Bob's 93 CUBE Reef Build Thread

 

Equipment-wise, I haven't made a lot of changes; as everything continues to work well together.

 

Still lighting it 'old school' with a single 250w metal halide setup using a Pheonix 14K DE bulb run by an Icecap electronic ballast. This light source runs for 11 hrs / day, and is supplemented by (4) 60w UVL VHOs that run concurrently with the MH the first 2 hours - and then a 'sunset' effect an hour after the halide shuts off.

 

The Bubble Magus NAC-7 Cone continues to work flawlessly; with the Elite Aquatics oversized collection cup on it, I can easily go 2 weeks without emptying the cup.

 

I added a Koralia 3 to the left side of the back of the tank, as the coral growth has blocked some of the existing water flow.

 

I did upgrade my media reactor; upgrading from a Phosban 150 reactor to a BRS dual reactor setup with a MJ 1200 pump.

 

I try to change out approx 16 gallons of water per month (15% of the total volume) and when I do I use a gravel vaccum to clean about 1/2 of the sandbed during each WC.

 

Parameters have been pretty stable, and are as follows:

 

Temp = 75.0 - 75.8 (24 hr swing)

SG     = 1.0255

pH     = 8.1

dKH   = 9.5 - 10.0

Ca     = 440 ppm

Mg     = 1400 ppm

 

nH3 / nO2 / nO3 / pO4  all read as "0" / undetectable.

 

I dose for alk daily; Ca 1 X per week: Mg 1 X every 2 weeks...as my reef has grown I have found that my Ca demand has not changed significantly; however, the alk demand has almost doubled in the past year.

 

Alright, enough typing. Let's see some pictures!

 

Honestly, I don't know why the sponges do as well as they do... the blue one is almost completely overrun by the Leng Sy Monti, and is sitting in a rock crevice. It gets just a little light (supposed to be photosynthetic and in medium to bright lighting), and probably not much flow at all (and sponges supposedly need to be in areas of srtong water current... but it doesn't seem to care.

 

I don't dose any phyto or anything like that; I feed the fish 1 X daily (sometimes skipping a day).I am pretty good with keeping up with the WCs; I generally use Oceanic Salt.

 

I DO use all homemade dosing for alk / Ca / Mg (my own special source for these, and then I add a few secret ingedients ) that's really the only thing I do out of the ordinary.

 

I have considered going 'commercial' with my dosing formulas, and am experimenting with a homemade fish food recipe that I want to also share. Maybe sometime later this year...