A Golden Reef Tank (v2)

TheRealChrisBrown

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I would certainly never say that there was a part of your system that looked subpar, but your new fudge looks so awesome! I think it looks much more in line with everything else. Nice job!
 

halmus

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You might also look at getting one of the flat nozzle for the locline to widen the flow across the seagrass bed.

When do you plan on adding it to the rest of the system?
I’ll see how the flow is once the grass is in. The flat nozzle would help. The way the system is set up, I can change flow rates through the tank easily. So, we’ll see what it takes to make the grass sway an look natural.

I actually restored the fuge to the rest of the system yesterday. About 14hrs after we finished adding the new sand. That cleared things up quickly.
 

halmus

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I would certainly never say that there was a part of your system that looked subpar, but your new fudge looks so awesome! I think it looks much more in line with everything else. Nice job!
Thanks Chris. The fuge was definitely an eye-sore before. I had given up on trying to make it pretty. It was just existing, growing crud, and producing pods. That’s not a bad thing other than being ugly.

With a little more work, I hope to have it looking even better. Clean up the hack job I did a while back to lower the level. Now, probably raising it back up partway. I won’t be raising the water level all the way to the top again. Maybe 3/4 of the height of the tank.

Can’t wait to get some pipe fish or similar critters in there. I should probably stop calling it a refugium at that point. It will just be a second display representing a different part of the ecosystem.
 

SynDen

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Man you gonna have quite the jungle in there soon. Looks great though
 

scmountain

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do you have an avg number for your params before and after(too soon?) your fuge upgrade?
 

halmus

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do you have an avg number for your params before and after(too soon?) your fuge upgrade?
Before
Ca: 430
Alk: 9
Mg: 1400
NO3: 0
PO4: 0

After?

I haven’t tested since the change. It’s possible nutrients spiked a little since then. But we pulled out water before stirring up too much junk. Then drained the nasty water and all the old substrate is sitting in buckets until I can clean it this summer for storage and future projects. So I doubt it introduced much. But, maybe all that mud and bagged sand had some nutrients bound up they’re releasing.

I didn’t do all of this because of any great need. I just wanted the fuge to be both functional and attractive if possible. My nutrients were already low.

I have more appropriate particle size in there now for a deeper sandbed. Less for the nuisance algae to grab onto. Hopefully I’ll be able to outcompete it with some attractive algae now. Hopefully.
 
Thanks. Waterline of the jungle is kinda what I’m aiming for.

Any recommendations for any unique fish would be good in there? Archer fish?
My vote: I think a pair of pipefish, a pair of Ruby red dragonettes, maybe a flame prawn goby, a rainsford's gobie, and a small blenny (for algae control) would look really nice in there. Along with some trochus snails to keep unwanted algae at bay
 

SynDen

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Thanks. Waterline of the jungle is kinda what I’m aiming for.

Any recommendations for any unique fish would be good in there? Archer fish?
Seahorses and pipe fish is what I'm going to do with my display mangrove tank. Those would look pretty sweet in that tank too
Archer fish would be a fun one too
 

halmus

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Thanks Chris!

I need to post some updates. Finishing a job tomorrow that has been on hold for a month due to the Covids. Should be able to post up later this week.

Trying to keep the refugium cleanish so that sea grass can take hold.

Working on a side project magnetic stirrer which was always in the back of my mind.
 

Andrew_bram

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Thanks Chris!

I need to post some updates. Finishing a job tomorrow that has been on hold for a month due to the Covids. Should be able to post up later this week.

Trying to keep the refugium cleanish so that sea grass can take hold.

Working on a side project magnetic stirrer which was always in the back of my mind.
Kalkwasser ????


Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk
 

halmus

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No. Not Kalk.

NDaquarist gave me some pods and I’ve been growing them and splitting them. I got some phyto from a local supplier to feed the pods. Won’t mention their name but I’m not impressed with their phyto.

I grew my own phytoplankton with my last system. Nano, Tetra, and Iso. It was always a long term goal to get that going with my new system. A stirrer is ideal for keeping the non-motile species in suspension so that that the culture doesn’t suffocate.

I’m working on a four-station stir plate. I’ll also add some adjustable air for bubbling each if I want to do that instead to in addition to stirring.
 

halmus

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Thanks Chris and B. It’s nice to see some quality footage of the system vs the phone pics I’ve posted. The camera guy lives up in Fort Collins. He does really good work.

I’m curious what part 2 will look like. We shot a lot of footage and I’m not great on camera. We’ll see what Mark can put together.
 
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