First Reefing adventure.. 65G AIO
- Thread starter newfly
- Start date
newfly
Supporting Member
I should name this tank BAR Community Tank! Most my coral is from BAR either though purchase, DBTC, or simply free!
Thank you again @H2OPlayar @Krak256 @Srt4eric @Scott Sweet @Coral reefer @IOnceWasLegend !
If you can help with the name, that would be awesome!
@Krak256 : The Red Flame (?) also got dislodge by the evil Urchin and fell on top of the monti below. Some tissue damaged. I am hopeful it will recover. All the newer frag are super glue and epoxy down.
Thank you again @H2OPlayar @Krak256 @Srt4eric @Scott Sweet @Coral reefer @IOnceWasLegend !
If you can help with the name, that would be awesome!
@Krak256 : The Red Flame (?) also got dislodge by the evil Urchin and fell on top of the monti below. Some tissue damaged. I am hopeful it will recover. All the newer frag are super glue and epoxy down.
Attachments
Coral reefer
Past President
Looking good!
newfly
Supporting Member
Finally Dinos/Cyno are mostly gone. Lights out for 2 days , 1ml/10g peroxide did the trick. I spot treat gha with peroxide. It’s very satisfying to watch gha melts away.
Corals mostly survived . Acros still have good coloration and encrusting . Losing the bird of paradise birdnest. Otherwise the rest of the corals survived.
Acans growing multiple heads. Favias have good coloration but no sigh of growth yet.
Added Bergia a few weeks ago. No sign of them and no noticeable different in aptasia. Hope the Berghia survived.
Corals mostly survived . Acros still have good coloration and encrusting . Losing the bird of paradise birdnest. Otherwise the rest of the corals survived.
Acans growing multiple heads. Favias have good coloration but no sigh of growth yet.
Added Bergia a few weeks ago. No sign of them and no noticeable different in aptasia. Hope the Berghia survived.
Matthew Meyer
Supporting Member
Looks amazing! I really want to try a clam too. Following!
newfly
Supporting Member
Short update on 10/10
Resort to chemical warfare to deal with bryopsis. Dose reef flux per instructions, and within 2 weeks no sign of any algae besides the film algae on the glass. Its pretty impressive. Minimum impact on corals and other inhabitant in the tank. Alkanity usage drop a tiny bit ( 10%) but gone back up after 2 weeks. Did a 30% water change and added carbon to remove the residue.
Corals are more or less growing, some grown a lot more than others. Acans is particularly happy, growing multiple heads. Clams seems to be doing just fine. No sign of stress. Acros are growing a bit very slowly. Some added ~1" in 2-3 months, but others i barely notice any growth. Sylo and slimer are growing like crazy when compared to other acro. I supposed this is normal. Yuma and poci are sprouting babies everywhere (i resort to using epoxy to kill the babies, sorry pro-lifer)
Encrusting monti are going to run into each other very soon. Lets see who wins.
Frogspawn however is a bit upset. Not fully open since. Maybe 70% open? I'll leave it as is.
Aptasia - the 5 papppermint shrimp from reefcleaners are finally doing its things. They hang out at one side of the tank, and sure enough they clear out all the aptasia on that side. Now i need them to move to the other side! I turn down the flow at night incase the high flow discourage the shrimp to move around.
Parameter have been spot on for the past couple of months. I'm testing alk twice a week, and other parameters less frequently. For those following my tank journal, you know i have a 0 phosphate and nitrate issue since day 1 of this tank. My strategy evolved from feeding more, dosing nitrate, to now exporting less. Turn off my skimmer, and changing filter floss less frequent. My phosphate is steady at 0.03 and Nitrate ~5 . Yeah, anything but 0 is a good number!
Resort to chemical warfare to deal with bryopsis. Dose reef flux per instructions, and within 2 weeks no sign of any algae besides the film algae on the glass. Its pretty impressive. Minimum impact on corals and other inhabitant in the tank. Alkanity usage drop a tiny bit ( 10%) but gone back up after 2 weeks. Did a 30% water change and added carbon to remove the residue.
Corals are more or less growing, some grown a lot more than others. Acans is particularly happy, growing multiple heads. Clams seems to be doing just fine. No sign of stress. Acros are growing a bit very slowly. Some added ~1" in 2-3 months, but others i barely notice any growth. Sylo and slimer are growing like crazy when compared to other acro. I supposed this is normal. Yuma and poci are sprouting babies everywhere (i resort to using epoxy to kill the babies, sorry pro-lifer)
Encrusting monti are going to run into each other very soon. Lets see who wins.Frogspawn however is a bit upset. Not fully open since. Maybe 70% open? I'll leave it as is.
Aptasia - the 5 papppermint shrimp from reefcleaners are finally doing its things. They hang out at one side of the tank, and sure enough they clear out all the aptasia on that side. Now i need them to move to the other side! I turn down the flow at night incase the high flow discourage the shrimp to move around.
Parameter have been spot on for the past couple of months. I'm testing alk twice a week, and other parameters less frequently. For those following my tank journal, you know i have a 0 phosphate and nitrate issue since day 1 of this tank. My strategy evolved from feeding more, dosing nitrate, to now exporting less. Turn off my skimmer, and changing filter floss less frequent. My phosphate is steady at 0.03 and Nitrate ~5 . Yeah, anything but 0 is a good number!
Coral reefer
Past President
What’s the hydros doing for you? Not familiar with it yet. Some sort of controller?
newfly
Supporting Member
Yes, its a controller similar to Neptune Apex with less programable/functionality. The XP8 is like neptune enegry bar, but its also a self contained controller + outlet.
The ipad screen shows the interface to Hydros.
I started with Hydros because i'm cheap. Its a lower cost unit to Neptune. I am pretty happy with it, i can do 90% of that i want. I'm not sure how Neptune works, but Hydros suck you in by buying more "control unit" once you run out of ports. I would prefer to have a coupe more water level sensor, but that require an additional controller,.
My assessment on Hyros:
PRO:
1. Easy to program / install - i mostly agree
2. Collective- if you have more than 1 controller, you have a build in fail safe in case 1 failed. All the controller is connected, if one fail, the other will take over the control of the ports.
CONS:
1. Limited accessories (sensor, etc). No trident equivalent
2. Doesn't work with 5GHz Wifi.
3. Programming is easy, but limited to simple build in programming options. Complex programming can be done, but in a convoluted way
Coral reefer
Past President
Cool thanks!
So what are you having it do for you? Temp and?
So what are you having it do for you? Temp and?
newfly
Supporting Member
1. Temp - control my heater - failsafe to the heater thermostat
2. Feeding mode (manual feed)
3. Control my auto Feeder - turn of return pump for x minutes
4. Water Change mode - turn off all pumps, and heater for x minutes
5. Delay start on protein skimmer
6. overflow detection - turn off ATO if water level get high, - this is unique problem in AIO setup, as ATO sensor is at the back chamber. Filter floss dirty can cause the back chamber water level to drop and cause ATO overfill the tank.
7. RODI Timer: Control my RODI filling on ATO reservoir and Salt Mixing container
I think that covers my use model.
I don't have PH or ORP probe.
Regarding no Trident, I've been looking into hydros a bit. One selling point to me is I believe it can integrate with the Mastertronic and/or alkatronic. I'm not sure it can auto adjust dosing based on that, but to me having the controller able to pull the measurements automatically is great, as is not being locked into apex& Trident as a package deal.
I imagine the apex ecosystem being integrated makes it more feature rich and reliable though.
newfly
Supporting Member
Yes, you're right. Hydros can connect to mastertronic and in fact from the manual, you can setup the Hydros Dosing pump ( rebrand Kamoer X1, but with Hydros interface) to dose based on the measurement. This feature is added fairly recently, not when i first started.
Cannot comment on reliability etc. I'm not yet into automated testing due to the cost.
I feel like that's a pretty great plus over Neptune. Low entrance price (as cheap as a reef pi robo tank), lots of upgrade options.
Coral reefer
Past President
What’s the cost on mastertronic vs trident?
newfly
Supporting Member
Added kessil ap700 to existing reefi uno first gen mainly for better spread/reduce shadowing. Also, with 3 lights I can turn them down to ~60% versus running close to 100% and have redundancy in case I break(like last week).
First impression, kessil color is not that impressive. Reefi holding its own compare to the ap700.
I need to add some diy stripe of plastic hood to the kessil. It’s glaring if I sit on a chair 10ft from the tank. The reefi doesn’t have this issue.
Attached is the full tank shot with and without orange filter
First impression, kessil color is not that impressive. Reefi holding its own compare to the ap700.
I need to add some diy stripe of plastic hood to the kessil. It’s glaring if I sit on a chair 10ft from the tank. The reefi doesn’t have this issue.
Attached is the full tank shot with and without orange filter
newfly
Supporting Member
Both dry pellets. One for clown/damsel - another is sinking algae pellets for tang. The tang is 3-4 times larger then the other fishes, so he get more .