Steve's 228G ... my reeftank 2.0

[Buccaneer]

In the above pic the green garbage bin is my RO water storage with a float valve, pump and heater ... the bucket in front of that is circulating salt for water change.

Going through the usual cycles ... first was diatoms and a few days ago a spot or 2 of cyano so I have cut back from 3 X 400W MH to just the center MH on a reduced light cycle and so far it has held it back to one small spot down low that I blow off each night before lights out

Need to add a auto top off from the RO storage to the sump next

[Myka]

Looks good! Love the hidden doorway - I didn't even understand how it worked until you showed the pic of it open. I really like the idea of your boardwalk too, no ladders. Of course the Bob Marley banner is sweet too.

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Going through the usual cycles ... first was diatoms and a few days ago a spot or 2 of cyano so I have cut back from 3 X 400W MH to just the center MH on a reduced light cycle and so far it has held it back to one small spot down low that I blow off each night before lights out

IME, tanks do better at the beginning if you just run your actinics/blues for the first month, then slowly introduce the halides increasing by an hour a week or so. It really makes a big difference, and the blues seem to really get the coralline growing.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by Myka

Looks good! Love the hidden doorway - I didn't even understand how it worked until you showed the pic of it open. I really like the idea of your boardwalk too, no ladders. Of course the Bob Marley banner is sweet too.



IME, tanks do better at the beginning if you just run your actinics/blues for the first month, then slowly introduce the halides increasing by an hour a week or so. It really makes a big difference, and the blues seem to really get the coralline growing.

Thanks!

All tank rooms should have Bob's music playing LOL

This is a restart from like 10 years ago ( except newer smaller tank/sump) so only lights I have running to begin with are my MH as they were at the top of the box I had on the shelf labelled "tank parts"... have 3 workhorse 7 ballasts and will be adding actinics in the future when I get around to buying some endcaps and wiring it all up

[Buccaneer]

So had a Ich outbreak from a Tang and it took out 8 fish ... remaining fish - Darwin clown, yellow chromis and algae blenny all survived hyposalinity treatment and are back in the tank and happy.

All inverts of course made it while tank was fishless but I was dealing with cyano as well while it was fallow for a couple reasons - one was old bulbs (spectrum) and the other was inadequate flow

Both problems solved by ebay ... 400W 20K bulbs X 3 shipped for under $85.00 and 1600gph powerheads X 3 shipped for $60.00

Also changed the rockwork from one large reef and a smaller one to 3 smaller reefs and a lot shorter so as to increase circulation around, behind and over the rockwork

I have a lot more sand area now which looks more aesthetically pleasing as well

Also got my calcium/alk/mag/ph levels balanced and dosing Kalk for topoff (found a bit of Kalk in a box from old tank)

PS if anyone knows where to find pickling lime locally please let me know

Pictures to follow

[Buccaneer]

Baby Blue Tang and Yellow Tang in QT tank for last cpl weeks