Nooblenny

Joined the Red Sea Reefer community, did not know Reefer tanks are so popular is US. My noob tank generated quite a bit of discussion, lol.

Making a new batch of Component 123 and refilling

Yikes! this thread still around.. Guys, this tank was a failed noob experiment a year ago. Please let this fade away... I have moved on, here is my current tank: http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/topic/150795-nooblenny-proper-reef/

Thanks

The Two Little Fishies 2-part should be more or less similar to AF component 1 & 2 in regards of Calcium, Alk & Trace elements. Yes, that's what I meant, whether the ionic imbalance is an issue for you. Because many people do not care about it and they simply do water change to fix it.

Not sure about the long term effect of that as I'm a noob myself in term of dosing. Only started dosing on this new tank.

Thanks! Although the rocks still messy. I have white rocks behind the purple rocks lol

I am not very sure, but should be no issue using AF solution 1 & 2 only. Theoretically the Mineral Salt in solution 3 (as in all Balling method) is important to fix the excess Sodium Chloride from 2-part dosing. People who use 2-part usually reduce the sodium chloride by water change. Then again, if you just want 2 part dosing then there is no need to change from what you are using now right?

Replaced Aquablue Special with coral+ bulb. More crisp color now, not so washout.

yummy AF fish food has just arrived

Yes, like i mentioned above. Balling method is just 2 part (2 solution) plus additional solution that contains Mg & NaCL free salt, so become 3 solution.

Balling method is not new or unique to Aquaforest. Almost every major brands have balling method, Nyos, Red Sea, ATl, Tropic Marine, etc. You just simply pick the one you like.

Its the same. Balling method = 2 parts + trace elements + Mg & Mineral salt (fix ionic imbalance)

Anyway if you already happy with your previous 2 parts why change?

Not sure about that, but you can always exclude or reduce it when doing the solution. For me I reduce the Mg from solution 3 because some batch of AF salt tend to have very high Mg (1500-1600).

Here are all the ingredients you need, total $112. And here is the recipe/formula To make 1 litre of each solutions, you only need 50g Ca, 80g Kh, 10g Mg, 25g Mineral Salt & 5ml of each Component Strong. 1000g Ca powder enough for 20L 1200g Kh powder => 15L 750g Mg powder => 75L 800g Reef Mineral Salt powder => 32L 75ml Component Strong (the box says 50ml, but inside is 75ml) => 15L So for every 15L solutions, you only need to replenish Kh powder ($18) & Component Strong ($40) => $58 Then when your Ca powder ran out, you just need to spend another $18. Something like that. Now compared to buying pre-mixed 5L Component 123 ($150), for every 15L you would have spent $450. See how much cost saving that is? Not sure how true is this, but people said DIY solution is also 2x stronger than pre-mixed one.

AF Component 123, 10ml of each solutions. Ca reactor is more economical in the long run for bigger tank & they produce superb growth too. But i have no interest in it because for me the less equipments the better, lol. U see my sump cabinet is so small, i would rather not squeeze a Ca reactor & a co2 tank inside. To keep the cost down i mix my own. Aquaforest posted recipe & video on how to make your own Component 123.

Yikes! Poor mandarin Anyway beside being beautiful, your tank is really high tech with lots of cool gears!

The scape is really beautiful. Can be a source of inspiration for other reefers!

Beautiful tank! Nice equipment setup too!

U can check all the equipment models on my 1st thread. Dosing wise depends on your corals consumption. Mine is currently 10ml per day. Fish street is HK online aquarium store. The dosing container is also from there. U can check the price there

The QP-5 is from fish street, about $100. The Tunze Nano ATO is from local shop, i just use an empty small tank as the reservoir

Thanks bros for the feedback!

A closer look at the sump. One of the fun part of this new setup is organising the sump area. I like my cabinet to be neat and easy for maintenance. So keeping it really simple. The very first thing I did was to ditch the tiny 2 gallon top-up reservoir and put a dosing container in its place. I'm using an existing 8 gallon freshwater tank as reservoir, served by Tunze Nano 3152. You can see the reservoir next to the cabinet, the water can last about 1 month. The power socket on the left is to power the tri-octo (Reef Octopus) inside the sump, namely: Octo skimmer, Octo reactor & Octo pump. Underneath the skimmer & reactor, there are a Marinepure plate and half brick. According to most reefers, Marinepure works best for denitrification in very low flow, low oxygen and dark area. So I made the acrylic risers and slot the Marinepure inside them. Hopefully they work and don't turn into nitrate factories instead, lol. On the right side you can see Tunze ATO and dosing container with self-mixed AF Component 123. Being fed by return pump, the Hailea HS-28A chiller needs about 1 hour to cool from 27c to 26c. Then interval is about 4 hours before it kicks in again. Slightly underpowered but the next bigger model is too big for the cabinet, so this will do. Underneath the dosing container there are 2 slide out filter socks. 1st filter sock (AF Carbon & AF Zeo Mix). 2nd filter sock (AF Life Bio Fil & Seachem Purigen). The remaining space after chiller on the right is for medicines/stuff and test kits.

What's in the tank This setup is now 2 months old, so far no water changes yet. Only replacing tiny amount of water when adding livestocks. Water Parameters: SG: 1.025 TP: 26 - 27°c Ph: 8.0 No3: 25 Po4.: 0.1 Ca: 430 Kh: 7.6 Mg: 1460 At the moment trying SPS frags first, when water parameter is really stabled may replaced with colonies. Lighting is ATI T5 with 2 Euroquatics E5 LED bulbs for coral color pops. While water flows is produced by 2 Coralbox QP-5 wavemakers. Some livestocks in the tank.