Rickyrooz's 120 Gallon Mixed Reef

[john90009]

yeah unfortunately i love higher k bulbs i would have to have like 4 actinic bulbs under the hood with 65ks to get it looking any where nice for my liking.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Nice tank, very nice pictures.

I would disagree with part of what you said. A watt is a watt, but a watt of MH is not the same as a watt of T5 or LED. If you compared the output of 1W of LED vs 1W of T5 vs 1W of MH you will not necessarily produce the same light and heat. In fact the more efficient the fixture the more light you will produce vs the amount of heat.
If you look at the old screw in light bulbs(really a MH) it uses more W to generate the same light as a screw in PC or now the screw in LED.

 

[Rickyrooz]

This is my equipment list

Tanks
120 Gallon Perfecto Glass Aquarium (48”x24”x24”) with internal overflow
30 Gallon Sump with Refugium (36”x12”x16”) with Chaetomorpha algae

Water Movement Equipment
One Danner Mag Drive 12 (1,200 GPH, 110 watts)
Loc-Line return hose (0.75”)
Two Hydor Koralia 4 powerheads (1,200 GPH, 12 watts)
One Hydor Koralia nano powerhead (240 GPH, 3.5 watts)

Lighting Equipment
Two Lumenarc III mini Stealth Pendants (14.5”x14.5”x7”)
Two 250 watt 14K Phoenix DE Metal Halide Bulbs
Two 250 watt Lumatek Electronic Ballasts
One TEK II retrofit T-5 48” lighting 2x54watt (2 bulbs total)
One UVL Super Actinic 54 watt T-5 Bulb
One ATI Blue Plus 54 watt T-5 Bulb
Refugium lighting
One PAR38 Reflector 19 Watt / 5100K

Water Quality Equipment
6 Stage Melev’s/Bulk Reef Supply Reverse Osmosis with Two DI Filters (100 GPD)
Vertex IN-180 Protein Skimmer (rated for up to 180 gallons, 32 watts)
One Rena Cal 300 watt Heater (14”)

Sand bed
180 lbs. of Live Rock (Fiji, Tonga Fusion, Kaelini, Pukani)
90 lbs. of CaribSea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink Sand

 

[Rickyrooz]

I did some testing today with my new kill a watt meter.

Here are the results,

8 Blue LED’s – 3 watts
Koralia 4 (left side) – 16 watts
Koralia 4 (right side) – 16 watts
Koralia Nano – 6 watts
Rena Cal 300w Heater – 296 watts
Danner Mag Drive 12 (1,200 GPH) – 75 watts
Vertex IN-180 Skimmer – 32 watts
Lumatek 250w electronic ballast (left side) – 282 watts
Lumatek 250w electronic ballast (right side) - 278 watts
TEK II T5 retrofit (2x54w) – 126 watts
Refugium bulb – 19 watts
Cabinet light – 15 watts

Monthly usage = 282.52 KWH @ $0.22 per KWH = $62.15

 

[Rickyrooz]

Left side

Right side

FTS

 

[Nickjr000]

looks great! nice assortment of coral in there. how often are you doing water changes and what kind of salt ya usin ?

 

[Rickyrooz]

looks great! nice assortment of coral in there. how often are you doing water changes and what kind of salt ya usin ?

When I have control of the tank I perform 20% water changes every two weeks. While I'm away at school my Dad does one once a month (30% water change). I have been using Reef Crystals for the past year, i may switch back to Tropic Marin Pro.

 

[Nickjr000]

I like the chilli coral btw! Sweeet

 

[asonitez]

you have 2 K4's and a K-Nano. I think 4 K4's in my 125 is overkill.

 

[Rickyrooz]

Here is a video with my new HD camcorder.

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[Rickyrooz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHZ_9ToF5Bo

 

[JRWOHLER]

Thanks for the Vid....don't know how you keep your back wall so clean ???. Tank looks great.

 

[Rickyrooz]

I just got a Vortech MP40 today. I'm not impressed. . . I like my Koralia 4 better.

 

[john90009]

What mode do you have it set on? having laggon-pulse modes relle are good because when the flow from the other end of the tank comes and the mp40 powers down the other flower changes so- i think it is better but you may not notice it- in my tank with koralias 4s they are always in the same spot blowing the same way the flow patters stay the same : /.

 

[NikkiT]

Give the mp40 time, we are running a mp10 and mp20 on two different tanks and I would not go back to anything else. Play with the modes, you will have some fun.

 

[Rickyrooz]

I am testing out the NP Biopellets to try and reduce my phosphate levels to 0.00 ppm, they are currently at 0.07 ppm according to the Hanna Phosphate Photometer and I still have hair algae growing on the overflow and on my frag rack. I added 500mL of the Biopellets in a Phosban 550 reactor powered by a Maxijet 900. The pellets look like vanilla chocolate chips and sink when placed in water. I will add 10 drops of Brightwell MB7 in front of the maxijet daily to help cultivate a bacteria population on the biopellets. I am starting with 500mL of Biopellets but in three to six months I will run a total of 1L of Biopellets.

 

[JRWOHLER]

What are these bio pellets you speak of......do they obsorb or hold bacteria?

 

[Rickyrooz]

I recently purchased a Vortech MP40w. I took out all of the Koralia powerheads and run just the Vortech. I currently have the pump set on short pulse mode. Here are a few pictures from yesterday.

 

[Rickyrooz]

What are these bio pellets you speak of......do they obsorb or hold bacteria?

http://www.npbiopellets.com/

 

[mnat]

Very interested in how you do with the biopellets. I have seen them all over the place but have not talked to anyone who actually did it. Have you tried any other ULNS type stuff (zeo, vodka, brightwell, etc)?