BBMarlin

25Watt Aqua and Jabeo DCW-2000

That’s interesting to see how similar our approaches were to this nasty menace. Truth be told I bought my daughter a microscope last Christmas so I could confirm my dinos as ostreopsis lol. I then basically did everything that you have tried notwithstanding the SpongExcel, that’s one that I’m not familiar with but sounds like an interesting idea for sure! I would add that I also tried the full on nuclear option of Dino-X (I do not recommend). I didn’t have any issues with 0 or low NO3/PO4, so there wasn’t much for me to do there. I caught a thread on ReefBuilders talking about raising tank temperature to 82, this alone knocked them back significantly for me; however, they were still around - mainly on the tank corners and around the powerhead cords. I then followed up with an appropriately sized UV and dedicated powerhead with recommend GPH and within 2 days they had disappeared, and I have not seen them since (~5mos)! FWIW I keep my PO4 @ .06 - .08 ppm and NO3 which I rarely test for comes in around 5 ppm. Still running the tank fairly warm at 80.

Thanks @bgautrea! What is your success story with the dinos? UV or was it just a matter of letting the tank mature?

Thanksgiving update! A lot has happened with my reef over the past year, many ups and downs during the early part of 2020! After much hair pulling and frustration over the spring, as I moved into the summer months things started to stabilize and now the tank has found its equilibrium a few months ago. Looking back over my logs and the issues that were had with Dinos and hair algae, I believe that once I installed a dedicated UV on the system things started to turn a corner. And, I’m sure the age of the tank has helped. The tank is just over a year old now. I have kept everything as simple as possible, which has made maintenance a breeze. My CaRX has been rock solid. I run a very small amount of GFO for PO4 as needed, other than that there is no filtration on the tank other than a mesh screen in the sump for large particle filtration. Looking forward to big colonies in 2021!

I'll also take 36A. Thanks. Brett

Whilst scrolling my FB feed I have seen this ad many times. And, each and every time I see it, the only thing that pops into my mind is: “Free, Unlimited Frags!”. Lol, I need help.

430 On The Sand? Rented RCA's PAR meter this week and took measurements. I decided to take two measurements, one with Channel 1 @ 90% and another with Channel 1 @ 50%. Channel 2 was static at 85% for both measurements. The Ocean Revive lights are 16" above the water line. I'm currently running channel 1 at 50% to see how my coral respond with their existing placements. Decent coverage!

Ya, I'm wondering the same thing. I might give them a call to see if they offer any sort of guidance with the results.

Thanks for the research links. I tried the manual removal route and there was no controlling what I just experienced. I've had some of this stuff in my previous systems (dynos) which I could syphon out during maintenance no problem. This time around it was everywhere and it would come back just about as quickly as I would remove it into a sock, never experienced anything quite like it. And, I could not believe the smell! Really nasty stuff, I think the lights out treatment is what ultimately re-balanced my system.

Been battling a nasty outbreak of dinoflagellates the last week or so. Had bubbly brown slime all over the sand, brownish water and brown stringy snot just about everywhere else. Confirmed it as Ostreopsis with my microscope. Lovely! And, to top it off the tank and the upstairs of my home smelled like dead snails (which my wife kept reminding me of about 3X/day). I think I’ve turned a corner now after turning off my daily AWC, increasing nutrients via additional feedings, followed by a 3-day darkness period, including copious amounts of carbon and a dose of Vibrant. All of my snails made it through but I lost 2 tuxedo urchins. I was able to save my pincushion urchin by removing him to a QT tank. No coral loss. Looking back, I think I probably I got a little aggressive with my AWC in my young tank. My biological filter is not mature enough to fight back against the dinos and I exacerbated the problem by changing too much water. Speaking of biodiversity, has anyone signed up with: https://aquabiomics.com/ ? I’m thinking about trying a subscription for a few months.

This is looking fantastic! I'm curious about lighting as well, what are your plans?

Looking forward to this build! I've been very happy with my PA tank, definitely check them out as part of your research. I believe lead times for a custom PA tank will be around 8 weeks, but possibly longer for a tank this size. Check with RCA or Aquadome.

+1 on all the above. I recently upgraded to a PA 125 crystaline (custom). Ended up using Jake at RCA for the purchase, couldn't be happier with the tank or service from RCA in delivering my new tank.

Haha, I just can't kill those coral (no matter how hard I try)! I suppose the sticks keep things interesting 🤣

Three Amigos My three test frags are: Pearl Berry (non ORA, RCA frag rack type), ORA Skyline Granulosa, PC Rainbow. (ignore the Christmas tree and the twisted arms in the background holding the orange filter, lol)

What a mess! 😁 Got the CaRX all plumbed in last weekend, still working on getting it dialed in. Seems to be pretty straight forward so far as far as tuning the equipment to the tank, just need to find the sweet spot between the feed pump volume and the Co2 regulator. Good news is my Alk has risen from 5.8dKH to 8.2 in 4 days. I like things to run around 7.5 or so, I’ll just need to dial things back a bit and see if I can get it stable around there. I’ve got 3 test frags in the tank so far and they are all already growing over the glue that I set them in, this is encouraging. This pretty much completes my build as I imagined it with a nice progression of ideas once I got started. Thanks everyone! Now it's time to get stable and start buying some coral!

300% Over Budget Alright @victolyyou win, not quite as cool as you with the Masterflex but we will see how well this Kamoer pump holds up. My future self thanks you for the advice 😁, my current self is wondering how I spent so much on this set up ...lol My CaRX is now complete! Now the fun starts of setting it up and tuning it. Even with my 1 gallon / day AWC my Alk is still running < 6 and this is just with my LPS coral. Going to need to add some buffer this weekend and start working towards stability with the calcium reactor.

Indeed! Initially I was thinking I would run it off the manifold but after talking to the GEO folks, I decided to go with a dedicated small sicce (.5) pump. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Had an unexpected package arrive today! I was a little worried it was not going to fit, but lo and behold it does and with barely a few millimeters to spare. Glad I spent extra time on the plumbing to maximize my space in the stand!

affinityaquatics , nice guy on ebay. He built it.

Thanks! Here are the specs: Matheson 3810 Series Stainless Steel 100 PSI Stainless Steel Regulator w/ full 316L SS CGA 320 CO2 connection Clippard EV Mouse Solenoid Whitey SS 22RS4 Metering Valve with Vernier fine adjustment handle It's overkill I know! This is one part of the build that I didn't want to compromise quality.

It's a Beaut Clark! Regulator came in today, such a nice piece of equipment. I'm still waiting on the Geo reactor, hope to get that in about a week. Tank is looking great, I was battling some hair algae but that is now finally going away. First SPS frag went into the the tank last week (ORA - Skyline Granulosa) and it seems to be doing quite well on the frag rack. Have a biota captive bred yellow tang in QT which is also doing well, hope to introduce him into the display in about a week.

I ordered a Geo single stage reactor today and now I'm looking at regulators. I was initially going to get a carbon doser but research has lead me to a custom built dual stage off ebay from (affinityaquatics). Thought I would see if there was any guidance from you guys (single vs dual stage, carbon doser feeback) before I make another big purchase? Thanks.

AWC Implemented! Finished up the water station/stand set up today. Tank Depot didn’t have a matching tank for my 65, so I opted for this 50. I think the 50 will be fine however, it does have a nice large lid on it so at least I can dump salt in without making a mess. Really hoping the water tank Nazis will not call me out for not having matching tanks. 😜 Everything is set up on the Apex for the automatic water change up stairs with the dirty water plumed into the adjacent sink drain, sooo nice! The Apex indeed is loud during the water change, so I will run it during the middle of the night.

Thanks @jolt. With the dual are you having to maintain it a lot less than the single? I imagine that the demands of your display are probably higher than your frag tank but I'm curious if having the dual will allow me to have half of the maintenance, either with media or other?