Kman's 85 Gallon

Kman237

Active Member
:bounce::bounce:Got my BRS 2 part dosing pumps today need to get these setup ASAP. Got tired of hand dosing and I have vacation coming up something has to dose my tank while I'm away :)

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Kman237

Active Member
Just a Quick update. Dosing pumps are working great. I like them so far. Drip nice and slow no back siphon and they are very quiet.

Levels are Steady.
This morning was
Alk - 10.00
Calc 425
PH 8.01

I normally like to stay around 450 calc but I'm slowly adjusting the Calc dosing pump. Gotta find that sweet spot.

Here are a few pics of the sticks I picked up over a week ago at the Coral Fest.
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This last weekend a LFS had there anniversary sale 50% off. So I picked up this Giant Clam and a Starfish :) Couldn't pass up on this sweet mili colony. ( Not my Best Pics ) more coming.


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Kman237

Active Member
Well sad news I lost the red Starfish. I have tried one of these in past (In my RedSea Tank) and same thing happen. Not sure if they ship bad or I'm not acclimating them correctly. I'll stick with keeping my serpent star.

I also started to loose the yellow/gold mili colony I bought during the LFS 50% sale. So i fraged the colony before any real lose happen. Not sure why... I'm going to guess for now the colony hand't settled in before selling and had to much stress. I'm sure I caused more stress when I dipped and acclimated the coral. My parameters are in line and all my other sticks are doing just fine including the other colony and acro frags I bought during that same sale. It's all part of the hobby. #$@% happens.

Other then that the tank is doing great. The dosing pumps are doing there jobs. Alk is staying steady at 9.0 and Calcium is staying at 430. I would like to adjust this to 450.

Looking into a nice camera to take picture of the tank with. Working on a GoPro video of the tank :) hopefully I can have that up soon. Time to sit back and let the tank grow out. Here are a few pictures I took with my phone this morning.

New acan colony :)
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The other colony from the LFS sale. Camera isn't picking up the colors well. Its white with redish tips.
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White with some blue/green on this one. Nothing crazy or special....
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Waiting for these to grow out. Starting my second zoa garden lol!!! bowsers, blue hornets, king tut, and captian america. With some others I forget the names...
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Kman237

Active Member
I'm considering making this 85 gallon a SPS dominate tank...

The reason I'm thinking about this is the parameters can be focused on SPS only and not a mix reef. The other reason (Main Reason) is Iv'e been planning and drawing out a canopy for this tank to build the Hybrid LED/T5 lighting. I'm looking at two 2x54W T5 retro fit fixtures. After looking into the cost of this I realized I could buy a decent T5 fixture ready to go. So my thoughts are why not buy a T5 Fixture for this tank and add a few blue LED strips for color pop and moon lighting just like I did with my RedSea Max 250 build.

Iv'e been planing on upgrading my nano to a 80 gallon tank. Why not make this a softies/LPS tank. Lots of zoas, acan, torch ecttt. I could use my current LED's on my 85 tank for this tank. Then sell off my nano with all its equipment.

Any recommendations on a fixture? 48 inch. Serious thoughts right now. Really thinking I would like to move away from a mixed reef and have the best of both worlds in two tanks. I would add a couple blue LEDS strips to help with color pop and shimmer. Also for some moon lights.

Thanks, Kman.
 

Antics

Active Member
Are you going to want your T5s to dim? I haven't done a lot of research on T5 fixtures in a few years, but I believe the cost is high for customization in T5 lighting.
 

Kman237

Active Member
Are you going to want your T5s to dim? I haven't done a lot of research on T5 fixtures in a few years, but I believe the cost is high for customization in T5 lighting.

I've been researching on it. I may want to have the ability to dim. This wasn't my plan with the tank but I think I'm going to switch it up. In the
Past talking to friends and just chatting with others in this hobby I've heard ATI makes a great fixture. Only con I see is they only offer a hanging kit for it.

I may be able to hang it but that would need to be last resort. I'd prefer a wall mount or tank mount.
 

Kman237

Active Member
I have picked up the wood for making the floating canopy... I was getting ready to start the build when a friend of mine tagged me in a post of someone selling a Giesemann 48 inch Dimmable Bluetooth Matrixx II T5 fixture. It's the 8x54W fixture. This fixture was 3 months old and he wanted $500. I couldn't pass as I have a custom Planet Aquarium shallow tank currently being built that I plan on running only LEDS over it. I'm going to switch over to this fixture and move my LEDS over to the new shallow tank when it arrives. The mounting legs should be here today. I plan on adding a Reef Brite LED strip to this fixture. I must have the color pop LEDS provide I absolutely love it. :yup:

I will be making this tank a sps dominated tank. The shallow reef will be a LPS and Zoa dominated tank. I can't wait to get this going.:celebrate:

The tank has been going through a huge coralline boom. The back was is becoming covered in it :pbjtime:


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