regular scrubber pad works well, and you can use the "algae cutter bags" to get the tougher stuff off if you have a strong enough magnet, and they sell some super strong magnets. Not cheap, but far stronger than any of the mainstream ones available.

But when things get really bad, I gotta stick the arm in the tank and use Scotch Brite dobie pads from Amazon, which I learned from @Kensington Reefer . They work great (same material as the algae cutter bags above, but you can apply more elbow grease with your arm obviously than a magnet).

Scratches seem to be inevitable - I have some nasty ones, and I've been pretty careful really. One of these days I'm going to try to sand and buff them down inside, will definitely post the results here.
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Try it on a spare piece first. I’ve never seen anyone get results I would call great, and most of the time it doesn’t help anywhere enough to be worth the time and effort.
Mighty magnets are the shit. An f3 is most likely strong enough for any of our tanks just about
 
Coral reefer said:
Try it on a spare piece first. I’ve never seen anyone get results I would call great, and most of the time it doesn’t help anywhere enough to be worth the time and effort.
Mighty magnets are the shit. An f3 is most likely strong enough for any of our tanks just about
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I am actually using an FF3 right now - it's great for the quick daily cleanings. But the magnet is not strong enough (my acrylic is 1" thick) to get the really tough stuff. I've got an F5 on the way this week actually to see how that one does for the more rigorous work.

Yeah...I'm kind of dreading the sanding process. I can't imagine it's going to be very easy or very effective - but I gotta try. At this rate, my tank is going to be scratched to shit in the next year or so. I'm already thinking about moving everything to a glass tank at some point in the future.
 
derek_SR said:
I am actually using an FF3 right now - it's great for the quick daily cleanings. But the magnet is not strong enough (my acrylic is 1" thick) to get the really tough stuff. I've got an F5 on the way this week actually to see how that one does for the more rigorous work.

Yeah...I'm kind of dreading the sanding process. I can't imagine it's going to be very easy or very effective - but I gotta try. At this rate, my tank is going to be scratched to shit in the next year or so. I'm already thinking about moving everything to a glass tank at some point in the future.
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I’ve got the f7. It’s pretty scary! 1” is damn thick. I’d say f3 pretty good for up to 3/4” for sure
 
Added two more of the 6ft Quanta Helix bars, this time it's the "Reef Crest" version which is a much whiter light. I'm likely going to add 4 more when he gets them in stock again, which unfortunately will not be until January. Still have the 6 Reefis down the center:
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Here's some FTS and random pics under the whiter spectrum, which I am digging:

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derek_SR said:
Added two more of the 6ft Quanta Helix bars, this time it's the "Reef Crest" version which is a much whiter light. I'm likely going to add 4 more when he them in stock again, which unfortunately will not be until January.
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Here's some FTS and random pics under the whiter spectrum, which I am digging:

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So many sticks what’s your method to remembering what’s what, I struggle on a few in my smaller tank.
 
Always a good day when Derek posts new tank pics, I get to see nice pics of great colonies

That’s a nice carduus, is it red dragon? Every acro is extremely fuzzy :)

Whatever you’re doing is working. I would take your SPS class
 
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