sweeet ghl mitras, i would love to see it. from what ive been reading they are the ****
seems as though everyone is selling their radions and aqua illuminations to get these. Hmmmm glad i waited to go LED. new builds are fun hey? and jon i too still have some sweet zoa frags for sale and quite a bit of sps frags that are ready to go too, to help u fill up ur tank. :biggrin:

I think i will still take you up on a zoa frag . thanks . And I would like to check out your setup as well . everytime i meet a new reefers tank i always learn a bit more . everyone does things a little different ..

So I am due for a little update ..

Ok so , I got my second Vertex Libra .. This one is top notch out of the box . so all is well.
So I gathered up the apex , the libra and quickly realized that i had literaly nor where to put this stuff . lol ..
OFF to the garage to build a mini cabinet to hold the equipment . I wanted something that looked like it kind of was ment to be there . And i wanted it to hold all aquarium electronics . To save them from moisture etc

Took 5 hrs from wood to stained .
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000045.jpg
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000046.jpg

Then i rushed to drag it into the house too show off to the wife .. Well it let vapours into the air for 3 days lol not cool .

but i got started the next day on wiring everything up .
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000048.jpg
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000055.jpg

then once everthing was in place .. my struggle began with the APEX networking into my house.
I stayed up till 4 in the morning trying to get the wireless game adapter too even hook up to my router. I gave up ..
Next day went back to future shop .. Bought a netgear wireless adapter and bam .. was hooked up in minutes. I spent the rest of the morning tinkering with the apex online .. I love it so far .. Was so happy i went and picked up and additional ep8 power bar.. For expandability etc.. so far so good.

Then my Mitras came in ... ran to Blueworld at 5 pm to get them.. Got home and had them hung in a matter of 20 minutes ..
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000065.jpg
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000064.jpg

But my hapiness was quickly met by more software frustrations.. the Mitras will NOT connect via usb to a windows 8 pc .. I tried every darn trick on the net to no avail.
So the next day i sourced a differnt laptop and quickly got into tinkering with the lights .. so far i have no idea what im doing lol .. But i uploaded a light program from Rice Reef .. THANKS buddy for emailing that to me soo quick!

I then moved on to complete wire organization.. i spend hours trying to zip tie and route wires in a clutter free manor , I cleaned up everything under the sump .. I also installed some under counter mount LED lights to the cabinet and sump area so i could see something for once.
Got tired of holding the blackberry in one hand over the water to see lol..
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000074.jpg

well I have a whole wack of coral in the tank now .. So figured i should do my first water tests for the big 3..

ALK 7.5
Mg 1050
Ca 350
salinity 1.025

Guess i have work to do !
Will get on a few water changes here to try and raise that .. then decide what and how to dose ! and quick im guessing ..

All the corals are doing great .. Thanks RICE ...

off to bed ..

Looks slick, good job! Is that HLG driver for the Mitras?

yes that is the power bar thing that came with the mitras . Do you recognize it for other things ?

well . My wife was tired of seeing wet dish towels all over the place , So i mounted to handles on my stand for hanging them .. Her idea but i like it .
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000093.jpg

So did another 10 gallon water change this morning . Then two hours later did a
check of the water parameters .

temp 78.5
ph 7.85
alk 6.5
Ca 350
Mg 1150
Salinity 1.024

So got the doser set up .
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000092.jpg

Decided with some guidance to use Randy's Receipe 1. think that in the long run this could save alot of money !.
After about 1 hr of having programming troubles/ finger troubles with the libra i think its finally set up .
Set to dose 24 times in 24 hrs .
for a total of
120 ml of CA
72 Alk
240 Mg

will do this for a few days to play catch up then likely adjust from there .
If anyone has any pointers on this , Would be greatly appreciated . as this was the area I was the most affraid of ..

Sure would be nice if I could find ANYTHING on the net in regards to actually programming and using all the features of the Vertex Libra . All i can seem to find is vertex's own video .. which is not helpfull.

Does have some neet things though .. Tells you when the next dose will be . tells you how much it has dossed etc . kinda neat .

Got my first fishes too .!!! very happy about that . Thanks Wayne !!
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000097.jpg
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000087.jpg

Beautiful Sail fin tang about 4 inches .. I love it !
A couple of 1.5inch long clowns that always hang out together
and a 4 inch long Lawnmower blenny .. Named JABA ... lol

I would like to hear thoughts on when and how i should run Carbon (GAC) in my tank . thoughts on using a media reactor or just media bag it ..

thanks

vertex has not yet released their stoichiometry software yet. i think they are waiting to release their own set of bulk additives and recipe to take some of the guess work out of dosing.


to hammer down how much of each additive to dose (using Ca as an example)
1)test your Ca level
2) add 20ml of Ca additive
3)wait 2 hours and measure how much that raised your Ca.
4)then you can choose to either dose enough Ca to bump your tank up to the appropriate level or just let it be.
5) the next day measure your ca again around the same time to see how much Ca your tank uses in a 24hr period. Dose accordingly.

usually takes about a week to get the doser dialled in properly.

build is looking awesome so far! going to be a stunner for sure

Jon,
Tank looks great and glad to see the fish are doing well! The sailfin looks even better in your tank! Sigh, gonna miss him but I know that his new parent will be treating him well!

The two clowns are a couple so don't be surprise if you find eggs on the rocks soon!

Looks like Jaba is liking his new home too! :biggrin:

About that doser, you would have figured after spending that much money they could have at least provided instructions. Vertex can spend the money on a fancy box but could not afford few cents more in printing a page of instructions? :lol: :twised: That is why I used GHL! ( lol just teasing ya)

Wow looking really good man well done

well . time for another update i suppose .

Things of been going along really well . I have been doing weekly 10-15g water changes . I test all my parameters once a week.Things have been stable .

I did decide to run Biopellets .So I picked up a Vertex RX-U reactor and a compact 3000. I slowly over a few weeks added in the pellets . Not sure if they work lol But my nitrates are still below 1 on the elos test kit .
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000243.jpg

A few weeks later i picked up the new Omega 150 skimmer . So far i really like this unit . Seems to pull in the gunk very consistently. This has been my first vertex product to work perfect out of the box :biggrin:

I got a new fish from Dan before he left town .. It is doing great
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000225.jpg.

The rock is slowly becoming covered in coraline . I have not had any sort of an algae outbreak. not sure if it is due to the microbacter 7 i have been using or if I got lucky with my MARCO rock.
The coral is really starting to take off now . Most are encrusted right to the rock
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000242.jpg
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000237.jpg
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000231.jpg

I had a blast at the Victoria frag swap. Got to meet alot of local reefers . I bought a few coral and was given tons! Much appreciated everyone . thanks
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000244.jpg

So as of last night I have discovered that I have an outbreak of ZOA eating nudibranch. Most of my zoos have grown onto my main rock work so removing to dip is not an option.
So I am manually removing the nudi's with the turkey baster . since last night i have removed 21 little buggers . And today i have added a Yellow Corriss wrasse. So i am hoping that will help combat them .

Im sure i can get a handle on them . I am not to worried about it . I dont want to rip the tank apart or anything.

http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000254.jpg

I also added a tunze 6095 to the tank . Linked it to the APEX and got a simple little wave going in the tank. I like it . In a cube tank that is only 36" long it tuff to do anything with the flow . No matter what i do it pushes the sand around and creates bare spots on the tank bottom . i have learned to live with my Half bare bottom , half sand bottom tank lol .

The stepper doser has been working as it should . Currently dossing under 50mls of each alk,mg,ca. I had to increase it a little after the frag swap , but not much.

will add more soon .

Pulled out 2 more little nudi's today !! any chance I can just manually control these little buggers for ever ?

On a positive note My clowns spawned today . This is a first time in my tank. Wayne had told me they lay eggs all the time in his tank . But , shows they are happy in mine too. they have only been in the tank just over 2 months

http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000261.jpg
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/...G_00000271.jpg

Also looks like my yellow corris wrasse that i just added has eaten all the feathers on my wifes favorite tank inhabitant .. the feather duster..
O well . so much for reef safe ehh lol :neutral:

Dude nice build, You're stumbling into this like a PRO!

At first when I was reading your build and seen you bought a dosing pump I couldn't help but think another poor soul that spent a bunch of money on something he didn't need on the advice of a LFS. Judging by the one or 2 SPS frags you had in the beginning. WELL I was wrong... The end FTS shot awesome - 3 thumbs up!!

Have you dialed in dosing your system yet?